“Dammit!” Frank cursed and stepped aside to dodge fist of a mountain troll. The beast crashed into the pavement due to the sheer force behind its blow, it launched bits of shrapnel into the air and injured nearby civilians.
Frank thrust his soul weapon at the exposed back of the mountain troll, it effortlessly pierced into the thick skin and cut the spinal cord, ending the life of the rampaging giant in an instant.
‘I could have tanked that, I should have tanked that.’ Frank grimaced.
He looked at the seemingly lifeless bodies of the orphaned children that lay before him among a few others, their fragile lives snuffed out by a few pieces of rock. A simple warding spell would have saved him.
He rushed towards them and remembered the Great Leyline below; he attempted to cast a minor healing spell in vain.
He gritted his teeth, for the first time in his life; he regretted his reflexes of a veteran adventurer.
A nearby mage in tattered robes approached him and pat him on the back.
“Kid, it’s not your fault; there was nothing that could be done. In fact, I should be held responsible, as a mage specialized in warding… I should have shielded them immediately, and yet I stood paralyzed in fear. Haha, perhaps the illusion of safety the Great Leyline gave out was detrimental to us.” The mage let out a strained laugh.
Frank swiped off the mage’s hand from his back and walked away, now was not the time for idle chatter.
He let out a sigh and scanned the area for any more evacuating citizens that needed protection, and there were none. It was time to move on to the next area.
Despite the fact that he looked like a boy running at inhuman speeds, no one cared, this was the capital, having supernatural abilities were so common that it was almost considered natural.
‘What a joke, they can’t even hold off against this horde of monsters.’ He convinced himself despite the fact he was hailed a hero for slaying a few mountain trolls.
He arrived in front of a man who struggled to protect a group that looked to be his family from a deluge of goblins; every citizen in Acetia was well-equipped to deal with one or two, but there were so many here that even a battalion of professional soldiers would find it hard to deal with.
Frank cut them all clean in half effortlessly, before rushing to the next location, not even giving a chance for the speechless man to realize that fact.
The situation was not as bad as it seemed, Frank was actually just tying up loose ends, the resident combatants of the city already did a good job doing their duty to protect the citizens.
Warding mages were casting wards that protected force and magic so that those with a more offense-oriented ability could wipe out monsters without worrying about friendly fire.
From how it looked, out of every ten people, eight were saved, it was clear that the kingdom’s forces were doing their job correctly and efficiently.
Frank did not need to act; it was not like he was the only one who could cut up a horde of goblins in a few seconds. An experienced brigade of men would be able to do the same thing as him and cover more area.
It was not his duty to protect, it was his wish.
And that made it all the more sacred.
With nothing but his soul weapon in hand, he pressed onward.
However, his heroic advance was halted by the sight of familiar faces; it was Otto and Robert, shaking in their boots. The shrill shrieks of dying men were heard in their surrounding area accompanied by the laugh of a deep voice. The assailant was an abomination in the form of a blob of fat the size of small house.
He did not remember the scientific name of the monster, but it was colloquially called a “Troll King” despite not being related to trolls at all. To adventurers, the thing was what a troll would look like if it was a gluttonous lord who ate mounds of food daily, hence the name.
Frank had only a little over a second to save their lives from the beast, it was a miracle they were not crushed under its weight yet.
He turned to his soul weapon for advice.
‘The thick skin of a troll king would be hard to pierce through; its weakness would be an intense blunt force that would crush its insides to paste. ‘
He leaped into the air as the ground below him cracked under his weight, the troll king felt this and stumbled, falling out of balance.
Frank punched the fatty mass with his fist; the impact was fully absorbed by its body. He noticed the troll king opening its mouth, it attempted to let out a roar, but he quickly put it in a choke hold to prevent the beast from shattering anyone’s eardrums.
The neck of the monster snapped.
Frank let out a sigh of relief and gently landed on the ground, he noticed that he was covered in many different types of blood, which unfortunately would be very hard to clean off unless he exploded again.
He did not want to explode again.
Robert walked up to him, slightly shaking in fear, however his training as a noble allowed him to stay calm in the situation. He lowered his head.
“Thank you for your aid esteemed sir! I hope it doesn’t bother you to escort us deeper into the city. I am a son of a noble and my friend here is the son of a wealthy merchant so expect generous…”
Robert took a closer look at Frank, his face and hair was somewhat covered in blood, but it was still very much recognizable, especially with the proportions of his body clear to Robert.
“F-Frank?” Robert asked nervously. This elicited another shocked expression from Otto.
Frank panicked for a moment, before deciding that it was best to get the job done first and ask questions later.
