Howwere you able to gain that much of strength in this short period of time ? .
You want be allowed to move an inch without answering my question .
I used Curse skill and stunned him in his place before continuing on my way, but not before baiting him with one last sentence which was :
Believe it or not i can and i did .
And continued to go on my way leaving quite some of stunned faces behind me looking at my back and head towards to where were those high ranking Adventurers standing and positioning themselves .
A few seconds later presumably 6 or more his curse was broken and he was once again free to come and annoy me but this time he was coming at me while gritting his teeth and clenching his fists with the spear of his now on his back .
I paid the closing by idiot no mind and mostly focused on the characters that were in front of me, weirdly enough even though i don't know any of those guys some of them actually held some enmity towards me as if i'm their nemesis or something but it reminded me of the guys that took every chance to go against me before .
Could they be related to that same noble from before, as i was about to say hello, a gruff voice come from the center of those high ranking Adventurers saying :
Areyou the boy who was responsible for hurting my brother and his friends over a little disagreement the other day .
A bald headed man said and the crowds give a way for me to see him taking and i saw him sitting on a luxurious couch with drinks and food in front of him, looking like he was quite enjoying himself and the small gesture that these guys just made was quite enough to allow me to understand that he was quite popular with the men here as well .
After witnessing the way he was high-spirited eating and drinking and luxuriously resting i found my sight involuntarily looking back towards the direction of the battlefield where human lives were being taken and this bald headed man here enjoying his life to the fullest quite unburdened by what was going on .
Why aren't you answering me, are you looking down on me , punk ? .
The crowd : oh, he actually made big boss Sullen angry, i have no doubt that he will die a painful death .
: Sullen have only one brother and he always doted on him , that guy made quite the entrance just now but i heard a few rumors about Sullen getting a boost in his strength and rank lately .
: Some even said that he had been chosen to be the bandits leader, that's a direct subordinate to the prince and his brother might have become one too .
: If what you said is correct he really might get in a big trouble, who would be crazy enough to go against the subordinates of the crown prince even if he appeared to be quite strong .
: Yes, it doesn't have anything to do with strength, whatever how much strength he have or could possibly have in the future, he won't certainly be able to compete with the strongest man in the kingdom and he is even the crown prince of the said kingdom .
: But is he really that young, just now Sullen called him kid so he must be under 20 years old at least, so the crown prince might spare him on the account of his latent potential but at the premise that he join the side of the crown prince , probably .
: You have a point a kid with almost A Rank strength at this age could really catch the eyes of the crown prince and make him spire some leniency enough for the kid to at least be able to survive .
: it is all up to the crown prince judgment and we have already witnessed a lot of scenes when aspiring individuals conflicted with the orders and desires of the crown prince and his subordinates , their ends were bad to say the least, those who were able to escape got a bounty on their heads and were found dead or joined an enemy kingdom to escape the pursuit .
: So it's really not about neither strength nor the potential, it's actually more tied to authority and to make an example of the perpetrator or the one that dared to defy this authority .
Most of the chatting crowd nodded as if affirming what had been said a second ago , before one of them continue on saying :
: That kid is in a really difficult predicament .
: The situation is far away from being in his favor but that Sullen might not be so overbearing, at most he will injured him or something like that .
At the last comment, the people in the crowd looked at each other in remorse and some of them even began to shock their heads as if they were lamenting the loss of someone dear , the whole comments and the last action of their filtered some of them in my brain, i came here thinking that they were all scumbags, but i believe some of them to be still worth saving , i guess .
But now that i took a more closer and clear look at them, i was able to see that there was quite the diversity between the equipment of most of them .
They were looking a bit more firmer and much stronger than the ones worn by the lower ranking Adventurers that was certain but the variety between the equipment worn by the Adventurers in front of me was quite an eye opening .
I guess there was an even a much bigger disparity between the equipment worn by the high ranking Adventurers and the gab was wide to say the least .
Wait did they just said that this bald guy in front of me might be now the subordinate of the crown prince , actually this new piece of information meant almost nothing to me, but i was more interested in knowing the second piece of information is what really mattered to me a tiny bit yes but still .
It was the information about him being the new leader of the bandits, i found myself wondering about the fate of Scar his name was Scar , right ? .
I guess that might be the reason on why they didn't come to find me after finding out how Silver tricked him , yeah remembering that incident that brought me and him together brought a bitter taste in my mouth .
