Ajax hears his heartbeat currently. Why is his heart beating faster?

The human heartbeat beats faster or slower as a physiological response in preparation for something. It may escalate through fear, through anger but that is in preparation for the human body to take a course of action.

Fight or flight.

Ajax’s blood is flowing, of course, but his “blood” isn’t supplying oxygen to his muscles, it isn’t accelerating his thinking. He’s not human anymore, his blood, his ichor, does not need to do that for him. His heart is behaving only as an emotional gauge.

Ajax feels… angry.

He also feels sick. He saw something that was grotesque. It was an exercise of power that made him feel nauseous; it was power taken to its end point in this world. It is power that corrupts the one who wielded it.

Ajax walks forward.

Ajax looks face to face with the individuals who caused his anger. There is a man staring at him. Ajax’s superb eyes can see the man’s green irises through his helmet. This man is a human and he’s holding down another man, a beastkin with long blue hair and a beard.

Ajax also notices another younger man raising his hands over the beastkin man. This younger man is treating the beastkin man of the injury he suffered earlier at the hands of green-eyes. Healing magic is not something Ajax has much idea about.

He doesn’t know that it’s what is responsible for the reasonably high life expectancy in this world. It’s the reason that disease isn’t killing more people here as it did to the humans of his home world prior to the advent of modern medicine.

Ajax notices the third man standing to the side; this was the first one to notice him. All three of these men now have barbute cobalt-blue helmets on their heads. These men don’t always wear these helmets while patrolling but they decided to place them on after…

After noticing Ajax.

Suddenly, the man who was holding down the unconscious beastkin man rushes forward in defense of the two younger men. He acts in a selfless manner and… Ajax is irritated; this same “selfless” man was, just a few moments ago, beating up a tired father.

This green-eyed man is named Budalan. Ajax had been observing Budalan’s actions and behaviours as he went through the night training Arthur and Harry, two classmates from Ajax’s homeworld. Ajax saw Budalan’s behaviour towards the people on the street.

So long as people didn’t talk back, Budalan didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t make a scene, regardless of whether those civilians were human or beastkin. Ajax doesn’t quite understand why this man erupted when he saw a hardworking beastkin man get annoyed.

Ajax didn’t remember it so clearly but the other people on the streets were not simply behaving without talking back to Budalan. Some of the humans might have been convivial but the beastkin that Budalan interacted with were calm outwardly and terrified inwardly.

The uniform of the Linis guard terrifies them because of the actions that these guards can take against anyone in this city with impunity. Especially towards beastkin like them. Their parents had warned them not to disrespect the Linus guards.

A beating was one of the better results.

Linis guard stations come with torture chambers after all. Most of those tortured don’t die. They are released to tell their friends, their family and their children to never betray the guards, to always respect them, to always obey them.

Budalan observes the figure of Ajax before him. It truly is a figure that would warrant immediate caution. Before Budalan is a man wearing a suit of white armour. It wasn’t white as if it was made of animal bones but white… as if the suit itself was constructed of ice.

Budalan can see water vapour leaving the surface of the suit. It’s cold, abnormally cold.

It isn’t solid pieces of armour, it is armour with spaces that allow for easy movement. The armour had thinner areas for the stranger’s elbows, neck, the back of the knee and his groin as well as a few other places.

The white ice helmet on his head seems to be constructed to allow the man before Budalan to speak. There is a separation of the upper part of the helmet from the jaw part. A point of weakness to exploit?

All of this and yet… Budalan cannot feel any sort of magic pressure coming from the man’s armoured body. Budalan at least understands that the man’s armour is constructed of some kind of high level ice magic. The thickness of the armour itself is proof of that.

However, there is no magical pressure accompanying this feat.

“Harry, Arthur, remain behind me until I ask you for support, do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

Arthur and Harry speak in unison and remain behind Budalan. Arthur starts to charge up a long range projectile spell. He’s more of a close range fighter but even he knows that this iceman is not someone he should touch with his armour, let alone his bare hands.

