Just when Kilba had thought he was going to win against Baran for good, the Orc Lord executed his movement spells and bolted in another direction. The Orc Leaders that had come with him had already made their move. This escape was well coordinated.
Running after throwing a mortal combat challenge was not an Orc custom. So nobody at Kilaba's camp was prepared for such a custom-defying, abrupt activity. With blank expressions, they watched Baran and his men escape from the scene.
They didn't have to travel that far. And they were also not worried about being pursued. Because they knew what was going to happen next.
"What the… catch… fucking catch that dirty old man and his…"
Kilaba was about to complete giving orders to his men when he felt something threatening coming at him with lightning-like speed. He stopped midway through and looked up.
Throw. Swoosh Kaboom.
A flash of red lightning.
A distinct mana pulse that belonged to the Adept rank was spread after the vial's detonation.
A mana miasma was summoned right in the middle of the battle ring that trapped Kilaba and his most trusted Orc Leaders. As a result, those Orc Leaders died instantly without making any sound. Nothing happened to their bodies. Because of the illusion potion, they became brain dead.
Most of these Orc Leaders were Kilaba's supporters. All of them died when they saw the red bolt strike someone or something.
Kilaba was trapped in the illusion right after the bolt of red lightning struck him on his chest. The vial of illusion potion exploded on his chest, giving him no chance to take countermeasures.
***
"Kiddo, take this. We are heading down."
Eren addressed Argo and threw an alchemy pill in the air. The young demon beast screamed an eagle screech before diving towards the falling pill. Arno's pill was heading in the same direction as the battle ring. The butcher also popped a pill for himself as he saw them getting closer to the ground.
Crash. Locate. Kill.
***
Eren knew about the flaw in using the illusion potion when he used it. He couldn't enter the mana miasma that it generated after he cast it on his victims. Otherwise, he'd get caught in the miasma too. His Ace rank was ineffective in countering it.
Eren couldn't kill Adept ranked Jerry whom he had first used the illusion potion because of the miasma. He used the miasma potion once again after getting out of Purgatory on Jerry and an Adept ranker from Beast Bloods named Tai. He detonated the potion bomb when the two Adept rankers were busy dueling with each other on their own.
Eren had to wait for the miasma potion to wear off in the surroundings before killing Tai and Jerry. Since they were alone and had no witnesses, he didn't have a problem executing his kill.
But the situation this time was different. Eren knew there would be spectators this time who would be able to intervene if he waited for the miasma to wear off before killing Kilaba.
Just as Baran had said, Eren couldn't find the entire Orc tribe. Plus, Kilaba was no small fry either. His blessing might allow him to snap out of the miasma's illusion faster than Eren's assumption. Various predictable and unpredictable things could go wrong while executing a hit on Kilaba.
This alchemy pill was something Eren had asked Layla to make to counter the miasma's effect for a short while. Alchemy was a branch of potioning that dealt with capturing a potion's effect inside a pill.
Layla had no problem dealing with this request. It was just that the ingredients that were required to concoct such a pill put more financial burden on Eren. He could only take two pills of such a kind. But he didn't mind. Since there was only one potion, two pills were enough.
***
Kilaba saw that he was back in the Oni dungeon. During the Oni festival, he proved his worth to that entity. This time, the challenges were even more gruesome and lethal. This time, there were more opponents. And this time, the blessing was supposed to be even greater than what he had received so far.
Kilaba cleared all the challenges and took care of all his opponents. Just when he was about to receive the blessing with the help of that entity, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. A pain he couldn't comprehend. He subconsciously processed that the pain didn't belong to the world he was seeing.
The pain finally snapped Kilaba back into reality. He looked around him to see that there was a fog of green-looking miasma around him that was compromising his visibility. His vision was already blurred due to being caught in an illusion. So it took him some time to process what he was seeing.
An Orc Leader was standing nearby him. With his blue eyes devoid of any emotion, he stared at him. Kilaba didn't recognize this Orc. In addition, he did not understand why he was standing so close to him.
He was about to ask the Orc about his identity when he felt that the pain in his chest had intensified. He looked down to see that the blue-eyed Orc had driven a dagger deep inside his heart.
"What the…"
Kilaba didn't have words to describe his confusion. Before he could process what was happening, the Orc twisted the space-element dagger some more before pulling it out. Kilaba watched with pure bafflement as the Orc drove the same dagger into his chest. This time, without appearing to cause any external wounds.
"What are you looking at, you dickhead? I just killed you."
Slap!
The blue-eyed Orc spoke in broken Orcish and slapped him with the back of his hand. This time, Kilaba heard him loud and clear, thanks to the effects of that slap.
Kilaba was enraged. And Eren was happy seeing that rage building inside him. Before the orc lord with blessings could land a final punch and end his life, the butcher used the ability he had already planned to use on him.
Time was of the essence.
"Domain of Wrath!"
