Along with Lyska, the whole pigmen reserve army had their jaws dropped to the floor. An Emperor-ranked Black One dead in one attack? Even the two Transcendents had to deliver a few attacks before one Emperor-ranked Black One dropped to the ground, unmoving.
Sam did not just stop there though, and continued his simple, calculating swordsmanship to wreak havoc in the middle of the Black army. Some hundred meters of open space was carved out in the middle of the Black Ones’ army. Even the most ferocious of the Black Ones were leaving the empty circle be, going around it to face the pigmen warrior army.
Sam’s sword might have been using simple moves to strike at enemies in his path, but the effect was anything but simple. Each slash of his sword carried the cyan aura around which a bolt of lightning had formed naturally from his full-power Lightning Form. So even a simple slash left behind only charred remains of King-ranked Black pigmen. The army had over 15 Emperor-ranked Black Ones, and Lyska, after coming out of his stupor, was already dealing with the nearby two — one was already dead behind him.
Sam also zoomed past the charging group of Black Ones, a dome of bright blue lightning enveloping and then exploding all of them to pieces as he ran at his peak speed. Waiting for the Emperor-ranked ones to become a problem felt like a waste — he would seek them out himself.
Sam was not the same person who had entered the highsword dungeon over seven-plus months ago. He had killed enough monsters to get his second job as a Second Ranker, and even that one had reached halfway through to its level cap. This job was also similar to his last one, giving him access to his lightning bolts and making the Lightning Form more mana-efficient, along with a few minor and one quite useful skill.
The dome of the lightning explosion was a new one. There was another which let him charge an enormous lightning ball to the very limit — the explosion it left behind when it landed was blinding and earth-shaking. It would be disastrous to use it in such a small area; the mountains might break on his own army’s head.
Sam didn’t need to use it though. Just the ordinary attacks of his lightning-filled Sacrium blade were enough to leave deep, burning, and electrified wounds on the thickest of skins. The second Black Emperor pigman he faced, however, was ready for him. The Black One’s land-based Emperor form was simply an enormous, same-looking pigman, some 100–300 meters tall, but with bulging muscles and somehow even less intelligence than before. Also, they could only use one element — ice, psychic, or fire. The skills related to those elements, however, got much stronger in them. Several of these high-damage AOE attacks were launched from afar and did the most damage to the unsuspecting ordinary pigmen fighting their own battles.
Sam launched his own several-meters-big, lightning-covered cyan aura slashes at the nearest Emperor-ranked Black One as he made his way through, burning and shocking the hordes of King-rank and below Black Ones, who were more interested in running out of his way than facing him.
The Emperor Black One used his massive axe to receive the lightning aura arcs. The thick wooden handle, ingeniously or perhaps by dumb luck, saved the guy from getting cut and electrocuted. Sam charged his legs with full lightning coursing through his body and made a high jump, leaving another dome of electricity exploding and killing the nearby Black Ones effortlessly.
The Black Emperor saw Sam coming and opened his giant mouth to release a bone-chilling hail of pure, cold, freezing ice breath, crushing some of his own Black Ones as a freezing cross-pillar formed where the powerful high-pressure breath landed.
It followed behind Sam and would have eventually gotten to him, but Sam charged his feet again and, with a loud boom, changed the direction of his mid-air charge, the chilling ice breath missing him.
Rising above the Black Emperor’s ugly head, Sam launched seven slashes of powerful aura lightning straight at the guy’s head. Only in the last second did the guy realize he should move and hurriedly took his giant steps back, dodging a few of the arcs. The Emperor could move but could not stop Sam. The Black Emperor raised his left fist to strike at Sam, but that was too slow — Sam finally landed the powerfully charged, lightning-filled Sacrium sword’s overhead strike on the Black Emperor’s head and split it open, burning it with the enormous force of his lightning that descended directly at the Black Emperor’s head from the sky above.
Sam breathed in for a few seconds while the massive form of the Black pigman fell slowly. The full mana pool of his was already used up. He was powerful in this form, but there was always a limiting factor. Not anymore though. Sam opened one of the two full mana containers and touched the liquid mana, immediately soaking it into his body to fully refill his mana pool.
It was a forced refill though, and Damian had specifically warned them not to abuse their bodies by refilling mana again and again until the point where their muscles and minds tore apart. Sam could handle a few refills, without any problem. It was nothing to him if after this he had to skip two attacks — he could go all out here.
After fully refilling his mana pool, Sam closed the container and jumped down from the Black Emperor’s scorched head seconds before it hit the Black army, killing many of their own troops. Once again energized, Sam continued his reign of terror single-handedly, alone in the middle of the Black pigmen army, killing and damaging more Black Ones than even the Transcendent pigmen lords had done in any attacks in the previous few years. This was just the beginning though, Sam would not claim to be strongest in their group. After experiencing such things none of them were the same as before.