Armipotent

Chapter 1919: Make It Even

It didn't make sense for Tang Shaoyang to be angry with the criminals. They had done something that maybe deserved to be killed, and yet he was still angry when he saw them killed—certainly not because they were his temporary subordinates. He did not harbor such feelings toward these criminals; however, this reminded him of something from the past.

This reminded him of the time he was being used only to get stabbed in the back. He recalled the memories of when his boss tried to kill him even though he had been fighting on the street for his life for the boss. It did not happen just once or twice, it happened three times until he joined the last group where he decided to remain at the lower bottom runk despite his contribution to the group.

As if it was not enough to send them on a suicide mission, they killed them during the fight. That was what triggered Tang Shaoyang. He did not care if these people wanted to execute the criminals but did it after the battle, not during the fight. On top of that, the arrows did not even reach where he stopped the Orcs, or else he would notice it.

Another thing that triggered him was that he was also part of the criminals. That meant they did not care if the arrow would hit him even though he was not a criminal. Even though he tried to rationalize it, he could not put away his anger.

His Chaos Eyes quickly picked up where the archers were. His figure darted toward the town wall, blurred because of how fast he was. In a few seconds, he arrived at the wall where the archers were.

They were surprised by his appearance. Tang Shaoyang scanned the surroundings and immediately reached the man who looked like the leader of the archers. He grabbed the man's collar and raised it to the air.

"Give a reason not to blast your head!"

The archers were shocked and half of them reacted by aiming their bows at Tang Shaoyang.

The man grabbed Tang Shaoyang's hand, trying to break free from the grasp but soon realized that he did not have the strength to do so. His feet kicked the air, kicking Tang Shaoyang's thigh and stomach, but that was nothing, not hurting Tang Shaoyang in the slightest, not even a tickle.

"DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT!" The Captain was panic-stricken as he ordered his subordinates not to shoot. He could imagine what would happen to him if his subordinates released the arrows. Those arrows would land on his body.

"ORDER! I WAS ORDERED TO SHOOT BY MY SUPERIOR!" The Captain was aware of what Tang Shaoyang asked and immediately spilled it without a second thought.

He was not lying when he said it was an order, but of course, he did not feel guilt in the slightest when he commanded his people to shoot. Those people were criminals, they deserved to die. He did not understand why the God Rank got angry with those criminals. Regardless of the reason, he was not willing to offend the person who single-handedly repelled the invasion for his superior.

"I ordered them to shoot." A calm voice echoed before Tang Shaoyang could ask who the superior was.

Tang Shaoyang turned toward the voice and found a young man in white plate armor coming over, flanked by four people. Those four people were a God Rank, the reason why the young man was fearless despite facing a God Rank. He recognized the man who looked to be in his mid-twenties, the third son of the Archduke Devereux, Gaspar Renan Devereux.

"Why?" He questioned Gaspar.

"Why not?" Gaspar shrugged, a smile plastered on his face as if it was stupid to ask such a question, "I am doing the kingdom a favor, getting rid of the criminals, so why not? The real question is, why are you angry? They are a bunch of criminals that deserve to die. Why are you protecting them?"

Tang Shaoyang calmed down, realizing that he was roped into another political play. Gaspar tried to use him to smear Lady Akhor's name. He implied that he, Lady Akhor's guest was trying to protect the criminals. Even though what they did was dirty, people did not care because they were killing criminals.

People did not care whether what Gaspar did was dirty or not. They did not care whether the criminals were fighting for them or not. They were criminals, they deserved to die. Regardless of his principle or answer, Gaspar would twist it in his favor.

Tang Shaoyang could picture what would come for him if he played Gaspar's game. That was enough to calm him down as he summoned a hundred and fourteen Chaos Blades. A hundred and fourteen were the number of the criminals that died by the arrows.

The people around him were alarmed, including Gaspar and his four entourages. They surrounded their master, afraid Tang Shaoyang would target Gaspar. However, the hundred and fourteen Chaos Blades shot past them and went toward Gaspar's direct subordinates, the soldiers of Archduke Devereux. Each blade pierced the soldier's head, killing a hundred and fourteen Archduke Devereux's soldiers.

