"What should we do now, Sire?" The soldiers who were near Duke Easton managed to survive this whole nightmare. When they saw 47,000 troops lying on the ground, with blood flowing like a river, their faces turned pale as their entire body shivered in fright. Some even started puking while some even directly lost their consciousness from seeing this scene.
"I.....I don't know." Duke Easton did not know what to do in this situation. Never he did think even in his worst nightmare that something like this would happen to his army. The mighty army of 50,000 which was capable enough to destroy a 2nd-tier Kingdom within a single night was slaughtered within 5 minutes.
Duke Easton, the beginner 3rd-order still can't believe what he was seeing in front of his eyes. For a moment he felt what he was seeing a nightmare. For the next few minutes, no one spoke anything. Everyone was in a deep state of shock.
Rumble!
Duke Easton face changed when he heard the sounds of thousands of footsteps. From this distance, he could hear the roars of the horses.
"It's the Istarin army"
The remaining 3,000 soldiers who were injured panicked seeing the Istarin army coming from the back. Duke Easton closed his eyes and tried to sense the foreign presence around them.
"We have been surrounded." Everyone's face turned very ugly hearing Easton's words.
Another minute later, everyone saw a lion man walking toward them while holding a greatsword in his hand. The lion-faced beastmen was a burly, muscular build and stood nearly two meters tall. He has the appearance of an experienced warrior who had weathered many battles. Even at the age of fifty, he looked fierce, and his presence would tense the atmosphere.
"Duke Sarlus" Duke Easton's eyes flashed in hatred seeing the lion beastmen walking in his direction and being followed by an army of thousands.
"Never did I imagine that Sir Sarlus would ambush us this way. What happened to the honor and pride that you always talked about?" Duke Easton asked in an angry and mocking tone.
Hearing the loud words of the Duke, Sir Sarlus did not lose his calm. If it was before then he would have lost his calm. Both dukes had met each other in battles or had meetings that happened under the previous King Ahmed. It was no secret that both dukes hated each other.
About a decade ago both Dukes had similar powers. Both dukes had clashed on the battlefield multiple times. Every time their battle always ended in a draw or they were interrupted and asked to retreat by their Kings. At that time both Dukes were in their prime. While Duke Easton was cunning and sly, Duke Sarlus was hot-blooded and prideful. While Sarlus cared more about his pride and honor, Easton was the exact opposite.
Over the years, Duke Sarlus has matured. Unlike Easton who still was the same as he was a decade ago, Sarlus has matured to become a man with dignity and calmness. Previously whenever he was provoked by Easton, Duke would always get furious but now he looked very calm.
"I don't know what are you talking about. But someone recently told me that in a war it was always about the survival of the fittest." Duke Sarlus had lots of hidden meanings. These words were said by Aditya when he asked Duke Sarlus to execute this plan. After talking with Aditya, Duke realized his pride and reputation had no meaning if they couldn't win the war.
"So you're telling me that you abandoned your pride and dignity." Easton sneered at the duke.
"A person who is corrupted, who is the very definition of what others call a snake, a person who only cares about himself, has no right to lecture me about pride and dignity. While you call our move an underhanded trick, we call this strategy." Knowing that clashing with his huge army would result in a massive loss for the Kingdom, Duke Sarlus quickly accepted the idea that Aditya proposed to him.
Hearing these words Easton's face turned ugly as if someone had forced him to eat a rotten egg. "Hmph! Whatever you and your Kingdom say, the whole world will condemn this move."
"Hahaha!" Sarlus suddenly laughed out loud hearing Duke's words. Duke Easton's words were like a criminal talking about justice while pretending to be innocent.
"Let me ask you this, do you think we care? Do you really think the world cares about your nonsense? If we cared about what the world had thought of us, then our Majesty would have never started this war in the first place."
"Don't you feel ashamed? Pretending to be the innocent here while we all know that you're the one who first started this whole war." Easton's body started trembling as his face turned red from embarrassment. No matter how much thick his skin was, Sarlus's words made him feel embarrassed in front of his soldiers.
Enough!
