Chapter 82: Blinded By Pride

Chapter 82: Blinded By Pride

Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan

"Sorry I took so long, buddy..." Standing on a random rooftop a few hundred meters from where I left Katherine, I leaned down to pet Ilios. "You ready to finally do something fun?"

Almost immediately, Ilios’s tail started wagging even faster. *nod-nod-nod*

"Haha, alright. Let’s get going then!" Finally standing back up, I darted towards the commotion, casually hopping from roof to roof as I crossed the city.

As I started getting close to the front gate though, I started sensing several strong auras.

But even though they were all quite strong, one still stood head and shoulders over the others. -That’s an aura that puts Father’s dragon form to shame...-

Questioning what monstrosity of a human could have such an aura, I quickly got to a rooftop that overlooked the main road and looked down towards the crowd.

Down in the street was a convoy of 12, all riding red racers, a type of domesticated monster that looked like a red feathered lizard and was known to be exceptionally fast.

Most of the people in the group were fairly strong, but 3, in particular, stood out. -So that aura wasn’t from a humanoid at all, huh...-

Looking over the three halfies, smiling and waving to the humans around them, a bad taste came to my mouth. -How old does a halfie even need to be to have a true form with that kind of aura...-

Although it was a little worrying to see that a few of my targets were far stronger than anticipated, it only made me more excited. -I wonder how much of a fight you can give me...-

But as a slightly crazed smile came to my face, the strongest, bear-demihuman-looking halfie whipped his head towards the rooftop I was on.

"Huh?" His hostile look quickly turned to confusion.

"What’s up, Pello? Did you sense something?" The panther-demihuman-looking halfie next to him gave him an odd look.

"Hm? Oh. I just thought I sensed someone... I guess it was just my imagination."

As he turned back towards the gate, I looked down at him from the top of the city wall with a wide smile on my face. -Oh, this’ll be fun...-

The next couple minutes felt exceptionally long as my anticipation for the fight only grew, but eventually, the group of 12 finally finished waving to the citizens and left through the gate.

-Alright! Time for some fun!- Casually turning around and walking to the other side of the wall, a knight came running up to me.

"Sir! You cannot be up here without permiss-" *Poof-crack* Before he could finish, Ilios and I vanished, only leaving a crack in the ground where we once stood.

Quickly plummeting towards the ground after leaping off the wall, I glanced toward the group of Nation ranks to see them finally crack the reins of their red racers. -So they're finally speeding up, huh...-

But I quickly found myself needing to speed up significantly more than expected.

-I knew they were quick, but dang...- Although still far slower than me, the red racers would put cars on earth to shame. -Now I'll just wait for them to stop for a break...-

But going against my expectations, even after nearly two hours of running, they didn’t seem to show any signs of stopping.

-Are they seriously going to make it to Kaelallan without stopping at all?- Giving my plan some additional thought, I figured we were about as 'in the middle of nowhere' as we could get, and decided to change the plan a bit. -If they won't stop on their own, I'll just give them a reason to...-

Quickly dashing far in front of them, I pulled Ilios to my side and drew my greatsword. "Ilios, when I decide to go in myself, you take care of the unmanned racers. You can use your full size as well." Seeing him nod and change to his towering, full form, I rested the tip of my greatsword against the ground. -Before I do that though, let's see if they can react to this...-

Forming a moderately sized metallic dart in my palm, I stuck out my hand and set my eyes on my first victim, the young elven mage on the far left. -With the dart shaped like this, there won't even be a sonic boom...-

Quickly taking an extra second to make sure I was on target, I let the dart fly. *crackle-FWIP*

As if the dart teleported, it closed the couple kilometers between us nearly instantly.

The unfortunate elf on the other end of the dart wore a bored expression, but as the dart ripped through her, her head and torso simply vanished.

Seeing my judgemental look, the women readied themselves, but the swordsman was still somehow calm. "You know, if you back down now, I will consider letting you under my wing. When I inevitably take over the continent, you’ll be showered in riches!"

He wore an expression like he was both confident in his delusion and actually expected me to take his offer. "Pfft-hahaha!" I couldn’t hold back my laugh. "I think you have a screw loose, man."

"Haha, well, don’t ask for forgiveness later!" As he finally readied himself, he gave a sign to the archer behind him.

*Fwip* The arrow on her bow zipped off the string immediately, firing right towards my shoulder.

-Are they serious?- *tap* Casually catching the arrow, I looked up at the archer in disbelief. "You aren’t going for the kill? Are you insane?"

Her face paled immediately, but her fear-filled expression only made me more excited.

-Should I slam her to the ground with aura?-

But while I thought about how to play with them, the swordsman finally got angry. "Don't you dare look at her like that!" He charged forward after jumping in front of my gaze.

-So they do have that kind of relationship...- An evil smile crept onto my face before I knew it.

*Clank* *Clang* *Clank* *Wham-Crunch* *Clang-crunch* We had a short but fast exchange of blows, easily shattering the ground beneath us as we moved, but it was only another moment before the archer and mage tried to catch me with my guard down.

*Fwip* *Crackle-Fwoosh* The barrage of arrows and spells seemed like a lot to manage at first, but after another second I started liking it. -To think I could improve my movements so much with this!-

Falling into a handspring, I threw my foot up into the chin of the swordsman. *crack* The noise of teeth cracking echoed through the air before his rage-filled eyes could turn back to me.

Like he was lost to rage, his form started deteriorating. "You think.." *clang* "..I'd lose.." *shing* "..when I’m the one chosen by god!"

Casually deflecting his blade over and over again, my evil grin only grew. "How did you even get to nation rank? You've got the emotional stability of a toddler!"

Deciding to finally retaliate, I pulled back my sword, but that was when he backed off. -Oh?-

Looking to my side, I saw the young mage girl with a big glowing rune on her palm.

*BOOM* The explosion launched a huge wall of flames at me, but I just sliced through it with wind magic.

"That was even weaker than that assassin's spell, how underwhelming."

As I casually brushed the dust off my clothes, the swordsman charged at me again. "You overconfident bastar-"

Seeing the archer fire another arrow to divide my attention, an evil idea came to mind.

*tap* Casually smacking the sword out of his hands, I grabbed the head of the swordsman and moved him slightly.

*Fwip-Crack-tap* The arrow flew through his head completely before I caught it in front of my face.

-Damn, that had more power behind it than I thought!- Dropping the swordsman to the ground, I looked up at the girls’ pale faces. "It seems the so-called chosen one was abandoned by god. What a shame."

*Fwip* With a casual toss, the bloody arrow in my hands zipped across the street and reunited with the archer. *Crack*

"It's a shame two fairly talented women had to follow such a delusional man." With a casual glance into the woods, I just rocked my head to the side slightly.

As I did that, the mage, with tears running down her face, readied a huge amount of mana. "EVEN IF I DIE.. I'LL BRING YOU WITH ME!"

She was clearly pulling out her trump card. "Do you really think I'll just let you do that?" Setting the top of my sword on the ground again, a white blur shot across the road and turned the girl into a cloud of blood. *CRACK* *BOOM*

Ilios shot across the road so fast that even Pello, the strongest halfie there, couldn’t catch a glimpse of him. He could only stare at the bloody mist with a look of wonder. "How the..."

Seeing the halfies finally realize they would have to get involved, my excitement finally started showing again. "Are you all really just going to stand there while I kill you all one by one?! Come on! If you don’t gang up on me, it’ll be no fun!"