Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 8: You Seem Familiar

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

BAM!

A thunderous explosion erupted, along with Joshua’s deafening roar. The unleashing of his powers were just the beginning.

Joshua’s Kai create a powerful blast that rippled through the air, distorting the surrounding air powerfully. He was far from done. More and more semi-circular sword blasts were sent out like a machine gun. The powerful blast of his sword attack shattered all the nearby windows. His leaking deep crimson-colored Combat Aura was mixed with the snow. With that, he had managed to destroy the enemies’ formation.

The soldiers that came in a large group, wielding spears and sword were all blasted away. The sound of the bones cracking was clear and crisp, and that was extremely terrifying. Those people were thrown back to their comrades and were pushed tens of feet behind. The spears and swords in their hands shattered. The shields were strong enough to withstand the attack but their hands had failed them. Even their armor was not strong enough to block the overwhelming blast that it made countless of maze-like cracks on the armor. Blood started to ooze out from the cracks as they started struggling to even breathe normally, what more to get back up to their feet.

The ferocious wind was still blowing around Joshua, surrounding all that was around him.

Those soldiers were wearing heavy armor that was meant to withstand a heavy blow. The shield in their hand was meant to stop and protect them from any sort of attack. Their formation was meant to be on the frontline, exposed to danger and sustain damage. They were so strong that even charging knights on horses would find it difficult to penetrate their defense. Their prowess was not of regular soldiers. They were the main powerhouse of an army.

However!

Joshua was different from regular soldiers. He was, after all, a legendary warrior. This sort of skill was meant to counter such a formation. Hence, no matter what sort of shield or armor they were using, Joshua’s strike was like a hot knife through butter.

The powerful blast of power had blown all the piled-up snow away, revealing the stone pavement underneath. It was supposed to be a long worn-out stone pavement. Those stones were so huge and tough with no regular means to break them. However, Joshua’s power blast had just done that. The streets in front of him were unearthed like it was just a blanket sheet. Fragments of what used to be heavy square stones were flung around as if they were pebbles. Along with the broken pieces of mirror, the soldier’s swords and spear, the scene of which looked like a monster had just barged through the city. The unharmed soldiers were quivering where they stood unscathed. They might be wound-free, but they were greatly shaken. None of them dared to press forward, or even move a muscle.

It was just a single strike. Yet Joshua had managed to break the formation of all the heavy armored soldier and put a hold on their attack.

Joshua turned to his hands and said, “Hmph. Pity… The sword wasn’t good enough for me.”

He sighed disappointingly and tossed the hilt of the sword aside. The rest of the metal blade was shattered into nothing. “Must have been made with cheap steel. How else it could break in the middle of my display of power…”

In his mind, the powerful skill that had raised his strength by at least five times would have sliced all the soldier from the front all the way to the back, in half. However, in the middle of his swing, the sword was unable to sustain the power of Joshua’s strength. Right when it was about to make contact, the blade shattered. The power that was accumulated could not be concentrated, hence, the power dispersed out and formed a blast wave instead.

Although disappointed, Joshua was still satisfied with the outcome.

“Listen.” He moved towards a soldier that had obviously lost the will to continue the attack and spoke to him right in his face. “Right now. I will do the asking and you’ll answer me.”

“Yes, Sir!” The man shrunk away from Joshua and bowed to him. Even his manner of addressing Joshua had changed to talking to a lord. “We will answer anything you want.”

These guys were not real soldiers or knights. Although they might have good fighting capabilities, they were just hired swords. When they faced off an opponent that could not be defeated, an opponent that could easily erase their existence from the land with a single stroke, they would forget what the word loyalty meant and bow down to the strong.

“Who is your boss?”

Joshua immediately got to the point. His fight that had just taken place was too flashy. Who knew how many more soldiers had heard the commotion and were already heading towards the gates then.

“Where is he?”

“We are fighters that are hired by Danlya the merchant. He should be in the mansion in the city center. There are more of us. They are posted everywhere in the city. In fact, they should be heading here.”

A cooperative ‘hostage’ made things easy. He did not even have the slightest sense of loyalty of a true soldier. Then again, it was all too normal. The attack had wounded twelve and killed five. In fact, they had lost one-third of their overall forces. If they were unlucky and had angered the young master, he would have already killed everyone in sight with two more strokes.

