Supreme Monarch

ATTACK!!! Launch every attack you have now! Don't let him make a move!"

Carn's voice broke slightly as he shouted his orders and it sounded more like a scream. He hadn't screamed to raise his men's spirits or morale, neither did he do it as a way to attain control of this situation. He had simply just given in to his fears as a sense that f dread gripped his heart by the casual motion of that man.

At his words, the men around him also became flustered and hastily launched a vast amount of spells and arrows at the hooded man while also wailing in fright.

"|Curse Arrow|, |Fireball|, |Fire Rain|, |Emerald Burst|, |Scorching Ray|, |Magic Arrows|, |Confusion|, |Open Wounds|, |Poison|, |Fear|, |Blindness|..."

The hooded man performed no other actions as he just stared at the incoming storm of spells and arrows that lashed against him.

These were all Tier 2 spells and below and even the arrows held no enchantment so Tyler was fairly confident that he had enough resistance to resist them all without even lifting a finger.

Just as he had expected, the spells did not damage him and the arrows could not even chip the fur on his coat. After taking on a barrage of their strongest attacks, the man has still come out unscathed.

"Well, that was pointless."

At the hooded man's casual tone, one of the men closest to Carn screamed wildly after being stricken with fear as he saw all their attacks being so ineffective that they might as well just be bright colors in the dark night.

As members of the organization, they were used to dangerous situations and had even faced stronger opponents than them, but this was just ridiculous. What exactly were they supposed to do against an opponent that could not only kill their boss in a single move but could also shrug off the strongest attacks of more than a dozen mages and archers.

Fear the likes of which he had never felt before gripped his heart and in desperation, he pulled out an ominous black scroll and immediately activated it.

Carn's eyes widened upon seeing that particular scroll in the possession of the man. Mix emotions weld up within him as he couldn't even react in time. That was a valuable item they had been tasked with smuggling through the city by a certain noble.

There was no conceivable reason why such a thing would be in the possession of that man. The only possible answer he could think of was simple, the man had stolen it from the organization, and quite recently if he still had it on him knowing fully well what the organization does to traitors.

Then again, there had been several scrolls alongside a variety of other items in the list so perhaps he had just been stupid enough to think a single scroll would not be missed.

However, Carn held his breath, he could not think of such a thing in this situation. This man's reckless foolishness was now a ray of sunshine in the dark nightmare he had somehow found himself in.

That was a peak Tier 5 dark attack scroll. A scroll that contained the same raw power of a demon elder and even some weaker demon lords. No matter how much resistance he had. The hooded man shouldn't be unable to stand against such a spell. Carn refused to believe that such a shady fellow wielded the same level of strength as a demon lord.

"DARKBOLT!"

The black scroll was engulfed in greyish-white flame and turned to dust. In its place, a massive beam of brilliant darkness was unleased at the hooded man faster than the speed of light. Most of the men around him were blown away by the force of the spell and even Carn could not imagine the man being able to avoid an attack at this level.

With a loud whoosh, a seemingly endless torrent of darkness in the form of a grayish-black radiance flooded towards Tyler in an instant and engulfs him as he simply raised his left arm to shade his eyes.

This was fifth-tier magic, a spell that borders at the verge of the sixth tier — a height Carn could never hope to attain.

This attack would annihilate all below the rank of an elder, and even elders would meet the same fate. The difference was only if they were reduced to sightless atoms, or if there would be some remains left behind.

Even behemoths should receive some damage, demon lords would also not be spared. Right?

Yes— it would surely be strange if that was not the case.

So why, why was he... Why was he still there?

Monster.

He didn't know who had said that but he wholeheartedly believed him as no normal merchant should be this strong.

The monster dress like a man had not been blasted into glowing ash, sprawled on the ground, or pulverized into meat jelly, but he was still standing nonchalantly, and even acted like he was also surprised by the outcome.

"—Huh, I took that head on to test my resistance and durability but… This is a strange outcome… I guess this goes to show that I can't ever let my guard down as even trash like you can be lucky enough to possess something so fascinating."

The spell just then had blown his hood away as the material was at best at the Tier 3 standard and even his coat had patches of dark burnt marks as he had not defended with any magical means and while he was unhurt, the spell still had an effect on him.

Tyler stared at his left arm as the torrent of darkness disappeared. The crack on his arm had corroded his glove and destroyed it. The crack seems to absorbed the negative energy in the darkbolt and expanded.

Tyler sighed inwardly. If this went on he might turn into an undead in his sleep but he still had no idea how to handle this. He cast a few lights heals on his arm until it became manageable and turned around to take a look at the effects of that spell.

The clearing he was in had a fenced-off junkyard behind him and it had been blown to smithereens by the residual effects of that spell.

