271 Quite The Deadly Start
A few hours earlier.
“Leader wants to bring forth the extravagant entry of our master into Aigas, right?”
“Obviously.”
“Our master is restricted from having any hand in Aigas through a powerful and extravagant array beyond our understanding etched onto the surface of the world. Leader says it is called the Extreme Formula.”
“I know all this.”
“The thing is though, we need people with extravagant connections to the power of the three Deities. People with Divine blessings. With these, as master Boron demands, we can free him as well as let loose his children from The Under. Leader even says that master guarantees the three Deities will do nothing about it.”
“Hey!”
“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do this on our own as we are an extravagantly poor match to the Purity. Extravagantly so! A 3:1 basis even! Thus we need the Green Neolists to help us capture a sufficient number of Paladin Champions.”
“Guissepo…!”
“What is it Tomin?” the younger of the two men who sat as they discussed spoke.
His brown eyes and wavy dark hair as well as extraordinarily ordinary face showed an incredibly annoyed visage.
“I know all of this dammit! What is your plan? Our current objective is to cause a disturbance with the Clusters, remember? You know, ensuring that the three nations don’t catch on to what we’re really up to. What else do we need to do other than that?” the young man whose name was Tomin said.
Guissepo sighed.
“Maybe we’re thinking in too shallow of a way. Instead of offering a few powerful sacrifices like the Paladin Champions, why don’t we offer up a large number of weaker sacrifices. Its safer and extravagantly easier that way,” Guissepo said with a serious face that demanded to be taken seriously.
“What are you getting at?” Tomin said as he paid a bit more attention to Guissepo’s words. There had to be more to it than that.
“All those mercenaries and Knights all possess small blessings granted by the Deities for when they reach the Foundation Stage. Even though they rarely grow to be significant until they have advanced far enough in strength or cleared higher level Clusters, they are still blessings. In theory, we could achieve the same result by sacrificing a tens or hundreds of these people.”
Tomin wore a contemplative face as he mulled it over.
It made sense and it was a simple concept that probably many of the members in the Evenfall had thought about and perhaps even the Leader himself.
However, Leader seemed to be in a hurry.
“We’d have to make a connection circle to open a path to the Under, though,” Tomin said with concern.
“We can have our Mage tweak the formation we are currently using for multi-purpose function. Simple fix,” Guissepo said with excitement.
Tomin sighed.
“You’re desperate for recognition. Aren’t you getting too old for that?”
“Extravagantly so, but the older you get, the more you feel time racing by while your achievements count themselves in your ear. In my case, I hear nothing but an empty breeze. Can you blame me for being innovative?” Guissepo said with a half serious tone.
Tomin looked into the older man’s eyes and saw the burning determination which he couldn’t possibly stomp out. This man seemed to want to achieve something big and gain the acknowledgement of their master.
Quite a leap.
Go big or go home, they called it.
“Fine. Let’s do it,” he relented.
“How do we attract that many of those people without jeopardising our mission though? We could potentially get a powerful force on our tail.”
“The most powerful city in this region is Inhone. Not many are a challenge there as far as I have seen. Even you could bash most of them into the ground, except for perhaps…one man, though. I’ve only heard descriptions of his strength but they are numerous enough that they seem true. The City’s trump card. Oh well, a little bait will catch us some fish,” Guissepo said.
“I hope that thing we’re storing won’t suddenly spy on us without our knowledge. Worse yet actually stand up and start walking around like it’s on some kind of tour like last time,” Tomin shuddered.
“Extravagantly so~.”
***
‘What a troublesome duo,’ Tulnas thought as he wrapped his body in a thick and solid layer of mana that lit the ground under him.
He reverse handled his short swords and prepared for a bitter fight with a grin as many thoughts, his and otherwise gushed through his mind.
The woman at the side was a Mage while the man who waved his hands under the robes was the Summoner.
These twos’ presence stole Tulnas’ attention and the same was true for his three ladies.
They recognised the twos’ strength.
Tulnas glanced at Skullius and hoped the Discount Human would find his way to be useful without endangering his ladies as he himself had to be in the thick of the combat.
Tulnas’ figure darted forward like a dark bolt of lightning, his blades at the ready!
Natalika also went all out, her body darting from side to side in an effort to confuse the enemy she headed for.
The Mage.
The same was true for Gertreld who knocked her gauntlets together and blasted forward at extreme speed!
Tomin who had been advancing slowly ahead raised a brow and emitted a short burst of hair from his nostrils.
OOOM!
The mana in his body exploded outwards like a bright and flashy bomb, barrelling towards the advancing three in a quickly moving sphere that smashed into the trio, pushing them all back where they had come from while grading through the hard ground like a charge of bulls!
…!
Tulnas squinted his eyes as he ordered Bradd to go all out.
As the strongest creature in his collection when it came to defence, he would exploit its advantage to the fullest.
Natalika and Gertreld skidded across the ground and prepared to counter Tomin’s potential moves but the man still walked over slowly, his chin raised as he looked down at the three condescendingly.
“Who said you get to choose your own opponents?” he said before his posture changed in the next instance, his body becoming hidden under a cover of raging, bright mana in one moment, and disappearing in the next!
KWABOOM!
A horrendous noise resounded as the ground he had been standing upon couldn’t handle the force of his take-off!
Gertreld sucked in a deep breath as she saw Tomin’s figure cover her view not even a split second after he had turned into a shining star half a moment ago!
She hurriedly tried to bring her arms before her to defend, but two arched fingers sank into her chest, preceding a dangerously hostile punch that rocked her entire body while relieving the excess force through the ground!
“ACK!” she emitted a pained grunt.
Gertreld’s short body couldn’t handle the force as she wasn’t rooted properly on the ground and she was about to fly off when a powerful grip crunched against the metallic armour to hold her in place, the force almost scratching her fair skin underneath!
“Where do you think you’re going?” Tomin said as his knee bashed into Gertreld’s chest twice, breaking a thing or two before he slammed his elbow into the hunched woman’s back, mercilessly digging her against the ground where she sank almost two meters deep!
The ground screamed from the impact and a nasty shockwave blew in Tulnas’ groups’ face.
The Guild leader turned his head to the absolutely brutal manhandling of one of his women with a stern expression but…
“Unblockable Message,” a feminine voice called and without delay, a sharp white light flashed with an electric thrum as it shot towards Tulnas at an absurd speed, the Guild leader being a far cry from being able to react because of his partly stolen attention!
The menacing melody of the air running away from this streak of light in a thunderous fashion only followed after the lightning had ripped through steel, flesh and bone, its simple path having already caused what seemed like a fatality.
“Urgh!” Tulnas spat blood as only after a split second did he realise that from his right chest to his right arm, everything was missing, a black and hot patch of charred skin being the only thing left…!