"That would make it even, life for life, right, Edelmir?" Tang Shaoyang turned toward Commander Edelmir who just arrived after hearing the commotion.

"YOU!" Gaspar was furious. He pointed his finger at Tang Shaoyang, "YOU DARE TO KILL MY PEOPLE OVER CRIMINALS!"

"Why not? It's their fault, for serving the wrong master. If their master is not stupid, then there's no need for them to die," Tang Shaoyang smiled provocatively, "I am responsible for those people's lives in this battle. Their demise would be my responsibility as their commander, and you gave me no choice but to take action, whether they are criminals or not."

Tang Shaoyang took out Azure Dragon Blade, "The Giants and the Orcs can't really entertain me. Would you like to entertain me?"

He scanned the four guards, "I am not sure your four God Ranks are enough though."

"ENOUGH!" Zelie Linden Akhor saw everything.

"Why did you kill them!?" She rushed toward Tang Shaoyang and questioned him, "This is treason—" The princess could not finish her words when she met Tang's cold eyes. Her eyes widened in shock because she was familiar with those eyes, the murderous gaze. Her heart skipped a beat as she recalled what happened a few moments ago when the player single-handedly repelled the invasion.

Zelie quickly realized how ridiculous she sounded when she tried to accuse the player of treason. There was no such thing because the player never swore allegiance to the kingdom. She quickly realized that her hasty decision almost pitted the town against the player. After what she witnessed, she was not even confident that the army would be enough to face the player. Added to those criminals that certainly would support Tang.

The player approached her with cold eyes, and then Tang whispered to her, "The reason I am following your stupid arrangement is not because I want to, but because I am required to. The tower told me to follow your arrangement, but I don't mind finding out what happened if I wiped you all. From the System's perspective, you are all criminals as well."

Deep inside, Lady Akhor wanted to fight Tang Shaoyang for threatening her. However, she imagined what would happen to the town. Even if they killed Tang Shaoyang, she knew it was not without a price. She could imagine the town was destroyed, and a lot of innocents would be swept into their battle and die. In the end, it was a pointless battle that would only bring suffering to her people.

Tang Shaoyang turned toward Gaspar, "If you have a problem with her, then bring it to her. Don't involve me with your stupid game. But if you are looking for a fight, then I will give you a fight if that's what you want!"

Gaspar did not feel as confident as when he first approached Tang. He thought he had four God Ranks. That should be enough to deter Tang, but no. Not just the four God Ranks did not deter Tang, but Tang was being provocative toward him. If Tang tried to provoke him to attack first, that might give Tang a justification to fight back.

"That's right, if you have a problem with me, you better come to me. He is not one of my people, he is a player!"

Zelie wanted to keep Tang's identity as a player a secret, trying to use the player for her own gain. She changed her mind because she realized that the player was dangerous. It might backfire and destroy her if she was not careful, and she did not want to take the risk.

"YOU…" Gaspar could not believe what he heard. He wanted to lash out at the princess, but no words were coming out. The anger soon turned into confusion because he did not know what to do. The worst thing, he realized that Zelie had f*cked him up. He offended a strong player, and there would be a lot more players coming soon, and he offended one of the strong group players already.

Meanwhile, the person who is at the center of attention focused on something else, He received a notification.

[You have met the requirement to advance to the next floor!]

[Do you want to go to the twenty-second floor? (Yes) (No)]

Tang Shaoyang was relieved by the notification, but he chose not to, even though he wanted to leave this floor as soon as possible. He had not collected his loot, the Giant, and The Orc's hearts.

"My work is done here," He stated while checking on the criminals.

Of course, those people were using this chance to sneak their way out, escaping from their captors. That was the agreement that they would be free if they won the battle. However, they were not stupid to believe that, that was why they chose to sneak their way out.

Just like that, Tang Shaoyang disappeared under many people's gazes. No one could stop him from leaving. Zelie Linden Akhor tried to stop Tang Shaoyang because she wanted to reward the player for the help, but she got no chance for that.