Duke Easton stopped holding back and released his aura as a third-order. Feeling the terrifying pressure the soldiers near Easton were forced to step back with pale faces. The soldiers were suddenly having a hard time even breathing properly. They felt as if a mountain was being pressed against their chests.
"I don't care if I have lost my whole army here. Today I will not leave until I get your head." Easton tore the brown cloak covering his body, revealing the 2-star black armor that he was wearing.
Sarlus said nothing. In response to the Aura pressure, he used his mana to protect the soldiers behind him from Duke Easton's Aura pressure. Each cultivator can release Aura pressure. The strength of the Aura pressure depends on the cultivator's order. For a 1st-order, the Aura pressure was the same as the being pressure by the weight of a mountain.
Sarlus managed to resist the Aura pressure to a certain extent only because he was a Peak 2nd-order cultivator. Using a little bit of his mana, he was able to reduce the pressure that he was feeling. That does not mean he wasn't feeling any pressure. He felt as if his entire body weight has been tripled. He was having a little trouble circulating his mana.
About 5 km behind duke Easton and his army, another army that was being led by general Haku was marching in their direction. "Even if you bring your whole army, that still won't save you from being killed today."
After saying that taking out the silver color sword that was hung on his waist, Easton dashed at Sarlus at his full speed. While the Nepoca kingdom was rich enough to get resources that pushed their Duke to reach the 3rd-order, Sarlus wasn't that lucky regarding that matter. Duke Sarlus reached Peak 2nd-order without using any external elixir or pills, something that not everyone can do.
Duke wasn't fast enough to match the speed of a beginner 3rd-order. Being a beastmen even though his speed and strength were a few times higher compared to normal human cultivators, in front of a beginner 3rd-order he was still lacking. Also, Easton's skills and class were mainly to support his agility. Being an agility-type cultivator, Easton was fast enough to match the speed of a mid-3rd-order.
Easton covered the 70 meters distance in the blink of an eye and was only a few meters away from Sarlus. Just when the silver color sword of Easton was about to land on Sarlus's neck, a crimson-orange bolt of lightning hit his chest and sent him flying like a cannonball.
Bang!
"I don't think you can even damage even a single hair on Sarlus's body under my watch." Hearing the voice, everyone raised their heads to find Aditya, the Dragon King standing 100 meters above the ground with his Crimson dragon wings.
Duke Easton who was sent flying almost 100 meters away, smashed the tree trunks that had fallen him and then stood up and looked at the sky. His eyes had turned red in anger. "Good. Very Good. I didn't expect that while hunting for gold, I would actually find the diamond." The diamond, that he was talking about was Aditya. If he can kill Aditya or even land a severe blow that would permanently cripple him, then the whole Kingdom would collapse without their king.
'Did he really lose his mind or what?' Aditya thought as he looked at Easton. Not to brag or anything, but within the span of 2 weeks, he has killed three 3rd-order generals and fought with five 3rd-orders. After fighting so many 3rd-orders, in Aditya's eyes, 3rd-order beings are no longer anything that special. Current Aditya can easily kill a beginner 3rd-order.
"Let's end this"
[_Name: - Aditya Bainnith
_Race: - Dragon
_Bloodline: - Crimson Heavenly Dragon
_Class: - War Dancer, Rune Monarch
_Level: - 89 → 100
_Innate Skill: - Instant learning and adaptation, Crimson Blaze, Weapon Grandmaster, Runic Enchantment, Dragon Transformation
_Passive skill: - Eruption Wave, Crimson Blink, Silence Mind, Blast of Divine Fury, Aura of Soul Fire, Lunar Vision, Disturbance of Blessings, Mystic Surge, Charm of Inferno Rune, → ([New]Lightning Dash)
_Artifact: - Bracelet of Wind Fairy, Crown of Seven Sea
_Strength: - 209 → 220
_Speed: - 377 + [100+] → 388 + [100+]
_Stamina: - 209 → 220
_Health: - 209 → 220
_Mana: - 2,781 → 2,792
_Free stats: - 68 → 90 ]
