Adrienne's story - II

"Are you the one going around asking about a dead person?"

His body stiffened as if being paralysed upon hearing those words. His empty hands clenched themselves into fists, making the nails dig into the palms.

The drops of blood embraced the ground without a break. The person who spoke from behind him was someone Adrienne remembered clearly. He bit his lips, trying to suppress his anger.

Had it not been for the information the man held about him, Adrienne would've killed him without a second thought. At this moment, he needed to do his best to dig out whatever he could.

He slowly turned around at a speed that made him look almost like a regular citizen. For once, the man who was a part of the attempted attack on him years ago was visible to Adrienne.

The brown hair came into his view. The brown eyes that had adjusted themselves, along with his evil grin, looked a bit creepy. The freckles on his nose became clear under the moonlight.

"You were one of the people who were involved..."

The man shuddered at Adrienne's words, tension filling his face. He unsheathed the sword that hung around his waist on his belt.

"W-who are you?"

The man's voice echoed in the silent passage, where no one else aside from the two stood. Adrienne's mouth moved slowly, seeing the man pointing the blade towards him.

"I hit the nail, huh..."

He observed his surroundings, trying to gauge the man's strength. Both hadn't moved even a step from their spot for a while.

Then it struck Adrienne, who had no weapons on him. The only thing he had on himself was his mana. He gulped down his saliva, putting his thoughts together.

'What are the chances I can win head-on?'

If the man was more skilled than what he was anticipating him to be, then there was no doubt that he would lose. There was no telling what the outcome would be since this was going to be his first fight.

Adrienne had experience hunting wild animals and some monsters in the elven forest, but he had never gone through real battles. In such situations, one is supposed to be nervous, but Adrienne was fully composed.

His lips extended to form a grin, which vanished soon. The things he had learned from Sierra came to his mind.

-"Whenever a mage is fighting against a swordsman, he should never let him close the distance between them."

He moved his feet a bit backward to increase the distance from the man. The instructions he had heard were being put into practice after a long time.

This combat's outcome was already determined from the beginning. Adrienne was bound to lose in the head-on fight.

Only if this were a head-on battle would that have been the case. Adrienne's eyes sharply studied the distance between himself and his enemy. The next thing he scanned were the walls around them and, finally, the other obstacles.

-"Use the surroundings to their maximum. Don't hesitate to use underhanded methods."

Sierra, who had seen the worst of the wars during the age of dragons, knew that there was no such thing as honour in dying. The heroes of the past who died were soon forgotten, as if they never even existed.

Her teachings precisely highlighted the methods for achieving victory while suffering less damage. Adrienne gritted his teeth, inhaling a huge breath.

"WHY WOULD I TELL YOU, DUMB*SS?!"

When catching a fish, a fisherman throws a bait to catch it. Here the fisherman was Adrienne, the bait being his taunt directed towards the man—the fish in the situation.

This wasn't just what Adrienne had come up with on the spot. Sierra was quite an experienced individual herself. The guidance she had given Adrienne still stayed fresh in his mind.

-"If your enemy falls for your provocation, you might be able to gain an upper hand in the battle."

The man standing in front of him fell for it. He dashed towards the boy with no second thought. He was sure that the victory was in his grasp.

"That's right! We killed him. But what can you do about it? You will be dying here!"

Listening to his remarks, Adrienne burst into laughter. The man was a few steps away from him when he threw his back in the air.

His feet pushed against the wall behind him. And his upper body sank towards the wall, with a green light surrounding it. The robe fluttered as the air flowing there grew stronger.

'Just one chance...'

Before the man knew it, Adrienne had jumped across the walls six times, reaching behind him. The speed at which that happened wasn't visible to human eyes.

Adrienne still didn't do a thing to the man, aside from touching his shoulder lightly. The man staggered before his knees touched the ground.

The blood flowed down from his upper body and joints. The magic he just demonstrated was a basic wind attribute spell, but he had mastered it over the years.

"Will you tell me about it by yourself...?"

He spoke while picking up the sword that the man had dropped. His words continued as he tried to swing it in the air, trying to imitate the moves he had just seen.

"Or..."

The pain that he felt in his body got worse with every single word that came out of Adrienne's mouth. Tears rolled down his cheeks, covered in blood.

"GWAAAAAAH!"

The sword was piercing the flesh of his palm and digging into the ground. Adrienne showed no remorse for brutally torturing the man.

The three months he spent in the slums of the kingdom made him change more than ever. If it were him from before, he would've hesitated to perform such vicious acts.

"Should I force you to spill the beans?"

The cold voice affirmed to the man that the boy wasn't someone who would stop with just that much. Still, he had some hope left.

'If my brother comes here...'

He had no idea how futile his thoughts were. Adrienne plucked out the sword from his one palm and slashed it through another. The man writhed with pain.

