Everyone had fallen asleep, except Victoria, the taller werewolf, who was in charge of the first shift night watchmen. Well everyone was supposed to be asleep, but Seth was pretending to be sleep, and snuck out after waiting for Victoria to settle in. Seth withdrew the black iron sword, that he received from Sherry to train with, from a portal, as he began practicing the flowing fire dance. He had a high comprehension of the technique after a few months, and a high understanding of fire, but Sherry said this was a technique her dad created to help her bridge fire swordsmanship to water, but he wanted to take it a step further and bridge water to ice. This would be perfect as fire and ice shared a core, so using water a medium, just felt right, but he also heard water was one of his mother’s elements and thought that would make him feel that much closer to her, when he finally met her.

Seth was focused on practicing the flowing fire dance for a few hours until he heard the night watchmen beginning to switch places, so he snuck out further into the woods, where he reached a clear lake, that reflected two of the twelve moons. Seth walked closer to the lake and saw his own reflection. This had fascinated him, and excited him even more to practice the flowing fire dance.

Seth began practicing the flowing fire dance, but eventually focused on his reflection, and started reacting to movements of the reflection. At first his movements were awkward, even though he knew what movements he would make, attempting to dodge and counter, to see his opponent do the same thing, threw him off, also if he dodged too far, he wouldn’t be able to see his reflection anymore. Seth gradually got used to this, and his movements became more fluid and precise. If someone was watching from the side, it would look like Seth was actually dancing with his reflection.

The more Seth practiced, the more a faint red light would shine off of his sword. This wasn’t intentional, this was a reaction of his high comprehension of the sword technique and the fire element. This was the materialization of sword intent, which didn’t consume mana or aura like sword aura, and was an even higher level technique. Even though this was a fire technique, it was used the principles of a water technique and was made to help someone learn water techniques, from their own understanding of fire and water elements. Soon, the more fluid Seth’s movements became, the more the red light became to transition to blue. After a few hours, the sword light was a vibrant blue, and this soon garnered Seth’s attention. He so focused on the movements of the reflection, he never paid attention to the sword.

Seth continued his battle with his reflection and realized, when he focused on being aggressive, there was a red light, and when he focused on flexibility and being unrestrained in his movements, there was a blue light. As practiced with the changes in mind, he started adjusting the flowing fire dance. When his movements went from flexible and unrestrained to graceful and rigid, a faint light blue light shines from the sword.

Seth noticed the strongest reactions when he did three moves. The first was a vertical slash, where he put all of his strength into. The second was a graceful thrust. The final move was difficult for him to use, but he had no way of confirming this yet. He considered them, the unwavering ice waltz.

Seth was only able to learn this quickly, because abyss implanted information on the basic elements, which are fire, earth, wood, metal, and water, to Seth while he was bathing in the dragon blood, using the life element. While Seth seemed to have talent with multiple weapons.

Seth gripped the sword with all his strength, and held it over his head. He waited for the light blue light shone it’s brightest and swung it down with it down with all of his might. The lake was split into two halves, before the lake merged back together, both halves froze completely.

Seth felt satisfied with his progress, and he snuck back to campsite. Once his excitement wore off, he passed out.

Everyone, but Seth, had woken up and Victoria had caught several rabbits, and a boar and was roasting them on a fire. She usually took the first shift, so she could wake up early and cook, as hunting was one of her hobbies.

When the food was done, Brutus sent Goliath to wake up Seth. Goliath shook Seth a few times, but when he didn’t wake up, he grabbed him by the ankle and carried him to the fire.

“Couldn’t wake him up?”

Goliath just shook Seth around, still holding onto his ankle. Sherry and Emily seemed concerned, but they knew Seth could be a heavy sleeper and was resilient.

“Just put him down for now. We can wait for him.”

“We should eat first. We might be waiting for hours. He’s difficult to wake up and sleeps a long time.”

“ So what about the commission he paid for?”

“We should head to the mines, and wait for him to wake up.”

“Its his commission, he makes the rules, and since he’s agreed to become a mercenary, he’s joining in on the commission.”

“he’s just a kid, you’re putting to much pressure on him.”

“Exactly, he’s just a kid and he’s footing the bill, on your behalf, and he might seem to have some screws loose, but he has a good head.”

“I hope you’re not talking about me…”

Seth was awakened by the conversation. So everyone ate and they went along with Sherry’s idea.

“Young David what’s the plan?”

“We will split up into groups and we separate into a group to save the miners and a group to defeat the….”

