Soon a massacre started

A thug swang his knife towards King, seeing this King grab the thug's wrist and snatched the knife while his foot kick the thug causing the unlucky man to collide to the other thug behind him

Not stopping for even a second, King then attack another thug using his knife. Sadly, he was not used in fighting someone and his knife missed the thug's chest and was only hit on his shoulder. Still, the thug cried out in pain as blood flowed out from his shoulder and dyed his clothes in red

King pulled out his knife, with his strength even though the knife was stucked on the thug's shoulder he still managed to pull it out easily and stab the thug on his chest and he immediately fell down on the ground devoid of any life

Another thug took the chance while King was fighting the others to stab his own knife to King and when his knife was only a meter away from King's back a light green light flew and hit his back and he too collapsed to the ground

"Thanks, son" King smiled to his son, that was really close. He does not know if his defense was strong enough to withstand a blow from a knife

The brutal battle continued, blood painted the ground

When all the thugs died King kneeled down on the ground catching his breath while some blood leaked from his wounds. Fortunately, his defense was quite strong and none of the knife wounds managed to cut too deep so he does not sustain any serious injury aside from light wounds and exhaustion

Calter's face on the other hand become pale as almost all of his energy was used up in shooting out the Magic Bullets

After a few moments passed when the slaughter happened a man went to where the father and son is

"King! King!" Hearing his name being called, King look to where the sound is coming from and he immediately smiled seeing who it was

"Cesar!"

Cesar was the only one in this village that treated him and his son kindly, sadly because of that the thugs often pick on him and they are beating him

Cesar was a few years younger that him and this man loves to draw! He still remember the time when his wife was killed. Cesar draw his wife's portrait ang gift it to him saying "she may not be with you now but she will always be here in your heart"

"King, Calter! get away from here now, you will die! Quickly go!" Cesar warned the two and urge them to leave hastily, King's heart warmed because of that. This Cesar was really too kind!

King chuckled and said to Cesar "Cesar, don't worry if it's their leader you worry about he is already dead"

King expected that Cesar would immediately calm down after hearing his words but Cesar didn't "King, you don't understand! Just leave now please!"

Then Cesar push King trying to make him leave, King was puzzled on Cesar's actions. He already killed most of the thugs, after all there are only few tens of them and he already killed a little bit more than two dozens of them while their Supernatural leader was already dead

Even if the other remaining thugs teamed up to kill him it was still not much of a threat for him

"Eh? How powerful you killed all of them" suddenly the three of them heard a clapping noise and they all look towards the source of the sound and found another thug looking guy walking towards them

Seeing this guy, Cesar's face paled and his body trembled

Even without Cesar's warning King felt danger coming from this guy, he felt like he was an inferior lifeform looking to a superior one and he felt some sort of oppression

What King felt is actually natural after all this man is a Rank 1: Warrior! A [Supernatural!] While he, even when being at the peak of normal rank was still a lower kind of lifeform in front of even the weakest supernaturals

"Run!!" Cesar shouted. King and Calter instinctively ran as they felt that this man was really dangerous

"Trying to run eh?" The man sneered "Not so fast ants!"

Suddenly, an earthen brown book appeared and hovered in front of the man . The book's pages turned until it stopped in a page where there is a picture of rock on it with some incomprehensible words

"Earth Magic: Earth Ball!" The man shouted and three rocks formed in front of him. The man waved his hand towards King and others and the balls of rocks flew to where they are

Seeing this, King's eyes constricted in shock and fear. This thug was really a supernatural and was even a Mage to top of that!

Mages all have grimoire, this grimoire was a treasure! Grimoires amplify any magic that the user cast a few times and give magic skills to the owner!

If an ordinary spell caster, cast this spell 'Earth Ball' they would only be able to produce one earth ball but this mage managed to form three and the speed was actually this fast!

Sensing the incoming danger Calter casted his Magic Bullet to destroy the earth ball, sadly all it managed to do was lessen the size of the ball and exhaust some of magics on it. Calter instinctively tried to protect his body using the tree barks on his arm but the spell was really too powerful and cracking sounds was heard as some of his bones broke

King on the other hand was not too worried about his self, he has his natural defense and the skill [Harden] he has a high chance on surving this attack what he worried about is Cesar as Cesar is just an ordinary person!

Gritting his teeth, King shielded Cesar's body with his own "[Harden!]"

Doogsh

King puke out some blood, even though he cast [Harden] and used the barks on his arm to withstand the blow. The power from the spell was still enough to injure him

"Dad!"

"King!"

