Chapter 405 - Last Ditch Effort

Whoosh!

In an instant, the malevolent aura and killing intent surrounding Aurus had been intensified by multiple degrees, as well as his overall strength. But of course, not wanting the enemies that were chasing after him to run away in fear after realizing that he had not shown his full strength yet, Aurus hastily suppressed the aura he was emanating, making it seem like he was injured from the attack they sent at him.

Although he was feigning weakness from here on out, the attack the Silver Streak Brigade did on him did deal a small amount of damage, decreasing his vitality by a slight amount. Nevertheless, he still had his own methods of healing himself, transforming a small portion of his energy into HP. With that, he then allocated half of the energy he was infusing into [Dark Universal Blade] onto [Impenetrable Shield of Nil], increasing his level of defense to where he thought he would be able to tank their attacks.

Eventually, as he stood up from where he landed, he heard the sounds of horses galloping near him about half a minute later, allowing him to see the Silver Streak Brigade just a while ago. Unlike before, where they had their doubts as to whether or not they would be able to inflict damage on such a strong being like Aurus, they were now exuding great levels of confidence as it seemed that the fusion of their comprehended Ideas had become more seamless than before.

Slowly walking out of the rubble, Aurus showed himself in front of the Silver Streak Brigade once more, prompting the latter to look at the former with a slightly devilish smile as they aimed their weapons forward, transferring all of the momentum they had generated onto an intangible aura that came down from above.

Looking at the attack that was heading straight for him, Aurus noticed that the attack was still the same strength as before, allowing him to come to the conclusion that the Silver Streak Brigade were attacking him with the same level of strength since he had been sent flying by that attack. Having no thoughts of correcting them, Aurus decided to slacken his defense where he would be uninjured but would still be sent flying.

Bang!

And just like that, Aurus was sent flying once more, eliciting the Silver Streak Brigade to erupt into cheers as they headed to where they thought he would land once more. As for Syne, Julia, and Thyria, after being notified by Vasta and Viza that the Silver Streak Brigade had arrived, they headed towards a spot that allowed them to see the whole city better. With that, they saw how the Silver Streak Brigade was sending Aurus flying with each attack they did, making Syne and the others hopeful that they would be able to stop Aurus in his tracks and become heroes of the kingdom in the process.

As time passed, the Silver Streak Brigade continued to send Aurus flying with each and every attack, even going so far as to introduce variants into their attacks. In their minds, as long as they unleashed the same strength as the first attack they sent towards Aurus, it did not matter how it was delivered to Aurus. But of course, Aurus wasn't retaliating against their attacks since he wanted to become complacent of their own strengths. Only then would such a retaliation have the most impact on them.

And so, around half an hour had passed wherein the Silver Streak Brigade acted like a badminton racket while Aurus acted like a shuttlecock. While Aurus was being sent flying throughout those thirty minutes, he took note of five figures that were watching them from afar, remembering their positions as he felt like the time for him to retaliate was coming soon. In his mind, once he surprised the Silver Streak Brigade and killed them in a few hits, he was going to head to where the five figures were watching him, recalling how two of them were about to fight him some time ago.

At this moment, the egos of the members of the Silver Streak Brigade had become so inflated that they did not even hesitate in taunting Aurus to attack them. "So what if you call yourself The Great Calamity? In front of us, the Silver Streak Brigade, someone like you is reduced to nothing more than a punching bag we throw all over the city. How about you give the title of Great Calamity to us instead? Better yet, how about we call ourselves the Great Saviors?"

As they laughed and chattered about, Aurus decided that now was the right time to make a move, deciding to time it when they attacked him once more. Fortunately, it did not take long for that moment to arrive as they accumulated their strengths once more into their intangible aura, sending it towards Aurus in the shape of a spiraling bolt.

Since Aurus wasn't going to hold back anymore, he redirected back all of the energy onto [Dark Universal Blade] as he emanated his aura without restraint, making the Silver Streak Brigade shiver slightly from the intrinsic fear they held from such a level of pressure. But of course, as they were used to beating up Aurus around, they quickly calmed themselves as one of them could not help but exclaim, "You dare fight against the Silver Streak Brigade? You've made the wrong mistake!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In quick succession, the Silver Streak Brigade sent out two more spiraling bolts made out of the intangible aura, allowing the three bolts to fuse as the resulting bolt had entered a higher level of power. Seeing this, Aurus ignored the attack as he swiftly disappeared from his spot before returning a couple of seconds later. After that, he conjured a blade made out of wind before sending a dark green blade light towards the member who shouted at him, cutting that member at the head.

Fwoosh!

With the blood of that member raining down on them, the remaining members of the Silver Streak Brigade had finally come to the realization that they were forcing Aurus to go all out. But of course, in their minds, when they forced someone to go all out, that meant that the opposing side was eventually going to run out of steam sooner or later.

