Noah could almost see the fear and disbelief in the eyes of the hapless challengers as he stared the group of offenders down. Running was futile, he'd pretty much kept pace with a Primordial Spirit who specialized in speed and they seemed to know it as they held their ground.

"Hey, look man, we didn't personally mean you any harm. We thought that if the Tower had put a quest out for you... well that meant that you were a criminal or something. Seriously man, let us walk away and like hell any of us are going to try anything stupid," One burly man with trimmed black hair that wielded a heavy hammer with both hands had his gaze directed toward Noah, to make sure he didn't make any sudden moves.

"I refuse. You know why, tough guy? Because one or a thousand, it doesn't really matter how many of your ilk show up if this is the best you have to offer," Noah leered goadingly, causing a ripple of angry insults to be thrown back at him. The archers fired once again, and this time Noah was in no mood for theatrics- he broke into a small sprint, evading all the arrows with relative ease.

Noah knew that if he let these people go scotfree, he'd just be seen as soft and they'd never stop coming after him. No, a message had to be sent.

A line of ten spearmen broke out from the ranks, aiming to block or atleast slow down Noah's charge- so they had come here with the semblance of a plan, after all.

'Long Spear,' thought Noah, and Omni transformed into the longest spear he had in his arsenal of common weapons. He accelarated, conserving his momentum and hoisting the spear with both his hands- ten meters before Noah crashed into the shield wall he slammed his spear into the ground with minimal force, even that action causing the spear's tip to completely be submerged under the ground, waiting as the flex kicked in.

Sure enough, even a common weapon wouldn't break that easily- Noah didn't resist the upward pull as the spear yanked him up to correct its position. He used his own strength and dexterity along with it, to beautifully pole vault over a stunned spear wall.

Noah was practically flying, easily fifteen meters above ground level as he sailed over the spear wall. Five archers pointed their bows towards Noah's flying silhoutte, but their stats simply werent high enough to hit a moving target at that speed with accuracy, causing all five arrows to miss him with more than a healthy margin of error.

'Heavy Hammer,' thought Noah, and the spear that was dangling in his right arm transofrmed into the heaviest hammer Omni could find in his collection. The additional weight caused the pull of gravity on him to strengthen, and Noah eyed the spot he wished to target. Before anyone else could react, Noah set his plan in motion- as he was landing, he used the combined momentum of his fall, gravity and his own whopping 58 strength to smash his hammer into an empty plot of land near the epicenter of their formation.

A loud smashing sound echoed out, followed by subsequent cracking sounds occuring every 1-2 seconds. The area around Noah was like an epicenter of an earthquake, the ground had cracked, chipped, sunk, risen, in commplete asymmetry, as if an angry giant had pummelled the area around him. Panic and chaos ensued among the challengers, their formation broken and their footing ruined.

'Gladius,' thought Noah, as he charged at the first challenger whom he laid his eyes upon- A man in his early thirties wearing a complete set of common armor and a two-handed longsword with a robust build, who appeared to be a better equipped when compared to most of the competiton around.

The man slashed downward with his two handed greatsword, impressing Noah by his reaction time while wielding such a heavy weapon.

Noah sidestepped to the left, but watched in shock as the man paused his swing mid-way, or rather, the swing itself had been a feint, switching to a rightward slash. Noah held his gladius out and centered his body mass, catching the brunt of the momentum behind his attack with his small roman sword- thankfully, the difference in strength meant that he could counter the body mass and force behind that attack with his own.

He realized that he wasn't immortal, in fact he was far from it- the man might not be able to best him in a context of strength, but human ingenuity could not be underestimated.

'Longsword,' thought Noah, and the man watched in shock as the small gladius transformed into a majestic longsword that exuded the aura of fire. Noah exerted himself with a mighty push, and the man went careening backward for dozens of meters, taking two other challengers with him like a human bowling ball. The injuries should make sure he'd be out of battling condition for a while, at least.

His perception picked up two approaching figures from behind, causing Noah to sidestep and tilt his body backwards, causing a dagger wielding man to run past him. Irritatied, he lashed out with a lightning fast kick aimed at the man's back sending him tumbling to the ground. The other silent assassin, a red-haired woman wielding a one handed sword that was longer than the usual standard, had stopped as she had sensed Noah turn.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Honestly, cracking the ground and having challenger's approach him over uneven terrain was a technique he'd borrowed from Liam, as even silencing effects had a limited effect if you were running over cracked terrain, allowing his perception to have an easier time.

'Tch,' Noah sighed, as he dodged a series of four more arrows. They missed him, but an enraged yelp in the crowd indicated that they'd found another target instead. The red haired woman used the opportunity to charge at Noah, as if she had been waiting for this very opening all along.

