The Way of a Demon Lord

Everyone stopped in their tracks. Not anyone could take a single step further. Even the long haired level 4 archer, Sven was stuck on the tree.

A baleful and heavy aura paralysed each and every one's body, regardless of their levels. They felt their hearts crushing deep within just from the fear of the 'devil' smiling upon them.

Many, if not all, wanted to scream. But alas, not a single sound could escape from their throats. All they could do were to somehow breathe, and sense.

*Step. Step.*

In the pin drop silent atmosphere, the footsteps resounded like raging thunders to their ears. Adrian casually walked through everyone until he reached the centre of camp, right in front of the pavilion. He stepped in, and moments later- he came out with a chair.

He dropped it on the ground before sitting on it. Now, he was in the view of almost everyone.

"You there." He looked at the closest person to him, a young male caster- scaring the hell out of the poor guy. "Come here."

The pressure locking the caster in place suddenly disappeared. The young man did not dare to dally as he rushed towards the 'devil'.

"Ye… Ye… yes." His whole body was trembling and sweat kept streaming out through his skin.

Adrian nodded before looking at another one of the students a bit far away. "You there, come here."

The assassin's conditions was not any better than that of his friend as he walked before Adrian. The two beckoned Institute students were now standing side by side. They looked at each other and smiled wryly. Both of them were best friends.

"Everyone." He said scanning through the crowd. "I will say this once; so commit it to your memory. Once I bring two of you here, I will give you five seconds to raise your hand. The one who will raise the hand first will be the killer, and the other one will die. If any of you don't raise your arms, I will kill both of you myself and the pain will be excruciating. The same consequence implies if the selected killer fails to kill the target within 5 seconds."

He then looked at the beckoned two while his lips stretched to a smirk. "Your time starts now."

The two had yet to process his whole speech. But the caster, due to his mental abilities recovered first and raised his hand- right before the fifth second could end.

"Great! You are the first killer tonight. Well, technically second. Anyways, your five seconds starts now." Adrian clapped at the caster.

"You!" That was the last word the assassin could utter before the terrifying aura pressed down on him again.

"I am sorry." Tears flowed from the caster's red eyes as he brought out a dagger from his belt. He did not have the time to cast a spell.

He closed his eyes and thrusted it into his 'best friend's' chest, directly piercing his heart. The caster did that to make sure his 'friend' dies 'painlessly'.

*Clang. Clang*

The sharp metallic claws clashed against each other as Adrian clapped.

"Excellent! You are safe. You can leave. But take him." He pointed at the corpse whose eyes had yet to narrow down.

"I… I can leave?"

"What? Don't want to?" The smile on Adrian's face ran away.

The caster aggressively shook his head, sprinkling tears and sweats everywhere. He took the corpse of his 'friend' on his shoulder before running into the forest of purple, fearing the 'maniac' might change his mind.

Adrian was still sitting on chair as he scanned the remaining crowd. Everyone got a mini heart attack the moment their eyes contacted with his.

"You." He pointed at a certain young lady. "Miss Vanil. Care to join me in the game?"

The poor woman's face lost all colours. The pressure surrounding her disappeared, enabling her to move again. But the moment it did, she turned away and used her <Swift> essence to the fullest. She even sacrificed a few years of her life to give herself a boost. In a split second, she was already into the forest.

Adrian shook his head while his eyes glinted. The young woman of the Vanil house sudden tumbled over as she lost her ability to circulate magic. The sudden fall from an extremely quick speed had her slide across the hard ground. Her limbs were bruised and a few of her bones broke. She stayed on the ground, grimacing in pain.

Adrian smiled. This was the third and final sub-property: <Curse>. The property enabled him to 'ban' his 'dominated' target from using magical energy. He used the same property before on the 'canvas' and Valentina Ross. And just now, he used a 'delayed' version on the wind circler.

These three sub-properties <Corrosion>, <Corruption> and <Curse> constitute his first dark attribute property: <Ominousness>. This property made his already overwhelming demonic aura even more terrifying and effective.

"You." He looked at a handsome orange clad male. "She is already down over there." He pointed at his direction. "Grab her hair and drag her here." He then pointed at the ground before himself.

The handsome young man clenched his fists while gritting his lips. But he did not move from his spot.

"5 seconds till I get up from this seat."

At the third second, the young man- who also happened to be the bruised lady's fiancé rushed towards the spot.

"Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaargh." Moments later a feminine shriek came out from that direction.

