Without their leader, the Murlocs were in the same state as when Edward first saw them, small groups roaming here and there. If anything had changed, it is that those groups had become smaller and more spaced out. Perfect. It is just what I needed. Edward thought hungry for revenge.

He approached, unnoticed, a group of a dozen Murlocs and teleported in their midst. He quickly wiped his daggers around, killing two Murlocs in the time it took for them to notice his presence. He slid along a spear and stab the Murloc holding it, eliminating it in one hit. The group he was attacking didn’t have a single buffed or bright skin Murloc, so he didn’t have to be especially worried about their attacks. This was a good way to get used to avoiding attacks aimed at him from all sides.

For this reason, Edward chose not to teleport away, but to stay in the group until he killed all of them. Three of the Murlocs were already down. Thanks to his aura, he could sense attacks coming his way even with his back turned to them. However, being aware of the attacks didn’t mean he was necessarily able to avoid them. There were also a lot of things to keep track of. Avoiding three attacks at the same time while counterattacking was no easy fit.

Edward did a round side kick to push the Murlocs away and get some space. With his enhanced strength he managed to knock three monsters out of their feet. With the space in front of him cleared, he could focus on the four Murlocs left with him. One of them managed to pierce a shallow cut on his arm, but without their poison, Edward wasn’t concerned. This kind of injury would heal on its own during the fight with the blood he would absorb.

He quickly dispatched the few Murlocs near him, chaining four quicks jabs. All the monsters were dead before the ones he had pushed away were able to come back. But they weren’t coming back alone, the other Murlocs’ group had noticed he was back and were coming back with them.

If they still had their chieftain, they may have used tactics such as throwing spears from a back line or encircling him with such numbers that he wouldn’t be able to get out with one teleport. But their leader being dead, the Murlocs just charged at him angrily without thinking. Edward teleported to the side of their charge, not having to stab the first Murloc to kill it, the monster impaling itself on the blade with its own momentum. Edward sidestepped and tripped the next one, finishing it with one clean hit.

With so many monsters rushing at him, there were some buffed ones mixed in. Edward teleported to one of them, they were standing like a sore thumb among the crowd of smaller monsters who were only reaching to their elbows. He chose to do an uppercut with his Katar dagger, head stabbing the Murloc in one hit, the blade piercing the top of its skull before it had the time to react. The monster collapsed while the one behind him stumbled on his corpse. Edward killed a few while they were still out of balance. As the Murlocs were surrounding him once again, assaulting him from all sides, Edward teleported away, his arm’s injury already healed.

It's a much easier fight now. Still, how many did I kill? Ten? Fifteen? And yet I can’t see the difference at all. It’s like a drop in a bucket. At this pace, I will be here for some time. That’s what happens when I don’t have any area of effect attacks. It will take more time to slaughter all of them but it doesn’t matter. It is fun in its own way.

Edward went back into the melee after a few seconds’ break. The Murlocs weren’t his match at all, the only danger coming from them was their number and their poison. With his teleportation and their disorganization, their number wasn’t much of an asset. It left the poison to deal with. Edward chose to focus on the bright skin of Murlocs first. They were harder to spot than the buffer Murlocs since they were hidden in the mass of monsters, but their bright skin was discriminating enough to spot them.

With that many monsters, he couldn’t avoid hits in more regular intervals than he would have liked, but he was careful to avoid being hit by the bright color ones. He didn’t hesitate to favor getting hit by a regular Murloc if it means he could avoid one from the bright color ones. He could heal regular injuries but he couldn’t deal with their paralyzing poison.

He weaved through the different monsters’ gatherings, not bothering to slaughter all of the Murlocs but only chasing after the bright skin ones. When he spotted one, he would run to be close enough, teleport in and kill it. The only troublesome part was to resist the Murlocs’ assaults while he was in the middle of the group with his teleport on cool down. Luckily for him, the cooldown was only a few seconds long, and while the Murlocs weren’t slow monsters, they weren’t particularly quick either. Just the time it took them to react to his presence was enough for the cool-down to be half over.

As he was searching for poisonous Murlocs to assassinate, Edward noticed that the different groups were coming together, the monsters mixing and forming a bigger group. Shit. I’m riling them too much. Since I have to go from group to group, I’m only bringing them together. That won’t do. If their group becomes too big it won’t be easy for me to make my way in and out with single teleportation. Leave it. I killed enough bright skin Murlocs already. There must be some left but they are diluted in the mass, it will take too much time to find them.

