Chapter 148 - An Almost Silent Night

I decided to head out after taking a jacket, without talking to anyone. Chances are, I wouldn't be able to talk to them normally.

...Plus, they didn't remember me anymore.

I closed my eyes as I walked down the streets. My back faced the palace. Though my goal was to protect them, it almost felt like I was abandoning them.

But there was simply no time to waste. Each second was precious, even if it did not seem like it.

The streets were very quiet, but that was to be expected since it was the middle of the night. Thankfully the full moon gave off a decent amount of light, making it easy enough to see my way forward.

As I walked, my mind slowly gathered mana to form a few spells. The first priority was definitely the healing spell because my body would break down after a few foundational spells.

By the time I made it to the outskirts of the kingdom, I had finished the healing spell. There was a strong pain in my chest, but that was it. Forming another spell might be pushing it, however, I figured that testing my limits would need to be done one day or another.

Yet, before I could do it...

"What the hell's this guy doing here?"

"Some more free money I suppose. Just catch him."

There were two burly men standing outside the doors of a fairly large house almost like they were guarding it. They seemed to be interested in me.

I shot a glance towards them.

"I have no time for you."

One of the men smiled viciously.

"Talking big now, are we?"

The two of them walked up to me leisurely, cutting off my path ahead.

It pissed me off.

One of the men laughed and threw a fist towards me.

"Know your place!"

I stepped to the side, dodging his fist, and threw my own punch with all the power I had.

The sound of bones cracking resounded.

My own bones. The man cringed in pain from my punch, but the damage I took was far greater. My body was simply too weak right now. As though realizing this, the man smiled and grabbed my arm with his free hand.

"You got nowhere to go now!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, really?"

The man took a swing at my face as my eyes widened and my pupils constricted. His strike missed. As for me, I appeared behind him.

Both of the men were surprised.

"Where did he go?"

One turned around.

"Wait, behind you!"

I put both hands on the shoulder of the man I appeared behind and pulled my head back. Then, without concern about my skull, I slammed mine against his.

A frighteningly loud cracking sound rang out.

My vision immediately became blurry while a loud ringing noise filled my ears. I couldn't even feel my body, though I knew from the pain in my head that my skull cracked.

Without delay, I casted the healing spell. At first, it only brought more pain, but it rapidly subsided. Once my vision cleared, I was greeted with a fist right in front of my face.

A dull thud rang out.

My face hurt pretty bad. My head had snapped back from the hit and even knocked me off my feet. With a bang, I landed on the ground and had the air knocked out of me.

Though it hurt, I had already gone through way worse. On top of that, the remnant effects of the healing spell healed those injuries too.

In less than a second, I was up on my feet.

The man that I headbutted was face-first on the ground. There was a small pool of blood under his head while he himself was no longer moving.

As for the man that punched me, he had a frown on his face. The fist he used to punch me was clenched tightly and dripping with a bit of blood. The man did not lunge towards me like I expected.

Instead, he pulled out a small purple stone and crushed it, creating a familiar magical diagram.

My eyes narrowed.

I recognized it immediately as the messenger stone.

The man smirked.

"So you're a mage, huh? No wonder you could slip right past us, you even had a dash ability."

I raised an eyebrow.

What was this guy talking about?

The man laughed as though he figured me out.

"You might've escaped with that seamlessly last time, but now you've shown yourself. In your next life, don't be so confident!"

My eyes narrowed.

"What are you talking about?"

The man cackled.

"There's no point in playing dumb, it's already too late!"

I heard shuffling sounds and looked over my shoulder.

There were burly men surrounding me on all ends.

"Heh. Don't worry, we won't kill you straight away!"

"But if you obediently give us that back, then it will be a swift death."

"You will have to tell us sooner or later, just make this easy on us."

With just a rough count, I could see at least twenty of them. At first, I was only interested in not wasting time and getting out of here, but they kept mentioning 'that' which made me curious.

I slowly raised my head.

"What is this thing you are talking about?"

One of the men laughed and lunged at me with his fist.

"Still playing dumb now are we?"

...It seemed I would need to use a bit of force.

My skin tore open while wild gales whipped around me. I sidestepped the man's hit, letting it brush right by my face. My cheek even felt the warmth of his skin.

Although I was a little concerned for my body, I casted the control vines spell. My mind hurt from it, but it only took several seconds to form.

A tiny vine budded from my hand and rapidly grew larger.

As for the man, he turned to look at the vines in surprise. He attempted to back off, but they wrapped around his neck anyways. I lifted him up in the air before slamming him back down on the ground.

He was immediately knocked unconscious, prompting the others to charge in too. Despite the amount of mana I was channeling into the vine spell, there was a relatively low burden placed on my body. Maybe if the men knew how strong it could become, they would run away instead.

The vines rapidly increased to the length of ten meters. The feeling of strength was overwhelming, but I could hardly control it. But thankfully, I didn't need to.

Nearly twenty men attempted to close in on me, but I swept with my new massive vine.

Several deep thuds rang out one after another.

The first man hit was carried along like a ragdoll. His eyes rolled into the back of his head while the side of his rib cage shattered. Similar fates happened to each of the others. Some of their limbs were ripped off while others directly lost their heads.

There were two things in common they all had.

Their blood was splattered across the ground and they had died.

It was a relatively off-putting scene seeing various limbs and heads on the ground, especially since they were torn off messily with strands of flesh attached to them.

I looked down at the only survivor who was knocked unconscious earlier.

First, I casted the healing spell on myself, restoring the damage I took from all those spells. After that, I casted the water spell and let it splash on the man's head.

He began to choke and spit out the water before waking up.

"What the..."

I looked him straight in the eyes.

"Tell me about this thing that was stolen."

The man blinked a few times, still not understanding the situation he was in.

"Huh?"

The man looked to his left, then his right.

"...What?"

The vines were still attached to my hand. My original intention was to constrict his limbs with them, but I quickly realized that I would probably kill him. So instead, I slammed the vines next to the man's head.

With a crash, several stone fragments flew in the air.

The man cringed, moving his head away from the vine.

"Stop, stop!"

I tilted my head to the side ever so slightly.

"Tell me now."

The man furrowed his brows.

"Tell you what?"

I brought my face a little closer to the man.

"The thing that was stolen. You were talking about it earlier, no?"

The man narrowed his eyes.

"Weren't you the one that stole it? Why do you care?"

I sighed.

"That doesn't matter, just tell me what it is. Unless you want to share the same fate as your pathetic friends."

The man seemed to be at a loss for a moment, but quickly recovered himself.

"Er, it is a small purple amulet."

I rubbed my chin with my thumb and forefinger.

"What does it do?"