Asunam POV

Asunam felt his throat going dry as he tried to avoid looking directly at the square jawed leader of the Skull Blades, whose eyes were narrowed in fury making the scar running down the right side of his scowling, bearded face even more prominent. The man's burly build was barely hidden under the thin, cotton tunic he was wearing, and bulging muscles on his arms blatantly proclaimed his strength, even if Asunam hadn't known that Goshain the Skull Breaker was a Elite Warrior. What more, seeing Goshain's sword hand tightly gripping the hilt of his scimitar, Asunam knew he was in trouble. It was obvious, since he was wearing armor that did not belong to him along with an embroidered tunic that had been Bihar's favorite. His stuttering greetings had not done him much good either.

As the silence dragged on, Asunam shifted his gaze towards the other two men standing to one side. Both had almost identical, thin faces with flat noses, and only their differing hair styles and weapons allowed Asunam to distinguish between the two twins, Iban and Isal. Their status as an Elite Archer and an Elite Assassin cemented their status as Goshain's lieutenants. Both of them looked amused at the tableau before them, and Asunam knew that both had disliked Bihar immensely for whatever reason.

“So, where is my brother, you donkey shit?” The growled question from Goshain made Asunam flinch, but he quickly forced himself to go still. He had no idea what the Fallen One had done with Bihar, and in many ways, it did not matter. What did matter was knowing where the Fallen One's greater servant was at this time, but knowing that the Great Fallen One had spoken directly through his servant earlier gave Asunam some relief in knowing he hopefully wasn't going to be left to die... at least not until he could pass along the message.

Around him, he could hear and see more men gathering, some looking confused and others with suspicion clouding their faces. Trying not to quail at the attention, Asunam cleared his parched throat, coughing a little, when he suddenly felt his body swelling with strength. Realizing it was finally time and that he was no longer alone, his nerves steadied, and he looked straight ahead at Goshain before shouting, “I speak on the behalf of The Great Fallen One! He has seen your insolence on his lands and demands your submission to his will! Surrender you dogs, and you will be given mercy! Resist and you rue this last, benevolent chance you are given!” In the dead silence that followed, Asunam felt sweat beading at his temples before a noisy ruckus filled the surroundings.

“What'd he say?”

“Great wha'?”

“Idiot...”

“Son of a...”

“Quiet, you sons of whores!” The growling yell from Goshain cut through the hubbub, returning silence to the gathering. The burly thief leader had a snarling expression on his face as he glared towards Asunam. “What did you say?” The quiet ground out words made Asunam tense up as he clenched the hilt of his own sheathed scimitar.

Almost feeling demanding gaze on the back of his head, Asunam steadily replied, “You heard me... Submit or suffer the consequences...”

“Hahahahahahaha....!” Goshain the Skull Breaker began laughing almost madly as he rubbed his free hand on his face as though clawing at it, but as the laughter died down and the hand was removed, Asunam only saw rage etched on the man's face.

Before Asunam could react, the thief leader had drawn his blade and was pouncing forward with a roar. Asunam drew his own blade as his mind warred between flight or fight, but his eyes widened in fear as his former leader's scimitar lit up in a bluish glow. What shocked him even more was the layer of dark mist that suddenly surrounded Asunam, almost as though it was encasing him. Asunam had a moment to raise his blade to guard against the slashing attack before he was tossed backwards as a flash of blue and black erupted where his blade had met Goshain's.

As he regained his footing and raised his shaky, painful arms to hold up his blade in a dual grip, Asunam realized that Goshain had not attacked again. Instead the thief leader had retreated, while also taking a guard stance. The thief leader's face remained tense, but from his eyes, Asunam saw wariness instead of the rage from a moment before.

“What the fuck are you, you bastard?” Goshain's low growl clearly spilled his uncertainty, and Asunam saw the suddenly serious looking twins also quickly readying their bow and dual swords. However, before Asunam could say anything, another raspy voice interrupted from above.

“He is my servant...” Asunam glanced above and to his right, as the dread evoking figure of the Fallen One's greater servant finally revealed itself while their master spoke through it. Asunam did not have to look around to know that the same shock that had made him piss himself before was probably rippling through his former comrades.

As the dark green, scale armored figure slowly descended, the sound of shuffling and weapons being drawn finally filled the surroundings, but the greater servant ignored everything as it looked directly at Goshain. “As for me, consider me Retribution... yes... that is a fine description, is it not Asunam?”

Asunam, who was already moving towards the greater servant while keeping up his guard, nodded shakily. “Yes Great One...” He couldn't help but notice that his master's words had easily spread uneasiness as many of those in the surroundings began edging backwards.

“Retribution! Retribution?. What retribution, you monster! Do you think, I Goshain am afraid of some freak crawling out of the desert talking nonsense? Do you think we Skull Blades will cower before you?” Asunam was a bit amazed as Goshain yelled back while suddenly stepping forward pointing his scimitar towards the greater servant as it landed. Asunam had to give credit where credit was due. His former leader's bravado seemed to steady the sand thieves, as most began nodding and muttering among themselves.

“Fucking monster's alone...”

“There's enough of us...”

“Bleed him...”

Almost coordinated, a slightly glowing arrow and a crescent slash of glowing air suddenly shot though the air from two different spots, where the twins had moved quietly to during the commotion. Asunam opened his mouth to yell at the greater servant to be careful but was left speechless as the greater servant didn't even bother defending itself. The arrow pierced its body near the chest with a light sizzling sound and the blade of air cut at the greater servant's torso... before dissipating leaving nothing more than a slight abrasion.

