Mays was nowhere near the city lord's mansion. He was currently strolling around the city leisurely when he suddenly heard someone shouted his name.
"Was that Taunting Roar? Man things suddenly got a bit interesting hehe."
Without wasting any second, Mays immediately rushed toward the direction of the previous shout. Since someone called for him, it would be rude for him not to show up.
He was in no way a coward after all. But the thing was, he couldn't fly. The distance between him and the source of that shout was quite far. It would take some time for him to reach that place.
Len and the rest of the group already arrived at the plaza within the city lord mansion. They were shocked upon witnessing the scene before them. There were around twenty people currently fighting in the center of the plaza.
The city lord was still seated while his four trusted aid were fighting a group of grey hooded people. Some of the grey hooded people were lying on the floor with blood splattered all over.
"Heh, I never expected these rat to come out today of all people. Today really is my lucky day hahahhaha."
"Shut up Arbah! Your tyranny ends today! Kill him!"
One of the hooded people replied in anger. He waited for this day far too long. Two long years. The city of Kokala had enough share of its pain already. If not because of a sudden interference of Mays earlier, they might already attacked early this morning.
Since most of the soldier were rushed outside to look for the perpetrator, the security inside the mansion was considered lax. These people decided to use this opportunity to launch an attack. The leader of this group of people was Igrem. He planned this suicide attack as he believed that the death of Arbah would surely mean greater good.
"Kill? Me? With only you guys? Dream on hahahahahahah!"
Arbah laughed as he maintained his posture, not moving an inch from his seat. All four of his trusted aid were top level bronze ranked fighter. They could hold their ground against these lousy group of attacker. In truth, only Igrem alone was a bronze rank fighter within his group.
"Where is Mays?"
"I don't know. If he didn't show up, we need to go there and save Lady Miur ourselves."
"Calm down. Let's observe the situation first."
Len was still calm even when the situation already escalated beyond his power to control. At least he knew that doing something rash would never solve his problem.
As time passed, the difference in power were shown clearly. The four people on Arbah's side were still standing while the group of the hooded people only had five people left. Arbah grinned over the outcome of the fight in front of him.
"So? Is there anything else up your sleeve? If not, this parade or yours will end soon hahahaha."
Arbah smirked as he knew these people effort would definitely ended in vain. They didn't have enough power needed to take him down. He was after all a silver rank fighter, an elite of the kingdom itself. Not just anyone could beat him.
"Heh, I already knew that our side had no chances against the like of you. But do you think we just come here to commit suicide without any plan in mind?"
"Oooo so you do have something. Show it to me then! Hahahahha."
Arbah mocked Igrem as he continued to laugh at their futile effort.
"Don't regret it Arbah!"
Igrem who was obviously exhausted started searching for something within his robe. Soon enough, he brought out one pale looking, yellow coloured gem. As Arbah saw that gem, his face turned green in an instant. He knew what that gem was.
"Mm... monster gem? How did you get that?"
"Hehehe now you're afraid. I ain't telling you that. But at the very least, you do know that this yellow colored gem could hold silver rank monster inside it right, mister city lord?"
Now that his card actually had an impact, Igrem felt that he could actually pull this off. His plan was quite simple. Using the monster summoned by the monster gem, he wanted to wipe out Arbah and the rest of the corrupt soldiers.
"I ain't giving you any time to think. Take this!"
Igrem immediately punched the monster gem with all his might. He didn't want Arbah to come up with a plan to counter his move. As soon as the gem shattered, fog started appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the plaza.
The sky turned dark as an unknown sinister air flooded the area. Under the cover of the thick fog, a silhouette of a monster appeared out of nothingness.
"Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!"
A loud shriek stunned everyone present around the plaza. That monster gem earlier actually caged a thunder sabretooth. A three meter tall white tiger with two protruding fang equipped with sharp silver claws.
Thunder sabretooth was a middle tier silver ranked monster. The likes of Arbah totally couldn't even hold a candle in a fight against this monster.
"Wowow... You really did summon one hell of a monster."
"Of course I did. Now you will be doomed trying to face this monster. Go! Attack that man!"
As if victory already at hand, Igrem wasted no time in ordering the thunder sabretooth to attack. This monster gem did cost him quite a fortune after all.
"Hahahahahha!"
"What's so funny? Already giving up on the fight?"
Arbah's loud laugh totally made Igrem uncomfortable. He felt that something was definitely amiss but he didn't know what it was.
"Hahahahha nothing really. I was just amused at how lady luck always smiled upon me. If only the monster you summoned was a humanoid type, I would really have turned tail and ran as fast as I could but a beast type? Hahahhahah I just can't hold it anymore."
