CHAPTER 22: BURN

He dove forward, the first man slashed down, Silva rapidly raised his hands, he parried the blow, and the sword ran down his gauntlet, causing a loud grinding sound. He didn’t bother looking at the sword as it moved down, his eyes were focused on the man.

He slashed in close motion, his distance wasn’t enough to physically touch the man, but that wasn’t his aim. He used Claw Strike and the purple claw marks slammed into his body at close range. It ripped through the clothes, but it turned out they had thick armor under their clothes.

The Claw Strike tore through the armor, but it didn’t manage to kill him, only tearing deep into his skin, causing an immense amount of pain as he collapsed on the ground.

With one down, he looked up, the other two were already headed for him. He wouldn’t be able to do what he did with the first one, so in a reckless move, he slashed with another Claw Strike. One managed to dodge, but the other had his entire arm slashed off clean.

Silva was on his last legs here, there was no way he would be able to win this now, he could tell. He didn’t even have the energy for one more attack, but the fight in him refused to dim even in this state.

The last one didn’t care about the fact that his mates had been cut down, he rushed forward as well. Silva looked at him, fists raised and ready to fight, his arms trembled, his gaze was hazy, but he didn’t stop.

Since the beginning of their fight, none of the three had used their abilities, mostly because they didn’t expect the fight with him to take such a turn and were taken down unexpectedly.

The short sword of the man lit up in flames, "Arghhhhhh!" he roared as he came in for an attack, slashing from above.

Whoosh

An arrow flew through the air and plunged deep into the chest of the man, penetrating the armor and entering his chest.

He stopped, looked at the arrow in his chest, and saw how close he had come to death in that instant. He looked up into the trees and spotted a figure with a bow.

Quickly he backed away, running. He looked at both men on the ground, he couldn’t abandon them, because they would give away information about their boss. So with a flick of his wrist, flames left his hands and fell on them, lighting them on fire.

Both men screamed in horror as the one with an arrow in his chest ran away, they burned until they turned to ashes, right in front of Silva

Silva was stunned to see such brutality to a fellow mate. The goblins did it, and now humans did it. For some reason though he couldn’t feel bad or disgusted at them, he felt empty.

’I guess that’s just the way the world works,’ he thought and then turned to look for who had helped him.

He spotted her in the tree, dressed like a ranger. She had dark hair and a small stature, holding a bow in hand.

She leaped down from the tree, and it turned out she wasn’t alone as her party came out as well—a tall man with a massive shield and full-body armor, a swordsman, and a woman with some sort of staff. It was a normal staff.

Silva looked at them as they approached, and immediately something was off about them. They each had quality equipment, and yet they were in a beginner gate.

It was abnormal, unless they had some sort of massive backing. Either way, they had helped him.

The man with the sword had short blonde hair, and his armor was simply steel with carbon fiber at some points to make it lighter. He had calm, heroic eyes and a soft smile.

The lady with the staff was dressed like a combatant, with clean battle pants and a turtleneck, then a carbon fiber body vest above it for protection, her long brown hair tied into a bun.

"Hello," the young man with the sword came forward and spoke.

"Thank you for helping me out," Silva thanked them and turned to leave. He didn’t want to be part of anything.

"That’s no way to thank someone that saved you," the ranger said, she had a pissed look on her face.

Silva stopped, he looked back at her, his expression blank. "I said thank you, what more is needed?" he asked, then brought out a core and walked toward her.

"I don’t have much, so have this as my appreciation," he said and placed it in her hands, then walked away.

His actions stunned them. Was that the way someone reacted to their helper?

"Hey you, no one wants your stupid core!" the lady yelled.

"Hm?" Silva turned around, "Then what do you want?" he asked.

"For one, stop being a stuck-up brat, we saved your life," she said.

"Please go away, leave me be," Silva said and walked away.