The Minotaur and Oliver hit their weapons against each other, this was a battle of strength.
But Oliver wasn’t idiotic enough to contest physically against a minotaur for long, while the animal was on guard against Migras and himself, Oliver made a tiny, almost invisible stream of water to shoot from the end of his halberd blinding the beast just for a second.
A second was more than enough for Migras to act and cut the neck of the animal, it tried to hold its throat, not letting the blood escape but its fate was already decided, water circulated at the end of halberd, piercing right through the log used as weapon, the moment its attention was taken away from the strength contest, Oliver split its head like a watermelon, it was so cleanly cut that no brain matter or other puke inducing stuff managed to escape before its head opened sideways like a blooming bloody flower.
When Oliver said he didn’t mind fighting a group of minotaurs he had already taken into account their strength and that individually they wouldn’t pose much of a problem for him, this one just caught him off guard.
Migras looked around and saw that people were running to hide in their homes, animals and monsters were roaming the streets and were preying on innocent civilians, elderly and children.
Everything became bloody mess between their teeth, the worst case scenario which he wanted desperately to avoid was happening before his eyes.
A quick thought about the safety of Violet passed through his head but he quickly pushed it away, he knew a storm of emotions was about to hit him but he knew that he could not let it influence him, every second he was not doing anything was a second a life was lost.
He quickly called the rest of the guards and gave them instructions, all of them were already saving people, they were just not in this place since they knew that their caption should be able to take a care of the area by himself, some even knew that Oliver was here so it wasn’t efficient to have more people.
After giving the orders, Migras dashed forward towards a beast who was about to attack an old man with a kid in his hands, using the blade like limb coming from his hand, he slashed at a fox like animal, cutting its head clean off.
He looked at the two, not minding the blood spraying on him from the headless corpse and quickly told them to run towards the back end of the town, even though he could spare no guards, there would be the safest place since it’s the furthest point from the attack and when reinforcements come they will pass through there first.
After the two ran he quickly dived again in the fight.
The more he took in the situation the more he started to fall in despair, there were too many beasts, he managed to safe a few people but others lost their life not far from him.
He didn’t think about shit like moral dilemmas or who he should let live and who he should let die, only an idiot would waste brain energy thinking about such stuff in the current situation.
Even thou this was the first time he saw so many people lose their lives, this was not the first time he saw people die around him.
He started to save the people who were near him first and from there, one by one, he killed the monsters who attacked people further away.
He didn’t have time to pay attention to anything else, he wasn’t concerned about Oliver at all, that’s how strong the man was in his opinion.
But even then as he turned around to slash another fox like animal, he gulped down and tried to increase the speed of his attacks.
He just saw Oliver, he was fighting like a berserker, with the halberd in his hand he jumped, dashed, spun it like a fan, it didn’t look like a fight at all, it was like all the monsters were being pushed in a meat grinder.
For a second he even pitied them.
Migras had never seen someone fight this way, disregarding his own wellbeing so much, Oliver barely paid any attention to defense as it such thing never existed for him, it was like he didn’t want to leave a monster whole.
Unlike Migras who fought cleanly and didnt let even blood fall on the people near him, the people around Oliver had blood, brain matter and bits and pieces from monster bodies all over them, no, they couldn’t even be called bodies ad this point, bits and pieces of unrecognizable organic mush fall all over them but Oliver didn’t care, he just continue to slaughter every animal and monster in his path.
The meat grinder didn’t seem like it would stop until it, or every monster here died.
But what most confused him was that every time he threw a look It didn’t seem like Oliver was getting tired, instead it felt like he was getting stronger and stronger, even though Oliver was taking more and more damage, it didn’t make sense.
Oliver continued to slaughter the monster before him, for him those things barely counted for opponents, usually he wouldn’t fight like now but he wanted to keep the people safe, it would be lie to say he cared for random strangers, even on his home planned, but he would feel a bitter taste in his mouth if he let innocent people die next to him, when he could have saved them with little effort.
Oliver continued to kill, kill, and then kill some more, slaughter and slaughter and then slaughter again, at this point he felt like he was on an auto pilot in a fighting game, he didn’t use fancy techniques or powerful strikes, he just ripped apart everything in path.