“The mansion?” Joshua frowned. The corner of his lips twitched. He raised his head towards the general direction of the mansion and muttered to himself, “Why the rush to move into my home? Bastard, could he be ignoring my existence completely?”

The soldiers dared not answer his question. They had thrown their weapons to the ground and was kneeling down, not in the position of fighters, but of slaves.

Joshua was not interested in handling the defeated soldiers as he had other more pressing matters to attend to.

He promptly walked away from the them and proceeded to pick up a long spear that was still in perfect condition. He then casually approached the superior officers and retrieved a refined dagger from him. Despite the aching heart of losing his precious custom-made protective dagger, the superior office dared not resist. Joshua grinned and walked towards the city center, leaving everyone that was still breathing, unharmed.

When Joshua’s shadow was finally out of sight, the defeated soldiers stood up and breathed with a sigh of relief. Cold sweat was dripping down to their chins even though it practically subzero temperature.

“I couldn’t even breathe properly when he stood there.”

“Oh man… Why would he hire us to fight such a powerful man?”

More and more speeches of gratitude of being alive and the disgruntled complaints about Joshua being overwhelmingly strong was heard from the crowd of battered soldiers. They did not push to chase after Joshua. Instead, they took their time to pile up the deceased. One of the soldiers yelled in anger, “Didn’t the instructions mention about one man that was Intermediate Silver tier? The guy just displayed a move that could be dealt by a man that’s a Perfect Silver tier! It could even be one step from reaching Gold tier!”

“Please… You have been a mercenary for so many years, have you not learned your lesson when it comes to the words from our benefactor? If everyone knew that the target was strong, who would dare to charge blindly towards him?”

An older man among the group of mercenaries retorted. The way he spoke indicated he was experienced.

“Let this be a lesson. Next time when we receive an assignment, be sure to determine the difficulty on our own. Still, it’s too much. The man… He possessed a level of power that was Perfect Silver tier. How could the impersonating count describe his tier as only an average Silver?”

He sighed loudly and continued, “This is a big problem. He now knows the location of the lord. I don’t think the guards can hold him off.”

“Yeah… There’s going to be bloodshed.”

Out of the blue, a voice echoed from inside the older man’s head. It made his entire body freeze with both fear and surprise. The voice continued, “Looks like there was almost no resistance. What a shame.”

As the hidden art of telepathy was used, a fully armored man appeared out of thin air and stood quietly among the battered mercenaries. The armored man stood in front of the old soldier. With his fully hidden face, the armored man looked down on him and spoke telepathically, “How did he defeat you?”

“With a single swing!” The older man responded faster than anyone else could. He knew the wandering warrior that was standing in front of him was someone of higher rank. He could move in and out of the mansion without Danlya’s permission. Out of fear, the man quickly summarized Joshua’s move. “It was Kai with a power that rivals even the goblin-made Fire Cannon.”

“Where he now?”

“Going towards the mansion. Straight ahead.”

After ending the conversation, the silencer continued standing ground. Although he looked like he was calm and composed, his mind was racing.

“It looks like the man was telling the truth. The aftermath was proof of that.” He thought to himself. “I could defeat these weak mercenaries myself. But I could never do it with such lethality.”

“Danlya never mentioned about his strength being so destructive… Hmm. He had ignored trying to seek reinforcement in the Fort Dark Forest and head straight here. This is not going according to plan. No matter…’He’ is coming here soon. He might be a Perfect Silver… but that would not change the outcome.”

As he thought to himself, he moved to the side of the city walls and merged into the shadows. He set his compass in the proper direction.

“Still… I’d better follow the man. I cannot allow him to proceed any further.”

Once he was done thinking, he vanished, just like how he had arrived in the first place, without a trace.

*****

From the far corner of the street, far away from the battle scene that had just taken place. Elson’s heart was pounding faster and harder than ever. He had only managed to regain his senses after Joshua had demonstrated his overwhelming powers.

“The silencers… They are the few stronger mercenaries in the northern land. Tch… The enemy managed to hire them…” Elson muttered to himself.

“The spirit warrior and the shadow assassin… such an unmatching class could be combined to form a Silver-tier fighter…If he had chosen to walk on a single path, with his talents, he could become a Gold-Tier fighter.”

