Chapter 113: Respect Women!
Chapter 113
On the other side of the wide room, away from the chaos of the monsters who were fighting but not too far off, stood Zen, Vynn, and Aria. The three were preparing to face off against the four men they had encountered the previous day.
"Kek! Who knew that we would meet again? Actually, I did." The hat man chuckled loudly, his eyes gleaming as he stared at the kids in front of him.
"Here for a rematch? Fine, let’s get on with it." Vynn said, lightning crackling across his hands, a wide grin spreading over his face as his body pulsed with excitement. He was ready to destroy.
"Of course we are ready. I just want to see how he will survive without his fancy veil active. I am sure you wouldn’t want to strand the others fighting upstairs, now would you?" The hat man said, chuckling as his gaze settled on Zen. Zen, however, stood calmly with his hands tucked in his pockets, his face unreadable.
He let out a tired sigh, untucked one hand, and stretched it outward with a faint grin. A sharp crackle filled the air and, in an instant, a sword shimmered into existence, settling firmly in his grip.
"Let’s just get this over with. I don’t need a veil to deal with pests." Zen muttered, his tone almost bored as his eyes lazily scanned his opponent.
{Whoa! Someone is suddenly getting cocky here.}
Tring!
[Quest Alert!]
[Defeat the hostile men in front of you for rewards.]
[Rewards: +50XP; +2 STR; +5 INT.]
’Tch! Not even worth much. Pathetic.’ Zen scoffed inwardly, shaking his head.
"Leave the cocky brat for me. The rest of you, take care of the others!" The hat man howled as he tore off his gloves. Instantly, both his hands ignited with icy energy, glowing blades forming and hardening as ice crept up and encased them in jagged frost.
"On your count." Zen said, taking a lazy stance, his grip tightening just slightly on his sword.
The hat man wasted no time. He dashed forward with blistering speed, the icy floor beneath him screeching under the pressure. In mere seconds he was in front of Zen, his right blade flashing forward with lethal precision.
Zen casually sidestepped, avoiding the strike by a hair’s breadth, and retaliated with a thrust of his sword. But the hat man immediately raised his second ice blade to block, the clash forcing Zen back and sending him skidding an inch across the floor.
"ARGH!" The hat man growled in frustration as he leapt back, swinging both of his arms. The blades shimmered, and the ice covering them shot outward in a barrage, exploding into several massive snowball-like projectiles.
Zen only sighed and crouched low before springing upward, leaping high into the air with graceful ease. The icy barrage smashed into the ground where he stood moments before, frost spreading rapidly like a creeping virus, consuming the floor in a layer of jagged ice.
He landed a few metres away from the frozen area, his face twisted into an expression of immense boredom.
"Honestly, this is boring me to death." Zen said aloud, shaking his head with disdain.
’Most especially because this gnawing feeling won’t leave me. Something bad is about to happen, I can feel it.’ He thought grimly.
"Am I really boring you?" The hat man’s voice echoed mockingly. Zen blinked in surprise, his eyes widening. In the blink of an eye, the man skated across the icy ground with frightening speed, appearing beside him like a phantom.
Before Zen could react fully, the hat man’s bladed hands slashed at him, both glowing blue and crackling with frost. The attacks came too quickly, the air itself splitting under the force.
Zen managed to snap his sword up in time, blocking one of the icy blades, but the sheer strength behind the clash sent him sliding backward across the frozen floor. His boots screeched against the ice as his body struggled to stay upright.
But the hat man wasn’t finished. His second blade swung forward immediately, aimed directly at Zen’s exposed side.
’Damn it! I don’t have four hands or two swords. How do I block the second strike while holding off the first?’ Zen thought frantically as the second glowing blade bore down on him, closer and closer.
Swoosh!
Something zipped through the air with blistering speed, slicing the silence like a blade.
"Zen! Leap back!" a feminine voice shouted. Instantly, Zen reacted without hesitation, springing backward as instructed.
At that very moment, an arrow shot forward, whistling through the air before slamming directly into the hat man’s second bladed hand.
The arrow buried itself deep, and a sharp beeping sound followed almost immediately. Within seconds, a sudden explosion erupted at point-blank range, the force rippling outward violently. The impact hurled the hat man away, his body flung back with immense force as the blast cracked through the ground.
He tumbled across the dirt, rolling and bouncing in pain, each groan and grunt escaping between clenched teeth.
When he finally managed to stop, he forced himself to glance down at his hand. His blade-arm was no more. It had been blown clean off, leaving nothing but a bleeding stump. Desperation kicked in and he quickly tried to seal the wound, freezing the gush of blood with his ice veil.
"Focus on your fight!" a voice ripped sharply through the air, cutting through the chaos.
Aria’s eyes darted up just in time to see a shadow appear before her. A fist drove into her gut with crushing force, and she was sent flying backward. A sharp gasp tore from her lips, a speck of crimson blood trailing from her mouth as she crashed against the ground.
That was right. Out of the four enemies, Zen was clashing with one, Aria had originally engaged another, while Vynn was holding off against two.
Aria had been doing well at first, relying on her precision. She kept her distance, loosing one arrow after another. Her normal arrows kept the man at bay, forcing him to weave through a storm of steel-tipped projectiles.
Each time he broke through, she was quick to adapt, defending herself with practiced movements. Watching the others fight had sharpened her instincts, and she managed to hold her own for a while.
But then she had looked aside, just for a moment, and saw Zen in danger. Instinct took over. Without thinking, she pulled her bowstring and released a glowing red arrow.
It streaked through the air like fire before colliding into the hat man’s blade-arm, blowing it apart in a fiery burst. The price for her moment of distraction, however, was steep. The enemy in front of her capitalized immediately, his fist sending her sprawling.
"It’s obvious you’ve never been in a real fight," the man sneered, his steps slow and deliberate as he approached. "You don’t take your eyes off an opponent, foolish girl. That kind of carelessness... it costs lives."
Aria coughed as she tried to push herself up, her bow trembling in her grip, but her body was too weak to rise in time.
"For your mistake," he smirked, gripping the hilt of his sword as the air around it began to howl with power, "you’ll pay with your life."
The sound of rushing wind swirled around the blade as he lunged forward, aiming to cut her down where she lay. But before he could bring his sword down, he froze, his shoulders caught in an iron grip.
A voice growled low behind him. "Didn’t your mother ever teach you?" The grip tightened, and the words came louder, filled with rage. "Respect women!"
And in the very next second, the man was smashed into the ground with bone-rattling force, the impact shaking the earth beneath them.