A fool's pride

Hearing the fabled 'Song of Death' play just behind him, Otto's whole body shivered. His back became drenched in sweat as his movements paused, completely held by fear.

Turning back slowly, Otto saw a huge figure standing a short distance away. Each of the figure's hands held a scythe each. Its eyes glowed a menacing blue as a thin almost unnoticeable aura of blue leaked from its body.

"Master Song!" Otto hiccuped nervously.

Tap, tap, tap.

Deswill Song, the ambassador, representing the Barracks of Guardians began to take slow measured steps towards Otto

Each step was accompanied by a sharp rise in his chilling aura.

Gritting his teeth Otto tore his gaze away from Doggen completely. Turning to face Song his entire body shivered in fear, but he grit his teeth to suppress the terror within him.

Otto was infuriated, he was annoyed, very annoyed, not at anyone, but himself. He was a great mage, one of the magic elites in the kingdom, his strength was not one to be underestimated.

But Otto was angry at his weakness, he was annoyed at his ignorance in thinking he was strong enough. Today alone, just the presence of three different people had caused him to shiver in fear, three! This was absolutely unacceptable and embarrassing for someone as prideful as Otto.

First, it was Senton's arrival at the VIP section that caused him to shiver in fear, then it was Ludwig's sudden appearance and now Song. The worst part was that he had not even seen Song, he just heard humming and he was already sweating buckets.

He couldn't take it anymore, the shivering made him feel weak and he didn't like feeling weak, so he faced Song with a defiant glare even as his entire body shook suggesting he was still afraid.

"Y-you think I'm scared of you?" Otto asked through gritted teeth.

Song just paused in his steps and eyed Otto strangely.

Seeing Song ignore his words, instead staring him up like that made Otto's anger boil over.

"Y-you, I'll kill you." Otto roared as he rushed forward defiantly, his gaze suggesting that he was lost in anger.

Before Otto could even take a step forward, Song's figure flashed past him in a blur, his speed leaving Otto with little to no time to react. In the next moment, Otto's head flew off his body. His face still had a glare of anger, not even realizing that it had separated from his body already.

"Hmph," Song just grunted softly without looking back. Walking slowly towards Doggen his gruff voice rang out.

"You don't look good."

"Hah," a weak laugh escaped Doggen's lips. "It's just a stab wound, poison in my bloodstream, green patches with leaves all over my body that suggest I'll turn into a tree in no time, and oh, a flower growing in my eyes, it's nothing much. Doggen summarized with a self-deprecating laugh.

"Heh, indeed it's a small thing," Song said with a light smile, enjoying Doggen's humor.

"Here take this." Song offered Doggen a bean-shaped pill.

'Oh, this should work,' Doggen thought expectantly when he saw the pill Song offered him.

Taking the pill, it dissolved rapidly as soon as it settled in his stomach, quickly moving into his bloodstream. A hot feeling began to spread all over Doggen's body. The little patches on his body withered away, and the flower in his eyes crumbled into dust.

Doggen's breathing became less labored as a bit of color returned to his face, signifying that the poison in his body was rapidly being nullified. "That's some good stuff." Doggen sighed with an impressed expression.

"Right?" Song answered with a silly grin.

"Oh right, here, have this too," Song said as he offered a tiny tube filled with a milky liquid to Doggen.

"It's a nutrient mix, one of the best, the sweet kind. Fills you up like you just had a good meal." Song said with a thumbs-up and a sly smile, the kind a sleazy merchant would have when trying to sell their fake goods while advertising them as real.

Anyone seeing Song now will find it hard to believe that he had just beheaded someone less than a minute ago without even blinking an eye.

Doggen looked at the mix with suspicion as he eyed Song from the side suspiciously.

"Come on, drink it, you just healed your body forcefully now, you know, you need nutrients rushing back into your body." Song urged with a smile.

"Hmm, okay." Doggen said reluctantly as he gulped the mixture with an ugly expression.

"Hmm? This tastes good, why does it taste good?" Doggen asked in surprise.

"Hahaha," Song's laughter rang out. "I did tell you, didn't I? It's the sweet kind."

"Since when was there a 'sweet kind?' From my experience, these things have horrible tastes. Where did you get this? Doggen asked, his surprise evident in his tone.

"Heh, It's the latest, produced by our alchemists, they were pushing for a hold of theirs so they began to experiment and tried to make some new products. This is just one of them." Song said with a smug grin.

"Speaking of hold, this one is in a serious state. Song said, his playful expression suddenly turning serious.

"It's as strange as it is shocking," Doggen said in agreement as he got to his feet with the help of Song.

As the two men were discussing, they suddenly paused as they felt a strange feeling in the air. It felt like the mana in the atmosphere was moving towards a point.

Both men looked at each other in confusion before looking towards where the mana was converging. The source… Otto's headless body.

Although both of them were Sugudens and were not exactly experts at external mana manipulation, they could still feel the changes in mana in the atmosphere.

Both men stared at Otto's lifeless form in confusion, wondering why it was attracting mana. Suddenly Otto's body jerked.

Seeing such a phenomenon, both men flinched.

"W-what? Am I seeing things? Did he just move?" Doggen asked carefully, still finding it hard to believe what he'd just witnessed.

As if responding to Doggen's doubts Otto's body jerked again, this time more violently and in the next instant his body began to squirm and shake furiously like a worm that had just had salt poured on it.

Doggen and Song watched on in shock as Otto's body shook furiously without a head, just before them. The next thing both men saw added to their shock.

While Otto's body shook, thick green vines began to sprout out of his severed neck, the vines squirming like worms. Extending further out of his body moving towards his head. The base of Otto's head sprouted vines too, although not as thick as that from the body, they still snaked over to meet the vines coming from the body.

Such a scene sent shivers down both men's spines. Song rushed forward with his moon blade and slashed at the shaking body multiple times, after a few slashes and the body becoming completely disfigured, the shaking finally stopped.

Song then pulled out a short dagger and flung it at Otto's head. The dagger met its mark, embedding perfectly in his forehead just between his brows. After this, the vines on the head stopped moving.

"Phew, That was scary," Song admitted as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

"What a sad man. He probably was so afraid of the notion of death that he did something to his body while alive. He would have rather become an undead than die just like that." Song said, shaking his head.

Doggen just stared at the body in disgust and spat. "He was a coward in more ways than one."

"Burn it?" Song asked.

"Yeah, we don't want him zombeing back to life." Doggen responded with a nervous laugh.

ROAR!

The loud clap of thunder suddenly got both men's attention as they looked at the ceiling covering the sky. Doggen guessed that the sound of thunder was from Ludwig's clash with Senton.

"Master Song, the king was clashing with Senton just over there. Doggen said, pointing towards the VIP section. "But I believe they've taken the fight outside, that can be the only reason this building is still in one piece."

"I think you should help the king, Senton seems to be giving him a hard time, surprisingly. He's hidden himself very well."

"You don't need to tell me that, I was just going to jump in," Song said while looking up above him with a solemn expression.