The enraged beastman chief was stronger than usual. Red-eyed with anger, he smashed into the rampart like a cannonball, shattering its bluish-grey slabs upon impact. A small scratch adorned his head and blue-grey dust covered his body. Immediately, he punched out towards the city guard who had cut down the rabbit beastman.
He clearly had a blade, yet he still used his fists… it seems like this beastman's brain stopped working again.
However, there wasn't much of a difference if he used a blade or his fists. His blade could chop off a human's skull, but his fist could also crack apart a human's body. Blood vessels and bones bursting in a crisp crunch, the guard becoming a mangled corpse—everyone saw this image flash through their eyes. None of it had happened yet, but anyone could to such a conclusion on their own.
Savage, ignorant, and mindless beastman.
They killed, they battled; just these two points made people fearful of them.
Being clever was nothing to them.
The young guard, paralyzed with fear, wet himself. All he could see was the beastman's fist rapidly expanding. His eyes blurred; the only sound he could hear was the hammering of his own heart.
From the side, a hand shot out and pushed the young guard to the side. The hand's owner wasn't much older than the guard and was just in his early twenties. His figure wasn't burly either. Before the colossal beastman, he was like a twig. However, he stood firmly, stopping the beastman's iron fist with a seemingly ordinary sword.
The beastman chief thought that his fist had already slammed into the soldier, but he didn't hear the sound of flesh and blood scattering. Instead, he heard the crisp ring of metal striking metal. Taking a closer look, he found that a young human had blocked him.
He opened his mouth and said, "Little fellow, you look like a pretty boy, but you're very strong!"
The pretty boy, Xu Jun was at a loss for words.
What do you mean by a fucking pretty boy… As a hero, he had always heard praises about his handsome, dashing good looks! How could this beastman think he was a pretty boy?!
The upstanding "Prince Ryan" came up with an answer for him. "Maybe it's because… you're short?"
Right, the beastman was almost twice the height of Xu Jun.
Xu Jun lacked the strength to even curse in his heart. “How is being 1.78 meters tall considered short?!"
Demon King Rozenke had no idea what this "1.78 meters" was. He also rarely cared about anyone's height, weight, or even looks; however, Xu Jun acting like this made him more serious. "You really aren't that tall. The Demon King is about a head taller than you."
For some reason, Demon King Rozenke felt a bit proud of himself.
Xu Jun decided that he shouldn't talk to Prince Ryan. Anyone who bickered over height with someone who had an affair with the Demon King definitely had a mental illness. As a lonely dog1, he really was fed up. Thus, he directed his fury towards the beastman chief. With a flick of his sword, he forced the beastman backwards. "You dare call this one a pretty boy? Hah? I'm going to kill you kid!"
…His Highness, Demon King Rozenke, who heard Xu Jun call the beastman chief, "kid," really felt that he needed to teach the Hero some manners.
Are words like "child" and "kid"2 terms to be thrown around casually?
The beastman had already been a bandit chief for several decades. He has been through hundreds of battles; beneath his mane were countless scars. Some of these scars even stretched near to his heart. How could this kind of person be goaded simply by being called a kid? No matter how roughly others curse him, it only made his wrath blaze hotter. "Pretty boy!"
"Child!"
Even in this exchange, neither was willing to back down.
On the beastmen side, they were beginning to jump onto the wall to support their front. On the human's side… the personal guards of the City Lord had finally arrived.
No, it wasn't just the City Lord's personal guard, the City Lord himself had arrived as well.
Wilderness City's Lord was a square-faced, middle-aged man. Calm and powerful, he gave orders from beneath the wall. Powerful shouts passed throughout most of the market. Under his encouragement, the straggling merchants and young soldiers began to retreat.
Many cried as they walked away, "Lord, please leave first…"
The City Lord firmly responded, "Guarding Wilderness City is my duty. There is no need to say anything more."
A mournful wail arose from the leaving crowd.
Xu Jun didn't hear any of these things. The beastman had managed to jump up onto the ramparts and the pressure on him was great. Although this beastman bandit chief's strength was much lower than his, the beastman's skin was rough and thick. Xu Jun couldn't kill him with just one or two stabs. There were many people here as well, so he couldn't use any powerful spells either… Xu Jun felt a bit glum.
As long has he had a minute, he could butcher this beastman.
However, did he have a minute's time? What about those human soldiers?
He had encountered this kind of situation in the game before. However, back then, it had still been a game. Although he had felt remorse seeing people die, he didn't blame their deaths on himself—after all, it was simply a game.
However, now—this wasn't a game anymore; these were real, living, breathing people!
