The general was completely shocked after feeling his arm being grabbed. By reflex, he tried to retreat but the power behind my arm was much greater than what he thought.
“You bastard… At least tell me what the f*** you meant by Warlord… For this, you’re coming with me. Bururiba!” → Shen
“…You’re a damn monster.” → Bururiba
Bururiba answered back with a dark face after seeing me get up with a sword impaled in my heart. He then took out a horn and blew in it with all his power.
-WONG~!-
Right after the horn was blown, the entire ship started to move again. The cannons loaded and pointed right at the soldiers that surrounded and struck at us. Meanwhile, more elites fell one after the other from atop the decks, landing right in between them and killing around like unchained hungry beasts. Because of some tips and tricks, I thought them on our way back, the pirates were able to fight with double or even triple the might of a normal elite unit.
“Soldiers, group up- Guh!” → Daniel
The wildcat Daniel tried to take command but he got knocked out by Bururiba with an energy bullet.
“Daniel! Retreat! Everyone re-!”
“Do you have the time to look elsewhere?” → Tian
“Gah!”
Tian appeared right behind her and with the reversed part from the blade, he struck hard behind her head, rending her unconscious.
Half my body was in the Draconic Materialization form. Because my power-rank was not even of Grandmaster, my body was cracking here and there. However, because I already had an immortal body, all the cracks healed back up. Even so, the healing process was quite slow.
This is because my mental power is still low… I need more rest, damn. → Shen
“You… What are you?” → David
The general asked while feeling fear for the first time in a while.
Without giving an answer, I head-butted the general with all I had after materializing some scales on my forehead. While doing so, I made sure to send inside his head my mind-waves, making him fall asleep instantly. After making the general fall with a thud, I got back up on my two legs and breathed heavily while looking at him with unfocused eyes. My chest was still bleeding profoundly, together with my entire cracked body. I took out the sword inside my chest then looked at my own scaled hands as I shook my head with a frown.
What I am?… Man, I’m starting to ask myself now… It seems I got too much free time on my hands if I’m thinking about such useless stuff. → Shen
Even though normally I wouldn’t care about how others viewed me, this time I felt extremely perplexed. His shocked, almost terrified eyes, together with the words what are you, affected me more than It should.
I feel the same as when I was a child… Is this the effect of the devil? Or from tiredness? Either way, I need to remain strong. → Shen
I shook my head and looked around me at the panicked soldiers. Without a command, they were easy prey against the elite pirates and the rain of cannon-balls. I focused all the primordial energy in my feet and stepped hard.
-BOOM!-
A shockwave strong enough to shake the battlefield together with a shout imbued with Power Words, made everyone stop on their tracks.
“Everyone stop!” → Shen
The one who shouted was me after using the voice of a raging dragon. Then I turned my voice back to normal but still left the Neck Chakra activated.
“Your superiors are down. If you wish for them to stay alive, then you better give up now and surrender. The less blood we spill, the better for everyone here.” → Shen
My voice was calm but it resounded through the entire battlefield.
When they heard my words, the pirates rejoiced loudly, while the soldiers fell on their knees. Some refused to surrender, engaging into a useless struggle to fight, ending up killed by the pirates.
After everything calmed down, more than 2,200 soldiers surrendered, turning them into prisoners. Making sure they won’t escape, we placed anti-magic handcuffs on them, locking their cultivation and mana.
“There are too many, what should we do?”
“Huh? Just kill them-“
-POW-
“Ouch!… For now, just lock them up and keep a tight watch on them. If they try anything funny, kill them.”
Hearing what he wanted to say, I smashed his head hard with a simple wooden staff I found inside my inventory. After seeing my harsh gaze, he rethought his words and came up with something more reasonable.
“…If my people die again just because you try to have more survivors, I’ll be sure to make you pay.” → Bururiba
Bururiba said with a pouting face.
“I’ll deal with the ones who try anything funny.” → Ashura
Ashura said while going with the prisoners.
“Shen. What you did was incredibly harsh. What would Miss Sylvia think of your actions?” → Jian
Jian walked my way while shaking his head with an irritated expression on.
“…I think she would’ve slapped the lights out of me. But this was the best way to catch them low-guard. I mean, who would believe that an immortal is the leader of a flying war-ship?” → Shen
“…I still have hard times on believing that you’re immortal now.” → Tian
“It’s okay… But, do you know anything about this Warlord thing? He also said something about a rebellion leader.” → Shen
“Warlord?!” → Jian
Jian looked at me with shock in his eyes. He then glanced around and got closer while asking seriously.
“Sire Shen. Are you sure you heard Warlord?” → Jian
I was a little bit perplexed by his serious eyes then also lowered my voice and affirmed. Jian then felt his temples throb and continued.
