It was late. It was too late to swing the sword or draw out the gun. Even if he uses shadow steps to get behind the monster and hit it, the line of sight of its sharp claws would not deviate much.
The entire area was dark without much light. So there was no shadow nearby to jump into.
That means at least one kid will die if he doesn't act now.
He needed to do something. It was his fault that he failed to notice an ominous presence.
Gnashing his teeth, he activated flash steps and pulled himself with a jolt which made a crackling sound akin to the dislocation of bone.
A virtual line was drawn.
All his senses were focused on the monster's attack to the point that everything became dim and blurry.
A strange groaning sound rang out.
The space before his eyes distorted. Lunging ahead, he threw himself between them.
While using his body at the shield, he tries to pull his sword with the other hand.
The children's eyes jolted in shock with a flicker, as the back of the person appeared in their view.
Swish!
The nails pierced his gut without any resistance. A strange ambiguous cooling sensation spread over his body.
Blood gushed out, but Lucas's eyes lit up in relief as the nails did not dig into the organs.
The sight of a blackish-hairy body filled his vision. Through the thick hairy layer, Lucas saw a glimpse of a humanoid face with black teary eyes.
The face looked like that of a small kid.
The monster seemed to be flustered for some reason, seeing which Lucas shook his head and bit his lips to shake away his blurry consciousness.
Squeezing out his last strength, through the gap, Lucas pulled out his sword from the waist.
The other hand of his gripped the nail that penetrated his abdomen.
The monster panicked and tried to free itself but it was too late.
KWAKK!
The sword cut the arm of the monster.
Hot blood splashed conveying warmth to the air that was followed by the piercing howl of the monster and the frightened cry of the children.
Lucas was too focused on the enemy so he did not turn back to console the kids, nor was it the time for that.
The monster howled loudly and tried to flee away.
BANG!
Lucas stomped the ground and shot himself toward the monster, brandishing his sword.
Kayak!
With a wild shriek, it threw wild slashes with the remaining hand.
CLANG!
The sword struck the palm cutting through the nail, it pierced the fingers and got struck. Lucas, instead of pulling it away, yanked his sword aside and pulled something with his left hand.
The monster's sixth senses kicked in and it tried to run but Lucas lunged forward and pointed the pistol, pulling the trigger.
BAAM!BAAM!BAAM!
A loud sound like the striking of thunder rippled across the place.
Blood spurted like a fountain from the monster's head and it fell on the ground with a thud.
Lucas stumbled back, and his vision blurred due to the pain. When he came to his senses, Lucas found himself sitting on the ground holding his abdomen and an unknown chill penetrated every part of his body.
Through his dim vision, Lucas saw two kids running toward him.
Tears were already welling up in those trembling little hands.
"Big Brother..."
"Big brother..Don't leave us."
As they cried, another loud sound echoed.
"Lucas..."
THUD!
Frederick hit the ground with a pale expression and his vision interchange between Lucas's wounds and the monster.
"Lucas...Lucas.."Frederick frowned seeing Lucas's blank expression and walked towards him.
As soon as he heard a shrill cry of a monster, he ran as fast as possible to appear there. Fortunately, Lucas had taken down the monster.
Squatting down, he shook Lucas.
"Huh!" Lucas blinked in confusion.
"What happened to you? Take potion, you are bleeding too much."
Lucas nudged his head and pinched his brows to clear his messy thoughts.
Gulping the potion, he pondered over it again.
'Sir Heilford said that the monster took away the children. Is this monster? And something is wrong here.'
He did not get any notification informing him about gaining experience points. This only happened in that weird place where he found those strange humans experimenting on making monsters and lacking the power to manipulate mana.
That means.
Lucas's eyes widened as a sudden realization dawned upon him.
'Is this also an experimented monster.'
"Frederick, kids...I am alright. Let's wind up things. We should leave this place as quickly as possible."Lucas mumbled with a solemn expression.
"Yeah!"Frederick nodded and ruffled the two frightened kids' hair to calm them down.
....
All the children rescued had a hazy memory.
There were around 20 children who had been kidnapped from various places.
Frederick and Parth killed everyone except the head who was kneeling before them being beaten and chained.
Clint stared at the three boys before him and shouted"You assholes."
"Is this how one should treat a kind person?"
"I am their benefactor? I am their godfather?"
"I gave them food. I have them at home. I even look for a family for them."
