Chapter 38: Prince and promises
In Buddhism, there is a famous teaching: Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Fearless was not a Buddhist and the context of that teaching was different, however, somehow that famous teaching summed up his lifestyle, only if the part about “Do not dwell in the past” did not apply. Otherwise, Fearless could proudly proclaim that he was a person who solely lives in the moment, which meant that he was a simpleton who lived without thinking about the consequences of his action.
“What have I done?” Fearless asked himself, planting his face into his palms.
He did not regret exterminating Ekar and his bunch. He had to do what he had to do. If nobody would volunteer himself for job, Fearless would do it. It was the same back then. It was the same now.
Fearless slumped down on the stack of hay that One-eye has prepared for him as his bedding. It smelled funny but Fearless could not care less. Even horse manure and urine would smell like a perfume to him at the moment. His nostril still filled with the sickeningly sweet smell of death, that sickening odor. Fearless had no idea how to rid himself of it.
That musty smell like rusted iron, the toxic stench of rotten fleshes and feces combined, it clung to his body and it stayed, sticking to him like a cheap perfume. He has thought that it could not get any worse when he was performing the burial cremate for those unlucky souls at the temple of the Dark God and the robbed caravan. The tent that Ekar erected stood to challenge that belief. That tent was hell on earth, an infested hotbed of everything that was evil.
Fearless felt that if he were being forced to do a sanity check at the moment, he would bomb it without a doubt. It was as if everything around him was designed to break and cripple his sanity.
No longer had the wind of winter blown inside his mind or the chirping of the cicada. It was blank, a desert of white. Fearless truly had no idea how he should proceed.
He told himself that if Bloodbeard was a discounted version of King Agamemnon who fought the Trojan War and Fearless was an upgraded version of Calchas the seer, Fearless has screwed up very badly in contributing to the cause.
Ekar was a useful tool for Bloodbeard on any battlefield and outside of the battlefield.
On a battlefield, Ekar was extremely useful since his main attribute is Might. Ekar gained a lot of Might as he leveled up. He can tank a lot of hits from his opponents and dishes out devastating counterattacks. Also, he possessed two useful skills
Outside the battlefield, Bloodbeard would send the most unruly bandits and the most treacherous one to Ekar, and Ekar would show Bloodbeard the result. The two of them would play a good cop & bad cop routine on those unruly people until those people became broken, bendable and obedient to Bloodbeard.
Ekar would commit all the atrocities that Bloodbeard had no gut or balls to commit himself in order to terrorize their enemies. Bloodbeard only need to give an order and Ekar would execute them.
Ekar was something of a champion among Bloodbeard’s army, a discounted version of Achilles or Ajax perhaps, and Fearless has just executed him along with his troops, a bunch of discounted Achilles’ myrmidons.
However, even if Ekar was a discounted version of Ajax, he was without a doubt, a cornerstone of Bloodbeard’s horde.
Yet, he was killed too easily. His Might attribute would have made it impossible for Fearless to fight him if this was ROC the game. His armor rating would have made it impossible for Fearless to wound him. His large health pool and his high attack rating would have destroyed Fearless in a matter of five seconds.
However, the Might attribute of Ekar, no matter how high it was, it would not protect him from a thirty meter high free-fall. Perhaps, if Ekar were a Garuda, a witch, a dragoon, or a warlock, the result would be very different.
Fearless could only acknowledge that his skill was seriously broken.
He did not have to fight anyone, just teleport himself to the sky and let the gravity do all the dirty work. It worked especially well on heavily armored targets like Ekar. The heavier they were, the harder the fall.
Though, if this was within the realm of the game, Fearless would not expect the skill
Fearless has tried to use three of his skills
There would be no castle, fortification, divine relic, or defensive magic in existence to stand against something like that.
Fearless doubted that even if a Might type Demon Lord was successfully summoned into this world, facing against that
“O, Joy.”
Fearless sighed again. The logics that applied in the game and Earth might not apply to this world. In this world, the game logics and the Earth’s logics became mixed up in a messy jumble. This world was like the intersected area between two intersecting circles that were Earth and ROC the game.
Fearless has been sighing for a while now. He regretted making neither the decision to execute Ekar nor the decision to make a red rain of worms.
Fearless take pride in being a human and Ekar and his bunch are worms, of course, it was either him or them. And there was no them the moment the wind of winter started howling inside Fearless’ head. Winter was not the season for worms. Their kind can only live and prosper in the heat of summer.
Instead, Fearless was worrying about how he should talk his way out of this trouble. At the same time, he wanted to run away very badly and stopped associating himself with Bloodbeard and his bandits.
Fearless had no doubt that if he wished to run now, there would be nobody within Bloodbeard’s army could catch him. After spending a nearly fruitless morning to exterminate a bunch of worms, Fearless has leveled up for the first time since he said goodbye to Iliva, that was the amount of harvest he managed to reap.
Ekar must have been grinding his level for sometimes, despite being the kind of parasitic worm he was. Fearless gained a total sum of two levels from killing Ekar alone. The game script seemed to recognize the little duel Fearless had with Ekar as a rebellion, which was seriously funny because that was the shortest rebellion in the history of rebellions.
As the result of winning that duel against Ekar, Fearless has reached Level 5 now. He possessed a sum of 5 ability points from his leveling and distributed them evenly among his skills.
He added an ability point into
Fearless understood that he was a utility general by the role he was given, therefore he invested his ability points across his skills. The only skill that was not accessible to him at the moment was his ultimate skill:
After investing the second ability point into The Magician, the effective range of the skill improved, jumping from a roughly 30 meters effective range to roughly 50 meters while the mana cost to activate the skill was cut down by a fifth. Ekar’s lackeys became the guinea pigs for Fearless to test his skill, and they served their purpose.
With
Yet…
“And what should I do with you people?”
Those nine women Fearless has saved, he had no idea what he would do with them. Healed them he did, unchained them he did, made One-eye to give them clothes to wear he did, and Fearless had no idea what the next step to take.
They knelt in front of him, huddling to each other, groveling still as though they were dogs. Fearless freed them of their chains and collars with the sharpened edge of Enfermé. Freed them from their shackles he did, however, these women were still slaves and dogs of Ekar. Even the tiniest of movement that Fearless made would scare them. Even the sound of him clearing his throat would make them cringe.
They have no courage to look at Fearless in the eyes. Their gazes cast down to the ground, always. If they looked at Fearless, they would look at the sole of his feet, his shadow and no more than that.
