CHAPTER 328: FLOOR 99 [4]

Evelyn’s knees trembled after seeing Howlmag sent casually flying. Her instincts screamed at her.

"Monster," a disciple of Martial Palace muttered, taking a step back.

The Duke smiled, showing his fangs.

"Don’t bother looking for your leader. He’s alive... barely. For now." His eyes narrowed slightly. "But I’ll get to him later."

His gaze slowly scanned the group one by one, like a man inspecting livestock ready for slaughter.

"I wonder..." He tilted his head. "How many of you will scream?"

Then—

FWOOOSH!!

He vanished right in front of everyone.

Immediately, they all felt cold shivers down their spines. Fighting an unseen enemy was something they wouldn’t wish on even their enemies.

"MOVE!!!" Evelyn screamed loudly, pushing two disciples aside.

BANG!!!

The Duke appeared exactly where they had been standing, his palm smashing into the ground and creating a massive crater.

Bang!

A mini-storm of dust exploded outward. Dozens of disciples coughed violently as shockwaves blasted them backward.

They crashed through the countless pillars, whimpering and groaning in pain.

Evelyn clenched her jaw, spirit qi surging around her body.

But it was useless.

His speed was too monstrous.

He appeared behind another disciple.

CRUNCH!!

He twisted the man’s arm effortlessly and threw him aside like trash.

"Ahhh—!!!"

"STOP HIM!!" someone shouted.

But the Duke smiled even wider, enjoying the chaos.

"Don’t worry," he said calmly as he kicked another disciple into a pillar. "I’ll keep you alive. For a moment. Until I’m bored."

He walked forward slowly, hands behind his back.

"Let’s see how long you can last."

...

Gabriel’s eyes glinted when he saw the level of the vampire duke.

A Hero Rank.

In normal cases he should have been worried; however, this was a chance for him to make progress on his class advancement quest.

Hero Ranks were quite rare to come by, and you wouldn’t expect to run into them every day. The number of people who had completed their class advancement quests to reach this level was few.

Because of the nature of the advancement quest, there were some geniuses who were stuck at Level 50 for their entire lives, limiting their potential greatly since there was no way to receive additional attribute stats.

’If the others were to join me... it won’t count as my kill.’ He narrowed his eyes, his mind racing on what to do.

This was competition on who would finish fast and advance to the next floor... he would have a higher chance at a fast kill if all of them joined him in the attack.

’But they could also get in my way.’ He frowned... then shook his head.

"You all stay back!" He spoke calmly.

"Huh..."

"He wants to fight it alone?"

His subordinates were slightly taken aback.

"That thing looks powerful. Are you sure you don’t need our help?" Sophie asked softly, concern clear in her tone.

Gabriel nodded and stepped forward. "I’ll handle him swiftly."

"Ouuu, I like that confidenc—"

The vampire duke was cut short as a reddish line flashed toward him. He kicked the ground and flipped backward.

BANG!

A deep scar appeared on the spot where he stood previously, with Crimson Judgement half-buried in it.

"Hmph." Gabriel sneered.

Bull Rush!

His body shot forward, blade arm raised, and then—

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Crimson Judgement flashed through the air like lightning. To normal eyes, it was only a blur of red.

The vampire duke twisted his body at unnatural angles, dodging the strikes. The few he couldn’t dodge, he conjured a blood wall to parry.

Crack!

But none of the solid walls could withstand Gabriel’s rampage. His face looked like that of a beast, his eyes extremely cold, as if he would only be satisfied when he saw the blood of his opponent.

Although not a recognized Hero Rank by the Association, with the accumulated stats from his extractions he was just as strong as a Level 100 adventurer.

’I knew he would be difficult to deal with when he made that blind strike,’ the vampire duke clicked his tongue. He wasn’t scared, just annoyed.

All this while, the vampire duke was on the defensive and Gabriel was on the offensive.

"You’re fast... almost the same speed as me..." He smirked. "Key word... almost."

When he said this, it appeared as if he had vanished, when in truth he had just moved too fast for Gabriel to follow.

Instinctively, Gabriel spun around and slashed.

But that... that was merely decor.

He knew the vampire duke was more intelligent than that. Disappearing and appearing behind your opponent was only effective against rookies.

Certainly, the vampire duke knew Gabriel wasn’t one, or he wouldn’t have made it this far.

Burrow Shift!

Truly, the vampire duke hadn’t appeared behind Gabriel nor at his side—but in front of him.

It was a deadly psychological trick. If Gabriel had turned around, he would have been bitten or stabbed by a blood sword from behind.

The vampire duke’s red eyes widened slightly in shock, not expecting things to turn out this way.

As if that wasn’t shocking enough, the human activated a skill of his and vanished underground, dodging his strike—then popped out in the exact same spot and punched violently into his gut.

Bang!!

The power-packed punch, containing Gabriel’s 200-plus stats, lifted the vampire duke and threw him backward.

BANG! BANG!

The duke’s body smashed through two pillars before crashing into the wall so hard cracks spread like spiderwebs. Dust rained down. For a moment, everything was silent.

Then he slowly slid out of the wall... stood up... and wiped the blood trickling from his lip.

"...Impressive," he muttered.

His expression was no longer casual.

"You’re strong... too strong for a human who isn’t even a recognized Hero Rank." His blood-red eyes narrowed. "Fine. I’ll stop holding back."

...

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