So something had happened to that Scar and the bald guy in front me was now his replacement, who was that brother of his ? .
Sullen : Hey Tor, he is too afraid to even answer, you tell me was this the guy that embarrassed you ?.
A chubby guy appeared from behind the man called Sullen looking to be quite embarrassed as he stood behind his brother and said : yes, brother it was this guy that used shady methods to embarrass me, yesterday .
He said that and sticked to the back of his brother, so that pig from yesterday was actually the brother in discuss, weren't that guy also responsible for that noble's action of agitating the high ranking Adventurers under his command against me, what was he saying , heck what was he even doing ? .
he was shaking while hiding behind his brother and his use of words in addition to the way he was currently acting give most of not all the people that were witnessing the scene the wrong conclusion .
As i saw them stealing weird glances at him then at me, but to both clear my innocence and to put an end to such a weird display i said :
As he just said, i did beat him up .
No, no, no, you didn't just beat him, you embarrassed him by knocking him out .
Me, the crowd : huh ? .
: What with this weird way of phrasing, if you have anything to say , spill it out already? .
Did you still that slave girl with you , i want you to hand her over together with the thing you used to embarrass my brother with and that ring of yours looks fancy, hand all of this over and allow my brother to slap you for a few times openly and grudge between us will be vanquished .
And if i said no .
If you said no then you will have to deal with me and many other high ranking Adventurers who are acquaintance of mine , what will you do ? .
I stayed silent for a few seconds wondering about whether the condition of handing Laura was giving to the idiot in front of me by the suggestion of the noble man he made a deal with, or was it out of pure greediness like his pig of a brother .
Another explosion sound coming from the direction of the battlefield was what acted as an instant reminder of the task that i was here for in the first place, i cursed those two brothers that were in front of me mentally as they were the reason for the delay .
My expressionless and stoic face returned once again as i began to make a few steps forward until i reached to him in the center of the crowd while he was looking eagerly at me as if already anticipating that i have agreed but was only waiting for me to say it loud and clear .
What is it going to be, kid ? .
Answer me first, could you be willing to tell those accomplices of yours to come up and let me see them more, or at least could you point them out of the crowd .
My inquiry took him by surprise, but he smugly smiled and give those accomplices of his what i presumed to be some sort of a signal, at the gesture he did with his hand a few guys appeared from the crowd and began to stand right behind him as if they were showing me that they are backing him .
The reason for my sudden curiosity was actually quite simple, i wanted to snoop all of the accomplices of him, so that i can have a clear idea of who would try to go against what i'm about to do next .
Most of those guys who stood with him were probably the men of that Noble guy, so just as the crown prince was going to make an example out of me .
Those men will be the ones that i'm going to use to make an example too , if needed of course and it really didn't have anything to me being petty or me wanting to beat them up for making the scene quite awkward, or that bald headed guy mentioning Laura and for some reason i found the last reason to be the one that angered me the most out of all the rest reasons that i have just provide .
I cleared my throat and began to say :
Why are you guys are up here enjoying yourselves and not down there helping your own kind in protecting the Capital ? .
My question silenced all the people on the area and i was seeing that my question had struck some nerve in those guys, but each and every one participant had different response and expression to the question that i just asked .
Some were embarrassed, some were filled with guilt, some were nonchalant, some were in dreed and most of them were quite uncaring .
Hahahaha , look at the little guy trying to be a hero , did dealing with some cannon fodder and some weak monsters mislead you into thinking that you can talk to... .
Shut it .
Huh, get..... .
Just as he was about to finish his sentence i already knocked the so-called accomplices of his out cold and in a blink of an eye and returned back to stand in my place as if i have never left it , for the bystanders including him and all the other people watching i didn't even move from my original place, but those guys suddenly fell down unconscious on the ground, leaving him and that pig brother of his .
What just....
I told you to shut it just now, didn't i ? .
The audience were all dumbstruck at what exactly did they just witness , the people who were supposed to be the backers of that Sullen suddenly fell unconscious and they weren't even able to see how .
: i saw him with my sight skill, you all called it useless but i saw it, i saw it all, it was a bit blurry but no doubt about .
Suddenly a middle aged dude from the crowd began to yell hysterically with wide eyes as if he just witnessed something incredulous , another replied to him by asking quite impatiently, saying .
: what are you yapping about, if you know something about what had just taken place tell us already .
