“Hmm? You’re back again.” [Ryner]

“What are you doing?” [Edwin]

Edwin disregarded Ryner’s question and asked in a friendly manner as he approached his target from behind. The latter didn’t turn around to look at him.

“As you can see I’m randomly carving up a tree.” [Ryner]

Ryner, who was squatting down, stabbed the trunk of the tree with a knife in his right hand and carved a vertical line.

“Haha, what is it for?” [Edwin]

The handsome, blonde-haired assassin controlled the tone of his voice and the speed of each step as he measured the distanced to his target. He took a quick look around. The triplets were hiding at a distance behind him. Besides that, there was no one around in the small patch of trees. Even the red puppy was missing. That basically meant that Ryner was alone, so there would be no witnesses.

“Because I have nothing to do.” [Ryner]

“I can see that.” [Edwin]

Edwin was almost there. Only six more steps until he was close enough to kill him. He just needed to keep acting nice so that his target wouldn’t be suspicious of anything.

“Well, no, I lied.” [Ryner]

“Really?” [Edwin]

“You don’t sound surprised.” [Ryner]

Four more steps and Ryner still wasn’t looking at him. He was carving an asterisk on the tree.

“I’ve gotten used to it, I guess.” [Edwin]

“Huh. Guess I lied too much.” [Ryner]

Two more steps. Edwin took out a knife from his brown coat and held it tightly.

“There’s actually a good reason why I’m doing this.” [Ryner]

“What would that be?” [Edwin]

“It’s-.” [Ryner]

Without changing the tone of his voice, the blonde-haired man raised his weapon and stabbed at his target’s neck.

“Gah!” [Edwin]

However, the one who felt a burning pain was the assassin himself.

At the last second, Ryner ducked and grabbed Edwin’s right hand that passed over his head by the wrist. Then, he pulled him down towards him as he stabbed the side of his right leg using the knife that he was carving up the tree with. Moreover, he jammed his thumb in his right wrist, forcing him to let go of his weapon.

Edwin grunted in pain, stumbled forward and fell. Ryner released his knife and turned around as he stood up while pushing his attacker’s body to the side. As a result, he slipped from under his right flank while the blonde-haired assassin fell on his back.

“Like I was saying…” [Ryner]

Ryner kneeled on Edwin’s stomach. The latter, while in pain and bleeding from his leg, took out a knife from his sleeves and swung both blades at his waist as a last-ditch effort. However, the sleepy-looking man grabbed his wrists and easily stopped his desperate attack. Then, he forcefully moved his arms and had his opponent stab himself in the shoulders.

“Arrggh!!” [Edwin]

“The reason why I was carving up a tree was to look vulnerable.” [Ryner]

Ryner pulled out the knife stuck in Edwin’s leg and held it to his throat.

“That was sloppy. Your bloodlust was leaking out a bit, like the first time we met.” [Ryner]

“Guh!” [Edwin]

He shifted to the side and stabbed him in the stomach.

“You’re not really cut out for this.” [Ryner]

After getting stabbed four times with blood flowing from his leg, shoulders and stomach, Edwin didn’t have the strength to fight back. He powerlessly lied on the ground while staring up at the sky between the leaves.

“… Ha… Haha… Yeah…” [Edwin]

Still, for some reason, he laughed weakly as red liquid dripped from the corner of his mouth.

“… Mi… Mireille…” [Edwin]

Then, it was tears that flowed out of his eyes.

“Please… *cough*” [Edwin]

He shifted his line of sight to Ryner who was watching him with his sleepy-looking eyes.

“My sister… Please… Help her…” [Edwin]

“Are you seriously making a last request to your killer?” [Ryner]

“Look after her… Please…“ [Edwin]

“You’re really desperate, huh?” [Ryner]

“Please… Please… Please…” [Edwin]

Like a broken recorder, Edwin continuously pleaded until he could no longer speak.

Swiftly, Ryner dragged him on the opposite side of the tree he carved.  As a result, the three soldiers that were spying from afar couldn’t see him anymore.

“He lost faster than we anticipated.” [Triplet]

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One of them said.