"And you, a measly bunch of kids who don't know the life of an orphan, dared to criticize me. I am the kindest man in the world."
Lucas tried to maintain his expression from distorting. Hearing those self-righteous words of this guy who screamed as if he suffered a grave injustice almost made Lucas vomit litres of blood.
This guy stood at the apex of hypocrisy.
If this guy is dumped into the Wuxia or Xinxia world, Lucas feared that this guy might become a god by mastering the dao of hypocrisy.
Lucas then glanced at Parth.
'Even this guy falls short in front of him.'
CLAP!CLAP!CLAP!
"Excellent!"Parth, clapping loudly, stepped forward.
His sudden move startled Lucas and Frederick.
Squatting down before him, Parth gave him a salute.n0VelUsb.C0m
"I am 17 years old but since my birth, I have never seen such a righteous guy."
"Brother.."
Tears trickled from Parth's eyes.
"Brother you have it hard. Your contribution is not something common people like us can fathom."
"You are a true man."
"Brother, you are a dragon among men."
"It's a waste for you to rot here in this place..."
"So...."
Clint stared at Parth in disbelief. This was the first time some appreciated his effort.
Raising his chin, he gazed at Parth with a hint of anticipation.
"You are a true dragon. To become like you, I need to analyze and study that dragon of yours."
"Huh!"
Lucas and Frederick almost fell on their butt.
"What do you mean?"
BAM!
"Ahhh!"
Clint's mouth opened wide in horror and his eyes became blurry due to the intense pain.
As he looked down, he saw Parth's hands move again, giving him a low blow.
"Ueee...Ueee!"
Clint rolls on the ground flapping like a fish taken out of water.
Parth pulled him up by holding his hair, and slapping him, spoke with a vicious smile.
"Since you have shown so much kindness, you should experience others' kindness."
"First, I will treat you like them and then sell you as a slave in a man brothel."
"It will be sad if you die a virgin. You should at least get that tag removed."
"Parth!"
Frederick and Lucas screamed at the same time.
Parth gave Frederick and Lucas a cold shudder.
"Do you think I am crossing the line?"
"If that was the case, I would have already cut off his roots and forced him to chew that measly flesh."
Ughhh!
Lucas closes his mouth to contain his urge to puke. His face had already become as pale as a sheet of paper.
Frederick flinched back a little and gazed at Parth wondering if this guy was joking or not.
Lucas knew what Frederick was thinking and he also knew that Parth could do that.
Don't get yourself fooled by his outer appearance, the darkness inside him is quite deep. This guy's torture method is too much horrendous.
Just thinking about what Parth said just now made his expression contorted with a frown.
"Stop this and just ask him, what did he do with the kids?"
"And also ask him how he kidnaps the children," Lucas asked.
From the moment he killed the monster he had a bad hunch about this thing. It seems Frederick and Parth had missed something originally in the novel which might create a big mess in the future.
He needs to investigate and link things.
"Hey, dumb bitch...Since you are so kind, tell me which family you sold these kids to.."
"Au...Auction...I will send them to the capital."
"Fuck you!'Parth slapped him and screamed, "Tell me something I don't know."
"How do you kidnap the children?''Parth asked again.
Clint coughed and swallowed his saliva with immense pain on his face.
"They help me."
"They..who?''
"The whi..No,no whitsl....white rob...ahhhhhhhhhhhh!''
A painful roar escaped from his lips. His whole body twitched and foam started to occur in his mouth.
Parth stepped back seeing Clint wriggling like a worm.
His eyes became bloodshot and blood oozed out from all his openings.
Seeing this, Parth jumped back. The man scratched himself and tore off his cloth. A dark magic circle appeared over his chest.
"What's happening?"Lucas asked, perplexed by the sudden turn of events.
"Backlash. He seemed to suffer from punishment due to violation of the mana oath or contract."Frederick gives Clint a weird gaze.
Rubbing his throbbing forehead, Frederick spoke with a sigh.
"It seems we have involved ourselves in something troublesome."
Roaring and squirming in pain, Clint's eyes became blurry and after a few moments, his breathing stopped. His eyes sank and his skin started to rot as if he had died a long time ago.
"Let's leave this place quickly. If the other party connected to him had a way to feel his death, we might be in trouble. We can't fight while protecting the children. So let's retreat for now."Frederick muttered.