Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 304 Onto The Main Mission

"Ho…"

Never in his life did Rhys think that he would be having a stare-off with a goat, but here he was. And it was obvious from the goat's breath and the fumes escaping his large nostrils that it was seething in anger — after all, with its strength, its equal was hard to find.

And now, this creature that was only as large as a normal llambydis just threw him around like a kid, that was highly unacceptable.

As for Rhys, now this his wrist was being tightly held by the demon goat, the only thing he could really do was lament in trying to fight his opponent head-on — he had all sorts of arsenal, and yet he chose to challenge the demon goat with brute force. Katarina always told him that he doesn't think… perhaps there was more truth to that than he would like.

"Oh, well…" Rhys then let out a very long and deep sigh as he saw the demon goat's head very slowly leaning away along with his upper body — most probably preparing to obliterate Rhys's head by smashing its horns onto him. But very soon, however, Rhys's eyes started to glow.

The llambydis did not seem to care at all, however, and it just snapped its neck and spine like a slingshot and slammed its horns straight onto Rhys's head.

"Kh…"

Rhys's head instantly swung back along with his entire torso as the horns rammed into his face. The demon goat expected Rhys's face to be completely caved in and mangled by now, but the only damage painting Rhys's face was the blood profusely dripping from his nose… which made the smile on his face even more prevalent.

"Meeghh!?"

And without even feeling it or knowing why, the demon goat watched as his large horns just casually dropped to the ground; giving out a loud thud that echoed throughout the culvert due to how heavy it was; parts of it, crumbling as they looked similar to all the debris around them.

Rhys did not try to petrify the goat's entire horn since he did not really have time to do so—no. What he did petrify, however, was the base of its horns which caused it to completely snap without any resistance at all.

"You don't know, do you…?" Rhys let out a small whisper before sighing.

"Meeh…?" The demon goat then let go of Rhys's wrists; slightly confused as to why it was suddenly weakening by the second. It doesn't even realize… that the entire top of his head was already cracked open; its small brains, now completely exposed.

The petrification ability that Rhys received from Malenia might be much weaker than the original's, but with proper aim and utilization… it might now be Rhys's strongest ability, especially when partnered with his herculean strength.

"Arise…" Rhys whispered while shaking his head, making sure he was completely lucid as he approached the slightly panicking demon goat. He stared at the llambydis for a few seconds before just spinning into the air, kicking the top of its head and smashing the demon goat's brains right inside its thick, hard skull as soon as its chin hit the ground.

"You don't know that you're already dead."

A quaint, mushy sound whispered in the air as Rhys retrieved his foot from the llambydis' skull. Rhys then stared at the twitching corpse for a few seconds before letting out a very long and deep sigh.

It's good that he wants to fight head-on as much as possible, but in some cases, he truly shouldn't — this is one of those cases. If Ayesha was here, she would definitely be shaking her head in disappointment at him.

"...I'll take this, then," Rhys then grabbed the large pair of horns that fell to the ground, "Ayesha might like it. I wonder how the others are—Hm?"

Rhys was about to jump up back onto the road, but before he could do so, he started hearing all sorts of noises coming from one side of the culvert. The sound was rhythmic, almost like a high-pitched thumping of a drum…

…hundreds of drums.

"Just what…" Rhys squinted his eyes at the darkness — and very soon, yellow-glowing eyes started appearing from the distance. Rhys then quickly looked at the other side of the culvert, which led deeper into the city. If all of them were to scatter across the underground, then this city was as good as gone.

Rhys then looked at the pair of horns in his hands before dropping them back to the ground — the horns, however, did not reach the ground at all and just hung in the air… as Rhys attached threads on its ends.

And with a smile on his face, Rhys started swinging both the horns at his side; spinning them like yoyo.

"Well then…" Rhys then stepped toward the hundreds of pairs of eyes; a smile, very slowly crawling on his face. And without even knowing what these creatures could be, he just ran toward them, "...This should be fun!"

***

"S…shit. It… it's finally dead!"

"T…thank you, Rukawa. We… we thought we were gonners. Just… how strong are these motherfuckers?"

"You… were able to defeat one on your own?"

Somewhere in the city, Rukawa and the other Nobles were trying to catch their breaths; a llambydis' corpse, lying right at the center of the road; its skin completely fried.