When Fearless commanded them to look at him in the eye, it took them over a full two minutes to mutter the courage to do so. Their eyes were hollow, scarred and devoid of purpose. There was nothing in those listless murky eyes, not hope, not courage, not hatred, nothing but plain old fear.
Words, no matter how gentle they were would not reach these women. In fact, the gentlest of words terrified these women more than anything. That alone gave an idea to Fearless of how Ekar reduced these women to such pitiful state.
They were pitiful, looking at those women Fearless was reminded of a groveling boy on a summer evening. They were pitiful, Fearless thought. Even though he could see their exposed flesh, their chest, thighs, and more through the clothes One-eye provided, Fearless felt not a single millimeter of lust within him. He thought that they were women only in shape.
Ekar called them his dogs, and Fearless thought that Ekar has really transformed them into his dogs. They looked like beaten dogs, forever scarred, forever cowering to man, forever distrusted the hands of man.
Fearless sighed. He would hug them and try to mend their scars, if and only if he had the time for that. At the moment, Fearless had his hand full with his own matter. These women were nothing but a burden to him in their current state. Fearless could not picture himself relying on them for even the simplest of tasks. He could not rely on them for anything, that he understood.
Yet, Fearless has saved these women from Ekar, not fully, but he did to a certain extent. He could not let the worms had their ways with these women again.
“Might as well considering them as a handicap,” Fearless quietly muttered, convincing himself that he had enough capacity to take them in. He knew that he was being goddamned stupid and he knew that. He had all the problems in the world to solve and these women should not be one of them. Yet, somehow, they did, a problem of his. He started to suspect that Clariciel all along has engineered the current development. That would explain that faint smile she had when she bid her farewell to him. Fearless mockingly laughed at himself for sounding like a conspiracy theorist.
He’s getting more and more insane ever since the moment when he first arrived at this bizarre world.
Taking these women under his wings at the moment was the act of masochism and stupidity.
Fearless knew that he could only laugh. What else could he do but laugh?
If this was a business and Fearless was the owner, the decision of including these broken women with him would have run this business down to the ground. Cutting down on the burden was a logical choice.
If this current situation was a game of ROC, Fearless had only himself to count on. It was like playing the game with a bunch of newbies who knew nothing about the game while facing a group of veterans. Fearless would not have FY on his side with his usual grand stratagem prepared for every situation. He would not Misery to run decoy for him. He would not have bases and support readily provided to him by Merleon and Fantasy.
He was truly alone in this world, an alien.
Within the depth of his mind, Fearless cursed the developers and his fans for including him in this world without asking for his permission. He loved this world when it was a game but it did not mean he wanted to live inside it. Only a lunatic would want to live in a world that was constantly in a state of perpetual war for the entertainment of people.
Fearless was exhaust within his mind. He knew it’s only a matter of time before Bloodbeard would come looking for him, demanding to know the reason why Ekar was killed.
Fearless devised several sale pitches within his mind to prepare for that. His mind was working, but barely. His mind worked at the abysmally slow speed when he compared it to the usual speed, and sometimes, it disconnected for unknown reasons.
His magic coins kept spinning within his sweaty palms but none of his problems was resolved as usual. At one point, he even told himself “Fuck that,” and prepared to give Bloodbeard to the same treatment as Ekar and then assumed the bandit lord’s identity with
It was then, Fearless asked himself what did he wanted the most. He thought he might as well aim for a single target.
He resignedly sighed, sinking his back into the stinking stack of hay that he was provided. The sound of him diving into the hay made those women cringed even further. Fearless lamented within his mind that he was really better off without them.
Nobody in this world could give Fearless what he truly desired, not himself, not Clariciel, not the gods and goddesses and not even the Demon Lords. Fearless sighed again. He wished that someone would give him a something with high alcohol content at the moment. He would drink away his problems. He would drink until all of his problems stopped being problems.
“One at a time,” Fearless exhaled al the depressed air within his lungs, muttering FY’s favorite phrase, “One at a time.” That was FY’s style and motto, never Fearless. FY would deal with his problem one at a time. That was the opposite of Fearless.
Fearless took a deep breath, trying to ignore the lingering scent of death wrapping around his half-naked body. He tried to think of positive things to rouse himself up. He needed to stay positive.
Fearless bounced off from his humble bedding and the women sharing the room with him cringed, huddled to the corners. Fearless push them into the secluded part of his mind, telling himself that he would deal with them when he had the time.
Ignoring the cowering women, Fearless unpacked his luggage to find one of his SSR ranked items and put it on. For the first time in weeks or months, he was Fearless of The Alliance again.
The black and gold of the uniform fit his body perfectly. It felt like it was tailor-made for him, unlike the Greyscale ‘s loose and baggy hooded robe which he wore throughout his journey across the Bison Prairie. Fearless’ left arm was 0.5 centimeters longer than his right, and this uniform fitted his body perfectly. It’s bizarre. Fearless thought that it was impossible for the developers to know this detail and coded his uniform to fit his size, just like the many unresolved mysteries around this strange world.
Fearless did not believe that he was a result of a piece of codes came to live. It’s hard to believe. It was too surreal. It’s impossible. He has thought about that during the time he traveled with Iliva and throughout his journey across the Bison Prairie. He theorized that he was trapped in some kind of obscured government-involved virtual reality experiments like those popular science fictions.
Then, Fearless’ ears picked up those heavy footsteps. They were rage. They were remorse. They were confused. They were shame. Fearless heard them long before the women could. He has wasted too much time thinking about something worthless, and now his biggest trouble is at his doorstep.
Fearless took a deep breath. He opened the creaky termite-eaten door of his room and closed them behind his back. It would not take a genius to guess the identity of the person who was climbing the stairs.
Fearless would greet that person on his own term. He slowly descended the stairs with his hands behind his back, striding with casual and regal pace.
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Fearless thought that Bloodbeard lost his tongue for a moment. The bandit lord stood and stared at Fearless with blank eyes. He looked like he was about to scream at Fearless with his thundering voice and all of a sudden, his tongue was lost and the bandit lord just stood gagged in silence.
Fearless was not sure if the bandit lord’s reaction had anything to do with his own nonchalance or his uniform. However, the sudden pause in the bandit lord’s tempo gave Fearless an advantage in this conversation. Fearless seized it.
