Chapter 10: Who is he ?

Dark blue scales gleamed in the sun rays. The monster could be called a creature of beauty if it wasn't for the malicious way it looked down at them.

The instincts embedded deeply within a man screamed that he was gazing at a predator, insidious and predatory. The pressure erupted from this monster set their every single nerve on fire.

Entwined with the instinctive fear they felt, even moving their bodies seemed impossible. They were rooted to the places they stood.

Soon the monster released a billowing wave of murderous aura upon them, paralyzing them. Most of the people collapsed under such an intimidating presence. Even the strongest combatants were affected.

The monster was a huge beast that looked as if it could overturn tens of ships that were about the size of their ship at the same time. Going against such a creature was hopeless.

A surge of helplessness washed over them. The morale dropped even before they engaged the monster. They were waiting to be slaughtered like cattle.

The monster itself seemed to have sensed that. It raised its initially hidden tail above the water, water reflected off its scales that looked like a mermaid's tail, except it was massive in size.

The tail of the monster was about to descend, but not even upon them. It was slapping the water near the ship. To this monster, these humans were like ants. It seemed it wasn't even bothering to properly attack them. 

Even so, water rose like a tidal wave to swallow them up.

'Ah, we are going to die.'

That thought resonated in the minds of everyone. They closed their eyes and waited for their inevitable doom.

But no water crashed into them and dragged them into seas. They slowly opened their eyes to see an amazing sight.

The tide of water that cascaded down them, trying to swallow them was frozen into a beautiful arc. But they didn't have time to appreciate the beauty.

Arwwhhhhh...

The enraged roar of the monster instilled fear in them again. They trembled in their boots as the monster reared its head.

"What are you all doing ? Are you all waiting to die ?"

A calm voice drifted into their ears as if mocking them for awaiting for their doom without doing anything.

Their dazed minds quickly snapped out of the trances and they turned their heads towards the person who uttered those words.

"Mages, get into the center. Those who are with water attributes, use your magic to and manure the ship to reach the rock beddings."

The precise commands invoked a feeling of stability. Kai took control of the whole situation with a few words.

"Those who can't fight, get inside the cabin. Bring the prisoners there. Surround the mages and support them to bring the ship to land."

He calmly ordered the knights, as if they were his sub-ordinates.

But no one could refute him in this situation. The knights managed to surround the mages in a tight circle. Even so, sharp witted people weren't foolish to think that they could outrun a monster that size.

As the ship gained speed, the monster started to give chase.

"Ah... It's closing in on us."

A knight shouted in fear. As fear was about to consume them, two streaks of golden light streaked through the ship and jumped towards the monster that was chasing them.

Blades of the swords flashed as sun graced upon them. The dark blue mana that enveloped one sword felt violent yet calm, yielding a strange combination.

It felt like standing on top of a frozen lake. Calm and cool on the outside, violent and turbulent on the inside. At the edge of that power stood Ruwel Hart.

Another sword was engulfed in bright golden mana. That mana invoked the feeling of steadiness and elegance, as if the person bearing this mana practiced his sword strike thousands of times to make it perfect and elegant.

At the end of that mana, Michael unleashed his mana to strike down the monster. Gentle like the petals of a rose bud, tender white snow flakes rained down on the water.

Tens of snow flakes cluttered together to create solid footholds on water and air. The two swordmasters followed the path carved out of ice by Enzo towards the monster.

Enzo waved his raised hands as if he was a maestro leading the world's greatest orchestra and Kai stood behind him and silently observed the battle.

Kai wasn't the only one who was watching this battle. All the people there focused their attention in this battle.

"It's his highness Michael and duke Hart."

A knight exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Even the mage tower master is supporting them."

Another mage that followed Enzo into this secret mission shouted in awe.

"We are saved."

Many people sighed in relief.

"They'll defeat the monster. We are safe now."

People started letting out such exclamations as if the battle was already over.

A wave of golden mana flew in an arc and crashed into the body of the monster. Soon after, an explosive strike of dark blue mana that was condensed at the tip of the blade followed that attack.

When the swordmasters attacked from the front, Enzo prepared his own offensive strike from behind. An arrow made of ice swirling with icy blue mana mixed with a tinge of green hit the back of the monster.

Bang. Boom. Bang.

A huge shockwave erupted and a cloud of mist created by mana crashing against each other covered the place where the monster was. Michael and Ruwel returned to the ship but didn't sheathe their swords.

Even Enzo didn't put down his raised hands but the knights and the mages had no such reservations. They cheered as if the monster was already dead.

Under this atmosphere, Michael and Enzo slightly lowered their guard. But only two people noticed how strange Ruwel's behavior was.

He hadn't yet let go of his sword and he was staring frigidly at the cloud of mist that hadn't yet dissipated. Edgar Hart furrowed his brows involuntarily in incomprehension while Kai flickered his eyes towards the slowly dissipating cloud again.

Edgar couldn't understand what was going on with his father. He had watched his father when he was growing up. He wanted to imitate him just to feel closer to him when he was a child.

Who was Ruwel Hart ?

He was the cold-hearted man with a wall of ice around his heart that no one was able to sway. He was indifferent and cold even to his own flesh and blood.

Edgar knew his father enough to know that he didn't fear death but such a man was showing wariness and fear towards a beast. It's true that they have never seen such a monster before but there was no way for it to escape from the strikes of two swordmasters and a 7th class magician.

On the other hand, Kai was sharpening his senses to feel out where the monster is. He wasn't naïve to believe that such an attack was easy enough to kill that beast.

If so, Ruwel Hart wouldn't have suffered severe injuries nor would he have died in the original story. He focused his mana and followed the flow of the mana only to find that the monster was closer than he thought.

As people slowly relaxed and let their guards down, a ruby eye emerged from middle of the cloud.

Hummn...

Violent shudders ran through the bodies of the people there. Another ruby eye gleamed as it appeared suddenly.

Those eyes flashed maliciously as if to ridicule their futile struggle.

People say when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.

They felt like staring into the abyss at that moment. One misstep and the crawling monsters would shred them to pieces and devour them.

The malevolence of those ruby eyes was nothing compared to the gaping wide jaws that opened up. All the eyes snapped to the center of the huge maws of the monster.

A black ball...

A ball made of chaos energy was gathering at the center of the wide jaws of the monster. The ball was the size of the at least five footballs.

But its destructive power was on another level. Everyone instinctively felt that even a slight graze of that ball was enough to incinerate their bodies and erase them from their existence.

And that ball of black energy was coming towards them.

"Aaaaarghh..."

Many of them let out screams as it flew towards them.

They weren't prepared for this. It was hard to believe that the attack on the monster had failed.

There was frost on its head and neck and a slight scorch mark at the middle of its body. But the only wound was the shallow gash near its neck.

The formidable attacks of the strongest combatants of the entourage hadn't been able to injure this monster.

This time there was no escape from it as they watched the ball reach the ship.

Dooong... Ooooorm...

There was a stillness after the ball collided. Their jaws dropped and their eyes widened.

"Wh... what ?"

Edgar stuttered in shock as a scene unfolded before their eyes.

A thick wall of ice made of pure white mana was in front of the ship. The ball of chaos energy had collided with that wall.

Instead of disintegrating, only that ball with the explosive power had vanished, as if it had not existed in the first place.

The people who participated in this mission were the elite of the elites. They had not felt the flow of mana that formed the wall.

But only one person came to their mind when they saw it. They subconsciously turned towards that person.

He was standing behind Enzo with his hands raised and aimed towards the monster.

They couldn't help but stare at him with awe.

One thought was going through their minds.

'Who was this man ?'