Chapter 398: Imposing Attitude

Ed's worries were through the roof as he sprinted towards the new walls. He grit his teeth and ran straight towards the locked gate. He could see some orcs watching amazed at his approach. Some were worried that he would crash, however.

The gate was already in front of him!

But Ed's body seemed to disappear after it suddenly dipped into the earth popped right back up on the other side just a short moment later.

"Where are the humans!!?" Ed shouted at the crowd. Many were confused but the rumors of the humans' location were quickly spreading.

"They are at the plaza!" A well-informed orc shouted in response.

""THE PLAZA?!"" The orcs which were at the gate now knew more certainly where their target lay and couldn't help but feel exhilarated and sprint right off. But they weren't any faster than Ed.

Ed's figure arced over the large crowd almost magically. His agility attribute was insanely high for an orc. Though his movements seemed impossible by orc standards, they were just impressive for a human to pull off. But it was important to make a distinction, that was impressive for a human at the peak of a speed-related class to pull off. This was not something the average man could even think to match!

This speed was still not enough, however. Ed even took it a step further by taking a shortcut. He hopped up onto the roof of a stone house. He then continued leaping across rooftops and couldn't help but feel anxious after noticing a fierce gale of wind erupt from the plaza. Sharog was in battle!

But this anxiety quickly left once Ed noticed that the humans were actually rather low in number.

"Huh?" The humans were also lugging an earthen box around.

At least they had been, the box was quickly undone after it reached the feet of the beastly built knight. This was Talon and he picked up a human that was none other than Bloody!

'WH- Why do these humans want Bloody?!' Ed knew that what they wanted was not actually Bloody but the human it inhabited. Nevertheless, felt compelled to feel ire.

He suppressed this ire though as the implications of a team trying to rescue Bloody gave him a clearer state of mind. The man had to be important, important enough for them to rescue him.

The memories of W while he was captured by Eon in the marshlands resurfaced at this moment. The specific memory was one of Eon's mutterings, one that contained the name of the man!

He hadn't previously connected it to the man Bloody inhabited but looking at it now, the only context that made sense was that this man was Brennan Bosque. He was familiar with the last name thanks to the monster encyclopedia and its locations.

'The Bosque Kingdom' It was a location worth remembering thanks to its agricultural power but based on the encyclopedia, especially due to its forbidden forest. It was a forest filled with both ghosts and ghouls, arcane creatures, and mutant abominations.

The key in all of this was that the man was of the Bosque last name. He was a king or a relative to royalty!

Ed suddenly felt something come to him. It was the need to voice his thoughts. His eyes turned bloodshot and a scream built up in his throat. He let out a thundering shout...!

"DON'T TOUCH THEM!!!!!" Ed's shout echoed in the minds of the listeners but most of all it stunned all the listens into a pause. Don't touch them!?! Was Ed becoming a human sentimentalist?!

The humans could only hear a savage roar but what the orcs heard were words of weakness. For a moment, they thought about defying Ed's words. Only a moment.

Ed was like a king of the jungle. The ground shook after he hopped off the building he was on. He had been looking down at everyone from this building. But just because he came down it didn't mean he was any less intimidating, his eyes which seemed to be permanently fixed on an infuriated stare. It induced fear right into the hearts of the onlookers.

Some hid their dissatisfaction, some only closed their eyes and silently asked themselves what Ed might be planning, but there was simply no real way to know.

'There is a time and place for everything…' In fact, he was currently thinking about the system space. Just that now was not the time to enter the system space yet…

The orcs had parted a pathway for Ed to approach the humans. They had been forced to huddle at the center of the orc horde.

Ed walked down this open path before crossing his arms, closing his eyes, and looking up pensively. He didn't gauge the reactions of anyone, he just entered the system space.

Without delay, he sprinted off towards the forge room.

'I need W' There was an obvious reason why he shouldn't allow the humans to get hurt… they were good escorts for Bloody and W!

'It's a pity to lose them outside but…' While Bloody and W were gone, Ed could replace them both. A hypothetical split part called A and an off-brand Bloody called Clotty were not in a too distant future.

