While Brunhild and the others were still in shock, Eric stood up and exclaimed excitedly, "Here it is! Such a nice white core from such a dark-looking creature. Hm... This one looks quite special; also, the quality is very close to Brother Panther's."
He tossed the white orb up and down on his left palm. It was only the size of a small ping-pong ball. Turning toward the stunned Elianor behind him, he smirked, "You guys won't mind me taking this creature, right?"
Eric originally wanted to offer the creature's corpse to this pathetic team to cheer them up, but he decided otherwise, as the creature was quite unique. He could either sell it, trade it with some necromancers, barter with intelligent Mana Beasts, or give it to someone else who had an interest in it. Besides, Riya would likely be interested in studying it after she woke up.
Elianor was startled by such a strange question coming out of nowhere from the devilishly handsome boy in front of her. Not only was he tall and handsome, but he was also incredibly strong!
She felt her heart beating in a nonstop rhythm inside her chest. Unlike the previous panic and frightful thumping, her current heartbeat felt so pleasant and sweet that she didn't want it to stop. She opened her mouth to respond but couldn't voice a single proper word, only managing to stammer, "I-I, t-this... um... um."
Eric tilted his head, wondering if he had scored a critical strike on this red-haired girl's heart. But no matter—she better not have any uncensored thoughts about this pure child's untouched body! She was probably already over twenty-five and only looked eighteen! Back off before it's too late and the FBI arrives at your home to arrest you!
Brunhild, who had managed to pull herself up to her feet by leaning against the broken wall beside her, wanted to answer for Elianor—to tell him it was fine, how immensely grateful they were, and many other things. She had already noticed that three of the necromancers had died at the hands of two unknown Rank 1s, who were presumably this man's companions. But before she could utter a single word, she was interrupted by a panicked, loud cry from afar.
"Watch out!"
Caius thundered, trying to rush toward Rottgar to stop him. However, due to the swarm of bone crows attacking and blocking his path, he would need more time to reach him.
Caius's shout promptly drew everyone's attention toward Rottgar, who was releasing a massive amount of Mana from his body. A two-to-three-meter-long, grey, yet brilliantly bright Mana Diagram had opened beneath his feet.
Rottgar wore an extremely hateful expression on his face. He was wrathful like never before. It had taken a massive amount of wealth and effort from all of them to obtain the Night Hag Arachnid and bring her under his absolute control, and the sheer amount of hard work and patience required to raise her to her current Rank and capability was immense!
And now, all of that had been completely ruined by this unknown boy who appeared out of nowhere. Not only that, but three of his old companions had also been killed by two unknown women. He had known those three for decades and shared a very close relationship with them; now that they had died, how could he not develop a deep killing intent toward these three uninvited intruders?
Rottgar didn't hesitate and activated the strongest spell in his arsenal—Soulshatter Cannonade, an Advanced Tier 2 Spell!
Its power was enough to kill any Apprentice Rank in its line of fire. It could be released from his hands or through a weapon, and upon release, it would expand to nearly five meters wide, destroying all life in its path. The only weakness of this spell was the same as with all Advanced Tier spells: it took time to cast and drained a massive amount of Mana. However, with his staff, he could not only decrease the Mana cost but also speed up the process and increase his casting success rate. Thanks to these factors, Rottgar was able to successfully form the spell quickly.
Normally, Rottgar would never use this spell, especially when he was already in an ongoing battle with a Warrior, but he had completely lost his mind over losing the Night Hag Arachnid.
Brunhild and the others' expressions paled. They didn't know exactly what spell it was, but it was an Advanced Spell! No matter which one it was, it was terrible news for all of them. If that spell struck, they would probably vanish from the face of the planet without even leaving ashes behind.
Eric, Lyria, and Livy remained completely carefree, as an attack of this caliber was not something that could harm them. It probably wouldn't even be able to scratch the high-grade Tier 2 armor they were wearing.
Eric was quite interested to see what the spell looked like, as it was only their second time witnessing an Advanced Spell. The first time had been when Bella Noll cast one during the graveyard incident.
Though he was curious, he didn't have the luxury to play around, as his hard work might disappear and the pathetic Batley City team might perish if the spell was successfully cast.
Eric waggled his foot slightly, and a pebble from the ground rose into his hand.
While tossing the stone up and down in his right hand, Eric taught the wretched Batley City team with a smile, "Remember, never underestimate the power of a small stone!"
After saying that, he grinned, instantly coated the stone in his Mana, and flung it with tremendous speed and power.
Rottgar felt a sudden surge of dread from the stone speeding toward him. He decided to take the hit, as he was just about to finish casting his spell. At most, the stone would stagger him a bit and possibly cause a minor injury, but it would be far from enough to wound him gravely; after all, he possessed the constitution of a late-stage Rank 3 Mage!
Due to casting the Advanced Spell, he couldn't protect himself with mana, nor could he dodge; he lacked the high proficiency over his Mana Control to manage all of that at once.
