Chapter 92: They fu*king did it (1/2)

”And here is your reason why I never considered you a good material for my group,” said Layn while calmly observing the approaching group. For anyone else in his shoes, seeing a group of nearly twenty men rushing at him with their weapons brandished would quickly force them to either escape or seek help.

But Layn was a damned archmage.

'I survived on the greatest battlefield humanity will see in the next tens of thousands of years if not millions of years. And you expect me to get scared by you?' ridiculing the attackers in his thoughts, Layn simply waved his hand.

The air turned stale.

”DIE!” shouted the same man who tried to coerce Layn into paying up before. His sword made an arc above his head before striking down at Layn's right shoulder. Yet, the archmage did nothing to stop it.

”What?!” muttered the same man. His sword was stuck in the air, barely an inch away from Layn's face.

”What an idiot,” said Layn while shaking his head in pity. Then, without any regard for mercy, he swatted his hand through the attacker's face.

BOOM!

Both the air and Layn's hand were infused with a copious amount of his mana. Due to the man letting go of the sword and attempting to dodge, Layn only managed to brush the attacker's face with his fingertips. But for the basic battle reinforcement spell, that was more than enough.

CRASH!

After flying past his confused teammates, the man crashed heavily into the ground. From what Layn could see, the power of his lazy attack was still enough to cause the cracks in the stone road where the body of the attacker fell.

”Anyone else wants a beating?” asked Layn while raising his head high and squinting his eyes. There was no hint of worry or anxiety in his eyes. Even though he was still facing nearly the entire group that attempted to lash at him just a moment earlier.

”I want no trouble…” said one of the men while putting down their weapon.

”What are you waiting for, boys! He is just a single…” another man attempted to encourage others, only to be swatted to the ground by Irea's hand.

”Who said that he is alone?” asked Irea while retracting her hand. While her attack was clearly several times weaker than Layn's, it wasn't weak by any means.

At that point, even the bravest of the failed recruits understood their situation. After lowering their weapons, they quickly dispersed and diffused into nearby alleys in an attempt to escape justice for what they attempted to do.

”Now then, are you going to stop pretending now or should we forget about the mission?” asked Layn while lowering his head over the motionless body on the ground once again.

”I… I'm awake!” stuttering, the man answered. From the terror on his face, it was clear how terrified he was, unable to even come up with a proper way to respond to being called out like that.

”Then, what's your choice? Do you still want to have a shot at earning this stone?” asked Layn while allowing his lips to turn into a gentle smile. What's more, he even reached with his hand down, with a clear intention of helping the man to stand up.

”Thanks,” said the man while accepting Layn's hand. Once back on his feet, he looked at the two bodies still on the ground, one of which wasn't there when the entire rouse was devised. ”Also, I didn't take part in what they planned. That's the reason why I turned the way you saw me. I'm sorry for not being able to help or even warn you.” The young man looked to the side while his face turned beet red. ”Not like you needed any help or warnings in the first place, though.”

The young man rubbed his cheek with an uneasy expression plastered all over his face.

”Well, this situation was more or less what I expected. In this shit of a town, how could people react in a different way when blinded by such wealth?” asked Layn while shaking his head. ”With that said, here,” he said while pulling out one of the spirit stones from his pocket and throwing it the young man's way. ”Consider this the advance payment I spoke off before. Now, what's your name?”

”It's Pavrien. You can call me Pav… sir,” the young man introduced himself, raising his eyes to Layn's face only to avert them the very next moment.