Perez scanned the battlefield as he drew his sword, the blade gleaming under the dim sky.
"Where is the lord of this territory?" he shouted, frustration rising in his voice. "Why aren't his soldiers here yet?!"
One of his men hesitated beside him. "Sir, should we—"
"Attack!" Perez roared. "Don't let a single one slip through!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Domitius soldiers surged forward as one.
Mana flared along their blades, cold blue light spreading across the steel. With every swing, streaks of icy energy followed their attacks.
A soldier dashed toward the nearest orc and slashed diagonally.
Shing!
The blade struck the orc's arm, and frost instantly spread across its muscles. The creature roared as ice locked its movement in place.
Another soldier stepped in from the side.
His sword flashed once—
—and the orc's head fell to the ground.
The combination of swordsmanship and ice magic forced the orcs backward step by step.
Perez moved at the center of the battlefield like a storm. He dashed forward, his aura surging around his body. An orc swung a massive fist toward him.
Perez ducked beneath it and his blade flashed upward.
Slash.
The orc's head separated cleanly from its body. He didn't even slow down. Another one charged him from the side.
Perez spun, his sword cutting a perfect arc through the air—
—and the second orc collapsed before it even realized what had happened.
Edsel watched silently. Now he understood why his father trusted this man to guard him. Perez was cutting through them as if they were nothing.
"Show them why the soldiers of Domitius are not to be underestimated!" Perez shouted as he charged forward again.
Nearby, the Torenzo soldiers had also joined the battle. Unlike the Domitius men, their weapons glowed with pure aura instead of elemental magic.
"Charge!" their commander yelled.
The Torenzo fighters lunged forward, aura-coated blades smashing into the orcs with explosive force. Steel clashed with flesh and Mana burst into the air.
The fight unfolding before him was something worth watching, Edsel thought. It was the first time he had witnessed such a thing happening in real life. A real battle with swords and magic and aura clashing against monstrous creatures.
"Eek—oh my god, M-my daughter…" she cried. "She hasn't come back yet!"
Edsel looked around but did not see Mia anywhere either. Where had she gone? He could still feel the energy of the chains that bound her, so she was alive. Perhaps she was hiding somewhere safe until the danger passed.
Anyway, Edsel frowned while observing the fight more closely. Many people had managed to hide or run away from the battle, which meant that the death energy in the area was decreasing rapidly. At this rate, he would not be able to absorb anything significant at all.
Suddenly, something unbelievable happened in the middle of the fight. Perez had just cut off an orc's head with a clean strike, and the body crumpled to the ground. But then, a massive wave of black mist erupted from the fallen creature. The energy sent chills down Edsel's spine, and his heart started beating faster than before.
"What is going on here?" he muttered while watching intently.
It was as if the energy belonged to him somehow. The dead orcs that had fallen nearby started twitching on the ground. Their severed heads began molding together one by one until they formed a single massive head that rose into the air.
"What? They can regenerate after death?" one soldier shouted in horror.
"Watch out behind you!"
The Torenzo commander leapt forward and shoved Perez aside just as the headless orc's body swung its massive fist downward.
BOOM!
The ground shattered where Perez had been standing moments earlier.
"Thank you, Sir Newton," Perez groaned as he pushed himself up from the dirt.
"We do not have time for thanks right now. Let us think fast before more casualties happen among the villagers," Newton responded while helping Perez to his feet.
A single orc head rolled across the ground near where Edsel was standing. It came to a stop at his feet, and he watched as the head started deforming and regenerating right before his eyes. The black mist swirled around it, trying to rebuild what had been destroyed.
Edsel bent down and placed his hand directly on the head.
"Authority of Gluttony: Absorb."
The black mist instantly flowed into his palm.
Ding.
[You have absorbed 6.9 Death Energy.]
The amount was noticeably higher than what he gained from a normal human and there were still more than ten orcs on the battlefield.
He got up from the ground and thought about their movements carefully. Before he attacked, he needed to observe their weaknesses fully.