Edward looked at the closest group of monsters, close to forty Murlocs gathered together. He let out a sight. And now that their group is this big, I will have to use several assaults to destroy it.

Edward went back to indiscriminately exterminating Murlocs. Due to the size of the groups, he used hit-and-run tactics. Teleporting in, killing as many monsters as he could, before being forced to retreat, and repeating the process. He was kiting around the group he was fighting, being careful not to bring it near other groups of monsters.

As more Murlocs were felled in the group, it got easier for him to kill more of them. Their number was not big enough to force him back anymore. He stayed on the offensive without retreating any longer, only using his teleportation to change his angle of attack. The last monster of this group finally fell to the floor.

Edward granted himself some time to recuperate, his breath condensing in white clouds under the fresh temperature of the cavern. He looked at all the Murlocs that were still roaming around. Who knew slaughtering monsters could become cumbersome? He stretched his body to relieve his muscles. Well, at least I am making good progress. Even if Murloc’s blood isn’t very potent, their number compensates for it.

Edward pursued his Murloc extermination, his motions turning automatic under the repetition. Teleport, jab, jab, lean aside to avoid a hit, jab, teleport away. Each of his hits left a corpse behind, even the bigger Murlocs not posing a threat to him. His focus grew dull, his mind wandering elsewhere while he was still massacring them. However, like all things done only through habit and without thinking, a problem occurred at one point. He was so used to the same gesture that he didn’t notice when a swifter Murloc behind him managed to react in time and hit him before he could teleport away. He was hit cleanly in his left tight, the spear piercing a hole in his leg before being drawn back.

Edward collapsed with a cry of pain, his leg unable to support his weight anymore. The pain brought him out of reverie. As the monsters were swarming towards him, he teleported away to escape. Since his body was already saturated with Murloc’s essence, his wound healed at supernatural speed. The blood he absorbed consumed to heal him, the wound wasn’t healed completely, but the heavy bleeding which could have killed him in minutes stopped completely. However, Edward still wasn’t able to put weight on his leg, he stood up but he was only able to limp slowly.

Shit. What the heck am I thinking? Growing distracted in the middle of a fight. Though, now that he was paying attention to the situation, he noticed that there were more corpses in the cavern than monsters left alive. Bloody hell, for how long, was I out of it? With so many dead bodies, the water wasn’t able to dilute the blood anymore. The lake in the middle of the cavern was turning green from all the Murloc’s blood. The whole scenery had turned into a hellish battlefield, scarce were the parts of the cavern without any blood or bodies on it. It looked like a hurricane had devasted the whole gathering of Murlocs, letting but a minority alive.

However, Edward wasn’t out of the fight yet. While killing the fifties Murlocs still alive would have been a breeze in the park before, in his current injured state, it would be a difficult task to accomplish. The Murlocs were slowly closing on him, able to sense his weakness. Not that himself being injured changed their killing intent in any manner. At this point of the fight, any Murloc that was scared of death had long escaped far away. Only the ones too stupid or too angry to be afraid were left in the cavern.

The situation is not ideal. With a leg like that, I can only rely on teleportation for mobility. Fuck! This is an injury that I could have easily avoided. He took a big breath to calm down. Let it go, the why is not important right now. I need to focus on how to deal with this situation. With their spear, their reach is further than mine. I can still teleport but I will be left stranded for a few seconds.

At the same time, there are not that many of them left. It would be great if I had a ranged attack, this way I wouldn’t have to come close to them.

Edward looked at the floor around him. Wait…I have a ranged option. Forsaken spears were laid everywhere on the battlefield. This had been the basic weapon of the Murlocs and with so many of them dead, he was spoilt for choice, only having to lean to pick one.

He teleported away to gain back some distance from the approaching group of monsters and he put away his daggers in their sheaths before picking a spear from the floor. The spear was somewhat short in size due to the height of the Murlocs, but it was enough. Edward jerked his arm backward and threw the spear with as much force as he could muster. The pike missed the Murloc he was aiming for and killed the one next to him. It was thrown with enough force to penetrate through the monster. Wow, I was hoping for it. But I didn’t realize it would be this effective. It’s stuff like that, that makes me realize how much stronger I have grown.