Chapter 507: Tables have Turned!

Chapter 505

Pushing himself back onto his feet as the approaching footsteps drew closer, Ray let out a sigh as purple lightning crackled around him.

A tiny tear in space appeared at his sides—visible only to him.

Digging his hands into the spatial rifts, he pulled them out, his daggers now firmly grasped in his hands as he locked eyes with the approaching horde of beasts, numbering around a hundred.

Letting his perception flood across the entire area, Ray sensed their presence one after another.

No other Ogre remained loitering around the area.

The hundred beasts swinging their weapons and causing destruction as they lunged toward him...

They were all that remained.

’Hpmh... three hundred Ogres and yet, the boss hasn’t shown up? The last time a boss got delayed like this, the Gate turned into a Red Gate.’

For a moment, his gaze flickered back toward the Gate, half expecting its blue colour to suddenly change.

But it still retained its colour.

With a sigh, Ray turned back around, his daggers clutched tightly in his grasp.

Screech!

A static sound suddenly rang through his ears.

’Ugh... I forgot to remove these buds.’

"I’m currently watching what you are doing at the moment."

Captain Raze’s lazy voice echoed through his ears.

A day before, the new Vanguards had officially received their comm buds, which connected them to the rest of the cohort and, ultimately, to their Captain.

"...That skill you just used, I like it. But you are revealing too much for the eyes to see. Humanity will continue fearing you at this point."

’Wait a moment. How can he see what I’m doing?’

Ray looked around for a few seconds before catching sight of a customer from the café with his phone pointed forward.

’Oh!’

"Anyway, I will activate your suit now. I won’t send reinforcements, as I have seen that you got this."

"I got this? Captain, the boss is definitely an Emperor-rank and I definitely don’t get this!" Ray shouted down his comm device.

He had hoped that Raze would help clear the King-rank beasts while waiting for reinforcements. Then, once they arrived, Ray would take a step back and allow them to handle the Emperor-rank beast.

And Raze was saying...?

"Yes, I believe in you. If you survive this, you will only come back stronger, and that’s what we need. So... go rogue."

Suddenly, Ray’s exo-suit began crackling with blue lightning.

Lightning that definitely didn’t come from his ability.

His eyes crackled blue for a second as a mechanical voice that didn’t come from his System could be heard through one of his comm buds.

{Combat Power, seventy percent.}

{Removing all limiters from suit.}

As the feminine voice spoke, the beasts were approaching, now only seconds away from Ray.

{Unleashing full Combat Power.}

Ray’s hands crackled with lightning.

So did his suit.

For a moment, blue energy surged across his body before a notification chimed inside his head from his System.

[A surge of power has just been felt by the System... calculating total increase in power....]

[+77 points to STR stat as long as the suit is active.]

[+74 points to AGI.]

Ray could feel the immense surge flooding through his entire being, almost overwhelming him for a moment.

The power was intense.

Almost addictive.

Pushing through the overwhelming sensation, Ray immediately pulled down his Status tab.

{Attributes:}

[STR: 110(+77) 187]

[AGI: 105(+74) 179]

The Tribrid’s muscles tightened as his veins coiled beneath his skin.

His thighs bulged incredibly, compressed like tightly wound springs, just as the Ogres finally reached him.

Axes, clubs, and swords descended with breakneck speed.

"Once upon a time," Ray uttered.

BANG!

He vaulted into the air in a blur, hovering several metres above the beasts as their weapons collided with the concrete earth below him, creating a devastating crack.

His daggers were already in his hands.

His eyes locked onto the beasts beneath him.

Then Ray’s form flickered forward.

In a jiffy, an arc was cut forward, and an Ogre lost its head.

Clubs whistled toward him while Ray bent down increasingly low, until his face almost touched the ground.

Placing one palm against the ground, he pushed off it and shot into the air once more like an arrow.

Cocking one hand behind his back, he shot it forward, sending his dagger loose and watching as it ripped straight through the head of another beast.

"...You bastards used to drive me to the brink of death."

The dagger embedded in the beast’s head flickered out of view.

Space bent around Ray’s hand.

A heartbeat later, the weapon reappeared in his grasp.

"But now..."

BANG!

Ray descended in a flurry of dagger strikes and slashes.

His weapons tore through the horde of beasts without stopping.

Unstopped.

Unrestrained.

Despite being of the King rank, these daggers didn’t meet any restriction.

Maybe it was because they were coated in lightning, or perhaps it was because of the wielder’s overwhelming strength.

Whatever the reason, the daggers tore through flesh like a hot knife through butter.

Blood...

Black blood sprayed through the air like fountains as Ray blinked from one beast to another.

He wasn’t teleporting.

No!

He was simply too fast for the eyes to track.

These same King-rank beasts that had once genuinely put fear into his heart whenever he sighted one.

The same rank that had driven him to the brink of death several times only a few months ago.

Now, those very same beasts were having their flesh and meat carved apart by Ray’s daggers as though they were nothing more than livestock.

The prey had suddenly become the predator.

The hunted had become the hunter.

A flash of steel appeared in front of a beast.

The daggers plunged into its eyes, ripping straight through into its brain.

Pulling them back out, Ray spun around and crossed his daggers before swinging them back out, sending a slash of lightning rocketing forward.

The attack tore through two arms.

Whirling around while ducking at the same time, an axe sliced past his face with such force that the air seemed to cave in around it.

Ray lunged forward like a spring unleashed.

His daggers tore a gaping hole through the beast’s abdomen.

Kicking off the earth and twirling around with his hips moving in tandem, an Orb of Light swirled around his hands.

He hurled it forward.

BOOM!

The blast sent four beasts flying backward, holes punched through their flesh.

Vaulting into the air once more as a club sliced through the earth where he had stood, Ray descended again like a spinning circle of steel.

He spun so quickly that his daggers circulated around him in a swirling ring, making him look like a living circle of blades.

And with that—

Blood splattered.

Ray ripped through the beasts in pairs.

His eyes remained focused, filled with such intense hatred that the Ogres almost seemed to shiver beneath his gaze.

An Ogre took a step backward.

Too late.

A golden lasso wrapped around its legs.

With a firm tug, the beast was lifted off its feet as Ray spun around, taking the Ogre with him.

Using its massive frame and his tremendous strength, Ray smashed through the Ogres surrounding him.

Heads exploded.

Stomachs were ripped open by the body of their own comrade.

The battlefield became a storm of black blood and shattered flesh.

With one final spin, Ray sent the Ogre’s body flying away as his lasso loosened from its body.

In just a few minutes, only one Ogre remained.

Ray stood upright, his breathing steady as his eyes locked onto the remaining beast.

...

The food destroyer.

"Now, the table has turned."

Ray completed his words from earlier as a devilish grin appeared across his face.

With black blood coating his features, the expression made him look like a genuine demon.

His eyes crackled with a sinister light, causing the food destroyer to almost shudder.

The aura exuding from Ray was so intense that the beast felt as though it were staring directly at the boss itself.

And all while humanity watched.

Silent.

Unable to comment.

Their minds flashed back to the battle with the Five-Spined Abberant from a month ago.

They remembered the boy who had once fought desperately against an overwhelming enemy.

They compared that image with the figure standing before them now.

And one thing became clear to the world.

The monster keeps growing stronger.