Maria carried me and used her wings to soar through the sky. As embarrassing as it looked, I enjoyed the cool breeze. On the other hand, Alpha traveled on foot. With her strength and speed, buildings were nothing. Like the greatest athlete on an obstacle course, she dashed through and leaped above all of them with ease.

After a few minutes, we noticed several explosions near the north wormhole.

"I guess that's our destination, huh?"

How am I going to help? My curse isn't all-powerful. It's more on the defense side of things.

"Right~ By the looks of it, there are two hundred of them. And..." She paused briefly to gauge the strength of their forces. "The middle seems to be the weakest link. The strongest group probably entered from the wormhole first to clear the path, leaving the weakest last. So, the middle—where the wormhole is located—consists of the weakest. I don't possess enough combat experience to accurately gauge the power of so many people so this is merely my speculation. What do you want to do, Cain?"

I don't know any better, so it's best to trust Maria than my gut.

"I'll take care of the middle then," I declared.

"Then I'll take care of the left side~"

"Throw me down."

"Eh?! Why?"

"Just trust me."

I need to be put in a life-threatening situation.

"Alright. I'll trust you, then..." She kissed my cheek before tossing me into the middle link which consisted of roughly fifty criminals. "Goodluck~"

Thanks to her peck which temporarily activated my King's Eye, and the life-threatening fall that activated my curse, I landed safely.

The question is...

My abrupt appearance caught the attention of the fifty criminals.

How the hell am I going to deal with this? I bet Maria would tell me to just go with the flow.

I tugged a smile while unsheathing my sword. The criminals grew hostile and pointed their weapons at me.

I guess I'll do just that!

First, I needed to assess the situation. The siren was not only to notify all combatants that enemies were invading but also to alert the non-combatants that they had to evacuate. But this was the same faction that abducted people daily which generally required the stealth spell. With that being said, while some did abide by the siren and fled, the greedy doctors and apprentices saw this as an opportunity to abduct disposal guinea pigs.

While this meant that I wasn't alone, they merely had stealth going for them. It was a low-level one at that, which I said before would be disrupted upon physical contact. Simply put, their stupid attempt would be futile.

That is...unless I make use of them.

Based on the information I've gathered over the past three weeks, the best place to lie in wait would be in the alleys.

Damn simpletons. This is your punishment for following a simple pattern like NPCs.

First, I needed to provoke them so they could follow me.

"How long are you shitfaces going to stare?" I grinned and extended my hand to show them my middle finger. "Does it really take that long for fifty armed men to decide on how to deal with a single person? Y'all are looking like a bunch of pussies~"

Among the roughly fifty men, a man broader than the rest took the stage. He had an axe in his hand.

"Courting death, kid?" He spat. "That attire... ya' aren't from around her', are ya'? Best ya' piss off, huh?!"

"Hm~ that's right. I'm a kid that doesn't know any better. So, dear sir..." I ran towards him. "How about you teach this reckless kid a lesson?"

Unfortunately, they didn't respond aggressively to my first taunt, so I had to resort to something more provocative.

What's more provoking for a man than having his pride on the line?

I threw a light slash at him. Taking his physique into consideration, and his heavy weapon—I wouldn't be able to defend against any of his attacks. Furthermore, I merely wanted to provoke him, not a frontal assault. Thus, I decided to use a light slash to easily draw into his ego zone while retracting just as quickly.

"Hmph! Alright then!"

As I expected, he responded with a heavy vertical slash which struck into the ground after I jumped to the back. I swiftly assessed my surroundings, concluding that it was time for phase two of my plan.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Criminals have a slightly different way of protecting their pride. Usually, someone would protect their pride by winning in a 1v1, but criminals can protect theirs by simply killing the target. Which means...the others will act. Criminals work as one, so if one of their pride is on the line, all of theirs are.

After I jumped away from the man who carried himself like their boss, the rest began to move.

Now that they're resorting to murder, they would have to cut off my escape route by encircling me.

I swiftly turned my back to their boss and immediately took a run at the one and only escape route.

"Chickening out?! I don't think so!" Hell-bent on killing me, their boss threw his axe at me. Accurately so! But...

They are dealing with someone who survives through coincidences.

The distance of the axe was coincidentally an inch off from hitting me. Also, due to my quick reflexes, I managed to escape before being encircled.

Now the fun begins.

I ran through the streets and the fifty men followed suit. After two minutes, we ran past countless alleys which I was obviously aware that doctors and apprentices were lurking in. Taking the opportunity that I provided, they flanked the group of fifty men from behind, and those in the current alleys ambushed them from the sides.

But like I said, they don't have any offensive spells. What I want from them is simple.

After the enemy's entire group became aware of the pincer attack, their attention shifted from the 'harmless kid' to the countless doctors and apprentices. Witnessing everything unfold as I predicted, I licked my lips and grinned.

That's right! Scapegoats and human shields. Sacrifice yourselves for the sake of my victory. This is my revenge for making my past three weeks a living hell! Now then...

