Chapter 62 | The Eviscerator

“Holy shit! Help me!” Tatsuya shouted with a terrified expression. The somewhat stoic mercenary boss had lost any ounce of confidence when facing the torrent of aura pouring in his direction. The Eviscerator was dashing toward him at breakneck speed, salivating from his mouth.

Obviously, Tatsuya wasn’t alone. Satou knew, and he was sure the others did too. Their lives were tied together now. If one of them happened to die, the rest would too.

Immediately, Valerius and Emma appeared by Tatsuya’s side. An arrow flew from the distance, whizzing above their heads and slamming into The Eviscerator. It only did chip damage, however, fizzling out into nothing as it hit his aura.

Taking advantage of the extra fraction of a second, Satou joined the fray too. The four first-rates all flared their auras into a mix of energy whirlwind and unleashed all their attacks at the same time.

The attacks all coagulated into one, crashing against the tide of red The Eviscerator was. His brows rose momentarily, clearly not expecting such coordination. The attack reduced his momentum quite a bit, slowing him down.

Once he arrived in front of them, The Eviscerator raised his hands. Blood-like aura poured from his fingertips and formed two claws.

With one sweep, he managed to send Valerius flying, a deep gash in his plate armor.

With another, Emma was pushed to the side, stumbling and rolling away like a ragdoll.

Seeing this, Satou and Tatsuya both gritted their teeth and stepped back while releasing several attacks. Four arrows appeared from the distance, covered in a quickly-dimming, shadowy aura. Ameda wasn’t standing idle, trying to place some pressure on The Eviscerator.

And it did work, to some degree that is. The Eviscerator opened his mouth and bit down on the arrows, cracking two of them in half. He grabbed the two other mid-air and sent them flying right back at Ameda.

Fortunately, this was enough time for Emma and Valerius to recover. They joined the melee quartet and started slashing at The Eviscerator.

This bloodthirsty maniac was carnage manifest. Satou had seen people like this while he was still on Earth. Serial killers, psychopaths, that kind of thing. Of course, none of them had the individual strength equivalent to a fighter jet, keeping their murderous activities to a much smaller scale than whatever this was supposed to be.

Under the combined pressure of the five first-rates, The Eviscerator took several steps back and lost his momentum. Still, he didn’t seem bothered by that at all. Instead, his skin was starting to become a faint red, his veins pulsating under his skin. He was clearly getting more and more excited.

If this was any other villain, Satou might have tried to speak some sense into him. Alas…

“He’s too strong,” Emma grunted under her breath as they backpedalled closer to the base.

Satou nodded without wasting his energy on speaking. Fortunately, they didn’t have to kill this monster. They only needed to lure him in.

“How far are we from the meet-up location?”

“Only a hundred meters,” they communicated with nods and pre-decided signals. Unlike what one might expect, the battle was eerily silent. There were no shouts, no grunts, only the occasional clashing of blades and the winds caused by their auras.

As they inched away from battle, the Eviscerator’s face dropped.

“Don’t escape from art! Don’t run, for I will show you beauty!” He screeched. His voice was starting to become strangled and coarse, as if he was going through some sort of demonification.

Crossing his blood-red claws, The Eviscerator brought them down in an X shape. His aura was launched forward in the form of a ranged attack, crossing more than twenty meters in a split second. This was something special for those Master-rates or above. First-rates could only extend their auras out five meters or so.

Again, they all raised their weapons and unleashed their own attacks. Every time The Eviscerator struck, they would have to expand several percent of their total aura to fend it off. When combined, those auras would be worth tens of a second-rate’s entire aura reserves.

With a frown, Satou ordered Valerius, who was the one running out of aura the fastest.

“Lieutenant, step back and recover! We will hold!” He said. The knight didn’t hesitate and did as he was told to. Trusting your teammates’ judgment and sticking to a plan was the most important part of warfare. Making a mistake together was better than making the right choice alone.

As they kept luring The Eviscerator with promises of blood and battle, they kept rotating in and out of the fight, recovering their aura reserves as much as possible. Ameda stayed at a comfortable distance, but he was the one who was spending the most amount of aura actively. He was also their only method of proper attacking.

“Hold tight, we are nearing the meet-up point,” Satou whispered. The others nodded and all unleashed several aura-fueled attacks. They then turned around and started running away.

“Where are you going? Come back!” The Eviscerator shouted from behind them. Satou could only grit his teeth while increasing his speed.

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Theo lay dead silent in the forest. There were about two hundred and fifty people spread in a wing formation around him, lying in wait just like Theo. These were a mix of mercenaries and knights, mostly made up of second-rate warriors.

“Are they coming..?” Ronald asked nervously. No one under first-rate could match Theo’s senses, even when they tried using aura for general reconnaissance.

“Mhm. Get ready. Give the signal,” he said. Ronald nodded and whistled loudly. All the bushes and shrubbery around rustled, revealing the men lying in wait.

A tired figure huddled toward them, Lieutenant Ameda. His eyes had dark bags under them, signifying his lack of aura.

Shortly after, four more people came running out of the forest, battered and exhausted. Satou, Tatsuya, Emma, and Valerius all had several wounds on their bodies. Their aura was fizzling away, probably halfway out.

“Ready!” Theo shouted. As soon as a manic-looking vampire-goblin-man with red skin and an unnaturally wide mouth came out, hundreds of vials were thrown over. They were all filled with a green, mucous substance.

As expected, with a flare of his aura, The Eviscerator shattered all of the vials and vaporized the substance. Quickly, everyone started running back toward the base.

The Eviscerator was foaming at the mouth, seemingly having lost his mind for some reason. He was running after them like he couldn’t wait to give a taste.

“What the fuck is going on!? What is up with this guy!?” Theo asked, terrified. He was one of the fastest people, using his Shifting Earth.