Having run all the way here, I was at a loss for breath. Therefore, with both of my hands on my knees, I tried to catch my breath.
Thud—
With a soft thud, a body fell next to my feet. Lifting my head, my eyes met with Jin's and Kevin's.
"Haa…haa…I'm not too late am I?"
"..."
I was met with no repose.
Kinda rude if I had to say.
"...So you guys okay or not?"
I asked again. This time, Kevin finally moved. Slowly walking towards the corpse next to my feet, Kevin bent down and placed his fingers on his neck. He checked his pulse.
"He's dead."
He muttered. Raising his head and staring in my direction, he hatefully spat.
"Good job coming here right when the job was already over."
"...What?"
My head tilted back. I was a bit confused by his sudden burst of anger.
However, before I could say anything else, Jin walked up next to Kevin and also looked at the body of the man I had taken down.
"Thank you for taking credit for someone else's work."
"...Huh?"
What were the two of them on about?
Shaking his head, Kevin stood up.
"Whatever, it's not really your fault. You probably had no idea what was going on."
"...Yeah, that."
With a stoic face, I replied with a soft nod.
"I had just finished my business and was coming to meet you guys up, however, just when I was about to arrive, I ran into the barrier. Was very shocked to find you guys in this situation."
Have to admit. At this point, I was very good at bullshitting.
"Right."
Turning his head, Kevin stared in the direction of where the others were.
Bang—!
Right on cue, a body came crashing down against one of the trees.
Xiu!
What followed after was a swift and ferocious light that quickly impaled itself onto the figure as blood sprayed everywhere.
Without needing to look, everyone could tell that he was dead.
Standing a couple of hundred meters away from the figure was Amanda who stood with her feet planted on the ground and her bow slacked on her hands.
Next to her was Emma who had both of her shortswords drawn.
Bang—!
With another bang, the last remaining hooded figure came crashing down on the ground. The ones responsible for this were Arnold and Troy who, with the aid of Melissa, were able to swiftly take care of him.
Staring in the direction of where the hooded figures lay, just when I was about to check their identities out, Kevin grabbed me by the shoulder and pointed his finger at his face.
"...Ren, your face."
"Ah, right."
It was then that I realized that I wasn't wearing a mask. In order to save as much mana as possible, I ran without a mask.
"Let me put it back on."
Taking out my mask, before the others figured out my identity, I put the mask on my face and my face quickly morphed.
Feeling my facial structure change, I clapped my hands in satisfaction.
"Better."
"...Where have you been?"
It was then that I heard Emma's voice come from the distance. Walking up to me, she glanced at Kevin to make sure he was fine before turning her attention back to me.
"You missed quite a lot."
"...I sure did."
Boooom—!
Not even as my words faded, a terrifying explosion spread out in the air. Raising my head I could see two figures fighting in the air. The intense mana fluctuations coming from their fight sent shivers down my spine.
As I was watching, I heard a faint sound coming from my right side.
"...Dad."
Glancing towards Emma, I reassured her.
"He's going to be fine."
"...What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it. Your father is a lot stronger than you think."
'At least stronger than Micheal Parker.'
Not only was Waylan well into the <S+> rank range, but his strength had also seen a massive boost after the events of Henlour.
With Douglas using the 'conference' as his reward, Waylan was able to choose his own reward. With it, he was able to boost his strength massively. Someone like Micheal should be no match for him.
"Wh—"
Booom—!
And I was quickly proven right.
Before Emma could say anything else, a sonic boom resounded in the air. Following the boom, like a broken kite, a figure quickly crashed against the ground, creating a massive crater.
Dust flew everywhere, covering everyone's sight.
"Khhh..."
Though faint, I could hear a weak groan coming from the middle of the crater. As time passed the dust settled down, and a miserable figure appeared laying down in the middle of the crater. The figure was none other than Micheal Parker.
With his head raised and staring into the air, Micheal glared upwards, where a figure appeared to be levitating in the air.
"Dad!"
Emma cried out in joy as she spotted her father in the air.
Slowly levitating down from the ground, Waylan smiled at Emma before turning his attention back towards Micheal.
"What should I do with you?"
"You—khhh!"
Staring at Waylan above him, Micheal opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, with a flick of his fingers, a small light flashed, and Micheal's head recoiled backward, knocking him out completely.
Staring at the passed-out Micheal, Waylan's brows knit tightly. Then, turning his head, his eyes met with mine.
The moment our eyes met, I instantly shook my head as I mouthed. 'Don't look at me, and don't talk to me. We don't know each other.'
But it looked as though Waylan was unable to comprehend what I was trying to say as he asked.
"What do you think I should do?"
The moment his words faded, everyone turned their attention toward me.
My face froze up.
Lifting my head to look at the moon, I feigned ignorance.
"...Ehm, I don't know what you may be talking about. I just came here."
"You just came here?"
Waylan's face turned strange.
"Weren't you the one who told me to bait them?"
An intense chill ran down my body as I felt everyone's eyes direct themselves onto me.
'....Well, shit.'
The first to move was Kevin who tilted his head to the side to get a better look at my face.
"...Excuse me for a second, but are you saying that he knew about this all along?"
Confused, Waylan nodded his head.
"Yeah. He was the one who suggested luring them using their own trap and getting rid of them at once."
"...Is that so?"
An all-knowing look appeared on Kevin's face as a smile appeared on his face. It appeared as though he wasn't the only one who understood what was going on as apart from Troy and Arnold, the eyes of everyone present frosted all over.
Curling my fingers into a fist and bringing it to my face, I lightly coughed.
