Stealing Kills and a New Perspective
By the time the three reached the core area, the forty-odd Ghost-Eyed Giants in the area had been lured outside the castle.
They had not gone far, though. Once they moved beyond a certain distance, the Ghost-Eyed Giants would return to the perimeter.
Clang!
Boom!
A fierce battle had already begun inside the castle.
Clad in fiery red heavy armor, Kailina was facing the Ghost-Eyed Giant head-on.
Lius, the psychic mage, kept to the far edge, constantly dodging attacks while healing Kailina and applying various auras to her.
"Wait!"
Lister stopped Lawson and Ximens, who had been about to charge in without hesitation.
"They'll be fighting for a while yet. If we go in now and get surrounded, we'll be at a disadvantage."
"Let's clear out the Ghost-Eyed Giants outside and take out the puppeteer first!"
Ghost-Eyed Giants had over ten thousand HP and various damage-reduction skills. A heavily armored warrior like Kailina would have a long fight on her hands.
Kailina had plenty of HP too, and with a support at her side, she was not going to die anytime soon either.
Of course, what Lister really cared about was the experience from the forty giants.
He could hardly bear to give up such a huge batch of experience packs.
Fortunately, Lawson nodded in agreement with his plan to wait behind them like the oriole.
They immediately headed for the group of Ghost-Eyed Giants drawn away by the exquisite puppet.
"Is that Baron Merrick?"
"I'm holding these giants back. Please hurry and help me."
The moment the puppeteer Ante saw Lister and the others, panic flashed in his eyes. He then spoke to them with a calm demeanor.
Although both sides planned to eliminate the other, on the surface, there was no conflict between them at all.
Lister had come on a mission from the duchy to wipe out the Ghost-Eyed Giant population.
Ante, meanwhile, was Lord Quint's protector and had come to help Lord Quint clear out Rai Territory.
The three wasted no words and attacked at once.
Clang!
An Iai Slash struck head-on, cutting down several nearby Ghost-Eyed Giants.
Lawson attacked at the same time. He slammed his nearly man-height staff into the ground with all his strength, leaving it standing upright.
The low murmur of a spell rang out, and a surge of mana spread over the area ahead.
The broad stretch of ground before them seemed to soften all at once.
The next moment, a vast mass of vines burst from the earth.
At tremendous speed, they wrapped around each Ghost-Eyed Giant within range, restraining them all individually.
"Attack: damage dealt: -915. Enemy is bleeding: -19..."
As expected, when it came to farming monsters in a large-scale positional battle like this, mages were the most efficient.
As a popular class in Divine Revelation from beginning to end, it did have its merits.
If martial and mechanical classes had not suddenly risen to prominence in the later stages, magic classes could be said to have been strong from start to finish.
Rip!
With the giants restrained by both sides, Lister had no trouble cutting them down. It was like hitting training posts.
His saber struck cleanly and precisely into the eye on a Ghost-Eyed Giant's forehead.
"Critical hit: damage dealt: 2771."
"Congratulations, you have killed a Cyclops. Experience gained: 6631."
"Congratulations, you have gained 5612 experience."
As the meat tank, Simmons was helping the others cut down the Ghost-Eyed Giants.
Just as he was about to finish one off, Lister appeared like a ghost.
At some point, Lister had also drawn his saber. An instant before Simmons's attack landed, he killed the Ghost-Eyed Giant Simmons had targeted.
Once or twice, Simmons said nothing. They were teammates, after all.
But it had happened more than a few times now, and with that last heavy saber strike, Lister had killed the Ghost-Eyed Giant with the blade almost grazing Simmons's scalp.
"Lord Lister! What exactly are you doing?"
Simmons was not the only one taken aback. Even Lawson, watching from a distance, was somewhat dumbfounded.
He was baffled by Lister's strange behavior, as though Lister had some peculiar fixation on killing monsters.
At the last moment, Lister would always race over to a dying giant and cut it down.
Lawson was also surprised by Lister's strength in actual combat.