: he knocked them all out, he knocked all those supporters of that Sullen just now, i saw it with my own eyes, my skill allow me to take a photoshoot the moment something impossible to believe happen and that's how i know that he was the one who did it .
~Phhhhhssssss~
The crowd took a long breath of air at the words of that guy since some people already vouched that he did have such a skill .
Oi, guys, stop playing dead and get up already .
Don't waste your time, they want able to wake up for at least 10 to 20 minutes .
Hey, you bunch of Battle Aura Healing users heal them already .
How much are you willing to pay ? .
I heard a voice coming from a certain corner and swept my sight towards the direction which the voice just now came from to see a bunch of guys ganging up together wearing green robes with a sword and a helmet decorating their robes , so those were the Battle Aura user who was born with a Healing type of Aura .
How much will it cost to heal all of them ? .
50 silver coins each .
The moment that they said their price, i felt most of the people in area hearts tightening as if they too were quite shaken by the astronomical price , but there were no clerks here, all the clerks stood beside the princess , so those in need of healing has to deal with those guys , i guess Regard was once again proved right when he said that to really understand them i will have to see them in action on the battlefield .
Can't you make it a little bit more cheaper for me ? .
Either pay or scram .
They gave no way for negotiations and blatantly refused him, his face had quite the livid expression but he was actually releasing it in my way as if i was the one who made him lose his face .
I paid him no mind and again asked my question once again and the only answer that i got was the same silence as before but after a few seconds, the one that answered me was actually that Sullen still glaring at me :
We are all under the direct commands of the crown prince and the nobles houses that we have a contract with so you can buzz off, as long as the noble houses behind us didn't give the orders we won't be moving an inch .
The moment he finished saying this i swept all the people in front of me with my sight and saw them all nodding , so i said :
Well that won't do, march towards the battlefield, now .
They all looked at me as if they were looking at a fish that can talk .
Who the hell are you to ... .
I didn't allow Sullen to finish saying his sentence and held his neck in my hand and raised him off the ground, not enabling him of much an air to breathe not to mention words , he looked to be incapable of hanging much in my hand .
That brother of his was quivering and lowering his gaze to the ground , with the audience suddenly erupting in an uproar .
Some were cursing at me, some were chanting for a fight, some even began asking saying something like why should we even listen to you and the like .
I turned to look at them while still holding that Sullen by the neck and unleashed the Aura Of The Strong and weirdly enough some of the guys in front of me was able to counter its deterring effect , but some weren't so lucky .
Some were shocked of the level of strength that i have shown, since to be able to held an A Rank effortlessly like this was something even those S Rank Adventures will find it quite difficult to do .
I then stared at them deeply and said :
I wasn't suggesting, i was ordering and the reason why you should listen to me is actually quite simple , finishing you all off won't take even the tiny bit of sweat from me , to those of that still won't comply to my order take one step forward .
And i guess there were really some that were crazy enough no matter the world we were in , some of them were actually beginning to take a few steps forward, but as i said before i need to set an example .
I activated my Curse skill and stopped all of those that were going to challenge my words just now and said to the now standing still Adventurers :
I believe that i already made myself clear and if you weren't able to understand previously allow me to demonstrate the gab between our strength to allow you to have a clear idea on the result of going against me .
I finished saying and directly took action in 2 seconds the legs that were about to take a step forward received one punch from me completely obliterating them earning a few shocked looks and the whimpering voices of those who were just affected .
Did i made myself clear , head out , now , you too .
I turned to the Battle Aura Healing guys and surprisingly they did say a single word as they begin to march , i then went to the guys who just lost one of their legs and used Healing Magic on them to regrow their limbs back and then turned to them and finally said to them and to the dying Sullen in my hand :
You better fight with all that you got otherwise you won't be just losing limbs, i will make sure you lose your precious lives too, do you understand .
Which i took their nodding as a confirmation and looked at the guy who was weakly nodding in my hand and asked him if he still want me to turn over everything on me to him which he answered clearly by shocking his head so quickly that i unintentionally almost broke it , so i healed those comrades of his and released him .
Yamada was finally able to catch up just as we were heading to the battlefield looking quite enraged as he was yelling :
I had enough of you , die .
And he actually attacked me with what looked like to be a fire spear attack shaped like the head of the dragon, i put my mask on and that was the only countermeasure that i did, seeing me being engulfed in the fire most of the high ranking Adventurers began to rejoice the misfortune that befell me but those who already had a clear understanding of my strength continued to march forward as before .
