Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Seeing Gormak's plight, Rakul and Xulthar exchanged wary glances.

They had no clue what was wrong with their comrade, but they knew for certain that he was out of this fight.

If he dared to drop his weapons and leave himself completely defenceless right beneath his enemy, then he was beyond saving already.

Raukl and Xulthar found themselves in a moment of indecision. Seeing Gormak writhing on the ground, incapacitated and beyond saving, their confidence faltered.

They looked back to the leader of their squad, Vorkath, with uncertainty.

They wanted to ask him to join the fight now, but Vorkath's expression already told them that he wouldn't no matter what.

Red Demon prodigies were very prideful and arrogant people.

They believed in honour and respect, and they wouldn't do anything to tarnish their own honour by doing something like intervening in a fight and defeating an enemy when they have already been weakened.

So Vorkath either wouldn't enter the fight at all if the two somehow managed to kill Alex, or he would only face Alex when they died.

There was no third option where he joined the duo to fight back against him.

In Alex's eyes, this was a stupid decision, as he would have a much easier time in a 2 vs 1 and then a 1 vs 1, rather than a 3 vs 1.

But every race and culture had their own customs.

Seeing Vorkath's lack of reaction to their visual plea, Rakul nocked another arrow.

Alex's eyes flicked between his opponents, somewhat wary.

He was assessing whether Vorkath was going to enter the fray yet, but after seeing Xulthar and Rakul's reactions, the answer was obvious.

Rakul, accepting the harsh reality, drew back his bow and released a flurry of arrows.

Quantity over quality — he hoped that the sheer volume might overwhelm Alex.

Arrow after arrow whizzed through the air, each one less powerful than the initial poisoned arrows but dangerous in their multitude.

In the span of a few seconds, he had already nocked and released dozens of arrows.

He didn't have any poison left, so they were just normal arrows.

Not only this, but he had exchanged power for speed so each arrow was no longer as powerful as his first two.

But the sheer number of arrows he kept letting loose made up for that.

As for Xulthar, he could only rely on his vines.

He didn't even have a weapon in hand, only his fists curled up into balls.

He had realised the disadvantage he put himself at by not using one.

If he managed to survive this battle, then he would definitely do his best to rectify this mistake and finally take up arms.

But from the way things looked, he wouldn't be returning from this battle.

Alex stretched his legs a little, and like a spring that was about to explode, launched himself of the ground where Gormak lay in agony.

The soul fire would still take another 10 minutes or so to completely destroy his soul, and Alex had to focus on killing the other two, so he had no choice but to leave Gormak lying in agony, getting constantly tortured until death finally took him in.

Alex assessed the situation quickly.

The arrows were numerous, but not as deadly as before.

He needed to neutralise Xulthar first to reduce the number of threats.

Alex leapt into the air, flipping over a vine and landing directly in Xulthar's proximity.

Things were much easier for him to anticipate now that he knew how they fought.

They couldn't sneak attack him with their arrows or vines anymore, now that Alex knew about their strategies.

Xulthar didn't have the same strength or power that Alex had, so even if he tried to run, Alex would catch up to him.

Hence he decided to fight back.

Xulthar, weaponless and desperate, summoned more of his thorny vines.

In a fluid motion, Alex flipped over a particularly thick vine and landed close enough to Xulthar that he could even see the pores through his scaly skin.

The Red Demon swung his fists, but Alex easily dodged the strikes.

The disparity in strength between them was glaringly obvious.

"Not so strong without your talent, are you."

Alex taunted him a little.

He swung Virtue's Edge as hard as he could, intending to cut Xulthar's entire body in half in one fell swoop.

The blade cut through the flesh and bone almost effortlessly until it came to a stop.

Unfortunately, he still wasn't strong enough to do that, but he did cut a deep crevasse stretching from his shoulder to his torso.

The flames covering the blade transferred to Xulthar's wounds, starting a whole rampage of their own.

He had already used Soul fire twice, and the Soul fire effect was too taxing on his energy to use multiple times in succession, so he opted to save that energy for now.

It didn't seem like he needed it either.

Xulthar screamed in agony, falling to his knees and crying as the flames consumed him from within.

The vines he had summoned wilted and disintegrated, leaving nothing but motes of energy that reentered the atmosphere.

Xulthar was already half a corpse at this point.

Alex didn't waste any time. He turned his attention to Rakul, who was still launching arrows in a desperate attempt to drag him down.

His accuracy and strength was drastically reduced, which allowed Alex to dodge any close calls during his fight with Xulthar, and he even watched one whizz by him and strike Xulthar, who was writhing on the ground surrounded by flames, and ended up hitting him in the throat.

It put him out of his misery a few seconds later.

'I hope that didn't effect whether I get a soul orb from him or not…'

Rakul was the one who had technically dealt the finishing blow to Xulthar, so Alex had no idea whether that effected his chances of getting one.

But he put his mind past it.

Rakul's barrage continued, with Alex weaving through the onslaught, but the closer he got the tighter the gaps he had to squeeze to dodge.

And he didn't get so lucky as he neared within 20 metres of Rakul.

An arrow struck his shoulder, and then another in his foot a few moments later.

Rakul's eyes lit up while Alex's flashed with bloodlust and pain.