I Am Not The Duke's Evil Son
Chapter 33: Confronting the Beasts

Chapter 33: Confronting the Beasts

"Damn it, what’s with all these beasts? Why did they suddenly go crazy?"

Chadwick swung his sword powerfully, cleaving a massive ash-gray wolf in two. Blood sprayed out, staining parts of his armor.

"Damn this mission to begin with! Why do we have to chase bandits? If that pampered brat has a problem with them, he should just bring his father’s army!"

Andrew thrust his spear, killing two E-rank wolves with a single strike. Andrew was the war leader the Baronet dispatched alongside elite soldiers for important and urgent missions, and he was the one who commanded the barony’s forces in case of a foreign invasion. He was a young man in his mid-twenties, with short brown hair, kind green eyes, and slightly tanned skin.

Andrew possessed remarkable physical capabilities and was on the verge of reaching C-rank. Thus, he was treated with respect by everyone, even by the Baronet himself. It was expected that he would become the strongest person in the barony.

However, Andrew had long wished to leave, believing that a poor and unimportant place like this would only hinder his future accomplishments. He hoped to go to the Royal Capital and advance to become a Royal Knight.

’Damn it, why do I have to serve this trash? Duncan was annoying enough.’

He swung his spear again, severing the heads of two more wolves.

Then he raised his head, looking around at the other soldiers, and shouted angrily, "Finish your work quickly! Enough playing around!"

All the soldiers in his unit were elites who had spent several years at E-rank, so they dealt with beasts of their same level with great ease. In a matter of seconds, dozens of separated corpses surrounded them.

Tarian glanced at the corpses and muttered, "Something’s strange."

After a brief moment of thought, he looked at Andrew and said, "Gather the beasts’ cores, and assign a few men to sweep the surrounding area."

While Tarian was busy giving out orders, a human-sized monkey with extremely thick fur leapt down from the trees. It lunged at Tarian, who quickly jumped off his horse to evade the attack. However, the horse was not so lucky, as the monkey landed on it, crushing its body.

The horse neighed in agony and coughed blood from its mouth; it was clear it would not survive.

Tarian’s brow furrowed in deep anger. "A D-rank beast?"

He swiftly raised his hand, and a massive fireball the size of a barrel appeared and shot out at terrifying speed toward the monkey.

The creature failed to dodge.

The fireball struck it and exploded into a raging inferno that turned everything in its path, including half of the horse’s body, to ashes. The monkey screamed for a few seconds before finally drawing its last breath.

"That was close," Andrew smirked, mocking Tarian’s situation. In truth, they did not like each other much, but neither could afford to openly antagonize the other due to their respective positions.

"Hmph, just do as I say and stop bragging," Tarian replied coldly. Since Arthur had assigned Tarian to lead this mission, he naturally held supreme authority.

"Fine," Andrew replied indifferently, raising his hand and pointing at Chadwick. "You, gather the beasts’ cores. And you, Archie, search the surroundings for any unusual traces."

Archie was the barony’s only Tank, a man in his mid-thirties with a massive, muscular build that made him look like an impenetrable wall. Even his face was broader than most, with sharp, wide eyes and a large bald scar on his head, giving him a savage appearance.

Tanks possessed extraordinarily strong bodies and defensive capabilities many times greater than knights. More importantly, they all shared a special ability called "Beast Lure," which distracted beasts and forced them to focus attacks on the Tank, giving their teammates precious openings.

All Boundless at E-rank were classified as Knights. However, once they reached D-rank, each awakened unique skills depending on their physical capabilities, acquired skills, and personality, and were then divided into different classes such as Thieves, Assassins, Tanks, Martial Artists, Knights, Sharpshooters, Masters, and even Heroes, This classification did not apply to mages, whose class change conditions were different.

Chadwick’s brow furrowed, and he felt humiliated by Andrew’s words. In truth, Arthur had tasked Chadwick with supervising them, but as soon as they entered the forest, he noticed that all the soldiers avoided him and treated him harshly. Some even insulted him, calling him a traitor or Arvan’s loyal dog.

At first, he tried to deal with them calmly, asserting his authority. However, he was one man against more than fifty soldiers. In the end, he chose to remain silent and lower his head to avoid being killed and blamed on beasts or bandits.

Having served with these soldiers for a considerable time, he knew they weren’t good people, in fact, he had once been like them. But over the past few weeks, his perspective had begun to change.

"Fine," Chadwick scoffed indifferently. He quietly drew his knife and began extracting the beasts’ cores. Meanwhile, Archie grabbed his massive metal shield and took five men with him to search the forest for anything unusual.

Howl!

Roar!

More beast sounds erupted from nearby, causing all the soldiers to raise their vigilance again.

Without much delay, a group of D-rank monkeys appeared, leaping down from the trees and attacking them mercilessly.

One soldier hesitated and failed to move in time. Before he even realized what was happening, a massive monkey burst out from the bushes behind him and crushed his head with a rock-like fist.

The soldier dropped dead instantly.

Without even glancing at the corpse, the monkey lunged toward another soldier. However, the ground trembled suddenly, and a wall of earth rose up in front of it, blocking its path.

The monkey struck the wall but failed to break it. In an instant, seven soldiers surrounded it and simultaneously stabbed it. Yet, the monkey’s thick hide protected it from serious injury.

The monkey roared and prepared to attack the soldiers, but they all jumped back at once.

The beast was confused, and before it could react, dozens of rocks flew at it from the direction where the mage, Nerian, was located.

"Damn, these damn monkeys are really tough!"

Nerian cast another Rock Barrage spell, targeting another monkey.

Since there was no Tank accompanying them here, he was forced to cast multiple Protection spells to assist the surrounding soldiers.

The same went for Tarian, who was casting spells rapidly, growing increasingly frustrated due to the heavy mana consumption and the lack of time to replenish it.

"Finish this quickly! We need to retreat from this place, it’s unsafe!"

"Aaah!"

A sudden scream erupted, drawing everyone’s attention.

They turned to see one of the monkeys grabbing a soldier by the head and feet, brutally crushing and tearing apart his body.

The sight made everyone shudder. They quickly heightened their vigilance and poured more strength into their attacks.

However, the number of beasts remained overwhelming.

If not for the presence of the D-rank mages protecting their flanks, many more soldiers would have perished, for D-rank monkeys were no easy opponents.