Taking advantage of the enemy's ignorance, I swiftly killed them with a single attack. Stabbing their heart; decapitating them; slitting their throat; attacks piercing their vitals. Like my partner in crime, both, my sword and I were drenched in blood. As for the ground, it was painted in blood and decorated with limbs and organs.

The unfazed expression of everyone spoke mountains about what Alpha said. Every alien was comfortable with gory situations. As for the majority of humans, I couldn't say the same. If a war broke out while society remained normal and peaceful, more than half of humanity would be demoralized by the gore of the first few victims.

Surprisingly, the doctors and apprentices were putting up a good fight. They made use of injections to drug their foes, causing effects such as numbness and fatigue.

However, I need you guys to die with them.

If any survivors were to remain, they would report to Maria, Alpha, or Dr. Stein and it'd come to light that I didn't defeat all of them alone. It wouldn't ruin my reputation per se, but compared to single-handedly defeating fifty criminals, my reputation wouldn't increase much. I needed something big to give Dr. Stein a strong impression. While I did have a letter from the king, I still couldn't trust him to do whatever he pleased with my body. Even if I couldn't trust him, at the very least I needed to make him trust me.

If push comes to shove, I'll kill them myself and make it look like they were killed by the criminals.

Fortunately, my worries were unnecessary. Approximately half of the doctors remained, and all of the apprentices died—distinguished by the former wearing black, and the latter wearing white. As for the criminals, there were about ten left. No longer confident in their 'easy victory', their boss went on a rampage, mercilessly butchering the weak and incompetent doctors.

Thanks for doing the dirty work, big guy. I will make sure to give you a swift death later.

After killing the nine other criminals, all that remained was the boss. However, I didn't attack him yet. I was waiting for him to kill all of the doctors, also in the hope that they would at least tire him out.

Wasting time, I decided to clean my face and the blood on my sword. Ignoring the grotesque sound of crushed guts and minced limbs. The music didn't last long, but it was enough for me to finish my ministration. As for the boss, he was struggling to catch his breath and battle his fatigue.

Shortness of breath? Also, sedation, huh?

"Sorry to disturb your conversation with your slumber, big man, but this kid here is still waiting for you to reprimand him~" I slowly closed the distance between us. "Speaking of slumber, I suggest sleeping in a coffin. It's very comfortable." I grinned at my assured victory, and then I clenched the hilt of my blade. "Want me to put you in one~?"

"You damn cunning brat...hah...hah...hah...fight me...like a man..."

"What the fuck are you talking about after jumping me with about fifty people?"

"...Pathetic..."

"Huh? I can't hear you~"

"PATHETIIIIIIICCCCC!"

The man gritted his teeth and struck his left arm with his axe. The excruciating pain diverted his body's attention from his fatigue to the throbbing pain in his left arm. Apparently, his strong will resolved his breathing problem—well, more like he just ignored it.

"ENOUGH OF YOUR SHENANIGANS, KID! I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR TINY ASS TO SHREDS!"

His terrible dialect was fixed too. Also, what's this about my ass?

"I agree. Let's end this. It'd be embarrassing if I had half the amount they dealt with but still finished last." Ending all small talk, I lunged at him.

Thanks to his injured left arm, he could only use his right one. Thus, the weight and strength of his attacks were halved. Also, due to his other injuries, lurking fatigue, and ragged breathing, his movements were slow and sloppy.

I will end this with one attack.

He threw the same heavy vertical slash, but with it being half as strong and heavy as before, I had enough strength to parry it. Or so I thought, but... my King's Eye deactivated abruptly. Failing to block and parry it, I had no choice but to dodge. But just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I slipped from the blood on the ground.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" I screamed in agony.

I was too damn complacent!

As if fate was finally against me, the man's axe took a clean slice at my right arm, severing it. My sword was now out of my reach—the same could be said about my right arm.

Where's my damn adrenaline when I need it?!

Instead of relying on adrenaline, I used my rage as fuel. I gritted my teeth to bear with the pain. With the man's axe stuck in the ground, he was unable to pull it out with his current strength. I decided to use the axe as leverage to jump at the man and gouge out his throat. I latched myself onto him, struggling to pull it out.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" we both cursed.

Realizing that it was futile to pull out his weapon, he released hold of it and responded to my onslaught by ruthlessly clenching my neck effortlessly with his gigantic hand.

My strength was deteriorating, and my consciousness was fading. My sight became hazy, slowly blacking out.

Fuck...

I lost hold of his throat—no, I lost hold of my entire body. I couldn't feel anything. But just before the last pixel of my vision faded, I saw the man's head drop from his body, and his blood splattered onto my face.

I dropped to the floor, still losing consciousness due to the blood loss of my severed arm. I then saw someone standing above me, looking down. All I saw were blurred colors... silver, red, and black. I then heard a deep voice vaguely say something before I lost consciousness.

"Good work. Leave the rest to me."