Iron tore through the air like paper. A streak of blood dripped down my cheek as I barely avoided the strike.

“Woah! Slow down? Someone might get hurt!”

Tanien didn’t even bother responding to my kind words of caution as he swung his fists one after another. I dodged to the left, then stepped back, and then to the right, another jab headed square for my nose as my back struck the wall—Ducked!

Dust crumbled from the walls behind me as Tanien’s fist left a mark. Then the wall started to crumble.

Before I could be surprised, Tanien launched his knee for my face. I swiftly blocked it with the handle of my ax. His sheer strength blasted Asirmo away and made me drop the ax. I glanced at the dropped ax and retreated into the newly created room.

I didn’t expect him to talk without a beating, but I was hoping seeing his entire stronghold crushed by a single person—a stronghold that took him almost a hundred to maintain—would have driven some sense in him. Was he perhaps not so smart?

Another punch came my way. I closed in and grabbed the fist before he could drive ahead and yanked Tanien closer. His eyes widened at the sudden act as his balance collapsed, but Tanien was experienced, he quickly stomped his feet down and swung again.

I pushed his other fist away and struck back with an upper—“Wha?! Is your skin made of steel?” I exclaimed while shaking my hand. There was no pain on me, but I caused minimal damage.

Tanien smirked.

I smiled back.

Jabs and swings and punches and fists erupted as a torrent of blows exchanged between us. Tanien kept attacking and I dodged each and every one of them, and at the same time, my attacks piled on and on.

Walls broke, and our path went further and further through the castle yet the ceilings above us remained strong. I even used the bodies on the ground to distract and throw him off, but Tanien saw through it all and remained steadfast.

His technique of covering his entire body and fist with aura was impeccable. It was a mastery that one could only acquire after years of hard work.

I had come this way challenging and dying against people way out of my league. Far, far out of it.

“Kuh!”

One punch from him would break me apart, but an attack from me barely hurt him. Yet I dodged and struck. A tango of attacks.

Like drops of water filling up the ocean, my attacks started showing their results. Tanien’s moves grew weaker and his balance went off. His words became aplenty too.

“Stop running you rat! Fucking bastard!”

“Oh? I thought you didn’t talk to dead people?”

“YOU!”

Tanien swung again, and yet another wall broke, this time revealing the grand garden outside the castle. Immediately, I turned back and charged out, rushing to the fountain at the very back. Seeing water float upward even on a downward slope was interesting for anyone.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I placed a hand in the fountain’s water and looked back at Tanien.

“You won’t be able to run for long…” Tanien said, slowly stepping over to me. His strength was truly monstrous. If I hadn’t paved the way to him myself or made a mistake with the walls, the castle might have already rolled down the lane to score a strike.

“I don’t have to,” said I. The water in the fountain started to slowly float up. Six months ago or now, water was far easier to manipulate when I didn’t have to create it myself.

The water rose high, and slowly it started to freeze over. Freeze into long, solid spears.

One, two, eight, thirty-six…

“Do you know, when you lack resources you have to become a little creative.”

Seventy-two spears of ice loomed over in the sky. Tanien’s eyes widened as he saw the spectacle.

“[Ice Magic: Dance of The Djinns (Original)]!”

The ice spears charged through the skies in completely unpredictable patterns. All of them went straight at Tanien.

My foe raised his fist in a fluster and the aura around him spiked at once. He could have broken through this challenge too, he could have…

“Gah!”

Tanien coughed out blood. Asirmo the Living Flame and the ax had struck in his back. The seventy-two ice spears didn’t get a chance to shine, but they still cut through and impaled his limbs and torso.

One last spear remained in front of his face, ready to impale through his head at the smallest movement.

Tanien the Iron Gauntlet had fallen.

***

Dusting my hands, I walked over to him.

“I told you, someone might get hurt.”

“I was wrong…” Tanien said. “I-it’s not my fault! The butler, the butler was the mastermind!”

“Tell me why you guys have become so active suddenly?” I grabbed Tanien’s hair and pulled him up.

“That was at the butler’s orders too! I swear, just let me live, please! Y-you should go to him right now! He’ll be in the lord’s room. Just go to him!”

“Alright, you’re coming with.”

I dragged Tanien along the stairs and to the Lord’s room. The little lord Kirsche and the Butler were huddled up in the corner around the bed. Both of their eyes widened as I stepped in dragging Tanien along.

The Butler screamed. “T-that evil monster! That evil monster is…!”

I looked at the butler, he was old enough to have his children retire from this same job. That was considering the retirement age in these years which would be ‘as long as you can move your bones.’

The young lord kept his grip tight on the butler’s clothes. All the way here, I had seen pictures of him with the previous lord (vandalized to no end, these punks even drew phallic shapes on such old art) and then with someone who seemed to be the lord before him.

I looked at Tanien, and then the butler.

Yeah. No chance.

“Alright, that was a smart trick but what was your plan? There’s no way the butler is the mastermind.”

Tanien looked away at my accusation. He was trying anything to live a little longer, huh? Before he could get smart, I quickly gripped his hand and twisted it with all my might.

A blood-curdling scream that a child should never hear erupted in the young lord’s room. Tanien’s gauntlet-clad arm broke from the elbow. Snot and tears fell to the ground with the wounds from his injuries.

“Why are you guys suddenly active?” I asked again. With a snap of my fingers, another ice spear formed and pointed straight at his neck.

“That’s because of the Garbage King! The old Garbage King has died!!”

“Garbage King?”

Tanien pointed at his pockets and pulled something out. It was a scroll, an invitation to one of the forbidden lands that marked the selection of the next Garbage King.

“What’s all this?”

“I-it's an event!” said Tanien. He sure was quite talkative when he was the one about to die. But the depth in his voice never left, he was truly a wicked ruler. “It's when all the criminals from all over the continent gather. The throne of the Lawless Zone is at stake, and everyone is welcome. From petty thieves to corrupt officials, it's the biggest gathering of its kind! We were planning to catch goods and sell them at the lawless zone.”

By goods he meant people.

“I see. Interesting.” I pointed the spear upward. It was time for him to die. Tanien realized and shook his head furiously.

“I ask everyone, so I’ll ask you too…” This was just my routine before killing a big criminal. “You don’t know how to kill god, do you?”

“K-k-kill god?” Even Tanien couldn’t maintain his cold tone at my words. As expected, no one could answer that. I wasn’t disappointed. Just as I moved the spear, he screamed.

“T-They might know!!”

I stopped.

“They might know… an information guild of spies in all the theocracies and kingdoms… They know everything there is to know!”

Tanien noticed my hesitation and doubled down.

“If you let me live… I can take you to them. They might know how… you can kill the gods.”