One Finger
A intriguing smile spread across Cael's lips.
"Not bad."
But Cardor, who had deflected the Demon Soul Bullet with the broad side of his axe, instead let out a sinister chuckle as he tilted his chin up arrogantly.
"Kukukuk, looks like the duke's young master borrowed some fancy magic artifact from somewhere. What now that it doesn't work? I know you're pissing yourself and shaking like a leaf inside, no matter how cool you pretend to be."
Cardor dismissed the invisible energy blast from moments ago as nothing more than an attack from some expensive magical artifact.
Cael saw no need to correct the fool's shallow misconception. Instead, he rested his chin on his hand from atop his horse and asked something entirely different.
"Well, I'll give you credit for blocking that. But let me ask one thing."
"What?"
"You seem pretty strong. Why wait until all your underlings are dead before stepping in?"
Cardor burst into booming laughter.
"Kuh, kuahaha! Isn't it obvious? These guys are just disposable bait I threw out to wear you down a bit. No reason to step in from the start and waste my strength, right?"
"Oh? Is that so?"
Cardor shrugged and spat out a thick glob of phlegm.
"Khaak—! Ptui! Why pretend you don't know and act all high and mighty? You nobles are way more vicious than scum like us. Under the excuse of war, you conscript commoners and shove them in as cannon fodder first. Then you lot in the ruling class crawl out nice and slow from the back to put on a show. That's your specialty, isn't it? The ones who actually see blood are always the underlings."
Vile words from a despicable bandit, yet they carried an undeniable bitter truth.
Cael nodded quietly.
"Hmm, now that you mention it, you're not wrong."
"Hmph, wasting time on pointless questions before you croak. You've yapped enough—now die!"
Cardor's eyes bulged as he roughly drew up his power.
Whoooosh—!
A surge of sharp blue aura erupted from Cardor's massive frame, violently shoving the surrounding air aside. He was just a criminal, but the presence of a warrior who had reached the Expert realm through bone-grinding training was no light matter.
Ella, Weger, and Roben recoiled in terror at the overwhelming killing intent that squeezed their throats.
"Y-Young master!! It's dangerous—run!!"
Weger shouted desperately, but Cael just clicked his tongue dismissively.
"Tch, shut it, you lot. Oliver, you come back too."
As the three humans instinctively backed away in fear, only Oliver scraped the ground with his front paws, baring his teeth and glaring fiercely at Cardor.
But even if Oliver was a prodigy who had grasped the true essence of Jade Wolf Fang, his current level of growth couldn't take on an Aura Expert head-on.
At Cael's call, Oliver growled reluctantly and trotted back to his side.
"You three, stop standing there like idiots and fall back with Oliver to watch. How can humans have less guts and smarts than a dog?"
"P-Pardon...?"
While the three gawked in confusion, Cael lightly leaped from his saddle and landed on the ground. Then, without any guard up—hands clasped behind his back—he began strolling slowly toward Cardor.
Doubt flickered in Cardor's eyes at the defenseless display.
What the hell? His presence feels like just Adept level. And he's walking right at me like that?
Cardor's keen senses gauged the total output of energy emanating from Cael. The amount of aura—or rather, chaos qi—gathered in Cael's dantian was stuck at the Adept level, one step above basic aura users and right below Expert.
Of course, reaching Adept at his age was enough to earn praise as a talented knight, but it was no match for Cardor, who had wielded aura for decades.
Cardor gripped his axe tighter and sneered.
"Kuhuhu, looks like the young master learned a bit of aura shut away in his room and thinks the world's got nothing to fear... You're in for one hell of an expensive lesson today."
Cael stopped walking, smirked, and shot back.
"You sure talk a lot. You gonna come at me first? If not, I'll go."
"Ha!? Fine! Might as well dance around and entertain yourself before you die—won't feel so wronged in the afterlife! Come on! Throw everything you've got at me!!"
"Showing you everything would be a waste—your vessel's too shallow. I'll give you just one finger's worth."
"What...?"
The moment Cardor furrowed his brow, the Heavenly Demon's right hand rose lightly into the air. His extended index finger flicked the empty space like plucking a lute string—swift and crisp.
Ting ting ting ting ting—!
His finger flicked five times in a blur too fast to follow.
In that split instant, five Demon Soul Bullets shot from Cael's fingertip, each tracing a completely different trajectory as they swarmed Cardor from all sides.
"Wh-what!?"
"You think that looked like projectiles from a magic tool? For someone with that much aura, your eyesight's pathetic."
"Gr, gruuuh!!"
