"Did you know that depending on the tier of the item there is a limit to how much damage it can tank?"
Arthur's steel grey eyes gazed at him with a smoldering intensity, a gaze that had made Zaoin feel the need to step back out of caution however he stood his ground.
"Obviously, I'm not stupid"
He spoke almost as if offended, but of course, he had overlooked that fact, and when Arthur had struck him on the forearm earlier, he foolishly thought that was the extent of his strength.
'Dammit! Such a rookie mistake'
He chastised himself as he realized the consequences of being ill-prepared but, regardless he still had an ace up his sleeve
"Then why the hell would you face me with anything below high-tier items?"
There was genuine curiosity on his face as those words left his mouth, Mercenaries should know when facing an Explorer, anything less than the best items was not enough.
"Because I don't believe you're any better than me"
As soon as those words left his mouth, Zaion abruptly grasped Arthur by the collar of the shirt, struck him with a mean headbutt that sent Arthur sliding back several meters nearly dropping him to his knees.
However, Arthur took the attack and was practically unfazed.
"Oh Ah–"
Unfortunately, the remark he planned to say about Zaoin having a hard head never left his mouth as all of a sudden his vision blurred and a sense of dizziness settled onto him forcing him to buckle.
'What?!'
The surprise wouldn't last, Zaion delivered a powerful kick straight to the jaw and sent Arthur flying back and crashing through a nearby wall. Startling the residents who found themselves in the middle of a battle.
Arthur made attempts to get to his feet however he could barely pull that off, he felt like everything was wrong, as if he had been spun around and violently shaken before he was shoved forward.
Everything was blurry, not only that but also he couldn't make sense of up or down.
He tasted iron in his mouth and felt a dull aching pain on his jaw.
He felt a powerful yet dull impact on his chest, his body getting flung straight through another wall.
The residents of whatever house they invaded had screamed and scattered like rats whose hiding place had been found,
The folk who lived in the slums were smart like that, at the first sign of trouble they ran.
"You Explorers, always like to pretend you're better than us"
Zaion grabbed his disoriented foe by the leg and used his body to demolish another wall before tossing him outside.
Arthur felt his body collide with the hard ground, the sudden bright light of the sun added another layer of disorientation to his senses, the light assaulted his eyes, it was too bright.
"Always treating us like we're losers who don't know what we're doing, you're all so pretentious and cocky, it's sickening."
He punted Arthur on the stomach forcing him off the ground before he crashed back down.
"Not so cocky now, are ya? My victory over you will be the proof that all Mercenaries need, the proof that you're no better, that we're equals"
Zaion continued to prattle on however Arthur was far from listening, he was concerned with keeping the feeling of nausea contained and keeping his breakfast down.
It also did not help that their battlefield smelled like piss and shit. It made keeping breakfast in his stomach difficult. Worse of all, having a mercenary kick your ass till you vomit was something he would never allow.
'The effects shouldn't last, the fact his spewing nonsense should buy me time'
His thoughts were still coherent, however, that would be unhelpful if his body couldn't move the way he wants it to move.
He felt a hand grab his shoulder and flip him on his back before a weight settled on his stomach.
"I don't want you to think this is personal, You're just the stepping stone. You aren't special just because you're born with magic"
Zaion cracked his knuckles, and his neck, he believed this next attack should finish this. Precedent was already set, this would be the second instance of it happening and Mercenaries would begin to be seen as more than just wannabes.
A grin spread across his face, and an almost childlike excitement filled his heart. He stretched his neck as he prepared to crack open Arthur's chest with his unusually durable head.
"A complete thirty seconds and you waste it with a monologue?"
Arthur's voice splashed cold water all over his excitement, his eyes bulged in shock however he was quick to act, tossing his surprise aside and immediately launching his attack.
Unfortunately, the attack never landed, his forward momentum was suddenly halted and his head couldn't move an inch forward.
"When you have an item, that's your trump card, never use it until you've exhausted all options. You do lack brain cells after all"
Arthur had palmed Zaion's head and kept it in place, his hand felt the roughness of its scars and the almost dull rubber-like skin that wrapped around what felt like an insanely hard rock.
"You also didn't bother to secure my hands to ensure I wouldn't block or retaliate, You must be a novice at this."
The words came as if from a disappointed mentor lecturing their disciple. Arthur shook his head in disapproval. Despite being on his back, the advantage was on his side.
Zaion kept his lips tight and made attempts to free himself from his foe's grasp but Arthur's grip was impeccable keeping Zaion from moving back a single inch.
He balled his free hand into a fist, knuckles crackling as he held the fist tightly.
"Remember when I said Items have a threshold to the amount of damage they can take. Time to grit those teeth"
The hit came milliseconds after those words reached his ears, a devastating punch that struck his left ribs. The force alone was enough to jostle his entire body like jelly being violently shaken.
The crack and shatter of his ribs came after, followed by an excruciating sharp pain that forced a scream out of his mouth, the whaling that came out of his person was only exacerbated by the fact that his diaphragm had reflexively pushed all the air out of his lungs.
Once the scream left his mouth, the only thing he could do was painfully wheeze and drop to the side as Arthur let go of his head. His body curled into a fetal position, while his mouth hung open.
"Fuck!! Now you can't tell me anything in that kind of position and pain…"
Arthur got off the ground and dusted himself, having realised his foe was in no position to talk or lead him to where his wife had been taken.
Of course, he could simply ask about Bulat's residence and take it from there but the more time he takes trying to find the longer she's being held captive and possibly….
Arthur's eyes bulged open as the realisation of the danger Esme was in, finally settled in his heart.
Up until this moment, Arthur has been relatively calm, mostly because he felt confident that this was something he could handle; however, without any information on where she was, anything could be happening to her right now.
He grit his teeth, hard. A sudden fury bubbled up from the pits of his stomach. It was just anger at the situation but anger at the blunder he just committed
"FUCK!"
In his fury, he kicked Zaoin's face and sent several teeth flying out of the man's mouth.
This was the second time he committed such a blunder. First, it was the marriage where Esme was forced to marry him without having an opinion. It was fortunate that she was fine with it and happy to not only leave the palace but also have her honor as a woman restored.
He barged into this kingdom with barely any information, suddenly got married but that ended up being a happy accident however this time the mistake was far more severe.
He didn't take the threat of Bulat seriously and assumed he could just kill the man if he really needed to. It was that kind of arrogance that opened the window for Esme to be taken.
As an Explorer that was shameful, one doesn't act like that when facing off against monsters, if Bulat had been a monster Esme would probably be dead by now.
He talked about protecting her and how she was the one in danger, yet in the end he failed.
"You Fucking Idiot!!"
He kicked Zaion once more, this time with significant force, and punting him onto a nearby building.
"Alright, calm down! He won't kill her, not unless he wants me to kill him but…"
That did not mean he wouldn't do other things to her, that was what was most troubling.
Fortunately for Arthur, there were people watching, people who had been keeping a close eye on him and waiting for the right moment to make contact with him