“This is a more serious conversation we’ll have to talk another time. For now, let’s please clean up here. We can leave some prisoners here together with a part of the elites while we take the ones with handcuffs. Like this, the upcoming war-ships will be able to take them later.” → Jian
“…Understood. Bururiba, I’m counting on you.” → Shen
“Aye! Everyone! Rise the ship!” → Bururiba
“AYE~!”
A group of 1000 unarmed prisoners remained in camps on an empty field, together with 30 elite pirates armed to teeth. Even if they tried to gang up against the 30 pirates, they would only end up like a piece of meat in a slicing machine. Not one of them would remain standing after one hour would’ve passed. After everything else, our ship departed and only at down have we arrived. Through the thick mist, we lowered the ship and we were able to see a fortified city a few hundred meters below us. However, what welcomed us was only another battlefield.
“W-what is this…?”
Pirates which never saw a wave of demonic beasts before, looked with terror at the wild and terrifying monsters which struck the bloody and spiky walls of a huge fortress, giving their lives away for the ones behind them without a second thought.
-ROAR!-
Loud and terrifying growls resounded all over the place.
“O-oy. What is this? There are, I think, around 5000 demonic beasts of at least E rank? While the strongest is of A rank! It’s crazy! What force can fight against such a calamity?!” → Bururiba
Bururiba shouted at me while looking with terror at the blood-thirsty beasts which shattered the ground under every step.
“He’s right. I saw waves of demonic beasts before, but none so large.” → Jian
Jian looked with a dark face at the sight before him, clenching the handle of his sword nervously.
“Heh.”
Hearing them overestimate the little wave made me unable to hold a laugh. I gazed at the sights with unfazed and rather amused eyes, making Bururiba and Jian feel like something was amiss.
“You say this wave is at a calamity-class?” → Shen
-CRACK!-
A sudden thunder-strike hit the middle of the wave, killing beasts in an area of 5 m around, together with another five Wind Cutting Ravens; a wind-type demonic beast which sharp claws and wings, being able to create wind-blades. The beast was of rank E but it was quick enough to give a hard time even to a C ranked warrior.
In another place, a huge fire geyser exploded in the distance, killing more beasts around while splashing molded earth and fire everywhere.
A black tornado suddenly formed and was sent right through the wave, cutting to pieces every beast of rank D or lower, while the higher ones ending up with severe injuries as they were either sent flying or slashed by the wind-blades.
A huge wave of earth-spikes shot up from the ground, piercing the iron-like fur of the beasts with rank C or lower in an area of a few dozens of m in front. Even the tougher monsters weren’t spared, being sent flying in the sky by the rising huge spears then crashing on the ground with huge boulders burying them right after.
A huge fire-pillar appeared at the front of the wave right in the middle where the strongest monsters tried to ram the gates, burning all and everything which stood in its way.
One hundred warriors stood in front atop the walls with their swords out. All of them took a samurai-like stance and cut horizontally in front at the same time. They created a huge and long Sword-Wave, combining and cleaning everything in its way, cutting through all the beasts which were too slow to either dodge or block, the ones bellow rank D ending to be slashed in two or have their limbs cut with no chance of evading the strike.
“Look well at this so-called calamity-class wave of yours, for it will get whipped in just a matter of time.” → Shen
I got closer to the edge of the platform, right beside the front-cannon.
“You guys better don’t forget, that this is only the tip of the iceberg me and Ryu will create in the future. Bururiba, load the cannons. Is time for a massacre.” → Shen
My aura leaked while I said with pride and authority. Afterward, my eyes shone with a brownish-green light and shouted out while imbuing power in my words.
At the same time, the cannons struck the ground, creating huge craters and spider-web cracks. All over the place, beast remains dropped from the sky together with blood and gore.
More and more cannons struck at the beasts, killing everything under the flying ship, appearing like a weapon of mass destruction.
Atop the Southern walls, Gregor looked upwards at the huge flying ship which suddenly appeared through the thick clouds, his face baffled. After hearing my voice, he shouted from atop his lungs:
“REINFORCEMENTS! Everyone! Resist a while longer!” → Gregor
“HOAAAH~!”
The other warriors’ spirit rose sky-high and fought with even more fervor. While the pirate’s flying-ship together with the elite fighters decimated the back-lines of the wave, the Antara warriors sandwiched the beasts from the front, cutting at the demonic beasts’ numbers until nothing remained.
“Go! Get down there and fight with all ye have! I don’t feed ya’ll dogs just to laze around!” → Bururiba
Bururiba entered his captain-mode and commanded around while shooting with his gun or ice bazooka at the demons, trying to kill at least three or four in one shot.