“Why are you so out of breath?” asked Fearless. Bloodbeard obviously did not look like he was out of breath but Fearless thought that it would be a good line to start the conversation.
“Uncle, you killed Ekar and his Yellers. Why?”
Bloodbeard’s voice boomed like thunder within the narrow stairway of the guard tower.
Fearless immediately decided that it was not good for his own eardrums to talk with Bloodbeard in the current location. “Come with me,” he told Bloodbeard.
“We are not going anywhere until you explain yourself.” Bloodbeard roared.
Fearless activated “The Magician” to position himself behind Bloodbeard. “If you wanted me to explain myself, come with me first. Before that, calm yourself down.”
“You ask me to calm down?”
“If you, the head and the commander of this army could not calm yourself in this kind of situation, how can you lead them to fight Hyrios?” Fearless retorted, strolling down the stairs with his even and casual strides. He did not bother looking back at Bloodbeard once.
“Uncle, you always talk like you know everything. But do you even know what have you done?”
For once, you have finally asked a very smart question, Fearless thought. If Bloodbeard did not wholeheartedly believe in that strange dream of his, it would have been very different, this entire development. It made Fearless felt disgusted for playing a puppet to whoever constructed that divine dream within Bloodbeard and manipulate the entire situation.
If Bloodbeard was king Agamemnon and Fearless was Calchas, Fearless has been without a doubt executed in this very moment.
“Do you want your questions answered or not?” Fearless did not budge, “If you do, come with me,” he told Bloodbeard the same thing for the third time.
Bloodbeard grudgingly listened and followed Fearless in the end. If only Bloodbeard knew, that Fearless only was bidding his time to deal with the aftermath.
As soon as Fearless was out of the guard tower, there was a buzz in the atmosphere. The packed bailey of the Bundor Bastion that Bloodbeard used to set his barrack buzzed like a beehive in the rain.
Fearless pretended he did not see rows and columns of worms that prostrated on the ground in a hurry. It was a bizarre scene under normal circumstances. However, after Fearless taught a ten of dozens of them to fly in the morning, Fearless expected no less from them.
These worms were religious as they were superstitious. That was a common trait of people of White Winter. A comet crossed the sky could deter them from an easily winnable battle. A lightshow of aurora would make them question the mood and the approval of the gods. Anything strange and unexplained by common sense could be chalked up as the work of the Demon Lord or the Devil or the gods. Above all, these worms were cowards.
Fearless’ sharp ears picked up the quiet prayers to Sinintee, asking for mercy and protection. Those prayers made Fearless wanted to laugh his asses off.
Sinintee was the god of civilization and destruction, which meant he is a god of war in nature. And war favors none, war spares none, and war shows mercy to none.
Craxus was Sinintee’s beloved champion, and still, Sinintee would not protect the man from defeat, pain and death.
All is fair in war. If Sinintee did not protect the souls of the innocence from the like of Ekar, Sinintee would not protect these worms either. Asking mercy from Sinintee is like asking mercy from war itself. These worms obviously prayed to the wrong god. They should have prayed to their Mistress Death instead.
The souls of the living belonged to the four patron deities of Escana. The souls of the dead belonged to Mistress Death.
If the scene was already bizarre to Fearless, it must have been a thousand times more bizarre to Bloodbeard. Fearless has killed Ekar, the master of these worms, yet these worms did not reject or hated him. They worshiped Fearless instead. That was what confused Bloodbeard.
Bloodbeard asked those groveling worms to rise with a surprised voice, but there was no spine in their back. He anticipated anything but the sign of total submission and the prayers of his worms used to revere Fearless. The worms could only stay in that contemptible position of theirs until they received the permission to have their spine back.
Bloodbeard and Ekar reined these worms with strength and terror. Fearless did the same thing, proving that he was stronger than Ekar in a duel and proved that he was also crueler than Ekar at the end of the duel. He used their horde-managing formula but with better efficiency.
Their strategy bit their own asses. However, Bloodbeard did not look like he understood that.
Many of Bloodbeard’ worms that had a bit of brain inside their head, just a small bit but bigger than their groveling kind. They scurried and hid within their erected tents, sticking only their fearful eyes out to observe. Worms like these made Fearless wanted to laugh even more. If they were so afraid of him, they should have escaped when they had a chance.
Then, there was the kind of worms that just woke up despite the rowdiness of the previous duel Fearless had with Ekar, looking between Fearless and their own kinds with confused eyes. Some of them instinctively copied the behaviors of the worms in the surrounding. The other did not. Regardless, they still made Fearless wanted to laugh.
However, Fearless never laugh. He wore a calm and ice-cold mask as he walked through the ranks of prostrating worms. He returned to the place where he exterminated Ekar and the many of his bunch.
There was something mounted on one of the spears Fearless planted to the ground, dripping red and appeared like a shaggy soccer ball. Fearless did not wish to see it. The moment it appeared at the edge of his vision, he turned his sight away. Then, there were the worms that were cleaning the mash of flowing blood that Fearless created. They saw him and immediately called each other to prostrate on the ground. Fearless did not bother to look at them, letting them groveling within that red flowing mess for as long as they wanted.
Fearless did not command them to kneel or to grovel. They did that on their own accord. Fearless being the lover of free will, he let them do what they wanted. Fearless only turned around to see Bloodbeard with a sidelong glance once. The bandit lord was in utter confusion. He had no idea why his worms would react like that.
He brought Bloodbeard to Ekar’s tent that was but a soaring red pyre and a column of black smoke. Grey ashes and fleeting orange embers drifted in the air, carrying with them the charred scent of death. Even the fire could not wipe away the stench of hell that emanated from Ekar's abode.
Only then, Fearless turned around and looked at Bloodbeard in the eyes, “Do you know what happened to the people who have disappeared inside this tent?”
Bloodbeard had the look as though he has expected that question. He looked like a spoiled child, a spoiled forty years old child. It was honestly a punishment for the eyes, Fearless thought and kept it to himself.
“That does not explain why you have to kill him,” Bloodbeard defended himself.
“Do you know? Yes or no.” Fearless firmly asked.
“But…”
“Yes or no?” Fearless did not budge. He knew the answer but he wanted to listen to Bloodbeard’s confession, just to make sure.
“Yes, however…”
“That’s enough. You don’t have to explain,” Fearless waved his hand, much to Bloodbeard’s frustration. “I can imagine what you would tell me. Therefore, we should cut the chase. You wanted to know why I did what I did, correct? I will tell you right now.”