He fought like that on purpose, he took damage intentionally not only to safe time but also to activate the warriors will, combined with his water saw he now managed to kill every beast in front of him with a single strike, the more he fought the stronger he became.
A minotaur like the one from before lifted its club in defense but the halberd didn’t seem to slow down even for a second, the waster saw made the weapon pass through the club and the animal whole body like it was butter in a stove.
But that didn’t make Oliver relax or slow down, he still continued to try his best to increase his attack speed, he could still hear the people cries not far from him, they were becoming a meal for those animals, the thought of people dieing to a beast that wouldn’t be able to even stand in front of him pissed him off.
Some rage deep inside of him exploded, he didn’t care about those people but he knew that children, women, men and elderly were losing their lives around him for no good reason at all.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
If before he only fought like a berserk, now his face looked like one as well, if looks could kill then professor Viper would have died a terrible dead several times over.
Oliver and Migras were trying their best and after half an hour, animals and beasts seemed to finally start to slow down, most important however the people were ether evacuated or dead, there was no reason to push themselves so much anymore as there was nobody to save anymore.
Oliver and Migras continued to fight but they came closer to each other so they could finally talk.
Migras ”thank you for the help, you saved more than me ’
Oliver nodded he didn’t reply but his usual smile was replaced by a bitter expression, Migras didn’t say anything since he had the same expression on his face, they had managed to save around 60% of the people around them which was beyond impressive considering the situation, but that also meant that 40% had found their graves here.
However Oliver also knew that they tried their best and pushed their bodies further than they should go.
Honestly Migras speed of slaughtering the animals had dropped by half after the last person evacuated and was becoming slower and slower, simply put he had reached his limit, but he still continued none the less.
Currently only his instincts for self-preservation were keeping him going, if he stopped fighting even for a second he would probably not be able to move again for a week or two.
Oliver ”what do we do now”
Migras thought for a second.
Migras “we continue, I think I know why no alarms were heard when the monster waves came, but help from neighboring cities should arrive soon”
Oliver nodded, in this world it probably wasn’t often when such incident happened, but it probably wasn’t too rare either.
Just like that they continued for a few more minutes before they saw people coming to help them, Oliver decide to follow Migras seeing that he might collapse every second now, after the town security captain had a quick conversation with the captain of the helping team he quickly ran in a certain direction.
Oliver knew where he was going and decided to follow him.
They arrived in front of a completely normal looking house, they saw a girl with purple skin and short hair crying on her knees in front of what looked to be a lower half maybe or maybe not from a male body, it was hard to tell because you couldn’t tell the gender just from the remains.
The girl was crying her eyes out, it didn’t take a lot of branes to figure what had happened, when the girl saw them she stood up and ran towards Migras.
SLAP.
Violet” DIDN’T YOU SAID THAT YOU LOVE ME, DIDN’T YOU SAID THAT YOU LIKE ME, ARENT YOU THE CITY CAPTAIN , THEN WHY... WHY…. DID YOU LET MY FATHER DIE,AHHHHH”
The girl punched his chest with her feeble fist but even then it managed to sway Migras a little, he was just too far beyond his limit at the moment, he was also injured, even if he fought cleanly after a few hours even he wouldn’t have been able to prevent injury.
Violet” YOU ARE THE CITY GUARD, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US. THEN WHY COULDN’T YOU…YOU SWORE YOU WOULD SAVE US IF THE TIME COMES….THEN WHY, WHY WERENT YOU HERE”
Migras just stood there and took it, he couldn’t utter anything, he had already lost his parents long ago, his mother died to monster attack when he was young, his father later due to accumulations of many reasons… or simply cause he was unlucky he got sick and left this world as well, that’s what drove him to train none stop, almost every waking hour, which eventually made him the town captain of security.
Whats more since they lived close to each other at the time, after his parents died it was her family that helped him every time, that was also one of the reason he fell in love with Violet in the begging.
he knew that it was his fault, if he had left the people and came straight here then maybe things would have been different but he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t have left them to die.
