Fwip!

"My Master, welcome. I am in awe to be graced by your presence."

Said the Roach as he suddenly appeared and immediately bowed at Charymos’s side, with his insectoid head lowered deeply.

Most of his once elegant two-piece suit was now scorched and shredded, hemolymph dripping from a multitude of lacerations marked on his exoskeletal frame.

"Insect. So, you’ve finally decided to crawl out from your cocoon?"

Those words were not sarcasm, the Roach had summoned a cocoon to shield himself from Julius’s attack.

Charymos’s expression twisted into something vile as he glared down at the insectoid bowing down at his side. He was so repulsed in fact, that he merely saw the creature as a sentient piece of excrement.

"The sight of you makes me want to hurl my innards out you pathetic insect. Look at the state of you! Mere Humans pushed you to this extent?!"

Charymos’s bloodlust engulfed the Roach and left him trembling, not even being brave enough to utter a single word to salvage whatever trust Charymos still had in him.

[How can I attain the justification to kill this incompetent cur of an insect who is unable to complete even the simplest of tasks?!]

[Subdue the Humans while I hold back Honyopi! Was that too much to ask for?!]

Charymos’s malevolent thoughts made his blood churn, his glare burning a hole atop the Roach’s scalp.

But one might wonder, why not just kill the Roach if he is so repulsed by him? What justification is he talking about?

Well, the reason was simply this: when you put evil creatures in a Tower together, they are bound to kill each other until only one remains, these are, after all, power-hungry beings that are incapable of empathy for the weak.

So, foreseeing this, the ruler of this Tower, much like those of the other Towers, set up absolute laws to govern them.

One such laws was that none may take the life of another on a mere whim, there must be due cause and justification to allow the killing. Which is quite a long process that must be investigated, reviewed and reviewed once more.

"Hm?"

Charymos noticed the third-circle spell rapidly approaching where they stood.

"Oh my~ how flirtatious, is that for mee~?"

His demeanor changed almost instantly. His eyes glittered like a young girl looking at a priceless ornament of jewelry.

He arched his spine, raised one of his arms and let his hand hang limply from it as though he were a one-armed Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"Make sure to stand behind me, mmkay~? This gift is for me and only me."

He stepped forward and casually stretched his already raised arm to received the spell.

BOOOM!

FLAAARE!!

The Pheonix flame exploded as soon as it made contact, but its flames were scattered and split in half as though it had collided with an immovable object —Charymos.

"Oya?"

His slimy lips twisted as he saw a figure darting behind the scattering flames with his broadsword in toe.

Fwish! Fwosh! Fwip!

Julius showcased his impeccable swordsmanship against Charymos, every swing and thrust carrying deadly intent but...

"Oh my what a brutish man you are. Ah~ you’re just my type!"

... None of his swings hit their mark, and he felt like a child wielding a wooden sword, attempting to best a Royal Knight.

[Damn it!] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Julius clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

■■■ Tempering Arts: Third Claw of The Fire Dragon!■■■

Booom!

His blade exploded and so did his movement speed, the flames gathering at the blade until it shone as bright as molten steel.

Fwip! Fwip! Fwip!

[!!]

Julius lunged at hypersonic speeds, such that three of him appeared. The first Julius charged at Charymos’s side.

Booom!!!

As soon as he struck true, the blade exploded, however the flames did not scatter but returned to the sword and were condensed and amplified.

Boooom!!

The second Julius aimed for Charymos’s abdomen, aiming to disembowel and char his innards. He too struck true and a second explosion occured, and the flames did not scatter once more, only heightening the intensity of the heat and light in the blade.

Booooom!!!

The third Julius unleashed a vertical slash that threatened to cleave the Kraken Spawn symmetrically and burn his carcass to a crisp with an explosion that is far greater than the Pheonix flame.

"Argh!!"

Suffering from the recoil of his own attack, Julius was flung into the air, but refused to fall on his back and instead jammed his sword into the earth to stem the momentum that would have otherwise carried him hundreds of meters away.

"Huff! Huff! "

Julius drew dragged breaths like a fatigued dog, the entirety of his body screaming at him, begging for respite. He felt as though the bones on his forearms had been ground.

"What a... wheeze... Monster."

He inhaled sharply before those words escaped with a cold breath. He couldn’t even stand on his feet, only his knees could afford him anything akin to a vertical posture, the hilt of his sword being the crutch that supported this effort.

His dimming eyes refused to even blink as he glared at the creature bathing in his flames.

"Oh myyyy~!"

Charymos looked like a candle within the flames with all the highly viscous slime that dripped from his body without any signs of ceasing.

"Rough play is my love language, just how did you know?!"

Charymos leisurely strutted, swaying his hips toward Julius, the long nail—Or rather, claw—Of his index finger clenched seductively(?) between his teeth.

"But you know..."

Charymos suddenly paused and straightened his posture, the air thinning to such an extent that it neared the conditions of a vacuum.

"Gasp! "

Julius blinked once to catch his breath, and Charymos was no longer in his immediate peripheral.

"... You really should buy me dinner first, you perverted man!"

[!!]

A large fist teleported —No, it wasn’t teleportation, but to Julius who couldn’t even track its movement, it may as well have been.

POW!!!

The immense force of Charymos’s fist turned Julius upside down and forced him head-first into the ground, cracks and fissures forming on the earth as a result.

Julius’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, his nose utterly broken and a few of his teeth either lost or chipped.

"Hm. It was that easy to beak you? That’s no fun at all, sigh..."

"You are not worthy to become my plaything it seems, you would have had the honor to tend to me at night had you sustained consciousness."

Charymos looked at Julius with disappointment and contempt.

"Oh well~ I have other uses for you."

He stuck out his forked, black tongue, his eyes gleaming maliciously.

[How weak... Why are you so interested in these insignificant creatures, my Lord?]

"Time to die Human..."

Gelatinous ooze hung loosely from Charymos’s palm as he prepared to claim Julius’s life so that he can shove him in his pocket dimension.

The Kraken Spawn raised his arm high and rapidly lowered it to —

■■ Mana Burst: Flos Roseus!■■

Boom!!!

A cherry blossom plasma erupted as Kaelen kicked Charymos’s wrist before positioning himself right in front of the unconscious Julius.

"Don’t you dare... Don’t you dare lay another finger on him!!"

Kaelen roared, a bouquet of veins streaking his frontal lobe and his eyes filled to the brink with a carnal rage.