Cardor instinctively shuddered at the five aura clumps slithering toward him from front, back, left, right, and above like serpents. Small as they were, the compressed destructive power within was nothing to scoff at.
I have to block them!!
Cardor roared and spun his massive axe furiously. The blue aura cloaking his body surged along the blade like a storm, intercepting the incoming Demon Soul Bullets from every direction.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom boom!!!
A chain of explosions ripped through the air, tearing at their eardrums. Thick clouds of dust billowed from the violent clash of aura and chaos qi.
Before the dust even cleared, Cardor's triumphant laughter boomed from the center.
"Kuahaha!! See that? Told you it's useless!! Nice trick, but not enough to pierce my overwhelming aur—!"
But his boastful cry cut off midway.
"Tch tch... Getting distracted in a life-or-death fight... What a waste of the aura you've got."
A chilling voice whispered right in Cardor's ear from behind—far too close.
Cardor's eyes bulged in shock. The presence that should have been in front of him had silently slipped behind his back.
Fights between warriors weren't decided merely by the total amount of inner energy or aura. Sure, greater volume meant stronger offense and defense—that was obvious. But Cael's mastery of energy manipulation had reached a realm so profound and precise that such crude differences in quantity were irrelevant.
In the end, battles between those who wielded energy came down to how efficiently they drew it out, condensed it, and applied it exactly where needed.
Even if Cardor had a hundred units of aura and Cael only thirty, in combat, Cael could focus one hundred percent of his thirty into a single strike in an instant.
Cardor, meanwhile, had to spread his hundred units thinly across his body to defend against attacks coming from all directions.
With his crude control, Cardor couldn't compress and redirect his energy to one spot in a flash like Cael. The most he could muster for a defensive barrier in that moment was a measly ten to twenty units.
And that gap in manipulation led to devastating results.
Squelch—
"Guh, guhaak!?"
Dark red blood gushed from Cardor's mouth.
In the brief moment the dust cloud blinded him, Cael had deployed Demon Shadow Step and infiltrated silently behind. His unremarkable index finger pierced Cardor's tough back muscles and thick leather armor like paper, stabbing straight through the lung right beside the bandit's heart.
"Even one finger is more than you deserve."
As Cael indifferently withdrew his finger, Cardor's massive body crumpled like rotten straw.
Thud—
The Expert who had once lorded over the land met his pathetic end. It had taken all of two seconds since the fight began.
Ella, Weger, and Roben, who had retreated a safe distance, stood frozen, not even breathing.
They couldn't even comprehend what had just happened. Dust had risen, Cael vanished, and in the next instant, the infamous killer was vomiting blood and collapsing.
The overwhelming silence was broken by one alone.
"Woof!! Woof woof woof woof woof!!"
Oliver, the first to grasp the situation, spun his tail like a propeller and bounded over, leaping straight into Cael's arms.
Cael caught the dog's hefty frame with the hand free of blood.
"You rascal... you've gotten heavy, but you're still such a baby. A full-grown dog jumping into laps like this. No dignity at all."
Cael tsked even as he stroked Oliver's back. The dog, overjoyed, slobbered all over Cael's cheek.
"Woof woof woof woof!! Pant pant pant!!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Enough licking already."
The three watched the cheerful, peaceful scene in a daze. Cael's subordinates—the trio just roasted for having less guts and brains than a dog—finally snapped to and rushed over.
"Y-Young master!? A-Are you okay? Any injuries!?"
Weger asked, pale as a ghost. Cael looked at them like they were idiots.
"Can't you tell by looking? Anyway, what were you doing just standing there like morons? Leave him like that and he'll croak soon. Didn't I say to leave one mouth alive for talking?"
"Ah! R-Right!!"
At Cael's reminder, the trio surrounded the fallen Cardor and fumbled to staunch his wound.
The Heavenly Demon looked down at the kneeling trio and tossed out a casual order.
"Get the info out of him when he wakes. I'll go free the prisoners first. Keeping him breathing and making him talk should be easy enough for you three, right?"
"Y-Yes! Don't worry—we'll make him squeal no matter what!"
Cael turned his back on the blood-soaked scene and strolled leisurely toward the shack warehouse.
Once he was out of sight, Roben asked Ella and Weger.
"Was... was the young master always that strong...?"
"I don't know..."
"Me neither..."
Roben swallowed hard, staring after Cael.
"Doesn't he remind you of the duke?"
The pinnacle of the swordmaster house Restis. It was Cael's back that evoked him.
"Where do you think he gets his blood from...? Enough talk—hurry and stop the bleeding. He's gonna die."
"R-Right!"