Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 285 Surrender

"...All of you are dead."

Rhys did not really hesitate anymore as he grabbed several scalpels from his trusty utility belt.

His trusty utility belt, probably the best investment he had ever bought with his money. Also proved to be the most durable, as while most of his clothes and even his bionic leg were torn away, his trusty utility belt found a way to latch onto him.

Of course, it wasn't really the time to be thinking about that as Rhys just glanced at all the members of the Herculean Rose, already thinking of the order by which to kill them.

Junpei needed to go first; he initially thought Junpei would have enhanced strength due to the name of their guild, but he materialized a whip instead. The second one he needed to take care of was Marie Ozawa, who was the highest-rated Explorer among them.

Rhys then glanced back at Malenia, only to see her eyes already glowing. After all, the very reason she revealed herself was that she saw the people surrounding Rhys starting to get agitated and aggressive — she was ready to turn all of them into stone as soon as she deemed them a threat to Rhys's safety.

"Wait, wait!"

Before anyone could turn into stone or die, however, Marie once again quickly moved between the two sides while covering her head as if to protect it just in case everyone started attacking each other.

"Marie, move or we'll attack you too!" The thorned whip that Junpei was holding seemed to have a mind of its own as it started swinging on the ground; its end, pointing at Marie.

"Wait," Marie raised both her palms as she looked at Junpei while taking several steps back toward Rhys, "How about we hear Mr. Wilder—"

Rhys watched as Marie did not even bother finishing her words as she suddenly turned around and violently swung her hand toward Rhys; her long sharp claws threatening to rip off his face.

Rhys, however, did not bother dodging at all as his senses also did not bother to warn him to move. He doesn't know how, but the abilities he got from Arachnea were allowing him to know exactly if someone was a threat to him — Agatha, Esme, Ayesha… his senses go on overdrive whenever they start doing anything.

Marie, however, did not even raise a single strand of his hair. And for good reason — her claws just shattered as soon as they touched Rhys's skin.

"Kh!!!" Marie quickly leaped back as she felt her fingers dislocated and fracturing, but as she did so, Rhys followed closely in front of her; his hand, now covering her face completely. And without even letting her let out a single whimper of struggle… he crushed her face.

He did not slam it, he did not break her neck… he literally just shaved off her face; casually crushing the side of her face like it was made of sand. And everyone watched as whatever remained of Marie's head just slid off of Rhys's hand; her corpse falling to the ground like a ragdoll.

No one could really utter a word, and the only breath that whispered in the rocky field was Rhys as he sighed while staring at Marie's corpse. But after letting out his disappointment, he once again focused on Junpei and the rest of the Herculean Rose.

"You… you killed her!" Junpei screamed, "How could you do that!? You… are you actually secretly on the monsters' side!? Is that what you are trying to do, bring monsters to the Surface!?"

"They're not monsters," Rhys shook his head. He did not, however, immediately attack Junpei as he initially planned. Instead, he even made sure not to move at all from his spot; just tightly holding on to his scalpel as he continued to scan everyone, the movements of his head slightly exaggerated while doing so.

He realized something — Marie was a famous streamer, which meant there was a high chance that there was a camera recording or even live at this very moment. Fortunately, he realized that the moment he was about to kill Marie when she started backing toward him… and he just decided to attack her after she did, making it look like he was defending himself.

He was in a completely different country, if he was caught attacking someone, it might lead to certain complications that he did not really need right now.

"What are all of you just looking at him for? Attack him at the same time!"

And as soon as Junpei roared those words, some of the people on motorbikes once again mounted their ride and started circling around Rhys. Most of them seemed to be an Elemental type, as they all summoned all of their elements and just threw everything at Rhys while circling around him.

Fire, water, and even a spike of stones crawling across the ground and twirling around him like a tornado. Rhys was about to rush toward one of them, but before he could do so, he suddenly felt something wrapping around his neck and slightly preventing him from moving from his spot.

He looked at the sudden slight pressure, only to see Junpei's thorned whip wrapping around his neck, extending straight from Junpei's hands. Junpei was riding on the back of the motorcycle, letting his whip just slowly and completely wrap around Rhys's neck by several layers. — and finally, Rhys realized where the 'Herculean' from their guild name came from.

Junpei, did in fact, have enhanced strength. Sadly for him, the weakest wind blowing across the rocky field and his strength was just the same for Rhys… completely inconsequential.

"Rhys Wilder — I offer this rose to your death!" Junpei then breathed out as several flowers bloomed across his thorned whip — and then, with a tug, he tried to completely rip off Rhys's neck with the whip he had wrapped around it, "Wh—!!!"

But alas, the only thing that Junpei did was pull himself closer to Rhys, dragging the motorcycle with him as well as the rider as they violently crashed and rolled across the ground. Both of them were fine, however, and only the motorcycle was destroyed — they, however, found themselves being continuously dragged closer to Rhys as he started pulling back.

The other guild members who were riding in circles all stopped their attacks as they saw their guild master just being helplessly dragged across the ground. Junpei, however, finally had the sense to let go of the whip as he quickly collected himself while backing away by somersaulting in the air.

Junpei stared at Rhys for a few seconds, and as soon as he saw him completely unscathed even with their joint attack, he started letting out a small but very deep sigh while looking at his guild members.

"It… would seem there might have been a misunderstanding between us, Mr. Wilder." And as soon as those words escaped his mouth, his guild members also all let out a deep sigh. After all, most of them knew they were actually no match against Rhys, it was only their guild master who was foolishly trying to provoke him.

Fortunately, their guild master realized how stupid all of this is… sadly at the price of Marie Ozawa's life.

"Tanaka," Junpei then turned to look at Hitomi, their guild's navigator, "How far are we from the nearest Hole? We… should just escort Mr. Wilder as compensation for this misunderstanding. And damn it, shut off Marie's drone."

And as everyone started to calm down and move away from Rhys, Malenia, who was just waiting for the right time to turn everyone into stone, took this chance to approach Rhys and stand by his side.

"Rhys, what's happening…? Is everything fine now? Why did they all suddenly calm down?"

"Get rea—"

"And it really is a misunderstanding!" Before Rhys could say what he wanted to say, Junpei suddenly once again focused on him, or more specifically, toward Malenia, "How… how can a monster even be this beautiful? He—"

"!!!"

And before Junpei could finish his words, Malenia watched as his blood just suddenly splurted out from his neck—no. Everyone watched as Junpei's head just very slowly tilted back completely before dropping to the ground as it separated from the rest of his body.

They all then turned their eyes toward Rhys as soon as the rest of Junpei's body followed to the ground, only to see Rhys with his hand stretched to the side and holding his scalpel.

"...Rhys?" Malenia's eyes could not help but widen as she saw Rhys just suddenly kill an unarmed opponent who seemed to have no intention of fighting anymore. She was about to say something else, but before she could do so…

…she found herself completely petrified by what she had witnessed next.

Rhys did as he promised — he killed all of them, even those who were trying to run away with their bikes.

Rhys was right, Marie had a drone recording everything — but as soon as they turned it off, he took that as a signal to just kill the rest of them.

"...It's just recording." Fortunately for Rhys, as he found Marie's drone, it was only recording and wasn't actually streaming to anywhere live. And so, he just crushed the drone and the camera with his bare hands; just letting it merge with the rocky ground like the corpses of the Herculean Rose.

"Rhys…" Malenia was still in the very same spot she was before. And as Rhys passed by her, the only thing she could really do was whisper, "...You killed them all."

"I needed to," Rhys nodded.

"But…

…they were crying and surrendering."