31 31 - Sadis

When Jasper saw Noah suddenly appear with only a few small marks on his green camouflage outfit, Jasper quickly deduced that this Blessed One was not as simple as he looked, since he knew very well how difficult it was to enter a Fortress alone and get out from there without getting hurt. Even if someone came in to hide, if the person did not have great stealth skills the chance of some group of monsters finding him would be [almost nil.] very high.

So knowing that this Blessed One was not as simple as he let on, Jasper shouted to him for help hoping that by some miracle this man could help the group out of their situation, since if it continued as it had, perhaps some human lives would be lost in an escape attempt.

When he saw that this Blessed came running towards them, Jasper was surprised and excited by the help that they might receive, but different from what Jasper imagined, the Blessed One did not draw any weapon and was running forward with his bare hands. Normally the Blessed Ones who did not use weapons were mages, but because the mage's ability could often only be cast from a distance, they normally did not engage in hand-to-hand combat.

For a few seconds Jasper thought this man was an idiot and regretted shouting to him. If Jasper had known that he was going to do something like run straight up towards the monsters, wanting to attack them with punches, Jasper would have screamed not to put his life at risk unnecessarily.

But to Jasper's surprise, when Noah got close enough to the monsters, he put both hands together and with open palms pointed at the eight goblins who were frantically trying to attack the human warriors, and in an instant a large jet of flames came out from him that felt as if it could swallow anything that was in the way.

In this Blessed group there was a Blessed Rank E with a Blessing of fire as well, but different from the flame of that Blessed Rank E which only lightly incinerated the monsters, the place where this jet of flames touched a goblin would start to burn at an absurd speed.

In an instant, the whole battle stopped - both by the humans who were astonished and the goblins who were frightened by the demonstration of suffering that their relatives were experiencing.

While the humans were frozen in shock after seeing this demonstration of strength and the goblins were frightened without knowing what to do, Noah took the opportunity to remove the knife from the bag strapped to his right leg, and with eight clean cuts in a few seconds he killed the goblins that rolled burning on the floor.

'When I was hunting alone, I didn't have to worry about sharing exp, but with other people joining in the battle I can't let any exp be wasted.' Noah thought after killing these goblins.

When the goblins with blowguns realized that the warriors on their side had died, they finally understood that it was time to escape from there, as they alone could not kill these humans, much less now that they had that demon with them.

Seeing the 3 goblins with blowguns fleeing, no one but Noah thought of running after them, as they had been battling for more than 50 minutes without stopping. When no other goblin appeared, without anyone saying anything, all the 14 Blessed Ones sat or lay on the floor without caring about getting dirty or anything.

Noah looked at those three goblins running away feeling remorseful over the exp he could have won, but since no one was going after them, Noah decided he would also stay, especially when he looked at the large number of corpses on the floor that he could still absorb with his flame.

While the group rested, Jasper, who had recovered some of his breath, approached Noah and held out a hand to him. "Thank you so much for your help. I suppose if it weren't for you, we probably wouldn't be able to stand here without a casualty. My name is Jasper. How can I call you?"

Noah observed this Blessed One named Jasper and did not notice any kind of falsehood. Even analyzing his body language, Noah found nothing to point out that the man was being anything but sincere. "My name is Noah," Noah said with the best poker face he had, his expression disinterested.

Seeing how Noah was acting, Jasper felt a little guilty. "I'm sorry for what happened before we entered the Fortress. If something happened to you for entering here alone, it would be nobody's fault but ours. Don't worry because if it is up to me, something like that will never happen again."

Noah felt that those words were really sincere, but he didn't know if they were sincere because he had demonstrated the strength he possessed or if it was because he really was a kind man. "No problem, I like to work alone," Noah said as he kept his expression of disinterest, as if what had happened had not affected him in the least.

Noah could have very well let these Blessed Ones die and show none of his strength to strangers, but the potential gain he would have if they stayed alive would be much greater, due to the goblins they had already killed and also what they could eventually kill.

Jasper looked strangely at the goblins still burning on the ground, wanting to ask Noah why he was still torturing those monsters even though they were already dead. But when he looked at Noah and saw that he had a small smile in the corner of his mouth, Jasper felt a slight shiver run through his spine and thought it best not to ask anything like that.

He had already met all kinds of people in the raids he participated in: some fearful, some heroic, some psychopaths. Looking at Noah, he just thought he fit in with the group of sadists, but as long as that was directed at the monsters they faced, Jasper didn't care about it.

Only Noah knew that the reason he had the small smile in the corner of his mouth was not because he liked to make the monsters suffer even after death, but because of the black window that was now floating before his eyes.

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