17 Verhund One

It was just past afternoon, the sky was cloudy with a chance of raining. Like always, the buildings in the city were all bunched up and sported all manners of designs and cultures.

The streets were wide for the most part but snaked to every which direction due to the lack of forethought from the builders.

To tell the truth, it was strange to see so much beauty in a place so messed up, it was impossible to imagine how exactly things went for the whole city to not look like a slum.

But perhaps the architecture is not the most striking factor of this place, many would argue that what truly makes the city unique is the unbelievable amount of adventurers, with or without the blessings of the Gods.

If you think logically, an adventurer should be a person who travels all around to discover unclaimed land and all of the beautiful sights of nature, not some kind of vital attraction for immigrants.

Yeah, Verhund is just as lost there as you are.

Thankfully, he is experienced enough to know the benefits of having so much fighting strength without having to pay an extra cent.

In fact, he's seeing the reason right at this moment.

Thousands of monsters are leaving at every hour through the giant hole in some random place in the city, plus a small dragon.

Descending from one of Tiamat's spawn, the critter stood over ten meters tall and forty meters long, not counting the thirty meters long tail.

As you can imagine, the relationship between adventurers and monsters is not that friendly, having reached the kill on sight level.

And as you can imagine, having the latter invading the living space of the former will not end well.

Verhund wasn't surprised when all hell came loose, being the perpetrator and all.

Using energy to disrupt energy was something fairly easy to learn - at least compared to many other things - and Verhund was really good at messing things up.

He just had to send a little life essence towards the three-way clash between two Gods and a Dungeon and, since the power they used didn't need any kind of conductor to spread, well... Boom.

So there we have it, new immigrants have come to the land.

People don't seem to be taking their new neighbors too well, though, pity.

Looking at the civilians running helter-skelter and the occasional adventurer helping, Verhund was kind of impressed at people's take on 'run, forest'.

The old man in front was too slow, so he got dragged to the ground and became carpet for everyone else.

That grandfather clock was too heavy, so it got dropped on top of some poor bloke behind. Behind who? Good question!

In short, screams grated at his ears and the smell of blood spread, originating from people who died to debris, monsters, and other humans.

Taking his mind out of the party, Verhund spared a glance to Tiamat's offspring, recognizing curiosity and familiarity from its eyes, the thing was probably over a hundred years old yet all it knew was to fight and question its own existence.

He pointed towards the ruins of the old temples, not much far from their current position.

"Your mother is there, just run."

He knew that the dragon understood his meaning, even without knowledge of the language. Being a relative of a powerful being tends to do things like that.

The dragon itself swiftly turned its body and ran towards Tiamat, the Goddess probably realized the presence of her blood and is rushing towards it at this instant.

"Well now, to the dance. My name is Verhund One, a pleasure meeting you all."

As the words left his smiling lips, a constellation appeared in the sky, piercing through the clouds and shining upon the dozens - perhaps more than a hundred - of adventurers.

These were the ones who would otherwise prove to be a threat to the VIP and were now forced to give space to the dragon and fight him first.

In case anyone was wondering how proper adventurers functioned when danger came knocking, it's time for a little show.

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Verhund One P.O.V.

Over a hundred adventurers advanced with haste, not stopping even after realizing the effect of the Bastion Constellation.

"Release your skill and stand aside!"

One of their leading figures spoke, his voice strong and overwhelming, he seemed to be on the peak of level four, together with another dozen others, the rest were either level three or beginner level four.

As was said before, they did not stop their charge, and a level three in particular just happened to have a speed focused skill.

With a strong step, that person dashed towards Verhund and reached striking distance first.

This person seemed to be using a katana, a good choice for maintaining the edge without having to visit the blacksmith every end of the month due to wasted metal in the grinding stone, now the visits could be made every one month and a half.

The adventurer made a sweeping slash, his motion a little too wide, his body turning too much of an arc. It's to be expected of someone who fought with big, strong monsters throughout their lives.

A faux pas when dealing with a human, though.

Even more so if that human is a wild Verhund, a level 3 who killed impossibly strong beasts for the last month as a hobby, he remembered that Tiamat seemed pleased that she wouldn't have to linger here for long.

Back to the fight, Verhund measured the angle of the slash and concluded that it moved diagonally from top to bottom and would cut at his jaw if it hit.

