I can't remember the exact details, but there were supposedly three pyramids of skulls.
Hiding in a bathroom, Riley calmly sat on a sink, his legs crossed as he thought to himself.
One for men. One for women. And one for children. Meant to deter against rebellion, Genghis Khan used shock horror after his massacre of a city to his advantage.
Outside the bathroom, there was heavy breathing. The footsteps had stopped, and Riley had heard the splashing of blood. Just once, and very faint—surely a singular footstep that had been seeped in blood, as the enemy forces had discovered the results.
I dislike it, and I don't approve of his actions. But in a situation like this, it served as a good framework. After all, I'm vastly outnumbered, aren't I? Excluding martial arts and weapons, I'm sure those guys can all kick my ass in a fight, even just one of them.
So, when you're outnumbered and outmatched in strength, what else to do but attack not just their bodies, but their minds?
"...Fuck, man… w-we… oh, shit. We have to tell Scott—Riley was hidden on the fourth floor."
"I-is he still there? L-let's, fuck… let's check."
"No, wait. That window, it's broken, see? He can fly, he—he must've gone out of the building. We have to tell Scott—let's go."
The hurried footsteps distanced themselves from the bathroom, as they began to yell and shout throughout the building, calling for Scott as their moderately-official leader.
Wonderful. Of course, I could sneak-attack them when they're afraid, but they'll do a good job of spreading fear throughout the enemy ranks.
Thinking of it in terms of actual warfare, Riley got off of the sink and stretched his arms. His mind, unlike what he'd actively displayed to the servants, was not affected by the monumental Bloodlust of the servants.
Utilizing that belief to his advantage, he'd portrayed himself as an incompetent fool, not wanting to face all thirty of them at once in a fight he'd surely lose.
"Supreme excellence consists of subduing the enemy without fighting." Of course, when I'm so horribly outmatched, I've had no choice but to fight, especially with Ghira's presence. But, still, I'm doing my best to follow that to a tee.
Speaking of, there's another emperor whose homework I'll copy. One of those servants had an incredibly loud voice… Yes, I'll make use of that. No doubt. But first, I want to increase the efficiency of a few servants, using them to the fullest.
A soft smile on his face, Riley readied himself for the next phase of the battle.
…
"SCOTT! SCOTT, RILEY'S DANGEROUS!!"
Shouting like a banshee, the group who had stumbled across the great monument of brutality had gone up to the sixth floor.
Bursting open the door, the panicked servants saw Scott's group, as he curiously raised one eyebrow.
"Huh? What're you talking about?" Scott asked, to which they caught their breath. Their legs trembling with fear, they began to spread the word.
"W-we, we checked the fourth floor, and found corpses. T-the group that checked on the fourth floor, they were—they were all killed, it was… urgh, the blood. They were ripped, ripped apart and… and…"
"Woah, woah, slow down. Are you screwing with me? I'll seriously kill you if—"
"WE'RE NOT!" One member shouted with intensity that forced Scott to believe.
"...Alright. So, he managed to get a lucky hit, or…?"
"IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A LUCKY HIT! IT WAS, e-everyone, all of them, just… blood, blood and guts and—and, and… We need to warn the others, or else he'll kill them while they're off guard too!"
"R-right, okay. I'll get Morgan, his voice should reach everyone."
Scott hurried with both groups to find the servant with the sonic-screeches, Morgan.
Upon leaving, Riley silently floated up into the air, staring through the window on the outside as they entered the stairwell, not spotting him.
…
"...He did this?"
Staring in amazement, Scott's night-vision allowed him to effortlessly spot the corpses left behind in full detail. It was grizzly.
"He didn't just use his knife. He used his hands, too. He dragged their entrails around the floor."
The group of twelve whom he'd gathered flinched at his words, before the leader turned to Morgan.
"Let everyone know."
"Got it."
Looking up, Morgan gave a loud shout, letting everyone know that Riley was on the loose and killing people. After saying so, hordes of servants came down, numbering twenty-four in total.
"Listen up!" Scott commanded, "We've got to find Riley. From this, it's apparent that either he's not as drunk as we thought, or he faked being affected by Bloodlust. Either way, be on guard; he's dangerous."
"Danger" was a word in which none of the servants present had ever considered it to be meaningful to them ever since they were chosen. With incredibly potent regeneration, amplified physical capabilities, and a unique ability, there was nothing in this world short of armies that could stand against them.
Yet, in this moment, they found themselves unmistakably in pure danger, their lives on the line. Whether they acknowledged it consciously or not, it made a grave dent in their psyche.
The servants unanimously agreed, to which Scott counted them, the potent feeling that something was "wrong" washing over him.
"Wait, there were supposed to be twenty-seven of us, now that these four are dead. Where are the three who went to the top floor? They should've still heard us."
Upon his words reaching their ears, the realization rooted itself in their very flesh.