'Skilled,' Noah thought. Pity she was on the wrong side, and Noah was starting to lose patience. She sidestepped to the right and then slashed the one-handed sword sideways trying to leave a laceration across his side and maybe fatally wound him.

Noah parried at an extremely ordinary pace, and at one moment it appeared as if the woman would land her it. Suddenly, Noah's arm accelerated with a tremendous burst of strength, clashing against her sword and sending it flying, eliciting a pained cry out of her. He followed through by slamming his [Arm-Shield of Deflection] against the side of her head, sending her careening for a dozen meters, presumably unconscious.

This was too slow, too inefficient.

'Dual Knives,' Noah thought, holding two common twin knives in each hand. Noah moved even faster, parrying a katana with his left dagger, followed by a kick to the sternum that knocked the wind out of his lungs. Faster, he had to go even faster. Blazing towards an archer, who pulled out a dagger and blindly thrust it outwards, Noah easily sidestepped it and slammed the hilt of his dagger against the man's skull, sending him crumpling to the ground like a sack of potatos. Like a spectre, Noah ravaged the challenger's formation from the inside, getting increasingly efficient in dealing knockout blows until only a bunch of fifteen odd challengers remained standing, huddled together next to each other in solidarity. They didn't seem as panicked, now that they realized that Noah wasn't trying to kill them, but they still had shellshocked expressions on his face.

"You know," Noah said, as he commanded Omni to switch to [Longsword of Blazing Inferno],"If I wanted to, I could use this sword to summon a giant pheonix and reduce you all to embers in a matter of seconds. You won't even be able to retailiate."

"NO! PLEASE, NO!" A blonde man in his mid twenties, cried out with turmoil reflecting on his face.

"Shut the fuck up, Billy. Didn't think twice about coming at me, 51 to 1, and now you dare to beg for your life?" Noah snapped, retorting with more ferocity than even he had expected.

The man crumpled to the ground, his sword clattering next to him, clearly having lost all will to fight.

Others started begging, yelling and a few even raised their hands in surrender, weapons clattering to the ground. This wasn't a fair fight, this was a force of nature clashing with mere mortals.

"I remember each and every one of your faces. If you come after me again, I swear on everything I hold dear, that I will kill you without mercy. Now, if you wish to live, toss your weapons to the side, de-equip your armor and sit down with your eyes closed. Or come at me and die standing. Think I'm bluffing? Just try me, won't you. It's only your life you're gambling with. COME AT ME, YOU PRICKS!" Noah yelled at the challengers like some twisted loon, even though he really was bluffing.

Two women and one man broke into light sobs, tossing their weapons away and removing their armor, now completely unarmed and helpless as they sat on the ground with their eyes closed.

"You have five seconds, and those who aren't on the ground by then can die by my blade," He sneered at them, glancing at the remaining challengers with malicious gazes.

Almost immediately, like a domino effect, they obeyed. Noah was still on the lookout for hidden tricks, the possibility of that bastard Prayn slipping in another artifact among the challengers didn't elude him. But sending it on the first go, where the odds of him losing were the least didn't seem very strategic. Anyway, he was prepared.

"Now," Noah said with contempt and disgust creeping into his voice, as he addressed the challengers, "I want you to remember this humiliation. I want you to remeber this feeling of complete and utter helplessness, the knowledge that no matter what you fucking do, you can't even touch me let alone hurt me. I want you to wallow in your own insignificance, and realize that I can end your puny life anytime, anywhere. In fact, I could do it right now! Should I! I mean you dumbfucks are just sitting there with your eyes closed, just hilarious!" Noah mocked the challengers, playing the role of the twisted villian and hoping that it would be enough. He couldn't just kill 50 challengers because they opposed him, that kind of burden would stain his soul in a crimson red, especially against opponents that were vastly insignificant when compared to his own advantages.

Half the challengers were reduced to tears by this point, while others had waivering expressions. Some made hints of wanting to retaliate, but they had an even lesser chance now that they were unarmed.

"And finally, I want you to let the other challengers know that only carnage awaits those who try to get in my way! You have been warned."

With that, Noah pulled out common grade [Tranquilizer Darts], expertly aiming one at every challengers neck, causing them to fold over in deep sleep almost immediately. It was one of the trinkets he'd purchased from the local shops, basically useless against any real fighter. But unclassed challengers?

"Are they down?" Noah asked Liam, who snorted and replied, "You know my policy, lad. Never can be too sure."

Another round of tranquilizer darts greeted the downed challengers, and Noah sprinted into the distance with that farewell greeting.