What is this!? They’re monsters!!

Liumiala shouted in her heart. She had been watching from a nearby bush to see how the two of them were fighting. To put it into simple words: she was both scared and astonished.

She had never actually seen warriors fight before. She was a Spiritualist after all. She spent most of her time living in her tribe’s Dark Elf settlement in the Culb mountains and trained with her family and friends.

Arnold cut through his opponents with elegant strikes as he moved like the gentle flow of a river. His cuts were both deep and clean. Even now there was no blood on the sword or himself. He looked just as he were before this fight even started.

In comparison, Flora fought like a barbarian that just learned how enjoyable it was to use weapons. Her face and body was covered in blood. She used both her body and sword to destroy her enemies. Punches, kicks, charges and so on…

The two weren’t similar at all yet both of them fought like magnificent swordsmen. Liumiala had never seen such skills right in front of her.

Her mother was also a swordsman but she couldn’t really remember the style she used. It was probably on the same level as these two, if not higher.

Strength didn’t matter at this point. Both of them were in a league of their own.

‘I should concentrate on infiltrating the leader’s office.’

This street’s name was Ujun, it was located right next to the commoner district. The bad side of the commoner district, that is.

Crime had been high in this area for decades which was why the nobles decided to leave behind their mansions and live in another part of the city.

Most of the gangs came from there. If any gang members were nearby then it’d take ten minutes or more before they arrived. As the other mansions on the street were uninhabited, they could use the properties as shortcuts to reach this mansion.

‘I need to hurry before their reinforcements arrive.’

She didn’t really think that Arnold and Flora would stay to protect her. Their objective was to eliminate the boss and take back Lauran.

Liumiala remembered Arnold’s words.

I want you to take some documents for me….It concerns a certain building. It’s located at—

‘I wonder what he wants those for. Well, whatever.’

After sneaking past the gangsters who were charging towards Arnold and Flora, Liumiala jumped through a window.

The entire mansion’s great hall was dark and quiet. It was like everyone had left to go outside.

‘I smell blood.’

Being a hunter and tracker, Liumiala could smell from far away. The inside of the mansion had a thick iron smell to it.

‘What’s that sound?’

She kept hearing flesh striking flesh. It was like someone was punching another person.

Liumiala wanted to go check it out, however, her only objective was getting whatever valuable documents were inside the gang leader’s office.

She erased her footsteps using sound magic and crept up to a nearby statue. She hid behind it and looked around.

“It’s pretty dark…” She whispered and took out a bag filled with powder.

This particular powder was a magic crystal that had been crushed into tiny particles. It was now similar to a dust.

Liumiala took a deep breath after throwing the dust on her hands. She exhaled deeply which made the fragments scatter through the air.

“As I thought…” She muttered when she saw the detection magic sensors. The fragments made it visible since magic and crystals are both components that consisted of mana.

She looked around and saw that there were multiple crossbows aiming in each sensor’s direction.

If an intruder were to touch one then the bow would shoot a bolt at the target.

Liumiala smirked. It was easy for her to evade all of those bolts even if she were to trigger them. She had a special racial trait of elves which made their bodies extremely flexible.

Since she wanted to stay quiet, she had to be cautious to avoid any alarms.

“Huup!” Liumiala used her athletic body to jump through and avoid the detection sensors.

She did a pose like a gymnast who just finished a course in a championship.

“Ahem.”

She ducked and sneaked up the stairs. Luckily for her, the stairs didn’t have any traps like the great hall.

Since the stairs were the only way up, she would’ve had to climb a second floor window if the stairs were riddled with traps as well.

That was too troublesome.

Liumiala snuck up the stairs as she kept hearing those strange noises. She didn’t have the time to check what it was.

After arriving on the second floor, Liumiala scattered her spirits in order to search for the office.

Doing it herself would take too long so she had her spirits do it for her. They would only need to signal her using their spiritual link.

In Star Fantasy, spiritualists were people who could control elementals of nature: Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. Light and Dark Elementals existed, however, not many are able to use it. An example of a user of the Light elementals would be the Fairy Millennium, a 9th star powerhouse.

Spiritualists could also summon the elementals’ monarchs.

There were stones called Monarch Summoning stones which were quite difficult to find on the market and expensive. It was worth it though since each monarch was close to level 70.

However, summoning monarchs took a toll on the player’s overall MP. They would also be stopped from moving until the monarch was done attacking the enemy.

They would be vulnerable during a Monarch Summon.

Liumiala could only summon normal spirits since she wasn’t that great of a spiritualist.

Her elemental nature was Wind.

“Found it.”

She located the office on the west wing of the mansion.

After making sure there were no traps in the hallway that led to the office, Liumiala continued sneaking.

◇◇◇

Arnold and Flora had just finished with either decapitating or killing the crew members. Flora was covered in blood from head to toe. In contrast, Arnold’s suit was just as clean as it was when he put it on this morning.

The two were about to take their first step up the stairs when they sensed two presences behind them.

“Oi, oi. You killed our precious henchmen.” A remark came from the gate of the mansion.

“It smells like innards! Did these two really slaughter all these men!?” Another voice followed.

Arnold and Flora turned around and saw two men. One was a muscular man with a bald head, tattoo across the right side of his face and a piercing through his nose. In his hand was a chain and sickle.

