Captain Halder blew out a steamy breath down his nose and through his thick, brown mustache. A pair of hammers rested in his palms, glowing with a bronze echoing resonance as he faced off against the Alpha that towered before him.
Quite frankly, he was growing tired of this game, but it was a necessary evil to accomplish what he wanted. After this, the little prince and many of the annoyances would be out of the way. Then they could report back to the Empire whatever they wanted, or they could disappear into thin air.
Theron was wrong about one thing: this wasn't actually a display of internal strife. In reality, the Sangun Clan was mostly close-knit and quite well-balanced. Not everyone was as incompetent as the Thistles seemed to be.
Unfortunately for Emperor Sangun, there were some things that were just out of his control… like outsiders insidiously telling your men of the true value of the treasure they were aiming for right now.
The greed of men was the most unpredictable of things, so much so that Captain Halder was actually hesitant to do this despite knowing it was by far the smartest choice to make.
Just the idea of letting the Alpha have a piece of it to secure a victory made him feel as though his heart was itching. But it was either this, or they get nothing at all.
All this time, he had been pretending to dig deeper and deeper, slowing down as they progressed. This made sense because every Earth Mancer would struggle to control Earth Mana more and more the closer to the core of a world they got.
However, the scale at which that difficulty increased was very different depending on the Earth Mancer in question.
He, a mighty Earth Mancer with an Imbued Resonance of the Gold Grade, was obviously far stronger than most others in this regard. But there was no one else here with a reference to how strong a Gold Imbued Earth Resonance was, so he could act as he pleased.
All of a sudden, the Mana in the surroundings began to boil, and the Alpha opened its maw, roaring as it greedily absorbed the light.
The red light poured over Captain Halder's face, casting shadows over his features and highlighting the lines of greed that deepened into his slight wrinkles.
Just the light alone was intoxicating to an extreme.
The ground shook as the Alpha's black mane began to bristle with life and vitality. All of a sudden, those chains on the beast's cultivation seemed to slack off one after another. Seemingly having lost its mind to the opportunity before it, it wanted nothing more than to pounce and greedily take in every ounce of the spilling light.
By comparison, the Earth Mancer hurried to suppress himself, sealing up his pores and even holding his breath. He couldn't allow his body to become intoxicated now.
There was only one task right now.
Captain Halder roared, both of his hammers smashing down onto the head of the Alpha. It all happened so fast that the creature's jaw rebounded off the ground in seemingly the same instant, its teeth rattling and then shattering to pieces.
A jet of earth peeled up from the ground at the same time, pummeling it further.
The earth beneath Captain Halder's feet rippled, and he launched himself so high into the air that he cleared over 50 meters. With a high raise of his hammers, their bodies grazed the ceilings.
Tendrils of bronze Mana took shape, wrapping around the spikes on the ceiling as though ropes.
With his arms raised high and his hammers pulled back, Captain Halder unleashed another roar.
The stalactite separated from the ceiling in a smooth motion, and as the captain descended, his hammers moving faster than his body, the spike appeared below him, a spiraling wind forming around it.
"HEAVY." The call of his voice came with a twinkling of more bronze Mana, a murky darkness flashing in his gaze.
Everything about his actions was violent. It didn't look like a man descending from the skies, but instead a second Alpha, one of the Human Race.
The spike pierced into the body of the Alpha hound, only for Captain Halder to fall from right above it, slamming into its now smooth bottom and driving it in further.
The stalactite shattered to pieces, bits and shards of shrapnel littering the body of the Alpha hound.
Captain Halder landed on the ground, only to roar again without the slightest hint of stopping.
A black pillar of earth rose out from the ground, piercing the Alpha hound through a now gaping wound right through its body… this time from the bottom.
There was an eerie aura coming from it, laced with menace and death.
It was only after this pillar pinned the Alpha in place that Captain Halder took deep breaths, trying to steady himself. He had gone through a lot of Mana to ensure that the Alpha would be finished.
So long as it was dead, the other hounds were child's play. The rest were just Imbued Mana Beasts, and though any Mana Beasts were tough to handle, he had the advantage of an entire cultivation tier.
This victory was his.
Theron continued to watch from above. It seemed like he should be taking action now with everything settling down, but he couldn't help but frown.
That was when he remembered a very important tidbit that he hadn't been able to fit anywhere else.
How was this Alpha a Manaborn Mana Beast? It didn't make any sense.
Lightning Blood Hounds were powerful creatures to be sure, but not this powerful. Mana Beasts also didn't just randomly level up in grade.
Plus, if the Alpha was smart enough to know how to use its potential breakthrough to Gold as a deterrent, would it really fall so easily?
Theron's eyes narrowed further as the Alpha seemed to slump, its eyes drooping until it closed. Its aura weakened until it vanished entirely.
At that moment, Captain Halder had already killed more than half the remaining hounds. In just a few more seconds, they would all be gone.