Chapter 286: Gray King VS Gagaran, Experience Points Break One Million Again
The Water Elemental Ogre grinned, letting out a cruel laugh. Its two protruding, sharp teeth glinted coldly in the sunlight as it swung the nailed hammer in its hand.
Bang!
An Iron Ratman in front was sent flying by the blow. Although its fur, harder than steel, was not broken, the point of impact with the nailed hammer caved in on the spot. Chunks of its internal organs and blood were coughed out of the Iron Ratman's mouth.
The terrifying force sent its body flying, knocking over several other Iron Ratmen in the process, and a string of miserable shrieks filled the air.
The Iron Ratman Tribe Leader looked surprised upon seeing these three higher-tier ogres.
"Long, the Water Elemental Ogre, and Dui, the Earth Elemental Ogre."
"*Squeak-squeak-ha*, if I remember correctly, these two have always preferred to act alone and don't get along. To think they've actually gathered together now."
The whiskers on both sides of the Iron Ratman Tribe Leader's cheeks curled upwards, revealing sharp incisors, as if he had just witnessed something unexpected.
These two powerful, higher-tier ogres had quite a reputation in the Abelion Hills. Coupled with their solitary styles, he naturally knew a thing or two about them.
"Who is that ogre in the middle? I've never seen him before." The Iron Ratman Tribe Leader's gaze fell on Gagaran, who was in the center.
With the arrival of Gagaran and his two companions, the Ogres, who had been at a disadvantage, quickly rallied. Faced with the powerful trio, the Iron Ratmen had no choice but to retreat behind their Tribe Leader.
The two sides stood in opposition, facing each other.
"What's going on with this group of demi-humans?" Gagaran's expression was grim. They had somehow managed to sneak into their lair without him noticing. Seeing the heavily wounded Ogres around him particularly angered him.
"Iron Ratmen. Tough and taste bad," Long, the Water Elemental Ogre, remarked, smacking his lips.
The Earth Elemental Ogre's pupils shrank as he got a clear look at the figure. "Gray King!" His tongue, which had been cut off, had now grown back.
The Gray King, one of the Ten Evils of the Demi-Humans?
Gagaran's spirits jolted. The whites of his unsettling eyes stared at the Gray Ratman standing at the forefront of the group—the one who was taller and more powerfully built.
"*Squeak-squeak-ha*, I remember who you are!" The Gray Ratman Tribe Leader, the Gray King, sized up Gagaran, his whiskers twitching before his expression turned fierce.
"I heard about you months ago—the outsider, 'Great Ogre,' who goes around challenging the strong in the Hills."
"To think you could subdue Long and Dui. It seems your strength is even greater than the rumors say."
"No wonder so many Ogres have gathered together and are even trading with Humans!"
Klak! Klak! Klak!
The Gray King raised his arms, striking his sharp claws together and creating sparks. He roared, "You damned bastard, you are a disgrace to all demi-humans! You're showing those inferior Humans your weakness!"
"Hand over all the grain from your trade with the Humans! Otherwise, I'll chop you into mincemeat and feed you to the filthiest, weakest Goblins!"
Gagaran remained expressionless, but a cold aura emanated from his body.
"I hate being called 'Great Ogre'!"
Gagaran lifted the heavy spiked club in one hand, staring coldly at the Gray King opposite him.
"The 'Gray King'? I've long wanted to test the level of you so-called 'Ten Evils of the Demi-Humans.'"
*Divine Skill: Flash!*
The ground beneath Gagaran's feet exploded. A faint light flashed across his body as he charged toward the Gray King at an extraordinary speed.
He swung the heavy spiked club.
Bang!
The Gray King crossed his sharp claws in front of his chest, colliding with the spiked club with a tremendous crash.
An airwave surged outwards.
A crack appeared in the ground beneath the Gray King's feet. His arms were forced down slightly, but he had blocked Gagaran's heavy blow.
"I'll kill you!" The Gray King's eyes darkened as he let out a sharp roar, "*Rat Swarm!*"
A dusty gray light enveloped the Gray King's entire body. Pairs of crimson eyes emerged from all over him—they belonged to fist-sized rats.
In an instant!
A dense swarm of rats poured forth from the Gray King's body. Due to the extremely close distance between the two, the rats quickly swarmed onto Gagaran.
The massive number of rats chittered incessantly, seemingly wanting to gnaw at Gagaran's flesh.
"What is this ability!?"
It was the first time Gagaran had encountered such a situation. He immediately retreated while activating a martial skill: "*Outer Skin Reinforcement!*"
Seemingly still uneasy, he used another martial skill.
