Jacob finished off all the little bastard's insight and stood beside Juliet. She had stopped throwing fire on the barn because the Phoenix’s Fire was so intense that she risked burning the entire city if she continued.

If Charybdes had been stupid enough animals, he would have gone with that plan. But the bastards would just storm off en masse.

He was also waiting for the little f*cks to try and ambush Juliet. Jacob knew precisely how nasty those monsters were.

Right then, as soon as Juliet turned her head, one Charybdis the size of a tiny fist propelled itself toward her from under the ground. It had burrowed and waited for that exact moment.

Jacob bisected the monster in mid-air with a grunt.

“Be careful,” he reminded her. “Our fight is not done. There are still more waiting inside, probably curled up in balls so that those on the more internal part can survive your flames.”

Juliet paled as soon as he mentioned that to her.

“Yeah, when I said all those things, I was not exaggerating.”

Jacob used the weak Perception formation to pick up more cues, but the signals were now too chaotic to spot the individual Charybdis. He would have to wait for them to manifest themselves. There would be a massive hunt to conduct once he was done killing the bulk of them. He suspected that some might have already detached themselves; however, since all Demonic Beasts knew instinctively how evil the Charybdes were, they would hunt them down themselves.

…

While Jacob and Juliet were facing a burning barn, Helena felt a rush of adrenaline.

Jacob had given exact engagement instructions.

Never enter a building, even if you think you are done cleaning it out. Just destroy it and douse it in flames. Only him and Juliet could do it; him because he was able to react in an instant; Juliet because she could cover herself in Phoenix’s Fire and had the most resilient body.

Helena was still kind of envious that she still did not get any Body Technique from Jacob; however, he had assured her that he would provide one of the strongest he knew as soon as possible. But, first, he had to know where her talent was going to bring her. If he interfered too much, he risked stifling her future growth.

She widened her stance and sent a signal to Linda, who immediately bombarded the house with Fireballs. The place was quite cramped, and the walls were thin.

The Fireballs impacted the bricks and exploded, revealing chunks of the internal part of it. Jacob had warned that the bastards would most likely come in waves.

As soon as the wall opened, the monsters came out in a mad sprint toward them. Their insectile form was much bigger – around the size of a dog – and their tails dripped a mortal red poison from the stinger. Their maws, from what Jacob had told them, secreted a powerful hemotoxin that would make wounds harder to close and bleed longer and more copiously than normal.

Heaven's Palm

Those monsters were around the 4th level of the Cockroach realm, and Helena crushed them without mercy. She kept an eye on the other side of the building, where Frederick was. All the others were more than a few meters behind them. They couldn’t afford to make mistakes. Both she and he had trained in hand-to-hand combat and ranged attacks. But she was more substantial than him even though he could…

She felt a sucking sound from his side and, without any explosion, saw three dead Charybdes of the same size as hers fall on the ground.

Void Magic

Frederick did not have the same talent, but he had control over an extremely rare type of magic.

Helena saw ten figures this time emerge from the roof and immediately acted.

Heaven's Palm

Heaven's Palm

She used the skill two times in a row. But, thanks to her massive Qi and Mana reserves, that was nothing for her. As soon as she was done, she started copying Linda; in fact, Jacob’s aunt was not the only one who could throw Fireballs.

Her talent is so high also meant that it was easier for her to learn such simple Spells. So, for example, her Fireballs were bigger and burned with a scary purple flame instead of the normal red of Linda’s.

After razing the house to the ground and killing more of the bastards, no one moved. They had very precise orders.

“Hey J—” Marcus tried to say.

“SILENCE!” Jacob shouted with such anger that everyone felt scared for a second.

He started scanning the surroundings and let a couple of minutes pass so that the energy would calm down. Then using the portable Formation he had arranged, he found three spots where the Charybdes had dug.

“Bombard these three spots from afar,” he pointed them out while no one else but him had moved.

As soon as they did, dreadful screams – sounds that shouldn’t belong to the living world – filled their ears again.

However, everyone kept calm, and the monsters were eliminated in a matter of seconds. No one dared say anything this time. The battle had lasted barely six or seven minutes total, but it had felt like an entire hour had gone by.

“Keep your position. They are not that proficient at digging at this stage. If you keep still and they dug, the Charybdes cannot reach you. If you move, they will—”

A Charybdis shot up from the ground toward Jacob’s face.

Helena shouted and almost ran to him.

Jacob bent backward and simply used his sword without any Qi to cut up the monster.

THIS GREAT ONE DEMANDS TO BE CLEANED AFTER THESE FILTHY BASTARDS SULLIED OUR EDGE!

Jacob answered to the sword.

For once, I agree with you. I don’t want even a piece of these bastards to be left in existence.