Dealing with the attack was quite simple, he just had to crouch to dodge and lean forward to attack.

As the slash passed harmlessly above him, his short sword prepared to stab out aiming at the adventurer's armpit, who was forced to block hastily before he could regain his balance.

With the entirety of the adventurer's sword protecting his upper-section, the legs were free for the taking.

Verhund's stab changed target to his opponent's kneecap. With incredible speed, the short sword laid waste to the adventurer's composure and stance.

Even as the warrior screamed in pain and his balance crumbled, however, Verhund could still feel both the man's unyielding gaze and intentions towards him.

Not willing to allow the adventurer to wound him, Verhund let go of his sword, snatched his opponent's katana, and sent an elbow to towards the other's chin.

Already critically injured, the adventurer didn't have the resilience to stop any of it and was forced to let Verhund take his sword to slit his throat open.

At this moment, the other adventurers were already approaching, weapons ready, killing intents blazing, and magic firing.

"Firebolt!"

One of them even seemed to possess short-chant magic, as he raised one arm and pointed it towards Verhund before shouting with all of his might.

Heat concentrated on top of the man's palm before turning into a blue flame the size of a basketball that was shot in Verhund's direction.

As the firebolt quickly reached him, Verhund raised a hand of his own towards the projectile. Suddenly, multiple geometric patterns the color of rainbows encased in likewise colored circles materialized in front of him, as if to shield him from danger.

The firebolt - even faster than an arrow - reached the mystical forms and... disappeared.

"Recycling does wonders," Verhund aimed his open palm at whoever shot at him, the patterns - most often called Aria - whirled swiftly while shrinking.

"Green buckets are the best." The Aria spun faster and gradually became white, a milky yellow sphere suddenly manifesting in its middle.

*Fshhh* *RUMBLE*

The energy crackled before shooting outwards, the heating air thundering away from the plasma that blasted its surroundings with overwhelming heat.

The unfortunate target had no chance to react before his head was pierced through, along with several others who were right behind. The small army of adventurers was both horrified and wrathful at the sudden development.

"Fuck! That's six casualties! Elves keep up the spirit magic, the others ramp up the earth magic!"

While the adventurers were just a few seconds away from reaching Verhund, the disaster himself was manipulating the residual mana from the clash between Godly and Dungeon magic to prepare the arena.

"Who would've thought that people could be so versatile."

Voicing his admiration to no one in particular, Verhund raised his right foot to stomp on the ground, upsetting the invisible magical power in a kilometer radius around him and forcing it to stick to the rubble.

Thanks to the magic power going rampage once again, this time while grabbing onto random objects, an innumerable quantity of concrete, stone and wood was thrown haphazardly in the air, theoretically obstructing the movement of anyone inside the area.

Verhund was a scary exception to this, however.

He let the scarce magic power he cultivated since level 2 spread throughout his body, reducing the drag of inertia while further augmenting his strength.

He had to get a bit serious here.

The first wave of adventurers reached him, a group of three level 4s armed with swords. After realizing that normal tanks would fare horribly against him, the damage-dealing frontliners had no choice but to contain his movements themselves.

Of course, they failed horribly.

Verhund jumped upwards with a backflip, his feet landing on what was once the door of a house. While every adventurer on the scene felt a chill pass through their spines, his smile spread until it looked eery.

Now crouched and ready for the hunt, Verhund jumped with strength unimaginable for someone in his level, reaching towards the flying rubble in the middle of the crowd, he ignored the 'crowd control' and aimed for the agile assassins.

Meanwhile, his old foothold was affected by the recoil of his leap and hurled backwards, crashing into several objects before being pulled back - as if it was attached to a spring - and almost hitting the frontliners.

From then on it was pure chaos, Verhund could freely maneuver in a three-dimensional space while the adventurers were stuck to the ground and further blocked by some stubborn rubble.

The elves were the only ones capable of using magic without resulting in friendly fire, every other 'mage' had no other option but to scramble up some kind of defense, which didn't hold well in front of his new katana.

Personally, Verhund preferred his short sword.

The chaos was not solely centered around this specific block, however, and while everyone suffered from rebounding giant projectiles and a crazed reaper who seemingly teleported everywhere, another tenth of the city was burning.

Really, there's fun everywhere! You just have to look for it!