While the majority of the black cloaks were stricken with fear, Vaan's eyes gleamed as he held the crushed heart in his hand.

He only found out the black cloaks belonged to the Assembly of Silent Night due to the faint wolf scent they all carried. Their Furhengir Bloodline seemed weak in comparison.

However, Vaan quickly realized they were using a special method to conceal their Furhengir Bloodline, which was superior to the last group.

He could use their blood.

'It's a good thing I decided not to burn them. It would have been a waste of Furhengir's blood inside them,' Vaan thought.

Shortly after, he began actively hunting down the Assembly of Silent Night's A-rank members, tearing right into the nearest group.

With a series of chops and kicks, Vaan easily demolished a group of twenty Rank 4 fighters in a few breaths, breaking all their limbs and immobilizing them.

"Ahh, noo! Get away from me!" Some members succumbed to fear and screamed for their lives as they tried to flee from Vaan.

The pressure of Vaan's Demigod-rank dragon soul was mainly to blame for turning these cold-hearted killers into terrified chickens.

Nevertheless, they did not succeed in their escape.

Vaan pounced on them swiftly, pressing them into the ground with his feet and breaking their spines and neck. If they were lucky, they were only immobilized. But if they were unlucky, they died on the spot.

"Kill him! Attack together! Don't give him any moment to relax!" Lethal Shade roared, eyes turning bloodshot from the heavy losses.

Every member was an A-rank Witch Hunter, an elite within the Assembly of Silent Night. And yet, none of them could hold a candle to a single Peak-stage Aura Lord.

That single Peak-stage Aura Lord was powerful beyond belief. It was hard to continue classifying him as a Peak-stage Aura Lord.

He should be considered a Rank 5 Aura King.

"I refuse to believe you are infallible! I've slain Peak-stage Aura Lords before!" Lethal Shade roared, joining the fray.

His heartbeat quickened as he circled to Vaan's rear and lunged forward.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

In a short instant, Lethal Shade's body bulged, growing an entire head taller and enlargening his muscles, gaining an explosive strength increase in the last moment.

Even so, Vaan didn't take him seriously. He still used his bare hands to deflect Lethal Shade's sword attack.

However, Lethal Shade abruptly twisted the trajectory of his sword attack, grazing off the thick dragon aura enveloping Vaan's left hand and aiming for his face.

Shing!

Lethal Shade's successfully pulled off his attack, slicing through Vaan's dragon aura and gashing Vaan's left cheek, which caused his head to tilt slightly to the other side.

But although Lethal Shade succeeded in his attack, he was not happy at all. Right after landing his attack, he immediately retreated and created distance between them out of caution.

"Congratulations, you managed to cut me," Vaan casually commented as he swiped the few trickles of drop on his left cheek with his blood.

Lethal Shade's pupil shrank when he saw Vaan's small cut disappear two breaths later due to his high-speed regeneration.

In that very instant, he immediately knew they couldn't win. The person didn't just possess monstrous strength; even his defensive and regenerative abilities were monstrous.

The person could stand there and let them attack all they want, but they still wouldn't be able to kill the person.

They had to deploy a different tactic.

"Everyone, retreat! His power is too great! He can't be killed with our current strength!" Lethal Shade immediately ordered.

His sword was laced with poison, but he could see that it didn't affect Vaan. No, it wasn't that the poison wasn't effective; it just didn't get the chance to show off its effect.

The poison was eliminated before it could penetrate Vaan's body.

"Target the witches inside the lord's estate! We will use them as hostages to make our escape! It's the only way to retreat safely!" Lethal Shade ordered.

Abandoning the big operation was better than complete annihilation. But they couldn't retreat unscathed unless they had insurance.

The A-rank Witch Hunters didn't hesitate to charge toward the lord's estate once they heard the order.

However, a wall of blue flames suddenly appeared in front of them, sealing their path to the lord's estate.

"Wanting to threaten me with my people's safety? How naughty. So naughty that you deserve to be burned," Vaan uttered with narrowed eyes.

He snapped his fingers before the six black cloaks closest to the lord's estate immediately combusted into blue flames.

In the dark of the night, their blackened figures were briefly seen behind the thin veil of bright blue flames. At the same time, the blue flames surging out of their eyes and mouths seemed it was trying to expel their very souls.

"You said we didn't have to worry about the blue flames!" Lethal Shade criticized Vaan despite knowing he didn't have any right to.

Still, Vaan glanced at him calmly and said, "Only if you fight me. It's a different story if you try to run or go after other people besides me."

"Fuck!" Lethal Shade cursed.

Even then, he still didn't know where the higher-stage High Witch was casting her blue flames from. It seemed like the blue flames could simply appear anywhere at will.

But how was that even possible?

Although Lethal Shade couldn't understand how the blue flames worked, he knew they had no chance of escaping. Even so, staying to fight was also certain death.

Resistance was futile. Their opponents were too strong!

Cough* Cough*

Infamous Enigma coughed as he returned to the fight from the broken building nearby, which was coincidentally empty as it was one of Vaan's unsold properties.

"Don't despair just yet, Lethal Shade. Our opponents are indeed too powerful for us, but it's not like we have absolutely zero chance of winning," Infamous Enigma mentioned while coughing.

Despite taking some time to recover, he had yet to recover fully. A single kick had taken nearly half his life.

"You're still alive, Infamous Enigma?" Lethal Shade asked with surprise before his expression quickly turned solemn. "Do you have a plan?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it a plan, but yes," Infamous Enigma admitted with a nod before shouting to the sky, "Please save us, Lord Dream Streak!"

"..."

The sky was silent for some time before they eventually heard the sound of tongue clicking.

"Tch!"