Chapter 137: Four words, four lives
"What the actual f.u.c.k…"
Racing towards the battlefield, I couldn"t really wrap my head around what was going on. Where did the Sarate people came from? Were they the ones that caused the current situation? How come they were fighting side by side with people under me?
Even though the last question that appeared in my mind had quite an obvious answer, I refused to acknowledge it. Be it my grudge towards Martha and the family behind her or my natural disposition not to trust anyone, I had a hard time accepting the reality in front of my eyes.
"We need someone on the right flank!"
"Help! I need help!"
"Someone, pull the wounded away!"
As I stepped into the battlefield, the true scale of the battle finally dawned upon me. With only about twenty men in total on the side of the humans, the attacking monsters had an insane advantage of numbers.
While it was just a rough estimate born from a single glance, it seemed that every human on the field had to best at least twenty to thirty enemies in order for us to win the fight!
"Your excellency? What are you…"
One of my men noticed me, but he was unable to even finish his words. With his sentence broken due to the attack of the claws of some kind of wolf-like beast, his attention returned to where it should be right at this moment.
"Hold them off! I will take care of the back row!"
A single glance was all I needed. From the fluctuations of the mana in the air, I could finally pinpoint the location of the perpetrator that almost managed to slay my bodyguard, my car and myself with that strange shockwave spell before.
Running towards the frontline, I reached for a pebble on the ground. Bringing up the image of that ugly and vomit-inducing bug that Ayda forced me to hold in hand for a long time, I stopped my run before throwing the pebble towards that magic monster.
Infused with my repulsion and propelled by the momentum I gathered during my short run, this simple pebble turned into no less than a bullet. With the sight of the head of the goblin-like monster exploding, the weird fluctuations of the mana finally stopped. At the same time, the strength of the rest of the monsters seemed to plummet, allowing both my bodyguards and the Sarate soldiers to make the short work of them.
"What the h.e.l.l was that?"
Not even shouting, I simply posed the question. Yet, no one volunteered to answer. In such a situation, rather than waiting for someone to find the civil courage and fulfil my request for information, I approached the nearest man and repeated the question.
"What the h.e.l.l was that?"
Not even bothering to change the tone or the word of my question, I looked at the man wearing the Sarate"s family emblem on his shoulder. Confused as to why I was asking him rather than one of my men, he was too stunned to answer.
"Useless."
Walking past the mute man, I approached another one. Even though I wasn"t even looking at who I was approaching, for some rotten luck, it was yet another soldier of the enemy faction.
"What the h.e.l.l was that?"
Already used to my quirky behaviour and expecting this question, the man only looked down on me before shaking his head and turning it around.
"I"m under no obligation to answer any que…"
Before he could even finish refuting, I sent a gentle slap to his face. A slap that was gentle, but once again, filled with repulsion. Once my palm made contact with the skin of the soldier, his entire body flew away as if someone detonated a grenade right at his face.
"What the h.e.l.l was that?"
The next person I approached turned out to be one of the soldiers of mine.
"Sir, we were camping like usual when those monsters just appeared. They came from the direction of the dungeon. We have yet to search about the party that was guiding the entrance. Those guys," Pointing his hand in the general direction of the rest of the humans in the area, this soldier of mine clearly had the Sarate soldiers on mind, "appeared right when I realised that not only those monsters were stronger than before, but also…"
Taking a moment to cast a glance at my face, the soldier had to be disappointed with the effects of his slight scouting as my face remained as expressionless as it was ever since the fighting concluded.
"They appeared right as I realised that we had no chance against this swarm of monsters. That"s all that I managed to notice, your excellency."
While it was clear that answering a simple question like that posed a real challenge for the man due to the injuries he sustained during the fighting, it was of utmost importance for me to gather the reports.
"Anyone wants to add anything, or should I draw conclusions from just this report alone?"
Posing another question of mine for everyone to hear, I waited for a moment. As expected, no voice appeared. Outside of the tones of the nature that returned to the area once the fighting was over, only the whining and moans of the injures could be heard.
"Good. Men, apprehend those traitors of humanity."
Unwilling to be bothered with what was the truth behind the appearance of the Sarates, I decided to go all in.
"Yes, sir!"
In this one, short moment, two things became clear. Sarate affiliated soldiers hesitated. Contrary, people rented for my use by Jeff, did not.
To give justice to those people, there weren"t weak. Just by observing how swiftly they were capable of taking down the monsters in the fight a moment ago, I could tell that at least half of their group already reached the second level of cultivation. In fact, their leader was even stronger, making me wonder whether he was already on the third level or if he managed to achieve greater heights within the second stage of cultivation.
But it all mattered not. With the advantage of the first move, in just a few moments, most of the Sarate soldiers were subdued, leaving only the five of them.
"What the h.e.l.l is the meaning of this? Can"t you see…"
It was pretty obvious what kind of reaction those who managed to avoid the hands of my people would have. After helping my people to subdue the attacking monsters, instead of grat.i.tude, they received enmity. But in the position I was in, that was the only course of action that could lead to anything productive.
"You guys appeared right as my people started to crumble. First off, how come you are on my lands? That"s trespa.s.sing. Secondly, if you somehow found yourself in this area by accident, why did you wait so long to join the fight? That"s a refusal to help a person in need, also an act considered to be criminal. And thirdly…"
Taking a short break with my words, I approached the man that dared to speak up.
"I gave you a f.u.c.king chance to speak before. For every word that you or any of your soldiers will speak from now on, one of your men will die."
There was no time for me to act gently with those people. While I could guess the actual answers to all the problems that I stated, those answers were born out of the naive part of me, dreaming of a world where people actually helped each other out.
And as a head of the entire faction, even if only on paper, I couldn"t allow those naive guesses to make the better of my judgement.
"..."
Seeing that the leader of the group remained silent after my words I glanced at him for a moment before moving to the nearest subdued soldier of his.
"Go to sleep."
Placing my hand on the side of his head, I used a quick pulse of repulsion to knock him unconscious before moving to the next one. When five of my soldiers were freed from the duty of pacifying those people, I pointed my hand at the remaining five members of the Sarate troop.
"Bind them."
Level one and level two cultivators my a.s.s. From what I saw during the battle, while the abilities of the cultivators were far greater than anything that a normal human could achieve, they were still dwarfed by my capabilities. As such, I was free to do anything I wanted with them, as my power alone was more than enough to subdue the rest of the group.
"You are seeking death!"
Shouting those words, the leader of the Sarates shook one of my men who attempted to approach him, before leaping towards me.
"Four words, four lives."
Not even bothering to slap the man out of existence, I simply released my repulsion for a moment, creating a spherical force that pushed against anything near me.
"You…"
Suddenly faced with a wall created by my witchcraft, the leader of the Sarate soldiers only managed to utter a single word before my spell won against his resistance, smashing the middle-aged man against a nearby tree.
"Men, kill the rest of them… Or nevermind."
Stepping several steps forward, I looked down at the remaining four of the unbound Sarate soldiers.
"I will do it myself."
Letting go of my restraints, I momentarily released all the hate and wrath that was boiling deep underneath my skin. Dropping all the facades, I unleashed the most lethal of my witchcraft, once again breaking the taboo.
But instead of going for the remaining soldiers, waved my hand up, sending the leader of the enemy faction flying.
"Knock them down and bring them away."
Uttering this order in a silent voice, I waited for a moment before jumping forward.
For now, I had to make sure to keep the leader of the group busy, so that he wouldn"t be able to see my people fulfilling my orders!"