As Asunam and everyone around him wordlessly watched, the greater servant nonchalantly grabbed the arrow stuck in its chest and plucked it out like it was some irritating thorn.“Sigh... Very well. Let's do this the hard way.” His master's gravelly voice seemed annoyed, and it was then that Asunam knew that things were about to get messy.

Protagonist's POV

I had to admit that his Goshain fellow had some balls for threatening me, even with the way I looked. I mean, if I saw some monstrous existence descending from the sky while talking about 'Retribution' with a capital 'R,' I would have probably tried to run for it by now. More than that, his twin subordinates had actually had the temerity to attack me while I was getting ready to reply to the challenge.

Snapping the arrow in my hand, I mentally gave the go ahead order, not really wanting to get into some stupid dialogue with a bunch of random encounter idiots. It would have been easy to subdue the thieves myself, but I needed to test out my forces anyway. What better target than a bunch of sand thieves?

Off to the left of my head, an IRAD dropped its [Invisibility] spell, revealing its boxy form affixed with a spherical Beacon on top of it. With a crackling sound, a bluish vortex formed above the Beacon before quickly stabilizing into a Portal. Immediately, IRADs began flying out, rising higher up into the air as they began to surround myself and Asunam in a defensive, air perimeter. Nearly two dozen of them, almost my entire current stock, were soon silently floating around, their inhuman attention clearly on the surrounding thieves, who were now backing away with dismay and fear suddenly back on their faces.

It seemed that my swarm of IRADs had made an appropriate impression, though it could have also been the armored skeletons wearing familiar clothes and armor jumping out from the portal, their green fiery eyes balefully glancing at their former companions while brandishing their weapons. The 10 summoned skeletons that showed up were about the max number I could currently maintain, since the moment the skeletons had stepped out of the portal, their mana maintenance costs had unfortunately fallen on my parasitized, mid tier soul. Any more currently would have led to my inability to use mid tier spells, and if I tried to quickly funnel more mana into my parasitized soul, there was a good chance of mana poisoning and its quick breakdown.

However, my solution for that came with the final summoned skeleton, which wordlessly handed me a crude looking scepter. Though calling it a scepter was a bit of a disservice, the rod like object with a fist sized Realm Stone embedded at one of its claw like ends definitely looked the part. Enchanted with [Supply Mana], it was essentially a 'Plus Mana' equipment. The moment I held it, I felt the amount of mana I had access to almost double. Though the dynamics involved were a bit more complicated than that, I now had the ability to summon more low tier summons with the ability to pass on their mana maintenance costs to the enchanted scepter.

So, as the portal finally shut down, I was finally prepared for battle with my new array of forces and equipment. Though, looking at the terror now etched on the faces of my opponents, I belatedly realized the 'battle' was going to be a farce. The only man, who seemed composed in some fashion was Goshain, who now held his scimitar in a two handed guard stance as his eyes flitted among my array of forces.

Having my skeletons clear a path before me, I strode forward, casually resting the scepter on my right shoulder. As I neared him, the thief leader finally spoke, his voice almost steady. “What did you do to my brother, sand devil?” If I had actual eyes with actual eyelids, I would have probably raised them in surprise at the man's final question.

However, since he wanted to know so desperately, I decided telling him the answer could probably be considered my final gift of kindness to him. “Unfortunately, you brother Bihar wasn't much use after I was done with him. Death was probably the best end for him at that point. Though, it was more than he deserved after what I learned form him.”

I saw the Goshain's cheeks and eyes spasm, and I was ready as the he swung his blade almost immediately, a blue glow covering it. While I wasn't yet sure if the spell he was using was his own Lineage spell or the weapon's enchantment, it was nothing I couldn't deal with. I grabbed the blade with my bare hand, as a sharp crackling sound filled the air.

I sensed a deep gash form on my mana reinforced left hand holding the blade, but it wasn't surprising since the low tier [Sunder] spell was designed to cut through armor. Still, it was nothing to worry about. As Goshain's eyes widened in surprise at his attack being stopped, I blasted him with , sending him reeling backwards as he tried not to fall over.

Almost immediately, my own forces moved into action as the thieves began scattering with shouts of fear and screams. IRADs swooped down blasting away with [Mental Shock] and [Ray of Enfeeblement], while a handful of them used [Dark Arrow] against some thieves to kill them. On these recently killed thieves, I cast to temporarily bolster my forces.

However, my attention remained on Goshain and the twins. While the thief leader began shaking off the effects of my spell, the twins had used their brains instead and had started running for it as soon as the battle had started. As I rushed forward and gut punched Goshain, causing him to bend over my arm in pain, I cast and at the twins to slow them down as a couple of my skeletons redirected their way to restrain them.

Knocking out Goshain with a well placed, follow up blow, I glanced around almost bored, as chaos reigned. IRADs swooped over the tents and canopies, firing off their spells in steady intervals as my skeleton summons broke arms and legs even as they gained new brethren from some dead thieves. Nearby, Asunam stood still, staring blankly around him as though in shock, which I guessed was a normal reaction to something like this. In any case, the real headache of dealing with the aftermath of this little party still awaited me.

“I hate cleaning up messes... sigh...”