Chapter 463 - No Dialogue

Chapter 463: 463 - No Dialogue

The man with the axe arrived first, his body charging forward at high speed against Lisa, the blow coming down with enough force to crack any rock in its path.

But she simply wasn’t there anymore by the time the axe hit the ground.

Lisa had shifted to the side in the blink of an eye with a Flash Step, appearing behind him before the impact itself had even finished echoing across the rocky terrain, her claws sinking deep into his back before any reaction was possible.

"WHAT?!" the man shouted in shock, not understanding what had just happened.

"THIS DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE," he roared, spinning around in obvious pain, trying to land a retaliatory strike that only cut through the empty air where she’d been an instant before. "WHAT LEVEL MONSTERS ARE YOU?!"

The woman with the daggers, watching from a distance, tensed up at that display of strength.

"WAIT! If you’re smart enough to talk, we can negotiate this!"

Lohan advanced calmly through his own filaments already spread across the terrain, feeling a pang of amusement at that belated attempt at diplomacy.

’Now you want to talk,’ he thought, with no real intention of responding. ’Interesting how that only happened once they realized they might not be able to win.’

The mage holding a staff finally finished his own spell, sending a burst of purple energy firing toward Lohan with a sharp hiss cutting through the air.

Analyzing the magical energy given off by that, Lohan realized it might actually be a good opportunity to test himself against regular Players too.

So Lohan didn’t even bother dodging, simply letting his own gelatinous mass absorb the impact, the magical energy dissipating against his surface without causing any significant damage.

"How is this possible," the mage whispered, horrified, staring at his own hand as if it had betrayed him.

Two swordsmen, who had tried to flank the pair, taking advantage of that distraction, advanced simultaneously, identical blades cutting through the air in a coordinated attempt to catch that small Slime from two angles at once.

But the filaments were already there, waiting.

The exact instant the two Players crossed that invisible line, translucent webs contracted violently, trapping both of their ankles and sending them crashing face first into the volcanic rocks.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" one of them shouted, struggling against that invisible trap. "What the hell kind of monsters are these?! Who agreed to this on our land?"

The other one stayed quiet, desperately trying to use his blade to cut through those webs, but even though they were thin, there was a resilient layer around them that made even cutting through harder than expected.

Lisa, still busy dodging the increasingly desperate blows from the axe man, let out a laugh over the mental link with Lohan.

’You were really right, Halon, their whole attitude changed fast once they realized the scale of who they’re up against... I think before we send Dylan in diplomatically, we should give them a taste of our power so he doesn’t waste time and hair over this.’

Hearing that, Lohan laughed too. ’Yeah, talking is really the best way to handle things, but when one side refuses to listen, fists do a pretty good job of solving that problem.’

He then advanced toward the two immobilized swordsmen, as the filaments already began climbing up their legs, the slow, deliberate digestion starting exactly the way it had with the archer minutes earlier.

The screams that followed made the mage stop completely, his body freezing at that sound, any further attempt at a spell momentarily forgotten.

"They’re being digested alive?! That’s monstrous!" he muttered, horrified, his own feet instinctively backing away despite no direct threat having been made against him yet.

’Monstrous,’ Lohan repeated to himself, a trace of genuine irritation mixing in with his own amusement at that word. ’Interesting choice of term, coming from someone who was willing to kill ordinary players just for trying to recover some lost gear.’

"You all chose this yourselves," Lohan replied through a mental link Lisa had set up with them, no trace of mercy in his own voice. "Claiming territory by force, striking first, refusing any attempt at civil dialogue. Now you want to talk just because you’re losing. Isn’t that cowardly enough for you to realize yourselves?"

Hearing those "monsters" speak with such fluency, the members of that group were stunned.

And even those words seemed to strike something inside the mage, a visible hesitation taking hold of him, his staff lowering slightly as he processed that accusation, but before he could respond or act in any way, Lisa finally finished off her fight against the axe man, a precise blow cutting clean through his throat.

His body dropped heavily, and to the group’s horror, the small Slime split off from the original body and began absorbing it with that same satisfaction as before.

[You defeated Garrogsh, Level 14]

[Predator Title activated: Evolution successfully extracted]

The woman with the daggers, seeing her own leader fall, let out a scream of pure fury, abandoning any remaining pretense.

"SCREW THIS, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

She advanced with an impressive speed for her own level, her poisoned daggers cutting through the air in a quick series of strikes aimed at Lisa, who simply stepped back, letting each blade pass within centimeters of her own body with an almost tedious ease.

"Now we’re talking," Lisa remarked, a sharp smile forming. "I prefer this over fake negotiation."

She countered with brutal speed, her claws intercepting the next strike and twisting the woman’s own wrist with enough force to knock the dagger from her hand, a dry crack of breaking bone echoing through the air.

The scream that followed was abruptly cut off when Lisa finished it off with a wonderful burst of flame, which, under the woman’s horrified gaze, came unerringly straight at her face.

And so, another sound of anguish and desperate screaming rose through the cave.

Only the mage and the two swordsmen remained, the latter two already practically consumed by Lohan’s digestion, their bodies reduced to little more than residual fragments before disappearing completely, the screams finally falling silent as the last trace of their consciousness faded out.

[You defeated Iune, Level 13]

[You defeated Yusuo, Level 13]

[Predator Title activated: Evolution successfully extracted]

[Predator Title activated: Evolution successfully extracted]

The mage, finally alone, took a step back, his staff shaking in his hands, his eyes darting between his own fallen leader’s body and the two companions who had just disappeared.

"Wait," he said, his voice breaking with genuine panic. "I surrender. I surrender completely, please, I won’t..."

"From what we understand, you all don’t give chances either to anyone who attacks you first..." Lohan cut in, advancing calmly toward him. "Why exactly should I give you one now?"

"Because... because..." his mind went completely blank, unable to come up with a single reason to try to buy his own life.

He was already Level 14, and if he died now, he’d go straight back down to Level 13 with 0% experience, losing nearly a week’s worth of grinding.

Unfortunately for him, Lohan wasn’t willing to wait around for him to come up with something.

The last filaments closed in around him before any further attempt at escape was even possible, the final digestion consuming what remained of that small group that had dared to challenge their very presence there.

[You defeated Ruze, Level 14]

[Predator Title activated: Evolution successfully extracted]

With silence finally returning to that rocky area, broken only by the distant hum of lava running through the volcano’s fissures, Lohan felt his own biomass and experience settling internally, an incredible satisfaction spreading through his entire gelatinous structure.

Six evolutions extracted in the span of minutes, each one carrying a potential he’d still need to examine calmly, away from that terrain still stained with the residual remains of the recent confrontation.

Lisa, shaking out her own claws again to clear away the last traces of that fight, turned toward him.

"That was fast," she remarked, genuine approval in her own voice.

"I didn’t even need to use half my strength," Lohan replied, still processing the multiple evolutions the Predator Title had just extracted. "If that really was the best the Black Horn Legion had to offer, their claim over this territory was always pure fantasy."

"And we didn’t even need to risk anything valuable to get this," she added, a satisfied glint in her own golden eyes. "Just time and a reasonable dose of patience to put up with all that arrogance."

Lisa nodded, turning her own attention toward the now unguarded cave entrance, the torch lit path stretching out silently ahead, free of any human obstacle.

"Well," she said, "at least for now, because once they respawn in the nearby city, they’ll probably come back with the whole guild to try to get revenge."

"And I’m counting on it," Lohan replied with a smile, savoring that feeling of power.