CLEAVER OF SIN

Chapter 787: Issac’s Misunderstanding

Issac Wrath Chillstorm opened his golden eyes and took in the surroundings where he had been teleported. He had appeared on what seemed to be a mountain, and he was surrounded by a forest, with various healthy trees rising toward the sky. His eyes shifted to the side, and there he saw a small river flowing down and around the mountain.After assessing the area for a few minutes, he confirmed that his surroundings were clear and there wasn’t any imminent danger. The mountain was quiet, almost unnaturally so, save for the distant sounds of rustling leaves and flowing water. With that, he decided to access and go through the bracelet. After checking how many points his abilities and Astra energy cost to unlock, his eyes shifted to the rankings.

’Finch Whale,’ he thought to himself as he stared at the name, but the name didn’t ring any bells in his mind.

Prior to this competition, his mother, Overlord Cynthia, had of course told him to be wary of a few people, like the Wargraves for example. She had told him that they would be the ones to represent the Zarethorne Empire, as the Zarethorne Empire literally always won by default whenever a Wargrave was involved in the Inter-Empire Competition.

But now, he wasn’t seeing any Wargrave on the rankings, but instead saw someone unknown.

’It seems that aside from the Wargraves, the Zarethorne Empire also possesses a hidden genius,’ he thought to himself, his mind still fixed on Finch.

’I hope to meet Thalric Wargrave or this Finch Whale,’ he thought to himself.

He had heard various rumours about the Wargraves, especially from his mother and father. He had heard about the First Sun, Malrik Wargrave, and the Primarch, Azaron Wargrave. He wanted to test himself against such a famed bloodline and Noble lineage. After all, names of that calibre did not spread across Empires without reason.

’Asher Wargrave.’ His thoughts shifted to the other Wargrave. Although his mother hadn’t told him about Asher, his father most certainly had. According to the information his father had given him, Asher wasn’t talented, but Issac was able to understand that this was false. After all, he had seen Asher beat up the siblings of the Zarik Ducal Household.

And as the heir of the Thalvorn Empire and also Hilton’s classmate, Issac knew exactly how strong Hilton was. The boy was within the top ten of their class after all. Although not as strong as him, Issac, who personally held Rank 1 throughout their first year to their final year, knew that Hilton was without a doubt strong. Strength recognised strength, and Issac had never underestimated those who had earned their positions through ability.

Yet this supposedly untalented Wargrave had reduced Hilton to such a state. Although he was now a bit surprised by Asher’s talent, he wasn’t really concerned. After all, he too could end Hilton with a single attack.

As the son of an Overlord, one might expect Issac Wrath Chillstorm to be arrogant, but he wasn’t. Or rather, Cynthia, who had grown up as a merchant’s daughter, had made sure of that. She had drilled countless lessons into him from a young age, teaching him that arrogance often blinded people to threats standing right before them.

A smile broke across his lips at the thought of meeting Thalric and Finch. Yes, he wanted to climb to first rank, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want a good battle to follow that. In fact, the prospect of testing himself against powerful opponents was one of the main reasons he found this competition enjoyable.

The next moment the mountain he stood upon began to shake as though some type of earthquake was about to erupt, but Issac wasn’t fooled. If it were some type of earthquake, he would have sensed it before it happened. That only left one answer; some type of monster was residing within the mountain.

The next instant, an explosion thundered as stones, boulders, and sand blasted upward. Issac didn’t even hesitate for a split second, he immediately leaped into the air to dodge, the moment he did, the mountain exploded outward with titanic force, while dust and sonic blasts erupted like a lightning storm, spreading through the area with tremendous momentum.

Through the churning dust, Issac, who was still ascending upward from his jump, saw a colossal stone tortoise monster. Its body radiated the presence of a Mark-Class monster, and its body was covered with a shell that seemed capable of stopping attacks even from Grave-Rank monsters. Merely looking at it was enough to understand that defence was the creature’s greatest strength.

Issac didn’t react, to him, Mark-Class monsters weren’t exactly anything noteworthy, although this particular one possessed immense defence, as that seemed to be its specialty, Issac remained unbothered, instead, he merely observed, with that, gravity finally acted upon him as he fell from the sky.

Issac Wrath Chillstorm was a hand-to-hand specialist. Unlike many hand-to-hand specialists who might need to rely on gauntlets to fight because, at the end of the day, their hands were made of flesh and blood, Issac didn’t need such things. His hands had always seemed to be special right from birth. Not due to some type of ability; they were simply special, as they couldn’t be broken so easily. Even members of his family had occasionally found that trait strange.

He drew his hands backward like a bow as he plummeted with a wide smile, uncaring about the size of the stone tortoise or the strength of its shell. The tortoise didn’t bother to defend. It took pride in its natural defence, so it simply watched the tiny human clench his fist.

Reaching the carapace, Issac punched outward with nothing but pure physical madness. The moment fist and shell met, sound exploded outward as though a war drum had burst apart, while concentric wind rings immediately rumbled outward.

The stone tortoise that had been confident in its shell immediately unleashed a painful squeal as cracks began to spread across the carapace. The tortoise collapsed onto its plastron with a boom as the force from Issac’s punch pushed it downward.

"Hoo!!! It seems its defence is stronger than I thought," he mused out loud as he landed on the cracked shell, then leaped into the air and backflipped, dodging a series of stone-based attacks.

He landed in front of the tortoise, his golden eyes snapping toward the tortoise’s mouth, and without a shred of hesitation, he shot forward like a missile as he dove headfirst into the tortoise’s mouth with a wide grin. The moment he made his way into the tortoise’s stomach, Issac started a round of brutality.

After all, it wasn’t like the tortoise had shells inside its body too, right?

The stone tortoise could only continue squeaking, making huge noises and thrashing around in pain, but Issac didn’t stop, all he needed was a single attack to destroy one organ after another. He tore apart its intestines with his bare hands and a wide grin until he felt the stone tortoise halt before slamming into the ground with a heavy boom; dead.

The next second, a wind blast tore upward from within the tortoise as Issac blasted the carapace away with a punch before stepping out with a grin on his face, covered in brown blood. The gruesome sight would have unsettled many people, but Issac looked completely unaffected.

Truly, the family name "Wrath Chillstorm" wasn’t fitting for a merchant family.

With a smile, he checked his ranking, seeing that he was in eighth place, he nodded and checked the other rankings.

His eyes stayed on Asher’s name for a moment, the latter now possessing two thousand five hundred (2500) points. He then smirked, unbothered. He had four days to overtake Asher and the unknown Finch guy.

Issac didn’t move, he remained standing atop the tortoise’s corpse. The blood of dead monsters and beasts always attracted other monsters and beasts, so he planned to take advantage of this. It was a simple strategy, but effective enough that he saw no reason not to use it.

His eyes immediately fell upon two orcs who were rushing forward, but Issac couldn’t wait. He didn’t sit still and allow them to come to him; no, he went to them instead. The shell cracked beneath his feet as he burst forward with explosive force.

And with that, a bloodbath was about to begin in earnest.