'Is this really the way it ends? I can't do anything more than this?'

As the unfair truth rubbed itself in Asher's face, he felt the invincible being pull closer.

He could already smell the sulfur and smoke, and the heat itched his skin.

This was truly the end…

"Hm? Who's that?"

… Or not.

Anukus stopped before he reached Asher, his gaze focused on something in the distance—behind the crouching man.

'E-eh? What's happeni—?'

Before Asher could realize what was going on, he suddenly felt himself being pulled into something strange.

It felt like the world had become a blur, and everything became blurry, until—a second later—it was back to normal.

"H-huh?" He noticed that, somehow, Anukus was further away from him than before.

They had been mere inches apart before, but now it was more like seventy to a hundred meters.

'What happened? How did this…? I don't understand!'

Asher was still very confused when he felt a hand rub his disheveled hair.

A familiar presence suddenly washed over him as he took his eyes off the nightmare that was Anukus and looked up.

"S-Sir Ralyks…!"

The dark, intimidating mask and his glowing crimson eyes seemed to bring nothing but solace to the Asher.

Never before had he felt safer.

"I came as fast as I could. I hope I'm not too late." Ralyks said, his eyes on Asher.

The young man in an older fellow's body shook his head profusely.

"N-no! Not at all! Thank you for coming, Sir Ralyks!"

Somehow, the fear that had pervaded his body slowly became nonexistent.

It was soon replaced with a bright ray of hope.

"Good. Stay by my side, then. This will soon be over."

Ralyks and his confident tone did not at all surprise Asher. It didn't come off as condescending as well.

To Asher, the only one who could defeat the enemy who stood before them was Ralyks.

If he couldn't do it, then all hope was practically lost.

"He uses slash and flame attacks." Asher said, doing his best to relay whatever information he had managed to collect in his fight.

It wasn't much, but he hoped it would be useful to his savior.

"I can see that."

That was the response Ralyks gave.

It almost felt like he was grinning in amusement, causing Asher to laugh awkwardly.

"A-ahh… okay." Asher slowly moved a little closer to Ralyks, since he was already beside him.

The two stared at each other for a second more before the voice of their enemy echoed forth.

"What's this? Am I being ignored here? The both of you sure have some nerve."

As Anukus' voice reverberated in the air, Asher felt his skin tingle.

During their brief interaction, he had been trained to fear this man—even his voice.

However, before he could give in any deeper to his fears, he heard Ralyks' reassuring voice.

"There's no reason to fear."

As Asher heard this, he felt his heart grow lighter, and the shaking in his body ceased.

He gazed up, in both admiration and surprise, at the man who had come to save him.

"I never lose."

With those words replaying in his ears, Asher smiled, nodded, and looked away.

"Thank you, Sir Ralyks." He returned his gaze to Anukus, a confident smile now on his face.

He was no longer afraid to give a confident grin in the face of such an overwhelming foe.

Why would he be?

There was an even more frightening being that was his ally.

That was enough to make Asher smile.

"He killed all my men and our supposed allies. Please don't end it too quickly."

Asher knew he was being a little impudent, but he hoped the man beside him would listen to his heartfelt request.

"Please let him suffer a little, Sir Ralyks."

Asher felt Ralyks' gaze leave him and turn in the direction of the man who stood a distance from them.

"Fine." Ralyks' powerful voice caused the air to vibrate.

"Let's have him beg for death."

*********

'What's with these people and suffering?' Rey thought to himself, nearly sighing.

He knew full well that Asher also tortured his enemies, and now the guy in front of him was also guilty of the same.

At this point, Rey was sick of Underworld Business.

'I can see the justification for this, though. It seems this guy had done quite a lot of awful things.'

Rey knew Asher and his father—the entire KariBlanc Group—had done a lot of terrible things too, so they weren't really meant to judge.

However, a critical factor made this particular one unforgivable.

'This guy messed with the plan. He went and killed the people we're supposed to be allied with, and even eliminated people from our side.'

To Rey, that was more than enough of a reason to enact some form of vengeance on him.

Rey took a glance at the man's Status Window that was still beside him and smiled.

[STATUS WINDOW]

- Name: Anukus

- Race: Human

- Class: Heretic (B-Tier)

- Level: 145 (10.54% EXP)

- Life Force: 15 [+185]

- Mana Level: 100 (+50) [+200]

- Combat Ability: 30 (+50) [+170]

- Stat Points: 0

- Skills (Exclusive): [Sever]

- Skills (Non-Exclusive): [Greater Fire Magic]. [Homing].

- Alignment: Chaotic Evil

[Additional Information]

One of theDeadly Three; the three strongest Executives of the Mercenary Gang.

He is known as 'The Destroyer' due to his immense destructive capabilities and his unstable personality.

[End Of Information]

'Interesting…' He smiled.

It was amazing how a person could have only three Skills, yet be considered very formidable due to how well they used them.

'I guess it's all about quality and less about quantity.'

Rey preferred to have both, though.

'It's a good thing I snagged his Skills a while back.'

The honest truth was that Rey had arrived a few moments earlier—right when Anukus had destroyed the Flame Elemental.

He watched as the man proceeded to wreck all of the other Elementals and then nearly kill Asher.

Of course, he wasn't going to let Asher die, so he saved him right in the nick of time. From the looks of things, he made the right call, seeing as Asher now looked immensely grateful to him.

'Looks like my points with him have gone up.'

It was thanks to his patience that Rey was able to witness a display of power from both Asher and Anukus.

The result?

[Skill Categories]

~ SS-Tier: 3

~ S-Tier: 8

~ A-Tier: 8

~ B-Tier: 12

~ C-Tier: 3

[New Skills: Please Select Their Categories]

~ D-Tier: Intimidating Aura~

~ C-Tier: Warrior's Mantle~

~ C-Tier: Rampage~

~ C-Tier: Damage Nullification~

~ B-Tier: Carnage

~ C-Tier: Great Protection Cloak

~ C-Tier: Superior Self

~ C-Tier: True Detection

~ C-Tier: Bloodlust

~ B-Tier: Greater Blood Magic

~ B-Tier: Greater Fire Magic

~ B-Tier: Sever

~ C-Tier: Homing

~ C-Tier: Elemental Summoning (Fire)

~ C-Tier: Elemental Summoning (Water)

~ C-Tier: Elemental Summoning (Wind)

~ C-Tier: Elemental Summoning (Earth)

[Total Skills: 51]

"Haaa…" Rey sighed a little while giving himself a wry smile.

'Looks like I'll eventually need to sort out all these new Skills.'

It wasn't long ago that he had just 34 Skills, and now he had a lot more.

'It's a good thing I have [Merger] now.'

If that wasn't the case, he would have to start throwing away some of Skills at this point.

'Enough about that, though…' Rey shrugged aside his thoughts and chose to observe his opponent instead.

'He doesn't look too happy. I wonder why.'

*

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Thanks for reading!

Looks like we're about to have a third executive match consecutively. These guys just keep popping out!