“We didn’t learn much about that man’s fighting style.” [Triplet]

Another added as he gripped his sword.

“It doesn’t matter. We go as planned. Follow my lead, little brothers.” [Spear triplet]

The former two, drawing their swords, nodded to their older brother’s words who wielded the magic spear.

Since their assassin was defeated, they approached for their turn.

As if waiting for them to get closer, their target leaned his upper body out from behind the tree and threw three knives at their heads. The bearded soldier blocked it with his spear while his two little brothers dodged or got hit. The one who received it on his forehead merely frowned in annoyance and wasn’t injured at all since the blade harmlessly bounced off his skin.

“Ah, you guys are pretty thick-skinned.” [Ryner]

As if that preemptive strike was the starting signal, the triplets simultaneously ran towards their prey at full speed. Ryner also met their attack head on. However, instead of colliding, the triplets began running around him while keeping a fixed distance. Their speed was akin to a galloping horse and their eyes were carefully watching their enemy.

One soldier slashed at Ryner’s back and as he moved to dodge, another quickly attacked from the opposite direction. Furthermore, the third one supported the two by either jumping in or shooting a fireball to seal his movements. Whenever a tree was in their way or their foe shrewdly used it to cover his back, the tree brothers would cut it down like paper.

“Not bad. Guess this’ll be some good exercise.” [Ryner]

Ryner commented as he kept dodging the attacks that came from all directions.

“You may have beaten an A rank like Bern, but so have we.” [Spear triplet]

The bearded man said as he and his brothers coordinated their attacks, making sure to use hit-and-run tactics and to not let Ryner single one of them out.

“You may have more mana than us, but you’re fighting alone while we brothers stand together. We’ll slowly wear you out and deliver the finishing blow.” [Spear triplet]

Wielding the Artifact which had mysterious enchantments that increased his strength, the oldest brother felt empowered and uselessly bragged about their combined prowess, even though he was normally cool and collected. His emotionless voice held a hint of pride as he told Ryner how they would manage their mana to minimize its use through teamwork. As such, he, who was alone and under attack from all sides, would burn through his mana pool much faster.

“We’ve taken down both humans and beasts with our combined strength. You can’t win.” [Spear triplet]

The bearded soldier sent a signal to his two brothers with just his eyes. They both understood and started chanting.

“Blame your bad luck for making an enemy of us, the Triple Wind Fangs of the Savage Hurricane.” [Spear triplet]

“Pfft!” [Ryner]

His little brothers both released from their hands a mass of wind like huge, hurling hammers. The spell was shot not at Ryner, who had a hand over his mouth, but at his feet. The ground was gouged out. The resulting shockwave assaulted their target and the grass, dirt and pebbles flew everywhere, which blocked his sight. The triplets took this opportunity to deliver an attack from three different directions. The older brother went first while his siblings would follow up in case he missed.

They expected Ryner to at least be stunned for a second. Yet, betraying their expectations, he came out of the cloud of dust, rolled up into a ball, and flew towards the bearded soldier like a shooting bullet.

Wielding his Artifact, the older brother widened his eyes in surprised, but didn’t lose a second to react and accurately thrusted out his weapon. However, while spinning, Ryner used his hands to lightly hit the shaft downward just before the tip of the spear hit him. Then, he uncurled himself, straightened his legs and delivered a powerful kick to the magic spear wielder. Both of the soles of his feet made contact with the blue-haired man’s face.

Without wasting time, Ryner pointed his hands at the two little brothers who were bewildered by the sudden flying kick while still approaching with swords held high. They thought they would cut him down for sure. However, Ryner launched his next strike by flicking at both of them a pebble. The projectiles that were shot at high speed pierced their eyeballs.

“Buergh!” [Spear triplet]

“Arggh!!” [Triplet]

“Gaahhh!!” [Triplet]

The oldest of the triplets was sent flying backwards with a broken nose while his two siblings were blinded in one eye that was leaking tears of blood. In a moment, all three B ranks were simultaneously stopped in their tracks.

