Nero faced right and saw a bloodied shield lying on the ground. He immediately reached for the shield and got into a kneeling position and raised the shield above covering his entire body from the incoming arrows. The arrows were numerous as they descended down. Nero could hear pitiful screams as some arrows managed to slip through the gaps of that shield wall that some soldiers who were wearing ancient looking armor had made and hit the soldiers. Nero stayed in the kneeling position waiting for the rain to end.

Once the rain of arrows came to an end Nero stood up, dropped the shield and looked around, he was in the area between two armies and the area also had some unfortunate souls who had separated from their units and were massacred by the volley of arrows irrespective of the their allegiance either because they didn’t have shields or didn’t raise them in time. He realized that he was in a battlefield and judging from the huge number of soldiers on both sides it wasn’t just a small scale battle.

Nero could see that from the from the differing dark red and dark blur armors of the soldiers on the battlefield, that he was probably that he was in the middle of a struggle between two nations. He looked down to see which one he belonged to. Strangely enough he saw that he wore a real worn down armor with no color whatsoever, the armor was in such pathetic condition that it seemed that someone might have picked it from scraps and the sword that was hanging by his side was more like a toothpick instead of a sword. While he was inspecting his gear he heard the same earth shattering voice from behind.

“CHARGEEE!!!”

Wait, Charge? The same command was given to the other army as well.

One could imagine what would happen when two such forces clashed head on and so did Nero. It might have looked really awe inspiring if it was a movie but the problem was Nero was right at the center of the two armies that were madly rushing towards each other. Nero looked around and there were also some soldiers that were in the center that were still alive, and judging from their dismayed expressions Nero could concur one thing, he was fucked.

Nero waited as both armies were approaching each other with the cavalry at the front, to prevent himself from getting trampled by the warhorses he adopted a stance to dodge them. Both the armies eventually reached Nero and clashed. It was brutal.

Nero dodged the horse as the cavalry passed by him and continued to do so until the cavalry charge ended and the foot soldiers reached him as well, he could see the brutal result of the charge. The few soldiers that were in between the charge of the cavalry were ruthlessly trampled as they tried to futilely dodge the incoming warhorses, luckily Nero wasn’t one of them. The soldiers started fighting as soon as they reached their enemies with their full might as blood spilt and limbs flew here and there all the while Nero was just dodging here and there instead of attacking, what could he do he was in a situation where he didn’t knew which side he was on heck he didn’t even knew where he was. He was just resting a moment ago on the rooftop of his high school and now he was on the battlefield where a war was raging on between two nations.

As he was dodging all the attacks from the blue and red armored soldiers with ease he started surveying the battlefield, he noticed that there were quite a few peculiarities he could see when compared to the norm. One was that with each soldier there was now a beast that was fighting along them and the beasts were of different varieties. He had never seen such beasts and they looked they hopped right out from a fantasy novel. The second thing was that the people here were not ……normal. He could see one person making huge leaps and killing huge number of soldiers with just one swing of his spear while there was one that was throwing away fire balls from distance and burning people to crisp. Nero thought Weather he was in a game but the smell of blood and the vivid expression of agony and screams of the guy who just got his arm chopped off right in front of him made him realize that all of this was probably real.

Nero continued dodging all the while making sure to get out of this battlefield while making sure to steer clear of guys like the one with the spear and the one who could throw fireballs, he was slowly moving away from the area most concentrated with soldiers but unfortunately for him luck wasn’t on his side. He suddenly found himself surrounded by a dozen soldiers wearing the dark red armor. One of the soldier raised him sword and yelled, “Are you with us or against us!?” All the other soldiers also raised their weapons ready to chop him into pieces, normally soldiers wouldn’t wait to ask such a question but Nero was at the side where the red armored soldiers were the majority hence the soldier asked Nero which side he was on without any concern of being on a battlefield. Since there was no fighting on their side yet they decided to ask lest they end up killing one of their own accidently. Nero was still confused why such a group would avoid fighting to ask questions instead of proactively attacking.

