Chapter 500: Dodging and Ambush

Clang clang clang—

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—

The sounds of metal clashing and sword blades cutting through the air rang out continuously on the Old Oak Slope.

Beneath a sky far clearer than before.

Six dog-headed men, sharing the same combat style and coordinating well, wielded uniform steel swords and pressed their attack around the tall, handsome human who stood unmoved in the center.

Yet clearly the man was unarmed, relying only on a pair of sturdy arms bared to the air.

Whether reaching to grab, punching, elbowing, or grappling and twisting, he left every attacker without a single inch of progress.

He even wore a faint, easy smile on his face.

The dog-headed men had at first assumed this evil enslaver was also mid-seventh-tier.

After all, he was the same tier as their own captain; even if he were stronger than the captain, with the six of them working together, what reason was there not to take him down?

But thinking is thinking, and reason is reason.

Precisely because their captain's tier was the same as his.

They had coordinated their attacks for a full twenty minutes.

Only after all that time did every one of them grow more and more alarmed as they fought, more and more drenched in sweat.

This fellow seemed to have eyes on his back—no matter what blind spot they thrust from, even without looking he could reach out and catch the blade with pinpoint accuracy.

A human mid-seventh-tier is this strong?!

There's no helping it.

These six dog-headed men were all Iron-Severing Style or Iron-Severing Style reserves among spiritual warriors.

They knew nothing of fancy spiritual techniques, relying solely on a practiced hand at cleaving and swordsmanship.

Yet Rod just happened to be a hard counter to such single-mode attacks.

There was simply no breaking through!

Unlike the frustration on the opposite side.

Rod was having quite a good time.

He deliberately raised 【Dragon Scale Art】 only on both forearms, making high-intensity use of 【Reflective Evasion】, 【Omnidirectional Vision】, and 【Spider Sense】 in combination.

In truth, Rod hadn't gone through much sword training.

At the same level, if you picked any one of these six to duel him one-on-one in swordsmanship, they'd probably beat him.

But now, relying on his absurdly high perception and reaction speed, he could just take on six at once.

This is what stats are for.

"Take down even one of them and it's a win!"

After being repelled once more, the grey-furred dog-headed man in the leader position snarled hatefully.

The loathing in his tone was truly chilling.

Sigh.

This was also why Rod was holding back.

The emotion of hatred is always something one can feel in one's own heart.

He did not wish these six men's hatred—born of a misunderstanding—to end with them dying so simply at his hands.

Among the six dog-headed swordsmen, the strongest was mid-seventh-tier, the next was early-seventh-tier, and the rest were sixth-tier.

This was no team to be looked down on.

More importantly.

They seemed ready to throw away their lives.

Look at this.

After a brief exchange of glances, a sixth-tier dog-headed man missing one arm actually stepped forward ahead of the others to make contact with Rod.

One look told you he was throwing his life away to buy time.

Looking back.

Sure enough, the only two seventh-tiers stood in place without moving, both hands gripping their steel swords, their faces flushed red.

You didn't need to think to know they were charging up a big move.

Hiss—

Seeing the blade about to strike.

Rod didn't dodge at all; instead he cleanly and decisively reached out to grab the sword.

Crack!

The steel sword was blocked by his palm, letting out a teeth-grinding sound of metal colliding.

The opponent's face didn't change; he twisted his wrist with force, trying to scrape open Rod's palm, while borrowing the momentum to kick viciously forward.

Rod's five fingers snapped shut.

With a creak and a snap.

The metal blade was actually crushed into a twist.

At the same moment, he casually grabbed the foot the man had kicked out and hurled him flying.

At the same time, the other two dog-headed men had already pounced in front of him.

Rod chuckled, his speed surging another notch, and punched each one squarely on the bridge of the nose.

"Ugh!" *2

The two stared in disbelief at his movements far faster than before and let out a muffled grunt.

The aching, swelling pain instantly shot through their brains; their eyes rolled white, and they couldn't even keep hold of their swords before crashing hard onto the ground behind them.

Rod reached out with both hands, 【Grasp】 on one side, 【Gravity Wave】 on the other, sucking the two remaining steel swords into his palms, then snapped them in half together with a series of cracks.

The last Tier-6 dog-man was clearly a beat slower, and also the lowest tier.

He panicked for a moment; the thrusting steel sword was easily dodged by Rod with a tilt of his head, then an upward elbow strike flipped the wrist, and the steel sword flew from his grip in an instant.

"Holding us back, friend."

Rod kicked him flying out, then caught the falling steel sword in one fluid motion.

Snapped it in half again.

At this moment.

The last two dog-men, the only two Tier-7s, were still charging up.

One was the grey-furred dog-man who had spoken earlier; the other was a female dog-man whose half a face, along with her eyeball, had been gouged into a bloody, mangled mess.

At this moment, not a trace of spirituality could be seen on either of them from head to toe.

Rod didn't strike either.

He simply stood before the two of them, waiting quietly.

"Come on, let me see what you're made of."

"Enslaver! You will pay the price for your arrogance!"

The two dog-men glared with seething hatred, baring their teeth just like dogs.

On the old oak slope, tufts of grass flew up, a fresh breeze brushing their faces.

Behind him, Tally screamed loudly, cheering him on: "Master! Ah— Master~~ Master is so cool!!! Step on them~~ then step on their corpses and rail me!!"

"Young Lady Tally, keep your voice down! What if someone else hears!"

Dimia, still unaccustomed to succubi wantonness, pulled at her sleeve with an embarrassed expression.