Acting as a united force, they all began to hurry towards the stairwell, heading up to the eight floor. Even though they acted in unity, they were hardly cooperative, shoving each other as they clamored upstairs, reaching the location of the three missing members.
Upon opening the door, Scott instinctively got a whiff of a very pleasant scent to the vampire.
Everyone piled inside, their eyes squinting from the lights of this specific floor having been turned on. Before them, they saw the lost troop of three—or rather, what was left.
Firstly, there was a headless corpse. Upon a mere averted glance, they could spot there the head was. Impaled through the neck and out of the eye, the head was stuck to a broken lamp.
Second, there was a hanging body, tied to a ceiling fan with a curtain. Its entrails had been ripped out, laying on the floor as it protruded from its stomach.
And, finally, there was a body. Not dismembered, it had instead been broken apart. Not by tools, such as with [Bleeding], but by raw physical strength and skill. Broken wrists, ankles, knees, and elbows, all bent in the wrong way. The cranium had caved in from repeated punches and elbows, flattened on the ground and looked as if it had been an ordinary human's skull run over by a car.
It had been an act of physical force—humanities evolved violence made clear.
As the many gathered around, united and gazing upon the grotesque scene, the fear rose even higher in their chests.
They'd heard of an active danger, and they had seen the effects. Twice.
"H-how long were we even down there? It couldn't have been more than a minute or two…"
"He did this in just one minute? There's… there's no way, that can't be possible."
It was no longer merely the fear of [Bleeding], which had been ingrained into them. Whilst Riley still took the performance of a star upon the stage, they had learned to associate his knife as his most troublesome ability.
In essence, Riley Woods was weak and stupid, but his knife was strong.
But, upon seeing the corpse, which had been formed not with the knife, but by his physical ability, it greatly instilled in them a sharp terror—Riley Woods was the danger, not his ability.
In groups, fear is an infectious disease. When the group is resolved, everyone is resolved. When the group is happy, everyone is happy. But, when the group is afraid, everyone is afraid.
Even if Scott, the leader, did his best to not show any kind of fear, he had nothing tangible to show everyone else that they didn't have to be afraid. No matter how many words he spoke, he would never be able to convince them that they were safe unless he had actions to back it up.
Therefore,
"...Alright. Let's move as one big unit, then. If we do that, we can overwhelm him—the numbers are on our side, right?"
"R-right! That's right!" Morgan shouted, his loud voice toned down, yet still affirming the words of the leader. "He was only able to do this because we split up; if we stick together, then——"
A rope tied around his leg, and dragged the unsuspecting man out of the eight floor violently. This immediately startled everyone inside, as the Enemy of the World emerged from the stairwell, showing himself in his entirety.
"Shit, he's here!" They shouted, to which Riley took one step forward. [Hanging] isolated Morgan from the group, his loud screams further increasing everyone's fear-response as the hordes of people unitedly charged at Riley with explosive leaps.
In truth, because of their unity, Riley was able to dodge off to the side. They trampled over each other, as only those in the front were able to get to him, meanwhile Scott, who had entered into the room first, had been slowed down by his teammates.
Evading their leap, Riley simply summoned [Crashing] on its side, blocking off their vision. They heard the sound of glass shattering, and as soon as the car disappeared, he was gone. Even as they clamored to the window, looking down, they did not find him, as he'd re-entered the building.
In the distance, yet ever-so-present, there was screaming and cries for help.
…
[Drowning] was administered from the office water-jug, filling Morgan's throat and silencing him. Riley pinned his wrist to the floor on his back, and performed an Americana, violently breaking the shoulder.
Morgan looked up, seeing a heavily-breathing Riley stare down upon him, his face covered in blood, filling his heart with rising fear, causing his screams to carry an even more vulnerable edge. Those pained screams echoed through the halls and were heard by the united servants, who followed his voice down the steps.
His victim began to drown in the water in his throat, turning his head to the side and violently coughing it all up, only for Riley to pin him to the floor with [Hanging], snapping the other shoulder and making his arms impossible to use. Then Riley placed his knee over his opponent's own, using [Hanging] and his own strength to bend the knee in a manner it shouldn't bend.
Breaking both legs, Riley then looked down at his opponent, who violently screamed for help.
"HELPP! SOMEONE! SOMEONE, PLEASE—AGH! AHH! W-WAIT, WAIT, PLEASE, STOP! RILEY, RILEY, PLEASE—GRAAHHH!!"
Hoisting his opponent up, carrying the broken body over his shoulder and slicing the top of a lamp off, leaving just a metal pole, Riley then sliced open Morgan's anus, impaling him onto the pole as blood shot out down the metal.
Still alive. There was no doubt that Morgan was still alive. His brain was not damaged, and his blood, while rapidly draining, was not something he was exhausted of. Alive, but impaled, as gravity slowly drove the metal through his intestinal track.
Riley fled the third floor in which Morgan was stationed, his body hidden inside of a meeting room and next to a wall. His voice, emboldened by his ability, was able to bury its pain into the minds of his allies.