*Outer Skin Super-Reinforcement*
Using two defensive martial skills in succession made the hardness of Gagaran's skin no less than that of ordinary metal.
Splat!
Gagaran slapped the rats gnawing on his body, crushing them into a paste. "Ordinary rats?"
Seeing that the rats could not harm him and appeared to be just ordinary rats, Gagaran paid them no more mind and charged forward again, swinging his spiked club.
Boom—Bang—Boom!
The two figures clashed in the open ground, causing the Ogres and Iron Ratmen behind them to hold their breath involuntarily.
This level of strength was far beyond their imagination.
Many of the Iron Ratmen were in disbelief that the Ogre could fight on par with their Tribe Leader.
However.
The fierce battle did not last long. Gagaran, who had seemed incredibly dominant, began to be pushed back. Even an onlooker could see that his movements had become significantly slower than at the start.
"*Squeak-squeak-ha*, have you noticed?"
The Gray King cackled triumphantly as his claws continuously clashed with the spiked club in Gagaran's hand.
"My Rat Swarm isn't made of ordinary rats. These cute little guys continuously release a toxin."
Gagaran's expression changed. "*Firm Strike!*"
Boom!
The powerful blow forced the two apart again.
Gagaran quickly retreated, gasping for breath. He could already feel his arms and body gradually becoming numb.
"You despicable bastard," Gagaran said, looking angrily at the smug Gray King opposite him.
"Hey, hey, where do you think this is, outsider? This is the Abelion Hills."
The Gray King let out a disdainful sneer, then turned his head to look at the Water Elemental Ogre and Earth Elemental Ogre behind him.
"I thought those two would have warned you, but it seems they did nothing at all. Looks like they aren't very loyal to you, 'Great Ogre.'"
The effects of the poison.
Gagaran felt the numbness in his body growing more severe. This was clearly no ordinary toxin. He shook his head. "I told you, I hate that title!"
"Your strength isn't half bad."
The Gray King looked at Gagaran, who was still standing after fighting him for so long despite being poisoned by the potent "Murine Plague," and a look of appreciation appeared in his crimson eyes. "How about you submit to me?"
Hearing these words.
A surge of anger rose within Gagaran. Those words again.
"Recruiting my subordinate right in front of me."
"I can't pretend I didn't see that," a sinister, cold laugh suddenly echoed from above.
The Gray King's gaze froze, and he quickly raised his head to look at the sky.
He saw that, at some unknown time, a figure wrapped in a red robe was hovering in mid-air, quietly watching them.
"*Dragon Lightning!*"
Tang Zheng had no intention of wasting words. This group of Iron Ratmen had killed so many Ogres, and that was a lot of experience points.
A dazzling, dragon-shaped bolt of lightning condensed in mid-air and, in the blink of an eye, crashed down upon the Gray King.
"Ahhh!!" the Gray King shrieked.
The lightning dissipated.
The Gray King's entire pelt was blackened, and arcs of electricity crackled across his iron-hard fur. He let out another sharp scream, "It hurts so damn much! Get down here!!"
Hmm?
"Does he have lightning resistance?"
Tang Zheng was surprised to see the Gray King take a direct hit from *Dragon Lightning* without suffering severe damage.
"In that case, *Fire Dragon!*"
Crimson flames swept across the sky, forming a pillar of fire that descended from above.
"Wai-wait a minute!"
The moment the Gray King saw the flames, a look of terror appeared in his eyes. He turned to flee, but it was too late.
Boom!
The high-temperature flames enveloped the Gray King and exploded.
Under the enhancement of the passive ability *Elemental Blessing*, the power of the magic was further strengthened and made more destructive.
The tough fur offered no protection whatsoever against the scorching flames. Enveloped in fire, the Gray King let out piercing wails and miserable screams.
This member of the Ten Evils of the Demi-Humans, under everyone's gaze, was burned to a crisp in the flames with no ability to resist.
*Gained 32,789 experience points.*
[Experience Slot: 462,311 / 410,000]
The faces of all the Iron Ratmen showed expressions of disbelief. For a moment, they were all struck speechless as panic spread among them.
"*Fire Dragon.*"
Tang Zheng's indifferent voice sounded again.
Crimson, high-temperature flames smashed into the Iron Ratmen's position, turning it into a sea of fire that engulfed a large number of them.
*Fire Dragon.*
*Fire Dragon.*
Two more Fire Dragons were cast, and the roughly 800 elite Iron Ratmen were annihilated by Tang Zheng in one go.
*Gained 271 experience.*
*Gained 325 experience.*
*Gained 308 experience.*
*...*
[Experience Slot: 730,623 / 410,000]
The strength of these Iron Ratmen was, on average, at a standard of level 10 or higher. In an instant, Tang Zheng had gained around 250,000 experience.
