14 Chapter XIV - He Still Knows

The illusion shattered and the dark skinned man found himself staring at the dark haired youth he was certain he had just killed.

He brought down his dagger again to take off the young man's head again. Or at least, he tried to. Instead, he discovered that he couldn't move his arm at all. Something was obstructing him from carrying out this execution.

He turned his head and found that pesky little man with white hair holding on to his hand.

"Annoying, isn't it? Losing a battle of strength to someone smaller than you," Ultio said with a smirk. "I can't say I sympathize with you, though, I've a flea,"

The dark skinned man immediately felt rage blooming within his chest. "Who the fuck do you think you are to speak to me in that manner?"

"I literally just told you a while ago, you dimwit. But that is irrelevant right now," Ultio said and shook his head. "What's important now is, are you right or left handed?"

Even the large crowd that had gathered around, drawn by the violence, was confused by Ultio's question. They even began to silently question his mental health.

"Ah, never mind," He said, seeing that the large man was in a state of confusion. He sighed and causally yanked off the larger man's right arm.

"Ahhhhhh!" The dark skinned man couldn't keep his cool demeanour up any longer, as blood sprayed all over the place from the stump that was once his shoulder.

Rena and Veronica recovered from their shock first, and quickly ran forward to take their teammate away. They lifted him up by his arms and took him away hurriedly.

"Allowing him to be the distraction was a great plan," Veronica said gleefully as she carried her teammate away.

Rena nodded and glanced behind her. "But he may have gone a little too far,"

Veronica huffed and took out a red coloured potion from a small bag she had been carrying, and fed its contents to her teammate. "That's his problem. If that guy, Ugred's Guild causes trouble our distraction guy, then we would step in,"

"Guild White would most definitely cause trouble for him," Rena said in her usual emotionless tone. "Least we can do is inform him of his looming demise,"

"That's not our problem, we barely even know the guy. Even his name's a mystery to us," Veronica said as she watched Ultio casually dodge desperate punches thrown by the dark skinned man known as Ugred with his only remaining fist.

Rena sighed and looked at Ultio for a moment before looking away. "Alright, let's move to the Teleportation Pad; the others would be arriving there soon,"

"Yeah, you're right. But first, we need to drop this guy off," Veronica said while shaking the unconscious young man.

*****

"You bastard!" Ugred screamed and swung his one remaining fist at Ultio once again.

And once again, Ultio dodged it with the barest of movements and a lazy, relaxed expression. "Wow, you're weaker than I thought. Unfortunately for you, I had no plans to beat you up, until you interrupted me while I was-"

"Shut up!" Ugred roared and threw his fist so fast that the sleeve of his arm was ripped to shreds by the wind generated around his fist.

His fist struck true and hit Ultio right in the face.

The force of behind the punch caused Ultio's hair to billow around and get even messier than it had been before, and more importantly, it sent all the observers who stood behind Ultio flying. Dozens screamed as they were sent flying through the air and into different obstacles.

"Hehehe..." Ugred began to laugh, seeing that his fist connected with Ultio's face, but a moment later, his laughter faded away.

He suddenly noticed that his arm was bent and twisted at an awkward angle in multiple places, and a mind-numbing pain was coming from that arm.

"Trash,"

Before he even had the chance to speak, Ultio finally reacted.

The world seemed to slow down, as Ultio slowly rose his right hand towards Ugred's arm. Ultio's shadow glove slowly retreated as his hand got within a few inches of Ugred's arm, before he lightly tapped Ugred with his index finger.

It all seemed surreal, as Ugred's last arm rapidly turned to dust and was carried away by the soft winds.

Ugred took a deep breath as he got ready to scream, but Ultio gave him a swift backhand slap to the face, and within a second, he had turned entirely to dust.

"I hate being interrupted," Ultio glared at the dust being carried away by the wind, before turning to the observers and bystanders. "Nothing to see here, folks," He said lazily and walked towards Rena and Veronica, who had increased their speed after noticing that Ultio was following them.

They hurriedly went through a few stalls and got themselves mixed in the crowd, thinking they would get rid of Ultio. But then, they realised how futile their attempt at escape was when they found him standing before them with his hands in the pockets of his coat.

"We need to talk. Both of you," He said darkly.

*****

Having returned to the restaurant from earlier, Ultio once again ordered coffee like before, and proceeded to sip it calmly while watching the two fidgeting ladies and unconscious gentleman sitting across the table.

"Now, let us begin with basic greetings, shall we? I am Ultio V, however, it would be best to just call me Ultio," Ultio said, with his cup in his gloved hand, staring right at Veronica.

Something about the way he looked at her made Veronica twitch slightly. It was like his was directly causing her to feel fear.

"Uh... Veronica. I'm Veronica Mevert," She finally said after looking away from Ultio to avoid meeting his eyes.

It was finally Rena's turn, and she answered swiftly. "I'm Rena,"

"Very well," Ultio placed his cup back on the table and laced his fingers together. "So what brings you two here?"

Veronica frowned at his question and immediately started rebuking him, but Rena interrupted and explained. "We are here with our guild, Guild Ouranos. We came here to pick up some members of our guild, before moving on to our main goal, which is the ancient tomb that was recently discovered in the desert,"

"Oho, I see," Ultio nodded for a moment, before turning to the young man seated between the two ladies, who was finally stirring. "And what might your name be?"

"I... Ichi Hoshigaki," The young man said and rubbed his head with a wince. The potion Veronica had given him earlier had helped him speedily recovered from his wounds, but hadn't done much to help him regain his consciousness, which explained why it took this long for him to wake up.

"Delicious name," Ultio joked with a smirk, and leaned back in his chair, leaving the two women confused with only Ichi understanding the joke. "This tomb... Is it by chance the tomb of... A god?"