I have to identify their leader. It will be easier to deal with them once they are disorganized. Not that I can’t deal with them as they are right now, but it’s a pain if I have to fall back every time after killing a single monster.

Edward watched the crowd of monsters swarming under him. He had lost count of how many he had killed, but that didn’t make a significant difference apart from the Harpies he had exterminated. With so many of them, it will be hard to discern where their leader is hiding. I have to trim their numbers.

Sending huge aura blades works well but it is quite taxing. With their numbers, I need something more cost-effective.

He teleported to the side to avoid an aura blade from below. Ok, let’s do this.

Edward stowed his daggers and opened his palms, forming one blob of condensed aura after the other. The blobs disseminated around him, staying at the same altitude, floating three meters away from each other.

Attacks continued to come from below, and Edward had to tank a few hits with his aura armor. His aura decreased however, he endured and continued to form aura blobs, more and more of them forming into the sky. Edward stopped when the majority of the battlefield was covered by them, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he had to control all of those aura blobs at the same time. With one mental command, the blobs separated into thin needles which then plunged toward the monsters below.

Aura needles were raining on the battlefield. Wyrms and other tough monsters were able to live through it, their armor enough to protect them. That wasn’t the case for ordinary Murlocs, wolves, and Lusus naturae. As the attacks continued to pour everywhere at once, it was useless to attempt to avoid them. The monsters collapsed as one needle after the other pierced through them. Soon, ninety percent of the monsters’ army was dead, only the ones with aura armor and the ones in the periphery able to survive the massacre.

Edward stood panting in the sky witnessing the result of his attack. Blood amassed on the battlefield, leaking from thousands of wounds. The soil turned to red mud from the influx of blood. This was more effective than what I was expecting, Edward thought uneasily. It was one thing to theorize an attack and another one to witness thousands of deaths because of it. I hope this is the first and last time I have had to do this. I know those monsters attacked the city first, but exterminating so many of them can’t be good for the ecosystem.

Even the monsters stood still in disarray. The Regal wolves seemed the most affected as they were used to hunting with their packs, they were now the only survivors, all the ordinary wolves had been slaughtered by Edward. Some of them growled toward a spot that Edward had previously discarded. Um? What are they doing? Edward struggled to focus his attention on this particular spot when something broke inside his mind. Immediately after he realized that he was looking at the one-eyed creep variant.

This fucking piece of SHIT! Messing with my mind again. One-eyed creeps weren’t good at fighting but they had formidable mental power to compensate. This one had been controlling the monsters from the shadow, giving them direction and increasing their aggressive tendencies. Rather than attempting to handle Edward directly, he had chosen to make himself forgotten and used the other monsters as proxies. Within the swarm of monsters and with everything that was happening, it was easy for it to make itself overlook. However, with the majority of the monsters dead, and with Edward’s attention directly on it, its influence broke.

I won’t let you go! Although tired after such an onslaught, Edward didn’t hesitate for one second and teleported right next to the one-eyed creep variant, swinging his blade to behead it.

I…missed, Edward realized. His blade had passed a few millimeters away from the monster. This fucker is still messing with my mind somehow. Let’s see if you can block this.

Edward detonated his aura armor, chunks of it flew all around him uncontrollably, bouncing against the armors of the Regal wolves and Mare Irae. The one-eyed creep managed to endure but its armor fluctuated widely, not being as resistant as the ones from the other monsters. The attack had destabilized it, and that was all that Edward needed. He chained two attacks in quick succession, and this time they hit true to their aim. One blade beheaded the creature while the other cut it from bottom to top. It collapsed silently as a mental pressure that Edward hadn’t noticed before dissipated.

Following the death of their leader, the behavior of the monsters changed. The shift was more visible for the Wyrms which roared and pulled away from each other. Those monsters were wild and territorial it wasn’t their normal behavior to gather together or to leave their usual living habitat. The shift was lesser for the Regal wolves, those monsters were smarter and weren’t fully under the control of the one-eyed creep, it had only managed to affect already existing tendencies within them. Having lost their packs, they had been angry at the one-eyed creep but above all they were enraged at Edward who was the one responsible for their loss. As for the Mare Irae, Edward couldn’t discern any change. For some reason, those monsters seemed to have a grudge against him.

Don’t tell me they are this pissed at me because I killed one of them when we went to harvest mana crystals?! Edward wondered, having put the event in the back of his mind after all that had happened with the spiders.

Need a breather. Edward thought as one Regal wolf snarled before pouncing on him. He teleported away and dropped one hand to the ground, taking advantage of all the blood essence that was spilled everywhere on the battlefield to regain some stamina. I may be tired but I need a tiny bit of effort before earning the right to rest.

He took a deep breath, exhaling white mist, before getting up with slow determination. The monsters didn’t wait for him to come to them. Already three Regal wolves were charging at him from different angles. Edward stood in place, letting them go into range before blasting his aura, preventing them from turning into mist. That didn’t deter the monsters from attacking him.