Fearless could feel the sudden drop of temperature in his own voice, hinting of suppressed anger and disappointment. If Bloodbeard had the subtlety to pick that up, great, but if he wasn’t, also great.
If Bloodbeard did not pick them up, Fearless would demonstrate them in the most visually compelling manner to the bandit lord.
“One-eye made a careless slip and the secret is exposed. It’s your mistake to let him know about your vows to me. It was a lot sooner than I have expected but it’s only the matter of time before someone could realize that you receive orders from me.” Fearless criticized the bandit lord. When the bandit lord vowed to Fearless, they were alone, yet One-eye knew about the vow.
Bloodbeard must have told One-eye.
Bloodbeard furrowed his forehead. His deformed and scarred face crumbled, revealing only unrepentant huffishness.
“Let me remind you of your vows and the conditions I asked of you before joining your army. The first clause, I will support you in the shadow without getting in the way of your command. However, I also told you that if situations required, my decisions take precedence over yours. And if our secret would be exposed, I will reveal myself and do what is necessary.”
“And you think that murdering Ekar is necessary?” Bloodbeard gritted his teeth. Losing Ekar all of a sudden over a stupid reason must sting like a tumor appeared inside his brain over the night to him.
“Murder?” Fearless repeated the strange word that Bloodbeard used.
According to the translation he received from Iliva’s pearl, the word “Murdering” that Bloodbeard spoke in the Nord tongue consisted of two words,
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There are only three tenses in the Nord tongue, the past, the present, and the future. To convert a clause into the past tense, people only need to add the word
Because the wording Bloodbeard used, Fearless was confused.
“Are you pretending that you weren’t the person who killed Ekar?” Bloodbeard raged. In his anger, he stepped forward and used his natural height and deep voice to threaten Fearless.
“No, absolutely not. Your word confuses me a little bit. That’s all.”
“Which word?”
“Ramizaar,” Fearless replied, “I certainly did not murder him.”
“Are you still trying to deny it?”
“Look, I gave him a sentence. That’s all I did. The gods decided his fate,” For a moment, Fearless almost carelessly replied, I merely had him exterminated.
Ekar was no human. He was a fucking worm. Killing a worm is not an act of murder. Therefore, it was incorrect for Bloodbeard to accuse Fearless with the crime of manslaying.
Fearless was never a manslayer. He broke many hearts, hurt and destroyed many people. However, he has never killed anybody. That was his line.
“You killed him!”
Bloodbeard angrily roared. Ekar was one of his best commanders. Losing Ekar was a huge blow to the bandit lord.
“No, I gave him a sentence, leaving his fate to the hands of the gods watching above. If the gods decided to spare him, he would be alive and healthy by now.” Fearless explained as though he was chiding Bloodbeard like a child.
“What sentence? You killed him.”
“Let me give you a demonstration.” Fearless sighed. He immediately decided on the target of his demonstration.
Fearless squatted down next to a groveling worm. “Hey, do you think you can help me with a little bit of demonstration? I will demonstrate to your leader what I did to Ekar.”
The worm desperately shook his head. His face clouded with terror and desperation. Tears and snots smeared his face in the quiet shakes. He was so afraid that he could not speak a word. Within a second, his entire body joined the shaking and the worm became a human shaped vibrator.
“Don’t be like that. Just a little bit of demonstration. It won’t hurt anybody,” Fearless grabbed the worm’s shoulder.
The worm screamed for mercy, incoherently was his sound as if he has just received a TPI to his jaws. The worm resorted to repeatedly hit his head against the ground.
“It won’t hurt. Trust me,” Fearless promised and squeezed the worm’s shoulder, beaming a bright smile. He could feel the shiver that ran up from the back of the worm’s spine.
The poor worm immediately turned around, clumsily scurrying away on all fours, screaming and breaking into a full run.
Fearless exasperated. He was bored. The worm did exactly as Fearless has predicted. Fearless wished that the worm would have tried to trust his psychotic smile and braved the demonstration for Bloodbeard to see. That would be shocking, a much welcomed shocking experience that would definitely brighten up Fearless’ shitty mood.
Fearless turned around and pointed at the sky, telling Bloodbeard where to look. Not just Bloodbeard, but all the worms within the surrounding area also looked up as well. Maybe not all. There were more than several hundreds of them still kept their head down as if their heads were glued to the ground.
Fearless activated
The worm’s scream filled the atmosphere. He screamed almost like that of a human. It sounded like the sound of a person would make while standing in front of death’s door as his life flashing before him.
And yet, worms are not human.
The worm kept screaming, on and on, even when he was back to the ground, lying down in a fetal crawl. He was flailing and screaming still. He kept screaming until there was no air in his lungs.
Fearless has perfectly timed the third
When the skydiving worm was a meter away from the ground, Fearless swapped their positions again. Fearless only had one meter from the ground to land and the worm was lying on the ground where Fearless has stood, flailing around with all of his desperation. He was physically unharmed, physically.
Fearless only realized how important this aspect of
Only when the worm has realized that he was still alive, he stopped moving. He used his hands to pat his face, his forehead, his arms and the entire body. And he cried like a newborn would.
“See? It won’t hurt.” Fearless told the worm, looking back at Bloodbeard, pretending he did not hear that farting and excreting sounds coming from his back.
The bandit lord stared at Fearless, jaw slacken.
“My Gods give me this ability for my service.” Fearless shouted, pointed his finger at the sky, “Just like that, if the gods decided that Ekar should live then, he would be still alive like this fellow,” Fearless flexed his thumb to his behind. “The fact that he died with his group, it only meant that the gods had no wish for them to live. Do you hear it? The gods said that worms like Ekar did not deserve to live. They said that Ekar was a massive fool for challenging my authority,”
Fearless’ voice drowned out the buzzes of Bloodbeard’s worm, the howling winds, and even the cracking red pyre that carrying stench of death. The loudness of his voice was one of the things that Fearless has his absolute faith in, even dated back to his primary school days.
The kids around him were bigger and stronger. They punched harder than he did. Their kicks hurt more. However, Fearless only need to have a louder voice than theirs. A single shout that was so loud that it could summon an army of girls to fight for him was all he needed.
His voice, too, was Fearless’ weapon. It was sharpened like the other weapons of his over the years. Fearless used it to make sure that as many of Bloodbeard’s worms could hear him. Regardless, he was only bullshitting.