He had to understand where to strike and which parts to target for maximum effect. That was why he had not joined the battle earlier. He was studying them instead.
He watched as the orc head that he had absorbed stopped regenerating completely. The transformation halted, and the flesh stopped moving.
He smashed the head with his boot, and it crumbled into dust without any further resistance.
Now he understood everything clearly. The reason those things never stopped existing in this village was because they kept regenerating thanks to this black mana energy. It was similar to his own death mana, and he recognized the signature of this energy. He had felt the same chilly presence coming from that strange man inside the pub earlier.
Edsel was starting to see where this story was heading, and a smile spread across his face.
"Well, that mystery can wait for later. Firstly, let me absorb everything that is breathing here," he muttered while stepping forward into the chaos.
Perez, on the other hand, was standing with Newton while they discussed what possibilities they could come up with to defeat these regenerating orcs once and for all.
"Do you have any plan to subdue them permanently?" Newton asked while watching the battlefield carefully.
"To be honest with you, I do not have any solid plan at the moment. We can either keep fighting and try to push them back while someone finds the lord of this territory and demands answers," Perez responded while wiping sweat from his forehead.
"But if we do that, our soldiers will lose too much energy and stamina. We cannot keep this up forever," Newton argued while clenching his fist in frustration.
Swish!
A sudden gust of wind passed between them, strong enough to make both commanders turn their heads in surprise. They saw Edsel running directly towards the enemy lines at an incredible speed. His movements were faster than anything they had witnessed from him before.
Perez's eyes widened in terror as he realized what was happening. "No, young master, stop! Get back here!" he screamed while reaching out his hand uselessly.
But Edsel did not stop. He leaped into the air and punched an orc directly in the face with tremendous force. The impact made the massive creature stumble backwards several steps while shaking its head in confusion.
"A single punch will not be enough to bring these things down, I suppose. I will need to add more mana to my attacks," Edsel muttered while landing on the ground.
He positioned his hand in a flat position, and mana collided around his palm until it transformed into a sharp blade of pure energy. The orc recovered from the punch and raised its massive arm, ready to smash Edsel into the ground. But just as Perez had mentioned earlier, their movements were indeed slow and predictable.
Edsel ducked under the swinging arm and dashed between the orc's legs with fluid speed. He reached out and touched the creature's leg while channeling his ice magic.
"Frost Bind," he commanded.
Ice spread rapidly up the orc's leg and locked the knee joint completely. The creature roared in confusion as its leg became immobile. It tried to move but could not lift the frozen limb.
Edsel leaped into the air and landed on the orc's back. He drove his hand directly into the creature's spine and shouted, "Absorb!"
The orc felt it immediately. The energy was draining out of its body at an alarming rate. It wanted to scream in agony but found that it could not make any sound. Its muscles shriveled, its skin dried, and its eyes lost all light. The draining process continued for several seconds until nothing was left.
The orc's body turned to dust and scattered across the ground in a pile of grey ash.
Ding.
[You have absorbed 6.9 Death Energy.]
"That human over there did something to our brother," one of the orcs muttered while watching the scene unfold. It blinked in confusion, trying to understand what had just happened.
When it opened its eyes again, Edsel was standing directly on top of its head.
"How did you—" the orc started to say.
Edsel did not give it time to finish. He drove his hand down through the top of its skull and activated his absorption ability immediately. The orc's body crumbled into dust within seconds.
[You have absorbed 6.9 Death Energy.]
Perez stood frozen in place while his eyes widened at the sight before him. This was not something that he had ever imagined witnessing in his entire life. The lazy young master who never trained, who never fought, who never showed any interest in combat was now tearing through orcs like they were nothing more than practice dummies.
The soldiers from both houses stopped fighting and simply watched in awe as the young master single-handedly decimated the orc forces.
"He is not even using a weapon," one soldier whispered in disbelief.
"He is killing them with his bare hands," another added while shaking his head.