Ancient Chapter 23
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Chapter 23

    Hendrick was really pissed. Some of his men went a bit too far while doing the usual abuses that ensured the steady income of his gang. Well, he was more like the leader of the only one band strong enough to survive inside the walls of Swordhold without getting wiped by the frequent patrols.

    One of the numerous ways he used to gain money was by pressuring shop owners and innkeeper in refunding them what they consumed, pretexting bad service, and threatened to give them away to the forces if they didn’t give any interests.

    But this time, some newbies that came in his gang a little while ago got the ‘excellent’ idea to go mess with the Sleeping Giant inn without knowing that the owner of the place was built like a bear and was a former famous adventurer.

    And it’s without surprise that the culprits were standing under the pissed gaze of their leader, covered in bruises and sweat caused by the dangerous atmosphere surrounding their superior.

    “So you tell me that after beating the crap out of you, he went all the way to threaten our entire little band?”

    The real reason behind Hendrick’s anger was the fact that a mere shop owner, even though he was a former adventurer, provocated his entire group and didn’t looked shocked in the slightest by who he was messing with.

    He turned his head to one of his few trustworthy mages before issuing his orders. “Phal, take a dozen of our best members and go teach a lesson to these imp. I want them to tremble before the Blood Flag like everyone in the lower districts. Do the usual.” The man named Phal bowed his hooded head before walking away, carrying a staff peculiar the the middle ranked mages. “Ah, and do it in a few days, observe them beforehand. I don’t wanna ridicule myself even more.” His mage nodded again and left.

    Hendrick sighed one last time before focusing on how he will punish the responsibles of this mess.

 

*****

 

    One week later, as rumors of a new S-ranked adventurer swarmed the bars and taverns of Swordhold, Phal and his crew were preparing their sneak attack. They wanted to leave a durable scar in the minds of the target. “Barn, you take ten men and you take care of the ol’ bear. Fil, take three, target the young lass. I will take care of their mage and John will keep watch. Any complaints?” Everyone nodded. “Well, then let’s go!” He started chanting a paralysis spell, aiming at the woman in the kitchen and his comrades charged in, surprising the innkeeper and his daughter. 

    They resisted well but, without weapons and outnumbered, Ellie and his daughter were forced to kneel and pinned down by all the men.

    Then, Phal came out of the kitchen with an almost unconscious woman on his shoulder. Ellie screamed. “No!” and his daughter screamed as well, trying to draw the attention of eventual passerbys.

Suddenly, the mage felt a bad premonition and filled his lungs with air in order to yell a retreat. But it was a second to late.

The door burst open, a figure of average height but rather well shaped standing against the light. John, perhaps to confident or dumb to feel the waves or anger that the newcomer was letting out walked to it. 

“Well, look at what we got th…” 

His skull literally burst in pieces before he even got the time to finish his taunt, splattering brain matter on the floor. The pressure the figure was emitting went crashing on the thieves by waves, making them sweat profusely.

Bringing back his claw-like hand under his mantle, it, or rather he asked. “What the fuck is going on here?” His calm voice was letting the careful observer notice the underlying raging anger. Kyle was way too close to his breaking point.

Barn, none the wiser, rebuked him, not fully processing what happened. “Oy ya brat, get outta here. Dat’s none of your business.” Noticing his prisoner trying to take advantage of his distraction, he punched Elli in the face.

This was the drop that made the vase overflow. In an instant, Kyle appeared before him and sent an earth-shattering punch to the man, sending his now lifeless corpse crashing in the inn’s wall. “Well, whatever, I only need one of you for my answers.” His voice was slightly shaking. “I need to let go of some steam anyway.”

A scarlet red blade appeared on his right arm and he swung it, cutting down two others scums and dodged a pitiful attempt at cutting his throat that another one made before grabbing him by his skull and sending the poor thief in his colleague built-in the wall.

Three spears, the length of a foot, appeared above his head and headed straight to the men pinning down the manager’s daughter. Two of them got their chest pierced by the sharp blades but the last one avoided it thanks to a weird stroke of luck.

While counter attacking with his arm-blade, Kyle motioned his left hand, and the three spears shattered in myriads of shards, shattering at their turn while touching any non-living things and lodging themselves in all the opponents, making them scream in pain. Only the innkeeper’s family and the mage holding the cook were spared. Everyone else was leaking blood and other fluids by hundreds of holes in their body. They soon collapsed. And the only remaining gang member tried his trump card. He suddenly yelled “Searing Pain!” while aiming at Kyle with his free hand.

Strangely, the spell that was meant to inflict unbearable suffering on the target didn’t have any apparent effect on its target. “I felt way worse than this.” Kyle grabbed Phal by his throat. “Who sent you?”

The helpless mage shook stubbornly his head.

“Have you seen my little shards? Try imagine thousands of them, not much longer than a millimeter, digging their way in your body, slowly tearing your innards, following your nerves to your spine, tearing your brain little by little.” A cold sweat ran in Phal’s cheek, he had a wild imagination and took very seriously the threats that were uttered in a cold tone to him.

Kyle suddenly chook his hand, and the mage’s head by the same occasion. “Who?” He was leaking enough bloodlust to drown any non-trained humanoid, and Phal wasn’t an exception. He stuttered.

“T-t-the B-Blood F-f-flag.” Kyle tilted his head in wonder. “T-the only gang in Swordhold.” 

“I see, thanks.” Kyle snapped his neck with his hand and then dropped the limp corpse on the floor.

Kyle’s composure was gradually coming back to normal. “Looks like I made quite the mess. Any of you knows a clean spell? I can take care of the damaged furnitures and walls.”

Still under shock, Ellie’s daughter pointed at her mother. “Ah right, she is paralyzed.” He walked close to her. “It may sting a bit. I don’t know what pain resistance you have and can’t use mine since it’s pretty messed up. Well, I will not be long anyway.” 

Kyle then extended his bloody hand and touched her shoulder before canalisating his mana in her, untying the locks made by the paralysis spell. She squirmed a bit in pain but seemed rather fine. “Well, done.” He swinged his arm and a new set of furnitures appeared. They were rather plain-looking. Only their faint reddish dye in their otherwise brown color betrayed their origin. They were made out of Kyle’s mana. “These shouldn’t deteriorate anytime soon. At least not before I die.”

Ellie slowly got up, followed by the two others. A new flicker of  respect mixed with a bit of fear was shining in their eyes. “Thank you very much Kyle-dono. They took us by surprise. Without you we would have been done for.”

Kyle simply nodded before asking. “Do you know where is the soldiers’ office. I believe it would be good to bring this garbage to them.” 

The wife answered. “My daughter can guide you to them if you want to. Speaking of which. I’m Elina and here is my daughter Lila.”

Kyle was going for another of his favorite nods but suddenly turned his head toward the entrance.

There stood a woman and her child, clients of the inn like him. She was staring dumbfounded at the scene while covering her son’s eyes to protect his innocence. 

Ellie peeked out of the window. “Looks like we drew quite the attention there.” He laughed awkwardly.

Kyle frowned slightly.

 

Hi, back from week-end. First fight scene of 2020. Did you liked it? Well, I hope so teehee.

Well, anyway, here is your daily dose of edginess.

Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to comment if you want to, I always reply.

Also, I think I wrote enough chapters to not feel too shameless to ask this. If you really enjoy my story, you can always drop a review. It would help me a lot to draw attention and would fill my little heart with good feelings for the rest of the day.

Well, see you tomorrow, or perhaps wednesday!

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