The angered Cliff Rat King roared at us furiously, it manipulated dozens of rats to do its bidding because its fat self could barely move. In fact all the rats were moving it instead.
A mass of rats in the shape of a giant hand emerged before us. As Erdrich pushed forward with a smirk, his entire body beginning to grow larger and more muscular, as his skin turned red and black tattoos appeared over the red skin.
"[Demonic Fist Technique]: {Ashura's Tempest}!!!"
Erdrich roared, unleashing a shockwave with his powerful Demonic Aura and his Mana, and then unleashing a barrage of fist attacks, completely destroying the hand-shaped swarm of rats and blasting them into smithereens.
The Demonic Fist Technique was something I taught him personally, as I had learned such techniques from an Ancient world named Murim, which is probably now gone as it was invaded by the demons in the past.
It is a millenary technique that uses Ki and Demonic Energy to unleash an incredible malicious aura and bloodlust, a power that only "Heavenly Demons", or as I would like to call them "Evil Cultivators" used to fight the Righteous factions.
It specializes in hitting weak spots such as revealed meridians, guts, breaking ribs, and also shattering the confidence of their foes with painful attacks. I use it by combining it with my other techniques, but Erdrich could only learn much, so I made him specialize with them after gifting him several books with the techniques and positions he needed to learn.
Naturally, over the years, he mastered them one by one with his amazing talents, and now he's becoming, perhaps, the last successor of this millenary art.
"[Heavenly Demon Art]: {Ruthless Ashura's Wrath}!"
And then, his foot hit the floor and his two fist hit forward while all of his Demonic Power and Ki was expelled into a fluctuating explosion, unleashing a blast of red energy and disintegrating another dozen of rats.
This was the one of the three Heavenly Demon Arts, the advanced form of the Demon Fist Techniques he has learned.
Naturally, all of the other classmates who were barely getting things done with the aid of their spirits saw Erdrich do it all by himself with mouths wide open.
"A-Amazing! So this is the power of someone with demon blood…" Clarice felt afraid.
"But those techniques cannot be learned just by being half demon!" Said Clark.
"Who the heck taught him those techniques?!" Alianna wondered
"He's incredible…" Patricia muttered, blushing a bit.
While everyone was fighting the near endless swarm, the Cliff Rat King roared angrily, quickly bringing out even more rats and shaping them as countless hands, attempting to punch us out of the cliff!
"Eric! Open the path! Trap that rat!" I commanded, the [Commanding] Skill working as it boosted his stats even further.
"Leave it to me!" Eric roared, pointing his bow at the rat, and emanating a large quantity of Nature and Life Mana from within him. While his Yggdrasil Treant Spirit gave him arrows made of Yggdrasil Wood and protected him at the same time. "[Spirit Bow Arts]: {Yggdrasil's Cannon}!"
Eric fired three arrows at the same time imbued with his spiritual powers and Mana, as they flew towards the Cliff Rat King's defenses and then exploded, disintegrating half of the ants on the spot and then generating a gigantic tree that began growing everywhere, trapping the Cliff Rat King on place!
Indeed, Eric was now capable of utilizing the Yggdrasil Cannon Technique as a normal ability, although it takes a bit of Mana to use, he has mastered it to this extent.
Although trapped, the Rat King was still angry. It summoned its last battalion of Giant Cliff Rats, which were E+++ Rank to fight us. Alberta stepped in, enlarging her forging hammer into a gigantic one and then slamming them one by one like whack-a-mole. Explosive blazing flames spread out everywhere, burning countless other rats.
"[Infernal Hammer Technique]: {Blazing Explosion}!"
CLAASH! CLAASH! CLAAAASH!
The way was finally cleared, as I jumped in with my spirits, slaying any rat in the way and then, jumping straight towards the trapped Rat King. I imbued some mana into Gluttony, and then launched the spear towards the rat.
"Here, Gluttony, feed on it!"
The spear flashed, reaching the rat king in a second, and piercing its jugular.
The Rat gave an agonizing cry before it stopped moving, dying on the spot faster than I imagined. Gluttony feed on its blood completely, cleaning the way.
"Now let's get rid of these rats!"
I began shooting down rats with my gun, killing several with a single bullet, minutes went by, and after half an hour, we were finally done. Because we had no time to rest now, I saved all the corpses that didn't fall down the cliff inside my inventory and we promptly continued our journey.
[You and Your Party have slain [Cliff Rat King (D- Rank)] x1!]
[You and Your Party have slain [Giant Cliff Rat (E+++)] x27!]
[You and Your Party have slain [Cliff Rat (E+)] x409!]
[You gained 540000 EXP!]
[Your Level has increased from Level 35 to Level 36!]
[All your stats have increased!]
[You earned bonus skill points and stat points!]
[You earned bonus skill proficiency!]
Another level, good. We're making progress here.
"Very well everyone, you did better than before, that's commendable. Use the potions you have for healing. If anybody's poisoned, Eric can heal you. Let's continue for now, we're closer to the end of the cliff." I said with a nod, as we quickly kept moving forward.
"Ahhh… Hahhh… W-We did it…" Clarice celebrated.
"Just how many rats were those?" Alianna wondered.
"Perhaps… over two hundred." Said Clark.
"Indeed, they were too many, they bit me all over!" Cried Mimy. "At least Eric healed me from any potential disease or poison, but it still felt disgusting…"
"Well that's what fighting monsters is all about." Eliana laughed. "It was thrilling, wasn't it?"
"Yeah! Had tons of fun!" Ashen laughed too.
"T-Those two are weirdos…" Mimy muttered.
"Hey, lower your tone…" Sighed Alianna.
Meanwhile, as we went down, I noticed Patricia glancing at Erdrich rather attentively.