It was then, the groveling worms and all the worms that witnessed the end of Fearless’ duel with Ekar, they received a grim reminder. They groveled on the ground in disgrace like the worms they were for a damn good reason.
They loudly prayed to the gods for the mercy. Then they prayed to Fearless, “Merciful master advisor, Merciful Master Advisor,” with the same admiring tone that One-eye used to address Fearless.
Even those worms that did not see the duel started to mimic their kind, submitting on the ground and giving praises to their gods and then Fearless.
At first, it was just a few dozens, no more. Then, it went viral in a matter of seconds. Dozens quickly became hundreds and it kept on spreading.
Hundreds quickly became thousands.
Those worms did not just grovel in the ground. They started kowtowing, smashing their head against the ground as they prayed to Fearless, making that thud thud sounds.
Fearless has certainly willed the situation to this end, however, not to such an effect. He expected only 20% to 30% of the current result. Regardless, Fearless realized that this was a chance. He seized the moment, casually shrugging his shoulders while staring at Bloodbeard to challenge the bandit lord for any retort with a faint smile on his lips.
But Bloodbeard could make not retort.
The bandit lord was completely caught in the moment. He looked around with a blank look on his face as if he truly had no idea what was going on in the surrounding. Fearless did not blame Bloodbeard for that.
The atmosphere was filled with the chant of a host of thousands worms.
If only the worms did not call Fearless as “Master Advisor” and chanted “Fearless” instead, Fearless would have thought that he was back on Earth, standing on the greatest stage that the Pro League of ROC had to offer. Their chants rocked the atmosphere. Fearless felt his bones grinded against each other and his blood pumped. It was such an intoxicating feeling. Fearless was made for stages like this.
It was like a cult, those prostrating worms were the members of a cult and Fearless was their revered idol. Among their prayers, Fearless managed to pick up “Avatar of Sinintee” among all the prayers.
That was one of Craxus’ many titles. It was one of the most revered titles that a man of the North could gain.
Bloodbeard was obviously at loss of what to do and ran out of what to say. Killing Ekar should have a negative impact on these worms, killing Ekar should have made it impossible for Fearless to be accepted by these worms. It should have an opposite effect. Yet, as the bandit lord turned around to have a clear look at the worms, his worms, they used to be, and then Fearless, his expression was that of disbelief. Looking at Bloodbeard and his worms, Fearless came to realize just what kind of beings they were.
Bloodbeard and the majority of his worms came from White Winter, the holy land of the worshippers of Sinintee and the Great Temple.
White Winter was originally a very religious kingdom according to the lore of ROC. Kingscrown was the capital city of the Empire that Craxus found, and thus, it became the heart of the Great Temple to worship Craxus’s main patron deity, the great Sinintee himself.
The headquarter of the Great Temple, the Escana Ladérdoura Sanctum, which meant “The Great Flame on Escana” in the ancient Titan tongue, was built on Lake Shore Isle, a large island in the middle of the great Lake Mirror, hundreds kilometers away from Kingscrown. Craxus’ body was cremated on the ground of that sacred temple after he was killed.
All these kowtowing worms, they were born listening to the doctrine of Sinintee and grown up believing in the gospels of Sinintee’s disciples. They were a superstitious and fanatic bunch, extremists even. These fanatic worms made it easy for the Emperor of White Winter and the Supreme Priest of the Great Temple to declare wars and crusades on the neighbor kingdoms. They were willing to believe in any sigh of divinity or anything that the disciples of Sinintee told them.
These beings, these worms, their world revolved around the doctrine of Sinintee and Sinintee’s disciples.
Sinintee advocated his followers to be more civilized and humane than their counterparts; otherwise, they would share the same fate as the extinct Titans.
The word “civilized” and “Humane” in the Nord tongue did not have the same meaning as they were on Earth.
Sinintee taught his disciples to be more “civilized” and “humane” than the world around them. But this virtue of being “civilized” and “humane” only meant stronger, smarter, wiser, technologically and culturally superior. Being “Humane” in Sinintee’s world had nothing to do with being kind, sympathetic, or being motivated by the concern of alleviation of somebody’s suffering.
Might makes right. That was the cheat code used to summon the Valkyria to the players’ side during any single mode campaign. The moment that cheat code was used, there was nothing the AI can do to make the players lose, not even Heavennet.
Might makes right. That was the world of Sinintee. Sinintee was not wrong.
People thought Sinintee was a kind god. After all, he gave them the divine flame which previously only given to the Titans against the wish of his own father. People thought Sinintee loved them. After all, he gave them his blessing to protect themselves from their hostile environment and taught the word of wisdom.
People were not wrong either.
However, surely, Fearless thought, surely, at least someone among them must have realized the nature of Sinintee’s love.
Sinintee’s love, it was not the parental love of a father toward his children. It was the love of an engineer toward his creations. It was the love of a scientist toward his lab rats.
Fearless intended to use their faith against them. However, he did not intend for it to happen so fast. He thought that it would take many arduous days or weeks before he could do that.
Fearless silently clicked his tongue. It took him only a single morning and the effort to vanquish a meager ten of a dozen of worms to convert them. It was disgustingly easy and successful that Fearless felt afraid. His plan worked too well and too successful for his liking. His easy success dreaded him with a sense of doubts as though it was a machination of someone else. Fearless refused to believe that he alone got this far and quickly with his schemes and acting. His schemes came to fruition too soon.
He has only suspected that there was a god or a Demon Lord pulled the strings from behind the scene before. Now, Fearless was sure that he has been caught in someone’s machination. Somebody with the ability to construct a divine dream was pulling the string here.
The prayers “Avatar of Sinintee” made Fearless suspected that Sinintee himself was the one who strung this situation together from behind the scene and Fearless was but his unknowing puppet. However, it was not a solid evidence for Fearless to conclude.
His inner thought, Fearless did not let that showed on his face. He approached Bloodbeard, “Ekar obstructed my authority, and so did his bunch. I told him to back down but he refused. Therefore, I had to demonstrate a piece of my ability,” lightly pounding the confused bandit lord in his chest. “If I did not do that, the chain of command would be broken. I did what I have to do.”
“But, do you have to kill him?”
“Your men would question your orders and any order that came from me. It has to be done. Look, see the result?”