Harry stops his healing to prepare some magic spells of his own. Ghada remains on the ground unconscious.

Ajax ceases his forward motion as soon as Harry stops healing Ghada. Budalan uses this pause as a moment of opportunity. He immediately raises both of his hands in their silvery gauntlets towards Ajax.

In half a second, numerous small beads form midair in front of Budalan’s palms. In the next half second, the beads start spinning rapidly.

“LYUGAAAAA!!”

Budalan screams at the top of his lungs. One half second later, the beads shoot from midair striking Ajax like a storm of bullets. Budalan estimates the nature of Ajax’s white armour.

It’s obviously armour made of ice and considering the fact that the armour is white, it must not be all that strong. It’s probably strong enough to push back against or soften the blow of physical strikes but his ice bullets are a different matter altogether.

Ajax raises his forearms covered in white to protect his eyes; his eyes aren’t covered by armour because that would reduce Ajax’s ability to see in front of him. Budalan smirks while firing.

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White ice is not the strongest ice. It is ice with a lot of impurities from the air, something that Budalan learned while trying to make ice bullets himself. The white ice bullets were weak. He had to train hard to force his ice bullets to form the dense translucent projectiles he needed.

Perhaps the ice on Ajax’s body is cold but will it really be able to withstand such a barrage?

“...What?”

Budalan notices Ajax’s armour. It isn’t even scratched. It doesn’t make any sense to him. Perhaps the armour is thick enough to block the ice bullets, that was a possibility, sure, but… no scratches? None at all?

It’s not merely ice armour. It’s fortified with some kind of alchemy… Ice is notoriously difficult to form magical armour with, the mana cost to force it to remain unbreakable is huge! Why would anyone even try that? Who the fuck is this guy!?

Ajax is unphased.

His armour may be simple ice but the ice has been brought down to a temperature that is far colder than would be found naturally on the surface of this planet. As a result, the ice forming his armour is extremely hard.

This is a consequence of his heat absorption power. He applied levels of cold below the temperature of even solid nitrogen. Layer upon layer of frozen air condensed onto his skin. He was careful to imagine the freezing pattern precisely so that he would still be able to move.

By leaving certain areas of his skin unfrozen, less ice formed at his elbows, groin, neck, jaw and knees allowing true armour rather than a simple frozen self-binding.

Ajax regains his composure and walks towards Budalan again. Budalan understands the situation he’s in right now. He’s facing something… unstoppable. Simple projectiles won’t work. Fighting at close range won’t work unless he wants to die frozen.

“Arthur, Harry, don’t touch this man, you’ll probably be frozen if you get too close. Harry, please use it!”

“Yes, sir!”

Harry brings his hands together to form a triangle, his bare palms pointed at the white armoured Ajax.

“Yoltri Predaza!!”

In one second, an arrow of blazing blue fire launches from the triangle opening of Harry’s hands and fires directly towards Ajax’s head. Not just one arrow, but five in quick succession, each firing one second after the last one.

Harry sees the arrows touch some of the armour and then instantly produce a veil of steam. This steam reduces visibility and hides Ajax’s figure from their eyes.

“Vujuros!”

Arthur launches a wind spell. In an instant, the water vapour created by Harry’s attack striking Ajax’s ice armour dissipates. Now however, Ajax isn’t there anymore.

“Quick! Form a defensive circle!”

Budalan commands Arthur and Harry to join him to form a three person circle with each person facing a different direction. With this formation, they should be able to guard each other’s backs against Ajax’s sneak attacks. Arthur and Harry decide to take out their swords now.

“Aspallan.”

Arthur activates a special body strengthening magic. It has a cost to it but right now, they need to be on their guard against this intruder. Neither Harry nor Arthur understand why Ajax has appeared and, of course, neither of them realize that the armoured man is Ajax to begin with.

“Aspallan Dirma.”

Harry activates a body strengthening magic of a higher level. It is magic that Arthur can also perform but the mana cost is higher as well.