"Shit… it killed Barney," one of the Explorers sighed deeply as he looked at their fallen comrade, whose upper body was completely gone due to the demon goat's horns.

"No wonder… no wonder Team Yellow got wiped out. These goats are… fucking insane. There's… there's supposed to be three of them right? Where—"

"What's that!?"

And before the group could continue their conversation, the rubbles on the ground started to bounce as the entire road started to quake. They all quickly put up their guard as a llambydis might be rushing toward them from one of the buildings — but even after several seconds had passed, the quake just continued.

"I think…" One of the Explorers looked down, "I think it's coming from—!!!"

And before he could finish his words, they saw a demon goat's horn shoot out from the ground — except that was it, only the horns without the rest of the llambydis. They all then watched as Rhys just shot out from the ground; his body completely covered in some sort of white liquid.

"Oh…" Rhys's eyes then quickly landed on Rukawa before his feet were on the ground, "...Good, you're here."

"Is that… a Llambydis' horn?" Rukawa looked at the two horns swinging on Rhys's side, "Just what—"

"No time to talk," Rhys quickly ran past Rukawa, "It's your turn."

"What do you—" And before Rukawa could even finish his words… hundreds of giant cockroaches shot out from the ground. Rukawa's eyes widened for a couple of milliseconds, before he just quickly charged a pen and then threw it toward the insects before they could fly and scatter.

"There's thousands of them!"

And as Rhys said that, Rukawa did not hesitate at all to just charge another pen and threw it at the cockroaches — scattering his lightning all the way down through the culvert and killing each and every cockroach inside.

"What the…" Rukawa could really only let out a breath as he saw all the fried cockroaches dropping like flies on the ground, "Where… where did they even come from…?"

"The culvert leading outside the city," Rhys breathed out as he stood beside Rukawa.

"Then—"

"I already destroyed it," Rhys shook his head, "I also didn't see any more monsters heading this way. The roads and the highways are clear."

"...Right," Rukawa glanced at Rhys, very subtly stepping away from him as his entire body was filled with the cockroaches' blood.

"And we also found all the civilians."

"Doctor," Rukawa bowed his head as Dr. Dhani approached them. Malenia and Edissa were beside him, both quickly moving toward Rhys as soon as they saw him, "Are they safe?"

"...I do not really know how to answer that," Dr. Dhani sighed, "But most of them are alive, I believe."

"What… do you mean?" Rukawa squinted his eyes, "Where are they?"

"It's best for you to see it for yourself," Dr. Dhani then gestured to Rukawa to follow him, "The others can go back to the helicopter and wait for me to tend to them, we landed on the East side of the city, you children won't miss it."

The other Explorers all just nodded their heads as they left for the helicopter. As for Rhys, he just followed behind the two.

"...What's wrong?" Rhys asked as he noticed that both Malenia and Edissa were completely silent, both of their heads almost just looking at the ground.

"That…" Edissa was the first to open her mouth, but she could not really answer Rhys at all.

"What we saw scares me so, Rhys," Malenia breathed out as she placed her hand on her chest.

"...Were they massacred by the llambydis?"

"...No," Malenia shook her head, "Perhaps it is best if we do not follow them inside, Rhys — I do not wish to see the sight again."

The two did not really say anything else after that, just slithering and walking along until they reached a large building which seemed to be the city hall. Dr. Dhani, however, led them to the building beside that which looked like a large sports center.

"I would warn you, Mr. Rukawa…" Dr. Dhani then opened the door, "...It is not a pretty sight."

"Just what is—" And before Rukawa could finish his words, his mouth and his feet all stopped moving; his legs refusing to enter the hall. As for Rhys, he just calmly entered the sports center, which was filled with whimpers and sniffles before glancing back at Dr. Dhani.

"...How many?"

"More than a hundred," Dr. Dhani shook closed his eyes, "A fourth of that being children, who were probably forced to do it. Fortunately, most did not follow their lead."

"What's… fortunate here?" Rukawa breathed out before just turning around and walking away, completely refusing to enter the hall, "They… they should have just evacuated."

"Hm…" Rhys then once again looked around the sports center,

"...Let's just get them down for now. Edissa, cut the ropes."

***

A few days later, the efforts of the military and the joint forces were showing results in clearing out all the monsters — to the point that they were ready to hand everything to the military and focus on the main goal of the coalition…

…Attacking the Colossal Golden Tree.