Something was wrong. Every hair on his skin went up. Despite the warnings, the Milkman did not jump back in fear, he looked down at the bloody body with morbid interest.

The fear was coming from the body. It was a first for him. Usually when a person died, it did not frighten him. Yet, somehow the body of Dalton Attewater was warning him to move back.

“I wonder why?” He asked himself as he raised his club over his head again, ready to smash its head like a watermelon.

The club was caught by Dalton. While surprising, that wasn’t what grabbed his interest. The hand that caught it, was the hand that had been broken. It was now healed. Dalton pulled himself up, wiping the blood out of his eyes.

“Yikes, he wasn’t really doing that well was he?” Dalton crushed the club like it was made from paper mâché. He cracked his neck, giving a wide and confident smile that was unrecognizable from the dower man he had surely killed.

“Who are you?” The Milkman asked.

“A hero,” he said with a raised fist.

He was punched in the chest, the force blew him through several pieces of rubble and some walls. The Milkman immediately jumped back on his feet. He searched the for his hat feeling naked without it. It had been blown away at some point.

“Well shoot. That was my second favorite killing hat,” he sighed.

Dalton or whoever it was, walked through the hole with a very causal and purposeful stride.

“You’re alive.” He seemed surprised. “Looks like it’s going to take a lot more to kill you.”

He pulled a sword out of his item box, one that the Milkman easily recognized. After all, he would never mistake the legendary sword, Celeste. A broadsword said to be made from a meteorite that fell from the heavens themselves. It had the strange properties of bending light.

There was only one hero that wielded such a blade. “Are you Talos?”

“Thought my name would have died out by now, but to think my name still lives after all this time,” he said.

“Legends never die.” A sickening grin curled up his lips. “Only new legends to replace the old.”

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

The Milkman pulled out replacement club and hat from his item box.

#

Ingrid stopped in her tracks as she felt a familiar mana emanate below her. Tears welled up in her eyes and she cupped her mouth.

“Talos.”

#

A second mana source shot underground and at first, Maya had thought it was Yome, but the familiar flow that came from it made Maya realize it was Dalton.

Another seal had broken, and it wasn’t the Demon King. Instead, it was his third life, the Hero. In a lot of ways, he was harder to handle than his Demon Lord life. That man…was after all a giant megalomaniac.

This was bad. If Ingrid was there, that would mean she would meet Talos. She would find out about the seals.

The ground underneath her started to shake. Yome was starting to arise from the planet’s core. Maya drank another potion and tossed the bottle aside.

Yome, the Milkman, and now Talos.

She was tired, hungry, longed to see her boyfriend, and had to deal with three giant problems.

Yome erupted from the ground, lava weaved around her body like a suit of armor.

“Time for round two.”

#

Talos had been released. Once more, his legend would begin anew as he fought this mysterious assassin dressed in all white. Which, Talos had to say, not a great look. Assassins he fought were doused in darkness, and usually focused on killing their target as quickly as possible.

This assassin was simply a brute. He was strong enough to smash Talos’s head, but he swung with the intent to injure and not kill. Like a cat to a mouse. The assassin didn’t know that he was not the cat in this situation, he was the mouse.

And Talos was the lion.

While Talos dodged the club, he was gathering light in his sword. It was glowing brighter, and it was then the assassin felt that something was wrong and jumped on top of a rock.

“You think you can escape me?” Talos pulled Celeste in front of him. “You’re still in range.”

A blast of light cleaved the room in two. The assassin’s arm fell along with the floor that slid slowly before collapsing. The assassin hopped to the side of the room that hadn’t fallen.

Even though he after losing an arm, he smiled like a man greeting a loved one.

“That was quite insane,” the assassin giggled. With his remaining hand he pulled down his face. “It’s been a while since somebody injured me to this extent.”

From his item box he pulled out a golden potion. He pulled open the cork with his teeth and dunked the contents of the potion in his mouth.

“This is the Golden Experience,” he said licking his lips. He started to glow just as brightly as Celeste had done, and his arm grew back. “I used this milk only once before, and that was to slay a Star Witch. I hope you can keep me company.”

Talos snorted, pulling his sword at head’s level in a stance. “Consider it a handicap. That, along with this rough and untrained body, you might have an ant’s chance of beating me.”

The assassin barked out a laugh. Talos thought it was probably the most genuine moment from the assassin he’d witnessed yet. After he wiped away a tear, he gave Talos an amused look.

“Overconfidence will kill you. It happened once, I’ll go ahead and thread that needle once more.”

Their true fight began.