"What do you mean by that? Perhaps… No it can't be?! You don't dare…"
"Who the hell you think I am? Hahahahhaha take this you bastard!!!"
"Doonnttt!!"
Apparently only Igrem knew what just happened. He was the most knowledgeable about monsters out of his group anyways. Arbah just did something which normally humans wouldn't do. He made the monster goes berserk.
"Hahahahha. I'm out of here, good luck peasants' hahahhahaa."
Arbah left the scene soon after.
With his strength, his running speed was way faster than normal human. It took him less than ten second to sweep through the crowd. Earlier, he threw a jar of stardust toward the thunder sabretooth.
Stardust was a man-made alchemy product with the effect of removing the sanity of monsters. Apparently, it only had effects on beast type monsters as they had lower intelligent. Humanoid monsters were unaffected by the stardust.
"Roaaaaa!! Roaaaaaaaa!!"
As the thunder sabretooth gone berserk, it leapt toward the crowd which gathered nearby and start massacring humans on sight. Both its eyes shone bright red.
With each swings of its thick arm, thunderbolt rained down a specific area, leaving dead bodies all over. The crowd of people who was there to watch ran all over soon after the situation turned bad.
"It's all over. I never thought the city lord was this detestable. He even dare to let his city be destroyed rather than try to fight the monster. My plan failed. My perfect plan failed!"
Igrem was on his knee. He couldn't accept the reality in front of him. He never thought the current city lord would be so low that he only cared about his own life. Even his four trusted aid were left there in the middle of the plaza, trying to fight the berserk thunder sabretooth.
"Uh, city lord abandoned us."
"Well, that's how he is. We can only stand and fight this beast or it will run amok inside the city."
These aids of the city lord didn't become one because they wanted to. They just didn't had the choice. Either do or die. They were loyal follower of the previous lord. Never would they expected that their young lord would suddenly turned into this kind of man.
"No use bickering over it. We at least need to defend the city till help come."
One of the aid who seemed to be the leader commanded them to fend off the rampaging beast. Even at best, they could only delay the beast. They had no means to defeat something that was on entirely different level than them.
Miur and her two attendants were still caged in the middle of the plaza. Len and the others already rushed toward the plaza, trying to release the three of them. Len attacked the side of the cage using his sword but it was useless. His attack didn't even left any dent on the cage.
"Damn this cage is tough. Even my best attack means nothing to it."
Len already lose hope on breaking the cage. The thunder sabretooth was still on killing spree. Those who didn't manage to leave the scene on time were killed without mercy. As of now, apart from the injured and the dead, there were less than fifty people left in the city lord mansion's plaza.
"Hey guards, where is the key for this cage?"
Len shouted as he knew the situation worsen each passing second. He need to free his young lady and his companions as soon as possible.
"Sorry young man, only the city lord have the key."
One of the four aids replied while his focus was still on the thunder sabretooth in front of him. These four were actually elite soldier who worked under the previous lord. They could even hold onto their life even when faced against a higher tier monster.
Even with their good coordination, the best they could do was to delay this monstrous beast. Each time they parried an attack from this monster, the injury they sustained piled up more and more.
As time goes on, one after another fall by the attack of the monster until all four of them were not in a state to fight. There were still faint movement from them but the thunder sabretooth didn't paid them any attention anymore.
"God damn it. We are doomed."
Someone who stood behind Len just cursed as he noticed the thunder sabretooth was moving toward them. Len readied his stance as he knew there was no other choice.
"Roaaaaaaa!!!!!!"
The thunder sabretooth leapt forward toward the only living human on its sight. The group of Len and his companions. Igrem and the others who were fighting earlier were mostly on the ground, either dead of gravely injured.
Thunder rained down the area when the beast willed it. Its thick arm sent Len and several other guy flying several meters away. In just a few seconds, there were no one left standing on the scene.
Miur and the other two inside the cage were petrified by fear. They knew that if the beast attacked them, there were nothing they could do to prevent it. The three of them inside the cage didn't even have anything to defend themselves with.
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The thunder sabretooth already raised its arm in an attempt to break the cage. Just before it swings its strong arm, a silhouette of a human rushed forward in haste.
"Miss me?"
That overly familiar voice made the three of them inside the cage let out a relieved sigh. Miur was even smiling widely as she saw the silhouette of a young man who suddenly appeared in front of the cage.
"Eeeem… whoaaa!!"
Miur who about to respond to Mays's question shouted as she was pushed toward Aura due to the wind pressure. The power of the attack was mostly nullified by Mays but there were still some that slipped out. The clash between Mays and the thunder sabretooth had just started but almost everything in the vicinity had been blown away.
Mays currently was fighting against the thunder sabretooth barehanded. Miur and the other two inside the cage watched the fight without blinking. This was the very first time they had witnessed a human going toe to toe against a high level beast.
