‘It’s time to end things.’ I thought inwardly as I glanced down at the panicked man fiddling around with his healing potion and I canceled my [Airwalk] spell, after which I began descending headfirst from the skies toward his location.
Kai was so absorbed in gulping his potion down that he wasn’t even paying attention to the rapidly encroaching grave threat to his life – me. I was debating what sort of spell would be best used to finish off such a high-statted person but when I saw how horrible of a combatant he was, especially considering his high amounts of experience, I just couldn’t bring myself to waste any further mana on him.
I simply pointed my trusty saber downward.
The velocity of my descent did the rest.
The impact was brutal.
My saber plunged through his back like a spear, piercing flesh, muscle, and bone with ease as my momentum drove it clean through his torso. A wet crunch echoed from his body as ribs splintered and organs ruptured and my curved blade erupted from the front of his chest accompanied by a strong blast of blood as if his insides had straight-up exploded from the intense pressure I put him under.
Kai’s eyes bulged wide with shock and agony and his blood-curdling scream tore through the air before blood began pouring from his mouth in great streams, staining his teeth crimson and shutting him up. He choked on his own red liquid and could only let out pained guttural sounds as his hands weakly clawed at the blade skewering him. The healing potion he’d been drinking fell from his hand, shattering uselessly against the ground.
His strength faded rapidly. The once-proud adventurer who had dared to stand against me now trembled like a broken toy. His hands soon fell limply to his sides as his head tilted forward. The blood dripping from his lips slowed and his breath only came in shallow, wheezing gasps.
I pulled my saber free with a beautiful squelch sound accompanying my actions and his body immediately collapsed forward like a lifeless husk. My landing hadn’t been gentle – I stood over him triumphantly as though he’d been the prey I’d been hunting and finally managed to slay. His high Vitality had given him great resistance, but in this instance, my descent had so much velocity that it was hopeless at stopping me.
[You’ve slain Kai (Level 25). You’ve gained 1754 XP.]
Hmm… that’s honestly a pretty good XP gain for killing this pathetic nobody. Discover stories with empire
<Selene, elves, pause.> I ordered them and even utilized my right as their subjugator to physically influence their actions. I didn’t want them to kill the slaves who were in the middle of falling headfirst to the ground while paralyzed from head to toe due to their master’s demise.
<Elves, capture the slaves then move to help the other teams out. Have Seraphiel heal any injured one, especially that blonde healer… Blossom certainly did a number on her.>
<Blossom made sure not to kill her! She remembered Master’s order to capture valuable enemies!> She decreed proudly, though I could only smile wryly when I saw the ‘mauled to the brink of death’ state of the poor woman in question.
<Blossom, Plump Fox, come with me. Let’s finish this madman for good.>
<Ok!> Blossom accepted my order cheerily while Selene didn’t react besides beginning to run after me and my dog-girl.
…
[Level 28 Jack Black had been subjugated!]
[Remaining subjugation capacity until cooldown: 10/100]
[Enter cooldown early?]
‘No.’ I thought inwardly. My capacity was already only at 59 from subjugating my slaves, namely Ayame, Blossom, Seraphiel, and the labor as well as guard slaves, though since they willingly accepted their subjugation the capacity was only drained a little.
The same couldn’t be said about Blackjack… or as I’d just learned, Jack Black. A bit of a shitty name if you ask me, but I do approve of his chosen alias. He cost me almost 50 capacity while the level 24 Selene did not even cost 30. This showed that the higher level they were compared to me the more they cost, and not linearly but exponentially. Even if by some miracle I could beat a person like Raika or Vex, I would not have enough capacity to subjugate them even at 100/100 capacity.
“Brother… has anyone told you that… you’re a shameless scumbag?” Blackjack asked between tired wheezes. His body was burned to a state like mine was back when I returned from the primordial dimension, thanks to the same Pyromancer woman at that. Just like me, he was still capable of functioning even in this state, letting me know that it was not just me and Iris who had extreme tolerance for pain.
Once I killed Kai the three of us ganged up on him with me taking the brunt of his attacks, Selene sending fire spells at him, and Blossom jumping at him from the shadows with her claws coated with [Behemoth’s Bane], the spell she used when we first met during the war troll fight.
Blackjack was defeated within minutes, at which point I offered him the same deal Abudha received, which was to surrender or die. It pained my heart a bit that I had to choose between killing my enemies and thus receiving lots of XP or subjugating them, but this time I elected to go with the latter. Strong allies were definitely more important right now than XP, or at least so I thought.
I could either ‘consume’ him and gain a great deal of XP, perhaps even 3000, or enslave him and have this man be my ally until the end of time. The choice basically boiled down to a small short-term boost to my personal strength or a giant long-term boost to my entire faction.
Naturally, I will also not neglect leveling up, but Blackjack had such an interesting combat style and he was also not as old as Kai, so he had the potential to grow alongside me and the other youngsters in the future. Think of it as if my collector’s greed had flared, I honestly wanted to have a Soul Records certified madman as my subordinate. Sounded badass in my head, though I might get some headaches from him from time to time.
“I’m pretty sure that he must’ve heard it numerous times…” Selene grumbled her answer to Blackjack’s question.
Me? A shameless scumbag? Where do these people get such misguided notions? It’s a completely baseless accusation, no, this is outright slander against my fair and humble character.
“Hehehe…! Blossom thinks Master is the most amazing person in the whole world, but some people did call Master similar titles before… Like his best friend, Broderick.”