Chapter 413: Descendant of the All-Counter

Count Halden was a late third-phase powerhouse, with peak combat prowess of that phase, in both direct and indirect combat; his senses as a powerful assassin had few equals. His mind went through multiple shocks, one after another.Though the Duchess did consider the possibility that Axel Nomrad might actually possess the runic eyes and was hiding them, after all, apart from that, his overwhelming combat prowess as a runecaster didn’t make sense.

But for it to be actually true was a terrifying prospect—something which he could now see with his very own eyes. The ability to perceive magical and even non-magical attacks to the most significant degree, as well as analyze and decode them.

Then perform attacks that achieve results far beyond the ordinary, someone who can come up with a counter to almost any sort of attack. The very reason why Damien Nomrad was an unmatched powerhouse of his generation, someone even the king had to respect.

The same reason the High Society unanimously dubbed him with the title of...

THE ALL-COUNTER

Of course, his grandson Axel Nomrad was far from that level of efficiency, but seeing how easily the boy was able to cut through the spell collapse created by the combined effort of hundreds of assassins already indicated that his potential was nothing less.

Halden sighed. At least the one piece of good news from this he could take away was that the previous holder of the runic eyes was now confirmed to be dead. That was, in fact, one of the biggest fears the Duchess had for a very long time. If that old monster were truly alive, he would at least be a 5th phase being by now, someone whom Duke Allen could never beat at a similar phase.

Only the 6th phase king Leonidas could put down that monster.

Halden’s eyes sharpened, moving through the hundreds of his assassin underlings, blending in as one of them, using his most potent ability— flawless camouflage—something the current Axel Nomrad could not see through.

The Duchess’s preparations were perfect; they had sealed off the entire forest. The bandits, the carriage driver, everything was organized like a chess piece. All of them were deadly enough to kill this boy.

The bandits were a powerful group of criminals from outside of Suncrest; they were already strong enough to be a threat to even Morin Drake, whom Axel had killed. But they were taken down too fast.

Then there was the sneak attack of the carriage driver...

The hundreds of Poison daggers.

The spell collapsed, which had no counter.

The boy easily dealt with the first four major killing pieces. The Count ordered through secret transmission, his voice filled with ruthless resolution, "Kill."

Despite all of it, the Duchess was too prepared, too vicious, and too cunning. Ultimately, there was only a 0% chance that the boy could survive this thoroughly planned ambush. The hundreds of Assassins all dashed forward, and Halden himself cast a spell to darken the skies.

Surrounding Axel from all corners, throwing poison-based explosives, daggers, and deadly killing techniques, one after another, each with the complete intention of taking his life.

A massive wave of hallucinogenic poison mist took over the entire road. Everything became utterly chaotic. Axel, using all of his runic abilities in unison and the maximum power of the 2nd-tier runic sword, saw through every form of attack.

As for the poison itself, it was utterly ignored. How could the half-demon bloodline of his be affected by human-made poison, no matter how potent it might be?

Axel was like a slaughtering fiend amid the mayhem, taking the lives of the assassins one after another like popping balloons.

Some were stabbed through the heart, through the brain, some got slashed— their heads or limbs cut off, crawling to get away from him, blood and flesh of the dead littering the roadway and creating a disgusting stench.

Despite his being able to sense all incoming attacks and movement of the mana in the air, some stray attacks managed to get past his defenses and cause minor cuts on his skin, nothing too serious.

Even though none of these killers stood a chance against him, they were like a relentless flood, with little to no regard for their own lives, becoming cannon fodder in front of the sharp sword of Axel, which was the literal scythe of the Grim Reaper incarnated.

Despite his cruel nature, seeing such apparent disregard for one’s life, even he could not help but exclaim internally about what tortures these guys went through to be able to throw away their lives at a mere command of their superior, and that thought only disgusted him.

Just when he thought the tide of cannon fodder would continue, it suddenly stopped. Despite slashing out multiple times, the fog did not clear, and the darkened sky only grew darker. Even though Ken Dusker had provided him with the information that Count Halden would ambush him with a good number of assassins.

