The swarm was made of ten thousand flesh rippers.
The fire river killed 7800 of them, turning them to dust instantly, and set the rest ablaze.
Two hundred had their wings burned. More than half of these 200 rippers crashed to the ground, breaking into pieces, and the rest smashed into trees, dying miserably.
8000 have died.
Another 2000 were dying.
The fire jumped off their corpses and set the poor trees ablaze.
Against their will, they became candles that brightened the area and forced the darkness to recede to the dim shadows cast by the far-away cliffs.
Overhead, the fire river, unsupported by magic, was like an arrow at the end of its flight!
That didn’t escape the experts’ notice.
Arlo waved his hand, and the Joker’s tent was reverse summoned.
It vanished from the surface of this world and reappeared in his storage ring.
“Move back.”
Meanwhile, Roy commanded everyone to widen the distance between them and the reclining fire river.
Following Roy’s order, everyone turned around and made a run for it as the fire river in the sky plunged to the ground like a waterfall after almost annihilating a tribe of monsters.
It spread outwards like a tsunami from the point of impact.
Everything unfortunate enough to cross its path melted.
Be it rocks, trees, or snow. Swallowed by it, they all met the same end.
It crept up to the spot where Roy and Co were standing a few moments ago.
Their footprints were still left on the snow. But they were eradicated.
Around 400 square meters of the area were submerged in a fiercely burning fire.
The fire river stopped advancing.
Howls and screeches could be heard coming out of it as wisps of fire swirled around it like a playful vixen.
Roy’s eyes landed on the horrifying view presented before him, and what he saw made his eyebrows raise.
Within it, more than 1500 flesh rippers were being burned alive.
“Plop!”
A group of burning Flesh Rippers shot out of the fire river that had somewhat changed the terrain of the icy, cold land and moved haphazardly in order to put out the fire that was eating them alive, only to see part of their bodies turning to dust under the fire.
This made them realize that they would be burned to death before putting it out.
“Drag these bastards to hell with us!”
With flames of vengeance burning fiercely in their hearts and the knowledge that they would die soon haunting and aggravating them, they charged toward Roy and the people behind them.
“You just don’t know when to give up, fools.”
Roy swung his hands.
That was enough to sign their death warrants.
Streaks of black lightning gushed out of his outstretched fingers as his hands went down.
There were eight of them, and it thundered many times when they manifested and shot forward like a Phoenix taking flight.
The cries of the black lightning bolts were horrifying. The enemies trembled. His people were also affected; their heart rates sped up.
“Whoosh!”
This was the sound of the lightning bolts moving towards the huge group of rippers with such speed that they couldn’t be discerned with the naked eye.
As if to announce they were the perfect representative of their names, the lightning bolts moved at the speed of lightning, leaving behind a trail of black lines.
That’s the only thing the ripper managed to hold in their eyes before the bolts struck them.
“Bomb!”
Exploding and blasting through them, they pounced on their next target like a tiger.
Instantly, 50 or so rippers were blasted to death.
『Ding! Congratulation. You have hunted down an average-sized swarm of flesh rippers with style. You gained 7500 EXP. You have gained an additional 500 EXP for killing them with style. Your stats have also increased by a considerable amount.』
“There are still a few left. And it looks like they are hungry for our blood.”
He struck another group of rippers that rushed out of the fire like mad bulls with his lightning bolts, instantly helping them ascend to the afterlife after they left hell.
The system’s notification sounded in his ears again, telling him how much he had profited from killing them so coldly.
『Gained +7000 EXP』
His basic stats also increased.
Now all of his stats are above 120 points!
Seeing him taking them out in a chill manner, Arlo couldn’t help but advise him, “Deal with them in a hurry. Creatures like them usually destroy the ecosystem of the place they inhabit before flying off to a new place. What they do is like spitting in the face of the Lord of the West. You’ll be held in high regard by one such lord if you take them all out.”
Roy’s eyes widened.
The Lords of the West weren’t nobility but royalty, and yes, they weren’t humans or citizens of the empire.
They were wise aura beasts that were conferred as such by either the Ruler of the Great Forest or the Great Sun Emperor when they became the strongest or the wisest monsters of their realm.
A realm was a wilderness that hosted a Lord of the West.
Such realms were found all over the Empire that coexisted with the Great Forest.
These realms existed between counties.
Bigger realms hosting the strongest Lords of the West existed between duchies.
It was advisable not to mess with them without a good reason.
They could call forth all the strongest aura monsters in an area to help them suppress whoever got on their nerves, so it was best not to fight them.
Only a fool would offend an entire kingdom of intelligent beasts!
It was also advisable to form ties with them; the stronger, the better.
“Wait a sec, does the icy, cold land have a Lord of the West?” Roy asked.
Arlo answered, “Yeah, and it’s a hundred year old aura beast and quite friendly.”
“If it means I can get it to owe me a favor, I will spare not a single one.”
Hundreds of rippers had long escaped the fire river, and they were flying towards the culprits that had put an end to their shitty tribe.
They couldn’t recover from this damage even after a decade.
Roy smiled and rushed towards them. They weren’t deserving of mercy or pity as they were no better, if not worse, than tourists who would throw their garbage all over the place and mess up world heritage sites without remorse.
“Die, you bastard!”
Just as the distance between the two parties shortened to 50 meters, the rippers opened their mouths wide and released their signature sonar ability. It was extremely powerful. Roy felt his sixth sense tingling. It was threatening to blast him to death.
‘This must be why they are not to be engaged in a battle.’
Roy thought as he sank into his shadows in the blink of an eye.
To the onlookers, it was as if he had never existed or had instantly disappeared.
Where he had gone was a mystery to them.
『You’ve activated the skill, “like a ghost”』
The destructive sonar waves missed him completely and smashed into the spot several meters behind him, raising a wall of snow that threatened to fall on the Twins.
With a slap, Arlo blasted it away and saved the kids.
The rippers, who were burning and were at the end of their flight, halted. They were shocked. The person they were trying to kill suddenly vanished. Where the heck did he go? If only they had eyes that could recognize Mount Tai, they would have seen a puddle on the snow. It was made of Roy’s shadow, and it was moving in their direction.
Roy had vanished, but his companions were still there. The rippers targeted them, flying straight in their direction, not knowing that between them and their targets was a road to hell.
After six seconds, they were about to pass over the shadow puddle within which Roy hid when hundreds of streaks of lightning surged out of it with such speed that they couldn’t dodge it at all.
Struck by lightning, their disdainful struggle came instantly to an end.
『Ding! You have killed…』
By then, thousands of rippers could be seen running away.
They had succeeded in putting out the fire and weren’t too badly burned.
Roy eyed them mercilessly and spoke.
“Time to close the curtain on this one-sided show.”
『The Fire Control Skill has been activated!』
『You have taken control of the entire fire river!』
『You will lose 1000 units of mana every minute until you stop controlling it!』
“One minute is more than enough to deal with these small fries,” Roy said.
The next instant, hundreds of 2-meter wide and grandly tall pillars made of fire rose and shot out of the fire river and splashed on the thousands of flesh rippers like a city-destroying tsunami.
Then, they were no more!
『You have annihilated the Remorseless Tribe.』
『You have done The Lord of the Icy Cold Land, Ganesha, a small favor!』
『You led your subordinates in an overwhelming victory against the Remorseless tribe when all odds were against you!』
『Congratulations! You have completed a hidden Quest!』
『You will be handsomely rewarded!』
—-
Author here:-
The last fight in the Icy Land has come to an end!
It’s time for massive adventures in the warm lands. Stay tuned. Dear Readers! You surely won’t be disappointed!