However, before he can say a word, the fearful expressions of Robert and Otto returned to their faces once more.
‘The fucker’s alive isn’t it?’ He thought and realized his mistake.
When it came to facing stronger monsters do not expect them to die like puny humans.
He then heard a loud noise of flesh being violently ripped apart, followed by the soothing voice of an aged man.
“Sir Frank, please keep in mind Troll Kings have backups for their key organs, multiple, in fact.”
He turned around and saw the able body of Leonor dressed in a black suit, wrapped around his hand was a soul weapon, a handkerchief, the mark of a red flag on it glowed and lit up the dim surroundings.
The corpse of the troll king next to him was riddled with holes.
“How the fuck…” Frank voiced out.
“Wards can easily be used for offensive purposes, provided you can put enough force behind the blow.” Leonor explained, he dusted the handkerchief and held it in his hand.
“You are the de Leon’s servant?” Robert asked.
Leonor shook his head.
“No, I am Lord Louis’ personal servant.” He corrected.
Robert and Otto turned to Frank, as if they expected something from them.
“Yes, it’s me. Please save your questions for later, we need to get to a safer area.”
The two teenagers opened their mouths to say something, but Leonor tapped them on the back, the action seemed to calm them down immediately.
Leonor had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment, he then nodded.
“We must evacuate further into the city, we will head to General Alchemy’s underground shelter.”
“An underground shelter? Are those not only for commoners? Besides, there are a lot of monsters underground, who knows if the barrier is capable of protecting us there.” Robert asked.
Leonor hastily cast some warding spells on everyone but Frank, they were not up to his standard but it was all he could do in the situation.
Leonor fixed his gaze on Robert.
“No, this one I speak of is far safer and is for General Alchemy's loyal patrons. Sir Robert, forgive me for my harsh words, but you lack a crucial piece of information. The reason the barrier is so difficult to maintain is not because it covers the city, but because it has to cover the underground area as well, that is the primary source of monsters after all. In fact, the portion of the barrier above ground is probably even smaller than the one below.” He explained.
Robert nodded, it did make a lot of sense, though he wondered why they didn’t just stretch the barrier slightly below the surface. Perhaps there were things underground that had to be kept safe?
He approached Frank.
“Please give me your hand, one will have to do for now.” He requested and took out a fist-sized mana crystal, along with that he took out a bag of powdered metals of different types, or at least it seemed so from what Frank’s sense of smell told him.
“Are you gonna cast whatever you did to yourself on me?” He asked.
“Not quite, this one is more compatible with other people, I’m afraid the original would only work with my soul weapon.” Leonor spoke and awaited his response.
Frank decided to trust him; it sure would make it easier if he could use his strength without leveling the vicinity.
He let Leonor take his right hand, the butler completely ignored the blood that covered it.
Leonor put down the pouch of powdered metal and took a stick of ink, from there he dipped it the bag and proceeded to draw a symbol on Frank’s hand.
Frank felt an itchy sensation on the spot it was drawn on, it was the sensation of mana invading his body.
“My sincerest apologies, usually the spell would include a glove worn on the hand, but considering your constitution that would be unneeded.” Leonor whispered to him.
Frank nodded in understanding, the process only took 30 seconds but it was enough time for Otto and Robert to start worrying.
Leonor cleaned the stick of ink with his soul weapon and placed the items back in his fanny pack; he picked up the fist-sized mana crystal and started to chant.
“Channel the blessings of this servant’s master unto this being.” He spoke and then crushed the mana crystal.
The symbol glowed, revealing a red flag, much to Frank’s shock. Of all things, he did not expect a strip of fabric on the pole to be this “symbol”.
“Huh, from how you described it this is a spell made by you, why does it not bear your name?” Frank asked.
Leonor scratched the back of his head.
“Haha, well I originally planned to change the name every time I get a new master to match their title. However, I realized that I could not legally change the name of the spell for that reason, so I decided it would be best to just leave the name part out.”
“Can we go now? The barrier will shrink soon.” Otto nervously called out.
Frank looked at the streets, the monsters were falling one by one, and soon there would most likely be none left. There would still be a few people that would die, but Frank understood that he alone could not save everyone.
“Let's go, Leonor will go ahead, I'll guard the rear.” Frank spoke and gripped his soul weapon firmly.
As they briskly walked, Frank recalled a convenient mind magic that did not require much skill to cast, it was called “Message”. It sent a message directly into a person’s head, although it was quite easy to intercept by others who knew mind magic. Not to mention its limited range of a few meters and the existence of communication pearls, the spell quickly fell out of favor.
However, Frank had to use it for he had a few questions to ask Leonor, and he wanted answers now.
