The Devil’s Cage

Everything happened too fast.

From Kieran’s awakening to the splintering of the Eye of the Chimeras, everything happened within the spark of a lightning.

While enduring the pain of his torn arm, the Night Race leader used his telekinesis to forcefully alter the trajectory of the flying crystal. There was no chance for him to change anything though.

He watched helplessly as the Eye of the Chimeras got splintered by an inconspicuous rock.

The only other thing splintered was his own greedy ambition.

His helplessness and insults finally turned into pure rage.

His rational senses were used as fuel, added to his burning rage and igniting it even further.

”Die! I want you all to die! I want you to fall to pieces!”

Bartos launched a backhand smash at Lorl. The tremendous collision force and his thunderous speed sent Lorl flying towards the wall without any resistance.

The heavy crashing sound cracked the wall open. The width of the gap was enough for a grown man to pass through.

Rocks of different sizes started to crumble down on Lorl. His back was broken and the muscles on his abdomen were torn apart. Lorl could not even move to avoid the falling rocks.

He looked at the rocks falling on him helplessly. Before he was buried under them, he turned his attention to Contly.

”LORL!” Contly was crying out his name from afar, struggling to get to her comrade.

Lorl mustered all his remaining strength to yell back at her, ”Contly, it’s been a pleasure to meet you!”

After his last words, dust started falling around as rocks kept falling, burying Lorl’s body completely.

”First one down! You are next, Contly! I really wanted to enjoy the world with you, but you are too foolish to appreciate my goodwill! Not only did you find some unworthy scapegoat to die for you, but you even messed up my whole plan! Your death will not be regretted!”

Bartos appeared before Contly in a flash. He grabbed Contly’s neck with his strong hand, choking the guardian in mid-air.

”Ba… Bartos, your arrogance is your greatest weakness!” Contly said as she struggled.

”Hmph! Do you have any more accomplices besides that fool?”

Bartos let out a cold, disdainful sigh and squeezed Contly’s neck even harder.

The Night Race leader felt the pain in his broken arm again. The pain stimulated his burning rage even more.

As he gripped her even harder, Contly’s face started turning purple. She was suffocating. She was going to faint any moment now, yet her face showed signs of relief.

She had achieved her goal. Death would not bother her anymore.

The sound of the burning fuse was echoing around the hall. The kerosene lamp that had fallen earlier had moved towards the explosive fuse in the midst of all the fighting, igniting it quickly.

”Telekinesis?”

Bartos looked at Contly with a shocked expression before he quickly smiled in disdain.

It was very easy for him to stop the ignition. All it would take was a thought in his mind.

”I will let you die in despair…”

Bang!

A sudden blinding flash shone over the entire hall, interrupting the Night Race leader’s words. The Night Monster goons around him were struggling on the ground, their eyes filled with pain.

Suddenly, a sharp, air-breaking sound was heard, and a half-moon qi energy wave slashed at the Night Race leader’s neck.

It was like a blunt blade hitting an old tensile cowhide. All the energy wave did was chafe some skin off his neck.

”Petty tricks!”

Even though he was blinded by the light, the Night Race leader was still able to mock the attack. He was about to insult his overconfident opponent some more, but the very next moment, he cried out in pain.

The ground suddenly trembled violently, and an unstoppable force crashed against his body. The tremendous force caused pain on Bartos’ body, even though he was able to withstand small to medium-sized firearm attacks.

Next were Bartos’ organs.

A mouthful of crushed internal organs was spit out of his mouth along with gushing blood. Bartos opened his eyes wide, trying to identify what had hurt him.

As the blinding light faded away, all he saw was a humongous rhino with a sharp, powerful horn. The very next moment, the rhino disappeared out of thin air.

Then a glowing golden lion appeared before Bartos’ eyes. The lion let out a thunderous roar.

A series of golden ripples visible to the naked eye started to ripple throughout the hall.

The Night Race leader was staring at the scene anxiously in confusion.

However, when he noticed that the lion’s roar had caused no changes on him, his arrogance made him want to insult his opponent’s move again. Before the words could escape his mouth though, a pitch-black dagger sliced at his right wrist.

”Arghh!”

Bartos screamed in agonizing pain. He turned his eyes to Contly, who was supposed to be breathing her last breath in his powerful grip.

Contly was showing no signs of injury. Her movements were nimble and her attacks were getting fiercer.

Bartos was looking at her with an incredulous expression as the pitch-black dagger cut wounds all over his body.

After losing both his hands, he could only stand still and suffer her attacks passively.

Instinctively, the arrogant soul felt fear. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to retreat.

Bartos the Night Race leader wanted to escape!

Bang!

A gunshot was fired, interrupting his thoughts.

The bullet fired by the [Jagdtiger-X1] had been shot at Bartos. Even though in the dungeon world the firearm’s firepower was diminished by 50%, the attribute [Armor Penetration Lvl 2] in combination with Kieran’s Transcendence [Firearm Weapon, Light Firearm] and the effect [Bullet’s Conviction II] provided an additional armor-penetrating effect. The power of the bullet was not to be underestimated.

Even though Bartos had a Tensile Skin far superior than the other Night Monsters, the bullet still beat his defense. The powerful force within the fired bullet sent the Night Race leader staggering backwards. He eventually crashed into the group of his minions.

”Now!”

Kieran grabbed Contly, who wanted to perform a follow-up attack, and ran over to the statue.

He knew that the [Lionheart]‘s [Lion’s Courage] and [King’s Traits] effects would only last for 10 seconds. Once their effect was over, Contly would return to her injured state, and so would Kieran.

Using [Flashbang] as a diversion, Kieran used [Blade Kick] to test out the Night Race leader’s defense level. Then he quickly activated [Wild Soul]’s [Reckless Rush].

Kieran had originally thought that it would deliver a lethal blow to the Night Race leader, but his HP was much higher than he had imagined.

Even though [Reckless Rush] had [Wild Rage]’s attack buff, which enhanced the attack to Powerful Level, all it could do was inflict heavy damage on Bartos.

The Night Race leader was only heavily wounded, not lethally wounded.

However, Kieran’s attacks were still ongoing.

When Bartos fell against his group of minions, a couple of grenades were tossed at strange angles throughout the hall.

The moment Kieran pulled Contly down into the exit under the statue, the grenades exploded.

When they did, their explosions detonated the installed explosives around the hall.

BOOM!

[Explosion: Inflicts 1000 Damage to Target HP, Target dies…]

[Explosion: Inflicts 1000 Damage to Target HP, Target dies…]

[Explosion: Inflicts 1000 Damage to Target HP, Target dies…]

[Explosion: Inflicts 1000 Damage to Target HP, Target has Immune Lethal Attack, Special Tensile Skin, Iron Body, and Iron Bones, 600 Damage resisted, 400 True Damage inflicted to Target, Target dies…]

...

A series of notifications popped up in Kieran’s vision. The last one confirmed that the Night Race leader had been killed in the explosion.

Kieran turned around and sprinted back.

When he pushed away the crumbled rocks blocking the exit, his eyes were blinded by the golden-green glow shining all over the place.