Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer-Chapter 260: Death Of A Ranker (4)

Adrian opened his eyes, and the darkness that had once clouded his sight was gone. They were still in Charles’s domain, which meant at least the place itself wasn’t an illusion, unlike the dark wisps.

Charles was hiding in the dark, waiting for an opportune moment to strike. However, the next moment, his greatest ally had left his side. He now stood face-to-face with Adrian, who had a smirk on his face.

"Not so cocky now, are you?" Adrian asked, cracking his knuckles.

Adrian wasn’t clueless. He knew he’d have been in trouble if Charles had used the skill since the beginning. It would’ve been difficult to even exchange fists with him.

But now that he was weak and bleeding, Adrian could pull it off and defeat Charles.

<You do not have an option, Master. One of you must die, or else you’ll be trapped inside this place.>

’Thanks for the heads up.’

"Don’t be so confident of your victory yet!" Charles growled and rushed towards Adrian.

A moment later, his fist slammed against Adrian’s face. Shrouding the place with dust and flying debris.

’He didn’t dodge?’

Charles was surprised by the turn of events. He was aware that his wounds had reduced his agility as well as his strength. If Adrian wanted, he could have easily dodged the attack, but he didn’t.

’Maybe he wasn’t as strong as I thought.’

It was Charles’s turn to smile. However, as the dust settled, his expression waned. Adrian was... standing on his feet.

Besides the mark formed by his attack, Adrian didn’t seem affected by Charles’s attack even though he had put all his strength into that attack.

’Have I gotten that weak?’

Charles couldn’t believe that losing some blood could weaken him to such an extent. Adrian wasn’t going to be the first S-rank hunter Charles had destroyed within his domain.

Over the years, he had killed two S-Rank hunters, taking advantage of the domain. Charles expected it to be the same with Adrian. But to his surprise, things were not going as planned.

’Were the rest of them weaker than one half-baked hunter?’

It was an absurd thought. There was no way any S-ranker would be weak. But then, how did Adrian remain unaffected by his attack? Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to think, as suddenly, he was hit from behind. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Flung to the other side of his domain, Charles looked up, confused to see half a dozen Adrians standing before him.

"W-What is this!?"

The Adrians smiled, looking at each other and then at Charles. Obviously, only one of them was real, but Adrian had no intention of breaking Charles’s illusion.

However, Charles wasn’t a clueless moron like Adrian thought. Though he didn’t know how Adrian created such a vivid illusion, he knew it had to be one of Adrian’s abilities. As long as he broke out of the illusion, he would be victorious.

<As expected... the man has a certain resistance to my illusion. I don’t think it’ll last for long, Master.>

’No matter. It already did the job of fooling him, and that’s enough.’ Adrian thought, stepping up to face Charles.

Without any hesitation, Charles got up and charged towards the Adrians. He began unleashing powerful strikes one after the other, and following each strike, one of the fake Adrians disappeared, biting the dust.

"There’s no one to protect you now!" Charles yelled, unleashing his punch towards the only Adrian remaining.

However, like before, Adrian didn’t move from his spot and met Charles’s punch with his own. Charles smirked, thinking Adrian’s overconfidence would lead to his death. Unfortunately, it was he who was pushed back following their exchange.

"This... can’t be!?" Charles exploded as he was flung back.

Despite his old age, Charles had never met someone who could topple him in terms of pure strength. But this time, he was being pushed back, that too by a novice.

Once there, Adrian didn’t let up. He kept hitting Charles, his attacks getting faster with each passing moment. At first, Charles managed to block the strikes, but soon, it became impossible to do so.

Charles’s bones cracked, and even Adrian’s knuckles began to bleed because of the constant impacts, but he didn’t stop. Rapid punches to his face turned his vision blurry, but that was the least of Charles’s worries.

Adrian didn’t give the Grim Reaper any respite. Before Charles could regain his balance, Adrian hit him in the chin with an axe kick. As Charles’s face shot up, he grabbed the face and hit him with his knee again, followed by a roundhouse to his face.

Charles staggered and collapsed on his knees, unable to stay on his feet. There wasn’t an inch of his body that wasn’t in pain.

Adrian stood watching, panting heavily. He had pushed himself to the limit, unleashing every ounce of his strength against Charles, not wanting to get surprised by another unexpected twist.

"How.. can this... be?" Charles spoke between painful gasps as Adrian approached him. "How can... you be this... strong?"

"Why are you asking that now?" Adrian shrugged, squatting in front of an old man on the verge of dying. "I thought you beloved goddess had told you everything about me?"

[The higher entity, Faithful Spouse In Unfaithful Marriage, sighs, disappointed by the defeat of her follower.]

’You’ll be disappointed about a lot more than that.’

Retrieving Hydra’s fang, Adrian slashed him countless times. Death by a thousand cuts... it was an old torturing method. But it seemed the fitting punishment for Charles, who was responsible for hundreds of deaths... probably even more.

With all the blood Charles lost before, coupled with the thousand bleeding cuts on him now... the chance of his survival was negligible. But even then, he only had one thought in his head.

’How can someone defeat me... the one who received the Goddess’s blessing?’

But then his thoughts shifted towards Maria. He was the only one she could depend on. Following his death, things would undoubtedly get difficult for her. However, as much as he wanted to help her, Charles knew it was the end for him.

"This... is absurd..." Charles mumbled, resigning to his fate.

Adrian approached him, the dagger still in his hands. "Any last words?"

"Yeah," Charles looked up and smirked. "See you... in hell!"

"Sure, don’t forget to give me a tour of the place later," Adrian smirked, slitting his throat.

[You have killed an S-rank Human! Exp +60,000]

[Accumulated exp: 265,192]

[Please select an organ to absorb from the defeated human.]

"Finally," Adrian smiled as the list of organs was displayed before him.