Chapter 82: Blinded By Pride

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~~Mild Gore/Brutality Warning!~~

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Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Zan

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"Sorry I took so long, buddy..." Standing on a random rooftop a few hundred meters from where I left Katherine, I leaned down to pet Ilios. "You ready to finally do something fun?"

Almost immediately, Ilios's tail started wagging even faster. *nod-nod-nod*

"Haha, alright. Let's get going then!" Finally standing back up, I darted towards the commotion, casually hopping from roof to roof as I crossed the city.

As I started getting close to the front gate though, I started sensing several strong auras.

But even though they were all quite strong, one still stood head and shoulders over the others. -That's an aura that puts Father's dragon form to shame…-

Questioning what monstrosity of a human could have such an aura, I quickly got to a rooftop that overlooked the main road and looked down towards the crowd.

Down in the street was a convoy of 12, all riding red racers, a type of domesticated monster that looked like a red feathered lizard and was known to be exceptionally fast.

Most of the people in the group were fairly strong, but 3, in particular, stood out. -So that aura wasn't from a humanoid at all, huh...-

Looking over the three halfies, smiling and waving to the humans around them, a bad taste came to my mouth. -How old does a halfie even need to be to have a true form with that kind of aura…-

Although it was a little worrying to see that a few of my targets were far stronger than anticipated, it only made me more excited. -I wonder how much of a fight you can give me…-

But as a slightly crazed smile came to my face, the strongest, bear-demihuman-looking halfie whipped his head towards the rooftop I was on.

"Huh?" His hostile look quickly turned to confusion.

"What's up, Pello? Did you sense something?" The panther-demihuman-looking halfie next to him gave him an odd look.

"Hm? Oh. I just thought I sensed someone… I guess it was just my imagination."

As he turned back towards the gate, I looked down at him from the top of the city wall with a wide smile on my face. -Oh, this'll be fun…-

The next couple minutes felt exceptionally long as my anticipation for the fight only grew, but eventually, the group of 12 finally finished waving to the citizens and left through the gate.

-Alright! Time for some fun!- Casually turning around and walking to the other side of the wall, a knight came running up to me.

"Sir! You cannot be up here without permiss-" *Poof-crack* Before he could finish, Ilios and I vanished, only leaving a crack in the ground where we once stood.

Quickly plummeting towards the ground after leaping off the wall, I glanced toward the group of Nation ranks to see them finally crack the reins of their red racers. -So they're finally speeding up, huh…-

But I quickly found myself needing to speed up significantly more than expected.

-I knew they were quick, but dang...- Although still far slower than me, the red racers would put cars on earth to shame. -Now I'll just wait for them to stop for a break…-

But going against my expectations, even after nearly two hours of running, they didn't seem to show any signs of stopping.

-Are they seriously going to make it to Kaelallan without stopping at all?- Giving my plan some additional thought, I figured we were about as 'in the middle of nowhere' as we could get, and decided to change the plan a bit. -If they won't stop on their own, I'll just give them a reason to…-

Quickly dashing far in front of them, I pulled Ilios to my side and drew my greatsword. "Ilios, when I decide to go in myself, you take care of the unmanned racers. You can use your full size as well." Seeing him nod and change to his towering, full form, I rested the tip of my greatsword against the ground. -Before I do that though, let's see if they can react to this…-

Forming a moderately sized metallic dart in my palm, I stuck out my hand and set my eyes on my first victim, the young elven mage on the far left. -With the dart shaped like this, there won't even be a sonic boom…-

Quickly taking an extra second to make sure I was on target, I let the dart fly. *crackle-FWIP*

As if the dart teleported, it closed the couple kilometers between us nearly instantly.

The unfortunate elf on the other end of the dart wore a bored expression, but as the dart ripped through her, her head and torso simply vanished.

*Splat-th-thud* As what was left of her body fell off the racer and onto the ground, the rest of the group finally noticed something wrong.

"We are under attack!"

Seeing their panicked reaction, my excitement grew more. -No wonder cats like playing with mice!-

Getting into a ready stance with my greatsword in hand, I flexed my back leg and set my eyes on the one man who wasn't in anyone's field of view. "Let's go, Ilios!" *CRACK*

Closing the distance with the caravan in under a second, my heavy greatsword plowed through the man's body. *Crunch* But before the sound of his death could meet the ears of the rest of the caravan, Ilios appeared in front of the other unoccupied racer with his paw above its head.

*WHAM* The racer's head simply exploded from the excessive force of the smack before Ilios moved to the one left by me and did the same. "WHAM*

By the time the rest of the caravan could react to the noise, Ilios was already hidden in the woods and I stood confidently behind them with my sword resting on my shoulder.

Everyone in the group stared at me with looks of shock or anger as all but three hopped off their mounts.

"Mark, Susan, and Jack stay back." The strongest halfie, Pello, gave orders to three of the seven who hopped off their mounts.

"But, sir Pello-"

"Now isn't the time for you to object, Susan." The Halfie looked down at the poor mage like she was a pest.

-What is he doing holding so many people back? How is a halfie old enough to have a true form not able to read the room?- "You guys are really stupid, especially you in the back." I looked at the leader to provoke him as I pulled my hood down to show my face.

Almost immediately, anger washed over his face, but instead of him telling everyone to just charge forward as I had hoped, a tall, blond-haired man with a golden lance walked ahead instead. "You dare be so confident to show yourself after only killing two of us?!"

The pretentiousness in his voice was sickening to the point that I wanted to just shut him up.. permanently. "If you think you can take me, then try it." With my sword still on my shoulders, I relaxed my body.

His face scrunched up immediately. "Hmph! The rest of you stay back! He's mine!" Taking a wide stance, he pulled back his lance and thrusted it toward me.

