Chapter 336
FODDER (2)
As utterly devastating and dominating words escaped her lips, Natsuki stepped forward, her sword floating beside her, ready to decimate all opposition. She took on the visage of an ancient being, her eyes now glowing gold rather than indigo, though only partially as usual.
Her gaze swept over the incoming creatures, the ones that would attempt to tear IAM and her to pieces. A look of disdain and apathy settled on her face as she identified them all, those that was radiating low spawnling-level power.
She beckoned her sword forward, letting it float before her as if drawn by her intent. Grand waves of unseen mana seemed to breathe outward from her, the air thickening with her path method as the blade began to vibrate slightly. Its form looked sharper, more dangerous, as if it hungered for the strike to come.
IAM noticed a low, subtle vibration he hadn't heard before, pulsing from the sword itself. Her eyes flashed, and she seemed to subconsciously whisper to herself:
"It's a bit mana-draining, but…"
She took a steadying breath, gathering herself as a crescendo of energy built around her. Then, at its peak, she flexed her hands.
Whoosh!
Zing!
With a sound that foreshadowed death.
The sword reverberated with power as it sliced through the air, moving at speeds that low spawnlings could barely hope to register, let alone react to. Every movement was guided by intense purpose, a seamless expression of her intent as it hurtled toward its first target.
The creature was small but stout, resembling a grotesque pig. Its long, crooked teeth jutted from its wide mouth, its green, leathery skin thick and resilient—or so it would have thought. Its body was strong, balanced, and fast, designed to evade threats with instinctive movements.
Yet all its senses could barely register the faint, low vibration in the air before it was too late. In its wide, panicked eyes, the sword had already arrived.
The blade met its skin… and met no resistance! None at all! It sliced through the thick hide as effortlessly as a hot knife through butter.
There was no struggle, no squirming, no fight. Just an immediate explosion of green flesh and sinew, the body erupting outward in a wet, visceral spray. The creature's teeth snapped shut one last time, uselessly, as bits of thick muscle and splintered bone scattered like leaves in a storm. Blood, viscera, and the faintly luminescent green of its innards sprayed across the nearby soil and trees, coating the ground in a sickly sheen.
The air was thick with the stench of destruction. What had been a living, moving creature a moment before now existed only as a splatter of ruined matter, a grim testament to the overwhelming power behind Natsuki's strike.
Even this didn't last. The destruction faded quickly, the illusion path formation unable to replicate the real death of deadline creatures. The remnants of the exploded creature shimmered and blurred, gradually vanishing, leaving only the eerie quiet of aftermath.
But even as the scene dissipated, IAM's attention was drawn to the sword—it had not returned to Natsuki. It didn't pause, didn't falter, as though one kill had not been enough to sate it.
It moved with lethal precision, its speed so immense that the air itself seemed to resist its motion. The blade arced toward its next victim, a creature similar to the first, part of the same pack. For a brief moment, it might have registered the death of its companion—but there was no time to react before the personification of death itself hurtled toward it… and in an instant, it too erupted into pieces!
An explosion!
Green flesh, sinew, and bone erupted outward in an instant. Not even a second had passed.
The sword didn't slow. Its hunger remained unsatisfied. Two more creatures fell before the last could even cry out in terror—its squeal cut short by the devastating strike.
Just like this, the sword continued its rampage as Natsuki, with a simple wave of her hand, directed it to its next prey.
It was a—sploosh!!!
Without time to even get itself a description, it was decimated, reduced to less than even an extra, obliterated before it could even comprehend what was happening.
Sploosh!
Another body shredded and scattered. Less than a second, less than a moment—gone. The sword tore through its prey as if the very concept of survival were meaningless. Blood and flesh splattered and echoed in the clearing, a horrifying symphony of destruction.
Finally, the sword's rampage ended. It returned to Natsuki's grasp with effortless grace, as if it were a gleeful child rushing back home after play.
A hush fell over the area, the only sounds those naturally made by the remaining deadline creatures. Even they seemed to pause, hesitant, as if acknowledging the power they had just witnessed. For the first time, a momentary lull settled over the battlefield, heavy with tension and the silent weight of death.
…All the low spawnlings… killed!
The horde that had numbered over thirty was reduced to just thirteen in barely ten seconds.
Ten seconds…
One would think back to IAM's first mission with his new team, where they had faced those spawnlings with holes in their bodies that resembled spiders, the clicking noise of their movements echoing as they skittered forward.
Apart from Jason and Liora, who were experienced-level ascenders, IAM, Kepa, Mirin, and Taye had all been low novices. The four of them had faced just around fifteen of those creatures while the other two supported.
If it hadn't been for Jason and Liora, it was very possible that they could have died! And that was with four of them working together!
Now, here was Natsuki—while yes, she was a high novice—devastating more creatures in ten seconds than that team had faced in an entire mission. There was no doubt that if four of them had been at her level, they might have eventually killed all of them—but could they have done it this fast, with such absolute, unrelenting fashion?
This was a display of sheer dominance, and she barely seemed affected at all. Before the battle had even truly begun, she had reduced all those creatures to nothing, treating them exactly as she had claimed—fodder.
It seemed that when Natsuki spoke, it was best advised to listen; whatever domineering words left her lips had a way of becoming reality.
She spoke once again, her voice cutting through the clearing like steel forged in fire: "There is no need for fatuous fodder…"
In that moment, she was something beyond human. The way she moved, even in stillness, seemed to bend the space around her, commanding attention, dominance, and fear all at once.
The gold in her eyes flickered like molten metal, sharp and unyielding, scanning the remaining creatures with a gaze of a storm waiting to be unleashed.