If he hadn't absorbed most of the force he was sure the damage would've been much worse. This combined with the fact that his face had now been revealed to these clowns, Tyler felt like he was quite unlucky this time.

"So much for being discreet huh... With my hood gone, I guess we're done here."

His voice didn't seem particularly upset or worried they had all seen his appearance which was quite different from the normal residence of this city and it would be easy for him to be identified but his tone just carried a wave of indifference.

Carn gulped at his words, both he and his band of thieves were not equipped to deal with situations like this and most of their eyes had lost their luster as a complicated expression was plastered on their faces.

"What's wrong, do you not have anything else to surprise me... Well, I guess I'll take my turn now, Zelda."

A shadow moved from beneath his feet and a shadowy creature soon appeared out of the ground and with the sound of an explosion.

A beautiful female undead lunged forward as the ground shattered beneath her and in an instant.

Yes, it had happened in an instant.

Although Carn wasn't sure if they could call this a battle since this had started they had not been able to take their eyes off their target. However, The female undead — who had suddenly appeared before them and should still be in their view — had moved mysteriously and was now in their midst.

With a speed that the eye could not even see, Zelda swung her twin daggers, tracing several beautiful curves of the weapon's sickly green light in the air.

"Impudent worm, learn your place."

Her cold words made the hearts of everyone that heard it tighten and the man that had used the dark scroll earlier collapsed lifelessly to the ground, his head rolling away from his body.

"...Huh?"

Nobody knew what had happened. They had all been excited when the man had suddenly produced such a valuable scroll but the situation had not unfolded how they had imagined it and now, a creature that looked like the reaper had taken the shape of their most lustful fantasies and had come for their lives,— stood before them.

Before any of them could even recover from their stupor, the alluring shadow rogue moved again. Her blade moved beautifully like she was performing an intricate dance. With every swing of her weapon, a body fell to the ground lifelessly.

While the men may have been scared shitless, their pride as men wouldn't let them just stand around and die at the hands of a girl. Well, at least some of them weren't. They tried to surround her with their numbers and all swung their blades.

It was evident the strongest amongst them were the Tier 2 mages and most of them were Tier 1s, especially the warriors. However, they were quite experienced when it came to fighting in a group, or maybe it was just their specialty to gang up on people.

They attacked Zelda from all angles, instantly filling up any holes created during the fight. Zelda was a rogue, an assassin-type fighter, and while she could still use some magic. She still wasn't built to take on so many opponents at once in a frontal assault.

However, she was not an ordinary rogue but one that was born in the depths of darkness and specialized in the shadow arts. Not to mention the anger she felt towards these maggots for daring to point their filthy blades at her master.

Skill - Shadow Movement.

Her figure turned blurry for an instant and she melded into the shadows on the ground as she instantly moved behind several men that had only just been attacking her and launched a barrage of attacks at them.

Skill - Shadow Assault.

Her strikes carried the force of darkness and more than half of Carn's men fell lifelessly to the ground as Carn stared at the scene still frozen in fear.

"U-Uwaaaah—!"

A magic-user that watched Zelda continuously kill his friends from the rear could no longer stand it anymore. He wailed in horror as he turned around and ran wildly away. No longer able to think with any form of rationality.

Zelda turned her ice-cold gaze at the retreating fellow and an exasperated grunt left her greyish black lips. Her figure quickly melded with the shadows and she rapidly moved and shot out of the ground in front of the scared man with dripping pants as she spun her slender legs and the head of the man caved in and his body was sent tumbling back several meters.

"Annoying worm."

Zelda muttered to herself, her usual blank expression had a slight hint of annoyance on them as she was about to land back down and return to carrying out the task her beloved master has entrusted her with and dispose of the remaining worms.

However—

Before her feet had completely touched the ground and she was about to sink back into the shadows. A large blunted weight slammed straight into her back with a force like it had been shot out of a cannon.

Bang! Boom!

Her body was sent flying as she slammed into the ground like a launched projectile.

Tyler who had only silently been watching the battle narrowed his eyes as he traced the large weight that was attached to a chain back to its source.

A dark figure wearing a black long coat with a long straighten collar, a black top hat, and a white metallic mask that covered the entirety of his face walked out of one of the alleys.

He held a sickle-like weapon on his hands that was attached by a chain to the weight on the ground as he tugged on the chain and pulled the weight back to him. Spinning the chain with his left hand he spoke in a slightly metallic but lax voice.

"I had some time and only came here out of a nagging curiosity but it seems I missed out on quite the fun huh... That's quite a shame. I guess I should've accepted that lad's request to begin with but oh well... Who do I kill first."

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