Gonna Be a Demon King!
Chapter 65: Ambush by the River

Chapter 65: Ambush by the River

When they reached about ten meters from the river, they stopped, not getting any closer.

The Detection Mage activated her magic once more, and immediately, she sensed multiple entities lurking in the river that were certainly not fish.

"Incoming!"

She barely got the warning out before three figures suddenly burst from the water, but it didn’t matter as her allies were already prepared.

The moment they saw movement, they unleashed their spells—fire, lightning, and flaming rocks hurtling forward simultaneously, each one punctuated with a powerful blast that sent shockwaves rippling through the air.

Suddenly, the two mages on the opposite edges of their formation felt something coil around their legs.

"?!!!"

"WhaaaAAAaa!!"

Their heads snapped downward just as tendrils of darkness violently yanked them off their feet, dragging them into the river with immense force.

The remaining three barely had a chance to help before an unseen force slammed into them, knocking them backwards.

As they stumbled, the corpses of the previous squad behind them, along with scattered rocks and debris, suddenly lifted into the air and then shot toward them.

The impact from behind sent them crashing face-first into the dirt, and just as they hit the ground, Xaren emerged from the water.

His left hand snapped up, fingers splayed toward the mage on the far left.

’Gravity Crush.’

A dark-red sphere enveloped the mage’s head, compressing instantly and collapsing his into a mangled heap of flesh.

Xaren’s right hand, gripping his sword, pointed at the one on his far right.

’Gravity Sphere.’

The orb shot forward, striking her square in the face. The moment it collapsed, so did half of her head.

She was dead before she even hit the ground.

As for the Detection Mage in the centre, Xaren dashed toward her, his sword engulfed in black flames.

He swung down before she could even weave a spell, and though she tried to roll away, she wasn’t fast enough.

The descending blade tore through her back, cut clean through her upper torso, and burst out from her chest before slamming into the ground with enough force to crack the earth. The fractures spread like a spiderweb, racing all the way to the ravine’s walls.

Xaren kicked her face with his left leg, knocking her body over before plunging his sword through her skull, ending her life.

Without pause, he lifted her corpse with his blade and flung it toward the river—just in time for it to crash directly into the face of one of the mages he had dragged underwater.

The man barely had time to surface before his comrade’s lifeless body slammed into him, her limp joint striking his nose with enough force to make him groan reflexively. His head snapped back into the water, and before he could close his mouth or hold his breath, water surged into his throat and nostrils, causing him to choke violently.

Xaren dove in, seized him from behind by the neck, and, unfazed by the man’s desperate punches, began repeatedly stabbing him in the back. The feeble blows of a drowning man meant nothing to him, and with his gravity magic negating water resistance, his strikes were unimpeded.

That was when the last mage resurfaced.

The moment he saw Xaren slaughtering his comrade, he raised his staff to cast a spell, but before he could unleash it, Xaren activated Gravity Crush on both the staff and his hand.

The sudden crushing force made him instinctively release his weapon, but not before several of his fingers were crushed alongside it.

Xaren yanked his sword free from the corpse and immediately hurled it at the injured mage. The distance between them was short, and the blade struck true, its tip piercing his neck.

The force behind the throw wasn’t enough to enable it to pierce his superhuman body, but that wasn’t a problem for Xaren.

’4x Gravity.’

Xaren’s Unique Skill quadrupled the force behind the pommel, making the sword rip through the man’s throat entirely. As the mage gurgled on his own blood, Xaren swam forward, grasped the weapon, and finished the job by severing his head.

Emerging from the water, Xaren glanced down at his soaked clothes before letting out a sigh.

"Good thing I learned that heating spell from Floch so I can dry my clothes."

His main concern, after wiping out an entire squad of battle mages before they could even cast a single spell, was his wet clothes.

Scanning his surroundings for any remaining threats, he found none—but he didn’t lower his guard.

Without wasting any time, he moved toward the ravine wall, determined to leave the area before another squad was drawn to the scene by the noise.

’Ah, the souls.’

Xaren turned back to collect them before making his way toward the ravine wall.

Activating his heating magic, he stayed close to the rock face and continued eastward, putting more distance between himself and Zlego.

◇　◇　◇

Xaren had barely finished drying his clothes with magic when he sensed rapidly approaching presences.

’Seven... That’s quite a number. One is farther behind, and... Oh. Some of them are demons too.’

They were coming from the direction he was heading, but before Xaren could even formulate a plan of action, the three demonic presences simultaneously disappeared.

’They’re dead?!’

Immediately, Xaren felt a wave of magic power wash over him and he clicked his tongue, realising he’d already been detected.

Without hesitation, he lifted all the nearby debris around him and sent it flying in the direction of the four approaching mages with enough force to rip through flesh.

The squad was quick to react, deploying barriers of earth and wind magic to defect most of the projectiles.

But not all were blocked. One mage cried out as a rock buried itself in their shoulder, and another staggered from a deep gash across their thigh.

Xaren seized the opening, dashing forward with his Runeblade engulfed in black flames. He used his Darkness Magic to extend tendrils from his shadow, wrapping around the legs of one of the wounded mages.

Before they could do anything about it, Xaren yanked them off their feet and drove his flaming blade straight through their chest. He then used their corpse as a shield to block the volley of elemental attacks that converged on him right after.

’Gravity Crush.’

He focused on one of the mages’ weapons, crushing their staff before taking advantage of their shocked reaction to hurl their comrade’s charred corpse at them.

Xaren hurled his spare sword like a spear at one of the remaining three, and when they jumped to dodge, he instantly calculated their landing spot and tossed a Gravity Sphere.

The sphere struck their leg, imploding upon contact and crushing the entire limb.

While that one screamed in pain, Xaren dashed toward the last mage—the one with the wounded shoulder—his sword blazing with black fire, but before he could close the distance, they unleashed a barrage of lightning and ice magic at him.

Xaren quickly activated a Gravity Shield, but the force of the attacks sent him skidding backwards.

His gaze snapped toward the mage he had thrown a corpse at and upon spotting preparing a spell, he held his left hand in their direction and summoned a volley of black flaming spears to disrupt them.

Locking back onto the one who attacked him with the ice-lightning combo, Xaren activated his Unique Skill and used Attraction on their body.

The sudden force yanked them toward him, and before they could react, he flung a Gravity Sphere straight at them. The volatile energy ball intensified the pull, dragging them in even faster than they could form a defence.

Turning his attention back to the mage he had stalled with flame spears, Xaren altered the direction of gravity on the crippled one’s body, flinging them into their spell-casting comrade and sending both tumbling to the ground.

Without hesitation, he dashed forward, finishing off the mage he had previously pulled in, then immediately closed in on the two in a tangled heap. He swung his flaming sword downward, amplifying gravity’s pull to hold them in place just long enough for his blade to slice clean through the neck of the one on top.

He retracted his sword and thrust it forward, driving the blade straight through the skull of the one below, ending them instantly.

Just as the kill was made, something zapped into his perception range and he barely jumped out of the way as a flaming projectile shot past.

’Shit...my shoulder got burned.’

Landing on the ground, Xaren’s gaze snapped to the attacker behind him, his eyes narrowing as he confirmed it to be the fifth presence he’d sensed earlier—the one further behind.

"You fucking demon!"

This mage charged at him while shouting curses, closing the distance at a speed that nearly matched Xaren’s own, before swinging down their staff coated in rock.

Xaren parried the staff, his eyes widening as the impact sent tremors through his bones. Barely a second passed when a pulse of lightning surged through the staff, shocking him directly.

"Thunder Pulse!"