Nero looked down at his armor and then looked up as he raised in arms signaling how he didn’t want any trouble. Heck even I don’t know which side I am on, how the hell am I supposed to tell you. Hence Nero gave the only answer he could give to avoid gaining the enmity of either side.

“Uh, I don’t know. Neither I Guess”

The soldier who had a stern expression when asking the question was dumbfounded, he was expecting another answer completely. He turned to the soldier next to him and asked in a confused manner.

“Can he do that?”

“I don’t know, this has never happened before.” The soldier next to him shrugged and started discussing what to do with this young man who had no symbol on his armor to signify which army he belonged to or which mercenary group he belonged to. The others soldiers also started discussing what to do with him and lowered their guard. Nero decided to make an escape at this crucial time but before he could take a single step an extremely arrogant voice came from behind.

“It doesn’t matter where this shrimp came from you fools, kill this idiot and be done with it, it doesn’t matter whether he is with us or against us, he is just a weakling anyways.” A youth came behind the group of soldiers and said in a haughty manner. He looked like a douchebag with his head held high and hands folded behind. Instead of looking domineering he looked like a clown if one asked Nero. Oh so that’s why they weren’t attacking. Nero now understood why the soldiers weren’t joining the fight and were instead holding back from attacking him as well, they were here to protect this kid. They didn’t want to carelessly put the youth in danger who seemed to be nobility.

“But lord he-”

“Shut up and do what I say!” The youth shouted once more as he looked at nero with contempt and started walking back without having a care what happened back with Nero. The soldiers received their command and were preparing to kill Nero. It was pretty clear that weren’t going to let him get away. Nero took out the tooth pick in his hand which elicited a few laughs from the soldiers. He held the sword in one hand and traced his finger on the blade with the other as he looked down on the sword.

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“I should warn you, if you attack me none of you are going to live to see the next day.” Nero said in a casual tone as he continued playing with his toothpick of a sword. The men laughed again as one of them went forward to strike Nero down. Nero dodge the sword right at the last instant and made a single move with his sword that was as fast as lightning, the soldier was in the same position after he missed Nero as a red line became visible on his throat and then blood started spurting out, as the soldier tried to stop the blood but failed to do so. He fell down and stopped moving. All the soldiers who were laughing at Nero were now stunned stupid and were looking at Nero with a shocked expression, who would have thought that such a weak looking boy would kill with such ruthless efficiency.

Nero smiled as he charged forward and then stated killing the stunned red armored soldiers one by one as he made his way towards that youth who gave the order for his kill. The soldiers charged forward one by one but their determination to kill Nero was wavering as he continued to kill them with relative ease. Nero was a simple man if one wanted to kill him, then that person should be prepared to die as well. The soldiers who were the young youth’s protective detail were taken down one after another with relative ease. The youth who heard the ruckus turned around to see what all the fuss and screams were about. “ Why are you al screaming like a bunch of si-” The youth’s eyes went wide as he saw Nero slowly making his way towards him with a cold smile on his face that as he slaughtered his soldiers one after another like a fiend send from hell, he shivered with fright when Nero stopped to look at him and his smiled depended further.

“Go hurry call my father, tell him I am in danger, hurry!” The youth shouted at a soldier who was on a horse who galloped away to deliver the message. The youth decided it was best to run away at the moment, a wise man knows when to retreat. He was about to get on top of his horse, but heard a sinister voice that made him feel chilled to his bones.

“And where do you think you are going?” Nero took a hold of the youth’s leg who had climbed the horse halfway and ruthlessly dragged him down as he fell on the ground hard. Nero pointed the tip of his toothpick at the youth’s throat who stopped struggling. The youth could feel the sticky sensation from the sword which was an evidence of the slaughter that just took place, it was the blood of his soldiers. He started shivering from fear as he looked at Nero’s cold eyes but he still decided to show his haughty manner in hopes of intimidating Nero.

“Wha-what do you want? Don’t you know I am from the Yan family of the Song empire, unhand me at once or you will die terribly, do it if you don’t then- ah!” The youth gave threats to Nero even when he was in such a dangerous situation. Nero could only imagine what kind of upbringing this kid must have had to have such a haughty attitude even in such a situation. Nero just pushed the toothpick a little further into the annoying youth’s throat which shut him up.

