When the pommel of the sword reached the base of my fingers, I moved faster than ever, despite still being bound by the dark chains. I hurled the sword toward the man holding Méia.
I ducked, plunged both hands into the ground, and ripped two chunks of stone from the paved sidewalk, throwing them simultaneously toward the heads of the men closest to her parents.
I didn't stop, and in a mere 3 seconds after throwing the sword, 7 were on the ground: those surrounding me, 3 from the group that tried to capture Méia's family. And some of the villagers who were "unlucky" enough to be in the line of fire.
I don't know how long that thing had been alive, I didn't even know if it was still human, but it was obvious that it didn't quite understand how humans functioned. At least not how good humans functioned.
I stood up proudly and looked directly into its eyes.
"Does that serve as an answer?"
"Hmph, what a lamentable waste."
Whether she was talking about me not accepting her proposal or about basically losing all her lackeys, I don't know. But I knew I had used all the strength I still had; throwing those stones had chafed the ligaments in my arms, and I felt like some veins had even been ruptured.
She lowered one of her hands, which shone with a dark light in my direction.
""GREGOR!!!!"""
I heard the only thing resembling family I'd had, since my mother's death, shout my name. No matter how hard I tried to move my legs, I felt the chains tightening around them, pulling me down.
Exhausted from the fight and the final, probably futile, effort, I could barely stand. The villagers shouted insults at me again, but I didn't hear them. The only thing on my mind was the dark light in that old woman's hand and, strangely, my father's voice from one of the few times I'd seen him.
'If you are ever in a losing battle, remember not to fall without a fight, not to surrender, to let the enemy know that even having defeated you in battle, they didn't make you kneel and wait for death. That until the very last moment you held on. That's our way, the way of...'
'I really hate that bastard, but now I'm attacking his shitty father.'
With a remnant of energy that came from I don't know where, I remember again and faced once more the dark light that had formed a sphere that completely enveloped the old woman's hand. I faced it head-on and didn't shrink back like the villagers; I refused to lose to that old woman.
"Really a waste. Ahhhh~ Well, at least I'll get a good receptacle and some sacrifices."
I didn't like what she said, but there was nothing else I could do but stand defiantly against her.
'If this is really my end, I thank whoever helped us before. I regret not being able to repay them.'
In the final moments, even before she released the dark energy she had accumulated, a beam of light appeared above me.
The dark energy was released in the form of a sphere, but as soon as it touched the beam of light, it ricocheted and ended up hitting the house of one of the villagers. The house was enveloped by the energy, experienced a strong vibration, and disappeared from where it was.
"M-m-my house..."
I don't know who said that, and I didn't care. From inside the beam of light, I could clearly see the look of shock and disbelief on the old woman's face.
Perhaps it was an effect of the light, but she seemed less human.
Her wrinkled face, somewhat pale and gaunt, typical of an elderly person, appeared completely gray in the beam of light, with some shades of blue between the wrinkles. Her eyes were even darker and sunken like pitch. Her gray hair now looked white as chalk and moved almost like smoke in the wind.
From the light surrounding me emerged three bottles, half the size of a cheap wine bottle, but richly decorated in different ways with liquids of different colors. One had a red liquid, another an orange liquid, and the other a liquid that was simultaneously purple and white.
As if that weren't enough, a dark iron club also appeared, its upper part made of iron plates forming a kind of circle, and a black and red tunic with a simple appearance, but considering how it appeared, one could see that it was anything but simple.
With pain, I managed to raise my hand to touch the nearest bottle, the red one. Just by picking it up, I felt the pain disappear from my arm. I opened it, and as soon as I smelled it, I felt compelled to drink.
In mere instants, the same time it took for the other bottles, the club, and the tunic to touch the ground, the beam of light vanished, and with it, all my wounds.
"H-h-how? HOW COULD YOU HAVE MANAGED THIS? IT SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE FOR ANY BEING TO INTERFERE!!!!!!"
For the first time since she arrived, or even since I could remember, the old woman who acted as the leader of this village raised her voice with a look of disbelief, confusion, and (certainly for the first time I'd seen it) pure fear.
I didn't know what the other claws would do, but if they were only 1/5 like the one I drank, I was sure they would be valuable.
I grabbed both and quickly went to John and Liz, who were still stunned by what had happened, and left the bottles with them. They took them but barely seemed to register that they were holding them, mainly looking at me and the other items on the ground that had appeared out of nowhere.
I went back to where I was to get the club, but first I looked at the black and red tunic, then at myself. My dark brown tunic was in tatters, torn, cut, covered in dirt and trash, and stained with blood (most of it not mine) in several places.
In that place, my appearance never mattered. Even though I wore the clothes of a king, they still treated me like a beggar with some kind of disease, so I always wore the scraps of clothing I could find or that Mrs. Liz made.
She said they were for John, but she never got the size right on the first try, and since it would be a waste to throw them away, she gave them to me. As if anyone would believe that.
This very tunic I was wearing was one of them. It pained me to leave one of the few belongings I had, but something about the tunic seemed to call to me, just like the club.
I removed the tunic with the utmost care, never letting my guard down, and soon my body was exposed in front of everyone. My slightly obese body, but with undeniable muscles beneath a slightly greenish skin, bearing several scars, could be seen by anyone, as could my face.
Slightly different from that of a human, with a larger and somewhat "square" lower jaw. I put on the black tunic as quickly as I could; I never liked leaving my body exposed, a constant reminder that the anger and orders directed at me were not entirely unfounded.
Unlike the tunic I wore before, this one had no sleeves or hood, and featured the design of an old flower on the chest and back. It resembled the clothing worn by some of the escorts of the few merchants who appeared, usually the only ones with their own horses.
As soon as it settled on my body, I felt a different kind of energy, as if my body were receiving a new wave of strength and vitality. When I picked up the club, I felt as if a strange energy was entering me, but it wasn't something bad.
*Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh*
I swirled the lava in front of me a few times just to get a sense of its weight.
'Great, not too heavy and definitely not light. It almost feels like it was custom-made for me.'
I casually rested the lava on my shoulder and looked again directly into the eyes of that thing that wore the skin of an old woman.
"Who did you say would be some kind of sacrifice or receptacle, rotten meat?"
She frowned, and the look of disbelief, confusion, and fear was immediately replaced by a cold rage, the kind of rage that makes you smarter, more cunning, and much more dangerous.
If she had given me that look moments before, I probably would have frozen or refused, but now, uninjured, with a good weapon and the feeling that someone (or something) was helping me, I could endure that look and even smile defiantly.