“young lady, I told you, David paid the commission and he makes the rules”

“He’s just a kid”

“It’s okay miss Sherry. Me, Emily, and Sherry will split up into groups. Since the miner would recognize us, and we’re all humans they will listen to us, we will each pair with two mercenaries, Emily will get an extra as a bodyguard. We will leave trails, and send one mercenary to the entrance, where they will lead them to this base and follow the trail back. We will send someone to Rob this place blind. Sherry tell them where they need to go. When we freed everyone one, the bull brothers will take care of the bosses. You decide how the teams are split, as you know them.”

“ you sure he’s only a kid? Seems more detailed than the lady even if she didn’t finish.”

The groups arranged were were Seth, the goblin, and Victor, the other werewolf. Emily, her bodyguard was Victoria, Felix, and Andy two lycans. Sherry, Arnold, and Heinz more lycans. Lorric, Brutus, and Goliath stayed at the base, lorric stayed so their was a strong human appearance there, even after the brothers went in. Loren, the second oldest lycan, would rob the place blind.

The groups went into the mines, Seth was skipping and whistling, the whole way.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Hey kid, shouldn’t you be discreet? We’re trying to save lives here.”

Seth just ignored Victor’s nagging. Whenever Victor attempted to grab Seth, Seth avoided him easily. This continued until they reached a watcher. When the watcher looked for the source of the whistling, Seth was directly in front of him.

“Why aren’t you mining? Wait you’re not apart of my group…what group are you from?”

“zap zap?”

“huh? Are you retarded?”

Seth place his hand on the watcher, and lightning discharged from his body. The watcher collapsed in seconds. Seth then searched the watcher, and took all off his weapons and belonging into a portal.

“Everyone, we’re here to free you all. This gentleman here, will take you to the entrance, there will be mercenaries there. Even the minotaur are mercenaries, they’re not bad.”

“minotaur? Are you crazy? How could they be mercenaries?”

“is that so, just stay here. He’s a mercenary, he can handle a watcher, what about you? Try to escape on your own. Just hope it’s a clear path.”

“hey brat, why do I have to make the first trip back?”

“You’re no fun. Besides are you gonna rely on a mage to make consecutive trips back and forth?”

“Tsk…you have a point…wait am I gonna be the only one making trips?... I don’t even know the way back. This place is like a maze”

“You caught onto that…well sure you’re making all the trips. That would be quicker. Also did you check the ground. I left a trail.”

As Victor looked back, he noticed scorch marks on the ground. He just realized the kid was using lightning or fire on his feet when he was skipping. The captives all went along with Victor without complaint.

“You didn’t kill him. Aren’t you gonna do it?”

“I was told not to kill if I don’t have to.”

The goblin pulled out a dagger, and stabbed the unconscious watcher in the throat. She looked disgusted but didn’t say anything, worried how Seth would react to her killing someone he spared. Seth smiled at her, and grabbed her hand.

“Let’s go”

“Aren’t you upset about that?”

“They’re bad guys. They deserve what they get. But let’s go. You’ll skip with me, right?”

She couldn’t understand Seth, she thought he spared him immaturely and would be bothered, seeing that she killed him anyway, but he did seem to care. He wasn’t even phased from watching her kill someone. She eventually nodded her head and allowed herself to be pulled along.

As the skipped along, if they reached a dead end, Seth would carve a X in the ground with a pickaxe. The pair had freed three groups of captives, Seth incapacitated three watchers then took their belongings, and the goblin killed those three watchers. Seth explained the same thing every time, and the captives just followed them, as they realized how easily Seth defeated the watcher and how the hooded person finished the job. They gathered hope, especially when they heard another mercenary would come back and lead them to freedom. Some were discouraged hearing about the minotaurs, but other captives would start speaking up for them, even though they haven’t met them. When Victor finally caught up to them, the captives were relieved seeing the kid wasn’t lying, they were so filled with hope.

The pair had freed four groups of captives this time, when Seth reached the fifth watcher, and discharged lightning on him, the watcher turned around and looked at Seth, and the group behind him.

“So a fellow lightning user I see…aren’t you the new puppy? You have quite a few slaves to be a new watcher. That’s no good, a dog that bites that feeds him”

“I’m no dog, I’m a wolf”

“like it makes a difference”

This was a veteran watcher, he has a strong resistance to lightning, so this was bad match up against the surprise attack. The veteran watcher kicked Seth away, as he withdrew a black iron whip. The malleability and mana conductivity of the black iron, made it an excellent choice for a whip, but not many watchers could use one and even less would attempt to use one.

Seth placed both of his hands behind his back, to hide him opening a portal behind him, as he withdrew two black iron swords. The watcher swung his whip at Seth, and he blocked by crossing the two swords.