-What is he..- *CRACK* Before I could finish my thought, a thin beam of supersonic air was fired from the tip of his lance.

But even though I didn't expect it at all, it was far too slow to pose any threat. "An artifact weapon?" *fwo-OOOSH* Casually redirecting the beam of air around me, I gave the man a smug look.

Unable to handle the simple provocation, he finally lunged at me and tried to drive his lance into my chest. "You confident brat!"

But just before his lance could pierce my body, I finally lifted my sword off my shoulder. *CLANG* The blade of my sword slammed into the side of his lance with such a ferocious force that the lance snapped in half and was launched into a tree not too far away. *CLUNK*

His gaze was stuck on the lance lodged in the tree as my sword fell over his head. "Nice try." *Crunch* *thud*

Casually stepping back to not get blood on my shoes, I looked up towards the rest of the group.

"Next!" Although the fights so far were a bit underwhelming for me, I still felt excited. -The fun ones are yet to come!-

"Trio, you handle him." Pello gave a look to the group of three he didn't previously hold back and they moved forward without questioning the order at all.

But even though they didn't object, the other three regular humanoids seemed to dislike the idea. "Oy, Pello." The one to speak up was Jack, the swordsman. "Shouldn't we all gang up on him to minimize our losses? He's clearly stronger than we thou-"

Not taking kindly to his objection, Pello looked at the swordsman with a heartless glare. "Those three are just weak pests. It's better to shake off the deadweight now anyways." Whether he was blinded by pride or was just plain stupid, he was still insanely confident he and his halfie buddies could take me. "Just us three alone are enough to destroy the whole bay alliance, let alone this brat."

Finally turning back to the trio walking toward me, Jack wore a grim and guilty expression.

-You know what, I might spare him…- Although I wasn't exactly sure why I liked him at the time, I at least liked how rational he was. -If he's strong, it might not be a bad idea to bring him back to Kaelallan…-

Turning to look at the trio myself, I noticed it was a group made of up two fairly attractive women, a mage and an archer, and a single attractive swordsman.

-What sort of isekai harem protagonist is this guy?-

Seeing my judgemental look, the women readied themselves, but the swordsman was still somehow calm. "You know, if you back down now, I will consider letting you under my wing. When I inevitably take over the continent, you'll be showered in riches!"

He wore an expression like he was both confident in his delusion and actually expected me to take his offer. "Pfft-hahaha!" I couldn't hold back my laugh. "I think you have a screw loose, man."

"Haha, well, don't ask for forgiveness later!" As he finally readied himself, he gave a sign to the archer behind him.

*Fwip* The arrow on her bow zipped off the string immediately, firing right towards my shoulder.

-Are they serious?- *tap* Casually catching the arrow, I looked up at the archer in disbelief. "You aren't going for the kill? Are you insane?"

Her face paled immediately, but her fear-filled expression only made me more excited.

-Should I slam her to the ground with aura?-

But while I thought about how to play with them, the swordsman finally got angry. "Don't you dare look at her like that!" He charged forward after jumping in front of my gaze.

-So they do have that kind of relationship…- An evil smile crept onto my face before I knew it.

*Clank* *Clang* *Clank* *Wham-Crunch* *Clang-crunch* We had a short but fast exchange of blows, easily shattering the ground beneath us as we moved, but it was only another moment before the archer and mage tried to catch me with my guard down.

*Fwip* *Crackle-Fwoosh* The barrage of arrows and spells seemed like a lot to manage at first, but after another second I started liking it. -To think I could improve my movements so much with this!-

Falling into a handspring, I threw my foot up into the chin of the swordsman. *crack* The noise of teeth cracking echoed through the air before his rage-filled eyes could turn back to me.

Like he was lost to rage, his form started deteriorating. "You think.." *clang* "..I'd lose.." *shing* "..when I'm the one chosen by god!"

Casually deflecting his blade over and over again, my evil grin only grew. "How did you even get to nation rank? You've got the emotional stability of a toddler!"

Deciding to finally retaliate, I pulled back my sword, but that was when he backed off. -Oh?-

Looking to my side, I saw the young mage girl with a big glowing rune on her palm.

*BOOM* The explosion launched a huge wall of flames at me, but I just sliced through it with wind magic.

"That was even weaker than that assassin's spell, how underwhelming."

As I casually brushed the dust off my clothes, the swordsman charged at me again. "You overconfident bastar-"

Seeing the archer fire another arrow to divide my attention, an evil idea came to mind.

*tap* Casually smacking the sword out of his hands, I grabbed the head of the swordsman and moved him slightly.

*Fwip-Crack-tap* The arrow flew through his head completely before I caught it in front of my face.

-Damn, that had more power behind it than I thought!- Dropping the swordsman to the ground, I looked up at the girls' pale faces. "It seems the so-called chosen one was abandoned by god. What a shame."

*Fwip* With a casual toss, the bloody arrow in my hands zipped across the street and reunited with the archer. *Crack*

"It's a shame two fairly talented women had to follow such a delusional man." With a casual glance into the woods, I just rocked my head to the side slightly.

As I did that, the mage, with tears running down her face, readied a huge amount of mana. "EVEN IF I DIE.. I'LL BRING YOU WITH ME!"

She was clearly pulling out her trump card. "Do you really think I'll just let you do that?" Setting the top of my sword on the ground again, a white blur shot across the road and turned the girl into a cloud of blood. *CRACK* *BOOM*

Ilios shot across the road so fast that even Pello, the strongest halfie there, couldn't catch a glimpse of him. He could only stare at the bloody mist with a look of wonder. "How the…"

Seeing the halfies finally realize they would have to get involved, my excitement finally started showing again. "Are you all really just going to stand there while I kill you all one by one?! Come on! If you don't gang up on me, it'll be no fun!"

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