“Let’s go! Don’t let the Antara warriors outshine us!” → Tian
Tian Jian jumped from atop the ship with another twenty pirates and warriors from his group, fighting the monsters in tandem with the cannon shots.
“… Quite the entrance, master.” → Bonny
While creating a huge burning fireball, then making it go crash on the large demonic army, Bonny looked at the one young man who stood tall atop the decks, which of course, it was me. She felt relieved that reinforcements finally arrived and had her spirit suddenly risen.
Eh? W-what? → Bonny
Every Antara resident felt their spirits grow to almost the same heights to when they fought against the Thanatos’ Army. Bonny looked with her [Soul Eyes] and observed how the entire fortress was actually shining with a golden-violet shine. The shine covered every resident that was part of the Antara Kingdom, strengthening their auras and making their spirits reach levels sky-high.
“What is this?” → Bonny
She looked confused then again at me. On my face, she observed a sudden smirk form while starring downward.
He knows. → Bonny
Her eyes shone with an understanding glint, then a little excited grin appeared on her face. She stopped thinking about the details and activated even more high-ranked spells.
“You all should just go to Hell!” → Bonny
A sea of fire appeared in the sky and dropped right atop the entire wave, setting aflame the demonic beasts, making their shrieks and roars to resound even on the Northern side of the wall. Her might was more and more ridiculous after every wave, and every resident was aware of her fast growth.
“So Lord Shen is here. Good…” → Bernard
Bernard and the other warriors were already at their limits. After the war against Thanatos, then the rebuilding of the Kingdom, everyone was beyond exhausted, with their mana or chi depleted. Even though it looked like the Antara had the upper hand in this fight, they only tried to use more tactics with the lowest energy exhaustion, using the might of their walls to the maximum but without letting them break down.
However, Tara together with Bonny had enough energy to go on fighting for a couple more hours, killing more beasts than the warriors placed together. We fought and massacred the wave in about two hours when everyone exhaled relieved.
“Uuuuugh~… We finally finished. How come we had to fight in two war-like battles on the same day? I was right. Only troubles will appear by hanging around with you.” → Bururiba
Bururiba pointed at my nose with an annoyed expression. I looked at him plainly then smiled lightly.
“That’s right and I’m sorry for that. But hey, you only have to resist this suffering for only 55 years more. Nothing to cry over, right? As a saint, this much is nothing.” → Shen
“…You must really find it funny.” → Bururiba
“Indeed. Now stop crying and command your people to lower the ship. We’ll have to help with transporting the bodies and bringing in the prisoners. Also, we’ll have to repair the broken walls ourselves-“ → Shen
But just as I was about to finish my sentence, a thundering sound resounded from above and a cry of a harpy made my ears hurt.
“What the?!”
Both me and Bururiba looked upwards and saw a harpy falling with one wing on fire.
“O-oy who’s that-“ → Bururiba
Before Bururiba could finish his words, I took out two wind-stones and shot out with full speed, going past the sonic barrier. I caught the harpy right before she hit the ground and tried to heal her with [Healing Palms].
“M-my lord?”
The harpy opened her eyes and looked with wide eyes at me. It seems I was already quite the big shot here.
“Leave the formalities and report what happened.” → Shen
I firmly asked with a serious face while I was healing her.
“Y-yes… It seems that…”
She reported to me everything and I understood immediately what happened.
So they’re just some damn brats… Sigh~ This will prove to be more troublesome than I thought. → Shen
Then I focused on my connection with any nearby golems, to find out that only two remained. I focused on them then gave out commands.
Ken, Isa, you two go and welcome them. If you’re attacked then welcome them just as they welcomed you. Show no mercy. → Shen
Both of their voices resounded in my head and afterward, I saw two pillars of light shot out from inside the middle tower. I stared at them for a moment then my jaw dropped.
W-what the hell happened to them? They look horrible! → Shen
I felt like crying. Both of their armors were completely broken, now looking even more terrifying than before.
“…My lord…? Is there… something wrong?”
The harpy felt the agitation in my aura and asked a little bit confused.
“For what are you worrying about someone else now? Just stay put and focus on healing up!” → Shen
“Y-yes!”
I reprimanded her after thinking about how I should repair the two golems, while at the same time thinking about making some more.
She nervously waited until I finished healing her, not daring to say another word while staying still in my arms.
She’s a mage-type warrior? That explains why she was able to feel my feelings. But really, this is no time to be thinking about the others. → Shen
I felt somewhat annoyed for some reasons but I simply exhaled lightly. I continued to heal her up until her wing was no longer in pain.
After I finished, just as I was ordering her to send a message to everyone for a standby, another explosion was heard in the distance.
