Panther girl regained her cold blood. With a quick jab, that I totally didn’t expect, she punched me in my jaw and jumped back regaining the distance.
It didn’t hurt my body, but it surely stung my pride.
* “If you think you will be able to fool me, you are a greater moron than you look! Such a pathetic level of street magician trick won’t be enough! What did you use? Illusion? Or was that actual shapeshifting? Powerful Druids can turn into monsters at whim… and you just smell just like one!”
Ah. Faithful people. They would keep defending their belief with everything they can. Even if you would point out the obvious flaw in their logic, they would just cover their ears and try over-shouting you.
Well, at least I wasn’t served with “god works in mysterious ways” kind of bullshit. I wanted to be nice, pacifist even, but as the legendary saying dictates…
… peace was never an option.
I will just resume my journey after they would give me the correct direction, and they will give me the correct direction after I would break their legs, gouge their eyes and cut off their tongues, leaving them in wildness blind, mute and crippled, waiting in the darkness for inevitable death!
… Wait, they won’t tell me a shit without a tongue, right? Fuck, I still have to work on my intimidation skills as well as rhetoric.
Once again I joined this ridiculous battle where they couldn’t land single atta…
Just as I wanted to boast over my overwhelming battle capabilities, someone’s blade cut through the sleeve of my robe, leaving a shallow red mark on my skin.
* “Look, he called himself the Chosen one, yet he bleeds like rest of us…” Maya was in extremely high spirit after this still humiliating (for them) display
* “All of this for a mere drop or two of blood? Should I praise you?”
* “You are trying to act tough, but you are getting tired, aren’t you? Getting slower and slower, in the end, it's us three against you alone, you can't really call it a fair match, can you?" she tried rising morales of her comrades.
* “Not fair, you say?... very well…” I raised my left hand and covered my eyes
* “W-what are you doing!?”
* “Giving you a handicap, obviously…”
* “Y-you little..! KILL HIM!”
They did exactly what they were intended to – the man in front of me charged onward with a raised dagger and dug it deep in my chest. A moment earlier I checked my mana, it was almost full, more than enough to pull that little spectacle I had in mind.
* “… I can’t believe that someone would be THAT foolish to actually get himself stabbed…” one of the other beast men whispered
* “Hmm? Stabbed?....” I raised my voice “… so you mean, it’s already in? Your poor, poor wife… I hope you stab her better than you did just me. I can’t feel anything… jokes aside…”
I grabbed the man by his still holding weapon wrist, and then pulled him even closer
* “W-what kind of sorcery is this!?”
* “I may hundred barrels drink, and my thirst shall not be quenched. Hundred days I may fast, but I shall not starve. A hundred gallons of blood may escape my veins yet I shall not fall, even with a sword in my guts, I shall move – for the tip of my spear points only one direction…” I took a step “… onward…” and another one “… ONWARD!” I embraced him and lift him off the ground.
The man started trashing, kicking trying to kick me and hit with his head, his companions were wounding my sides, yet drastically thickening skin proved stabbing to be more and challenging. The muscles of my arms changed too, soon, I was towering above them as a grotesque creature with completely mismatched proportions.
* “Will you now tell me, where I can find Kim? I have wasted too much time on you, so… Hmm? What are you saying?”
I put my head closer to fighting for breath beast men.
* “Sorry, but is not the answer to my question so…”
I tightened my grip even more and more till I eventually heard the bones cracking and the man stopped moving. Only then I released my grip and let his body fell on the ground like a broken doll.
I put my hand on the hilt of the dagger and pulled it off my chest. Blood splashed on the ground, yet the wound started closing shortly after, soon only still fresh blood on my chest was the only indicator that I ever got wounded.
* “Shit. I was supposed to leave at least a scar. Giselle finds them beautiful…”
* “REMI!” Panther girl screamed
* “Aww, you were close? Shame. Shame that you could save him by nothing more than uttering a few, pointless words. I didn't want to kill any of you, but you made me show that I am not joking... For my family, I will do everything, commit every crime. Lo. Ca. Tion.”
* “I… will… FUCKING KILL Y…” before she end the sentence I grabbed her by her head. It fitted perfectly in my palm.
Then, I threw her on the other side of the clearing like a rag doll.