As he regained his composure, Elson paced away from the corner of the street and returned to his horse. “I cannot remain idle anymore or I won’t be any help to young master Joshua! I must hurry back! I must inform the others in the fortress! We must send reinforcements!”

Elson untied his horse and walked slowly towards the corner of the street. When he noticed the gates were unguarded, he quickly hopped onto his horse and galloped away.

At the same time, Joshua was sprinting towards the mansion. There was nothing obstructing his way but thick snow as he ran. As he did, there was something in his mind that he could not shake off.

“It’s weird, and I’ve definitely thought of this before… My uncle is just a businessman. So, how did he find the resources to hire so many soldiers and knights? There are even several companies of them!”

He frowned. Something was definitely up. The group of spearmen that he had just easily defeated were obviously ex-military soldiers. Their average level would be around Level 12. Those numbers were not cheap to hire to begin with. If his uncle had several more elite mercenaries that he had not faced, that means his uncle would definitely have someone backing him.

To compare, a normal Level 1 goblin the drawing line, a Steel-tier adult male human would be Level 5. Many would only need to train their muscles and body to achieve Steel tier. Any normal class, or a soldier class human would be around Level 10 on average. If one were to train soldiers to reach that tier, even a noble rich family could only handle three hundred soldiers at once. If the situation was dire, they would then resort to hiring citizens as temporary militia.

That was the trouble to hire regular soldiers, not to mention fifteen Silver-tier knights! Hiring a single fully armored knight would require a large sum of money that one could use to buy an estate. He knew this from conversing with a merchant in passing. To hire twenty to thirty Silver-tier knights, the amount of money spent could bankrupt a not-so-rich territory owner! How could a merchant, famous or not, be able to accomplish such a feat?

“There has to be someone pulling the strings…”

He shook his head at the thought and could not be bothered to probe further.

As the wind blew past his face, Joshua examined the spear in his hand and brandished it to assess its condition. The solid wood and the heavy steel spear tip was in excellent condition. Just by holding the newly obtained weapon, Joshua could feel the sensation of familiarity coming to him. The weapon in his hand, held tight, gave him a feeling of security. “Come a hundred, I’ll send a hundred heads rolling.”

To hasten his speed back to Moldavia, Joshua had discarded all his military-issued armor and greatsword. He had only brought along dried food and a few other consumables that were light. Hence, without his own weapon, his Talent [Weapon Mastery] had been in great use in that situation. As long as it is a weapon, he could pick it up and use it as if he had been training with it for years.

Joshua stopped. He heard the sound of a company of soldiers coming towards his direction. At that moment, he froze yet remained calm. He knew that the main force would head towards the blaring alarm earlier and return to the mansion after. At that moment, to maintain order and the strict rule made by his uncle, most of the soldiers would be sent out to patrol, leaving only a few men to guard the mansion. It was a perfect chance for him to strike.

Joshua was calm. He had confidence that he could win as long as the guards were not more than twenty Silver-tier knights. Any lesser, he could breeze through easily and kill that son of a b*tch uncle and leave the compound before anyone knew anything. He was, after all, an ex-legendary champion with an abundance of experience and a boss entity. Anyone who wished to challenge him to a fight would need to be at least Level 29.

From the perspective of a regular person, Joshua was a boss entity. Anyone who wishes to challenge him to a fight would need to be at least Level 29. Only a team of well-trained, fully armed, at average Level 29 five man party, might stand a chance at fighting head-to-head with Joshua. With a little planning, they might stand a chance at defeating him. Since his special status identified him as a boss, the difficulty would be harder. Under the same condition, the group of challengers would have more than twenty five men. Only then, might they stand a chance to defeat him.

In the game, he would be the nightmare of any regular player.

The sound of the company of soldiers was getting closer and louder. The time was till dawn, the sun had not fully risen from the horizon. Since there was nothing but snow on the streets, anyone could detect him as long he was in their line of sight. Joshua was not afraid of fights, however, he did not want to waste any more time. He then recalled the memories of ‘his’ past and found a small alley to hide away.

He went through so many back alleys and when he wanted to cut through the last one to reach the main street, he stopped.

There was someone standing in the open.

Someone all too familiar to him.