Edward settled for three-meter-long aura blades, activating his acceleration as the wolves entered the ten-meter area that belonged to him. “Rèng khwāmrĕw”. He teleported at close range staying within his domain and making the wolves miss their strikes by a few centimeters. He had positioned himself so that he was facing one wolf just after it had attacked empty air. It seemed as if the wolf was throwing itself voluntarily into Edward’s blades. One blade hit it in the chest, stopping its momentum and destabilizing its armor while the other glow brighter as Edward increased the aura within it, beheading the wolf in one move.

Before the other Regal wolves could leave his domain, Edward teleported one of them to him, chaining three quick hits in its chest until one blade pierced through it, the blade coming out from the other side. By the time the last Regal wolf turned back for another assault, it realized it was standing alone.

This didn’t last long as it was joined by the rest of the monsters. From the initial army, there were only eight Regal wolves and nine Mare Irae left alive. As for the Wyrms they cautiously kept their distance from each other while slithering back to the forest.

The Regal wolves surrounded Edward but the Mare Irae didn’t bother for subtility, they charged straight at him not caring about the Regal wolves in the way. The wolves had no choice but to move aside to avoid being trampled. Their level of cohesion has dropped significantly with the death of that one-eyed creep. The angry Mare Irae didn’t wait to reach him to send aura blades his way. They are heavy hitters but they are less nimble than the Regal wolves.

Edward rose to the challenge, charging at them while forming aura steps, running and twirling into the air to avoid their initial salvo of attacks. He focused on a single monster, climbing into the air and running around its head as close as possible while dishing out stabs. He relied on weaker but swifter attacks that took more hits to go through the monsters’ armor but which saved his energy and enabled him to avoid their retaliation.

Being so close to its target prevented the Mare Irae to retaliate efficiently, they could only swap their tentacles hoping to catch Edward, as any aura blades sent his way had more probability of hitting the monster he was attacking rather than him.

Although it took a few more seconds, the Mare Irae’s armor collapsed all the same. Edward’s blades cut its head apart before moving to another target. The Regal wolves stayed out of the way, not particularly enthusiastic about helping the Mare Irae, nor able to join the close-range confrontation without risk for themselves.

Edward picked up one target after the other, the Mare Irae number thinning as their anger turned to mindless rage. Their attacks grew more erratic but weren’t any better at hitting Edward. Within a few minutes, the last Mare Irae stood alone in front of Edward. Knowing that he had no chance to win, but still animated by its churning anger, it blew his aura armor away, sending blades and waves of energy everywhere. The Regal wolves dodged while snarling as Edward had to teleport away to avoid the wide-range attack.

The Regal wolves finally seeing their opportunity charged at Edward before he could make another move. With eight Regal wolves teaming up on him, Edward wasn’t able to avoid and parry every hit. With every sharp paw hitting him his aura armor destabilized further. He endured as best as he could and teleported behind the Mare Irae as soon as his teleportation was off cooldown, finishing it off now that it no longer had any armor.

Edward was alone facing the remnant of the monster’s army, only the Regal wolves still left alive. However, he didn’t have any place to hide within the battlefield anymore nor cumbersome opponents to take advantage of. Still, his smile only grew brighter. He raised in altitude, running toward the city as if he was retreating, gaining in speed with each meter. Enraged, the wolves ran after him turning into mist and raising in the air as well. But they were only able to lag behind as Edward was faster than them and only continued to accelerate.

While running Edward left aura blobs behind him. He used the same tactic as with the Arachne, gaining speed before blasting the aura blobs he had left behind, forcing the wolves out of their mist form, and teleporting behind them with his acquired momentum as they were too slow to react.

Actually, Edward was so fast that he wasn’t able to land enough blows on the wolves to break their armor, so he chose to collide with one instead. The impact alone was enough to destabilize both Edward and the wolf’s armor. Edward crossed his daggers as if they were scissors and the wolf’s head flew into the air.

Even with decreased momentum, he was already far away before the Regal wolves could react. Slowing down, he turned around and flashed a toothy grin sending chills running through the wolves’ spines.

This time it was the Regal wolves’ turn to run away. Even though they were in numerical superiority they couldn’t do anything against such a move. Edward had crossed their group at lightning speed bringing sure death with him. At this speed he was unavoidable and the wolves couldn’t react in time to help their congener before it got killed.

Seeing them run away Edward couldn’t help but complain. “Come on, I’m running low on energy and have to use such tactics to kill you rather than fighting you the normal way. Stay back and fight! It’s already tiring enough to kill you without also having to run after you.”

However, the monsters didn’t listen to him and only continued to run away. Edward had no other choice but to pick them one by one while grumbling to himself the whole time.

He didn’t let a single one live, going as far as pursuing them even after they had entered the Vipin Forest. Since I killed their pack, they hate me to the core. There is no chance that I’m letting one of them live so that it can come back later to bite me in the ass.