A group of about five hundred individuals were marching through the Wasteland. Most of them had power reaching the middle or high level of rank 0.
Although to normal creatures the difference in ranks is an almost impossible thing to overcome such as- if a Novice Rank 1 Magus were to fight a group that big he would probably deplete all of his energy before killing even half of them.
At the front of this group were three figures. One was a four-meter tall man with a single eye and a brutish appearance, a cyclops
The other was a serpent-like creature with a humanoid upper body, member of a race know as yuan-ti, and the last one that was positioned between the two and from him you could feel the greatest amount of power, he was a 6-meter tall Yeti with a primate build and white hair.
The three had reached rank 1 but there was a great difference between the other two and the yeti, that was because those two advanced simply because they accumulated a great amount of energy in their body and were able to force their bodies to the next level.
Although they become more powerful, they don't obtain an improvement in their consciousness nor any type of powerful abilities.
But the last one advanced using a Path Technique, and although it was not designed specifically for his race, he was able to obtain amazing powers from it.
"Lord Neix, we are very close to the territory of the kobolds."
"By what our scouts have told us, the Magus that gave that technique to them is in there."
The Yeti named Neix looked at those two rank 1 creatures and nodded.
"I will take care of the Magus. I am confident in defeating him but they always have abilities that allow them to escape at the last moment. When that happens, you two will have to stop him long enough for me to incapacitate him. If you two fail, then there is no need for you to remain alive."
When Neix said the last part, his eyes radiated killing intent.
Although the cyclops and yuan-ti were angry about the threat, they didn't dare to argue. They knew that against someone who was able to kill an Advanced Rank 1 Magus, they had no chance, so they only nodded.
Neix didn't care about the other two, and his entire focus was on obtaining the Path Technique and all the information that man had.
He had managed to obtain a Path Technique from a ruin in the Wasteland and after using it, he understood how precious it was. The moment he advanced to rank 1, he became the most powerful member of his tribe and was able to kill the previous leader with ease even though he had been in rank 1 for dozens of years.
But unfortunately for him, the technique he got only allowed him to reach close to the peak of rank 1 and had no way of advancing to the next level. So when he found out about the kobolds and the technique they got from a magus, he made sure to do everything he could to find out about that person and planned for the time he would come back.
The desire of the other two for a path technique was not a bit inferior. They may not be the smartest, but every being that advanced to rank 1 had an enhancement in his cognitive abilities and they can understand the importance of the technique.
The three had a copy of the technique that they obtained from the traitor kobold but it was of no use for any of them due to them already reaching rank 1. As for giving it to their subordinates, that will never happen.
Even if the effect was not great, neither of them would allow some in their tribe to reach the level that could threaten them.
The three leaders had migrated their tribe long ago so they could be closer to the kobolds and they started marching the moment they found out about Zatiel, so they were less than half a day from the kobold territory.
As they advanced, there was not a lot of communication. After all, in normal cases, their tribes would be fighting either for resources or simple items, but something happened that made them talk.
Although Wasteland had a certain level of light, it was mostly a dark place. But in the sky, small lights started to appear that made it shine with a golden glow.
The three Rank 1 leaders also noticed this phenomenon, and they were able to see the orbs of light that started to appear. But unlike the other two, Neix was able to focus all of his consciousness in the direction of the golden light to get a better idea of what were those orbs, and the moment he did, his face turned grave.
"Watch out!"
But it was too late as the orbs were already falling in the direction of the rank 0 armies.
And in the direction of the rank 1 leaders, an immense 2-meter ball of dark flames came crashing on each one.
The cyclops roared as he stomped the floor at his feet and a wall of earth appeared in front of him. The wall was destroyed immediately when the dark flames struck it, but it managed to make the attack less strong and although some dark flames managed to reach the cyclops, it was able to survive.
The yuan-ti did not have any good defensive ability so he tried to dodge the attack and threw his sword to the dark flames.
Unfortunately for him, his attack barely managed to alter the direction of the flames a little before it exploded at his side, severely harming him by engulfing him in flames and making him scream from the pain.
Neix was the only one that was able to neutralize the attack as he launched an Ice Storm at the dark flames making them disappear, and not wasting time, he launched a blast of ice to the cyclops and yuan-ti to douse the flames on their bodies.
After some time, the flames on the two rank 1 disappeared. The cyclops had some burn marks on his body but was mostly fine while the yuan-ti was missing one of his arms and had wound all over his body.
Although both had their consciousness damaged by the flames, they were still able to fight.
The three looked at their armies that now were scattered in all directions but even so they could not run very far as walls of ice and lightning stopped them.
The golden flames burned more brightly with every being they consumed and continued to expand. In the center of this realm of flames was a man moving through the area and with every attack, he was able to kill tens of creatures.
The cyclops and yuan-ti were terrified when they saw this. They were only now able to see their enemies yet they were both already hurt with one them losing an arm and their tribes being slaughtered in front of them.
"Focus! If we try to run, the owners of the ice and lightning will stop us. Our only option is to defeat that person and use him as a bargaining chip. Besides, I don't think he has too much energy remaining after a spell of such magnitude."
Neix knows that if he was alone, he would not be able to escape so he encouraged the other two and it was effective as in their eyes the savagery normal to their races appeared.
Neix was not wrong. In this attack Zatiel had used an immense amount of energy, consuming almost 75% of his Sun Power. But he also had his Abyss Aura and although that attack with Abyssal Fire was expensive, he used his rank spell as an intermediary to launch them and he still has a little over 70% of this energy remaining.
The rank 0 army was decreasing at an amazing rate but neither of the three chose to intervene. In their mind as long as their tribe members can deplete at least a small part of Zatiel energy, then their death was useful.
Zatiel saw the action of the rank 1 leaders but it didn't matter to him and before long all the rank 0 soldiers were dead, leaving only golden flames all around the area. They were so much that it looked like it was the day due to the light they were producing.
Once they were all dead, Zatiel started to walk through the golden flames heading in the direction of the Yeti and the rest.
"Ruthless enough to let all your people die for the chance to make me weaker, but too stupid to realize that it would not make a difference."
Zatiel's eyes were cold and his body radiated killing intent.
