Kastro's Rage

"Who are you to think you can play with my puppies?" Kastro asked Daniel as his blade mildly vibrated in his grasp.

Daniel looked at Vaan, who was semiconscious and barely knew where he was, then to Joren and Anat, and chuckled.

"These guys are your companions?" Daniel asked.

Kastro grit his teeth, taking the newcomer's words as a mockery to his person and taste, rage visible on his face as he glared at Daniel.

Daniel then turned to Rykar. "Are you with these guys too?"

Rykar immediately turned away, unable to look at either Daniel or Kastro. The truth was that the answer was not straightforward as it regarded Rykar. He was one-half of a lackey of Kastro's and one-half a free man, if he was even.

"You got a problem with them being mine?" Kastro snapped.

Daniel sighed and began to stand again, showing fear despite Kastro's sword to his neck. He was confident that Kastro wouldn't kill him just yet. After all, they were only on the first floor and no one knew what actions were permissible and which were not.

Every one of them was treading carefully, Daniel included.

"Nothing really. It's just that I expected more from someone like you," Daniel answered back, his words carefully selected to strike a few of Kastro's nerves.

"Someone like me? What the hell does that even mean?"

Daniel took a few steps towards the wannabe knight. "You still don't get it, do you? Shiny armour with a fine steel blade. I assume you've got class and taste of some sort and yet, your choice of selection in men is pathetic."

"You…!" Kastro finally lost his shit with Daniel, raising his sword to strike the masked man. However, before he could land his attack, Kastro felt a sudden sting deep in his right armpit that caused his arm to hang in the air.

Daniel had buried three of his fingers deep into the young man's axilla, numbing the nerves of his arm in a well-measured strike. The accuracy with which he struck was enough to know that this move was something Daniel was already overly familiar with.

"Aaahh! My arm!"

Kastro looked down wickedly at Daniel as he struggled to regain control of his arm while Daniel's eyes gave him a condescending stare, causing Kastro to shudder.

'Those eyes…' Kastro thought as he recalled something that he didn't want from seeing the eyes behind the death god mask.

"You bastard…!" Kastro turned his head and suddenly yelled out.

"Mister Thanatos… run!" Rykar shouted as he realised what Kastro had in mind to do.

Daniel blinked twice and muttered under his breath, "Huh? Run… why?"

Kastro's eyes looked at different spots within the hall where his subordinates were, signalling them to act.

"Kill him!"

'I thought as much. He has somehow forced a number of people here to submit under him. Maybe with the promise of joining the Order. Tch,  smart move, regardless,' Daniel deduced as he kicked Kastro in the guts and jumped away from him, effectively avoiding the instinctively slashing that Kastro performed as his body screeched backwards.

"Oops! Sorry about that, I felt an itch on my leg and you just happened to be collateral damage."

Joren and Anat couldn't believe their ears. Kastro was a powerful man, or so he had told them, linked to the revered Crimson Cross Order and this newcomer was right here belittling and toying with him without a care in the world.

< Warrior's Instincts > 

Daniel's ears tingled, becoming overly sensitive as he picked up the sounds around him. His eyes moved at rapid speeds and his overall senses heightened as the crowd that had sworn fealty to Kastro approached him in a charge.

From his death god mask, he took intermittent glances as he turned around from time to time to catch sight of everyone who was charging at him. Other climbers watched and while some were interested in watching the battle that was about to happen, there were also some who didn't care in any way.

"Hey, Ravan! Wake your ass up!" a young man with brown locks for hair shouted as he tried to shake his bald counterpart awake.

Ravan rolled and turned on the hard floor before eventually sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "What is it, Cody?"

Cody, the young teenager with the locks, pointed to the scene that was unfolding in front of them. "Look, what do you bet!"

Ravan looked ahead to see Daniel surrounded by a crowd and as he yawned from sleepiness, Ravan couldn't help but be impressed by the masked man.

"I'm sure they will beat that masked guy's ass so bad," Cody jubilated before Ravan's words shocked him.

"I call dibs on him. I bet my first weapon that he will win this fight."

A deadpan expression took over Cody's face. "Huh? Are you nuts? That guy is outnumbered like thirty to one?"

Ravan laughed as he laid back on the floor and turned away from Cody, preparing to go back to sleep.

"Then you still don't get it, Cody. Look closely at him… that guy is not a novice."

With how the matter had escalated, almost everyone was now interested, closely observing and analysing what was happening.

At another corner of the hall, a tall, slender and elegantly postured woman watched the fight with a satisfactory smile on her lips, her luscious expression spread through the hall as she rubbed her lips with her finger and made her assessment.

"Such a strong man," she thought, swaying a few strands of her red hair out of her face.

********* 

'Considering what the rabbit said, I can't use all my gifts right now to avoid attracting more undue attention to myself. I still wonder who he was referring to back then?'

Daniel had to think fast about how to get out of his pinch with the guys that surrounded him. Individually, he was confident that he could take them on but it was different when they were attacking all at once and Daniel didn't want to display all of his abilities here and for nothing.

He could subtly use < Warrior's Instincts > and his < Divine Dragon Body Constitution > without being noticed but still, he was mindful of not just the eyes around but hidden eyes… the hidden eyes which Karnickel had hinted at.

As they drew closer to him to commence the fight, a wave of mana swept across the hall in an instant tossing the ones incapable of withstand it away with force, sending them crashing and landing in different positions.

"You can have your fight another day," a soft-spoken feminine voice said aloud as the figure made herself known to her by stomping her feet on the ground.

"Welcome to the first floor of Heaven's Tower!" she continued. "I am your host, Adonisa!"