"The experience points provided by these demi-human races, most of which have special abilities, are generally far higher than that of monsters of the same level."
A look of surprise flashed in Tang Zheng's eyes. He controlled his flight magic to descend from the sky, arriving in front of an Iron Ratman at the edge of the flames. More than half its body was scorched, and it was barely breathing.
"*Charm Species!*"
A glint of magic power flashed in Tang Zheng's eyes. "Tell me the location of your tribe."
He indeed had no intention of continuing to conquer other demi-human races during this time. Once the drought dragged on, these demi-humans would fall into chaos on their own, and that would be the opportune moment to subjugate them.
But now.
Since the enemy had come knocking on his door, there was no reason not to return the favor.
Tang Zheng lifted the barely breathing Iron Ratman with one hand and turned to look at the figure behind him who could still barely stand. "You're in a sorry state, Gagaran."
"I underestimated him," Gagaran said in a low voice, his jaw twitching a few times.
He had originally thought that since the other was one of the "Ten Evils of the Demi-Humans," he would fight like a warrior, not expecting him to resort to such petty tricks.
"This is the Hills, not the arena you were in before."
Tang Zheng spoke indifferently, his gaze passing over Gagaran to the two Elemental Ogres behind him.
"Gagaran, stay here and deal with the corpses. The two of you, bring all the Ogres and follow me."
"Yes, sir!"
"Yes, sir!" the Water Elemental Ogre and Earth Elemental Ogre replied, their voices hot with excitement.
The Iron Ratman clan was enormous.
This was related to the fact that Iron Ratmen did not have many environmental requirements, were primarily omnivorous, and even had a relatively strong reproductive ability.
Of course.
Compared to Goblins, their reproductive ability was much weaker, and the growth period for an Iron Ratman was also quite long.
Originally, the Iron Ratman clan was divided into three tribes. Ever since the Gray King appeared, he had conquered all three, and their total population had surpassed 18,000.
They were the most populous race in the southern part of the Hills.
Under normal circumstances.
Most areas of the Hills were quite open and relatively rich in resources. Adding in the Iron Ratmen's omnivorous nature and lack of strict environmental requirements, their population should not have been this small.
The reason for this was not complicated, besides the inherent chaos of the Hills and the frequent wars between tribes.
There was another major factor.
Another demi-human tribe—the Spider Humanoids!
The relationship between the two demi-human tribes could be described as a blood feud, because one of the Spider Humanoids' food sources was the Iron Ratmen.
The Spider Humanoids are one of the twelve major races of the Hills. They are a type of demi-human with four very long, slender limbs, resembling a spider.
Iron Ratmen are born with iron-like body hair, but Spider Humanoids can naturally spit silk thread from their mouths. The hardness of this silk thread is comparable to steel, so the Spider Humanoids often make it into clothing.
Relying on the steel-like hardness of their silk thread, coupled with their slender builds and agile racial traits, the Iron Ratmen were at a clear disadvantage when facing the Spider Humanoids.
"These demi-human races are each more special than the last. Humans are indeed far weaker than many of these demi-human species."
Tang Zheng sighed inwardly as he learned information about the other's clan from the Iron Ratman in his hand.
Boom—Rumble—
Explosions of flames erupted across the Iron Ratmen's territory.
Tang Zheng rode his bone dragon, ignoring the magic attacks launched from the Iron Ratman tribe below, and unleashed the immense power of 5th-tier magic.
He forcefully blasted open the Iron Ratman clan's line of defense.
The furious roars, miserable wails, and pained screams of the Iron Ratmen filled their tribe.
The astonishingly powerful area-of-effect magic, converted from *Dragon Lightning* to *Fire Dragon*, continuously turned the area below into seas of fire.
Facing Tang Zheng in the sky.
None of the Iron Ratmen's magic could harm him. Bow and arrow attacks could not reach such a high altitude either, even those from archers with a ranger-type class.
Tang Zheng only needed to expend a little magic power to create a *Magic Arrow* and could easily cancel out their arrows.
Faced with the magical bombardment from a powerful magic caster and the invasion of a thousand Ogres on the periphery.
They only resisted for half a day.
The entire Iron Ratman clan was utterly defeated.
Tang Zheng controlled one of the Iron Ratman Priests and had him announce their surrender, managing to gather about 5,000 Iron Ratmen.
Aside from the Iron Ratmen he killed, the majority had scattered and fled.
[Experience Slot: 1,101,052 / 410,000]
Tang Zheng was not sure how many Iron Ratmen had died at his hands, but he confirmed via his status panel that his experience points had once again broken one million.
(end of chapter)