* “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Don’t you know? Divine chimeras absorb the life of those they ate. It means that you would have to inflict as many deadly wounds as many creatures I swallowed… and that would be… thousands…”
That was obviously a lie. I was healing myself using the ability of hydra, which consumed hell-a-lot of mana... But they didn’t know it.
* “Now. Will you tell me where my little brother is?”
* “AFTER MY DEAD BODY!”
* “Didn’t I just tell you to be careful with your words? I think I brought necromancer’s grimoire with myself… And I didn’t have time to practice this art yet, so your offer makes it only THAT much more tempting…” and that actually wasn’t a bluff
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* “Try me! I fear no death… nor raising again!”
* “I know. This is why you would die last…”
* “Aretto! Nittel! Run!”
After the split of second of hesitation, her subordinate did as they were told, running in different directions. Not because they were cowards, but because they realized that this battle was completely one-sided from the begging and they had to live to tell the tale.
Even if I would like to let them go – I had that one tiny problem. Or actually two. If these people would escape, I would have two people less to tell me the information I needed, and two – I really hate when my warning is being ignored.
I only exhaled air loudly.
* “As you skillfully noticed, I am a magician too. And you know what a good magician has? A pet. Or pets…” she was quick to realize what I was talking about
* “Called by my words, and bound with my blood,
I am calling thy from the edges of night.
Answer my mark, and hear my command,
Oh, creatures of darkness now walking in the light. Kaito! Sebastian!”
The whirlwinds made of darkness raised from nothingness. Within seconds, on the ground were nothing was before, two beasts were standing proud.
* “Bring. Don’t kill… not yet.”
Devils were quick to charge in different directions after the escapists. I looked away for a second, and a woman called Maya tried to quickly used that opportunity to attack me. She jumped off the ground, picked a dagger and charged at me with madness in her eyes.
A knee to the stomach deprived her lungs of air and forced her to puke. Another kick rolled her on her back before I stomped on her forearm with my whole mass and twisted my leg to the side.
Her hand broke with another loud crack forcing her to let out a painful howl.
* “Don’t be selfish and wait for your turn… I can’t tell how fast is Sebastian, but Kaito can, at full speed, can cross a hundred meters in around 5 or 6 seconds. Tell me, do you think your friends are faster?”… a pained scream from both directions came to my ears almost at the same time “… never mind. Apparently not.”
* “You cruel monster!”
* “Oh, you expected the beast god to be your sugar daddy? Want to be spoiled? Pampered? Maybe if you were a good girl and gave me what I wanted I would head-pat you before leaving. But you had to make it all so much more complex…. Not to mention that you are calling me a monster? Me being cruel? You dumb bitch, you were the one that gave the order to attack me. You tried to bite more than you could swallow… and now, you choke.”
Kaito was the first one to reenter the clearing, dragging a man by the bloodied shreds that used to be his leg.
* “Aww, Kaito! Look at this mess! He will die within minutes bleeding out!... maybe that’s my mistake though? I told you to not bring him dead, didn’t precise that he shouldn’t be dying either? My bad my bad… Hey. How do you think? Should I heal him up? That would let us play with him a moment or two longer…”
The woman turned her head aside
* “What? You don’t want me to heal your comrade?! What kind of friend are you?”
* “I know what you will do to him after!”
* “No, child, you have no idea...” I raised my hand over his wound casting a greenish healing light all over it. In few seconds bleeding stopped and wound started closing very, very slowly “… but fear not. I will let you see. Location.” I stopped asking and started demanding instead.
* “W-what will you do then? What are your plans regarding Lord Kim?”
* “Incredible. A peasant demands to know what are the plans of one noble lord regarding another one. Are you even capable to comprehend how much this matter is… outside of your spectrum of understanding?”
Her stubborn gaze didn’t grow any weaker, quite the opposite. Fanatics, the closer are they to death, the more they would fight back, like a rat pushed into the corner would stop running and start biting instead.
* “Very well, your courage, and stupidity, earned you this much. I don’t know. Not just yet. He made things far too complicated in far too short period of time. At first, I want to talk with him and merely make him realize that he started something he is not ready for. Then, I would do everything to take him back, including using force.”