With that kind of thinking, the Silver Streak Brigade hastily adjusted how they radiated their auras, forming an intangible barrier that shielded them from any attacks Aurus might throw at them. Sensing the intangible barrier covering the Silver Streak Brigade, Aurus couldn't care less as to what kind of defensive measures they put up, deciding to increase his attack power as he conjured a claw made out of one thousand blades.

"[Spellsword of Ruination: Ultimate Art]."

"[Millennium Sword Embodiment: Nine Realms' Nether Claw]."

Crash!

Without even resisting for a second, the intangible barrier surrounding the Silver Streak Brigade bent under the sheer pressure of Aurus's attack as it cracked into nothingness, allowing the claw to kill a quarter of their members with one blow. Wanting to get away from the claw, the remaining members of the Silver Streak Brigade moved out of the area where the claw hit before retaliating against Aurus with another attack made out of intangible aura.

"Annoying," Aurus could not help but mutter as he slashed out with his blade once more, creating a dark green blade light that cut off the heads of over half of their remaining members, which only left about a couple of the members of the Silver Streak Brigade left.

At this point, it had finally dawned on them that they were on Aurus's palm the whole time. In their minds, they could not help but feel like they were humiliated, thinking about how Aurus was inwardly laughing as to how they, the Silver Streak Brigade, made a fool of themselves.

Of course, in Aurus's mind, he was thinking of something else. Instead of thinking them as fools, he was just allowing them to do what they wanted to give himself a bit more pleasure when killing them. Now that the remaining members of the Silver Streak Brigade had gotten off the horses and begged for his mercy, it was only then did Aurus gain pleasure from what he had done, deciding to kill these remaining two by inflicting multiple lacerations on their bodies before letting them bleed to death.

As for the horses that were still alive, after sensing that they were strong in their own right, he quickly disposed of them by detonating a ball of wind he quickly conjured. With that, a great amount of Wind energy particles surrounded him once more as he headed to where the five remaining figures of the city were.

…

"The Great Calamity…actually killed all of them…?" As Syne watched the fight from afar, she could not believe what she was seeing. At first, she was ecstatic that their Silver Streak Brigade had an advantage over Aurus, prompting them to think that they would be able to save the whole kingdom from The Great Calamity. However, in a swift turn of events, Aurus massacred the entire Silver Streak Brigade within seconds. Now, it was certain that he was heading to where they were.

"What should we do? Should we try to escape?" Naturally, while Syne was pondering on what to do next, Vasta and Viza, who did not like responsibility, could not help but suggest this move. In response, Julia looked at them with a stern expression and asked them, "Are you really Rank 6 class holders?"

"But we don't want to die!" Vasta replied, to which Viza nodded in agreement. Hearing this, Thyria could not help but let out a long sigh as she muttered, "I kind of wish I could teach you two a lesson right now, but now's not the right time."

"Sis, what's the plan?" she then asked, to which Syne responded with a long sigh, telling her sister and the others, "What other plan do we have? I don't think we can escape from his clutches even if we go all out, so the only plan we have is to just fight that being until it dies or we die."

"Is that so?" Suddenly, a hoarse voice resounded throughout where they were, causing all five of them to freeze up in fear as the appearance of a dark red being appeared in their field of vision. Unsurprisingly, it was Aurus, who had teleported to where they were after dealing with the Silver Streak Brigade.

Just as Aurus was about to say something else, which was quite rare for him who was now controlled by the primal instinct, the five instantly grouped together as they went all out, even going so far as to sacrifice their vitalities to output power greater than what they could normally achieve.

"Vasta, Viza, I hope you cooperate with us till the very end!" Syne could not help but shout as white light radiated all over her body. In response, Vasta and Viza radiated red light as one of them replied, "Why do you have to bring us into this mess?!"

With that, the two other people among them radiated a certain light of their own as they fused them together. Soon after that, they sent this fusion of light towards Aurus as Syne shouted, "[Five-colored Cataclysm Ray]!"

Fwoosh!

Just as the ray of five lights was about to hit Aurus, he nonchalantly redirected all of his energy towards [Impenetrable Shield of Nil] before conjuring a claw to swat off the beam to fire at another direction. In essence, he had done the same thing to their beam of light just like what he did to the beam of dark light the Night Mage Regiment fired at him back in the previous city.

Seeing as how their ultimate attack had been deflected so easily, Syne could not help but kneel on the ground as she could feel her strength gradually disappearing. Not only that, but the others were also in the same state, all of them feeling like their consciousness was slipping away from them.

But just as they were about to meet their maker, a cushion of wind appeared over their chins, holding their heads up for one more second as they noticed Aurus come closer to them. Just before they finally lost their consciousness, Aurus told them something that they would never forget.

"You don't get to decide whether or not you'll die."

"I'll be the one doing that."

Swish! Swish! Swish!

With five quick swipes of the claw made out of blades, the five remaining figures of Silver Hoof City had finally lost their heads and succumbed to death, finally turning Silver Hoof City into the second city to fall under Aurus's hands.