[[We ask permission for Elemental Breath]]
Both golems sent the same message at the same time and I felt my temples throb.
Permission granted. → Shen
“My lord. What should I do?”
The harpy asked again agitated. She saw smoke rising in the distance and felt like another major fight will soon start again.
“Just follow the order. The message is the same. Everyone, the group I just came with included, is too tired and unable to fight. No one must move a muscle from the Southern wall and the ones from the North shall go to South. Also, if Ryu tries to send any people my way tell him I’ll just send them back. He better not try anything funny or I’ll ask him about my golems.” → Shen
I said while my eyes sharpened at the thoughts of how my golems looked like.
“Yes, milord.”
The harpy bowed her head then took flight toward the middle tower.
[[[POV CHANGES TO THE PRESENT TIME]]]
Now back to present when the fire already spread to the entire northern district. A lot of non-combatant residents still resided in these parts, not fast enough to evacuate the zone. I already rescued most of them and tried to go after the heroes, but every time they simply shot out in another direction while leaving behind more victims, giving me even more work to do.
Don’t snap, don’t snap. I know you’re tired of all this s*** by now and simply wish to sleep. But it’s not worth to snap then turn the dumb-as-f*** heroes into meat-paste and fail that stupid-as-f*** test for the twenty-something time… Think of how useful they might be once you get them by the little finger! → Shen
I tried to calm myself by thinking more about the benefits and weighing my actions when I suddenly heard a loud cry of a young little girl in the distance.
Just give me a break already! → Shen
I groaned then shot out in the respective direction, feeling how my irritation would hit a boiling-point if I wouldn’t take a break already.
“Woaaaahh! Mama~! Guh!”
“God f****** damn! Shut your mouth, stupid brat! Should I just kill you now? Huh?!” → Stefano
The dragoon named Stefano was grabbing a pig-girl not even 10 years old, rising her in the air by the arm because Stefano couldn’t control his powers all that well yet, his punch made her internals bleed.
“M-mama… uugh~…”
The girl was barely able to talk anymore. Her stomach was in excruciating pain but because she was held in such a way, she couldn’t even crouch to relieve some suffering, all she could do was to sob in hushed hiccups.
“What is that ugly thing, Stefano?” → Cecilia
The blonde heroine Cecilia approached and after seeing the nose of a big she looked with more disgust at the little girl.
“Dunno. Just got curious about what other species there are around here. Before this one, I saw an old man who had nine whitetails! That was actually pretty cool.” → Stefano
“Hm~ so there are more than just demons here.” → Cecilia
“Demons?!” → Stefano
“Yes. Take a look.” → Cecilia
Cecilia handed over to Stefano a bloody dark horn.
“Hm? From where is this?” → Stefano
“From that brat over there.” → Cecilia
She pointed at a young boy of not even 12 years old on the ground. The boy was panting heavily while blood was flowing from his swollen face. His head was bleeding from the place where his horn was torn apart. His eyes shone with the fire for revenge while his body trembled not only from pain but also from hate.
“Huh? You dare glare at me with your dirty demonic eyes?” → Cecilia
Cecilia got closer and pointed her sharp blade at him.
“Y-you monsters! For what reasons are you attacking us?! Aren’t the demonic waves enough?! Why… just why are you doing this?!”
The boy shouted in rage and frustration. He trembled from fright but the rage he felt wasn’t subdued so easily.
“Why? Because you are demons, while we’re humans.” → Cecilia
“Wha-?”
“What? You mean to say that you, a demon, wouldn’t have killed humans if not for the difference in power?”
“No!”
“Lies.”
Cecilia contradicted the young boy in a cold tone then raised her thin blade in the air. Right when she wanted to lash downward to split the head of the demon child, something stopped the blade on track.
“Guh?!”
Just as she turned around, a strong fist in the face sent her flying for more than 20 meters through more houses.
“?!”
The young boy looked upwards with a shocked face and saw a somewhat familiar silhouette with a wild grin but worried eyes on.
Well s***. There goes my self-control now. → Shen
A wide smile appeared on my face after feeling my scaled fist connect with flesh.
“M-my lord…!”
He gulped from emotion and wanted to get up. But my firm voice told him otherwise.
“Standby, warrior.” → Shen
“… Y-yes!”
He felt extremely elated to be called a warrior, especially by one of the lords. He looked down but when he wanted to tell me something, he saw me nowhere to be seen.
“Cecilia! You! Who are-“ → Stefano
Stefano wanted to throw the little girl away and take out his great sword but at that moment I appeared right in front of him. Before he could slash out from reflex, I grabbed both his wrists and broke them without even thinking.
