Ch. 67 Conceited

"Total for the books and everything else, 27 gold." Gabriel handed over the coins to Lady Ara and began packing everything up into the creatures packs. He picked out 8 new books amongst which 6 were for new Magic Paths and the remaining 2 were skills. After learning about architecture Gabriel had picked out 6 Magic Path books that would allow him to make their home even more amazing. After packing everything up, he reattached the bags to the group of creatures.

"Well, thanks again for everything Lady Ara. When you're ready to come out to our base, leave this feather on the river at noon and I'll pick you up. I'll be checking for the next week, if you don't show up I'll assume you found something more interesting to do." Gabriel condensed a Shadow Feather before her eyes and handed it to her before gathering the group and leaving. As always they hit up a food stall on their way out of the Village, Gabriel spent 2 Gold and cleared out the whole stall making the owner have a huge grin and thank him repeatedly. After they ate, with the cubs consuming more than 4x anyone else, they left through the gates waving to the guards on their way. As they left the Village, a large Caravan with soldiers marching alongside wearing the same insignia of the ones that attacked their home, was going into the Village. Gabriel was wishing he had learned his new Magic Paths now as 2 of the books would've given him perfect Paths for this situation. He could've made a Tracking Stone and a Recording Stone, then retrieved them a few days later to see what they are up to.

"Hey, how much for one of those Mountain Lions?" A random soldier had been staring at the 3 cubs as he walked with the caravan. Yelling out to Gabriel he pulled out a large pouch of Gold and began to jingle it.

"Hahahahaha hahaha ha.... BWAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA.... You could offer me your life and it wouldn't be enough to take one of my children from me. Kindly, fuck off." Gabriel's group all had been laughing the whole time after hearing the soldiers offer. Gabriel would Never give up one of his collect... companions for any reason. He found it laughable that a stranger would feel he had the right to even offer to buy one of his companions. As they started to walk away, still laughing their asses off, the soldier's face twisted up and got flushed.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE SOLDIERS OF LORD IRIZAN!" He drew his sword which caused a half dozen soldiers around him to draw theirs. They figured if one of the soldiers was going to attack, they all could and then split the loot afterwards. As the soldiers began to march towards the group Gabriel's face went from laughter to the specter of death himself. He activated his Shadow Clothing and changed it to look like a giant cloak that completely covered every inch of his body. His old black straw hat disappeared into smoke before the hood of the cloak shielded his eyes and obscured part of his face.

"You might want to step back Serah. Boys keep them safe." Condensing his Shadow Sword the soldiers began to slow their march toward the group. Watching Gabriel completely change before their eyes had unsettled the soldiers, except for the one he had already insulted. He continued on getting closer and closer before he saw a pair of bright purple eyes peek out from the beneath the hood. He felt a strange presence behind those eyes that seemed to make him even more angry. As he raised his sword Gabriel stared right into his eyes and raised his sword.

"I have no enmity with you soldiers, but I will not sit idly by and be insulted by you either. If you take one more step, I'll kill you before your blade moves." The soldier scoffed at Gabriel's warning and continued to raise his blade before it fell from his hand. He looked at his hand in disbelief before a warm feeling started to spread from the side of his neck and wash down his body. Looking at Gabriel he noticed his sword was at his side and he was starting to walk away. Reaching his hands up to his neck he felt a thick, sticky, and warm liquid, rushing down his body. A few seconds later he fell to the ground in a heap, bleeding out from the neck. Amidst the puddle of blood was a single Black Feather floating along before disappearing into a puff of black smoke.

As they watched their fellow soldier fall into a heap, the remaining 11 soldiers all drew their swords and started screaming at Gabriel. Without even looking back Gabriel continued on the pathway with his group in front of him.

"Hahahaha these little shits think they can fight me. I was looking for a reason to end these bastards, and now I've got it. Go on and head home, I'll be there soon." Gabriel pushed his group to keep on walking and slowly turned around. (Fine, they didn't like my intimidation tactics? I'll make sure to send a message this time.) Gabriel let go of the upper half of his Shadow Clothing, revealing an extremely cut body and giving him the feeling of a berserker. (I haven't trained with it yet, but let's see if it'll scare the sense into them.) Gabriel began condensing his Shadow Sword again while also pulling out the strange L shaped blade from his Tiny Dimension and flipping it around his hand a few times.

"Remember, you guys brought this on yourself. I was willing to forgive your previous transgressions when your group attacked my home. Now, I will take your lives and belongings as payment for your stupidity." Two giant plumes of pitch black smoke came from his back before condensing into wings. (I miss my wings, maybe I should practice keeping them condensed for a longer period of time...) Gabriel had already thrown away the thought that this was a fight, it was going to be a slaughter. He felt no threats amongst the group of soldiers even when he insulted them yet again. He began to flap his wings before he lifted off the ground and used his Shadow Manipulation to push himself forward at an incredible speed. While he wasn't prepared for the speed, he adjusted to it in seconds, quickly tucking his wings in before performing a barrel roll, swinging his swords out at the same time. He unfurled his wings as he came out of the barrel roll, beating them twice before landing on the ground and letting them dissolve.

He could hear screams of terror behind him as he looked at the remaining 2 soldiers. Of the 2, 1 pissed his pants and fell to the ground mumbling under his breath while the other seemed to be unable to even breathe.

"Don't kill me.. please don't kill me.... I'm just doing my job... don't kill me...." Gabriel laughed as he walked closer to the 2 frightened soldiers. He lifted his sword and brought it close to the remaining soldier's neck.

"You people attacked my home. You insulted me by asking to purchase one of my children. You raised your weapons and threatened me. I will not allow you to do as you please." Gabriel's sword moved very quickly, decapitating the man. He turned to look at the soldier begging for his life on the ground in a puddle of his own piss. "Do you understand the error of their ways? You were the only one to grovel before me instead of trying to take my life. For that, you will live. Now scurry on back to your owner and tell him to stay in his lane. If he keeps coming to my Forest and trying to take what isn't his, I'll take everything he has." Gabriel was confident he could fight almost anyone in this Kingdom now. After assimilating all of the Geographical Maps and the data that came with them, he knew that this Kingdom could only support 1 individual of the Breaker Realm. When folks of this kingdom reached the peak of Bander Realm they would feel like there was an immeasurable barrier between themselves and the Breaker Realm. With that knowledge Gabriel knew he would be in the upper echelon of fighters in this Province. Besides Rorish, there were 3 other towns in the immediate vicinity of the Forest. Two of which were just as small as Rorish and held no real value to the kingdom, however the last one was more of a City than a Village.

The City of Zan was the land that Lord Irizan was responsible for. It included a massive city of nearly 50,000 residents and fields surrounding the city for over a kilometer to keep up with their food requirements. Even knowing that his enemy had all those resources available to him, Gabriel was 100% confident that his system was a far better resource than they could ever hope to attain. He felt no fear from this entire Kingdom anymore after learning that information, but now he knew, how little he actually knew. He was but a frog in a well, believing this Kingdom to be all there was, but in reality it was one of the weakest kingdoms on this planet.

"Go on, if you stay there any longer I'll claim this entire caravan as my own." The soldier quickly got to his feet and ran back to the Caravan before urging the driver to get into the village as soon as possible. As for the remaining 10 soldiers, most only had superficial injuries, but 3 had severed hands and of course there was the 2 Gabriel killed as well. He quickly searched the bodies of the two he had killed and took their gold pouches as they were the only things of value they had. (Nice, made as much gold as I spent and all it took was 10 minutes out of my day!)

Gabriel had some pep in his step as he walked away from the still recovering soldiers. He unfurled his wings again and took off into the sky. Luckily, all of this went down far enough to be our of sight from the Village or Gabriel would probably not be welcomed back. It only took him another 10 minutes of flying to catch back up with the group and another 2 hours to reach home.