The person—no, the demon in front of him—would kill him regardless of what he did. He tried to buy time, but that wasn't helpful either.

That left the man with only one choice. He shut his eyes tight, trying to say something loudly.

"THERE'S AN OLD BUILDING IF YOU GO STRAIGHT RIGHT FROM HERE! YOU WILL GET TO KNOW MORE THERE!"

Adrienne wasn't someone who would've been fooled that easily. He was aware that this man was the one who knew the client's identity. It became obvious that he never intended to tell him anything.

"I see. That's a shame."

He muttered. The blade sparkled red, splashing the liquid on the ground. It didn't stop for a few minutes. Adrienne's cold voice alone vibrated the air there.

"Die."

----------------

-Few moments later-

'What should I do next? Their swordsmanship is too immature.'

Adrienne was just imitating whatever his enemies were doing. Strangely, it was more than perfect. No, it couldn't have been any better.

This was what one could call 'talent'. Adrienne was far more skilled in sword arts than magic. He had yet to fully understand the said fact.

"Why you-"

The 'third and 'fourth' continuously swung their swords at him, and every time he managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth they felt frustrated. He had already seen through their techniques.

The interest he held in them for a while had been lost. Adrienne felt bored running around playing with the two there. His eyes grew colder just at the sight of the pathetic bunch wasting their stamina.

"Boring..."

Their consciousness faded away as the word fell on their ears. The blade stained with the blood of the two moved swiftly to shake off the red.

Adrienne stood past the two, whose bodies collapsed to the ground. Evading their swords, he was already at a bit of a distance from the building.

A shadowy figure covered the candlelight in the room by standing at the entrance. Adrienne could tell that it was trying to approach him.

The boss of the gang stood with a huge, two-handed sword in his hand. His face was covered in tears from mourning over his brother's death.

The very next moment, Adrienne could feel his whole arm go numb with pain. The man just disappeared and swung his sword at Adrienne, which he managed to block.

'H-he is strong...'

Adrienne could tell that he was stronger than the others with whom he had fought. In his first fight, Adrienne used a cheap trick to defeat his enemy.

The second fight wasn't anything special, thanks to the sword arts he was able to mimic after seeing them once. He had managed to learn a few techniques within this short time.

The dark red aura around the boss became darker with time. The veins in his whole body became visible as he continued to cry.

Roaarrrrrrr

This was a phenomenon that Adrienne remembered studying about. Mana deviation. Simply put, the user can't handle his own mana because of overwhelming emotions and ends up going berserk.

It would only end in two cases. One is where the person dies, and the second is when his mana is exhausted.

-"An enemy who fights without thinking is both a good and a bad match at the same time."

Adrienne gritted his teeth tightly as their swords clashed. He was using wind magic to increase his own speed.

-"Good because that person's movements are easy to predict. Plus, their mana gets consumed faster than others."

He tried to reduce the number of times their swords met each other by moving around as fast as he could. He could feel a cold air within himself.

There was a limit to how much time one could use mana. All of that depended on the size of the mana pool within the person's body.

-"Bad because their senses are numbed making them feel no pain during it."

It wasn't only Adrienne whose mana was about to exhaust. The aura surrounding the boss had become a lot lighter. The pain from overexerting himself started to spread throughout his body.

Around forty minutes had passed, and the man was lying cold on the ground with a paralysed body. Adrienne had succeeded in his goal of exhausting the man's mana. On the other hand, Adrienne was barely conscious, as he had a very small amount of mana left.

Twhack

He held the man by his collar while throwing punches at his face. The blood trickled down as his body became colder.

"Speak. Who was the one who ordered you to do that? Who asked you to kill 'Adrienne'?"

But his questions were answered with the silence of the man. For a while, Adrienne thought that the man was doing this on purpose.

It wasn't that he didn't want to tell, but that he couldn't tell anything about it. As he was about to open his mouth, a chain made up of black, transparent matter wrapped itself around his mouth.

This was something even a common citizen would've recognized. After all, it was a type of magical contract that forced others not to expose the details regarding certain things.

Keeping this man alive was nothing but a nuisance to Adrienne now that he had found out about the binds on him. He raised his blade to kill him, but it was stopped by the frail-looking man.

His muscles weren't well-shaped like those of others. The weakest of them was trying to protect his unconscious companions. He spoke with a trembling voice.

"S-spare t-them. I-i know a few t-things that might h-help you."

This was the very day Adrienne killed a person for the first time. It was only because he had lost his cool for a moment. After that, he didn't actually kill the people, but just made them faint by inflicting intense pain.

He smirked at the words the man just said. It was uncertain if there was anyone else who would know a thing about it aside from the people there.

If Adrienne wanted to catch the bigger fish, he needed to be patient. His lips stopped expressing anything when he spoke.

"Speak. Your life depends on this."