The voice of metal clashing came from inside the now firestorm that i was in , and as the fire began to clear, all of the people saw me standing their completely fine without even a scratch, with a spear sticked to the position of my heart but unable to progress even an inch more .
I was becoming a bit impatient with the idiot hero in front of me, so i wasted no time and only raised my hand and slapped the side of his his face with enough strength that directly sent him flying towards the battlefield the minute my hand touched his cheek .
Continue on , i told the people behind me and they wasted no time and soon followed , i greeted the princess and her smile even widened as she greeted me back, apperantly she was quite happy with how the things turned out , i asked Shiru if he want to join, but there was a weird gleam in the depth of his eyes as he shock his head and wished me the best of luck .
I nodded at the other people like the two mouth opened heroes and Reince then i mentioned for the high ranking Adventurers to join the battlefield and to commence the attack , the all flared with different types of Battle Auras as they began to join the battlefield , shifting its balance of power almost instantly in the favor of us humans and giving the lower ranking Adventurers some room to catch their breath .
I searched for Larn in the crowd and saw him suffering from quite a nasty wound on his abdomen and thank to the timely arrival of backups, he was able to retreat and head to a safe area besides the walls in trying to heal himself and get some rest , looking at him like this reminded me of something as i looked around to see the clerks hiding in a corner behind the city guards .
The moment i made eye contact with them, they couldn't help but shivers since they again abandoned their duty after i already warned them before , without missing a beat they hurriedly went of their own accord and joined the battlefield .
One of them happened to meet the severe injured Larn and helped him recover from his injuries and as i was watching the clerk healing him, i saw him looking in my direction above the city walls as he give me a thumb up and a sheepish grin .
I held a smirk in response of his gesture and merely shock my head, i wasn't proud, more lamenting that i could have done this a lot faster and more earlier to lessen the number of casualties even more .
As i was watching the situation on battlefield shifting to our favor, a sudden familiar voice came from behind me saying :
Hero Ryuu, do you believe us to be able to come out of this raid triumphant .
You tell me crown prince , this is my first time witnessing a monster raid myself , what does define coming out as triumphant from such a chaotic battlefield .
The defining factor is something that i'm really quite ashamed of, it has always been the number of casualties from the raid that defines whether we triumphed or not .
Then i guess we will witness a triumph today .
Andit'sall thanks to you and your bold actions .
Please, you are flattering me too much, i did what i just saw right and it's not like i was able to completely stop the casualties completely .
Their sacrifices will be noted, i believe you have a quote about not always getting what you want , but i just can't seem to recall it .
Win some , lose some .
Pardon? .
The quote you mentioned might be this one .
Yes, Yes exactly, win some, lose some , you are quite knowledgeable as well .
"HYPOCRITE" .
"IDIOT".
Both sides had something planned for the other but they were still not acting on those impulses of theirs , then out of nowhere a huge worm like creature appeared from the earth below, shaking the city walls and the whole area with its emergence .
Even though some of its body was still not clearly apparent, no one doubted that the size of the creature in discuss was massive , for some reason i felt that i know that creature even though i'm certain that i never encountered anything like him and i guess that i was quite familiar to him too, since from the moment it surfaced from the ground it kept looking my way .
Humaaann, you destroyed one of my dan... stomachs and i want you dead .
Oh, so that was Gluttony , i was about to go looking around for him, i also should have noticed the similarity in color and the way his body was currently still shape shifting too .
I will be with you in a minute don't worry , i said loudly drawing many stiff reactions from all the people present .
I turned towards the the crown prince and asked him :
Who is this your highness , care to inform me he looks like he is some big shot .
That is Gluttony the second in command of the Demon King army and an SS Rank monster .
Care to tell me how many times someone of his Rank fell in a raid .
The crown prince looked at me weirdly and shock his head as he said :
Never .
I guess there is a first time for everything .
I left the crown prince and went to the princess and asked if anyone could lend me a sword for a bit and the one that actually volunteered to give me a sword was none other than the sword saintess herself .
She gave me an Epic Ranked longsword, i looked at the sword that was sheathed at her waist but she told me that only her could actually wield it otherwise she would have lent it to me generously .
The moment that i held the sword in my hand i felt as if the whole world suddenly went silent and the moment i looked over i saw that it wasn't that i felt like it, no the world actually came to stand still , as if no one was capable of moving an inch .
Time stopped , maybe ?!
