Chapter 46: Close Call
Roy gazed at the man before him as he slowly loosened his grip around the captive’s mouth so he could speak.
"Try anything funny and I guarantee a fate worse than death," Roy threatened coldly.
"If you know what’s good for you, you’ll let me go." The red-eyed captive seemed fearless as he warned the moment he regained his ability to speak.
"I can see you aren’t under Vera’s wing, seeing that you’re a Lord. I can allow you and your subordinate to pass peacefully... but if you dare meddle in a matter that’s way above you, don’t blame me if you get squashed."
As he spoke, the man showed no regard for Roy — each word dripping with disdain and disregard.
Roy squinted, concluding that these guys must be subordinates of an early-comer Lord, a very influential one at that. He could tell by the blatant disrespect in the man’s tone when speaking of Vera.
Someone greater than Vera... He recalled her fully established empire-like territory, her organized troops, and high-leveled entourage.
If there really was someone who could surpass that, it meant things were a lot more complicated — and dangerous — than he had estimated.
"Who sent you? Say any more nonsense and I’ll assume you have no more use for your tongue." Roy pushed his threat regardless.
The way he saw it, he was already involved with Vera and would soon be joining her circle of Lords. So whether now or later, her enemies were bound to be his anyway.
The man’s crimson eyes twitched. "The path to heaven is wide open, but you prefer to jump over the fence to hell. Whatever your choice... we were deployed by Lord Lux!"
"Lux the Terrifier... sigh. I’ll give you a chance. Kneel before me and offer everything on you, then I might consider not reporting your actions to him."
The man’s words grew more condescending the longer he spoke, forgetting his current straits and wearing a smug smile.
"Who the hell is Lux?" Roy’s sincerely confused voice rang in his ears, stiffening his smile.
"W-what do you mean? Don’t you know who Lord Lux is?" the man asked, his face coated with confusion.
"Am I supposed to know?" Roy reflected the question. But before the man had any more time to reply, the others laying in ambush seemed to have already sensed something wrong.
Their leader had yet to give the signal to attack or communicate for several seconds now. That was strange — and could possibly mean they had been compromised.
The group showed stunning discipline. They didn’t even bother searching for their leader and instead went straight for the remaining individual waiting before the dungeon opening.
"Shit!" Roy wasted zero time on further questions. With a light thump on the nape of his captive, the guy lost consciousness.
Dio too sensed his predicament. He had felt something wasn’t quite right when his boss suddenly told him to wait behind and vanished.
And now this bunch appeared from nowhere — the situation reeked of trouble. His figure hulked and his muscles bulged.
In a split second, before the ambushers were upon him, he had already transformed.
His crystalline-scaled figure towered over the bunch before bursting into a blur.
These assassins were around level 19 to 25, but before Dio? They were nothing more than clay chickens and porcelain dogs.
His claws arced hungrily, decimating and decapitating wherever they reached, splattering blood in waves.
This sight left Roy speechless. It seemed Dio didn’t need his help — and he didn’t stop him from killing them. It was obvious these guys aimed to kill. More specifically, they aimed to capture Vera and dispose of the rest.
Too bad they met Roy and Dio instead.
Within seconds, Dio had finished his massacring spree, his claws soaked with blood and his figure not even short of breath — evidence that the battle drained nothing of his stamina.
Only after this did he rush toward Roy’s direction. "Boss, are you okay?"
Roy didn’t reply. Instead, his gaze remained on the dead bodies strewn across the clearing. He frowned, lost in thought.
After thinking for a bit, his grip around the captive’s neck tightened, crushing it into mush — killing the guy on the spot.
[Host has gotten rid of small-time murderers!]
[Congratulations! Host has been rewarded: Unrelenting Gauntlets of Justice — Legendary!]
Roy’s eyes widened in surprise. He had no idea this act of his would be rewarded by the system.
He had made this call based on the fact that he judged Lux to be too dangerous to deal with at his current stage, and that it was better to erase all chances of letting the mysterious Lord notice him — which meant getting rid of all these guys. He never expected to be rewarded in the process.
He also wanted to see the system’s stance on him killing people. After all, in this dog-eat-dog world, telling him to conquer without killing was akin to telling a fish to climb a tree.
The system seemed to sense his thoughts and chimed in an explanation.
[As the bearer of the Order of Justice, mindless killing is frowned upon. Host can be sanctioned with penalties or, even worse, lose his Order...]
[But killing as a whole isn’t prohibited. Host can kill where it’s justified. After all, in the race for victory, there is no right or wrong — only losers or winners. Host is advised to act in measure. Though the path to the peak will be paved with blood, innocent blood shouldn’t be mixed.]
I can live with that. It’s not like I’m some type of psychopath or something. Roy felt the restrictions on killing as the bearer of the Order of Justice were reasonable and acceptable.
As long as he wasn’t a mindless psychopath lusting for blood, he would be alright.
Dumping the body, he noted the fact that humans didn’t turn into drops. He shrugged — not that he would absorb a human core even if it dropped anyway. After all, wasn’t doing something like that tantamount to cannibalism?
With all these thoughts running through his head, he summoned the new police cruiser. Boarding it with Dio, the vehicle revved, blitzing into the darkness...
Craccccccccck!
Suddenly, a massive behemoth — one that would have even dwarfed the dungeon boss in its biggest form — slithered into the clearing the moment Roy and Dio left.
Glancing hungrily at all the human corpses laying before it, its eyes flashed with intelligence.
"Hmph! If not for the offering, I wouldn’t have spared you for killing my child..." Though its mouth didn’t move, its will echoed in the surroundings, suggesting that it only permitted Roy to leave because of the meal before it.
And with that, its boundless maw widened as an irresistible suction force sucked all the carcasses in sight — blood, equipment, and all. By the time the massive opening for a mouth closed, everything that suggested the brutal massacre that had just occurred was gone.
The shadowy monster licked its lips in satisfaction before slowly vanishing back into the depths of the forest...