Hearing Hals's words, the fat, middle-aged boss with a vicious look on his face bared his teeth in a cruel grin. "I'll stand right here today. Let's see how the hell you plan to kill me!"
He said that, but the middle-aged man stayed on guard, tensing his mind as Soul Power surged through him, ready to respond to any attack from Hals.
Years spent in Nork Town had taught him one thing: here, the arrogant died! The unwary died!!!!!!
But if the middle-aged boss could do it all over again, he would stay far away from the people behind him—no, far away from everyone.
"Thud."
The sound of a blade piercing flesh rang out, and a stabbing pain flared in the middle-aged man's lower back.
"Argh!"
The boss, who had been so arrogant just moments earlier, now had his fleshy face scrunched up tight. His bulk trembled as he felt his life slipping away. But he was a Seven-Ring Soul Sage, after all. After a brief moment of shock, he gritted his teeth and summoned his Soul Power. A pair of golden-yellow claws, half a meter long, appeared on his hands. He spun around in fury and slashed at the Attendant standing behind him.
Blood sprayed through the air. Three huge gashes opened across the Attendant's chest and abdomen, severing his intestines and several internal organs. One claw even split his heart in two.
The blow sent the Attendant flying backward. He hit the ground hard, and the bloodied knife fell from his hand. He was already dead.
He turned around, eyes bloodshot, fury seeming to pour from them and surge toward Hals. The Soul Power around his left hand quietly faded, and the giant claw vanished.
With difficulty, he moved his thick, segmented arm behind his back and covered the wound with Soul Power, forcing the bleeding to stop. Though the injury wasn't serious, Fat Boss nearly ground his white teeth to dust.
He swung his right arm downward. The claws, already half a meter long, suddenly extended again, growing to over a meter. Their tips pierced the ground with effortless silence, without the slightest resistance, revealing their keen edge.
Whoosh!
An immense aura surged skyward. Seven Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, purple, and black—appeared behind Fat Boss, slowly pulsing with heavy movements.
Fat Boss's face twisted. The fat around his eyes squeezed them down to the size of two green beans. He panted heavily. "Good. Very good." He grinned, opening a mouth large enough to swallow an ordinary rabbit whole, and laughed with a crazed expression as drool dripped onto the ground.
"Very good. I don't know when you teamed up with that little bastard, and it looks like you planned this in advance, but..."
He paused. The six Soul Rings behind him lit up one after another, and his aura grew stronger and stronger. He jerked his head up. Though half a head shorter than Hals, the boss unleashed a fierce gust of wind that made many of the less powerful people there squeeze their eyes shut.
It was hard to imagine that the pig-like boss could move so fast. In an instant, he was at Hals's side. His claws cut through the air with a pair of sharp whistles, slashing toward Hals's head.
Grinning viciously, Fat Boss's voice turned shrill.
"Die! Die! Die!"
The claws were barely five finger-widths from Hals's head, yet Hals still had his head bowed slightly, as if he hadn't reacted in time.
He's dead.
That was the only thought in everyone's mind.
But...
"Bang! Boom, boom, boom!"
Just as the claws were about to touch him, Hals's body shifted from solid to insubstantial. He swayed slightly and dodged Fat Boss's attack. Then a pair of large hands suddenly appeared in front of Fat Boss's head, moving faster than the boss himself, and clamped down hard.
Though Hals looked somewhat thin, he now seemed like a savage beast. He seized the boss's head and slammed it into the ground. The instant it struck, the legs and shoulders beneath Hals's black-green robe had already transformed into translucent, jade-green bones, unseen by everyone else. Then he exerted himself once more!
Keeping the boss's head pressed to the ground, Hals crouched low, leaned forward, and ran with all his strength. Everything in his path—objects and walls alike—was smashed to pieces.
A deep, bloodstained trench stretched behind him. At last, Hals stopped in front of the dead Attendant's body. He paused, drew a deep breath, and then...
"Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud..."
A rapid series of muffled impacts rang out. Hals's left arm moved like a pile driver, pounding up and down at high speed, making Fat Boss's head repeatedly slam into the ground. A crater surrounded by radiating cracks continued to grow.
The impacts kept coming. In the vast tavern hall, packed with people, they were the only sound. No one dared even breathe too loudly, afraid that this savage "beast" would turn on them.
Watching the figure continuing to "beat" his victim, and the Seven-Ring Soul Sage helpless beneath his hands, everyone felt their hair stand on end. Cold sweat broke out across their bodies. Even the people of Nork Town, who usually prided themselves on being thugs, couldn't help but fear Hals's brutality.
Perhaps he was tired. Hals stopped pounding and slowly stood up, lifting Fat Boss by the head.
Perhaps this was the one benefit of all that fat: even after such a brutal beating, Fat Boss still had a faint trace of consciousness.
Hals slowly tightened his left hand. A teeth-grating creak came from Fat Boss's skull. Perhaps the excruciating pain roused him, because the dazed boss suddenly let out a shrill scream, so ghastly it made everyone's skin crawl.
A muffled voice came from beneath Hals's hand:
"P-please... spare... me..."
Hearing the boss beg for mercy, Hals raised his head slightly. At last, his hidden face came into view.
He was smiling!!!
A chill ran through everyone.
He was enjoying this.
Without exchanging a word, everyone reached the same conclusion.
Beneath his hood, the Soul Flame in Hals's eyes blazed more fiercely than ever. The desire in his heart grew stronger: the joy and excitement of cruelty.
His lips curled into a cruel smile. A tiny green flame suddenly appeared on his left arm. It was so feeble that the slightest breath seemed enough to extinguish it. But...
"Whoosh!"
The tiny flame seemed to find fuel and suddenly blazed up, becoming a serpent of fire coiling around Hals's left arm. It then slowly crept toward Fat Boss. In the blink of an eye, Fat Boss had become a man of fire, glowing jade green.
"Argh!"
The boss screamed miserably in the flames, like a fat pig waiting to be slaughtered.
"You're too fat. Let me help you slim down." Hals's raspy voice rang out, making no attempt to hide its excitement.
As soon as he finished speaking, something strange happened.
Though the flames were burning him, the flesh on Fat Boss's body rapidly withered and fell away as if it had been frostbitten.
"Hrrk, hrrk."
The flames seemed to have destroyed Fat Boss's vocal cords. He could no longer speak, managing only a labored, faint wheeze.
In just a moment, the boss—who had looked to weigh two or three hundred pounds—had become a gaunt, inhuman-looking man of barely a hundred.
The people stared silently at "Fat" Boss in terror. His entire body had almost no flesh left, and he was blackened from head to toe...
Hals tossed the boss, who had stopped struggling, to the ground. Only then did he tuck his left hand back beneath the robe that concealed countless secrets.
His raspy voice rang out with regret, and his eyes showed a hint of dissatisfaction.
"What a pity. He was too fragile. How could a toy like that satisfy me?"
His gaze drifted over the people present. He licked his lips, seeming tempted to try his hand at them.
Everyone his gaze passed over tensed as if facing a great enemy, yet lowered their heads in fearful awe, avoiding his eyes.
"Sigh."
Before you continue