Chapter 401: First blood
Chapter 401: First blood
"I don't know what do you expect from saying that, but even if some of my people are dumb enough to trust those words, I'm not one of them."
I really didn't expect to find anyone familiar to me, yet it still happened. While I didn't know this guy's name as I never really bothered myself with him, this officer who was the very first person I met ever since I arrived on this island was still someone I considered as normal and down to earth enough to spare in the coming carnage.
"And what do you mean by that? Do you need me to"
Unwilling to just start killing from one of the very few people I was willing to spare from the Overlord's side, I jokingly put my hand on my pants, as if I was willing to pull them down in order to prove that the size od my manhood was indeed as impressive as I claimed.
"I understand that in your eyes we are all weaklings, but I will need to stop you right now. Are you going to let us through so that we could do what we were ordered to?"
With the sadness and some sort of acceptance striking me from his words, I realised that this guy was seriously asking. Prolonging my silly way of ridiculing them would only disrespect his resolve.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do it. Whether what I said was true or not, those people already swore their loyalty to me. What would become of my word if I were to just give up on their lives?"
For the very first time since I transmigrated, reincarnated, logged inside or did whatever that caused my consciousness to arrive in this word, I had this kind of moment where I know I was about to kill someone I actually started respecting, only because of the differences between his orders and my ideology. From the genuine sadness on this guy's face, I could tell that he wasn't content with the outcome of our standoff either, but as he closed his eyes and lowered his head in a mute bow of respect, I understood that there was nothing I could to prevent the clash.
"Then that can only mean one thing. Thank you for not ridiculing us at this kind of moment."
Something was really wrong with my transmigration or whatever to this world. Instead of creating a harem, I was doing my best to avoid having one. Rather than ruling the cities and being glorified as a hero, I had run from the very first city I happened upon while being considered a monster that brough an apocalypse to its inhabitants. Where I should just revel in bloodshed as I would gain experience points I wanted, I was actually sad about killing someone capable of gaining my respect in just a single exchange of words
"Everyone. Kill this man."
Instead of shouting this order, the Overlord's officer simply closed his eyes in the acceptance of what was about to come, while pointing his hand in my direction. Just as the soldiers released a burst of arrows, spears and stones in my direction, I threw a single strand of entropy towards said officer's neck, severing his spine in a swift move and granting him a peaceful death. That was the most I could do to honour his courage. And it was the gesture that signalled the start of the carnage.
With my Snakesbite in my hand, I couldn't care less about the damage to the forest. Even if the fire would spread to the shore and affect the refuges too slow to escape, it would be their fucking fault for working so slow!
Creating an array of seven fireballs out of thin air, with only some insignificant amounts of mana getting drained from my core. At this point, I didn't dare to drop the burden of controlling my predator's mindset from Bonger's illusory shoulders, because I was worried that as soon as I would get rid of the soldiers, potential experience from killing the refugees remaining on the shore would be far more alluring than the perspective of rushing through the entire island to the Overlord's lair.
BOOM!
With my fireballs freed from my leash and almost warping to their destinations, the moment my spells crashed against the natural obstacles that the Overlord's soldiers were hiding behind, the land instantly turned into a hell. Just like in the modern world, where a bullet from a modern gun would cover all the distance separating the target from the shooter, penetrate the tree the target was hitting behind, two of his comrades seeking shelter in the same place, two more trees and seven more soldiers hiding behind them only to fly away way past the line of the warriors, my fireballs didn't know the meaning of mercy or the notion of hiding away from an attack.
As soon as the mana construct would hit a hard object, be it lucky soldier's body or an obstacle, the fire would explode in all directions, eating through everything at its path and only slowing down after its energy would run out to a point where it would turn into a simple fire. As to why a direct hit would mean being lucky for a soldier, the screams of those who managed to avoid the initial path of the fireball were the testimony of how nice a swift death was.
In that simple barrage of spells, all the war potential of those people disappeared, leaving behind only a huge amount of wounded, even more deserters and only a handful of warriors courageous enough to continue throwing their projectiles at me.
Just this first barrage already scored me over fifty thousand experience points, bringing me a tad closer to my first level up, but after making sure to end the agony of those who were already wounded by my first attack, the number of my exp tripled. With the number of notifications amounting to over two hundred, I could only assume that it was the number of people I successfully killed. Considering the fact that all of them were insanely weak compared to my standards, being able to earn a current total of three hundred eighty thousand experience points from just two hundreds of them was already an acceptable amount!
But it was nowhere close enough to what I had to farm in order to powerlevel through thirteen levels!