Just a single spell from the thug was enough to make them helpless

"I guess, you do have some skills. Sadly, it's not enough"

"Earth Magic: Earth Ball!" Just like before, three balls of rocks formed in front of the thug and flew to King and the rest

Calter, using the same techniqe cast his Magic Bullet to exhaust the Energy on the spell but learning from his previous mistake after casting a single Magic Bullet he force himself to cast another one. He then use his other hand that was not broken to accept the blow of the remaining earthen ball. This time the effect of the magic skill was not enough to break his arm, unfortunately those two Magic Bullets was the limit of his energy. He cannot cast another one again to protect his life

After all he already cast a few Magic Bullets before

Gritting his teeth again, King still decided to protect Cesar after all Cesar was only in this dangerous position because he tried to save them

Once again, he cast his skill [Harden] and used his arm's defense but this time instead of the earth balls flying in a straight line it actually curved and hit him on his back!

Blood poured out from King's mouth again but this time it was more intense! There are more blood coming out than before while King can't stop himself from coughing but it only caused more blood to come out!

"K-King! I'm sorry! Don't try to save me anymore, you will just die!" Cesar's eyes watered and tears were threatening to fall down

"Heh, at your cough! age you're still crying couch! cough!"

"D-don't talk! You're only making your injury worst!" King just grinned at that but inside him he was mad at himself from being weak again. Even if he die, he does not have much regret as he already avenge his wife. But he cannot! Dying now means that Cesar and his son will die too and he cannot let that happen!

"HAHAHAHA! Idiot you fell for it!" The thug laughed loudly, ridiculing King

"You think my skill is only enough to cast spells in a straight line? I'm a mighty mage idiot! I have a grimoire I'm superior to normal supernaturals HAHAHAHAH"

King's blood boil, how he wish he was stronger now. How can he always be weak? He cannot even protect those people he cared. If only he was not too overconfident to take his son here to avenge his wife. If only he waited until he become really strong before taking his revenge after all this is the apocalypse! Anyone now can become strong enough to let them do what they want! He really wished to be strong!

Calter, too felt mad at himself for being this weak. He was not able to do anything when the thugs do something horrible to his mother and now he was helpless again. What is the point of having a Bloodline and skill if he cannot protect those he cared about? He really wished to be strong!

Cesar, just like the two was angry at himself for being too weak. The thugs bullied and beat him up but all he can do is to silently accept all cruel things they do to him. He really wished to be strong

This drive to become strong is what the Goddess Gaia wished the earthlings to have. With her ability he can just let the earthlings cultivate normally without letting anyone become a fallen, however doing so will not give earthlings the drive to become strong and they would be just mediocre

Their potential was silently ignited. Despite his heavy enjury, King stood up to fight. He may die but he will die fighting.

Calter focused on activating his innate skills [Innate Skill: Photosynthesis!] he did his best to absorb as much energy as he can and activated his magic skill Magic Bullet. Soon, a light green light bullet formed on each of his palm [Magic Skill: Twin Bullets!!] The bullets flew to the mage with a tremendous momentum

King on the other hand also activated his innate skill [Innate Skill: Absorb!] His arms tranformed into a root like thing with sharp end that attacked the mage

The mage was not able to react in time to the desperate move from the two and before he can even cast his spell he was hit

The two Magic Bullets hit his abdomen and blood leaked out, withstanding the pain he tried to dodge the root strike and it only managed to grazed his arm but even then a large part of his arm withered. After doing their last struggle both of them collapsed on the ground, they were really too exhausted now to the point they cannot even stand!

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!" The mage cursed at them angrily

"You dare hurt me! All of you will pay!" The pages of the grimoire of the mage turned again into a new page where an entirely new picture can be seen. The image was a gigantic fist made up of rock!

"Ultimate Skill: Earth Fist!"

Ultimate skill! This mage actually used his Ultimate Skill!

All grimoires have Ultimate Skills on them but mages won't use it unless it was a matter of life and death as the prices to pay it was huge!

It's fine if you have enough energy to use it but if you don't the grimoire will burn your life force and use it as the energy source

"DIE!!! The mage shouted, completely consumed by his rage

King and Calter was in despair now, they can't even move now much less dodge or block this attack while Cesar was just a normal human

A two meter wide and long earthen fist formed above them and fell down

Calter and King was sure that they would die at this moment but something incredible happened to Cesar

Cesar felt that he awakened some sort of power inside him while some knowledge was integrated on his brain

Cesar's eyes flash and he bit his thumb, he used his blood to draw runic symbols on the air above them "[Rune Magic: Counter Trap!!] " The runic symbol flashed with an ash-gray light and when the earthen fist hit the rune symbol it was absorbed by the rune and Cesar controlled the rune to face the mage and shouted "DIE!!!"

The rune flashed with an ash-gray light again and from it emerge the Earthen Fist that flew to where the mage is