Chapter 8 You Seem Familiar (1/2)
BAM!
A thunderous explosion erupted, along with Joshua's deafening roar. The unleashing of his powers were just the beginning.
Joshua's Kai create a powerful blast that rippled through the air, distorting the surrounding air powerfully. He was far from done. More and more semi-circular sword blasts were sent out like a machine gun. The powerful blast of his sword attack shattered all the nearby windows. His leaking deep crimson-colored Combat Aura was mixed with the snow. With that, he had managed to destroy the enemies' formation.
The soldiers that came in a large group, wielding spears and sword were all blasted away. The sound of the bones cracking was clear and crisp, and that was extremely terrifying. Those people were thrown back to their comrades and were pushed tens of feet behind. The spears and swords in their hands shattered. The shields were strong enough to withstand the attack but their hands had failed them. Even their armor was not strong enough to block the overwhelming blast that it made countless of maze-like cracks on the armor. Blood started to ooze out from the cracks as they started struggling to even breathe normally, what more to get back up to their feet.
The ferocious wind was still blowing around Joshua, surrounding all that was around him.
Those soldiers were wearing heavy armor that was meant to withstand a heavy blow. The shield in their hand was meant to stop and protect them from any sort of attack. Their formation was meant to be on the frontline, exposed to danger and sustain damage. They were so strong that even charging knights on horses would find it difficult to penetrate their defense. Their prowess was not of regular soldiers. They were the main powerhouse of an army.
However!
Joshua was different from regular soldiers. He was, after all, a legendary warrior. This sort of skill was meant to counter such a formation. Hence, no matter what sort of shield or armor they were using, Joshua's strike was like a hot knife through butter.
The powerful blast of power had blown all the piled-up snow away, revealing the stone pavement underneath. It was supposed to be a long worn-out stone pavement. Those stones were so huge and tough with no regular means to break them. However, Joshua's power blast had just done that. The streets in front of him were unearthed like it was just a blanket sheet. Fragments of what used to be heavy square stones were flung around as if they were pebbles. Along with the broken pieces of mirror, the soldier's swords and spear, the scene of which looked like a monster had just barged through the city. The unharmed soldiers were quivering where they stood unscathed. They might be wound-free, but they were greatly shaken. None of them dared to press forward, or even move a muscle.
It was just a single strike. Yet Joshua had managed to break the formation of all the heavy armored soldier and put a hold on their attack.
Joshua turned to his hands and said, ”Hmph. Pity… The sword wasn't good enough for me.”
He sighed disappointingly and tossed the hilt of the sword aside. The rest of the metal blade was shattered into nothing. ”Must have been made with cheap steel. How else it could break in the middle of my display of power…”
In his mind, the powerful skill that had raised his strength by at least five times would have sliced all the soldier from the front all the way to the back, in half. However, in the middle of his swing, the sword was unable to sustain the power of Joshua's strength. Right when it was about to make contact, the blade shattered. The power that was accumulated could not be concentrated, hence, the power dispersed out and formed a blast wave instead.
Although disappointed, Joshua was still satisfied with the outcome.
”Listen.” He moved towards a soldier that had obviously lost the will to continue the attack and spoke to him right in his face. ”Right now. I will do the asking and you'll answer me.”
”Yes, Sir!” The man shrunk away from Joshua and bowed to him. Even his manner of addressing Joshua had changed to talking to a lord. ”We will answer anything you want.”
These guys were not real soldiers or knights. Although they might have good fighting capabilities, they were just hired swords. When they faced off an opponent that could not be defeated, an opponent that could easily erase their existence from the land with a single stroke, they would forget what the word loyalty meant and bow down to the strong.
”Who is your boss?”
Joshua immediately got to the point. His fight that had just taken place was too flashy. Who knew how many more soldiers had heard the commotion and were already heading towards the gates then.
”Where is he?”
”We are fighters that are hired by Danlya the merchant. He should be in the mansion in the city center. There are more of us. They are posted everywhere in the city. In fact, they should be heading here.”
A cooperative 'hostage' made things easy. He did not even have the slightest sense of loyalty of a true soldier. Then again, it was all too normal. The attack had wounded twelve and killed five. In fact, they had lost one-third of their overall forces. If they were unlucky and had angered the young master, he would have already killed everyone in sight with two more strokes.
”The mansion?” Joshua frowned. The corner of his lips twitched. He raised his head towards the general direction of the mansion and muttered to himself, ”Why the rush to move into my home? Bastard, could he be ignoring my existence completely?”
The soldiers dared not answer his question. They had thrown their weapons to the ground and was kneeling down, not in the position of fighters, but of slaves.
Joshua was not interested in handling the defeated soldiers as he had other more pressing matters to attend to.
He promptly walked away from the them and proceeded to pick up a long spear that was still in perfect condition. He then casually approached the superior officers and retrieved a refined dagger from him. Despite the aching heart of losing his precious custom-made protective dagger, the superior office dared not resist. Joshua grinned and walked towards the city center, leaving everyone that was still breathing, unharmed.
When Joshua's shadow was finally out of sight, the defeated soldiers stood up and breathed with a sigh of relief. Cold sweat was dripping down to their chins even though it practically subzero temperature.
”I couldn't even breathe properly when he stood there.”
”Oh man… Why would he hire us to fight such a powerful man?”
More and more speeches of gratitude of being alive and the disgruntled complaints about Joshua being overwhelmingly strong was heard from the crowd of battered soldiers. They did not push to chase after Joshua. Instead, they took their time to pile up the deceased. One of the soldiers yelled in anger, ”Didn't the instructions mention about one man that was Intermediate Silver tier? The guy just displayed a move that could be dealt by a man that's a Perfect Silver tier! It could even be one step from reaching Gold tier!”
”Please… You have been a mercenary for so many years, have you not learned your lesson when it comes to the words from our benefactor? If everyone knew that the target was strong, who would dare to charge blindly towards him?”
An older man among the group of mercenaries retorted. The way he spoke indicated he was experienced.
”Let this be a lesson. Next time when we receive an assignment, be sure to determine the difficulty on our own. Still, it's too much. The man… He possessed a level of power that was Perfect Silver tier. How could the impersonating count describe his tier as only an average Silver?”
He sighed loudly and continued, ”This is a big problem. He now knows the location of the lord. I don't think the guards can hold him off.”
”Yeah… There's going to be bloodshed.”