Undying Warlord

After the second encounter with a Blood Orc Champion, their group moved closed together to fight the threats together.

There was no need to be sorry when getting help fighting a stronger opponent.

It might be a bit embarrassing to do the same while fighting an opponent, whose Tier was lower but Dilan's strength, attitude, and clear demonstration that some existences were able to transcend the limits of a lower Tier, everyone had to accept that they should work together rather than fighting for themselves.

Ben and Katja were especially silent, almost as quiet as Nicolas had been all the time. Other than introducing himself, Dilan hadn't heard the middle-aged man speaking.

Dilan didn't really mind that, and he actually appreciated the silence and the fact that Nicolas followed his orders without any complaints.

People like Nicolas made things a lot easier for Dilan, who focused on observing the Ascenders around him.

'Their stats are probably the same I can reach when I reach the Peak of the fourth Tier… Their abilities are well developed and it looks like everyone found a great synergy between their Occupations, abilities, and the equipment they use…now they only need to learn the basics in terms of combat rather than crudely fighting like that…'

There were quite a few flaws Dilan found in the actions of every single Ascender, but he didn't point them out, not yet. He wanted to see how they would fare against the Blood Orcs, the Orc race that was the strongest in terms of combat awareness and innate combat talent.

They underwent rigorous training shortly after they were born. Thus, their combat strength was vastly different from the others, whose best combat training was the fact that their occupations provided them with a vast range of memories of experiences someone else had undergone.

Even then it was quite clear that the memories showed only experiences about certain situations someone else had gone through. They didn't specifically engrave the hard training one had to suffer in order to become as powerful, agile, and combat-aware as the being whose memories they had received.

That was why most of them made far more mistakes than expected.

'Was I like that as well?' Dilan wondered at one point, somehow certain that he was similarly bad but also sure that his situation hadn't been as bad as theirs.

'Maybe the Image can do something about that…'

After 10,000 years had passed, Dilan was not the same person as before. He wasted any movements and executed fast and lethal blows to his opponents. Rather than making sure that his attacks looked grand and powerful, Dilan wanted to be deadly and fast.

That worked out against most opponents until now, especially the hordes of monsters they encountered after a while had passed.

Other than the Blood Orcs, Oliver had scouted dozens, if not hundreds of different monster hordes that were consistent with weak and strong monsters.

The first batch of monsters they encountered after the second encounter with a Blood Orc Champion was consistent of a few hundred three meters tall, silver-furred Apes.

They were agile and extremely strong. Their fast attacks and great teamwork caused tremendous issues in the group of 10 Demi Gods.

Siegfried was faring the best among the entire group, while Dilan watched, ready to act at any moment. He had already loaded the Desert Eagle with Lightning bullets as he had sensed that the ape's fur was weak against lightning.

At least Siegfried's lightning was doing some damage because he ended up killing a bunch of Silverfur Apes. As for Kathrine, she was struggling while facing the Silverfur Apes. It looked like her bolts of lightning were reflected the sender after the attack's lethality had been doubled.

Kathrine could endure the impact of lightning but it was still frustrating. Her pride was hurt seeing Siegfried slaughtering a handful of Silverfur Apes while she was still struggling with her opponents.

More than twenty Silverfur Apes surrounded her, and it was hardly possible for her to swing her longsword without getting influenced. Her longsword was pushed around by the Silverfur Apes, who started to pounce at her, slowly wearing out the small girl, whose fighting style required space to move in, even if it was just a little.

Dilan saw how much Kathrine suffered against the second to fourth Tier Silverfur Apes and he began to smile. Pointing the muzzle of the Desert Eagle in Kathrine's direction, Dilan released one shot after another.

The Lightning bullets zapped through the surrounding at the speed of light before they dug into the skulls of their designated targets.

Not a trace of blood spurted out of the wounds as the Silverfur Apes slowed down before they collapsed on the ground without an ounce of life left in their body.

Dilan was satisfied with the lethality of the Desert Eagle, while Kathrine was frustrated.

"What the hell is so special about your lightning?!" She screamed out loud, shrouding her entire body in lightning currents as she began to swing her sword around like a maniac, or so it looked at the first glance.

Observing Kathrine for a little longer, Dilan realized why it had been impossible for her to defeat the Silverfur Apes, whether her lightning affinity worked against them or not.

'She found a battle style? Though It seems to be quite…barbaric, yet, charismatic? She created something weird again, didn't she?'

Kathrine made big strides, using her momentum to execute deadly attacks with her longsword that enlarged according to the amount of mana she inserted into the blade.

The lethality of her attacks increased exponentially. The longer the fight lasted, the faster she was able to move and the stronger and smoother her attacks became. In the end, she required only fifteen seconds to eliminate the remaining 17 Silverfur Apes. The monsters' bodies were cut apart, not a single one left fully intact, and Kathrine had turned into the eye of a lightning storm that spread out rapidly.

Dilan made a mental note when he saw her fighting and he told himself that he would force her to learn the Lightning God's Fist technique, the first few moves, at the very least. That should help Kathrine to create some distance from her opponents, enough to unleash her unique, yet highly effective battle style.

'I wonder if she has only a battle style against monster hordes, or if she created a battle style against powerhouses as well…she should have, right?'

While Kathrine was still wondering why her lightning affinity hadn't worked out against the Silverfur Apes, Siegfried had already begun to seek more opponents to fight.

Witnessing everyone fighting gave Siegfried the necessary spark of excitement he needed to give his all, no matter what opponent he were to face.

As for the fights of the others, they were rather boring. The Silverfur Apes were not strong enough to deflect the elemental attacks of all opponents, let alone the brute force that impacted on them with every attack.

Only Kathrine suffered under the unique trait of the Silverfur Apes. However, Dilan was quite happy that he noticed one of Kathrine's biggest flaws…and the flaws everyone else had.

It gave him something to start with, a way to improve everyone's strength rather quickly.

And he knew that the Queen's Image could help him with that!