As for why Ed was not considering sending off just Bloody... That was because Bloody could not send him transmissions through the spiritual mark. He needed a new him, or an old him in the case of W.

Without further ado, Ed quickly suffered through the pain of splitting himself in the forge and hoped for W to get the spiritual mark lvl 0 skill. By the time the process was finished, Ed realized something.

'Wait… Hadn't W's transmission leveled up before?' In theory, he should have reached level 9 then. But he remembered that not being the case…

Ed wasn't keen on delaying things further, he abandoned the thought. He returned to reality and opened his eyes. There he was greeted by silence.

No one had moved while Ed stood there doing nothing. That included the humans. Even Bloody just stood in place perhaps waiting for orders from Ed. This all painted a powerful picture but Ed did not become immersed in this atmosphere after coming to.

'You all will have to humor me for a bit' Ed transmitted to the humans who got chills down their spines. Was the monstrous creature plotting how to kill them for those 2 or 3 minutes of silence?!!

"Now!" The shout of Tarin suggested that even if it was true, all was good. That was because they had definitely been planning how to kill Ed during that moment!

Talon shot off, he pistoned his arm with much thrust. His heavy gauntlets were bound to pack a punch.

[You've been dealt damage. -58 hp]

[You've been dealt damage. -17hp]

The sound of metal thumping against a hard surface resounded in the plaza. The orcs wanted to help Ed but quickly noticed it was needless.

The fist of Talon was blocked by one of Ed's arms, the sword of Lea was willfully ignored and the earthen spells of Tarin never even had the chance to make an appearance. An arrow had also wanted to take part in the mix but was easily dodged and landed on empty ground.

'That was bold of you all' But Ed didn't blame them. In fact, he felt pity towards them. Their plan was insufficient because they couldn't plan well under the circumstances.

They likely tried to keep a hushed tone while conversing as to not provoke the nearby orcs watching their moves like hyenas. Like this, it was already a miracle they could synchronize an attack but what did it matter for?

The plan was flimsy, the result was a failure, they should not have done something so stupid as trying to rescue this member of royalty in the first place.

<"AAaaRGH!""> Ed's hand suddenly appeared to vanish and be replaced by the sound of a painful cry.

As it would turn out, Ed's arm hand had not disappeared, in fact, all that happened was that Ed suddenly broke the arm of Talon. Lea who had already shrunk back and retreated her blade shuddered after Ed shot her a glance.

But unlike her expectations, Ed did not continue to approach her in the name of revenge. He instead waltzed past all of them with a pushing shove and grabbed the head of Brennan Bosque.

'Is this your king?' Ed asked the two with contempt. This was true contempt.

How could they let Bloody take over the body of their king?!?! Why was their king in a dungeon in the first place?! There were no real excuses for the current timeline and how it had shaped out. Even if he wasn't the king, anyone that needed rescuing was not supposed to be there!

'Take him' Ed told the bunch before suddenly letting go of the so-called Brennan Bosque and tossing him to Zhang who was closest. The man could not believe what he heard.

<" Tak- Take him!?!"> The notion seemed ridiculous for the small group. Why? They could not understand why anyone would let them go, especially not if the anyone in question was a monster.

<" Do I need to change my mind?"> Ed asked in human tongue. His words sounded rough but were easily understood by the group even without transmission. Scram or die!

The problem was, if they turned around and left it was also possible they were falling for a trap and that they would die. Die, Die, Die.They would die no matter what!

<"Le- Let's go"> Talon said weakly, his gangster aura nowhere to be seen. His arm had been bent and broken how could he still act domineering? Ed's figure also managed to top his own. It was a loss of an arm and his pride!

The humans were skeptical but with Talon admitting defeat. They could only guard their flanks and try to slowly retreat. This was the plan with the last chance of death, the one that relied on a monster's benevolence.

With Ed's command having fallen on every orc, the humans left their encirclement uninterrupted. Ed watched as they retreated with Brennan Bosque and revealed a rare smile. This would be good.