"Daeniste!!!" Xu Jun quietly ordered, "Use light magic!"
The sky was pitch black. The beastmen were unaffected, but most humans weren't suited to the dark.
Daeniste used magic to mark out two beastmen. Nodding his head, he threw a Holy Light Bomb into the sky.
A fire fox beastman bandit took advantage of this gap and silently approached Daeniste from behind. The dagger hadn't even reached Daeniste's robes before the hand holding it had been cut off by a nearby city guard. One of the City Lord's personal guards then took off the head of the fire fox bandit.
As expected, the City Lord's personal guard really was a cut above the rest. The city guard looked at the other's frown and tightened their grip on their sword.
Swords have no eyes3 on the battlefield, yet they had diverted someone else's attention towards helping them…
Without a doubt, Xu Jun's fight was the most difficult one. From an outsider's perspective, he was confronting a burly, two to three meter giant using his lone, weak looking, 1.78 meter tall human body. However, only he knew the difficulty of his battle didn't lie in the fight itself.
After all, had it been a one on one, he could've settled the match in one or two minutes just using basic attacks. _(:зゝ∠)_
He wouldn't even need to use buff potions4. He wouldn't need to regain health after the battle either. _(:зゝ∠)_
Basically, this fight wasn't even the slightest bit difficult. However, he was currently fighting in a warzone, and that was really debilitating. After all, Xu Jun wasn't just facing off against one opponent; he also had to observe the movements of both the beastmen on the wall and the war-beasts down below.
Xu Jun really wanted to return to when this was still a game. Then, he could continue to hold an "if they die, they die" sort of attitude towards the surrounding NPCs, and not care so much about their life and death.
Xu Jun thought all this as he broke a beastman's old waist with an elbow. Twisting around, he then stuck his sword into the beastman chief's chest.
Xu Jun really wanted to know how this beastman was raised. After all, he had covered his sword with a paralyzing agent, yet it still wasn't taking effect?
This beastman's skin was already rough and thick enough, yet his drug resistance is also this impressive?!
However…the beastman was probably at his limit. Xu Jun counted five, four, three, two, one, and then the beastman chief's head lolled. Incredulity flashed through the beastman's eyes before he toppled to the ground.
The huge body collapsed with a boom. Immediately, Xu Jun began to maintain his sword. Suddenly he heard an urgent cry, "City Lord, watch out!"
Directly behind Xu Jun, one of the City Lord's personal guards deflected a strike from his opponent and rushed off. That deflected strike was now piercing straight towards Xu Jun.
Demon King Rozenke called out in dismay, "Xu Jun, behind you!"
It was too late. Xu Jun had been too busy maintaining his sword. The curved blade pierced through Xu Jun's shoulder, coming out through the other side.
I was too arrogant, Xu Jun thought. Initially, after being stabbed, he couldn't feel any pain. He only felt as if something cold had pierced through his body. The iciness quickly turned into heat, his shoulder feeling as if a strong alcohol was burning through it.
He took out a pill from his pocket and consumed it. Pulling the blade out from his shoulder, he skewered the beastman chief through the middle of his back. Xu Jun then turned around to face the beastman who had injured him.
–Fuck, this one had managed to kill the Demon King, yet still managed to overturn the boat in a sewer. This really is shameful.
Author has something to say:
Xu Jun is still quite nervous. After all, he used to be a gaming god, and had no pressure when fighting. Even if it was the highest difficulty hero mode, where he couldn't respawn or save his game, he actually didn't have any real pressure.
Now, however, it has become reality. He needs to adjust a bit.
On another note, in the past chapter, some readers were saying this was filler and that it didn't matter if the chapter existed or not (general idea). Actually, I enjoyed writing it quite a bit, hahaha. However, I am not just writing for myself, so I wanted to ask if everyone enjoyed reading these chapters that are a bit filler-like. If most readers don't like reading stuff like this, then Erji will cut some stuff out at Erji's own discretion. _(:зゝ∠)_
Translator's niche:
[1]If you don't remember, this means single, usually in the forever alone kind of thought process. ⏎
[2]These “two” words are actually the same word (meaning grandson) in the raw, but I decided to split it because of how I used it previously and how I used it in this chapter. It adds a bit more flexibility for my use of the word.⏎
[3]This just means that basically anyone could hit you, friend or foe. In a sense, it's kind of like “it's not my fault if you get hit,” or something like that. In the context of the sentence, it feels to imply that the city guard is putting the City Lord's personal guard in danger by needing help to kill the fire fox.⏎
[4]If you're unfamiliar with this, it's basically a potion you can use in games to temporarily raise the amount of damage you can deal (attack) or take (defense). ⏎