Iron Fist

"What is this...?"

Meanwhile, on the side of Jinrah. He finds himself inside a butcher room along with Edmond. And while he cautiously investigates every corner of the room, Jinrah caught a glimpse of something coming from under the stainless silver table.

Out of curiosity, Jinrah leans under the table and finds a decapitated hand of a woman lying under the table with a ring. Then, with his back seemingly unguarded, a figure stood behind him and attempts to attack.

*Clang!*

But, the adventurer who seem to have his back unguarded in his position, is actually keeping his guard up.

"You managed to block my battle axe with a single hand. Impressive, as expected of the Iron Fist of Reilaea."

"A blind spot attack? That kind of attack doesn't suit you at all, especially with your humongous figure, Edward Edmond, the Butcher."

Jinrah sends Edmond away by pushing the battle axe off of his left arm. The axe wielder took the push and landed on the ground with a firm stand. It's like his muscular weight combined with his heavy and oversized axe do not render his balance at all.

Edward then begin to speak.

"You've been wary about me since the two of us entered this cave. It's like you're actually waiting for me to strike. Susun, she looks like she's been freed from the lightning collar of Princess Celestine. Though it doesn't matter how she manage to cheat her death, she must have told you everything about us, am I right?"

"So you can tell if one still has the collar in one's neck even if it's well hidden with an invisible magic?" Jinrah replied as he stands up. "Well, she did tell us everything about all of you. But, what she gave us is just to strengthen our suspicion."

"...?"

"First of all. There's no one living in the north of Reilaea. Because the north of Reilaea, Tarasque Mountain, is a dead zone. Not to mention, some scouts discovered a gathering of monsters there just recently. And second of all, even if an enemy suddenly make an attack and that the guild master actually needs more manpower to assist the Kingdom at the time, there's no way that people would actually go to the adventurers guild to register as an adventurer at night. Where it's supposed to be closed."

Jinrah added to his answer to Edward. Edward then puts his left hand on the back of his head as he makes a calm expression on his face.

"I see. So you already suspected us from the very beginning. Well it doesn't matter. What matters now is which part of your body should I cut off first."

Edmond's right arm strengthen's its grip to his axe as he carries it singlehandedly.

"Should I go for the limbs first? Or should I go for the head first? Or maybe I should just cut you completely in half!"

*Dash!*

"...!"

Without hesitation, Edward Edmond dashes to attack Jinrah. As quickly as he gets the distance, he swings his giant axe with the aim of cleaving his Jinrah's head down to his body in half.

Jinrah, able to read the enemy's movements dodges the attack by jumping backwards. Resulting the axe to hit the ground which created a crater and an aftershock effect in which Jinrah loses his balance right after landing.

"Raagh!!"

Edward who created that slight opening jumps straight in to follow up his attack. This time his swing aimed to severe Jinrah's head out of his body.

"Wha?!"

Jinrah who is not expecting how fast Edward is to react to the situation despite having a heavy body and weapon is caught off guard. The sharp edge of the giant battle axe is about to hit his neck, until Jinrah uses his left hand to support his right arm as he uses his fist that is clad in an iron gauntlet to block the battle axe.

Though that quick decision to use his fist as a shield to protect him from the attack undeniably saved his life, the strength of Edmond's swing still blows Jinrah to the other side of the room. He hits the wall with a powerful impact.

"Using your gauntlet to protect yourself. Your quick reaction is quite impressive, just what I expected from a martial artist..." Edmond spoke with a menacing look in his eyes. "...You saved your life from certain death, but you lost your only weapon as a result. You only give yourself a few more minutes to live."

"For an old man, you sure talk a lot."

Jinrah blows the smoke of dust away with his arm and appeared with little to no bruises. The only thing that took damage is the gauntlet which he used to protect himself from the sharp battle axe.

After that quick of an attack, Jinrah did lose his gauntlets. But, losing it doesn't seem to affect him too much at all.

"That piece of iron is not part of my fighting style. So I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, thank you for taking them off for me, those things aren't necessary to a fight. My bare fists are more than enough to take you down."

Jinrah clenched his fist as he glared back to Edmond.

"Susun said to not do anything stupid that'll alert the people and the King from above. We haven't exchanging blows yet, but I can tell you're quite tough. I'm sure you can withstand my punches. And if that's the case, I can just go and let loose, right?"

"Hm! Do your worst, Iron Fist!"

Edmond with his giant battle axe chargest into battle. Jinrah with his bare fists dashes forward to confront the enemy.