It took Fearless a night to charm Bloodbeard and a single morning to convert Bloodbeard’s worms. It had to be a record. As for the worms of Bloodbeard, they were no longer his, nor White Winter’s nor the dead Ekar’s. That, even a child could understand, let alone a person like Bloodbeard. The bandit lord has realized that his army was no longer his as he stood like a statue amidst the chants of his worms.
White Winter governed these worms with lies, religion, and wars over a hundred years.
Ekar harnessed his worms with his terror and cruelty over decades.
Bloodbeard ruled over these worms with his might, wit and successful campaigns over half a year.
Within a single morning, it all came apart. Fearless used their blueprints and recipes against their worms.
Seeing the bandit lord’s confusion and inner conflicts, Fearless finalized the deal. He closed the distance between himself and Bloodbeard, whispered, “Ekar is a commander of yours, a commander who can win you a dozen battles. However, know this, I am someone who is above his league and even yours. I am someone who can win you a hundred wars. I think that it’s very clear that having me on your side at the cost of losing a worm like Ekar is a dirt cheap price you have to pay.”
“Now, make your choice, Ashtorá. Between that dead devil,” Fearless pointed his finger at the direction of the pikes he set, “And great and amazing me, who would you choose?”
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Fearless watched the women ravenously wolfed down their food with such vigor and desperation. They tore the pieces of jerky and salted meat and the three loaves of moldy bread One-eye provided to Fearless for lunch.
The time was about three or four in the afternoon, Fearless was not sure since he gave Bloodbeard his Rolex. Fearless spent hours through the morning and noon to know the faces of Bloodbeard’s commanders and worked up a strategy with them to deal with Hyrios.
He held the meeting in the format of a college seminar, letting worms to contribute their ideas and experiences. However, for once, Fearless’ plan and scheme backfired on him. He gave the worms all the necessary and educated hints to fight Hyrios. Yet, the brain dead morons could not come up with a decent plan nor they had the bravery or boldness to participate in the seminar on equal footing as Fearless.
The way he killed Ekar and Ekar’s Yeller came back to bit Fearless in the ass. Bloodbeard’s commanders thought that Fearless was still playing a mind game with them and the seminar was but a ruse. They knelt and swore their loyalty to Fearless at the beginning of the seminar, as if Fearless could trust a worm’s loyalty. Then, when Fearless assured that his seminar was no mind game and that he merely wanted to gauge their experiences and abilities, they still did not trust him.
For once, Fearless understood the pain of Catherine the Great, The Empress of Russia, felt when she first began to work on the Nakaz during her Reform. Catherine summoned the representatives of her people from all classes to ask them what problems they faced that needed to be addressed before she introduced new laws through the Nakaz. It was a brilliant idea at the time.
However, most of those representatives of the Empress thought that it was a loyalty test and played a fool or too incompetent to contribute. In the end, Catherine could never execute that brilliant idea of her.
Fearless has gone through the same thing with Bloodbeard’s commanders. Even though that he has told them that Hyrios is practically invincible on a plain terrain and picking a fight against Hyrios on the Prairie is suicidal, the brain dead worms somehow still arrived at the conclusion to fight Hyrios on the Bison Prairie. They were convinced that Fearless intended to fight Hyrios on the Great Plain from his hints and agreed.
For the first time in his life, Fearless was surrounded by incompetent people. These people, no, these worms could not measure up to his standard.
He was incredibly bored and relieved at the same time. It is boredom as boredom is, however, good boredom. Sometimes, being boring and predictable is better than being exciting.
Bloodbeard on the other hand, he could not understand the meaning of the seminar. He suggested that if Fearless had a plan, he should just tell them what to do instead of wasting time with a seminar. Fearless sighed and chased Bloodbeard’s commanders away. As soon as he did that, he examined Bloodbeard’s intelligence on the subject.
“Take the plain away from Hyrios, ”Fearless gave the second hint to Bloodbeard.
“How?”
“That is your homework. Ashtorá, you have at least three days to come up with an answer to that. I can give you the answer now. However, what’s the point in that? The current stage of this war has no room for small fries and pushovers. It does not matter how many battles or wars you have fought. This one is different. The participants of this war are over you in term of ability and competency. If you remained at your current pushover state, sooner or later, you will die even with my help.”
Fearless could see that that statement did not amuse Bloodbeard. The bandit lord had his pride as a fighter and a commander.
Fearless smiled the smile of a father who tried to teach his stupid son of his mistake. He pointed his finger at Madukat.
“To the North, your employer, I mean ex-employer. Your existence gives them the right to cross the border and invades this kingdom. Now, you have crossed them once, they had all the reasons in the world to silence you if you manage to survive this encounter with Hyrios. If they can kill you, people will see them as the good guy, the liberator, the savior.”
“But…” Bloodbeard tried to retort but he shut up on his own, realizing that Fearless was telling him the truth.
“To the West, the real invasion force of White Winter,” Fearless pointed his finger at the Western Border. “Leading this army, Rogan, the best general of the Empire. To him, you are just a decoy, just like that Judgment Army in the North. You lured away the king of Zard, the Warden of the Eastern Border and even Hyrios all the way to here. You have done him a great service. However,he, too, would be your enemy if you managed to survive this war long enough. The Empire could not afford to have you running around, telling people that they hired you to raid and sack Zard to the ground, could they? After all, they are supposed to be the good guys.”
Fearless smiled contently when Bloodbeard showed the expression of shock on his scarred face.
“However, they are the least you have to worry in this moment.” Fearless pointed his finger at another spot on the Great Plain, “To the South, there is Hyrios, he is your top priority. Worry about him first, anything else comes later. He is unlike anyone you have ever faced. I can assure you that. If you faced Hyrios on a plain, not even Wonten could save you.”
“That’s why I asked you, uncle, to help me.”
“And I am helping you. If I told you the answer and you just obediently listened to it, that’s not helping. That’s spoiling you. There is no point for me to do that. If I wanted to spoil you rotten as my nephew, I would have brought you back to White Stone to live off my wealth. Or do you want me to do that?” Fearless mocked.
“No,” Bloodbeard curtly replied.
“Good. I will tell you again that war is a terrible business and a child like you have no place in it. That’s the words of an uncle to his nephew. However, right now, I am your advisor. In the position as an advisor, I will tell you that at the moment, you don’t belong to a stage as huge as this. You are competent than most, stronger than most, and certainly smarter than most. However, the word “most” consisted only of the incompetent bunch I had just chased out of this room. Being better than them does not qualify you the right for this stage.”
