A large shockwave spread throughout the mall, causing everyone's attention to snap towards the indoor courtyard.
Thankfully, Ferris was unharmed from the blast because although the explosion was loud, it was only that—loud.
So rather than a destructive explosion meant to kill dozens of people in one go, it served more as a sort of flashbang to temporarily stun everyone nearby.
And what followed after the that was the real threat.
ZZZZZZZ!
Dozens of unzipping sounds echoed from the stunned area.
Ferris immediately recalled who that blessing belonged to.
Zipperman? Isn't he a proctor too? Ferris found it hard to believe they'd actually meddle with their own exam.
He sighed inwardly. Then again, they were villains, and nothing was stopping them from playing dirty.
"You gonna continue sticking your head on there or what?" The woman glanced at Ferris, her smile unwavering despite the disapproval lacing her words.
Without waiting for Ferris to reply, she grabbed something from her hips and pulled out a revolver.
"Call me Evening. Miss Evening'll do just fine." She said, then leveled her gun at something behind Ferris.
There was a man appearing through a zipper that spawned a meter above the ground just near them.
Dropping down, the man did not hesitate to lunge himself towards the two easy targets lying on the floor.
But he never made it as a crater bloomed in the center of his forehead.
Bang!
Evening followed with another shot at the exact same spot.
Whoever he had been, he was now nothing more than a corpse.
As Ferris removed himself from Miss Evening, he first began by patting away some dust on his clothes and shoulder before placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"You okay, partner?" She happily sat herself straight up, as if she was completely unbothered by the sudden attacks of villains.
She even found some time to shoot another villain in the distance while waiting for Ferris's reply.
"I'm just glad the explosion wasn't too dangerous."
As he said that, a roaring voice emerged from behind him.
Turning around, he spotted a man barreling straight toward him, ignoring every other hero in the vicinity.
As the gap closed, the villain's arms twisted into a dark stone, each layer stacking and compressing over itself, forming an increasingly dense and brutal weapon.
"I know that sword! You stole it from my brother! Prepare to die—
Slice.
Due to the man's momentum, losing his head wasn't enough to halt his charge, making Ferris sidestep out of the way.
"Lord have mercy!" Evening yelped as the headless body barreled toward her.
She threw herself into a roll, narrowly avoiding being run over.
The corpse stumbled past her, nearly plowing into the distracted crowd as most of whom were too busy dealing with the sudden flood of villains.
After a few seconds, he kicked the bucket and fell flat on the floor in a grotesque way.
"You're off your rockers, slicing his head off?" Evening said to Ferris while she rubbed the side of her head with her gun barrel in genuine disbelief.
"It was a painless death. That's as much as I can do for him as a knight." Ferris flicked his sword out of habit, but he quickly realized that it was about to get dirty again.
Miss Evening seems to be a good fighter. For now, I'll prioritize protecting the weak. Ferris stared at the exact spot the human bomb went off.
Even now, there were still a lot of zippers appearing from reality as they continued pouring out aspiring villains who wanted a taste of blood.
But what was difficult was that it was still hard to tell who was who and which side they were on.
But that didn't apply to everyone.
From his decades of experience, he had gotten the hang of telling if someone was a degenerate or not, as long as they were close enough for him to see their faces.
Because there was one way to easily tell if someone was a degenerate.
It was that their faces had a hint of joy when killing.
Such was the case with the man in front of Ferris, who was toying with an inexperienced fighter. The skill gap was obvious, and the attacker seemed more interested in dragging out the fight than ending it.
Without a second thought, Ferris dashed in, going in behind the killer.
He drove his blade deep in the back of their neck and making them drop out of life instantly.
The abrupt intervention startled the victim, sending him stumbling back and collapsing onto the floor.
Although Ferris would be more than happy to help him get up, the situation before him called for such things to be dismissed.
Ferris scanned the chaotic area, carefully selecting his next target. He made sure to ignore the capable fighters to fend for themselves and was only planning to help the struggling ones.
The first thing he noticed was that a lot of the people on the hero side were actually running away from the scene, leaving the more experienced ones to fight.
Looks like their shock tactic worked. Ferris continued looking for targets, while doing so, the zippers gradually began to disappear.
The heroes would 100% win this battle, that much Ferris knew. After all, the majority of the kidnapped hero examinees were in the mall—it was practically their base now.
But the impact of the attack would be a big blow to the heroes' morale, tipping the war-winning scales to the villains' side.
What the wannabe heroes needed now was a true hero symbolizing strength, a hero that could crush the skirmishing villains and inspire others.
Ferris, back when he was Felix, was a knight who specialized in one-on-ones or fights with not a lot of people fighting at the same time.
So fighting in warzones was not his specialty.
But even if that was the case, he had a good idea on how to inspire the other heroes.
Ferris prepared to use his essence, and he soon stopped selecting specific targets.
Every villain in front of him was now his!
I'll just win this battle as quickly as possible. Ferris prepared himself physically.
It didn't matter if all of his essence today was depleted, but even if it was, the results would be worth it.
Not only would he save the dwindling morale of his comrades, but if he made a name for himself now, then it would most certainly land him a much higher rank in the Hero Association—maybe even straight to C-class, which had a much higher base salary compared to D-class!
. . .
Ferris quickly slapped himself momentarily.
A knight must never seek personal gains.
Ferris steadied his breath. Right... This is simply my duty as a knight.
He poured his essence into his legs, and as soon as he was about to begin his assault, something stopped him.
A single shard of light zipped past just in front of him, identical to the ones he'd seen before.