Child of Destiny

…

Lawless walked out of the forest and revealed himself in front of their enemies. He was very calm and compose despite facing a group of strong individuals. He was even looking at them mockingly as if they were nothing special.

Seeing the expression on his face, the faces of Erica and Eriko immediately turned sour. They were still familiar with this guy and they completely understood the meaning of him revealing himself like this.

Blood was about to be spilled!

The twin quickly took out their weapons and get ready for battle. And when the others saw their actions, they also started preparing themselves for the upcoming battle.

“Heh! Such a ‘warm’ greeting,” commented Lawless with a sarcastic tone the moment when he saw their actions.

After that, he took out his battle axe and rested it on his shoulder before giving them an inviting gesture. “Since you guys are pretty impatient, how about we get this started already?”

Hearing his words, the entire group immediately felt an intense shiver that runs through their spine. It was as if death suddenly descended and enfolded the entire place with its presence.

The experts accompanying the twin and the elite members of the Corrupted Cult around Killion unconsciously tightened their grips over their respective weapons while keeping their gazes locked on Lawless.

Little did they know, the real reason why the atmosphere was like this was because of someone else. And the only ones who were aware of these were the twin who used to be a part of the Dark Hero Adventurer Team and the two guards who were always by their sides.

“Be careful!” shouted Eriko as he knew what was about to come.

Unfortunately for them, it was already too late. There were already a couple of members who became the prey of a silent blade that slit their throats.

Faker walked through their ranks as if he was talking a leisure walk while taking one life after another. He already killed quite a few of them before the opposing side noticed what was happening.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The group quickly scatted to distance themselves away from Faker while looking at him cautiously. But the moment when they redirected their eyes towards him, Lawless immediately took action.

Bang!

He stomped his foot on the ground and lunged forward, launching himself towards the twin with very strong momentum.

Seeing Lawless charging at the two, Jude, the Human Guardian and the personal guard of the twin, quickly jumped in front of Lawless while holding his shield tightly.

He watched the incoming opponent closely while placing his shield in a position where he could quickly block Lawless’ attack. He was pretty familiar with the latter’s habits and he knew that it was better to respond at the very last moment when facing this guy due to unpredictable movements that he could make within an instant.

Seeing that Jude didn’t place his shield in front of him, Lawless quickly understood that Jude was still familiar with him.

Unfortunately, he already fixed his useless habits ages ago. 𝒷ℯ𝒹𝓃𝓸𝓿ℯ𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝓶

Swoosh!

Lawless suddenly halt his charge as his body blurred for a brief moment. And when Jude saw that, his eyes immediately turned wide as completely understood what it meant.

“An afterimage!” exclaimed Jude as he quickly turned around and swiftly changed his position while also raising his shield in the process.

Bang!

Then a powerfully strike hit his battle-axe which made him take a couple of steps backward. He even felt that his arm was trembling violently due to the residual force that he failed to nullify.

“Hoh~! So your senses are still as good as ever,” commented Lawless he was that Jude managed to block his attack despite his insane burst of speed. But quickly also added after a quick pause. “Though, it looks like your strength weakened a little.”

Hearing those remarks, Jude quickly squinted his eye while trying to reassess his opponent. ‘Did he already regain his former form? But it also only a few months, it is not that easy to regain their previous state after such a long hiatus.’

Two years of not playing the game might be short for the majority of people, but for top players such as themselves, it was a pretty long time. There were things that could happen in this span of time. They could either be left behind by their fellow experts or their skills would get debilitated over time.

Jude was confident that he became pretty strong after years of training and honing his skills inside the game. He was even confident that he would be able to stand alongside the other top experts of the game and some of the godlike players.

But regardless of his efforts, it seems like it was still not enough to surpass this monster in front of him.

Understanding the meaning behind Jude’s eyes, Lawless suddenly smirked before saying. “What? Do you honestly believe that we will get behind that far? You are underestimating us too much if you really think that way.”

He then paused for a brief moment before continuing with a mocking tone. “Or it can also mean that you didn’t improve after all this time. The expression on your face seems to be telling that your strength was stagnant since a long time ago.”

The corner of Jude’s mouth suddenly twitched after hearing those words. But aside from that, he didn’t show any violent reaction since he knew that Lawless was purposely agitating him so that his judgment could be clouded.

And it was at that moment when Eriko and Erica made their moves.

They charged at Lawless in different directions as they left Killion and his subordinates to deal with Faker.

“You never have changed! You are still as noisy as ever!” shouted Eriko before positioning his shield in front of him and accelerating his charge.

Swoosh!

In the meantime, Erica coordinated with him and slowed her charge a little. She was also locking her gaze at Lawless, trying to read where he was going to dodge.

But to their surprise, Lawless didn’t show any kind of movements as if he was not planning to dodge. Then they immediately remembered the other guys who stayed by his side and remained loyal to him.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

And just like they were expecting, a pair of attacks quickly flew at them before they could even reach Lawless.

A water blast flew straight to Eriko which made him halt his charge while a powerful fireball stopped Erica from her tracks.

Bang! Bang!

After blocking the attacks, the twin saw a pair of mages appear beside Lawless while looking at them warningly.

“It has been a while, Eriko. But I still see that you are still not showing any respect to our commander,” said Ravier while glaring at the knight.

“Winter Demon Ravier,” muttered Eriko with a heavy tone. He then tightened his grip over his sword and shield, getting ready to attack.

“Hoh~! You are still calling my name alongside my title? I thought you hated it since you never got one aside from being called the ‘Shield of the Dark Hero?” said Ravier with a mocking tone.

In the meantime, Ember was silently staring at Erica with trembling eyes. And after a few moments of not saying anything, she finally muttered the latter’s name. “Erica.”

Erica felt a complicated feeling when she saw Ember, though she was not showing it outside. She just stood on her spot and silently stared back at her old friend.

Ravier patted Lawless’ shoulder after a couple of moments before saying. “You can leave this to us. Just help Brother Faker over there until we are done ‘talking’ with these two.”

Lawless felt a little skeptical after hearing those words as he knew that Faker didn’t need his help after regaining his former form.

But despite that being the case, he still nodded his head. “Just keep in mind that I also need to talk to them. You have that prison prism with you, don’t you?”

“Don’t worry, I know what to do,” replied Ravier with full confidence.

Meanwhile, the expression on Eriko’s face turned sour, especially when he heard them talking about them as if they could deal with them anytime.

But even if the ‘word’ displeasure was clearly written on his face, he couldn’t say anything about it since he knew that facing either one of them was really troublesome.

Moreover, he hated Ravier more than Lawless since the time when they were still in the Dark Hero Adventurer Team.

Seeing that Eriko had no intention of stopping him, Lawless shrugged his shoulders before starting to walk away and the group.

Jude wanted to stop him alongside Miko but before he could even take a step to chase after Lawless, a loud gunshot suddenly rang from a distance before a magic bullet landed in front of his foot.

Jude and Miko turned towards the direction where the gunshot came from and saw someone standing on a tree branch while holding a magic rifle in his hands.

“Golden Bullet Morgan,” muttered Jude with a soft voice before exchanging glances with Miko and heading towards the gunslinger.

Ravier watched them go to Morgan without worry since he knew that the latter was able to handle himself, especially with the help of Hayden who was on his side.

After that, he turned at the twin in front of them before saying. “Now that no one is around to disturb us, shall we proceed to our business?”

“I am pretty sure that you are itching to see who is the better pair between us,” he added as a cold aura was suddenly realized from his body.

……