Thanks to the Great Leyline, all he needed was bits of copper wire; luckily he brought some with him out of habit. Knowing Leonor’s age, he would have brought some out of habit too.
“Leonor, who sent you here?” He asked in a threatening tone.
Leonor seemed to have received the message as he opened his fanny pack to take out some materials.
“This servant came here of his own volition.” Leonor responded.
“That’s bullshit, you wouldn’t know of my location unless Dai… Louis told you about it.” Frank was about to say Louis’ true name, but he realized that it was a stupid idea.
Leonor sighed.
“This servant does not appreciate you judging his character so rashly. However, milord told this servant to keep an eye on you, and young lord was the one who made the order to rescue his friends. This event made it more convenient to do both tasks at the same time, so this servant technically did this out of his own volition.”
‘Ugh, semantics.’ Frank pressed his hand against his forehead.
“Ah, so Louis anticipated my movements, how surprising.” He sarcastically quipped, then continued.
“So, did he have any special orders for you? I mean I’m sure he does not expect me to die to a bunch of trolls considering my new body.”
“Not at all.” Leonor responded matter-of–factly.
He focused on Leonor, lies were technically a weakness, so he should be able to see through lies. However, Leonor did not seem to be lying.
‘Well, I guess I’ll just take your word for it.’ He thought and nodded at Leonor.
The walk was uneventful for a while, some monsters crossed their path but they were already swiftly taken out by the city guards or otherwise slaughtered by Frank and Leonor.
The sense of security was so good that Robert and Otto even asked if they could get rid of a few goblins.
Of course, this was met with immediate refusal from the two as goofing around in an emergency was an extremely bad idea.
However, as they walked, a bright beam of light was showered upon the center of the capital, easily punching a hole through the barrier, much to the citizens' relief, it quickly regenerated.
The archmages at the four corners noticed this, and shrunk the barrier early in hopes of preventing further breakthroughs, those outside were doomed to die to the monster horde unless they took shelter.
Frank frowned.
Multiple beams of light came crashing down the exact same spot afterwards, each time piercing through, proving their efforts in vain. The rain of light from the night sky looked as if the very heavens were bringing down punishment on the city.
“All citizens, evacuate to within 5 kilometers of the city's center as soon as possible, we will need to increase the output of the barrier." A voice called out, however it was quickly drowned out.
“Humans, hear this elder dragon’s decree! One of your kind has made a transgression against our nest, bring them here or suffer our wrath!” An intent was sent, and the presence made itself known.
Although it did not show its form, everyone knew it was undoubtedly an elder dragon. A sense of despair flowed through the hearts of many upon digesting the information, followed by disdain to whomever brought them this plight.
“Esteemed elder dragon, may I know the name of these transgressors so we can make them pay for their crimes.” The king’s intent was sent back, he did not want to seek conflict against an elder dragon.
“Very well, the humans identify themselves as-UGHAKAHGUHH” The intent was cut off by an unknown force.
An eerie laugh echoed throughout the city, it almost seemed haunted.
“Esteemed… elder dragon?” King Charles asked nervously.
“HAHAHAHA! Very well, we shall do this the hard way; I will evict you by force!”
Beams of light fell on the barrier from many different angles, disintegrating many parts of the capital, if the Worcestershire so wished, he could destroy the city and inhabitants easily, but that was not his goal.
Young dragons and Viventum crystals took the chance to leap into the holes within the barrier before the archmages could mend them, along with many other monsters that burrowed out of the ground. The kingdom was faced with another wave of slaughter, and this time, it involved an army of normally city-destroying monsters hundreds strong.
‘Ah shit, we activated the second wave, didn’t we?’ Frank thought.
He clenched his fists tightly; he already had a feeling on who the transgressors were…
But for some reason, why couldn’t he believe on his own judgement?
Step 1: Include this Deity in the story. Step 2: open a blank document, write a metric f*ck-ton worth of boring shit, come back with fun shit! Step: 3 Practice makes perfect!
Well, you are technically already in this story, just that you got impaled by a flag, lets just say you ascended into heaven and became one with the weaponized flag, ok? I accidentally opened a blank document and wrote a 10k word philosophical discussion on whether a man should reincarnate into a gender bender novel, help.
gonna be honest, I can't help you with that.
OHHH Dark Ly LMFAO
@DarklyReadsBooks Lmao did you seriously notice that just now? i thought it was pretty obvious, I was originally just gonna straight up call the guard Darkly, but that name just wouldn't slide. So I decided to make it some sort of plausible nickname for a soldier.
@Anon_Y_Mousse I'm gonna be honest, I'm a dumbass.