Chapter 140
Crimson Serpentbane
While the Mayor of Greyvault was having a breakdown, in the slums, Harrison was explaining about the Greyrats when they heard the door being pummeled with impatience. Harrison nodded at the man tasked with guarding it.
“Check it out.”
“It’s me! Hans!!” the man hitting the door shouted.
“Hans? What in Sud-Ghazid?” the man guarding the door. “We agreed on the password!”
“Forget the damn password!” the man cried out. “There’s an emergency!!”
“What?!” the door was quickly unbolted, and the man stumbled inside, almost tripping on the stairs. But he managed to put his leg forward just in time and said with alarm. “Harrison! The Mayor’s Mansion is being raided!”
Henri-Artur narrowed her eyes. “What did you say? Raided? By whom?”
He glanced at the Beastfolk briefly before answering, without looking at her. “While I was helping Pa selling our fruits, I saw some of the Town’s Guards were being led by some strangers. They were heading towards the Mayor’s Mansion. Curious, I followed them. When they got there, one of them, a man in full armor bashed the front gate open. And then they started fighting!”
“Huh? This…this is not how I envisioned the script to be,” The Beastfolk murmured with a surprised expression.
“Who are the strangers leading them?” Harrison asked, his face grave. Who would dare to attack the Mayor so haphazardly?
“I don’t know them, but there is that man in full armor, a Beastfolk with four legs with them all in blue and white. Oh, and a young girl walking at the very front.”
Martell and Connie looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“Does this girl have blonde hair and wears a very distinct robe?” Illumca asked.
“Yes. It’s mostly white with long black things on it. Very creepy.”
The Dark Elf sighed. “…sometimes I wonder if Connie does this kind of thing deliberately just to piss off people.”
“Ah,” a curve appeared on the side of Martell’s lips. He then turned to Harrison and spoke. “It seems Mistress is going to solve your problem for you, aren’t you glad?”
“Then there is no more need for us to stay here. Let’s go to her.”
Illumca and Martell then went out, ignoring the stupefied look of those around them.
“W-wait, I’m coming with you!” Henri-Artur said as she ran after the two.
Harrison and the other could not keep up with the sudden change of situation and stood where they were. Mouth agape.
----------------------------------------
“MELIDAAA!!”
The Beastfolk roared and leapt towards Connie, but a powerful lance struck him before he managed to land a blow. He was blown back through the wall made of wood to another room.
“Your opponent is me, you big Kerichi!” Akula grinned through her veil. She then charged at him with her lance and pushed him through another wall to the second guest room.
Seeing this, Davis shouted at the men behind him. “W-what are you waiting for?! Three of you, assist Miss Altanghazar!!”
The younger men of the Town’s Guards nervously moved to help her, although they were unsure whether they could do what they were ordered to do.
----------------------------------------
“She’s very excited today,” Connie said as she walked up the stairs, one step at a time. Despite the destruction happening on the other side of the mansion. The attention of the man named Orville was wholly towards the young – seemingly harmless – girl.
Judging by what he had witnessed up until now, however, that was nothing more than a façade.
“You’re very strong,” Orville said as he kicked the former Mayor – who was bawling while cradling his leg in fear – away. “You killed Melida in one move. I admit I can’t do that even at my best.”
“So what? Are you going to surrender?” Connie asked. She suddenly disappeared from his sight and appeared beside him. Orvilled leaped away in reflex, but Connie’s claw had already gotten his right side.
“Gagh!” the man groaned in pain when he saw the claw mark that had gone through his hidden Orc Leather Armor and broke his ribs.
“Come on now. Is that all? What a waste of money!” Connie taunted him. “You’ve bought a faulty product, mister former Mayor!”
As a mercenary, Orville had killed a lot of men. He knew that sooner or later he would die like them too, killed in a war somewhere. But he did not expect that he would die being the dog of a small-time Gang Leader.
No, he wanted to live. Seeing no other recourse, the man took out a small vial from within his breast pocket. The liquid within was a brilliant blue.
The man swore as he drank the whole vial and threw it against the wall.
Suddenly, he arched his back and his body bent abnormally.
“Agh! Aaaagh!!” the man cried out as his body jerked and contorted. He then began growing until he was twice his former size. Dark, pulsing veins popped out from beneath his skin and his formerly fair skin turned greyish black.
“Yess…I can feel it! Power!! With this power, I can reach the boundary of an Unrestrained!!” He spoke with a lisp as his tongue had outgrown his own mouth. “Now, you are nothing to me!”