He was confident, but he had wrongly calculated the trajectory of the stone and where it was heading. Mainly, this was because he never thought anyone would possess such a high level of precision, especially when a lethal attack was just moments away from striking.
By the time Rottgar noticed where the stone was aimed, it was too late.
Just a fraction of a second before Rottgar could finish casting his spell, the pebble, carrying tremendous speed and power, shot straight through his left eye. Rottgar could only open his right eye wide with horror.
THUD!
A low but nightmarish sound echoed as the stone penetrated deep into Rottgar's eye, obliterating his brain. With a new hole formed in Rottgar's head, he stood dumbstruck for a fleeting moment before exploding into a horrifying mess of blood and gore. Even his staff fractured and shattered to pieces.
Eric was left speechless.
The reason for the explosion was that Rottgar's spell was nearly ready to fire but never found an outlet to release, causing it to detonate uncontrollably from within him. Normally, this shouldn't happen even if a mage failed to cast a spell, but because he had died at the absolute last moment of spell completion and lost full control over his body and mana, the spell caused a massive, violent backlash of condensed mana, exploding him from the inside out.
It was similar to how a grenade pin is pulled but the person never gets to throw it, causing it to detonate in their hand—except this explosion was countless times more powerful than a mere hand grenade, and it burst from the inside out. Thus, even with Rottgar's high constitution, he was blown to pieces.
Lyria and Livy's lips began twitching upon seeing Rottgar's gruesome death.
Eric really wanted to curse and complain. He originally had no plan to kill Rottgar personally, as that was supposed to be the heroic Caius's job. He had only planned to create trouble and distract Rottgar into canceling his spell, allowing Caius to show off the thick biceps of an early-stage Rank 3 Warrior while Eric merely secured the assist points.
Eric could now only hope the guy's spatial pouch had survived. Any space-storage object was hard to destroy, especially if it wasn't specifically targeted.
Watching Rottgar's gruesome end, everyone stood frozen like statues. The bony birds that had been annoying Caius crumbled and disintegrated into nothing, though he completely ignored that, gaping at the exploded mess of Rottgar in absolute disbelief.
Brunhild and the others similarly wore incredulous expressions. They had just witnessed something they never imagined they would see or hear in their entire lives. A mere mid-stage Rank 1 had one-shot a late-stage Rank 3! And a highly powerful and experienced one, at that.
If word got out, no one would ever believe them; instead, they would become the laughingstock of all Batley City. No—even before that, no one would believe a mid-stage Rank 1 could heavily injure and kill an Adult-stage Rank 1 alone! Similarly, no one would ever believe two late-stage Rank 1s had killed a late-stage Rank 2 Warrior and two mid-stage Rank 2 Mages in a single strike, and so cleanly that the three never even realized they had been killed, let alone had a chance to retaliate.
Both Garrick and Eilif, who were heavily injured and lying flat on the ground, completely forgot about their own pain at this moment, goggling at Eric as if he were a monster. Thorne, who had already managed to push himself up to his feet, was equally speechless. He glanced at Eric, Lyria, and Livy, and then toward the dead necromancers, wondering if all of this was just a dream or a hallucination.
Elianor was the only one fully convinced that it was all reality, and her eyes remained glued to the 'underage' boy as if she wanted to devour him whole right then and there in this open field within the dead village.
Eric felt the deep hunger of a true cougar, one who hadn't tasted meat since birth, drilling into his back, and his spine shivered. He quickly coughed and laughed awkwardly, "Ha… Haha, it seems I got too lucky; otherwise, there was no way I could kill such a scary person alone."
He secretly glanced at the crowd, including the remaining zombies, who were all looking at him with expressions of deep skepticism. He quickly decided to switch the topic. Coughing again, he pointed at the pale, terrified, yet attractive blonde woman.
"This necromancer miss is still alive; do you guys still need our help to kill her?"
The rest of the survivors turned to look at the pale, quivering Mortisia.
Sensing the collective bloodlust directed toward her, Mortisia panicked further, her voice shaking, "T-that... i-it was all Rottgar's plan! That's right! I-I didn't have anything to do with this. P-Please let me go..."
Thorne and Brunhild's eyes were filled with pure murderous intent. They would never forget what they had just gone through, nor how this woman had mocked and ridiculed them the entire time. They had promised themselves they would kill at least one of them, and there would be no mercy!
Noticing the savagery in their eyes, Mortisia knew their answer. Without hesitation, she turned and bolted.
"Like hell I'll let you escape!" Thorne roared, chasing after Mortisia despite his injuries and pain.
Brunhild still couldn't run, so instead of chasing on foot, she used the broken wall beside her as a springboard to vault high toward another hut, continuously firing arrows at the fleeing Mortisia. On the second arrow, Mortisia's barrier shattered, and she was struck in her fair thigh, causing her to fall and roll while screaming in agony.
Thorne soon caught up to Mortisia and ended her life with his swords.
After a short while, Eric and the others saw Thorne dragging Mortisia's dead body back toward them.