"Shadow Oblivion!" Nox shouted at the top of his voice as a dark pulse left his fingers and descended in the midst of a curious pack of monsters.
As soon as the blast landed there, a powerful explosion occurred upon impact, and a blinding shadowy light illuminated the whole area in the following second, almost like a flashbang the size of a nuke had detonated.
The body parts of over 100 monsters were immediately blown apart into countless fragments, and the familiar screen announcing experience points flooded Nox's retina.
With a smile on his face, Nox dismissed the screen and looked at his handiwork. The point of Shadow Oblivion's impact was now covered with thick fumes of smoke, and the monsters nearby were reeling back, as if scared they'd be caught in the crossfire.
However, while the beasts were squirming away, other monsters farther away were attracted by the sound.
Massive beasts came in all sizes with fangs that stretched out of their mouths menacingly. Among these beasts, there was a massive black python in the middle. This python was the same one that had taken down Doombringer.
From the look of things, the python was the leader of this group of beasts, as it gave off an authoritative aura befitting a monarch. All the other beasts held their heads low as if waiting for the black python's instructions, whose size rivaled that of an anaconda from Earth.
After drinking from the drop of Ivor, the other beasts had initially ganged up against the black python... however, they got too cocky; they were mostly at intermediate ranks. A king-tier beast, especially one whose strength had spiked consistently due to the drop of Ivor, was almost an untouchable existence.
Hence, it easily overwhelmed and humbled them.
The black python, with its forked tongue dangling in the air and letting out venom that carved holes in the ground, glanced at the distance just in time to see the dark flashbang!
An excited gleam appeared in the python's eyes. It could sense a terrifying enemy close by! Without a moment of hesitation, the python lunged in that direction.
Right behind the python was the rest of the horde.
Aina was still in her peak form; usually, if normal Awakened were to fight at this speed, they'd expend all their stamina and grow tired!
"But it had been over an hour, and she's still fighting at the same pace," Kron thought, his eyes flickering with admiration. Though the distance between them was very large, because of the blazing white lights bulldozing anything in its path, everyone could tell she wasn't getting exhausted anytime soon.
"It's as if she has endless stamina," one soldier commented, then a silly smile appeared on his face as he suddenly had a lewd thought and added, "How terrifying."
The others, who seemed to have thought the same thing, couldn't help but chuckle. Kron spared them a glance, and they immediately stiffened.
Though Aina couldn't tell who he was, the other guards knew exactly who this man was.
"Thank your stars she didn't overhear you," he said, turning around. As he did, he added, "Because you'd find your head rolling on the ground by now."
That soldier, along with the others who laughed, immediately stiffened, their faces pale as they imagined their heads being cut off by the terrifying sword that was like the Grim Reaper's scythe, eager to guide people to the afterlife.
"It's as if the horde is unending," Aina complained, cutting down a series of beasts in her path. "Such a shame this news would hardly make any impact on my experience bar."
"The same for me," Eve responded.
Both of them were high-level Awakened; if all the beasts were at the king-tier level, a huge change could have been reflected in their experience bars. Unfortunately, this was the bane of all Awakened, because after attaining higher ranks, it becomes increasingly difficult to level up.
After their initial exchange, the two powerful women didn't speak anymore. Instead of exhausting themselves with speaking, they placed all their focus into slaying the monsters in their path.
After two hours and some minutes, the two had long disappeared into the distance. Kron and the rest could no longer see their backs or the white and dark flashes of light.
As he watched the countless beast carcasses lying everywhere, he couldn't help but feel a bad premonition in the pit of his stomach. So far, not even a single soldier had lost their life. He should've been happy, yet it was unsettling.
"I heard hundreds of people died already in the first wave in the southern region," Kron thought, rubbing his palms together. "And from the look of things, this horde seems much more powerful than the beasts that attacked the south."
The next moment, he shook his head. Perhaps he was overthinking things. The reason there hadn't been any casualties was because of the two women.
"Yes... it's because of them," he tried to convince himself.
[Hehehe, so delicious!] Fluffington exclaimed as he threw a monster core into his mouth. The shadow cat was currently in the midst of dozens of beasts, yet none of them had even landed a strike on him.
Fluffington was just too elusive!
Even the manner he used to kill the beasts was annoying. Unlike Thirteen and Astralus, who killed their prey swiftly and efficiently before extracting the monster cores.
Fluffington ate directly from the source! His claws slashed across the chest, then with lightning speed, he snatched the core from the beast's chest and threw it into his mouth. As they fell down, the beasts glared at Fluffington with murderous intent.
If eyes could kill, the cat would have perished over and over again.
As if this wasn't enough, Fluffington would then slap the beasts on the face with his paws while insulting them.
It was truly a very disrespectful method of killing his prey.
Thirteen couldn't help but sneer in his heart. He would definitely talk to his big brother about this habit.
At the other side of the battlefield, Aina and Eve soon made a discovery.