Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 579: Endless Beast Tamer

’What sort of Beast Taming ability is this?’ Asher thought, the sheer number appearing before him seemed extremely absurd. Although he had handled the birds from earlier far too easily, their weakest had been a Veil-class monster, while the strongest had reached Fang-class, meaning they had all varied between Rank 3 and Rank 4 within the monster ranking system.

And now, hundreds of snakes had been brought onto the battlefield again, each of them within the same rank range. Asher had a suspicion that maybe, just maybe, Number Five possessed no taming limit at all, and indeed his guess was correct.

Number Five’s innate monster taming ability allowed him to tame as many monsters as he desired, so long as he defeated them personally without help from any third party and without relying on any absurd artifact during the process. With such an ability, Number Five had practically tamed an outrageous number of monsters over the years, so many that he had long since stopped bothering to count them.

Without missing a beat, the snakes snapped forward as though Asher had personally slaughtered their offspring. A stampede seemed to ensue as their massive bodies slithered and surged forward in unison, scales scraping and grinding across the earth as their cold eyes locked onto him with murderous intent.

Asher did not react immediately, instead, he calmly analyzed the situation, it seemed as though they were attempting to exhaust his Astra reserves, burn through his stamina, or perhaps accomplish both objectives simultaneously. After all, no matter how powerful someone was, neither Astra nor stamina existed in endless supply.

But this tactic was futile.

While another individual might struggle or eventually collapse beneath such overwhelming numbers, to Asher it made absolutely no difference. Without missing a beat, his Light affinity bent obediently to his will. Threads of radiant energy formed instantly, fine, razor-sharp strands of condensed light that shimmered like divine filaments. The next moment, he wove them together into what appeared to be a massive grid-shaped net attack.

Without hesitation, Asher willed it forward.

Before any of the incoming snakes could even reach him, the radiant lattice of light surged forward and passed through them all before they could even begin to react.

Their movements halted, their hissing sounds were abruptly silenced, their cold eyes seemed to flicker out as if the life within them had been extinguished in an instant. Then came the gut-wrenching squelching sound of hundreds of bodies being sliced apart.

The sound echoed through the air like a horrifying melody as every snake was diced into perfect cube-shaped fragments. A grotesque bloodbath erupted into the air. Blood of varying shades splashed outward violently, painting the battlefield with a scene of gruesome devastation as crimson and darker fluids drenched the surrounding terrain.

It was a spectacle of absolute carnage.

But Asher did not spare the corpses even a single glance. The metallic stench of blood that now hung thick within the air did not bother him in the slightest. At this moment, his mind had entirely shut out such trivial distractions.

His brain focused only on the next phase of the battle, his Astra energy boomed outward once more, the next moment, Gravity answered his call.

Instantly, every floating golden box in the sky dropped downward as though their weight had suddenly increased a hundredfold. They tore violently into the earth with thunderous booms, craters forming beneath them as the ground cracked and shattered under the pressure.

Asher did not attack directly. Instead, he simply continued increasing the gravitational pressure on every single golden box, since each golden box possessed the ability to rebound force, the question naturally arose: Could they rebound gravity?

From what Asher was observing, the answer was no.

’So Number Six cannot rebound non-contact forces and can only rebound contact forces,’ Asher thought calmly.

His Astra energy surged even higher as gravity intensified even further. The moment he identified the weakness, cracks began to spread across the surfaces of the golden boxes. Fine fractures appeared first, then they rapidly multiplied. Asher could distinctly feel resistance coming from three particular golden boxes. Instantly, he understood that Number Four, Number Five, and Number Six were hiding within those three.

It seemed that Number Six had completely abandoned saving the other boxes, thus, Asher concentrated his gravitational pressure on those three alone.

The cracks spread rapidly across their surfaces as though the boxes would crumble at any moment. But before they could fully collapse, several more golden boxes suddenly appeared around Asher.

Instantly, the resistance he had been sensing vanished, the three pressured boxes shattered into particles of golden light. Asher did not even need to think to understand what had happened, Number Six had simply transferred herself and the other two into newly created golden boxes.

But Asher did not move, he merely expanded the radius of his gravitational control and immediately the newly formed golden boxes plummeted toward the earth once again, but once again, Number Six saved both herself and her companions through the same method.

This time, however, the three of them did not dare remain inside the boxes any longer, the moment they emerged, Number Four reacted instantly, he snapped his fingers and the earth burst apart violently as another wave of massive wooden vines erupted upward.

Asher blurred backward instinctively, assuming the man intended to repeat the same attack as before, but Number Four had no intention of repeating the previous move. Instead, the vines twisted together, snapping into one another as they spiraled and intertwined like living serpents.

Within mere moments, the vines formed something colossal. A titanic construct made entirely of wood.

A gigantic wooden titan stood upon the battlefield.

Without hesitation, the massive construct punched outward with apocalyptic force. The power contained within its fist was immense, as though the strike alone could shatter a comet upon collision.

Asher had no intention of meeting such a blow head-on, he was not a fool, he simply vanished instantly from where he stood, avoiding the attack entirely. The moment he reappeared, his body could be seen standing upon the arm of the colossal wooden titan. He sprinted along its massive limb, racing upward across its body with incredible speed.

But before he could advance much further, another wave of wooden spikes erupted from the titan’s arm itself. They shot outward violently, forcing Asher to leap away without hesitation. But the moment he left the titan’s arm, the construct’s second hand tore forward like a nuclear blast, despite its immense size and overwhelming weight, its speed was not hindered in the slightest.

Hearing the air itself being shredded apart beside his ears, Asher turned instantly. Light blazed around Virelass as he slashed outward with tremendous force.

A brilliant golden sword arc sliced cleanly through the titan’s arm, splitting it perfectly in half.

But the effort proved meaningless as the moment the arm separated, the wooden vines immediately snapped back together, reconnecting as though the damage had never occurred.

The instant Asher’s feet touched the ground again, the wooden titan raised one enormous foot high into the air, then it slammed downward with overwhelming power. At the moment of impact, a catastrophic shockwave exploded outward across the battlefield with devastating force.

Asher, seeing the incoming destruction, simply decided to ignore the titan and its attack entirely,.with that single thought, space folded around him and he vanished, the titan’s attack crashed into nothing but empty air, reducing what little remained of the battlefield into further ruin and chaos.

____

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Super gifts? Pretty please...