As a general art of handling one, a person holds a chain in his right hand and Kama in his left hand to take aim at the enemy's head, face, shank and forearm to hit with the weight, use the chain to knock off the enemy's weapon, entangle the chain with the enemy's wrist or leg while containing the movements of the enemy and then slashing the enemy with a blade of Kama held in the left hand to kill him.

The other person was a skinny tall man with a long nose, slanted eyes and gelled hair made into a man-bun at the back. He was carrying two daggers by his waist.

“Great. It’s the cannon fodder.” Arnold sighed.

“Whatcha call us, huh!?” The big one said. He threw the tip of his chain at Arnold..

The chain’s end was meant for crushing a victim’s skull using its weight.

Arnold caught it easily.

“I take it you’re Kon and you’re Tobias?”

“H-Huh?” Tobias tried pulling the chain back but Arnold’s grip wouldn’t budge. It was like the chain was stuck on something.

“Hnnng!!” The man’s muscles bulged as he tried pulling the chain back. He even tried activating his aura.

It was still useless.

“Are your muscles for show? I guess they aren’t really useful in a fight, huh?” Arnold let go of his sword. It vanished into thin air.

“You bastard….” Similarly, Tobias threw down his weapon as well. Arnold threw the chain he was holding aside.

“Hand to hand, huh?” Arnold chuckled evilly.

Tobias silently looked at his brother.

His brother nodded and walked backwards. Flora did the same behind Arnold.

“You’re going to die, you little shit. But first, I’m gonna rip that mask off your face. After that, imma skewer you into pieces.” Tobias jumped on the spot a few times and shook his shoulders.

He punched the air a few times before staring back at Arnold.

“Hm?” Arnold was suddenly gone.

“Look down, you idiot!” His brother shouted from behind. He did as his brother said and saw Arnold stand there, gazing up at him.

“Eek!” He staggered back a few steps.

“What’s wrong? Come at me.” Arnold bent forward and held out his face. “You said you wanted to break the mask, right? Well, do it.”

“Are you mocking me!?” Tobias clenched his right hand and swung it.

It was knocked back by an unknown force.

“Huh?” Tobias looked at his hand in confusion. This time he used both hands to punch.

Deflected again.

Meanwhile, Arnold was still standing there.

“Oraa!!” Tobias threw multiple punches, yet even those were deflected by the same unknown force.

“What the hell!!” Even though his fists were covered in aura, he couldn’t even scratch Arnold. “Stop using Aura Barriers!”

He threw another right hook. Instead of being deflected and thrown back, Arnold caught his hand.

“Are you really that dumb to not see what’s going on? Or are your skills not as impressive as those muscles?” Arnold tightened his grip.

“!!”

“I was merely moving at a speed you couldn’t even react to.” Arnold said and squeezed the man’s hand even harder.

“Aaaaaaah!!” He screamed as his hand was crushed with extraordinary strength.

What was strange was the fact that Arnold wasn’t using aura to increase his strength. He was only using it for his speed. That just shows how powerful the villain was even without aura.

“Guaaah!!” Tobias tried punching Arnold with his other hand but it was useless. Arnold grabbed that one as well.

The 2 meters tall giant of a man was being pushed to the ground by the strength of a teenager.

“I’m coming!” Kon shouted from behind and unsheathed his daggers. A green aura surrounded his body.

He was about to charge at Arnold, however, Flora quickly arrived before him. Her once long purple hair was now completely black. The magic item’s effect wouldn’t last very long so they had to finish the infiltration quickly.

“Your opponent is me.”

“Tch.” He clicked his tongue as he jumped at her with his daggers that were coated in poison.

As that was happening, Tobias was crying for mercy as Arnold was forcing him to the ground with raw power alone.

“P-P-Please…” He sobbed.

“Tell me, did you enjoy making Lauran’s parents suffer?” Arnold said quietly. His cold voice was laced with venom.

“H-Huh?” Tobias looked up at him in confusion. Then his eyes widened in realization.

“Aha! Y-You’re here for that girl, huh!”

Between gritted teeth, he laughed.

“They shouldn’t have made that loan…You know what I do whenever the boss isn’t looking…?” Tobias smiled widely while holding the groans back. “I ravage her mother…Sometimes the dad watches too…Hehehe…Seeing him look at me fucking his wife---”

Before Tobias could get another word in, he suddenly saw something.

It was his death approaching in the form of an aura enhanced punch.

It seemed so slow. It was like the world had stopped time for a second.

He could see the eyes through the gaps of the young man’s mask.

They were icy cold blue eyes that weren’t looking at a human anymore.

Then it all faded to black.

Arnold’s fist had shattered Tobias’ entire skull. His brain matter splattered everywhere.

If one were to look under his mask, one would scream in terror. He was a making the face only a devil could make.

One of absolute anger.

Arnold had a sudden thought.

Lauran was right.

He could’ve saved her and prevented all of this from happening.

Why didn’t he? Why did the original Arnold hold zero compassion for those around him?

Because he was a selfish, deceitful, self-centered piece of human trash. And he had stayed that way ever since he died.

The way he died wasn't even pitiful.

Alone. He died without any loved ones by his side.

Arnold silently looked at the second floor at a window where Lauran and the leader ought to have been in.

“You’re next, you bastard.”