The world then continued to work once again and as normal as before leaving me thinking that what just happened with nothing but a mere illusion of my increased strength, but i can't seem to forget about it happening for some reason .
I thanked her for the sword and took on step forward, one step and i had already arrived in front of the huge worm like creature without it even noticing that i was already here , i was more powerful than ever before .
I felt it more clearly the ruch of strength that was currently channeling and coursing through me , this is the feeling of 10 times boost in Strength and Agility and with a good sword in my hand, i believe it's time to send this creature on his way .
The moment i raised my sword and was about to slash at the creature the world once again came to a sudden stop then a second later it once again resumed and the attack landed on the said creature completely severing it in half but the attack didn't stop it continued to carry on for some far distance before finally stopping, i hope .
I waited for the said creature to regenerate but he didn't regenerate like before no, his grey body began to turn black then that huge body of his, or currently the two halves of his body began to burn with black flames, turning the huge monster from before to a pile of ashes .
It took only 3 to 4 seconds for the huge creature from before turning to ashes, but the first side to take notice of what just happened was actually the monsters as i saw a horn being blown once again but this time it was for the purpose of ordering the monsters to actually retreat .
I once again appeared on the city walls and returned the sword back to the sword saintess which took it while looking quite absent-minded, it wasn't only here most of the people present were all momentarily at loss of words , a miracle was what probably circling in their minds , it must be .
Cause if it wasn't, then what did they just witness , a colossal SS Rank monster and a direct subordinate of the Demon king just turned to ashes just like that , these were the reactions of some of the experienced eyes on the battlefield, those who had no idea what that huge creature was or the more inexperienced bunch thought no much of it but their expressions were still filled with the utmost awe and respect .
I didn't care much about the glances that was currently coming in my way but more on the now withdrawing monsters and this time i choose to finish them all as a tribute to those who lost their live fighting against the monsters earlier and to make this a day to be remembered in the years to come .
I directly appeared inside the formation of monsters and began massacring all of those strong ones that my eyes fell on , some tried to escape by flying but using Curse skill on them made all of their efforts in trying to escape become in vain .
But seeing that there were some monsters capable of escaping, i awakened the still stunned bunch of high ranking Adventurers and told them to continue in the pursuit of the monsters and not to allow any of them to escape or else i will be the one who will be dealing with them .
I looked at the now pale looking faces of the two Kibas and chuckled a bit to myself then i once again devised a plan to use against those monsters to prevent them from escaping , using Rock Slide should be able to do the trick .
I wasted no time and appeared directly in front of the escapee monsters and create what appeared to resemble a huge trench in their way to completely and wholeheartedly prevent them from even thinking of escaping , seeing that there were no much of an issue on the battlefield i was about to head back to the city walls and ask the princess about how was Hana doing and just when i was about to reach for the city walls i suddenly felt as if i was suddenly tugged by something on the back and felt as if the whole weight of the world was pressing against me .
For some reason i was now trapped in something akin to a bubble unable to move a muscle, but noting that i was actually beginning to rise up was what made my heart palpitate and my frustration at what was going on to grow, i hurriedly turned on Obsidian Armor but to no avail, i was still engulfed in the bubble without capable of moving a muscle and the most weird thing was seeing the people looking at what was going on with me with no reactions whatsoever .
As if they weren't seeing what was going on with me at all, i found myself involuntarily looking at the direction of the crown prince and saw him actually smiling at me, completely aware of what was happening with me, hence he might be the one responsible for it .
I give up resisting when i was already standing higher in the air to be on the same height with the people on the city walls and i wasn't that much worried about myself but the others like Regard, Liliana, especially Hana, but i can only hope that they will be able to be fine .
My mind with filled with thoughts and doubts about what exactly might happen to me when suddenly i felt a glowing chain engulfing the bubble i was in trying to pull it down as it was just continuing its way up .
I looked down to see the said golden chains actually belongs to the princess who was currently sweating profoundly while trying to hold back the bubble from going any higher, the gesture of her touched my heart .
I looked at her and began to move my mouth as slowly as possible for her to be able to get some of the words that i tried to convey to her, i told her that she should stop what she was doing and that i will be able to take care of myself and if possible, i asked her to take care of Hana and the others .
And even before getting a reply from Trina, the sphere that i was in began to accelerate upwards and it shattered the chains that were still trying to slow it down directly as it opened a crack in the sky and allowed me to see a scene that i never thought it to be possible .
The End of Volume 1 .
DONE .