"Keum...well, let's not dwell on the technicalities."
I then turned my attention back towards Micheal.
"Let's settle the matter on how we should deal with him."
Obviously, Kevin was able to see through what I was trying to pull as he said.
"...This is not over, Ren."
"Yeah, yeah."
Ignoring Kevin and squatting down, I stared at Micheal.
Thinking for a little bit, I sighed.
Turning my attention toward Arnold and Troy, my brows furrowed tightly.
'Should I...or should I not?'
After a while, I shook my head. 'No, it's not worth it.' Standing up once again, I walked up to them, much to their confusion.
"What's going on?"
"Is there something wrong?"
"There is nothing wrong."
Putting on the friendliest of smiles, I placed my hand on their heads and smashed them together as hard as possible.
Bang—!
With a loud bang, the heads of both Arnold and Troy smashed against each other as the both of them instantly fell to the ground, passing out.
"Ren!"
"What are you doing?!"
Everyone instantly became startled by my actions. Especially Jin who glared in my direction.
Innocently raising my hands in the air, I calmly said.
"Sorry, I had to do it."
Putting my hand on my face, I quickly pulled out my mask and pointed at it.
"As you guys can see, I don't trust them enough to have them know of my identity quite just yet."
At my words, everyone instantly understood why I did what I did.
"...Did you really have to be that harsh?"
Kevin softly muttered from the side. Glancing at him, I repeatedly nodded my head.
"Yes, yes I did."
Although I had already taken revenge against Arnold long ago, that didn't mean that I still wasn't pissed about what he did to me back then.
My pettiness was on a whole different level.
Well, that and the fact that I did not trust Troy at all. Back in the novel, he was supposed to turn on Jin and become a villain.
The fact that he wasn't one, went to show that he had changed, but that didn't mean that I trusted him. This was out of precaution.
Once again ignoring Kevin, I proceeded to head towards Micheal.
Bending down, I extended my hand and placed it on top of his face. A blue glow suddenly enshrouded the surroundings.
"...and done."
I then tossed the mask to Waylan who quickly caught it with both hands.
"Use that."
"Thanks."
Lowering his head and staring at Micheal, Waylan asked.
"What should we do about him?"
"...Since he's someone of importance, we should hand him over to—"
As Kevin was speaking, I extended my hand towards Micheal's neck and clenched it tightly.
Crack—!
The sound of bones breaking resounded throughout the forest as everyone's faces froze. Especially Kevin who had trouble processing what had happened.
Not minding their reactions, I stood up and carefully looked at Micheal who was now dead.
'So this is how it feels to kill an <S> ranked individual...it feels like killing any regular other person.'
Not that I had expected it to be different.
"...Y-you."
Snapping me out of my thoughts was Kevin's shocked face as his head repeatedly looked towards me and the corpse.
'Ah, right. I forgot how he was.'
Walking up to Kevin, I patted him on the shoulder.
"Kevin, do you remember the time when we were in Holloberg and a bunch of assassins suddenly attacked us?"
My question was so random and abrupt that Kevin subconsciously nodded his head.
"...Yes."
Lowering my head and glancing at Micheal, I softly said.
"He's the one that ordered the attack."
My voice was soft, however, everyone around me managed to hear what I said and their eyes opened wide.
A heavy silence descended on the forest.
"...Is...is that true?"
Breaking the silence was Kevin who stared in Micheal's direction. His previous concern was completely gone.
"Yeah, it's true. I wouldn't lie about something like this."
"I see..."
Kevin took a deep breath. Staring at him, my brows furrowed tightly.
"Kevin, you're too soft."
"...What?"
Glancing in Micheal's direction, I snapped my fingers. The moment I snapped my fingers, a tremendous flame rose, completely enshrouding Micheal's body, startling everyone apart from Waylan.
Seeing their reactions, I shook my head.
"Not just you Kevin, but everyone here. You guys are too fucking soft."
My words instantly attracted the attention of everyone present. Not minding it, I continued.
"...I can't believe you guys even thought about sparing him."
This baffled me.
Not too long ago, this guy right there was trying to kill everyone present. The fact that they were shocked by my actions showed me that they needed to change their mentalities. Well, everyone apart from Melissa.
She was the only one that didn't show any particular reaction.
In hindsight, she was someone who wanted nothing more than watch the whole world burn before her eyes, so it was understandable.
Anyhow, they needed to learn to always kill their enemy. Especially Kevin.
I knew his principles very well. He didn't like killing an opponent when he was already down, but, this kind of mentality was not something he could afford to do anymore.
He was no longer at the Lock.
He needed to change.
"What are you ta—"
"Shut up and listen to me."
I stared right into Kevin's eyes before turning to look at the others.
"You guys too."
Extending my hand and pointing it towards Micheal's burning body, I continued.
"Even if he was already incapacitated, letting someone who tried to harm you go, is just not worth it unless you're planning on doing something with them later. Trust me, from my experience, these kinds of people will just come back to you in a more annoying manner."
I had learned this fact the hard way.
Just thinking of Everblood and Matthew caused rage to rise from within me. Had I killed them before, I wouldn't have had as many problems as I did in the past.
Well, I could've done nothing about Everblood since I had only seen him back at the dungeon, but regarding Matthew, I could've killed him long before.
Fortunately, I did end up killing him, or things would've gotten more complicated.
"Alright, I think I've said enough."
Taking out a hairband, I tied my hair back before turning around and rubbing my stomach.
"I'm hungry, let's go."
Before anyone could say anything else, I headed out of the area. Of course, as I headed out, I put on a skin mask.