* “Y-You can’t just take him away! He… he keeps on fulfilling the words of prophecy! He freed us, he promised to fight for our cause he…”
* “… is far too weak and he will die. We sparred a few times before and each and every time I wiped the floor with him. And out in the world, there are people that are far stronger than me, one already did beat me and took me a hostage for quite a long period of time, I managed to break free and run away just because that person left the outpost that was holding me as a prisoner. Now, how do you think, would he win with such a person? No. So maybe the other way – how would you rate his skills of tactic? He has barely any. Then his strategy? None. Literally zero ideas about that. Will he be able to provide food, houses, and medicines for your, let's presume, still growing number taking into consideration that you would keep on marching? Because you will have to keep on marching. Each time you would settle down you would be attacked. This time in an open field, by the army that wouldn’t be afraid to cause damage to its own city… You will fail before you would even be able to face your next opponent, you yourself would bring the undoing to your noble cause. You. Are not. Prepared.”
Just as if her eyes started slowly opening.
* “Are… Are you really the… Lord Kim’s brother? Like… in flesh?”
* “Brother? No. In flesh? Yes. Literally. He is but a failure. An experiment that a crazy scientist performed using my body samples. He is nothing more than a clone, a piece of flesh that was animated and left in the wild where kept on eating. Kept on growing.... but at the same time, he is the creature that shares the same burden. The only one that can truly understand me... something on the shape of my family - my little brother.”
* “You… are lying… that… can’t be…”
Something broke in her, as if her entire will to keep on living escaped her body.
* “In that case… why didn’t you help us… why… why didn’t you save us? If you are what prophecy promised us... Why do you keep on looking upon our suffering without lifting a finger.”
* “You are not ready. I am not ready. You are not worthy. I am not fit. Everything I said about Kim lacking competences applies also to me. Speaking hypothetically, if I was about to do as
* “What… about us? About our sisters and brothers? Parents and children? What would happen to them?”
* “I can’t tell, for I don’t know. You rushed the actions on your own, actions I never took into considerations. I was never prepared for it.”
* “Can you… save them? Using your connections?”
* “I have no idea. That could be asking for too much. I don’t even know if I should risk it just for you…” my words shocked her “… what did you expect? You are a mere herd of one hundred. Maybe two. There are thousands if not millions of beastmen living the same fate you did. Should I risk them just for you?”
* “… I beg you… I will give you… everything you want… I…”
* “You forgot the situation you are in. I defeated you a minute ago. Your life and life of your comrades are in my hands. There is nothing more you can offer to me, for you just lost everything, It’s far too late for making a bargain.”
She bite her lip, her eyes were filled with tears.
* “I.. beg…”
* “Location.” I demanded gods only know which time this day.
* “… South-West. They are heading to the desert. We wanted to… we wanted to free slaves from the south and…”
* “… and you would die of thirst or starvation…”
* “… No if we would attack oasis…”
* “… which are important points on trading routes, that would make lots of merchants army, and it’s actually far better to have a kingdom to fight than merchants. Another great idea. Child, were you born yesterday!?”
* “… There is a cave, or actually whole complex on tunnels… south-west …. Under the mountain… please… save them…”
She kept on repeating like a mantra.
I only groaned with the annoyed expression.
Finally. That could be sooo much easier if she wasn’t a dense narrow-minded fool…
… or maybe just a person that spent too much in chains and got intoxicated with freedom.
I moved my hand to the wooden box attached to my belt, opened it and put a few small vials with a red potion in it.
* “Drink it, make your comrades drink it too.”
* “Is… Is that a poison?”
* “If I had a poison I wouldn’t waste it on already dying people. Seriously, think before you say something… It may not regrow limbs… but who knows? It’s an experiment of mine. Should at least heal some damages. And for the mercy of the goddess, next time at least try hearing someone out before attacking. You will live longer this way.
I turned away and started marching. South-west.
Was I too brutal?
No. In this world, you can’t be too brutal.
Definitely not, if you are fighting to protect your life, the way you live it, and those who are close to you, you are more than justified to be cruel.
Greatest bullshit of over holly people? “Overcome the evil with good” or “if you were hit in left cheek, give your right cheek to be hit as well”…
… Ha. No. Tooth for a tooth? Also no. All of the teeth for a tooth. Pay them back with punishment ten times stronger than their sins. Only once the evil would be lying broken in the pool of their own blood, crippled and dying, you are sure that it will never be able to raise its hand against you.
The only question that remains is - are you here as a part of my family, or someone who will only threaten its existence – Kim?