A few seconds later, a scraping sound could be heard as the young man dragged his fiancée with her hairs grabbed tight in his hand. Her squirming back was grinding against the red shaded ground while she screamed.

"What are you doing?!" She cried. "Let me go!"

Her eyes were not the only ones which secreted tears. His face was also covered with the salty fluid. But he did not dare to run away or help her. Because he knew it was futile. 'He' could see everything. No matter the happy memories he shared with her, he was still the heir to a count family. A life of riches and luxury awaited him.

Soon, they were before 'him'.

"Good job." Adrian stood up, prompting the handsome young man's knees to go weak and fall to the ground on his butt. "Now, sit here and enjoy the show." He pointed at the chair he just got up from.

The young man barely got up on his shaky feet before following his orders and sitting on the chair. His whole body had yet to stop shivering.

Adrian approached the young lady. "Miss Vanil, O Miss Vanil." He shook his head. "If you had just followed orders, you could have lived. Or at the very least, you could've died an easy death. But you chose to run away." An evil smile formed on his face. "Thank you for that. It would be unfair to me if only you guys enjoyed the party, wouldn't it?"

He knelt down and-

*Rip.*

He tore her clothes apart, but not all of it. He just made sure that all of her limbs were completely clear of clothes. Nevertheless, parts of her breasts revealed themselves when he tore the shoulders of her uniform. As for her crotch- it was completely open as the claws tore her skirt and panties.

"Aaaah!" She shouted while trying to resist but everything was futile against him. He again applied his demonic aura on her, paralysing her. He took her right arm and made a straight deep cut all the way from her shoulder to wrist with his right index finger- claw to be precise.

"Aaaaaaaah!" She shrieked in pain.

But that did not stop Adrian from making another cut a few inches away from the first one- from shoulder to wrist. In a few more seconds, two more cuts were made. Her right arm was now divided laterally into four different 'parts'.

New tears mixed with the old dry ones on her face from the pain.

"Ohho. Look what you've done- you've bruised your beautiful white skin. But fret not, I have a solution." The grin on his face got wider.

She felt a terrible sense of foreboding but alas, she could not do anything.

He clasped on one of the top 'parts' on her shoulder and pulled it, tearing her skin before slowly peeling it- from shoulder to the wrist.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" She almost lost consciousness from the excruciating pain. Even the ones watching screamed inside their head as if they could feel the pain.

"Knock. Knock. Knock*

The handsome young man's upper and lower teeth were knocking against each other at a rapid pace.

Adrian finally finished completely peeling one of the four 'parts' of her skin. "Who needs bruised skin? Let's remove it, shall we?"

Her arm was now all bloodied. Blood was dripping from the skin he held.

He threw it away before gripping the shoulder of another 'part'. He started peel it as if her arm were akin to a banana.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Another screech wrenched the souls of everyone present. She barely held her consciousness.

He threw the peel away before taking out a light blue potion from his pocket and feeding her. Life came back to her lifeless eyes.

Adrian continued with the other two parts. Now, her whole right arm was completely mutilated.

Her whole face was covered with tears and snots. She already lost her voice from screaming hard. She regretted running away so bad she wanted to die. But would he let her?

Her three other limbs followed. Blood and 'leather' spoiled the ground. Seven empty vials of potion joined them. Her eyes were now lifeless; the only thing written on them was peace.

Adrian finally turned to the young man, almost making the poor fella's heart explode.

"If you decided to do anything funny, you would be the one lying down there." Adrian gave his shoulder a soft pat.

But that pat was enough for the horrified count heir to loosen his bladder. His pants, chair and the ground drenched with yellow liquid.

"Tsk. Get me another chair."

An hour passed. All the 'rounds' of the 'game' concluded. Only fifteen of the forty non level 4 students were able to leave safe and sound- along with a psychological scar of course.

The handsome young man was part of them. Some lovebirds killed themselves after killing their lovers, almost bringing tears to Adrian's eyes.

Just kidding.

But none dared to disobey his orders. Because none of them wanted to share the same fate as that of the young lady from Vanil house. 'Family' killed 'family', 'lovers' killed 'lovers', 'buddies' killed 'buddies'. But no corpses were left on the ground. Even the 'lovebirds' were ordered to be taken away by the 'winners'.

Now, only five- excluding him- were left on the scene.

Adrian smirked.

"Enough with the 'appetisers'. Let's see what we have for the 'main dish', shall we?"