Chapter 174: Martial Art

Tristan casually glanced at all the adventurers and started counting.

"5… 6… 7… 11..."

As he looked at each of the eleven men who surrounded them, he fired up his scanner and looked at their attributes. Other than the bald guy named Jim, all the others are merely silver badge adventurers.

Those silver badge adventurers have an average of 50 battle power, while Jim has almost three digits in battle power but a clear lack of spirit force. It appears the bald guy was purely a combat-type fighter.

Among the silver adventurers, two have high spirit force but extremely low battle power, showing that they were magicians. With 60 and 64 spirit forces, the two were nothing to be concerned about.

All eleven adventurers jumped down from their horses and drew their weapons. They were prepared to capture him by any means necessary.

"Watch out for that big guy!" The golden badge adventurer shouted. "Also, that woman! She must be a magician!"

They glared at Tristan, Chieng, and Herrera menacingly. When the space knight and the fire magician were about to retaliate, Tristan raised his hands, prompting the two to stop. He looked at Jim, smiled, and said.

"Friends, friends…" Tristan spoke in the softest, yet most condescending voice he could muster. "This is not how you should treat the mayor, you know. Are you all sure you want to go down this way?"

"Don't listen to him!" Jim shouted, Tristan's voice only stoking his anger even more. "He's just a new clown sent by the king!"

"Clown, huh…" Tristan started to frown.

"Jim, calm down! I heard from Mayor Uriel that this guy could kill a thousand barbarians by himself!"

"Hah, 1000 barbarians?! You believe a clown talking about other clowns?!" The bald guy shouted at his mates, who could only flinch and look away in response.

Tristan rubbed the bridge of his nose. He would rather not hear another word 'clown' for the rest of his life. 

Every inch of his body quivered with excitement, and he wished to start fighting right away. He can tell the urge was spreading all over his body. 

But as he was now a Mayor, he believe he should show a little restrain

"I warn you, if you wish to leave now is the time!" 

Tristan can see a few of the adventurer were in doubt, if he scare them a bit they would probably ran, but he suddenly remembered something and asked,

"Can you at least tell me if your group is part of our town's monthly payroll?"

After listening to the question, Jim suddenly laughed.

"Hahaha! You heard this, friends? The mayor is trying to buy his life with coins! Such a wuss!" Jim narrowed his eyes on Tristan and said. "We take the money to protect the town, not to become your bodyguards!"

"wuss?" This guy just insulted him once again. But he didn't get annoyed this time because he just heard a piece of good news

He just realized Killing them would cut about 20 coins from his monthly expenses, and surely these mercenaries need no compensation for their family after their unfortunate death.

Hidden within the shadows of his face, Tristan gave a wicked smile.

This time he decided. No! No mercy.

With confidence, he glanced at his team and said.

"Chieng, let me see you spar with them first. Herrera, focus on protecting yourself but blast away any who try to run away… Also, guys, I need one alive."

Tristan's words quickly made Jim swing his weapon in anger.

"That's it! Everyone, kill that big guy first!"

Two of the adventurers knocked a few arrows on their bow. From its glint, Tristan could see the arrows were made of steel, and one shot from the heavy yet fast arrow would be enough to critically injure or kill any human,

Ssssttttt!

But, Chieng was faster. The arrow fell and stabbed the ground, while the space knight rushed towards them.

One adventurer was distracted by the missed arrows, and Chieng took his chance to aim his fist towards the guy's face.

Bammm!

Chieng hit the guys' face with a downward punch, and the guy quickly fell flat on his butt onto the grassy ground. The distracted adventurer saw stars for a few moments, and Chieng kicked the guy's neck.

Crack!!

A sickening crunching sound could be heard, and the adventurer coughed blood, right before his eyes rolled back into his head.

The others could only stare in shock at their fallen comrade.

Two adventurers shook off their disbelief and jumped at Chieng together. Each of them held two daggers in their hands, and their movements kicked up dust on their path. They are the type who depends on their speed.

When the dagger came from both sides, Chieng dodged each strike within centimeters of the knife hitting his body. His massive frame hid his agility, and when the two attackers started to tire out, Chieng grabbed their hand and twisted their arm hard, forcing them to stab each other's chest.

Two more adventurers are heavily wounded and bleed just seconds from death.

Tristan nodded, clearly impressed. Chieng really did live up to his Asian stereotype.

"you fools!" Jim shouted in annoyance, no doubt because three of his members had died.

Chieng released the two lifeless corpses from his hands, and looked Jim in the eye. The space knight was taunting him.

"It's your turn, then! Come!" Chieng said.

The bald golden badge adventurer stepped forward and pointed his huge sabre at Chieng. He dashed, swung his sabre around at high speeds, and shouted.

[Battle Arts – Speed Up]

Unexpectedly, he didn't just charge in with his enhanced speed. Instead, a magician started chanting, making his body glow with greenish light.

[Blessing of the Wind]

The glow focused on the bald guy's limbs and coated them with energy. At the same time, another magician chanted and created a water whip, before throwing it towards Chieng.

Chieng leaned to the side, dodging the attack while avoiding the rain of steel arrows whizzing towards him. 

Now that the battle had commenced in full, Chieng was able to show his skills more. He hit some of the arrows with his arm,

Pak! Pak!

Chieng's dexterous arms threw them off-course and made them fall uselessly onto the grassy ground before any of them could hit his body.

Within the split second Chieng was focused on blocking the arrows, Jim was already in front of him. The bald adventurer swung down his massive sabre onto Chieng's head.

Clang!

At the last moment, Chieng was able to pull his combat dagger from his waist and used it to block the sabre.

Not only did he manage to block the attack, Chieng also had the strength to push the golden badge adventurers back a few steps.

"You… What are you?!" Jim shouted.

The bald golden adventurer eyed the man with black hair in front of him with wariness. He then glanced at his companions and shouted, 

"This big guy is very troublesome!! I will hold him down while all of you quickly take care of the girl and the elf!"

The moment Jim's words reverberated through the air, the 7 adventures swiftly began to surround Tristan and Herrera. 

The adventurers' group consisted of two archers and two mages who acted as long-range attackers as well as three close combat fighters. The three were a short-haired man with a long curved sword, a tall man with a spear in his hand, and a muscular guy with a massive steel club.

Looking at this balanced team composition that could tackle any kind of situation, Tristan unexpectedly appeared to be extremely calm, not worried at all.

He then scanned his gaze across the adventurers before returning back to Jim. 

"Are you guys sure about this?" said Tristan with a playful smirk on his face. As his finger pointed at Chieng, he added, "You guys will have a better chance of winning against him than me."

The sheer confidence that Tristan's entire being oozed, as well as the fact he was an elf caused the group to be wary and hesitant to launch their attacks.

While they were contemplating and looking at each other whether to attack or not, Tristan on the other hand began his habitual scanning again. This time, he wasn't looking for their stat, but rather, more into searching which one among them had the lowest Blood Essence amount to become his new underling.

Soon, he found his target; one of the archers who was a young girl with lush brown hair tied into a ponytail. She had a bountiful bosom that didn't quite match with her lean figure.

As he had found the target he would subordinate, Tristan calmly took out his long sword.

"Are you ready, Herrera?" said Tristan without looking at her.

"Yes! Anytime you are,"

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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l, 

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