Chapter 34: SS Rank Monsters (2)
Ice spread from my feet, and as it hit the four-eyed monster, he was forcefully slowed down.
The ice spread slowly from his feet until his whole body was enveloped in ice.
In an instant, I dashed to the ice statue, and as the monsters tried to run at me to stop me.
"It's too late."
I punched the ice statue, which shattered immediately, and the fragments fell to the ground.
"One down, only four more to go."
"You piece of sh*t, you will pay for this!" The four-armed monster yelled in anger.
I waved my hand in front of my face.
"Do you know how many times I have heard that? You monsters are strangely empathetic toward your own kind."
As he rushed at me, I noticed that the monster, who looked like a middle-aged man, was trying to escape.
'Is he actually escaping?'
That's a first; usually they would stay here and fight. Even when I showed my strength, the monsters would still stay. So seeing him try to escape surprised me a little.
As the four-armed monster was about to punch me, his arm suddenly fell to the ground.
Blood spurted out of his arm, and he yelled in pain. He quickly calmed himself as he tried to punch again with another arm.
The same result repeated itself as his other arm also fell to the ground.
"Aren't you curious why your arm keeps falling down?"
I raised my finger, and a small wind started to circle around it.
"It's called a wind blade. By compressing the wind, I can make a very sharp blade that is invisible to the naked eye. The reason you can see it is because I am combining it with water magic."
The four-armed monster tried to attack again, but I kicked him so hard that he flew towards the crowd of monsters.
At the same time, I threw a windblade at the middle-aged man. The windblade cut his leg off as he fell to the ground. But strangely, he didn't scream in pain.
'That's weird.'
Goosebumps appeared in my neck as I felt a slight chill. In an instant, I dashed 50 meters away from the spot I was at.
A giant spike made out of earth was at the place I was previously. And at the same time, the middle-aged monster was also there, holding a dagger.
He made a 'tsch' sound.
My eyes narrowed.
"I knew it. You are definitely the most annoying of them."
It wasn't because he could use illusion magic that made him annoying. It was the fact that he was stronger than the other monsters.
In the last 5 years, I have made adjustments to the ranking system. Because the way they made the rankings wasn't accurate enough. An S ranker and another S ranker could be completely different in strength.
Therefore, changes were necessary to the rankings. I didn't change it that much, as I only made adjustments.
I kept the same names, but I changed the levels. I split the same rank into four different levels. An example would be the S-rank. S-rank back then was just S-rank. Even if you were a peak ranker, you would still be called an S-rank.
Now, an S rank was split into 4 different levels, which were respectively low S-rank, medium S-rank, high S-rank, and peak S-rank. This was done on all ranks, from F to SSS.
So people of the same rank can now be differentiated.
I noticed back then that even the same-rank monsters had different strengths. So I made the same change to the monsters.
Therefore, a monster can also be categorized as low, medium, high, or peak.
The monsters in front of me were all low to medium, but the middle-aged man was a high-SS rank monster.
"Did you try to surprise me by acting like you would run away?" I asked the monster.
He didn't reply as he looked at the other monsters. They were nodding, but no words were coming out of their mouths.
'Are they communicating?'
I observed the monsters, and as I tried to sense my mana, I noticed a slight fluctuation.
'So he was the one.'
I dashed toward the monster with long hair and no eyes.
But I realized that he didn't try to block.
'Was I too fast? Is that why he couldn't react?'
As I stopped in front of him, he immediately dashed away from his spot. And as he landed at a spot further away, he started to pant.
'So he really couldn't react in time.'
How boring.
"Come on, show me a bit of strength. You guys are SS rank monsters; there is no way you can be this weak."
They didn't respond with mockery or insults. Instead, their expressions were dead serious.
I felt the change in air, and I knew what they were trying to do.
"Burning your lifeforce? That is more like it!"
It was a trick these SS-rank monsters could do. When they felt that their lives were in danger, they would use this technique to become twice as strong.
The time they had to use this technique was very limited. Most monsters would die within five minutes.
I wasn't completely sure if they were using their lifeforce, but nevertheless, it was a technique that had massive consequences.
"Because of your determination, I will show a bit of mercy."
I took a martial-arts stance.
"I will not use any magic in our fight."
The monsters increased in size, and their veins were showing up in their skin.
After a few moments, they all disappeared from their spot and instantly appeared in front of me.
I crouched down and made a leg sweep. All three got hit as they lost their balance, and immediately I pounced on the middle-aged monster.
He tried to attack, but as I parried, I grabbed his neck. I smashed my elbow multiple times on his face.
Blood started to appear on my elbow, and the other monsters quickly regained their balance.
Thick, twisting vines erupted from the ground, which constricted my movements. At the same time, the monster with no eyes dashed forward.
He unsheathed a sword, and as he was about to swing, I stopped it with one hand.
His eyes widened as he couldn't believe what he saw.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone