Tale Of A Knight

While the members of the Divine Lords were mostly loyal to Morphus and were recruited by him, most of them took their orders from their leader, who had the privilege to answer directly to Morphus.

Shengyn"s status as Morphus" right hand put him outside of the chain of command of the leader, but he was still a member. It just meant that he took on independent missions that usually const.i.tuted a.s.sa.s.sination. Shengyn had enormous talent for killing, and the fact was the more he killed the stronger he became.

Shengyn met quite a few of the fellow Divine Lords. They included Kolek the darkness user, Sheya the Soul Eater, Kanka the lich, Olmar the ma.s.sacre bringer, and Narla the fate user. Those were the members he met, although he knew those were not the only members considering Shengyn never met their leader but only heard rumors about him.

The member that disturbed Shengyn the most was without a doubt Sheya, the Soul Eater. Her abilities allowed her to absorb soul of anyone she comes in contact with, the closer the proximity the faster she will end up sucking the soul away. The problem is- she developed some sort of odd attraction to Shengyn, who is rather terrified of her due to nature of her powers.

Such was the case, which was why he tried to avoid the other Divine Lords if he can afford it. His mission for now was infiltration of the Tazak kingdom. The place in many senses was a h.e.l.lhole.

The higher cla.s.ses like the n.o.bles and the knights that served them prospered, but the lower cla.s.ses like the peasants lived in rather bad conditions. The inhabitants of the kingdom were not limited to humans; there were beast men, demon descendants, and also elementals. Needless to say, in a kingdom inhabited by human beings persecution against any non-humans was rather common.

Shengyn, a demon, could sympathize with the conditions, but he simply did not care. He had a duty to fulfill, and nothing mattered more.

Even so, seeing a child with head of a wolf or maybe a dog, running for his life from the large man with a spear-like weapon in his hand. The weapon"s tip had a metal circle size of a head. Apparently it"s a tool used for capturing somebody by wringing it across the neck of the victim.

The large man managed to put the metal circle on the child"s neck, now he was dragging the child by the neck. The child resisted, but he could not break free of the metal restraint on his neck.

"I am doomed, he is gonna take me to…" h.e.l.l. The non-human children or children displaying unusual abilities were frequently kidnapped by such people. None knew what happened to them. The child suspected they were all killed. Now this monster captured him and was dragging him towards execution.

Just as the child lost hope, the man dragging him stopped on his tracks. Then he lifelessly fell over to his left side. The man was at least two meters tall, fat, but muscular, with face concealed under a blank mask. Now he was down.

The child looked at the man standing behind the monster that keeled over.

It was Shengyn.

While he could inflict merciless death upon anyone, Shengyn could not simply watch as someone harmed a child in front of him.

His action was spurred more by emotion than by reason. He chose to strike the man with a palm imbued with lightning energy, sending electric current through the man"s nervous system, stopping his heart and immobilizing his body. The man should be dead by now.

"Who are you?" the child whispered.

"It doesn"t matter who I am. Child, what is your name?" Shengyn asked the child.

Child had the head of a canine, so his puzzled expression could be clearly seen. His left ear stood upright, while the right one stood alert. His yellow, slitted eyes were clearly full of fear.

"Paw." The child whispered.

"Paw, huh." Shengyn removed the metal circle around the child"s neck.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"No. That is not my intention."

"Are you not one of them? You are concealing your face!"

Shengyn realized that his face was wrapped with cloth, he needed to find a mask soon, and using a cloth to conceal his face became rather tiresome.

"Don"t think too much on that." Shengyn removed the cloth on his face, revealing his face.

"Human!" Paw exclaimed.

"Is it really a surprise to see my face? There are many other human beings in this city."

"Yes, but none of them would help a beast person."

"I see." Shengyn smugly smiled. "Then, as thanks could you please provide me with some information…"

The sound of gurgling stomach reached Shengyn"s ears. The sound came from the child rubbing his hungry belly. It looked like he was starving. Paw was furry all over, so it was hard to tell that he was all skin and bones.

"Right after I get you something to eat." Shengyn reflected that if he wanted Paw to reveal useful information, then he first has to be able to restore his strength. None wants to talk much on hungry stomach.

Shengyn, followed by Paw, paid a visit to a meat shop. Shengyn paid for large serving of meat, enough for three people. Outside of it there was a place to sit down in and eat.

As soon as meat reached the table, Paw pounced at the meat with vicious ferocity.

Shengyn could only look at the kid with sympathy. "I see, he must have been starving for a long time."

"Big brother, thanks for the meat!"

"Don"t mention it." Shengyn nodded. As he watched him eat meat, Shengyn could only visualize him as a wolf eating a poor lamb.

"You, know, big brother, you are rather weird for a human"

"Is that really so, what kind of human beings inhabit this town then?"

"All of them are rather mean, they keep chasing me out of every place I try to go to. They all have that scary look in their eyes."

"I see."

"But you, big brother, you seem different from them, why is that?"

"Really? Now that is surprising." Shengyn cringed. "Can you tell me more about this city?"

Paw told Shengyn about how the beast people are treated within the city, how they are seen as inferior to human beings.

Apparently, Paw was searching for his friend who disappeared within the city two days ago. He couldn"t find her anywhere, and when he asked some knights in the tavern for help, they kicked him out of there. He feared that his friend was kidnapped by one of the people who were chasing him.

"Kidnappings? Isn"t that rather unusual around here?"

"Not at all, big brother, it happens all the time. Some scary looking men take kids somewhere and they are never seen again."

"What kind of kids do they take?" Shengyn curiously asked.

"Beast people, kids with magical talents, and I heard that some kids with horns were taken as well."

"Just as I thought." Shengyn murmured. He heard a rumor about a group that was a.s.sociated with Pishak Priests, called the Salvation Bringers.

While Pishak Priests kidnapped demons in order to take their powers, Salvation bringers did the same thing with humans and other species. The hunger for power is rather alluring, if not irresistibly tempting.

"Big brother, do you know those people?"

"No." That was the truth. In fact, he was a member of Divine Lords, a group far more notorious than both Pishak Priests and Salvation Bringers, but he wasn"t about to tell him that.

"Right, big brother would not be in cahoots with scary people like that!" "Apparently the kid is extremely trusting for some reason" Shengyn thought.

"Scary people? Are there any more scary people I should know about?" Shengyn wanted to find out exactly what the locals knew about the events, starting with dangerous people, those he had to watch out for.

"There are! There certainly are!" Paw started counting using his fingers. "There are the knights, n.o.bles, head hunters, adventurers, elementals…." The list was rather long. The key species Shengyn heard were demons and elementals.

"I see. There was a rumor that Elementals in the mountain range having conflicts with the people below in Tazak kingdom. At least this confirms the rumors."

"…there is also the scariest one of them all." Paw finished his list with Shengyn realizing he missed the ident.i.ty of the last one.

"Who is that?" Shengyn asked.

"He is called the incarnation of death himself, the most brutal killer, and the most wanted man in the Tazak kingdom, the Death Hand." Paw whispered.

Shengyn"s face contorted to show his extreme discomfort.

"Is something wrong, big brother?" Paw asked, looking concerned.

"It"s nothing." Shengyn made a horrifying realization. The most wanted man in Tazak kingdom is none other than him, Death Hand or Hand of Death. His infamy is most likely due to killing several important people who had ties to Tazak kingdom, under Morphus"s orders.

"Do you know what Death Hand looks like?"

"No, but I have seen his wanted poster. He looks very scary, with a large scar on his face, two big horns on his forehead, and a large goatee that looks like mandibles of a giant roach."

"What the heck? I don"t look like that! I look relatively normal, without my demon eye and horn exposed; I look indistinguishable from normal human! But wait a second, that description… it"s Olmar!"

Shengyn now knew why Paw did not recognize who he was immediately, the wanted poster of him had a picture of Olmar, the other Divine Lord.

The people in the kingdom most likely didn"t know his true name either.

It was rather advantageous, but being mistaken for Olmar was rather absurd. Granted, Olmar was about three meters tall, as muscular as a giant gorilla, and had an aura around him that screamed murder. It is natural to a.s.sume that he would be called Death Hand, but still… Shengyn couldn"t stop himself from sighing from disbelief.

"I see. He does sound scary." Shengyn could personally attest to the fact that Olmar was dangerous, if it wasn"t for his hardening ability, he wouldn"t have survived the battle against him.

Morphus asked Shengyn to recruit Olmar, and Olmar made a bet with him that he would only join if Shengyn defeated him, which is what Shengyn did.

But Shengyn had to admit, Olmar was stronger than him. Shengyn only managed to beat him because he was faster, had the hardening ability, and did not show all of his powers at once, thus allowing him to beat Olmar.

"He truly is. Parents always tell their kids to go to sleep or Death Hand will get them!"

"When did my name become a local nightmare fairy tale?" Shengyn listened intently.

"They say he can beat an entire army by himself and that he had killed royal amba.s.sadors from neighboring countries, he is extremely strong!"

"I see." Shengyn got over the shock of hearing Olmar being mistaken for him.

"Yeah, I think he is hundred times stronger than you, Big Brother"

"That is good to know."

Shengyn coldly replied.

Being compared to that berserker- what a nightmare. It is true that Shengyn emerged triumphant over Olmar and made him submit to Morphus"s authority, but the fight was anything but easy. If Shengyn did not have several tricks up his sleeve, Olmar would have killed him effortlessly.

"Sorry, I didn"t mean it like that. Big brother is very strong, but this Death Hand guy, he is not a human."

"Oh, believe me, he is human, even with such a messed up appearance as that."

Olmar was huge, sometimes mistaken for a small giant. Most of his bulk was pure muscle, hard as steel, strong enough to deflect swords. Covered in scars that ran all over his body; it was obvious he is a true veteran.

He mouth was full of razor sharp fangs, which he prominently displayed while cutting people into pieces, smiling ludicrously.

It was not uncommon for him to be laughing hysterically while mowing through dozens of people simultaneously, that look on his face-it definitely is messed up. He enjoys fight so much, it was the most exciting thing for him-his sole drive in life is to slaughter.

If he wasn"t a human, he might as well be the G.o.d of ma.s.sacre. Shengyn cringed from imagining that beast pouncing upon him, with his b.l.o.o.d.y aura coating him.

It was truly something he still had bad dreams about.

"What?" Paw asked confusedly after hearing Olmar really is human.

"Never mind." Shengyn shrugged. "By the way, do you know what is going on inside the city?"

"Other than the scary people chasing after me, there were some weird looking people that recently entered the city. They wore some kind of whitish blue robes and smelled very weird, almost like demons."

"Pishak Priests" Shengyn realized. "I see, so the Salvation bringers have allied themselves with Pishak Priests, huh?"

"Kiddo, would you like to help Big Brother out?"

Stuffing his mouth full of meat, Paw gurgled "Vhat isss.h.i.t?"

"I would like you to become my accomplice."

"Huh?" Paw stared at Shengyn in disbelief, still with meat hanging from his jaws.

Half an hour later, on top of the roof, Shengyn with Paw on his back was surveying the area.

There were many movements around the area. While Shengyn could track people down by their auras, he wasn"t familiar with this city at all, so he had Paw as his direction guide. The wealthy people, mostly n.o.bles were coming home from duty, most of whom were knights. Apparently the cla.s.s system truly did prevent the commoners from becoming full-fledged knights.

"They are so cool, aren"t they, big brother?" Paw said while looking at the full plate armored knights with gaze of admiration.

"I thought you hated knights because they chased you?"

"Those were not true knights! Those are just cowards wearing armor! They are nothing like n.o.ble knights of my dreams!"

"I see."

"You know, big brother, I would like to become a knight as well someday."

"Kiddo, not meaning to ruin your dream but you are a beast person; I am pretty sure it narrows down your choices in career?"

"So what if I am a wolf beast man? I still want to become the knight of justice, the one who protects the weak!"

"You are free to have your own ambitions, but don"t tell me I didn"t warn you" Shengyn shrugged. "By the way, I heard that beast people like you are largely feared because people think they become human eating monsters, is that true?"

"Of course not, the only ones who lose their sanity and become monsters are the ones who tasted human flesh."

"What?"

"Something happens to beast person when he or she consumes human meat, they lose control of themselves and start to crave human meat, not long afterwards they go berserk. I have seen it happen once." Paw explained.

"I see."

"When a beast person loses his sanity, they are called beast turned. They are in two words- killing machines."

"Oh"

"But I am not going to become like them! I am going to become the righteous knight who will protect the weak!" Paw said smugly.

Shengyn thought "This kid really dreams big, becoming a knight in this place for a beast person is not possible. I suppose I should just let him dream."

After jumping from one roof top to another for longer than half an hour, Paw started to sniff the air.

"Big Brother! That scent! It"s the same smell my friend has!"

"Can you track it down from this location?"

"I can try, but the smell is so weak from here, can you go more southward?"

"Southward?"

"To your left, big brother."

"Ok" Shengyn with Paw still on his back now turned to the left and continued to run across the rooftops.

"The smell, it keeps getting stronger, but…"

Paw was looking at the s.p.a.ce where the smell was coming from, but there was nothing there just a wall of a building. It was a tower-like structure, nothing unusual, except for the fact that scent led them here. "It has to be here! The scent was coming from this place, but only there is only a wall here!"

Shengyn however was not as easily tricked. Instead of losing hope at the sight of the wall, he approached it and put his hand on it. His hand immediately became swallowed by a wall, almost as if the wall wasn"t there, and his hand just pa.s.sed through it.

"Simple concealment magic-mirage walls. Nothing to fret over."

"Eh?" Paw looked confusedly.

"Now then, let"s go forward."

Shengyn stepped forward, through the illusion of a wall. Now both he and Paw were falling down to the ground, with a brick pavement waiting for them to be squashed. Paw closed his eyes, waiting for his doom. Waiting for the moment his body would be splattered across the pavement.

That moment never came.

"Kiddo, are you ok?" a voice sounded out.

Paw opened his eyes and saw Shengyn looking down towards him. Paw found himself sitting on the ground. "But how? We were both falling down! How are we here safe?"

"Well, let"s not dwell about that."

Shengyn had to admit; he was surprised and caught off guard. While both he and Paw were falling down, Shengyn had to resort to using his demon eye to teleport both of them safely to the ground.

Good thing Paw was closing his eyes from fear or Shengyn would have been outed as a demon.

"Can you smell your friend from here?"

Shengyn looked around the place and it resembled in many ways a messed up version of prison.

There were empty cells everywhere.

They continued on, some had blood smeared all over them. It seems like this town has some dark secrets of its own.

"I can smell her." Paw was trembling in fear as he saw the chains and blood stains. He clung to Shengyn"s leg while trembling. He looked up at Shengyn and asked. "Big brother, how come you are not scared?"

Shengyn meekly smiled and said "Well, it"s not the first time I am seeing this."

"Really?" Paw asked surprised.

"Really, now where is the scent coming from?"

"Over there, from the doorway over." Paw pointed at the door that was at the side of the room. Shengyn walked forward and entered it.

The inside of the room was similar to the outside, except the cells had occupants. Many kinds of children were chained, each looked beaten and broken.

There were beast people"s kids, human kids, and some unusual children whom Shengyn guessed were children of elementals.

Elemental"s children look like human children at young age except their bodies are made of their native element, at least partially, when they become adults they become able to a.s.sume full elemental form.

In this room, Shengyn could tell there were some fire, crystal, and water elemental"s children. There were some kids who obviously beast people, their inhuman appearance was obvious, some possessed beast-like heads, ears, sometimes appendages like tails and wings.

"Mira!" Paw exclaimed after he saw a little girl with cat ears and a reddish hair. She looked rather bad, some bruises all over her body, one swollen eye, but she was conscious.

"Paw! You are ok!"

"Don"t worry Mira, I am going to get you out of there!" Paw looked around the room. "I will free all of you!"

"Paw, the guards, they will come back any minute, you are not strong enough…" Mira looked up and saw Shengyn standing there, and she exclaimed "Kya! Who is that?"

"Don"t worry, Mira, he came to help me. Big brother, this is Mira, my friend."

Mira nervously muttered "It is very nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Shengyn looked at the chains and shackles; there has to be a key somewhere.

"BEHIND YOU!" Mira screamed. She saw one of the guards sneaking behind Shengyn and try to kill him with an ax, trying to make the ax collide with Shengyn"s skull.

Shengyn however knew that there was someone behind him, so when the guard thought he sneaked up on him and brought down the ax, Shengyn ducked and moved a step to the left, making the ax miss its mark and get stuck to the ground.

The guard, a large man wearing a mask with metal bars, was trying to get his ax out of the ground. Paw moved away from fear, a feeling natural for a child who saw someone so scary, but he didn"t move away far, he couldn"t abandon Mira, never, he would never abandon her. He stood in front of the cell she was trapped in, intending to shield her.

"Oh, how convenient." Shengyn said with a bored tone. The guard"s ax was stuck to the ground, so Shengyn used that moment to draw his sword and plunge it into the guard"s heart. The guard struggled for a second before falling down lifelessly.

"Yep, here are the keys."

Shengyn grabbed the keys on guard"s belt and tossed them to Paw, who along with the other prisoners were staring at Shengyn in shock. "Go ahead and free all of them."

"Right, yes, big brother." Paw said after he recovered his wits after what he just witnessed. The guard, size wise was at least three times thicker in body size than Shengyn, who was comparatively normal sized.

But Shengyn just killed him with one move of a sword. Paw couldn"t help but think that he found an ultimate ally.

"He is amazing!" Mira exclaimed after Paw freed her from her shackles.

"Big Brother is really strong!"

As Paw started to free the children, Shengyn turned around to look at the door the guard came out of. There ought to be more of them there, so Shengyn just opened the door, and let himself in.

"So what was the ruckus in there? Anything unusual…" the lead guard saw that the person who came back wasn"t the guard that left the room but Shengyn. "Who the heck are you, where is the key guard?"

"Meeting his maker while drooling on the floor, I presume." Shengyn replied sarcastically.

"Don"t be so c.o.c.ky! Kill him!" The lead guard commanded the nine guards that were in the same room.

Shengyn closed the door behind him, making sure none would see what he was about to do. Concentrating his mana upon his head, he activated his demon eye. His eye now started to glow white.

"Demon eye! Then you are…" one of the guards didn"t get to finish as Shengyn teleported from his current location next to him in blink of an eye and plunged his sword into the man"s throat.

"d.a.m.n you!" Three guards tried to attack Shengyn while his back was turned. All three slashed at the same time with their swords to where he was standing.

Shengyn simply teleported away above the swords and proceeded to kick one man, breaking his neck, stab one through his face, while landing on top of the third, crushing his skull upon collision with the ground.

"He is just a human! Why are you going easy on him, just kill him!"

In response to their commander"s orders, the remaining guards now were running towards Shengyn, intending to kill him with sheer numbers.

Shengyn simply smiled and proceeded to slaughter every one of the guards, one by one. He used his teleportation to sneak behind the guards and then land a critical blow on their exposed vulnerabilities. Each one of the guards was killed with a pin-point stab to a vital area.

When there was none, but the lead guard left, he tried a desperate attack upon Shengyn with his oversized sword.

To his surprise, however, instead of blocking the sword with his own sword. Shengyn simply caught the sword with his left palm. The sword couldn"t budge an inch; it was stuck in Shengyn"s grip. Surprisingly, the sword didn"t do any damage to the left hand, almost as if it was just a dull metal bat.

No matter how hard lead guard pressed with his sword, Shengyn was able to stay composed and hold the sword back with just one hand.

"Such strength! What the h.e.l.l are you?" The lead guard asked.

"You will not live long enough to find out." Shengyn"s finger crushed the sword into pieces of metal with sheer strength of the grip. The lead guard could only watch in shock as his sword the butcher"s sword was broken so easily.

Then, without wasting time, Shengyn proceeded to grab the lead guard by the neck, and with a swift motion broke the neck of the lead guard. The lead guard"s body fell lifelessly upon the ground.

Shengyn got out of the room. Apparently Paw freed all of the children; all of them were full of fear, rubbing their sore limbs that were previously in chains.

"Big brother, where did you go?" Paw asked.

"Just cleaning up the trash." That was the truth, in one sense of the word.

Mira said in a scared voice. "We must get out of here until the Mistress or the guards come here!"

"How many guards are there in total?" Shengyn asked curiously.

"About ten, not including this one" She pointed at the corpse on the ground.

"Then we have nothing to worry about. All of them are in that room; also, they all will need a funeral soon." Shengyn said casually.

Paw and Mira looked at him in disbelief. They realized that all of the guards were already killed.

"Big brother! That is amazing!"

"Paw, who in the world is he…" Mira whispered. Paw just shrugged as if to say "relax, everything will be ok".

"Now then, let"s get out of this place." Shengyn proceed to lead the kids, who numbered about twenty to thirty of them out of the dungeon-like prison.

The place clearly was designed for torture, as Shengyn could see from the decorations. The decorations included severed limbs and planked heads, not to mention torture devices. It was almost like the place was decorated by someone with very messed up fetish. What followed were long b.l.o.o.d.y rooms with human remains.

After crossing three very scary rooms, kids following Shengyn came to a halt.

In front of them was the mistress of this prison.

"Oh, running away so soon?" She said in a seductive yet s.a.d.i.s.tic tone. Behind her were two of her personal servants. Two extremely powerful knights that obeyed her every whim. Both wore golden amors.

All three of them looked rather normal, at least from Shengyn"s perspective.

It was a lady dressed in rather revealing outfit, with two full-plate armored knights near her. The children however knew better.

That woman, Mistress Auru, was the reason they all were kidnapped here. They didn"t know why she did that, or why she chose to imprison and torture all of them but they knew one thing for sure- that red haired beautiful lady was a monster.

Her face was fair, rather exquisite beauty, but her expression would send chills through any man"s heart, for there was a true enjoyment in inflicting pain upon her victims.

Her attractive looks combined with her rather revealing dress completely contradicted her extreme cruelty she would inflict upon her prisoners. Many of the injuries the kids sustained was because of her-she was the one responsible for their h.e.l.l.

The kids were shuddering in fear. Shengyn chose to act quickly. "Paw, get them out of here!"

"Yes, big brother!" Paw now was leading the group towards the exit from the building.

"Do you really think I will make it so easy to escape?" Mistress Auru gestured to her knights. "Kill them."

Both knights said "With pleasure" and drew their swords. Both jumped towards the children intending to kill any that got caught between them and their blades. Children looked in fear as two scary knights came at them, intending to kill them.

Both of the swords collided with metal sword, stopping them from killing the kids.

Shengyn was standing there, defending two children that were trembling from fear.

"C"mon!" Paw grabbed the two children by their hands, leading them away from the knights.

"Ara, you let them escape. Do you think I will let you get away without paying your debt? I will make sure you pay in full with your life." Mistress Auru said in flirtatious voice.

"I couldn"t care less." Shengyn said while holding two swords with one of his own.

One of the knights thought "Such strength, he is not backing down, even with two swords pointed against him, he is not falling down. Just who is he?"

Shengyn held the sword in one hand, so with the other one he proceeded to punch one of the knights on the stomach while kicking the other one.

The knight that was surprised at the speed at which Shengyn maneuvered around the room. One second he was in front of him, in the next he was out of sight, but then the knight felt a wet sensation trickling down his neck.

It was blood, his blood was spilling out of his neck. It became harder to breath. Knight dropped to his knees, choking by his own blood.

Shengyn just stood behind him with sword stuck through knight"s neck. The armor was tough, so exploiting the weak point of the armor was only natural.

Shengyn had teleported himself behind the knight and used the split second created when knight realized he wasn"t there to attack the weak point of the armor.

"That"s some nice armor you got there, it will protect you from swords, but any armor has a weakness doesn"t it?" Shengyn said casually.

As the first knight was bleeding to death, the second one attacked with his own weapon, a gigantic mace. He missed and ended up splattering his own ally instead.

"You really should watch where you swing that thing. You might hurt yourself." Shengyn said almost comedically.

"Skilled and has sense humor, you seem like my type." The lady Auru said while licking her red, luscious lips. "I can"t wait to fry you up!"

"Now that"s just messed up!" Shengyn jumped and threw bag of powder at his enemy. The powder exploded in midair, creating enough time for Shengyn to hide.

"My, my, my, why don"t you show yourself, we can have a little play." Auru said casually.

"Yeah, not really my style."

"Humph, how frustrating." Auru said enigmatically.

"So, why kidnap those kids? What do you want with them?" Shengyn asked seriously.

"Oh, how serious we are, aren"t you."

She smiled with what looked like a maniac"s grin.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I got no reason for keeping those brats other than mild entertainment. However the people above have requested it, so I have complied. But I can"t say I haven"t enjoyed their little arrangement."

"So it is the Salvation Bringers after all."

"Ara, aren"t you the smart one. So you have figured out our group"s name already! I commend you, you indeed are most impressive."

"Thanks for the compliment."

Shengyn chose his next strategy.

But in order to do that he would have to use splitting.

Shengyn concentrated energy within his body and proceeded to divide himself into two.

That was his power, the ability of the Tiger spiritual form, to split into two. But that strategy has one huge flaw, each half only has half of the original"s power.

First half will have to join the fray of the fight, while the second half would look for a good opportunity to counter attack. This way, by using factor of surprise, Shengyn would be able to win the fight.

First Shengyn came out from hiding and proceeded to attack.

He however was met by the knight who blocked his sword thrust with his ax.

"Now you are finished!" Auru proclaimed and proceeded to unleash her magical power. Lightning streams shot out of her fingers, each like an arrow that was aimed at first Shengyn.

First Shengyn dodged the first lightning arrow, narrowly missed the second, and deflected the third one at the cost of his sword that got knocked out of his grip, but the fourth and fifth landed directly upon his body, electrocuting him in the process.

Auru came forward and stepped on First Shengyn"s unconscious body. Her leg wearing a slipper could be felt upon his skin, but he couldn"t move.

"Your arrogance cost you the fight, who do you think you are fighting? I am the Auru Ariola, the Lightning Arrow! Do you think you can best me? My skills are second only to Divine Lords! I have transcended humanity!" She proceeded to kick first Shengyn his stomach, while he couldn"t even move.

"Now then, I will finish it slowly…" She took out her knife, wanting nothing more than to torture her victim to death. "You have failed." She whispered in his ear.

Then a slash of a sword, followed by the only remaining knight"s head flying away, while the blood streamed from his beheaded body.

"On contraire, it is you who has failed." Second Shengyn said from behind Auru, with his sword now plunged through her bosom from behind.

"But how, you are right here!" She said hysterically while looking at the man behind her who looked exactly like the man she was stepping on top of.

"Simple division, nothing special, for me at least." Shengyn said casually. As he neared it, the first body got absorbed into the second one, now remerging to become the original.

"Just who the h.e.l.l are you?" Blood spilling from her mouth, she desperately screamed out.

"You know your evaluation was spot on, you really are nothing compared to a Divine Lord." Shengyn calmly reflected.

"No way! You are…"

"Death Hand, of the Divine Lords, very nice to meet you." Shengyn said while plunging the sword further and further.

Then with blood spilling from her mouth, she collapsed on the ground, bleeding out in the process.

"Well, now that"s over with." Shengyn said casually after cleaning the blood off of his sword.

With a stride of a gentleman he proceeded to conjure a flame on his fingertip and let it spread inside the room. Now the corpses would be completely roasted.

Then, Shengyn proceeded to exit the building.

As Paw and the kids exited the building, all of them waited outside of it, waiting for the strange "Big brother to come out."

Come out he did, followed by the building he exited from exploding in flames.

"Big brother!"

Paw run up to Shengyn and hugged his waist.

Likewise, the other kids had happy expressions on their faces as well. They now were free, free to go back to their lives, their families, with the h.e.l.l they were in erased by the all-consuming flames.

"That scary woman, what happened to her? Will she come after us?" one of the cat-like children asked.

"Do not worry, she will not come after you ever again. I promise you that." Shengyn said while patting her head affectionately.

"Big brother, let"s go home now!" Paw pointed towards the town"s buildings. The other kids exclaimed "YEAH!"

It was rather loud ruckus.

Many families who have lost their children have been leading lives full of despair, but now their children were coming back.

The parents inside the houses couldn"t believe their eyes when the children started coming back in large group at night, while shouting out loud for their parent"s names.

It was a scene of many happy reunions, as sons and daughters of various families came back to them.

Each one embracing their own children, who were previously taken away from them. Now like a miracle, their children have come back.

The town suffered a lot from the kidnappings, even the city lord"s daughter was among the kidnapped.

When she returned to him, he couldn"t help but cry river of tears. He had to know who was responsible.

The city lord was a tall man with a scar running on his forehead, and noticeably missing left forearm.

When his child was kidnapped, he did all he could to find her, but he was helpless. He wasn"t a magic user, but a sword wielder, and with one arm he was just completely useless.

Likewise, the townspeople were helpless as well, and every time someone went to look for children, his or her corpse would show up next day, completely mutilated and tortured. Now this miracle has happened.

"Mira, my daughter, you are ok!"

Also, the city lord"s daughter was a beast person, due to her mother"s lineage of course. He felt a sense of relief washing over him as he held his daughter in his embrace.

Deep feeling of grat.i.tude was filling his moved heart as he cried out tears of joy. This truly was a day of miracles and he had to know who brought it.

After tearfully reuniting with his daughter, city lord asked her who rescued her.

"It was Paw and a person he calls "Big brother""

"I see." Previously, when city lord met Paw, he gave him a rather cold treatment, thinking he was a bad influence for his daughter.

That orphan was not suitable to be anywhere near his daughter. But two days ago after his daughter disappeared, he prayed that if anybody would give her back to him he would pay any price, even his soul.

"I see, didn"t you friend say he wanted to become a knight?"

"Yeah, he did, he dreams about being a knight all the time!" Mira exclaimed.

"Then why don"t I help the young man realize his dream!"

City lord"s grat.i.tude towards the young wolf beast man was boundless, for him he would make an exception and allow him to become an apprentice to a master knight, so that eventually he can be knight himself.

When that happens, city lord will a.s.sign him to guard his daughter. His action today has proved his worth in city lord"s eyes.

Meanwhile, Shengyn was leaving the city, walking away from the scene of the parents hugging their children.

"Big brother, wait!"

Shengyn turned around and saw Paw chasing him. Paw stopped when he finally caught up to Shengyn.

"Why don"t you join the celebration over there? You are a hero now, kiddo!" Shengyn tried to make an excuse to get away fast.

"Big brother! Both of us know that is not true! The real hero is you!" Paw exclaimed while tears were streaming from his eyes.

Shengyn was surprised to see Paw cry, he seemed to have a tough att.i.tude for a kid his age.

"I tried everything I could, to find my friend. But no matter what I did, no matter who I asked for help, everyone ignored me and threw me away, not even caring about the kidnappings."

Paw said while the tears were rolling down on his face.

"But then, Big brother, you showed up, and then you helped me, helped me like none else would! You have my eternal grat.i.tude!" Paw bowed his head down in respect.

"Hehe, hahaha" Shengyn moved close to Paw and patted him on the head. "It"s not a big deal, don"t worry about it."

"Not a bid deal! You saved everyone!"

"I couldn"t have done it without your help kiddo, that is the truth."

Paw looked up at Shengyn and saw a hero before his very own eyes.

"Big brother, you are a true knight, aren"t you?"

Shengyn was rather baffled how to answer that. "I am not going to say I am one of the Divine Lords, that would be a disaster. Not to mention I am most wanted here." So he shrugged and said "Ehm, Sort of?"

"I knew it! The true knights really are most n.o.ble and come during time of need, and they truly are most generous of all!" Paw said while looking at Shengyn with a gaze filled with admiration.

"I see." Shengyn thought "So he idolizes knights, huh, then this would be an appropriate present."

"Paw, I would like you to take this." Shengyn took the sword with a scabbard and pa.s.sed it to Paw, who was looking at it with eyes filled with disbelief.

"It is a blade that has vanquished your enemies, I would like you to take this blade and become a knight worthy to wield it."

"Big brother! But it"s your sword! Someone like me can"t possibly…"

"I insist. It is a matter of one man entrusting another to achieve his dreams, so don"t take it in slight." Shengyn said seriously.

"Really?"

"Indeed." Paw now took the sword from Shengyn"s arms. "Become a true knight who protects the weak. And never stray from your path."

"Yes!" Paw said pa.s.sionately.

"Hmph." Shengyn playfully smirked and proceeded to walk out of the city.

Left with a sword to remember his hero by, Paw swore that day to become a knight worthy to wield such a sword.

While he kept walking, Shengyn thought "I suppose leaving him with the sword was a good idea, I can just steal another one from the next opponent I find."

Then he reflected.

"Still, my ident.i.ty was almost outed, that came little too close. I am glad the kid thought I was a knight though, gave me a perfect excuse to play along with."

Unbeknownst to Shengyn, due to his actions he has created a path in the future for knight named Razor Paw, one of the most n.o.ble knights in the kingdom.

In the future, Razor Paw always remembered the example set by his hero, the nameless man he admired so much, in order to become a knight truly worthy of the hero"s sword.

In a sense, Shengyn unwittingly created one of the future"s most n.o.ble and kind knights of the kingdom in the process.

Kind of odd considering he is Death Hand, most wanted man in the kingdom.