14-Punisher

In a dark cave, in a corner, there were about ten lizard men's corpses.

These corpses were spreading a lot of blood smell around.

The corpses were dry as if their blood and soul had been sucked.

From the wounds on them and the large pools of blood on the ground, it was clear that only ten minutes had passed since these lizard men had died.

Under normal circumstances, such a dense amount of blood smell would attract the carnivorous insects that lived in the depths of the cave, but the ominous aura in the air prevented the insects from approaching this area.

As if there was a very terrifying creature in this area, the insects did not even come close to this area, let alone enter it.

"What was your name?"

A voice was heard in the dark cave. The voice was very arrogant and the owner of this voice was clearly mocking the one in front of him.

"Claw..." answered a voice. From his voice, it was clear that he was in a very difficult situation.

"Well, Claw, I must say that you and your team did a very good job. Maybe two years ago, if you had caught me, you could have killed me." said Swain.

Right now, a lizard man twice his size was kneeling in front of Swain and looking down at the ground with his head bowed.

There were disgusting-looking claw wounds all over the lizard man's body. The claw wounds on his body were very small and presumably made by a human. None of the claw wounds hit vital organs.

This was clearly torture.

Claw had used all his strength while fighting Swain, but everything was futile. The monster in front of him reacted as if he could see his attacks beforehand and counterattacked.

In the second minute of their fight, Claw's body was filled with claw wounds.

*He's playing with me like a hunter playing with his prey!*

Swain never hit Claw's vital organs. He only hit insignificant places and cut almost every inch of his skin.

Right now, Claw was about to faint from blood loss and could barely speak.

"This was a... suicide mission..." said Claw, forcibly.

When Swain heard these words, the smile on his face grew even more.

"You realized that too late. You are nothing but a pawn for the empire. The empire sent you to test my power." said Swain. Claw was going to die soon, so he did not hesitate to talk to him.

"No... We were definitely not pawns... Even if the empire did not know your power, they would not send us to find out... We are the strongest team in the empire... The power of each member of the team is the same as a royal guard..." said Claw and lifted his head and looked at the corpses around him. There were many emotions hidden in his eyes, pity, fear, anger.

He felt sorry for his teammates. In their first encounter with Swain, they had severely wounded him and let him escape. His teammates and Claw did not think much of it, after all their target was weak and catching him would be very easy... But when they met their target again, they died without even realizing that their roles had changed.

Now Swain was the hunter, and they were the prey waiting to die.

Actually, it was quite illogical for Claw to feel sorry for his teammates. Even if Swain did not kill him right now, Claw knew that he would definitely die today. Even if Swain left him, he would die from blood loss.

It was not hard to guess the source of the fear in Claw's eyes. The reason for this fear was of course Swain. As soon as the war started, Swain had killed his entire team in seconds and Claw would never forget this scene. This scene would go to hell with Claw.

The target of the anger in his eyes was himself. He was greedy and accepted this mission, as a result his teammates died and he would die soon.

Of course, there was no point in thinking about these things anymore.

-

"And now they all died without even dealing a single damage to their opponent." said Claw and sighed with defeat as he looked at Swain.

Swain's upper body was completely naked. His limbs did not look very muscular, but they carried a lot of power. All the scars on his body were visible, especially the large ones on his shoulder, chest and back.

*How is he still alive after taking such heavy wounds?* Claw asked himself this question. One of Claw's teammates had made the big wound on Swain's chest in their previous encounters.

This wound alone would be enough to kill someone, but Swain had two more wounds bigger than this one on his body.

Especially when he saw the scar on Swain's shoulder, Claw could not believe what he saw. This scar was so big that Swain looked like he had been split in half.

"Monster..." Claw whispered and lowered his head again.

"Monster?.. Hahaha this is quite new. People usually call me a demon." Swain said these words with a small laugh.

When Swain heard these words, Claw whispered "They are absolutely right."

Swain clearly heard these words and the big smile on his face shrunk a little and turned into a small smile.

*Enough talking.*

Swain reached out his right hand and grabbed Claw by the neck.

"Sorry to bother you, but you have to lift your head." Swain said and forcibly lifted Claw's head.

When Claw lifted his head, he met Swain's eyes.

The frown on Claw's face slowly softened and disappeared.

Swain's purple eyes were the brightest thing he had ever seen in his life. It was as if the infinite space itself was in the depths of Swain's eyes. The bright stars in this space were spinning in a great coordination and causing Claw's brain to numb.

Claw was lost in this sight. He did not know that all the secrets he hid from Swain were revealed, he was just looking at the infinite space with admiration.

He was enchanted by the beauty and harmony of this space.

*So beautiful.*

While Claw was impressed by the appearance of the infinite space, he felt a pulling force and when he blinked his eyes, there was no infinite space in front of him. There was Swain looking at him with shining purple eyes.

"See you."

When Claw heard these words, he felt his blood drain and the power in his body quickly fade. Then his consciousness was lost in the endless darkness.

Swain left the area without wasting any time after sucking Claw's soul.

He had learned many new things from Claw's words and secrets.

First of all, Swain could easily destroy a lizard man kingdom with his current power. In fact, he had already done that, he just did not know that the big city he destroyed was a kingdom.

He was so immersed in the massacre he created while destroying the kingdom that he did not leave anyone alive to question.

It was a miracle that he could stop himself before killing Claw.

"Three kingdoms and an empire that are very close to each other. I destroyed one kingdom, which means there are three big cities left that I will destroy." Swain said as he walked in the dark cave. He had been in this cave for a long time and could now find his way easily.

"I have to destroy them all and find Dormammu's avatar without wasting time. I don't know how much time I have left." Swain added with a serious expression on his face.

...

The lizard man cities were surprisingly large and well positioned.

Most of the houses were made by digging inside the walls and there was a large wall surrounding the city.

This wall almost reached the ceiling of the cave and there were many lizard men using arrows on the wall.

Most of the lizard men in the big city were happy and spending time with their families.

But the guards and soldiers on duty were not that cheerful. The reason was that they had received news that a city had been destroyed two days ago.

The person who destroyed the big city was an Asgardian nicknamed "bloodsucker". This Asgardian brought death wherever he went and left no one behind. At least in the villages.

The populations of the kingdoms reached fifty thousand, so there were normally lizard men who escaped from the massacre.

The lizard men who survived the massacre went to the nearest kingdom in a hurry and told what had happened.

The most sad thing was that the lizard men who escaped from that massacre were killed by the king of this city.

The king decided not to announce this news to avoid alarming the civilians, so he had to kill the lizard men who escaped from the massacre. The reason was very simple, the lizard men who escaped from the massacre were in a great shock and fear, so it was very normal for them to slip something out of their mouths.

Actually, the king could imprison them or keep them in a safe house until their shock passed, but that would be very troublesome.

Why bother with them when he could kill them and get rid of them cleanly?

That's how low and hypocritical the lizard men were. They would protect their own kind as if they cared very much when the time came, and they would kill their own kind as if they were a piece of trash when the time came.

But there was a truth called karma. A person would be punished if he did too many bad things... At least Swain believed that and he was sure of one thing. The person who had to punish the lizard men was no one but himself.

Swain was a ruthless demon who brought justice in this cave, and the lizard men were criminals waiting to be punished.

...

The lizard men and the king living in the big city did not know that the "bloodsucker" would punish them before the support troops they requested from the empire arrived.