Arthur forgets all about what happened to Ghada at the moment. Harry as well has internalized the meaning of Budalan’s self-sacrificial behaviour and decided to behave the same way for his two comrades here. He’s not going to let anything happen to them, not to Budalan, not to Arthur.

Budalan, who also has his own longsword raised, looks towards the street to see if he can make out any movement. The red moonlight makes the atmosphere that much more ominous--

“Hypocrite.”

Suddenly, Ajax appears before Budalan from his left side. He springs forth from the darkness. Budalan attempts to pierce Ajax’s side with his longsword but Ajax simply dodges this attack. Then, Ajax grabs Budalan by his chestplate using a separation in his armour near his ribs.

Budalan feels the surface of his skin laid over his ribs freeze instantly.

Budalan notices that Ajax’s hand isn’t covered in frost anymore. In fact, at this distance, Ajax could easily have killed Budalan by touching his face through his helmet.

Arthur and Harry notice Ajax’s appearance too late. Budalan is thrown away. Arthur and Harry see Budalan fly through the air straight down the street where he lands on his front.

Harry gets angry.

“AAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

Harry rushes towards Ajax, attempting to cut diagonally through his torso with his longsword. Ajax catches the sword with his bare hands. Harry is then pushed backwards by Ajax. He doesn’t fly so far away, rather, he falls on his back and quickly scrambles up.

“...”

Blood rushes to Harry’s mind. He feels sick. He feels pure hatred and fear coursing through his body. His throat feels pained. His eyes twitch and shake. Harry slowly puts down his sword. He then raises his hands.

He is stiff with fear currently, unable to disobey Ajax.

“This is better… Now, you. Finish healing that beastkin man there.”

“...Wh-What?”

“I didn’t say anything really confusing, did I? You can understand my words, right? Stop looking at me and heal that man over there. Right now.”

“...What are--”

“Right. Now.”

“...O-Ok.”

Harry grits his teeth. He suppresses his hatred, coming up like bile towards the focus of his mind. Harry moves towards Ghada and starts reapplying his healing magic.

Ajax stands before Harry, next to Arthur. He is holding Arthur’s chestplate by a spot behind his neck with his left hand. In his right hand is a knife that he took off of Arthur’s waist belt. Ajax is pointing this knife towards Arthur’s neck.

Arthur can feel the cold knife against his bare neck. He feels sick himself. Not just at being threatened with his own weapon but by seeing Harry’s face as he obeys this man. It’s sickening, Harry should never be made to feel that fear.

Arthur considers escaping from the iceman’s grip. He considers his options. Right now, the iceman is staring closely at Harry. Arthur can tell that this man is acting impulsively. His actions have been… strange.

Arthur might not be able to defeat him but… he can at least get free. Everything else can happen after that point. He can get free and then he can rejoin Harry and Budalan against this iceman and then--

“Be careful, Arthur.”

Just like this, Arthur freezes his train of thought.

In his panic, Arthur seems to have misunderstood who he is facing. Escape is impossible.

“How… do you know my name?”

“I’ve been following you for a while now, of course I learned your names.”

Ghada, who was unconscious earlier, now rests in a state of sleep. His wounds are completely healed, no lingering physical damage remains.

“O-Ok, I’m done. Let Arthur go now.”

“Go over there and heal your boss.”

“Wh-What?”

“Look, he’s coming here, go heal him, I’ll let you.”

Harry looks over to Budalan slowly running over here. His walking is sloppy… This is obviously a trick. A trick to do what though? Harry obviously understands the position that this iceman is in right now. He’s clearly stronger than Budalan and he’s stronger than Arthur as well.

Harry wouldn’t be able to defeat him. Why would this man let Harry heal Budalan? Does he want something with Arthur or--

Budalan trips and falls to his knees. He’s really not doing good at the moment. Harry immediately rushes over to help him, just on instinct.

“Superintendent! Are you ok?”

“I’m alright… what are you doing here? That guy was holding… Arthur, wasn’t he?”

“He ordered me to help you, I don’t know what…”

Harry looks back towards where Arthur was standing with the iceman. Neither of them are standing there anymore.