“Qualify?”
Because Bloodbeard repeated the word Fearless used with such confused look, Fearless suspected that there was a mistake in the translation somewhere. That or his language was too advanced for the bandit lord to understand. Fearless immediately dumbed down his language.
“You cannot fight this war in your current state, neither your army. It took me just a morning to make them submitted to me. If you used this army to face off against any decent participants of this war, you will lose. You cannot use your hit and run tactic with Hyrios either. He will catch you with his superior mobility. You cannot face him with this army of yours either. He only needs a morning to do what I did just now. Therefore, in your current state, surrender or go back to White Winter are the only options. That’s your option.”
“No, I will not do that.”
“That’s why I used the word “qualify”. If you wanted to fight and win this war, you have to be at least as good as Hyrios as a commander. You have to be on his level to fight this war. Right now you are not.”
“I…even I” Bloodbeard vent out his anger for a moment, slamming his fist against the wall. Then he was sullen and quiet, contemplating.
After a while, he looked at Fearless and earnestly asked. “How do I become as good as Hyrios?”
“That.” Fearless tapped Bloodbeard’s forehead with his finger. He laughed, “That is the first steps, child. By realizing and admitting the difference between the two of you, by asking yourself questions, that is the first step. Now, the next step is answering those questions. How do you fight Hyrios if he is invincible on a plain? How do you win against such a man with your laughable army? How do you negate his strength? I have given you the hint. Take the plain away from Hyrios. Now think hard and come up with the answer, child.”
Just like that, Fearless brought himself three more days to prepare.
Delaying is always a viable tactic. If you faced a problem that you have no solution, delay it until you could come up with one.
Fearless watched the women had their meal while thinking. He had no appetite for food when One-eye gave him the belated lunch, thus he gave his meal to the women.
The stench of death from Ekar’s tent still clung to Fearless and it still flirted around with his nose. He could not get used to that smell at any time soon. He wanted to boil a bath and jumped into it, cleansing himself of his dead skin, body odor, and that persistent stench.
However, that would be asking too much.
Fearless sighed as he kept on watching the women devouring their food. If they could open their mouth any wider, they would have done that. They chewed up the piece of bread that divided to them within one big crunchy bite or two. They tore the strip of jerky given to them the same way that wolves ate their meat among their pack. However, those strips of jerky soon proved to difficult for the women to tear.
If it was too chewy, just swallow.
With a strategy like that, some of them soon choked into hiccups, gags, and coughs. Fearless passed his water sack to them and they drained it like it was the most delicious thing in the world.
How many days did Ekar starve them? Fearless could not help but ask.
Remembering the wounds that Ekar once inflicted on their body, Fearless thought that it was a miracle that these women were even alive.
At first, when Fearless gave them his portion, they were confused and afraid. They refused to eat, shaking their head as they broke into tears. It was as though Fearless was feeding them poison or something worse. Then, he remembered that Ekar was talking trash about cutting Fearless’ ears and fed them to his dogs.
It was until Fearless assured them that it was okay for them to eat and took the first bite himself, they gingerly reached out for the food.
Also, the person who Fearless rescued from the Ekar’s tent, it was a man. He was so light on Fearless’ shoulder back then that Fearless did not think that he was a man.
The man who Fearless rescued was quite tall, probably around 179cm or 180cm. He looked solid, lean but muscular. His ears were noticeably big as if they were Buddha’s ears and they were full of holes. His skin was, however, pinkish, very thin and squishy, reminded Fearless of that of baby skin or scar tissue. He was not sure if the man was born like this or if this was an effect of his skill.
Fearless double-checked the skill description of just to be sure.
The man who became known for razing down castles faster than anyone, he was the ultimate Ender within our world. Yet, that man ultimately wished to heal people. A strange choice.> Fearless clicked his tongue as he read the bio description of the skill, it’s such a stupid description, he thought and scrolled down to the effect description. The skill description did not help at all. In the game, Fearless theorized that the current state of the man was because he wasn’t fully healed. However, Fearless did not want to commit the last on the man. It was an expensive skill in term of mana cost. Because Fearless could not see the exact value of his mana point, he could only intuitively estimate it. If the mana cost for Fearless was tempted to use another Besides, Fearless had no idea what kind of reaction that man would show when he woke up. That man looked like a fighter. He was built like one, muscular and solid like Merleon’s people. Furthermore, the numerous scars on the right forearm and a deformity in the right wrist alarmed Fearless that the man’s status as a fighter. Fearless guessed that this man was probably a bodyguard or was in a militia or something similar. At the moment, the man showed no sign of being in mortal danger, at least, that what it looked like to Fearless. The man breathed normally and he had pulses. However, Fearless had no idea when he would wake up. Fearless was no doctor. Fearless had no idea of what to do with this man, just like those nine women. He expected this man’s psyche to be severely damaged just like the women. He saved them on a whim, but he had no idea what to do with them. Fearless told the women to give the man some water, a simple exercise to test them. However, the women have emptied the water sack Fearless passed to them. Of course, Fearless knew that when he gave them that task. They could not execute that order. Upon realizing that, they groveled on the floor on all fours, back to their original feral position. Fearless gritted his teeth. He was so very close to set loose his bottled anger on them. He had a shitty morning and his mood only worsen by the minute. He sighed away his anger and softly told the women. “One of you, bring that water sack down this tower. Tell whomever you meet to have that water sack filled for me. I don’t care who, decide it among yourself and get it done for me.” Fearless was expecting a leader figure would reveal among the women to brave through the task. However, for the zenith times of the day, his expectation was betrayed. The water sack, so precious that they nearly fought each other for a gulp of water before, it was now passing around like a cursed object. This is human nature at its darkest moment. Fearless sighed and pressed his twitching temples. His head hurt very badly for the first time since last night. It hurt when he was dealing with Bloodbeard. It hurt when he was scheming for the long game. It hurt when he fucked up and YOLO through the stuff with Ekar and his worms. Yet, seeing these women who were tortured together by Ekar and have gone through the same pain and suffering together, they readily betrayed each other at the last moment. It hurt Fearless’ head so fucking badly. While Fearless’ little exercise did not reveal a leading figure among the women, it revealed the weakest of them all. She was the one