Chapter 360 - Tom The Guardsman

"What's wrong ye scaly bastard!?"

"Why do you have to do that strange accent every time you say that?"

The dragon spirit let out a roar of rage before it began bleeding drops of black mist that fell to the ground before it formed vaguely people shaped forms that charged at Mercury and Max, Max quickly sighed before he commented

"You had to make it mad?"

"Yeah I did, here's a question for you Max, how do you kill that which doesn't die?"

Max dodged to the side avoiding a shadow forms attack as he cut it in half as he yelled back to Mercury

"How?"

Mercury showed a smile and stomped his feet a few times sending more rock spears flying up before they hit the dragon spirit's main body wounding it deeply and causing it to let out another roar in anger 

"First you piss it off"

Mercury disappeared from view as the tail of the dragon spirit whipped down and landed where he had just been standing, then his voice sounded out from on the top of the dragon spirits head

"Then you exploit its openings!"

Then before the dragon spirit managed to react Mercury brought his fist down and hit right on the crown of the head knocking it down to the ground before Mercury landed on top of its head again and punched down once more wrapping the shape of the head slightly before he disappeared from view once more and appeared next to Max and clapped him on the shoulder

"And finally you finish it off, got something big?"

Max nodded before he looked a little hesitant

"I do… But it's kind of big…"

"Well I don't see anybody out here but us"

"Good point, let's do this then!"

Max closed his eyes for a moment before his red phantom horns grew longer and longer and became less illusionary before he opened his eyes again, the red pentagram patterns on his pupils shone with an eerie red light before he let out a low yell as his eyes shone brighter and brighter before suddenly a red flash of light covered the world, when it passed a fraction of a second later Max kneeled down weakly before the dragon spirit that was about to rush forwards suddenly suffered several internal explosions, then Mercury nodded and pointed towards the dragon spirit with two fingers as he muttered

"Acquire target"

[Traget acquired, powering mana forge(s)... Mana forges 6-10 offline, maintenance required… Ignition]

Mercury's mana began to warp the surrounding space creating a mirage before Mercury spoke

"Build spell structure"

[Building spell structure, spell structure #001: Negative lightning selected… Loading spell… Complete, holding]

Countless sparks of blue lightning shot off Mercury into the surroundings as a thin layer of frost formed on his body he muttered sending out a white mist

"Fire"

[Firing]

A single bolt of blue lightning shot out from his two fingers hitting the dragon spirit the next instance a thunderclap sounded out, the dragon spirit froze, literally froze over in the next few instances before it fell to the ground and shattered into pieces its voice sounded in the distance

[Cruse you Mercury! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!]

Mercury coughed up a mouthful of blood before the robotic voice sounded out inside his head

[Recoil detected, starting auto repair…]

"Yeah I felt that one too"

Then Mercury fell over backward and landed on the grass where he laid and looked up into the sky for the next few minutes before he called out to Max

"You alive son?"

"Yeah… Somewhat, every single part of my body is sore though"

"Me too buddy… Me too, it was fun though, I mean to cut loose once in a while right?"

"Yeah… So how was it we beat something immortal again?"

Mercury sighed before he spoke one word

"Energy"

"Energy?"

"Yeah it takes energy to maintain its body in this world, even more, to regenerate when we wound it"

"...I see, that makes sense…"

Mercury let out a groan as he sat himself up before he looked over at Max that was sprawled out on the grass next to him and asked

"How about we take it slow on our way back?"

"...Agreed"

In the evening Mercury and Max appeared outside of a city gate, Max asked Mercury again

"Are you not coming along?"

"Nah, I don't want to start a fight inside the city"

"But you'll gladly start it outside the city?"

"Yeah"

"Sometimes I don't get you dad… Oh well, I'll tell the girls where you are"

"Sure"

THen Mercury sat down on the spot and waited soon one of the guards took notice of him and then he looked at the wanted posters before he looked over at Mercury again and sighed before he walked out with a pair of shackles and asked Mercury

"Are you here to turn yourself in?"

"For a crime that I didn't commit? Didn't you hear the announcement earlier?"

The guard stared blankly at Mercury before he sighed and lowered the shackles before he asked

"That was about you?"

"Yeah"

"I see… Well I'll believe you"

Mercury raised an eyebrow before he asked

"You will?"

"Yeah, I've been doing this work for close to 35 years now, I can tell when people are lying, though it looks like you know the rules already"

"Yeah, even if the bounty is false I still can't enter the city until it is taken down"

The old guard nodded before he clapped Mercury on the shoulder a few times and sat down next to him after a few moments of silence the old guard asked him

"What's your name son?"

"Mercury"

"I see… My name's Tom"

"Nice to meet you, Tom"

"You too Mercury"

Another guard walked over towards them and called out to Tom

"Hey captain, won't you join us at the pup?"

Tom showed a smile before he glanced over at Mercury and spoke

"No I got another idea, gather the boys"

Julia, Marie, and Asma walked out towards the gate, they had heard from Max that had just returned that Mercury was sitting outside the gate and decided to go keep him company Julia sighed

"He's too good that man of ours"

"Mercury… Nice person… Kind"

Marie nodded and showed a sweet smile as she spoke

"Yeah he's kind alright"

Julia showed a smile, soon the 3 of them neared the gate, they could hear Mercury singing

"With a thousand lies and a good disguise

Hit 'em right between the eyes

Hit 'em right between the eyes

When you walk away, nothing more to say

See the lightning in your eyes

See 'em running for their lives---"

The 3 women turned the corner and saw Mercury singing as he clapped his thighs 

"---Now dance, fucker, dance, he never had a chance

And no one even knew, it was really only you

So dance, fucker, dance, I never had a chance

It was really only you---"

The 3 of them showed smiles and began singing along, Mercury had thought them all the songs he knew over the past 3 years so naturally, they knew the lyrics, soon they joined the guardsmen and made mary along with long into the night…

The next morning the situation took a turn as a mercenary yelled

"Have at you, criminal!"

Mercury's eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet as he slid into a stance from the oncoming bloodlust and reacted accordingly as he sipped past the sword that was slashed downwards and pushed upwards with an open hand meeting the chin of a mercenary and knocking him out cold, Mercury had half expected a counter so he was a little surprised but still grabbed the mercenary and kept him from fall in face first down into the mud as he looked around, the first thing checked was the girls that were curled up next to where he had been sitting and sleeping a moment ago on and covered by blankets then he looked towards the walls and saw the guardsmen from yesterday night and a group of mercenaries that sighed and wore deep frowns on their faces, there was even a few of them that handed some cel to the guardsmen seemingly having lost a bet, then Mercury looked down at the person he had just knocked out and saw that he was a rather young mercenary, and from his earlier display of skill or rather lack thereof he sighed before he picked the kid up and swung his arm over his shoulder before he walked over towards the group of mercnaires as he asked

"Is this one of yours?"

Eventually, he found the group that the young mercenary belonged to and handed him over to them, then Tom came up to him and asked

"Slept well?"

"Yeah like a rock… Though I would like a milder wake-up than that next time"

Tom showed a smile before he gestured to the mercenaries that had gathered and spoke

"They're here for your bounty"

"I figured… Well then…"

Mercury walked out and stood in front of the gate and yelled

"Line up, I'll beat you all one by one!"