“No I don’t know who you are and even If I did I wouldn’t have cared anyways, I was just trying to run away but since you decided to be such an ass about it I decided to teach you a lesson, now if you ever see some running away from a battlefield next time just let them run away do you understand? He might have some other important places to be.” Nero said with an expression that one would adopt when teaching a student about his mistake and correcting him.

The youth was dumbfounded, why was thus ruthless monster lecturing him about letting people run away from a battlefield and why was he glorifying it just because he was the one running away and making it look alright. But he didn’t care if it meant he could get to live he wouldn’t just let one person run away but rather he would let everyone run away, heck even he would run away with them if only this demon could let him go this once. But Nero decided to pour cold water on the youth’s hopes.

“But it’s a shame there won’t be a next time, do you know why, its because you wanted to kill me so I thought I should do the same.” Nero wasn’t the least bit worried about getting away after killing this brat, he just wanted to kill him because he could see that based from his behavior he was just a scum of the earth and also because he specifically ordered his soldiers to kill him, hence his earlier stance of not provoking any side was for naught and he begrudgingly had to kill the red armored soldiers who wouldn’t have let him get away, this would make him a target for the whole army because they would see their comrades trying to kill him hence they would see him as an enemy as well. Therefore he decided to kill this trash who made escaping from this battlefield much harder. He could still escape, but better do it while getting rid of a nuisance.

“Stop! Let go of my son!” A man came galloping on a horse accompanied with a few soldiers who surrounded Nero. Nero just sighed thinking what a big headache this had become he just wanted to run away from the battle but this shit here had ruined his plan of escaping well he was at fault to for trying to kill this kid and not running away but meh what’s done is done.

“Or what? What is an old fart like you going to do?”

The old man grew red from anger at the insult, he was a mighty general, when had he ever had the honor to hear insults from a junior much less a runt like him. “Or else I will make sure you die a most miserable death and then I will feed you to the wolves.” The old man on the horse who had a darkened expression said with ager while gritting his teeth, who in his life had ever tried to harm his son, he was the patriarch of the Yan family and a second rank general, he had a lofty position in the capital. He was feared and respected by all but this kid here had the guts to hold his son hostage and insult him.

“Listen here you trash, let go of my son this instant!” The old man was getting impatient and started hurling abuses at Nero.

“I am a reasonable man, just come here and kowtow to me three times and apologize for threatening me and I will let him go. Hurry up I don’t have a lot of time or your son might not live long.” Nero said with a mischievous smile

“Brat what do you want?”

“Your son’s life.” Nero said in a casual tone.

The old man seethed in anger, “ Besides that you bastard, what are your demands to let my son go, the Qin army is about to retreat in a few moments, its best you make your choice now or else you won’t be able to escape when the whole army surrounds you.”

“It’s okay, It doesn’t matter if they surround me or not I can still take your kid’s life in an instant.” Nero was unaffected by the threat and continued replying in a casual manner.

The old man continued to try to make Nero let go of his son through threats and intimidations but was continued to be face slapped across the face by the youth which made his anger soar through the heavens . Nero again insulted the general who bellowed in anger once again. All the this happened while the soldiers weren’t moving and looking here and there as a kid continued to make the general tongue tied as the conversation between the two went on. “You dare you impudent brat! Do you know who I am, I am the great general-” The man stopped midway his speech and looked in horror as he saw nero lodge the tip of the narrow sword into his son’s throat and then pulled it out. The youth held his throat and made futile attempts to stop the bleeding. He looked at his father in despair as his eyes grew dim. Nero wasn’t going to let the youth live anyways, he was just messing with the old man.

“Whoops, my hand slipped.” Every one rolled their eyes. Who would believe that his hand slipped in such a situation. Nero shrugged in an innocent manner and said with a guiltless tone and the same mischievous smile. Well he was never going to let the youth live since he had already marked him for death, Nero prepared himself for the mad dash that was going to ensue now that he had killed a general’s son, but he didn’t mind it, he had already killed a lot of people killing one more was just like a drop in an ocean.