Chapter 46 - Hello William

"It's almost ripe! Just a few more minutes." Bill paced around the infernal tree, anticipating the amount of power he would obtain. "I need to hurry up before the others notice I'm missing." Suddenly, the sound of something cutting through the air drew close to Bill's location. 

"Hmm? Where's that noise coming from?" As soon as he spoke those words, a boy with a sword in his hand flew past him and planted himself on the tree sideways, destroying the fruit in the process. 

"Hello, William!" Joren lept off the tree and tried to deliver a powerful kick to Bill's abdomen, but right as he was going to make contact, Bill projected a barrier to protect himself. While he wasn't injured, the kick still sent him skidding backward. 

"Who's William?!" Bill asked angrily 

"Why that's you of course." Joren pointed his sword at Bill and smiled 

"Joren I think you're mistaken, this guy is Bill, not William." Glenn appeared next to Joren trying to correct him. 

"I know, but he's also William." He retorted 

"Joren are you okay? You said we were looking for Bill, and now you're saying this is a man named William? Am I missing something here?" Pantera questioned 

"No! Ugh! Bill is a nickname for William. When someone is named Bill, their real name is William. So instead of calling him Bill, I called him William." 

"I've never heard of that in my life and I've met plenty of people named Bill and William." Glenn shook his head not understanding Joren's thought process

"Yeah I'm with Glenn on this one, shouldn't their nickname be Will or something?" 

"Yes, but for some reason, Bill is for William. Just like Bob is for Robert and Dick is for Richard." 

"Who in their right mind would name their child Dick. I'd never name my son that even if the Sun turns Gray." Glenn shook his head

"Ha! I understood that reference!" Joren laughed at the unexpected pop culture reference but the look on his companion's faces told him that they didn't understand what he meant. 'Ah, that's right, this is a different world, I'm stupid, they don't know what I'm talking about.' 

"ENOUGH!!! How did you find me?!" Everyone turned to Bill who was standing in a battle-ready position. His hands were coated in a dark gray-purple energy, the exact same color as the powder. 

"Honestly I forgot you were here, anyway, you reek of infernal energy! That's how I was able to find you, now stop what you're doing and let me kill you peacefully okay?" Joren was relaxed and didn't take Bill seriously, even his sword was now resting on his shoulders as he spoke without care. 

"You can sense Infernal energy? That's impossible! Only a-" 

Cutting off his speech, Joren ran towards Bill at high speeds. "You talk too much!" As he slashed at Bill, his sword collided with a barrier, stopping his momentum. 

"You're awfully confident for someone so weak!" A sinister grin formed on Bill's face. 

"Why don't you test how 'weak' I am William!" 

"With pleasure!" Bill pushed Joren off and bombarded him with many blasts of infernal energy. Glenn and Pantera believed in Joren's strength so they didn't even bother to check on him, instead, they both rushed at Bill 

To the left of Bill, Glenn slashed through Bill's defenses, cutting him in the chest lightly. He followed up with a barrage of deadly accurate sword swings and thrusts, all aimed at Bill's vitals. 

Although Bill was skilled, he was having a hard time keeping up with someone who dedicated their whole life to combat so getting pushed into a corner was inevitable. 

"Damnit!" Bill released a burst of infernal energy to push Glenn back and put some space between them. 

Glenn had no choice but to back as he wasn't immune to the effects of the corrosive energy. Even his sword was suffering from its effects. 

Bill tried to launch more attacks at Glenn but was stopped by vines that wrapped around his body. 

"Let's see you get out of this!" Pantera had used her wood element to sprout vines from the ground. 

"It's futile. Infernal energy eats away at mana! Anything that uses mana will wither and die!" As if reacting to his voice, the vines started to wither away, leaving ashes in their wake. Bill cladded his hand in infernal energy and dashed towards Pantera, but a white arrow appeared in his face, forcing him to come to a halt, swiping the arrow out of his path. 

Just then, a barrage of arrows rained down on him. They weren't able to stop him but managed to stop his movements, and a few made it past his defenses, cutting and nicking him in the process. 

"I said it's futile!" Bill shouted and released a massive burst of infernal energy. 

Joren wasn't bothered by this and ran directly into the infernal energy. Because of the divine energy of the crest, he was able to purify the infernal energy which made it not affect him. 

"Shut up bitch!" Joren slashed down at Bill but his sword, which wasn't as well crafted as Glenn's, couldn't withstand the corrosive effect of infernal energy so it broke into many pieces. 

"Heh! What are you going to do without your swo-" 

Joren immediately punched Bill in the face, sending him flying back into the infernal tree. As his back collided with the tree, the tree snapped and toppled over. 

"Well, that was anticlimactic. Thought you would be a bit tougher, to be honest." Joren spoke 

"NOOOOOO! You just ruined 8 years of preparation! 8 fucking years! All you needed to do was leave this fucking place and everything would have been in my hands! God dammit!" Bill pounded his fists into the ground in anger. He was furious that his plans were ruined by a bunch of nosey people. So much time and preparation went into this and it was ruined in a day. So he kept pounding the ground until his hand landed in a mushy wet substance. 

'The fruit!!!' Bill looked at the destroyed fruit on the ground. It was smashed by Joren when he first arrived, and it was further smashed by Bill's tantrum. But it was still edible. He scooped it up, dirt mostly covering it up, and held it close to his mouth. 

"Let's end this, we still have a job to do and we can't let Paul down." All of them didn't notice that Bill was holding the smashed fruit in his hands. All they could see was him eating a pile of dirt. 

Making a blade out of Aura, Joren went to cut off Bill's head, but as soon as it came in contact with the back of his neck, a burst of energy sent him lying back into a tree. 

"Joren!!" Pantera cried out trying to rush to his aid, but that's when a tall, muscular figure stood in her way. 

The figure stood at a staggering 8 feet. It had dark pink skin with purple patterns on its body. Two horns protruded from its forehead that angeled upward. Teeth as sharp as razors filled its mouth and it had a black sclera with red slits for eyes. 

Pantera was frozen with fear. She had seen many things that would make a person want to crawl in a corner curled up in a ball and cower in fear, but never has she seen anything like this. 

The creature stuck his hand out and punched Pantera in the gut sending her tumbling as she was knocked out cold. 

"Bastard!" Glenn lept in the air and came down with an attack putting all his strength into it. Flames burst from his sword, it was so bright that it looked as If there was a second sun in the sky. Glenn slashed downwards and the terrifying strike and charred the landscape around them. 

"If you had used this attack before, I would have died. But now, it's nothing more than a simple trick." Bill, who was the creature, didn't even block the attack, he simply grabbed the sword and took on the full force of the flames. He pulled the sword closer to him, which Glenn was still holding, and kicked him with such force it cracked a few of his ribs. 

"Let's deal with this pest, shall we?" Turning around, he made his way to Joren who was slumped against the tree. "Who's tougher now, you brat?!" He lifted his leg, ready to crush Joren's face with his foot. As he stomped down, something pierced through his foot causing him to stumble backward. 

'What the?! What happened?' Bill looked at the white blade made of mana lodged in his foot. 

"A critical error. I can't believe I disregarded the first two rules of combat. Never underestimate your opponent, and always finish them off as quickly as possible. But don't worry William, I won't make the same mistakes again." Joren cracked his neck and prepared for battle 

"I told you, MY NAME ISN'T WILLIAM!!" Another burst of energy surged from his body as he charged at Joren.