The specifics were something he could not provide, as the Duchess did not share them, not even with his son.

So, he was indeed a bit caught off guard that the Dusker bitch had prepared so many layers of killing blows in this grand ambush, to think they had even isolated this entire forest.

Axel walked forward, making more distance between himself and the carriage, as well as the two unconscious siblings. He had a bad feeling as if something worse was coming, and he would rather not have those three die by accident.

JIh!!! JIh!!! JIh!!! JIh!!! JIh!!!

Axel’s ears perked up, sensing the movement in the surrounding mana, as well as the strange beastly noises. Axel took the battle stance, closing his eyes, since his sight could not extend very far in the dense fog. He immersed himself entirely in the energy sense skill.

And the effects of his runic eyes passed onto this new sight. A sight that was almost like heat vision: he noticed the silhouettes of countless creatures surrounding him. Every one of them had six long arms, and they moved like gorillas.

The name of the monsters came to his mind automatically: Six-armed Apekins. Monsters in Eldarion referred to non-intelligent creatures that could not use magical abilities but were physically powerful and could use refined mana from their core to strengthen themselves further.

These creatures may not be privy to magical abilities, but they do have their own innate abilities that are not magic-based, meaning the runic eyes cannot counter them. These things were close to 150 in number, from what he could deduce, sensing as far as possible.

All 3rd-tier creatures. Axel creased his eyebrows for the first time. Even though lower-phase Seekers can deal with nexus creatures of the higher phase, there were too many. He was powerful enough, even in his runic aspect, to deal with all of these monsters, but his mana reserves weren’t inexhaustible.

In fact, all of his powerful skills and traits, as well as the 2nd-tier rune sword, consumed a significant amount of mana reserves. And certain artifacts that he previously made, like the 1st tier mana band, which significantly increased mana reserves, wouldn’t work on him anymore. So his arsenal of endless artifacts was mainly useless at this moment.

The only reason he could even last so long in battle despite using so many powerful abilities non-stop was because of the runic eyes, as well as the mana sense skill. Both of which provided him with an unmatched perception and efficiency of mana usage.

And these monsters, they seem almost immune to this poison mist. There were also half of the hiding assassins, as well as the main danger, Count Halden. It seems they were trying to tire him out, exhausting his energy reserves.

Axel released his boundless killing intent and dashed forward at the hundreds of Six Armed Apekins. He brought out another first-tier but mighty rune sword imbued with three runes of metal, 3x sharpening ability.

He performed, "Imitation sword style, twin sword cascade."

Making himself spin like a torpedo, he performed a copy of Sophia’s crimson sword cascade. Cutting through the defenses of monsters. But their bodies were indeed powerful, especially with six arms throwing constant punches; each of their punches was like a boulder, smashing into his thin swords.

Axel continued to slaughter more and more Apekins by each second, but his runic eyes could not do much against the brute strength type creatures, so he was unable to gain a complete advantage. His energy reserves were dwindling, but Axel did not show the slightest bit of weakness on the outside.

His enemies could only feel an incomprehensible terror at the bloody mayhem he left on the road with each of his steps. These damn creatures had been brainwashed and were being controlled through some strange method; if not for that, how could they resist his killing intent?

Axel was covered in blood of both humans and apekins from head to toe, his runic eyes flashing with vicious cruelty, the bloodlust radiating out of him, which created a layer of tangible pressure around him that nothing could pass through.

Axel put away both swords and exchanged them for a sword crackling with lightning power; three pseudo-runes of Thunder, Mind, and Beast were imbued in it. Granting him the abilities of destructive blue lightning, a sharpened mental state, and beastly strength.

Axel only had 50% of his mana reserves remaining, and to bring out a good amount of power from the 1st-tier sword, his mana was being drained even faster. The very reason he did not want to do this.

He jumped high into the sky and uttered with a chilling countenance, "Runic sword art, Blue lightning divergence."