That’s why he simply couldn’t reply to her, he didn’t know what to do either, he finally understood how green he was, the current situation was way beyond him in many ways.
Seeing this Oliver shook his head, he couldn’t even imagine what Violet must be feeling right now, Migras was obviously out of it as well so he simply pushed the young man with the handle of his weapon.
As Migras fell forward he heard Oliver voice.
Oliver ”hug her you dimwit”
Though, even without him saying that, after the push Migras would have done it none the less.
As Migras fell he embraced Violet with his hands, he didn’t know what to say, nor did he know what to do, all he could do for her now was simply just a hug, a hug filled with all his emotions, sadness, regret and resolve not to let it repeat ever again.
Violet didn’t push him away but she still continued to hit him in the chest, from outside point of view the scene might look a bit romantic but this was not this kind of hug, this was a hug to comfort someone who lost a person important to them, there was love in this hug, but the grief was even bigger.
Violet”WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”
Finally feeling safe Violet started to cry even louder before tightly embracing Migras as well, his emotions finally gave up as well.
Oliver just stayed and looked at the scene, he just shook his head, he was not like them, honestly he felt bitter but that was it.
He felt no grief, he had seen such scene many times in his life, including back on earth.
He felt no regret, he knew it would not solve anything.
He felt no shame, after all he tried his best, he couldn’t have done anything more.
He felt no anger at himself, it would change noting.
He had seen death, had made many people die and he would see even more death in the future, that was how his life was.
He was warrior.
He now also knew that the anger he felt during the battle was probably the feelings of Flood.
He was never concerned for her, she was a God, there was probably no being on the continent that could threaten her except other gods.
The reason she didn’t act was simple, if she did she would have been caught which would have been a big problem for them, that’s why she didn’t do anything in this situation.
She valued the life of Oliver more than the life of the strangers here, but that didn’t mean she felt noting, no, it was exactly the opposite but unlike Oliver who tried his best she could do nothing but hide, even though she could have easily solved the whole situation with less than a flick of her hand
and all those unresolved emotions were coming towards Oliver.
After waiting for a few minutes Oliver walked towards Migras and patted his head, he didn’t know why but he just wanted to do it, the boy had started crying at some point as well, some might think that he looked nothing like the person who massacred monsters like noting and to those people Oliver would only tell, fuck off.
Oliver voice wasn’t high but there was some kind of power that made it hard to ignore.
Oliver ”you know I am a hunter, so I don’t do anything for free, but since we are friends I give you a special offer, no need to post quest, just tell me now, do you have a quest for me”
Hearing the words Migras came back to reality, he knew what Oliver was trying to say, for official government members like him what happened next would be very anger inducing, if they waited for orders from high up the one responsible would already be gone by then and they couldn’t do anything until they received them.
MIgras”..yes I do, I want you to find the one responsible for all this and bring him to justice, dead or alive, it doesn’t matter, if he dies just make it be painful… as for the reward, I cant promise anything concrete now, but as a captain of this guard and guardian of this town you have my word, everything in my power to give, you can choose and take”
Oliver smiled and nodded.
Honestly even though he said it like that, he wasn’t much of a hunter, but he was no hero either, he didn’t want people to get the wrong idea as it may be troublesome in the future, also it would be better for the other people to see that Migras was ready to pay to get the culprit caught, truth be told even though this situation couldn’t be predicted Migras was still the one who would be held responsible at the end, too many people died, they needed to see that the city guard was ready to give everything for them to have their revenge, but there was something else as well.
The hand gripping the halberd had its veins bulged out.
He was a warrior, there was no self-anger, no regret, no depression but there was emotion still there, an emotion which occupied the place of the three.
Anger, a pure rage wishing to make the cause of this pay, no blood or tears would be spared, he was beyond clear exactly how pissed Flood was at the moment, since all the rage was currently flooding in him.
The smile on his face wasn’t a one of happiness it was a smile of pure and utter rage.
Oliver turned and dashed forward, leaving only a few words behind.
Oliver”I accept the quest, and don’t worry I promise he will feel everything the people who died between the teeth of the beasts felt, he would not a have a painless end”