Ryner landed on his hands and feet like an agile beast and leaped at the soldier on his right that was groaning in pain. This one, enduring the agony, swung his sword downward. But, Ryner sidestepped lightly and hit the flat of the sword to the right using his left hand. Spinning once, he circled to the back of the soldier and snapped his neck using both hands.

“NOOOO-!!!” [Triplet]

Seeing his brother killed in his hazy vision, the other one-eyed triplet charged at his black-haired enemy in a mad frenzy.

Anticipating his blow, Ryner dodged the first few attacks by a paper-thin margin. Then, he spun to the right as he ducked under the horizontal slash and unleashed a low sweeping kick at the same time. The furious soldier began falling on the side after getting his feet knocked from under him. Ryner kept his momentum, spun around once more like a top and delivered a diagonal kick from the lower left to the upper right. His leg hit the side of the triplet’s neck and loudly broke it. The blue-haired man grandly rotated in place like a wheel and fell hard on the ground.

“That was close. I nearly got hit back there. Your name was so lame I lost focus for a sec.” [Ryner]

Ryner casually muttered after he confirmed his death. Then, using a strange accent, he addressed the person that was behind him.

“But, that was some good exercise. Right, mate? [Ryner]

It was at that moment that the last of the three, who was sent flying and crashed against a tree, charged at his back. As Ryner turned around using his left leg as a pivot, he dodged by a hair’s breadth and firmly held onto the shaft with his left hand.

“You killed my brothers!” [Spear triplet]

The oldest sibling’s voice was oozing with bloodlust and his voice hissed out from between his teeth in almost a whisper. One could tell that he had lost his composure by his blood-covered face that was warped in fury and his faintly trembling shoulders. His confident and emotionless gait was no more, though it couldn’t be helped since in the few seconds it took him to rouse his hazy consciousness after crashing through a tree, his brothers were dead with twisted necks.

“You killed Harry and Henry!” [Spear triplet]

“Harry and Henry? That’s their name? Then, could it be that you’re… Hairy? Get it?” [Ryner]

“RAAAAAARGHHH!!” [Spear triplet]

The bearded soldier roared in rage and tried to move his spear, but to no avail. He began punching and kicking his hated foe, but Ryner parried and blocked them all perfectly.

“How!!? WHY!!? Our teamwork was perfect!!” [Spear triplet]

“I fought worse, or rather, did you really beat an A rank with that?” [Ryner]

“I’LL KILL YOU!!! AS THE LAST TRIPLE WIND FAN-!!” [Spear triplet]

“Don’t say that name! I’ll start laughing again!” [Ryner]

“DIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!” [Spear triplet]

In his rage, he activated his Artifact’s special attack that could freeze anything the magic spear’s blade touched, but since Ryner was holding onto the shaft, it didn’t do much good. Still, he could feel the cold air wafting from it.

“Oh? So this is what your spear can do.” [Ryner]

As such, Ryner took out from his pocket dimension his own spear, or rather, his Heaven’s Blade, with his free hand. The remaining triplet went wide-eyed when he saw the weapon that was pulled out of nowhere.

“This is what mine can do.” [Ryner]

“Sh-!” [Spear triplet]

Somehow, he managed to react in time and caught the shaft of the spear. But, he wasn’t able to stop the thrust because of the difference in power and his stomach was stabbed deeply.

“Guh!” [Spear triplet]

Then, electric current ran through him and coursed throughout his whole body.

“AGAAAAAHHHH!!!” [Spear triplet]

The bearded soldier screamed in pain as he convulsed from getting zapped. Blue lightning flew and cackled about as the Heaven’s Blade thoroughly fried him. After a few seconds, while letting out smoke and smelling like burnt meat, his hands let go of his Artifact and his legs could no longer support him. Ryner pulled out his spear and let the charred body fall on the ground.

Then, after storing the Heaven’s Blade in his pocket dimension, he went to the tree that he carved and plunged his hand in the ground near it. From the earth, he pulled out what looked like a pod that could hold an adult. A huge glass allowed others to see whoever was inside it.

“Let’s see, I’ve got some new uniforms, the bomb’s ready, Mi’s asleep in one of these… Yeah, I’m good.” [Ryner]