The Duchy's army was slowly losing to the Province. It wasn't the Province itself that was very strong. Sure, Barix was extraordinary. But by itself, it's still far from topping Centaurus.
It's the traitors!
Cassius crossed his arms and blocked the sharp punch to his chest. As the price for completely blocking Jorand's attack, he took a direct attack from Akira on his back.
With a muffled ground, he crashed to the ground like an asteroid. If not for the formations restricting the impact, the entire planet would've started to crack like an egg.
"Old dog, seeing you like this really causes pity." Akira licked the blood flowing down her nails and slender fingers like a wild cat. "But too bad, I am a sadist through and through. I like to destroy cute, beautiful, and pitiful things."
Cassius had already stood up and faced the two of them with the same stern gaze he put on for the past few minutes.
Since things came to this, he'd have to kill them both at any cost.
His trump card was his racial talent. Once the aura stored in his horn gets released, his strength would skyrocket for a short period.
But once the usage was over, he would fall into a weak state. If they didn't die even then, he'd be in big danger.
Understandably, he was reluctant to use that talent. But now he was pushed to a corner and decided to us—
"Support arrived! Lads, say hello to your savior!" A burning white meteor fell from the sky and crashed in the middle of the battlefield.
A shockwave struck the chests of the Barix rank 2 powerhouses before they could react. They exploded into blood and bones, unable to offer any resistance.
The battles between rank 1s and rank 2s nearby stopped. The rank 3s also turned in this direction with fear and anticipation.
"It's you!" The Imperial Guards recognized him right away. This mad son of a bitch fought a hundred rank 1s by himself!
"Who else?" Varian shrugged with a smirk and his gaze turned to the dozens of rank 3s and hundreds of rank 2s in the battlefield. The number of rank 1s breached a thousand.
Thankfully, there were enough defense arrays to keep the impact under control. Else, this planet would've long been destroyed.
"Constantine, suspected to be rank 3." A man who seemed like a commanding officer informed his company of soldiers.
The two hundred peak rank 1s, thirty rank 2s, and one rank 3 set their sights on him under the guidance of that man.
Varian narrowed his eyes as this unit fast approached him. These guys were different from the other Barix troops.
At a glance, their armors, swords, and other equipment were two grades better compared to their peers.
But there's a bigger difference that Varian was able to detect only through his famine power.
'They have something extra…activated in them.'
Whoever they passed by, these soldiers casually waved their hands, and green gaseous substance leaked out of their fingertips.
The soil melted away as did the skin and flesh of the unfortunate centurian soldiers touched by the gas.
Even the ones strong enough to resist the erosion of the gas quickly clutched their necks in a desperate attempt to not breathe in the poisonous gas.
But it entered their system through the pores on their body and killed them quickly.
"Nagas who can use their racial talent well, hm." Varian cracked his neck and muttered.
Their poison grew with their physique and the poison of a rank 3 Mystic could pretty much kill a dozen Mystics of equal strength.
Instead of waiting for their attack, Varian jumped right at them. The green clouds swallowed him without hesitation and Varian inhaled the poison like it's some sweet fragrance.
"W-Wait, what?" The rank 3 commander leading the soldiers froze abruptly and looked on with a dumbstruck gaze.
He had seen many weird people since he joined the service. People who didn't bat an eyelid when killing a million, parents that tortured their own children, children that harmed their own parents, and many horrible events and people.
But a guy so crazy that he'd inhale the infamous Naga poison and from a rank 3 no less…
"Is he trying to commit suicide?"
Inhaling that poison? Even rank 4s might die.
"This is so tame compared to earlier! It's just a scratch! No, less than a scratch!"
A tremendous suction force emerged in Varian's body and the famine powers devoured the poison completely. Even then, they severely damaged his organs in a short period of time.
Yet, to Varian, this felt so easy, so manageable compared to the unbeatable space attack earlier.
Severe injuries? He could heal them in seconds. Loss of vitality? He can make it up by draining it from a dozen enemies.
But that space power that kept killing him…
Even if he's fully prepared, Varian had no confidence in surviving that attack. And it's just a casual attack of that man.
"Come on! Fight hard!" Varian emerged out of the green cloud and landed in front of the hundred-odd soldiers.
His normal clothes were intact for reasons they couldn't even understand and he looked completely unharmed.
With their most potent ability rendered useless, the group stepped back hesitantly for the first time.
Varian grinned like a predator and grabbed the neck of the rank 3 officer in a flash. It was scaly and slippery. Varian lost grip in a blink.
But if he hadn't, he'd have broken the neck and ripped the commander's head off.
As he barely escaped from death, the officer felt his heart nearly exploding in his chest and roared. "Fall back!"
Scales quickly grew on all the soldiers and their speeds slightly increased.
"Nah, you're not going anywhere."
The Demon Sword of Uranus slid into his palm and Varian slashed the space horizontally.
A red line thinner than a strand of hair flashed and passed through the soldiers.
"Huh?"
"What was that?"
"I-It reached me but I can't feel anything."
"It's supposed to be an attack?"
The soldiers were confused but hastened their movements and retreated a few dozen miles in seconds.
Varian sheathed his sword and calmly walked to the area where rank 3s were fighting.
"Huh?" The fleeing soldiers stopped and looked at each other in confusion.
The rank 3 commander who almost lost his head in Varian's head also stopped.
He glanced at the soldiers and wanted to relay the next order. But his eyes froze and his hands began to tremble.
"E-Everyone…"
A cold wind blew on the nape of his neck and he unsheathed his sword in a hurry.
"Commander?"
The soldiers turned to look at him.
They shouldn't have done that.
A thin red line on their necks expanded in a blink. Just like neatly sliced butter pieces sliding over one another, the turned necks of the soldiers slid off their torsos.
Under the commander's horrified gaze, more than a hundred bodies were standing headless, splashing blood out like fountains.
"Gulp."
It was a chilling sight even for a veteran. But in gulping his saliva, his throat moved more than it should.
A red line also appeared on his neck. With a shaking hand, the commander touched his neck and after realizing it was just a shallow wound, his shoulders relaxed and he slumped on the ground.
The man was defeated even without a fight.
