Armad drew his sword and headed for the main entrance of the building. The building was made of large stones painted in red and black. It stretched up to a thousand meters wide, and it's double as tall. At its very top was a monument carrying the flag of the first world, a picture of a human skull with black eyes.

At least a hundred soldiers patrolled the area in front of the gate, the rest of the soldiers surrounded the building. The entrance door itself was sixty cubits tall, and it was currently closed and possibly even locked. No one went in or out without identification.

When Armad got close enough, a guard shouted at him. "Kiddo. Stay where you are."

Armad acted as if he didn't hear the man, which caused the guards to turn around angrily. "If you take one more step, your mother will have to bear another child."

Without saying a single word, Armad raised his sword and slashed at the guards. Instead of dodging, the guards stared at him like he was an idiot for doing that. Unless the sword would grow several meters long in that instant, it would never be able to reach them, for obvious reasons. One, he was too far away. Two, they couldn't feel the slightest djinn magic in him which meant the boy didn't enslave a djinn yet. A boy like him with no djinn couldn't have possibly learned the flying sword Bend. And three, even a flying sword wouldn't reach them. What was the longest range of flying swords ever recorded? Twenty meters? The boy was over fifty meters away. Besides, he was just a boy.

But to their great surprise, a thin white line flashed from the tip of the boy's sword and then flew toward them as fast as lightning. Just before it reached them, it turned upward sixty degrees and flew to the roof of the building. Halfway to its target, it turned into the shape of a giant sword and cut through the top of the building. The monument, having been separated from the rest of the building, crashed to the ground. The rubbles buried the black flag.

Some overzealous soldiers tried to save the flag and were buried together with it. It was so sudden and loud that it woke everyone in the town.

The soldiers stared at the top of the building in a daze, unsure if it was real. The monument was at least ten cubits in diameter and was built with stone. How could a flying sword cut through it so easily? And it was all a casual swing from the boy. Besides, who could be foolish enough to cut down the black flag of the first world? Even death would hesitate to do something like that.

Spoon looked at Armad in surprise and said, "Really? What's the name of this Bend? I dare not think it's just a flying sword."

Armad smiled with a shake of his head and said, "It doesn't have one. My essence board hasn't yet recognized it as a new Bend. The power of my lightning is constantly pouring into my sword, so all I need to do is channel it using the principle of the flying sword. I can hit my target with my sword even if they're so far away."

Spoon shook his head in disbelief. He put his hand in his bag of holding with a defeated sigh. Just when he thought he was going to shine.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Meanwhile, the door of the building had opened and a hundred soldiers poured out.

Armad looked at the hundreds of black-clad soldiers and smiled. "I think we've gotten their attention."

Four distinctive soldiers came out of the building. Their clothes weren't complete black, it had stripes of different colors, probably indicating their rank. Each of them carried a different weapon besides the usual swords and bows of the foot soldiers.

They were the captains, Armad surmised. However, there were five captains, not four. If truly the four people were captains, then one was either away on a mission or he was hiding inside the building. Uznu was also nowhere to be seen. Armsd couldn't feel any powerful pol inside the building either, but that might be because he disguised it.

Sigh.

By now, hundreds of soldiers had surrounded them. If their flesh was to be shared then most of the soldiers wouldn't even get a bite.

Armad looked at Inara and Spoon, and he looked at the crazed soldiers inching closer to them. Surviving the next one hour wouldn't be easy. If only he could use his lightning form to decimate the area... But he couldn't, not yet. If he were to show his lightning form to the world right now then it would be like telling the entire world he was an Heir of Wilberforce. He might not fear Ururu anymore but that didn't mean he was ready to invite trouble for himself. Besides, he'd other options. Great Cold lacked the power to destroy that many people and it also consumed a lot of energy, but it could still reduce the number of enemies significantly. That would give Spoon and Inara a fighting chance.

Armad clapped his hands in a gesture, which caused the gray hail to burst out of his body and hit the nearest soldiers. A hundred soldiers turned to ice sculptures and many more were incapacitated at once. And yet, the soldiers weren't intimidated by that as they kept shouting 'Ururu' and attacking. Armad admired their courage. They held a great deal of obedience and faith to their flag. Not that it would help them today, of course.

The hail of Great Cold consumed them, destroying their insides, but they still attacked. After about thirty seconds, the hail disappeared and the soldiers released an ear-piercing cry as they launched an all-out attack. The four captains attacked as well.

Armad looked at Spoon and Inara and said, "They are down by hundreds. Keep them busy."

Without waiting for a reply, he disappeared from his position and appeared in front of the attacking captains, intercepting them.

The captains halted with surprised expressions on their faces. They couldn't understand why someone so young would rush to his death. One of them looked Armad up and down with disdain, even comparing him to the person in the bounty newspaper in his hand to make sure it was him. After a while, he harrumphed and said, "Armad Wilberforce, your head is worth a million and a half ayrids. What brings you here? Is it bad luck or destiny? I won't dare believe my luck attribute is this high."

"If I told you what brought me here, would you help?" Armad asked calmly.

One of the captains cut in, "Help comes in various forms, young man. But your fate is already sealed when you attack the flag. Your days are numbered. Even if by some miracle you escape from here, Ururu will hunt you down. You won't be capable of escaping."

Armad smiled. If the five captains were there in front of him then he wouldn't bother to sit and talk until Ilias came out. But he'd to flush the last captain, and hopefully Uznu, out of the building.

"Bounty," another captain said with a greedy smile. "I'm taking you now."

"Give it your best shot," Armad said with a mocking smile. "If you succeed, you will divide the 1.5 million between yourselves. Each of you will get over three thousand. Isn't that a lucky harvest?"

The captains looked at each other and burst out laughing. Armad had no idea why they were laughing. Did he say something amusing?