“Unrestrained?” Connie scoffed. “You can’t even touch the hem of an Unrestrained Candidate.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Orville attacked with his sword. As he was bigger than before, the sword he was holding now looked more like a dagger in his hand.
Connie kicked a nearby table towards him and he cut through it.
“RAAARGH!” he cried out and slashed with his word. Every swing caused a powerful wind to blow. But in the eyes of Connie, it was clumsy and unfocused. The sudden change had brought power, but not technique.
The maddened Orville realized this after a few swings and changed move to a feint and continued to an uppercut, which threw Connie’s small body a few feet back.
“Milady!” Nick, who was unable to find a space to move in shouted with concern.
“Pfft. Hahahah! That was quite the hit!” Connie moved her hands up and down as they were sore from the hit.
“If we are talking defense alone, I have to admit you are quite tough,” Connie smirked as she took out something from her Item Ring and put it on her left hand.
It was a claw made from the fangs of a Crimson Firesnake. Thus the name, Crimson Serpentbane.
The first three nails were longer than the others, their color red as blood, contrasting with the dull metal that formed the rest of the weapon.
It was a vile weapon. One that no self-respecting blacksmith would accept. But Bennett, the Blacksmith Connie tasked to create this particular weapon, was a man with no such self-respect. He was a man of practicality who believed that a weapon is a tool for killing enemies. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Now, let’s see if Mister Bennett’s work can pierce through your skin.”
----------------------------------------
On the other side of the house, Akula was having her first fight with pure strength. And she was having the time of her life.
“Strengthen!” Bosley shouted his Skill. “Earth Smasher!!”
Clang! Clang Clang!
The thunderous sound of Sukheri and Bosley’s bloody iron-tipped cudgel sent shivers through the heart of the Guards around them.
Akula matched him blow for blow even without Skill. Soon, Bosleys’s arm gave in to the strain. Until finally, his bone broke from a final furious bash.
“HRGGH!!” Akula muscles tightened, and she brought the Sukheri down with a powerful grunt, crushing through the weapon and caving in the Beastfolk’s skull. His head exploded from the force. Blood and fat splashed onto the poor Guards.
One of the young Guards, who was named Braun, slowly touched the piece of flesh stuck on his helmet and nearly pissed himself.
"I wonder if Connie is finished with her part," she said to herself. She did not know why, but yhere was no doubt in her mind that Connie would win.
"Hah, maybe Illumca is having a bit of an effect on me."
----------------------------------------
In the front lobby, the battle was heating up.
“Useless! With this power…I will…kill you!”
He did another powerful straight punch that destroyed a statue, however, Connie had ducked under it and stabbed through his wrist as his fist went past and dragged the nail along his forearm, resulting in a gaping wound that spurted out blood uncontrollably.
“YAAARGH!”
“A Masterwork,” Connie said with an appreciative smile. “Now, here comes my next move! Try to survive!”
Connie kicked the man away to gain some distance, then formed a ball of thick Ying Energy which she crushed, sending hundreds of terrifying Yin Energy to rain down on Orville.
Every streak of purple light pierced into his tough iron-like skin, shaving away his protection.
It was a Technique that Connie invented while fighting her way through the Plum Blossom Sect. Purging the traitors who had forgotten their vows to their ancestors and corrupted the very foundation of the Sect.
The sorrow of having to end the Sect that she once loved was poured into this move.
Denying the Nine Heavens…Rain of Sorrow.
Damaged and full of holes, Orville’s powerful body finally gave up and he fell to his knees. There was no trace of his earlier confidence or power.
“Even if…I lost…Agh…hah…Mister B…will…destroy you.”
Connie stepped in front of the dying man with a daring smirk as a response. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Crimson Serpentbane pierced through his chest. As it did, the Yin Energy that had invaded his body reacted one by one.
Connie stepped away lithely as the body started to balloon before stopping behind a large-bodied guard.
"Might want to raise your shield."
The sight of what happened after would cement Connie’s place in the heart of Davis and his subordinates. And the cause of many nightmares and silent terror many months after.
It was also the wettest explosion that they had ever heard.
----------------------------------------
When Illumca, Martell, and Henri-Artur arrived, a huge crowd had formed in front of the Mayor’s mansion.
They pushed through the crowd and saw the broken gate, the dead mercenaries littering the garden, and Akula in a good mood, leading the pale-faced Town’s Guards to clean up the mess.
