Lord of The Karmic Armada
Chapter 40: Payback

Chapter 40: Payback

Hearing the disdainful remark of the human, Hansel did not respond or show any change in expression, he was getting used to handling his emotions better and better by the minute. Allowing the enemy to provoke you during battle, especially in such a disadvantageous battle, is a recipe for death.

However, even though he was perfectly controlling his outward expressions, his negative emotions increased with every snarky remark or gesture of his enemy. His emotions became so overwhelming from time to time that he could not help but think that even this result may be the work of the treacherous human in front of him.

Unfortunately, Hansel did not have any way of knowing that it was indeed the work of Valtar.

Valtar’s title was working wonders on both Hansel and Valtar himself. Valtar realized that perhaps his title wasn’t actually weakening his enemy but rather slightly enhancing his stats and causing emotional instability to his enemy. Hansel is already slightly weakened because of the Seal break. Both of these factors combined have now resulted in Valtar having the upper hand.

Again they both ran forward and their sword met with a powerful boom causing another small shockwave. Fists collided against fists, swords clashed against swords. Kicks were blocked, some hits were getting through and some were not.

Unlike their first fight where Valtar is overwhelmed by the insurmountable battle prowess of the Tribe Leader despite both having similar stats. Now Valtar had a significantly greater prowess in the fight because of his manually created advantages through his careful planning which led to the current confrontation against his previously overpowered adversary.

It was not only that, Valtar when he was constantly being beaten like a ragdoll in his first confrontation with Hansel, he wasn’t mindlessly taking a beating rather he observed every move and technique of his enemy, enough to engrave them on his mind for a long time. As such it could be said that in his first fight against the Tribe Leader if he had flailed around his sword like an amateur back then. Then right now he is someone pretty skilled at sword fights. Though he’s still far from being at the Tribe Leaders level his current combat prowess coupled with the title effect gave an advantage enough to slightly overwhelm his enemy.

Valtar sneered in his heart, ’Who’s overpowered now, huh? son of a bitch.’ Looking from the corner of his eyes he noticed that the 9 dark elves that were with him were unable to get close to him because of the difference in levels, he almost forgot about them for a moment. So, if they can’t even get close to him how can they be of help in a fight?

Then for a moment, he looked towards the other side of the underground where another gruesome fight was taking place. Seeing The First Elder fending off 28 of his tribesmen simultaneously, among them there were multiple third-stage awakened as well and he was still not hurting them too much. He had to admit that in terms of Combat prowess, he was only second to the Tribe Leader himself when he was in his emotionless state. Even then there wasn’t too big of a gap in their efficiency. Truly monstrous.

So, another idea popped into his head as he commanded 8 of the second-stage ones to go and join the fight against the First Elder. Valtar commanded the Third-Elder’s possessed body to keep himself hidden and attack at the opportune moment. Hansel is constantly pressured into the fight by Valtar at first and he doesn’t notice that the possessed ones that were with his enemy are joining the fight against the First-Elder.

But after a while of constantly exchanging blows with Valtar, he noticed it. Hansel’s expression finally changed, his friend was barely holding on fighting against so many enemies at once and Hansel could confidently say that no one in the Tribes history could show such terrifying battle prowess except for himself. If the ones with the human also joined the fray it won’t be long till he dies just from over-exertion.

His friend wouldn’t even notice 8 more joining the fight against him considering how much he has to move around constantly while fighting. Not to risk anything, he shouted to his friend, "Zolthar, more are joining against you."

Despite his short message the receiver of it understood his intent immediately and The Tribe leader called him by his name after who knows how many years, his exhausted expression grew ugly as he finally noticed 8 more 2nd stage ones joining the fight. The intensity of his battle reached an apex as he was vehemently struggling.

Clang, clash, crash—metal meeting metal in a relentless symphony. Thud, boom, rattle—the ground shakes under the weight of every blow. Screech, wham, shatter—each sounds a visceral reminder of the chaos of the outrageously tough battle he was in.

Unlike these controlled ones he was facing right now, if they were the real tribesmen of his then let alone face 28 at once. He could guarantee he won’t be able to face more than 10 at once before dying. Realizing that the pressure he was facing had by far crossed the maximum threshold he could withstand, he had no choice but to start seriously injuring his tribe members. There was no choice after all, because if not he would be the one to die.

For the first time in a long time, he activated the Darkness ability that he thought he would be using against the Fae Folks. An extremely pained expression appeared on his face as it was something very taxing for his old body to do. He channeled all his energies to his mouth and gathered large amounts of darkness in his throat as he let out a high-pitched scream,

Whum... whum... whum... kreeeeaaak... skreeeee... drip... drip... drip...

Hearing a scream so strange and unlike any other all the possessed stopped in their tracks for a moment and they all let out an unsettling scream of their own at once. With all the strange screams and cacophony of ghostly echoes, the entire underground quaked. The forest itself shuddered in fear of the insidious battle that was taking place within it.

First Elder took that opportunity very well and immobilized around 10 of the possessed ones. But as ghostly creatures themselves, the ability of the Elder only affected them for a few moments and they broke out of it right after. But immobilizing 10 of them alleviated a lot of his pressure to keep him going a while more.

He already had many injuries and cuts all over his body, his clothes were in a mess, and his stamina was close to none. Even so, he held on and fought and fought relentlessly ignoring all his fatigue and fears.

——————

In the meantime, in the fight between Hansel and Valtar. The moment Hansel shouted to the First Elder Zolthar to give him a warning, Valtar used that opportunity very well.

At that exact instance when his attention was slightly diverted, Valtar took that opportunity and made a slash at his abdomen through a gap in his enemy’s defenses, and then he landed another heavy punch in a span of a single second.

Boooooom.

bang.....

Another small explosion occurred, the impact of the force was powerful enough to send Hansel flying right at the walls of the underground hall, which caused a powerful sound to resound in the entire hall followed by the shaking of the whole underground.

Rumble....

After he was sent flying by the punch of the human and hitting the wall, his internal organs were in disarray, his head felt dizzy and he almost wanted to pass out and let go of everything. A sweet whisper of his dead wife rang in his ears.

"Oh dear, you know everything is already lost, you know you cannot win, even if you win there’s no road ahead of you and you know that. Just let go, come to us, me and your daughter are waiting in the Eternal embrace of darkness." His entire existence faltered hearing those words. But he bit his lips hard enough to make them bleed and let the pain bring him back to his senses.

Because of the critical damage to his internal organs, blood rushed to his mouth in a large amount, and he vomited a mouthful of blood. The deep cut on his abdomen was not helping this situation, not to mention the countless more small cuts that the human had inflicted on him.

It was exactly like their first fight except for the point that their positions had reversed. He was the one now taking the ruthless beating. Hansel stared at the Human who took everything away from him in the span of a single day with absolute hatred that defied reason.

The sweet and tempting voice that Hansel heard was just a result of Valtar’s title indirectly causing all of Hansel’s negative emotions to flare up in his mind and become more and more tangible. The more this fight goes on, the more his own emotions will drag him into the abyss of despair.

Valtar had a sinister smile on his face seeing the overwhelming hatred of the Elven Tribe Leader who was sent flying by overwhelming might. "Tsk tsk tsk, You really can’t imagine Mr. Leader, how beating the shit out of you in the same way you did to me is such a wonderful feeling and it does put a very big smile on my face."