Chapter 87: Enough, suffer my wrath

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"Such a thing... How can a human block an Antlion's charge?! Not only that, but it seemed to have received some damage from the impact as well!" Yuuki looked at Aspen with eyes filled with amazement, this was the first time she had seen such an impressive technique. Even the best mages of the kingdom could not be able to block an Antlion's charge with their mana shields. And although some of them had greater offensive power, it was still difficult to stop an Antlion's charge once it started. Yet, the man in the arena had not only done that but also done it all by himself.

"If such a warrior existed within our Kingdom... Then why have I never heard about someone like him?! Moreover, he is so young, yet he has such advanced abilities...!" The King looked at Aspen in amazement, before something clicked on his mind and he started whispering something in the ear of the man standing next to him.

Aspen, on the other hand, seemed to be having a lot of fun dealing with a monster that could not kill him instantly for once. He dodged the attacks from the three Antlions with mastery or dashed against them when he had no other option, cracking their exoskeletons and making them dizzier and dizzier as time passed.

*Screeeeeeech!!!*

Suddenly, while Aspen sealed with another Antlion, one of them charged at him from behind and tried chopping his body in half using its mandibles.

However, unlike what it expected, Aspen just turned around and blocked its charge using the Shield of Cthulhu. And when the Antlion receded a bit after receiving the impact, suddenly Aspen grabbed its mandibles by their dull part and grinned slightly. The Antlion just tried to eat Aspen now that he was so close, but was unable to do it because of Aspen's great strength that prevented it from going any further or escaping.

*Screeeeech!!!*

From behind Aspen, another Antlion tried to make use of Aspen's defenseless back and charged with fury towards him. However, before it could even notice what happened, the Antlion ended hitting its partner with its charge...

Somehow it managed to stop itself from trying to bite its partner using its mandibles, but the damage from the charge was still there. The face of the Antlion that Aspen was grabbing was covered in blue blood, and its exoskeleton was breaking apart.

*Gasps*

The crowd gasped in astonishment, after all, Aspen was doing something never done before. It was like watching a mage perform impossible actions with ease. Aspen, who had been grabbing the Antlion's mandibles a few seconds ago, was now mounting the Antlion on its back.

Due to the form of its exoskeleton, Antlions head had an actually pretty short amount of moves it could perform, due to that, it could only attack frontally, or turn its head slightly to the sides. 

But that was all.

Now that Aspen was on his back, only another Antlion could take him out of it... Not that he planned of staying that much there anyway...

"Let's see what can you do without these... Hnghhhh!!!!"

The arms of Aspen bulged and became more muscular as he started applying an enormous amount of strength on taking out the mandibles of the Antlion.

*Crack*

The exoskeleton around its mandibles cracked slightly, and soon Aspen took out the Antlion's mandibles along with everything attached to them, including muscles, bones, and even some organs.

A screen popped up in front of Aspen, but he just shrugged it aside and continued playing around with the Antlions.

The crowd watched in awe the spectacle, at this point they had already forgotten about the previous massacre, and were too immersed in the fight of Aspen against the Antlions.

And no wonder, a human being was actually dominating three monsters with incredibly superior abilities to the human race with ease. Not only that, but he also seemed to be enjoying it to some extent.

*Screeeech!!*

The agonizing sounds of the Antlions echoed all around the arena. Blood splattered on the ground, and the crowd grew more and more wide-eyed at the sight in front of them.

It wasn't long before the last of the Antlions fell to the ground lifelessly and Aspen stomped over its corpse without even the slightest delicacy.

Three Antlions lied dead on the hot sand of the arena, where only one human stood proudly while glancing around him with a rather satisfied expression on his face. Soon, the whole crowd exploded into cheers and Aspen started being acclaimed.

The presenter, not knowing what to do, turned to look at the man next to the King while scratching the back of his head.

The man saw him, and soon he started walking to the balcony of the Vip zone in order to make an announcement.

"Due to his outstanding abilities during the [Clean-Up], and his incredible courage even while facing such terrifying monsters, the prisoner Aspen will be released and granted his freedom. Also, the King himself has decided to offer an incredible opportunity to this man!"

The crowd soon started muttering among themselves, after all, an offer from the King was not something that could be seen every day and even less towards a criminal.

Suddenly, from behind the man appeared the King, who also raised his voice and looked at Aspen with an amiable smile on his face. 

"I have seen your abilities, Aspen, your strength is something incredible even among the bests mages of this Kingdom. That's why I offer you to join the order of knights under the command of Sir Jeffrey!"

Aspen looked a bit surprised by the sudden offer, but after some seconds he recovered his usual calm expression and turned to look at the king with his arms crossed.

"What do I gain for joining?" Aspen asked while looking at the King with a raised eyebrow, after all, no job could come without a payment... right?

"W-what do you gain? That's an unexpected question... usually most people consider joining the order of Knights an honor beyond measure..."

"His majesty, stop trying to give this fool such an important position. He is not worthy of it, neither does he know the honor that is to part of the order!" The man behind the King exclaimed with an angry expression seeing that Aspen was acting so shamelessly in front of them.

When the King was about to answer, suddenly Aspen raised his voice once again while smiling wryly at both of them.

"I'm actually from far away, so I don't really know how do things work here... so honestly I don't really care about honor and those things"

"Far away? Why did you resort to banditry then...?" The King looked at Aspen with a baffled expression on his face. Not only did this man came from far away, but he also seemed to be oblivious to most things in this place. Yet, he couldn't completely understand why this extremely strong man could act as a bandit when he didn't have the need to.

"... Well, I just thought it could be funny, besides, I was a bit lost and thought that maybe if I acted like a bandit they could bring me to the nearest city..."

"..."

"..."

Both men were left speechless, as well as the crowd and everyone present in the coliseum.

"Sigh... Actually, being a Knight does not come without something as payment, honor is just the most highly viewed reward of this position. But you can also receive an extremely high payment each month for your services for the Kingdom, and you are also given a free residence within the Knight's facilities"

Honestly, Aspen could have just refused the instant he got the offer since he was happy being completely unemployed, but his actual condition wasn't something that could allow it. He had no idea where he was, he had no idea why are there other humans besides the ones from the Human territory, and he had no idea why were elves or goblins not being mentioned at all when they were the races on the top of the food chain right now. He needed to get information, and if possible money for food. After all, although beef jerky wasn't all that bad, he was rather tired of it already.

"Sounds pretty good, what do I have to do?"

This time, the one that answered was the man behind the King. He puffed up his chest in pride and looked at Aspen with an evaluating gaze while he talked.

"The order of knights has the responsibility of protecting this city against the potential threats of the outside world. In most cases, against those Antlions that you fought before. After suffering from overpopulation in their nest at Roadharna Desert, they decided that expanding their nest could be a good idea, and since we are on their way, we became the first objective of extermination"

"So they are trying to invade the city?"

"Indeed, they tend to send entire armies towards us once every month. Until now we have managed to endure, and right now we are investigating a way to end this problem once and for all... Then, what do you say? Do you wish to join the Knight's order young man?" The King looked at Aspen solemnly and crossed his arms waiting for a response.

Aspen turned to look at the King and smiled slightly before he gave his response.

"I..."

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Cliffhanger for you.

And this will be the last chapter I upload today... Mostly because my mind is already on its limit.

Anyway, that's all.

Goodbye guys.