The air stilled as if time froze.
The next second, Varian shot toward Charles.
Whoosh!
The white wolf raised its head in confusion as the old man closed the distance between them. He already crossed what was a secure distance and intruded into its private space.
So, it raised its paw to attack him when—
Swish!
Varian kicked the ground and lunged forward. His body twisted in mid-air and he shot just a few feet away from Charles and reached a mid level 7 monster.
That was the monster that Charles was about to kill.
Without a word, he raised his hand and with swung it down.
The space around his palm shook and the space around his palm solidified to give him a boost.
Then his palm turned golden as lightning mana filled it up.
Whoosh!
The beast was terrified as the palm reached its body. It tried to escape and would've, had it not been for the space suddenly freezing up.
Even then, it took but a moment to break the space restriction.
That one moment, however, was enough for the lethal palm to reach its neck.
Ka!
Like a knife cutting better, Varian's palm cut its neck and the beast's head rolled down due to the sheer force.
And rolling on the ground, it stopped at Charles' feet.
Varian looked at the wolf's green eyes. The wolf, no, Charles was looking at him with eyes filled with confusion and hostility.
'Did I know this old bastard? Then what's his intention for stealing my prey?' Charles was furious at his actions, but more than fury, he was curious.
As the kind man he had always been, Varian solved his confusion with a single action.
He smiled provocatively at the wolf and said. "Woof. Woof."
"!"
"?"
".."
The whole field fell silent. The fights still happened, but everyone's focus was on the white wolf and the old man.
What the fuck was this old guy even trying to pull?
That's Charles Xander for fuck's sake!
The old man's eyes were locked with the wolf and his smile slowly showed disdain.
"Roar!"
The giant white wolf, Lykos kicked the ground and was about to tear the old bastard to shreds.
The old man seemed to have anticipated its action and teleported to another mid level 7 monster.
Swish!
It was another clean hit. The head of a tiger rolled down to Charles' feet.
"Roar!"
Swish!
Another head reached him.
Charles narrowed his eyes and looked at the old man. Those mocking eyes…
Stomp!
Raising his foreleg, Charles stomped the heads to pieces and kicked the ground.
This time, instead of the old man, it aimed for the mid level 7 monsters.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
It too took only a single attack to kill the monsters. But compared to the old man, it was far faster, far more efficient, and far more brutal.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three beast heads shot towards the old man and landed at his feet.
….Thud!
Then another three.
…Thud!
Even the high level 7s that were fighting monsters were dumbfounded at the scene.
The white wolf moved at a ridiculous speed as it absolutely destroyed the monsters.
Even though there were people stronger than him, including the three that Charles can't even compete with, Charles proved himself to be special.
Within just ten minutes, he hunted down thirty monsters.
"Roar!"
The old looked at the thirty heads near his feet.
Everyone could see that his expression was a bit complicated. It was almost as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Perhaps he thought he could challenge Charles.
But now he must've realized he was thinking too much.
The old man looked at the white wolf looking down at him with a mocking smile.
Charles crushed him in comparison.
The old man stiffly nodded his head, still not coming out of his shock
His eyes told it all…his entire hard work was wasted.
'Tsk. And here I thought he was something.' Charles snorted in the back of his mind and stopped paying any attention to the loser.
The old man silently withdrew from the battlefield.
No one tried to speak to him or even stop him.
After withdrawing twenty miles from the battlefield, Varian sat on top of a tree with a complicated expression.
Indeed, they were all completely right.
Varian couldn't believe what he was seeing.
When he heard the rumors about Charles reaching level 7 and even high level 7, he made a projection of Charles' strength.
Compared to what he assumed, what he saw was shocking. He almost didn't want to believe it.
Since the last time he checked his status on 38th, Varian had grown. So, he thought he'd finally be able to challenge Charles.
He couldn't.
He was thinking too much.
"Hahahahaha!" Varian finally burst out laughing.
His laughter was filled with pride, joy, and rage.
After being provoked, Charles showed most of his strength.
Varian didn't want to believe what Charles showed because it was too low than what he expected.
Varian couldn't challenge Charles because…why would he even challenge someone weaker than him?
'I thought I'd need to still struggle, gain more treasures and grow stronger to barely challenge and kill him.'
He was indeed thinking too much.
Varian almost felt like his hard work was wasted. Of course, he wasn't complaining about garnering more strength.
He looked at the sky through the fog. It was night.
'The Ruler's Abode will open at midnight. I still have some time to finish my memory session.' Varian took a breath.
'Before that, what's my growth?' His eyes twinkled and he said. 'Status.'
[Superhuman Level 7: 4k/10k (+1k)
Space Level 7: 3.5k/10k (+1k)
Lightning Level 7: 3.5k/10k (+1k)
Plantae Level 7: 4k/10k (+1k)
Psychic Level 7: 3.5k/10k (+0.5k)
Macrokinetic Level 7: 2.5k/10k (+0.5k)
Water level 7: 2.5k/10k (+0.5k)]
Varian sucked in a breath of cold air. Even though he was expecting this since he didn't check his growth for almost a week, it was still shocking.
He didn't feel much in the previous battle since he was only using three paths. Back then, he could easily kill any mid level 7 and hold his own against high level 7.
But now that he looked at what he could actually do, he got an idea of his full strength.
Five of his seven paths reached mid level 7. Two paths were still at a distance.
'If I use them together, I am pretty sure I can thrash any high level 7.' Varian clenched his fists.
In fact, it wasn't just high level 7s, even peak level 7s would've had a hard time standing against him.
'But those three…' Varian recalled the two princes and one princess standing at the edge of the battlefield.
They gave him a sense of danger.
He wouldn't be powerless against them, but his chances of defeating them were pretty much zero.
Because those three were just shy of touching the bottleneck of level 8.
At high levels, the difference between a normal peak level 7 and such peak level 7 was significant.
If they actually make progress in clearing the bottleneck, the difference would widen further.
'But my target isn't them…' Varian's eyes flashed with a spark of lightning as he recalled the giant wolf.
'That bastard…if there wasn't a crowd around, I'd have killed you there.'
That's the only reason Varian held back after realizing Charles was weaker.
There were nearly a hundred members there. It was too risky.
Some people hated Charles, some were neutral, but there were absolutely some who had a good relationship with him or the Xanders.
If push came to shove, they'd help Charles.
Varian was confident in destroying Charles, not the crowd.
…At least, not yet.