The banshee Chris said: "Ignore her, succubi are like this, even more slutty in the forest, pure and simple someone's personal toilet."

"Personal toilet?"

Although she wrote raunchy novels, the young lady witch, who had never actually been with anyone, said in confusion.

Chris's face flushed too, and she didn't have the nerve to say it loudly, so she leaned in by her ear and explained it once.

This immediately turned Dimia's baby-fat cheeks beet red.

"You guys. Sigh, you really—! Too ridiculous!"

While saying so, she took out a notebook and secretly jotted it down.

"Nothing to do with me, this word was invented by some pervert ranger, Master! Stop snapping their weapons, they can be sold for money!!"

Listening to the chatter and laughter, laced with plenty of disrespectful remarks.

The two Tier-7 dog-men looked on in confusion.

Looking closely now, where on those beautiful girls under the effect of enslavement was there any sign of being tormented?

Not only were they all fair-skinned and full of energy, with not a single suppression magic item between them, even the accumulation of spirituality within their bodies was full and complete.

A plain enslavement spell, if not paired with magic items, is ultimately nothing all that advanced.

Most of them require very close attention to the enslaved person's internal spirituality or magical power.

Especially at Tier-7, once a certain threshold is reached, even some fairly talented fellows might figure out on their own how to break free.

The state of those two girls was no different from having no defenses at all.

"Wh-why you…"

Rod paid no heed; seeing that their power was nearly fully charged.

He forced an evil expression, chuckling darkly under his breath.

"See? I've trained them well, haven't I?"

"What?! You demon!!"

The grey-furred dog-man, whose blood was still hot, flew into a rage at these words.

No longer holding anything back, he and his companion beside him caused the steel swords in their hands to erupt with dazzling silver light.

However, there was a difference.

The steel sword in the grey-furred dog-man's hands additionally bled out a thick crimson airflow.

It was the crimson airflow of 【Heroic Buff】.

Now it was Rod's turn to be surprised.

Self-comprehended? The halfling Lily had done it before.

But that wasn't right.

This fellow didn't have the kind of stunning, heaven-defying talent Lily did, otherwise he wouldn't have been beaten into this state by Rod.

This was a genuine, proper 【Heroic Buff】.

Under the silver light and crimson airflow, the steel swords wove into a net, descending overhead like it would blot out the sky.

Rod actually knew what the sword net before him was.

—A joint-strike sword art called 【Silver Moon Sword Dance】.

Rumor had it that it was created by the twin siblings who were the famous commanders of the Silver Moon Knights of the Aethelorn Kingdom.

This joint-strike sword art, like 【Flash of Aethelorn】, belonged to the rapid-slash category.

Clearly, as a joint-strike sword art, the former was a step above 【Flash of Aethelorn】 in power.

It also rendered great meritorious service in the kingdom's territorial expansion, because 【Silver Moon Sword Dance】 required two-person coordination and extremely high tacit understanding, making it extremely hard to master, and later, when the Silver Moon Knights were disbanded for unknown reasons, it vanished completely from public view.

"Die!!"

The two dog-men leaped into the air and crashed toward Rod with a thunderous impact.

Rod, on the other hand.

This was exactly what he'd been waiting for, so naturally he'd meet it head-on.

He dismissed the 【Dragon Scale Art】 on his body.

【Prey's Desire】 tossed on — "While the target is in a state of hatred toward you, your Agility gains a 25% bonus."

【Agility Boost】 added — "All speed-type spiritual arts or spells have their effect increased by an additional 35% after use."

【Spider Sense】 【Omnivision】 【Precise Prediction】 【Swift Shadow Steps】 【Reflective Evasion】.

All of them, activate.

The next moment.

The sword net engulfed his body.

Rapid strikes unleashed over a hundred slashes!

And in place, a figure flickering without pause.

Quickly, the light dispersed.

Crack!!!

The longswords in both dog-kin's hands shattered into fragments at the same time.

Exhaustion and weakness surged wildly through every corner of their bodies, and they urgently looked up at the same time.

They saw the rising dust scatter.

That tall figure still stood proud and upright.

Kaka—

Rod, his feet in the boots Miss Xiao Ke had handcrafted, crushed a boulder to powder — not even a hem had been cut.

"'Die for me'?"

He brushed nonexistent dust from his shoulder. "That line is usually mine."

The grey-furred dog-kin's legs trembled, and he sank half-kneeling to the ground, the muscles on his face twitching unnaturally.

"Y-you... you..."

"You what you — never seen a master before?"

Never seen one this high...

That was the thought that flashed through the grey-furred dog-kin's incredulous mind.

Rod smiled and patted the fellow's dog-head.

"Let Nick go!"

A furious roar erupted from behind.

That weakest dog-kin — the one Rod had called dead weight — charged over even unarmed.

"Mimiqi! Don't come!" The grey-furred dog-kin named Nick's face changed, and he shouted in panic.

Just as he said so.

That weakling named Mimiqi, who had clearly been charging at Rod, suddenly swerved and slammed into Nick.

Nick caught sight of the gleaming green dagger in Mimiqi's hand stabbing toward himself. He still had a bit of strength left to resist, but his thoughts simply couldn't catch up — he just stared blankly.

A large hand shot over, and with a snap, gripped the green dagger.

Mimiqi's charge was forcibly halted by a powerful arm.

He looked at Rod with a stiff face and saw a contemptuous cold smirk.

"Pulling that in front of me — what were you thinking?"

(End of chapter)