who had the water sack in the end. Obviously, she did not want it and tried to pass it to another. However, the other women united and shoved the water sack to this woman in the end. And the woman, when she realized that it was on her to execute the task, she instantly broke into tears. It looked like she was about to weep openly, but she just bit her lips and put her hand on her mouth to hide it and held the leather sack with her other hand. It made Fearless wondered what kind of horrible shits did Ekar do to make these women like that. If Fearless knew, maybe, he could undo the damage however unlikely it was. It could take months or years or decades or never to undo the damages that Ekar inflicted on them. Fearless understood that better than anybody. Some wounds took forever to heal while some would never heal no matter how much time has passed. He sighed again. What else could he do but kept on sighing? Fearless approached the woman who held his water sack while the rest of the women froze and miserably bent their back. He grabbed her trembling hands firmly and pulled her up. He cupped her chin, making sure that she would look at him in the eyes. He gently brushed her stained tea colored bang to reveal a pair of tearful green orbs. If Fearless had to guess, this girl was probably around 20, possibly even younger. However, her weathered haggard face, her high cheekbone and angled chin aged her beyond her years. She looked like a woman in her late twenties. The only hint of her age that Fearless had was her jaded orbs. They had that betrayed innocence. “What is your name?” Fearless gently brushed her tears with his thumb. “Woof,” the girl replied. “What?” “Woof woof,” she repeated. It took a while for Fearless to understand that the girl was imitating the barking sound of a dog because the way she replied. He froze and wondered why this girl would do that. He could not understand, and then, a thought crossed his mind. Fearless picked another woman nearby, “What’s your name?” he asked. “Woof,” “What’s your name?” he asked another one. “Woof woof,” she barked like a dog as well. Fearless bit into the inner of his lip to vent his anger. Yup, he could finally understand why Bloodbeard valued Ekar so highly. The worm knew how to break people and he was through with his job. He was very close to evolving into a demon, probably a few years away from being one. He stripped these women of everything and reduced them into his dogs, literally. He did not just strip them of their clothes. Their personality, their identity, their name and everything that made them human were stripped from them. That explained why these women were behaving the way they did. Fuck This stuff was sickeningly familiar to Fearless. Fearless could start to feel that the case was getting out of his hands. It would be extremely arrogant of him to try to undo everything Ekar has done on these women. Fearless did not remember Ekar to possess a high Intelligent or Wisdom stat in particular. In fact, he knew almost nothing about Ekar’s background other than the fact that Ekar was one of Bloodbeard’s best commanders and the worm was exceedingly cruel. Fuck. Had Fearless known this, he would have never killed Ekar. He would do the exact things that Ekar did to these women with the same thoroughness but better techniques. He would have broken Ekar and stripped the worm of everything it possessed. It’s because of worms like him… Fucking worm Fearless pulled the girl into his chest and hugged her, wrapping his hand around her head. She was cold like a sheet of ice in his arms. Fearless felt like crying, but not for the poor girl or these women. However, he did not allow himself to cry in the end. “I swear on my mother’s name and on this uniform that I will protect you until you regain what normalcy of your life that you have left. If people tried to hurt you, I will break them whoever they are. I will let them know what pain is, what lost is, what broken is. I will make an example out of them so that nobody would ever try to hurt you again. But if you are hurt, I will hug you just like this. I will comfort you. I will protect you until you are strong enough to stand back on your feet.” Fearless then pushed her from his chest and held her cheeks. He pressed his face against hers, making sure that she could see his eyes. “However, I have a condition. If you are a human, I will do that. I do not do something like that to a dog, especially if that dog was Ekar’s dog.” He told her, making sure she understood him, “Do you understand?” The girl cringed and decided to grovel, however, Fearless did not allow her to do that. His firm hands held her back. “Do you understand me?” he repeated. “Woof” she barked, teary and fearful. Fearless slapped her immediately, right across her cheek. His slap made a crisp sound on her cheek, reverberating through the room. The other women scrambled to the corners, trying to stay away from Fearless as far as possible. “Human does not bark. Human speaks. Again. Do you understand me? “Woof.” Fearless slapped her again, “Speak. Do not bark. Look at me! Do not look away. Do you understand me?” “Woof.” Fearless slapped her one more time on the other cheek. He held the girl firmly and prevented her from groveling to him. He shook her and gritted his teeth, trying to contain his anger. “Try it again. I will hit you every time you bark. What is your name?” “Woof” Again, Fearless slapped her. The girl’s cheek went red and printed with Fearless’ hand shape. Her eyes that were submerged in tears, reflecting the distorted reflection of Fearless in the depth of his anger. “What is your name?” “Woof.” Fearless slapped her again, pointing his hand toward the broken arrow slit. “I swear to gods that I will throw you out of this window right now if you bark again. Human speaks. Dog barks. You are no dog. Do you not understand? Again, what is your name?” “Woof.” Again, Fearless slapped. “I will keep hitting you until you speak. What is your name?” “Woof.” Fearless repeated the procedure and kept his word. Every time the girl barked, he would hit her. Ekar wired her to reply to questions. Once asked, she would bark like a dog. Fearless understood that from the girl's behavior and used it to his will. “Answer me. What is your name?” Fearless shouted for the zenith time of the day. “E…Erin…ys,” The girl uttered a magical word, so very quiet, so very uncertain. And yet, it was a magical word. Fearless did not cry. He decided not to cry. Yet, his eyes were broken valves. There is hope. “What is your name?” He loudly shouted. “Erinys” The name of a person is a force to be reckoned with. It gave a person her sense of identity. It had a power to change a person’s life an destiny. “Again, louder. What is your name?” “Erinys” “Again. I cannot hear you. Shout” “ERINYS,” the girl opened her mouth and shouted, reclaiming the identity that was stripped from her. “I’m sorry for hitting you. I am sorry. I am sorry. I won’t hit you again.” Fearless pulled the girl into his arms again, “I will protect you from now on Erinys,” he squeezed her cold body and patted her back strongly. “I will protect you no matter what.” He swore. The girl sobbed quietly in his arms. Her entire body shook uncontrollably. “You don’t have to hold yourself back. Cry.” Fearless told her and she did, unreservedly in contrast to the other women. Even if Fearless had no ability to undo the damages that Ekar inflicted on this world, he can do something about it. Now, he knew that he could. Fearless strongly squeezed the girl within his arm. For the first time in the day, he felt sharp. He felt like he can do anything. He felt invincible. Bloodbeard was not the only one who needed to search for qualification. I, too need to earn it