Seeing his whip blocked, the watcher laughed and unleashed a flurry of attacks towards Seth. No matter how Seth blocked or parried, the next strike came just as quickly, preventing Seth from coming closer or counter attack.

Eventually Seth was stuck on the defensive, until three fireballs crashed into the watcher. Seth used this opportunity to close the distance between the two him, and before he got close enough to cut him, tip of the whip that has been infused with lightning aura, stabbed into Seth’s left shoulder and he let out a groan and dropped the sword in that hand.

“Cocky little brat, don’t think I’m so weak, that I can’t the two of you, even if one of you, is a mage. I was almost a b rank adventurer.”

The watcher blocked the fireballs by using his aura to cancel them out right before contact. Then he infused his aura into the whip and uncoiling it, making it as unbent as a spear before stabbing towards Seth.

Seth used mana reinforcement , then added fire mana to his dominant leg and his right arm to further increase the strength and explosiveness in them, as he switch the sword he was holding into a reverse grip. He stomped down with his dominant leg, and rotated his right side backwards as he whipped his right arm forward, and launched his sword as if a javelin.

The sword hit the watcher in the chest, and launched him into the cavern wall, causing him to slump over and drop the whip.

“Run to the mage, and all of you get of here.”

“Shouldn’t we work together and finish him?”

“hes stronger than he looks, and he easily countered your fire. Escort everyone back to entrance and bring Victor. Otherwise all of these people will get killed or they might betray us, to get on his good side, if things look bad.”

“…”

Everyone went silent, neither the goblin nor the captives could refute him. The goblin led the new group of captives to her group, then led them back to the way they came from.

Seth picked up the sword he dropped not too long ago. Seth was irritated, that though he possessed several elements, none of them were capable of healing. Seth knew the watcher was pretending to be vulnerable, as he only dropped the whip when he slumped over, and his hand was laying on top of it. If hitting the wall knocked him unconscious, he would’ve dropped the whip then. Seth could also feel the strong killing intent emanating from him.

Seth put the black iron sword away, and withdrew his great sword. Seth activated mana reinforcement and incorporated it with lightning mana.

“I guess I should get my sword, since he hasn’t moved for a while.”

Seth watched the watcher, as he walked closer. The watcher slowly gripped the whip as Seth’s footsteps drew near. But just when he did, Seth stopped walking. The watcher panicked, as he realized from that last exchange, the kid might be stronger than him, and might be holding back. This kid manage to parry all of his hit, while the only hit he landed was a surprise attack, and the counter attack was worse than his.

“Urgh…he’s bleeding really badly…maybe he’s dead.”

The watcher regained his confidence, remembering, this monster was still only a brat. Besides, he’s unarmed, he dropped one sword and the other one is stabbing him. The watcher waited for the footsteps to get closer, then infused his remaining aura into his whip. When he felt the sword loosening from his chest, he stabbed the whip towards the direction the footsteps came from.

The watcher felt the hit was empty, and opened his eyes, to see the little brat smirking, while crouching next to him, while holding a great sword, stabbed into the ground. He just couldn’t process what happened, when the kid was heading towards him. His shocked face was like the beginning of the brat’s mischief.

Seth drug the great sword through the ground, as he swung the flat side of the great sword towards the watcher, blowing him away. Seth didn’t want to accidentally kill him, so he used the ground to weaken the hit.

“Want to see something cool?”

“Not really.”

“Too bad.”

As soon as Seth finished speaking, he raised the great sword, above his head and began to repeat the movements he did on the lake, gathering all his strength, and did a vertical slash. It was a mighty show of strength, as the pressure of the slash, created a breeze towards the watcher.

“so you wanted to fan me? Pretty cool?”

“Wait… it was supposed to glow, and to boom, and be a huge cut. It would’ve been cool. I did it before, it’s different now.”

“Wait a brat like you already been enlightened? But it makes sense that it’s called the wise man’s blessing and the fool’s curse. Hahaha , using it without practice, will surely lead to your death.”

“Actually it will lead to your death. You’re no threat to me. I just played around because there were witnesses, I couldn’t show too much.”

“Don’t underestimate me you bastard. I was so close to being a b rank.”

“my parents were married when i was born, so I’m no bastard. But basically, you couldn’t become b rank, so you became a nameless criminal?”

“my name is….”

Seth used nameless step to close the distance between the two of them, and smashed the flat side of the great sword into the watcher’s head. When Seth saw the watcher go unconscious, he searched the watcher and took his whip and his other belongings. Seth continued to skip through the cave. He figured Victor and the goblin would return before the watcher woken up, and even if he did, unarmed he wouldn’t be much of a threat, even armed you wouldn’t be much of a threat to Victor.