"I… I'm not dreaming am I?"
"I was wondering the same thing too."
Both Aria and Miur voiced out what they thought while Nova just kept her mouth shut. Her hand was even placed on top of her gaping mouth, unable to say anything about the scene unfolding in front of her.
She was totally at a loss of word upon witnessing something which she believed was mere rumours. Often she heard tales about powerful warrior fighting against monsters and beasts alike but she never saw it with her own eyes prior to this.
"Ok enough. As weak as you are I can't even gauge the extent of my strength."
After that casual remarks from Mays, he unsheathed his sword on his waist and immediately slashed the thunder sabretooth in front of him. In the eyes of Miur and the other two, they couldn't even follow what Mays just did.
They only saw Mays placed one of his hand on the sword's scabbard while the other hand on the sword's hilt. Next moment, blood spurted out from the dead body of the thunder sabretooth as it rained down nonstop. The scary, almost invincible thunder sabretooth was killed easily as if it was mere bug in front of Mays.
This time, all three of them inside the cage were rendered speechless. They couldn't even comprehend what just happened. To them, the thunder sabretooth was already something the likes of them couldn't even dream on killing.
The might of thunder sabretooth Mays just slain in actuality was around level seventy. At the very least, it did had an attack power of that particular level. As for why it was easily killed actually quite simple. This thunder sabretooth was just a common monster.
A common monster were those who had high level but way weaker than the elites or bosses of the same level. Even humanoid monsters were the same in that regard. That was what Mays had deduced from his fight against that monster in one minute. Maybe their strength might differ but it would heavily depend on individuality of each monsters.
With another casual swing of the sword on his waist, Mays cut open the cage that holds Miur and the others as if the hard cage was mere tofu.
"Come out. Sorry for not coming sooner."
Mays realized that if he was a little bit later, these three wouldn't even be alive. He did feel bad for what just happened but thats all.True that these girls got dragged into this mess because of him but their weakness was the main reason why this happened.
"T… thanks for saving us."
"Thank you so much. "
Both Aria and Nova thanked Mays right after they walked out from the cage. As for Miur, she ran toward Mays and hugged him tightly. Mays was about to push her off when he heard her sobbing nonstop and decided not to. This young lady was actually terrified to the point of crying.
"It's okay, you are safe now. I'm here."
As Mays patted her head, he whispered reassuring words over and over till the young lady finally get a grip of herself. Nobody would blame her after what just happened.
"Ugh… I can't believe I am still alive."
Amidst the pile of dead bodies and injured people scattered all over the plaza, Len tried his hardest to stand up. Using his sword as a stand, he managed to finally stand up despite how heavy the damage his body had sustained. He just regained his consciousness not too long ago and the first thing which came to his mind was the safety of his young lady.
Len observed his surrounding only to feast his eyes on the carnage left by the thunder sabretooth earlier. From his rough estimation, there were at least a hundred dead bodies all over. He did noticed several body twitching, barely hanging to life.
And when he looked at the cage in the middle of the plaza, he was relieved when he saw several familiar silhouette standing there.
"Thank god you made it in time, Mays."
After he confirmed the safety of Miur with his own two eyes, all his energy left his body and he fainted again. He heard a few voice shouting his name but his mind had already flew elsewhere as he closed his eyes with a smile on his face.
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The next day, Len woke up. He was currently inside a decent looking room, without anyone else on his side. He still felt quite weak but he managed to stand up and walked toward the door of the room.
After he checked his body briefly, he noticed that his injury were all healed. Only fatigue remained hence his body was still weak. As he walked down the stairs cautiously, he saw Mays and the others sitting at one of the table at the dining area.
"Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeen you wake up!"
Miur shouted soon after he saw Len walked toward them. With a wry smile, Len waved his hand. He was quite embarrassed when everyone looked up at him after his young lady shouted his name. Taking a seat beside Mays, they started talking to each other while the food they ordered came by one after the other.
"So… Sali and the others didn't make it."
"Yea… Only the four of us left."
After he heard the full story from his friend, Len couldn't helped but felt depressed. He was quite close to those people in their group after all. Len was even nominated as their leader. After that incident, their big group were now left with just four people.
"Don't be that depressed. Life goes on."
Mays didn't even try to console them. Instead, he just casually told them to move forward.
"Ah… thanks Mays."
At the moment, Mays already realized that these people already viewed him as some sort of sage, someone who was above normal humans. Everyone who witnessed that event would be the same though. Weak humans always seeks protection from the strong.
Mays did nothing wrong when he helped the old man. Any man with morality would have done so. In the end, everything depended on oneself. If one was strong enough, nothing else matters.