Chapter 31 - The Red King

The deep-voiced man slowly walked out of the night's fading darkness.

A middle-aged man who wore the Red Crown stood in front of Yin and Suna, who were both on their guard.

He was definitely in his late forties.

His thin brows formed a frown written across his face.

A monocle was placed carefully on his right eye.

To add to that, his slicked back long and dark ebony hair was tied in a ponytail.

The man wore a refined black vest paired with a long white shirt, all put together perfectly and complimented heavily by the dark red tie he had around his neck and chest.

Though what garnered the most attention was his bloody red crown, a crown which both evoked unnerving vileness and the willingness to kill.

The Red King's Crown also seemed to hurt him, the bottom most part of the band was covered in thorns.

Not thorns on the outside, rather on the inside.

It was almost as if the crown itself was stuck in his head because the thorns were deeply impaled, judging from the fact that it had dried up blood all around the top of his head.

"There is no doubt whatsoever, this sadistic guy is the Red King!"

Yin whispered to Suna with an obvious hint of agitation and horror in his voice.

"Did the Red Crown give it away?"

She answered sarcastically.

Suna was trying to keep her emotions in check. She knew that if she showed even the slightest glint of fear, they would probably end up dying then and there.

Just as the Red King was illuminated by the moon, both the Serpent Summoner and the Commander sensed the presence of a person focusing huge amounts of Anima cells, they noticed his lust for blood.

"You two look strong but appearances are always deceiving, you know? I've actually killed people twice your size wielding weapons as huge, no, even bigger than they were!"

"Are you not hurting from those thorns in your crown?"

Suna asked.

"Silence! This crown is a symbol! A symbol of strength, the strength of someone who has long abandoned his humanity in search of power and the allure of murder!"

"Yikes, aren't you a bit too loud?"

Suna retorted.

Yin was glad that she was not fazed.

But in reality, she was trying to cope with her nerves getting too hard to even swing her fists.

Suna was distracting herself, trying to assess every single thing in her point of view.

She exhaled deeply.

"What was the first move that he was going to do?"

"What kind of fighter is he?"

"Is his affinity and weapon good for close range combat or long range?"

"Could he use the environment to his advantage?"

"How proficient is the Red King in Anima skills?"

"Can Yin even move a muscle or would he be useless in this fight?"

"Are Gavin and the Commander finished dealing with the underlings, if so, when can they provide us with back up?"

Suna thought to herself long and hard and incorporated all of these into her brain all in the least amount of time available.

She knew she had to take the lead as Yin was visibly shook.

Across all the months Yin has been a Slayer, he has never had to fight against human beings.

To ask him to fight well against a human adversary would probably be begging for too much.

Still, Suna knew she was not going to take the Red King down on her own, she needed Yin's help.

"You Slayers and citizens residing here up above don't know the pain and suffering inflicted on us, the people below. I was going to buy the white-haired kid, having sensed that his Anima levels were unstable, he would have fetched a fair price. I personally don't like murdering young saplings such as yourselves, but I've sacrificed so much to become the Red King, what's two lives more, am I right?!"

The Red King leaped forward, revealing his weapons to be bloodied brass knuckles he kept hidden in his pockets all this time.

What's more, he was targeting Yin.

Yin knew that he had to dodge, that he had to move out of the way.

His legs definitely got overtaken by the initial shock and fear.

"I-I mean Slayers are supposed to fight monsters and Angels, right? Why are we here in Niflheim fighting people just like us?!"

That's what his internal monologue said.

Suna had to push him out of the way, blocking the fists with her arms straight on.

The brass knuckles' impact made her bones crack.

She let out a grunt of pain.

"That's why you brats should have just stayed and died outside the gates!"

The Red King remarked.

"S-Suna!"

Yin overflowed with pure rage.

In an instant, Luken was behind the Red King.

He amped up his legs and kicked him in the ribs, sending the man flying and hitting a tree.

The Red King immediately got up and started sprinting towards the three of them.

"Yin! Get Suna out of here! Now!"

Yin nodded and carried Suna away from the streets.

"Who are you supposed to be?!"

The Red King asked violently as he pummeled at the Commander, the latter easily dodged each strike while counterattacking at the same time with his own fists.

"What a feeble king."

The Red King turned around and saw Gavin up on the tree, just as he was distracted, Luken managed to land a solid kick on his face, shattering his monocle.

Just as the Red King was about to retreat, he readied to jump and make way back to Cisco.

"I'll get my revenge soon enough!"

"…"

"W-Why can't I move?!"

He looked at his feet and saw a ten-meter-long python embedding its fangs with force.

"This is for Suna, you pathetic old man."

Gavin said while taking out his throwing knives.

"I-Impossible! The Red King can only be killed by the soulless from the underworld! You people are unworthy!"

He shouted.

"You know for a king; you really are weak."

The Red King was prepared to burn Rizako down, he jumped back, with the snake still on his heels.

He created some distance between him and the two, pulled out a grimoire and prepared to cast a fire spell.

Luken was faster though, the Commander blasted him with a concentrated wave of water from his palms just before he could light a single flame spell.

Gavin moved behind him and kicked legs down to the ground, he then pulled both his hands behind his back.

"I can order my python to secrete a poison that would kill you in ten seconds, or you can stand down and just give up."

The Red King was panting, he still had some tricks up his sleeves, his brass knuckles slowly heated up.

He tried to burn Gavin's hands which were holding him down.

Luken moved swiftly and was in front of the Red King now.

He pointed his index finger at the Red King's forehead, looked straight into his eyes with a blank expression and said,

"Do you know what happens to your brain once a laser beam of water is shot through it? I don't know as well, but we can both find out."