His saber strikes were crisp and decisive, and although each looked like an ordinary attack, every blow that landed on a Ghost-Eyed Giant seemed as powerful as a full-force heavy strike.
A weaker Ghost-Eyed Giant would die from a single cut to a vital point.
A stronger one only took one more strike. It was a little beyond Lawson's understanding.
By his current reckoning, the damage Lister dealt with his saber far exceeded that of an ordinary third-tier professional.
It was almost comparable to the attacks of a fourth-tier professional.
Yet in their duel half a month ago, Lister had only been a second-tier professional.
His saber technique had been just as crisp and fierce, but its power could not compare to what it was now.
An absurd thought welled up in Lawson's mind. Could Father have been right?
Could Lister really have greater talent as a professional than I do?
"I just couldn't help myself! Why don't you take a break?"
"You'll be our main force in the fight inside the castle later!"
Having stolen someone else's kills, Lister was naturally very polite.
As he told Simmons to rest, he continued weaving smoothly among the Ghost-Eyed Giants, which had long since been held fast in place by the vines.
The vines were indeed extraordinary. The more the Ghost-Eyed Giants struggled, the tighter they coiled around them.
Only one or two higher-level Ghost-Eyed Giants with stronger resistance were not greatly hindered, but the puppet still had them running in circles.
Flashes of saber light flickered constantly among the vines and Ghost-Eyed Giants, and the giants fell in droves like weeds.
At last, with Lister's final strike, all the Cyclopses had been killed.
"Experience gained: 7516."
[Experience: 251422]
A full 250,000 experience points. It really was a huge haul.
Lister did not hesitate. He still had to fight Kailina and the Ghost-Eyed Giant boss inside.
He immediately spent all his experience points on Saber Mastery.
[Saber Mastery LV12→LV14 (1/140000): saber technique attack damage increased by 70%]
A wealth of insights from practicing saber techniques instantly appeared in his mind.
At last, he had brought Saber Mastery up to the same level as his Breathing Technique.
"Congratulations, your overall rating has improved!"
[Overall rating: E-rank→D-rank]
At level 26, he had returned to D-rank strength thanks to two passive skills. Lister felt thoroughly satisfied.
"Lord Lister, Lady Kailina is fighting the Ghost-Eyed Giant leader."
"Could I ask you to come over and... hmm?"
Ante approached Lister with a calm expression and spoke, putting on an air of composure.
But before he could finish, his gaze fell on Lawson behind Lister.
The moment Ante saw Lawson, his eyes went blank, and he looked as though he could not believe it.
As a follower of Duke Will, he naturally knew quite a bit about the major factions in the city.
That was especially true of the Conner Family, whose influence in the city was second only to the duke's household.
He hesitated over whether to bring Lawson into the castle to fight.
After all, Kailina's original mission plan called only for killing Lister.
He had no authority to decide whether to strike at Lawson Conner, the Conner Family's next heir.
And if Lawson died, he could imagine how great a stir it would cause in the Duchy of Will!
While Ante the puppeteer was still hesitating, Lawson signaled to Lister with his eyes.
Behind Ante, vines had begun spreading again at some point.
In fact, Lawson had never dispelled Verdant Growth. Before Ante could react,
the vines swiftly wrapped around his body. As a puppeteer, he was even more fragile than a mage.
The vines' bleeding effect and basic attacks alone were more than he could bear.
"Sir Lawson, what exactly are you doing?!"
"I'm one of Duke Will's..."
Before he could finish, a dazzling flash of saber light passed before his eyes.
His world spun in an instant, and he seemed to see his own body.
But why... why did his body no longer have a head...
His harsh words naturally did nothing to move the three.
Ante was only an ordinary follower of the duke and did not have a clear grasp of the situation in the city, especially Will II's attitude toward the seven great families.
He had naively believed that the name of Duke Will would stop Lister and Lawson from taking action.
In fact, the two sides had already clashed in secret who knew how many times.