“Zalkhin Altanghazar!”
“Ah, little Martell. And Illumca! Where have you been? You missed the raid!” she said cheerfully.
“We had some trouble. Where is Connie?” the silver-haired Dark Elf asked.
“Ah, she is interrogating the Kerichi upstairs in his former office. You should go up there.”
“You’re not coming with?”
“Oh, no,” Akula said awkwardly. “I’ll leave that part to you. Sergeant Stillson, lead them in please.”
The old veteran saluted as best as his slightly hunched back could.
“Henri-Artur, you – “ Martell was about to invite the Beastfolk inside, but she was already gone.
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t sense her leave,” Illumca said, her single exposed eye narrowing as she peered into the distance. “But I have the sense that we’ll meet again before long.”
----------------------------------------
As the two were about to enter, they could hear the sound of someone begging for mercy through the door.
“I beg of you, Lady Steelheart! Spare me!!” the fat man was on his knees, begging for mercy.
“Are you begging for your life after you ordered your men to kill me?” Connie said while playing with the beautiful porcelain cup in her hand. She then threw the precious antique behind her, where it broke into smithereens, splashing tea on the wooden floor. “Are you simple or something?”
She saw Illumca and Martell coming in and gestured to them while keeping her focus on the sorry creature sniveling on the antique carpet. Davis, who was standing before the door, sidled away to give them space.
“Did you meet Akula?” Nick asked, he had taken off his helmet and was enjoying a mug of ale by the sofa.
“Yes. She is very chipper. I wonder why she’s staying outside though.”
“Maybe it’s just because she didn’t want to climb the stairs. Tricky steps, though. Especially after Milady did what she did.”
With a shrug, Martell sat opposite Nick on the sofa. As for Illumca, she silently took her position near Connie, leaning on the wall by the window. The two smiled briefly at each other before Connie continued haranguing the former Mayor.
“Or are you saying that you are important enough that I, a Duke’s daughter and the owner of this land, should spare you?”
“N – no! No! Of course not!” the man said hurriedly, sweat cascading off his back.
“I - I did not mean any disrespect. I just mean that I – I can help you! I have a lot of influence in this part!”
“Oh, you already helped me enough, Hordin,” she spoke while getting up from the chair and admired the craftsmanship of a decorative sword inlaid with precious gems placed on the wall. “You have welcomed me quite warmly. With spears and swords…quite the welcome.”
“I – I beg your forgiveness, Lady Steelheart!!” he felt that he was just digging his grave deeper with each word coming from his mouth.
“Then let’s hear some truthful things from you. Are you working with the Greyrats?”
“N…” the man was about to say no, but the look on Connie’s face made him decide otherwise. “Y-yes.”
“So, a Mayor used his position to squeeze money off his people and work with the local Gang? You are quite a piece of work, aren’t you?” Nick said with disgust.
“T-that’s the only way that I can live. You’ve never met -!” Hordin clasped his own mouth suddenly.
“Never met who?” Connie asked. She then remembered the last words of the dying man named Orville. “Does this have something to do with Mister B?”
Hearing the name, the former Mayor looked visibly panicked. Connie pressed in.
“I – I …don’t -!”
“Oh, you clearly know.”
“I really don’t -!” he was about to speak once again when Connie took out the sword that she was holding from its scabbard.
With a silvery sheen, the decorative sword suddenly had its edge inside James Hordin’s mouth. “Say that you don’t know….one more time, and I will see to it that you can’t speak anymore.”
“Nggh! Ngghh!!” The former Mayor cried and pissed his pants in fear of the mad girl in front of him. Nick scoffed at this, while Illumca groaned in disgust at the spineless man. Connie, however, had little reaction to this little act of expelling of bodily fluids. She had seen worse.
Just as she was about to do more bodily harm on the former Mayor, a knock came from outside and Private Braun’s head peeked in.
“Milady. A man named Harrison wishes to see you. Shall I let him in?”
“Hmm?” Connie gazed at Martell, who then explained about their meeting with Harrison and his Resistance. Shortly after, Connie turned her gaze towards Braun and spoke. “Let him in.”
With a harsh tug, the sword was pulled out of the fat man’s mouth, leaving a nick on the side of his lip.
“Well, it seems that I might have to rethink your value, mister former Mayor.”
He instantly felt regret for his choice of staying mum upon hearing her tone.