“My, oh, my… what do we have here? A couple of spies, is it?”

While I was contemplating what to do with Titan’s Fall and Titan’s Fall was contemplating what to do about their mission, the delicate balance was destroyed by a certain man. Octius had noticed the group spying on him and had managed to get the drop on them. His eyes had passed over me, and stopped for just a second with a twinkly look. I was pretty certain he knew I was spying on the girls, but he didn’t give my position away.

“Octius!” One of the girls said with an ugly smile. “I should have recognized your stench!”

“Eh? I think I smell pretty good?” He started smelling himself, seemingly breaking the tension of the group.

The girls didn’t have it though, all getting ready to battle in an instant.

Alysia took a step forward and threw her hand out, “Enough! Since you’ve seen us, there is no point in hiding. Were you the one who used the Meteor spell?”

He put a finger up to his cheek and chuckled. “I wonder? If you’d like to find out, you’ll have to defeat me!”

“My pleasure!” One of the women tightened her hands on a chain that seemed to be strapped to a ball which she started to spin around.

Octius’s playful smile suddenly turned serious, and it was like the entire beach suddenly froze. “Watch it, ladies. You used several tricks to catch me last time. You don’t have my precious brother to threaten me with this time. Your group combined is only S class. Don’t forget, I alone achieved S class, that puts the five of you even against me alone. All I need to do is knock out one of you, and your entire group falls. That’s the weakness of a party’s strength.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

His words caused me to jump a little bit. I found myself having to reassess my knowledge once again. I had assumed Titan’s Fall was about the pinnacle of strength. Supposedly, there were SS, and SSS class Adventurer’s too, but there were none of those in Aberis or Ost Republic. However, to hear that Octius was as strong as Alysia plus 4 support, that left me feeling pretty complicated. This world was turning out to be an iceberg, and I had only seen the surface.

“We’re not as weak as the last time we fought!” One girl declared.

“We’ve been in the Dungeon training since then!” Another added.

Octius put on a grin and then looked in my direction, “Deek! Dear, how about an assist on this one?”

“Deek?”

The girls all spun to where he was facing. I couldn’t do anything but let out a long sigh. Of course, Octius had called me out on purpose. I could only deactivate the skills that kept me hidden. This was fine because I had eaten through most of my Mana and needed to regenerate it. The girls let out gasps as I stood up from my spot where I was hiding.

“You… were spying on us?”

“Aiii… he snuck up on Alysia!”

“He’s so cool!”

“isn’t he like a hero standing on that rock, eh Alysia?”

“Sh-shut up!” Alysia cried blushing.

“I found you all too, and way sooner! Plus, I even saw Deek! Aren’t I cool?” Octius said brightly.

“Quiet, Freak!”

“Gross…”

“Aren’t you a woman?”

“Creepy guys should just die.”

“What’s with the different behavior?” Octius cried out to me.

I didn’t really have an answer for him.