A Job Gone Wrong (2)

The mercenaries were desperate and one of them hurriedly shouted towards Arulo.

"If you are just after the person in the carriage and the knight. That mean's you'll let us go right?"

The rest of the mercenaries all tried to plead and Arulo appeared to be in deep thought.

"Well, I guess if you don't tell anyone…."

All the mercenaries started to nod and some even spoke.

"Of course we would never tell anyone."

"Harming honorable knight Arulo? I would never even dare"

Suddenly Arulo swung his blade and like a clap of lightning one of the mercenaries fell to the ground with their head detached as blood spewing everywhere. The mercenaries which had previously gained hope all looked grim again.

Arulo facepalmed while he laughed.

"Hahaha, did you really think I'd let you go?"

One of the mercenaries who started trembling could only squeak out his words out of fear.

"But what about letting us go if we do-"

A burst of loud laughter ensued as Arulo doubled down.

"You actually believed that? I just wanted to have some fun before we kill all of you swines."

The mercenaries started trembling so bad that some fell to the ground, meanwhile Leon looked at the laughing man with shock.

'To think someone could be so evil.'

Paz shouted towards the mercenaries in the hopes of rallying them to fight.

"Don't be afraid! You call yourself mercenaries!?!"

Some of the mercenaries hesitated, but in the end, most still had a look of fear in their expressions as Arulo and his soldiers came closer and closer. Paz sighed and pointed his sword at Arulo.

"I challenge to a Holmgang!"

As Paz walked forward, Leon looked confused and look towards the mercenaries.

"What's a Holmgang?"

None of the mercenaries answered as they all shrugged, but suddenly a high, childish, feminine voice sounded from behind the group.

"A Holmgang is a sacred duel between knights. It originated here in the glorious country of Silce and is not used throughout the coalition. It is a one on one combat to the death that settles disputes or settle fights by having only one person die."

All the mercenaries, including Leon, turned around to see the door of the carriage open and looked at the owner of the voice. She was a child that looked like she was the same age as Boadicea, but she had brunette hair compared to the fiery velvet of Boadicea's.

She was also a lot more slender and less muscular compared to Boadicea, with her skin clear and flawless. Leon could only suspect the girl was the young miss that the crazed lunatic had spoken about before.

Before anyone could say anything, a short female in a maid uniform showed up next to the door and tried to usher the young girl in.

"Miss! You shouldn't be going out of the carriage!"

The girl stamped her foot and pouted.

"I'm no longer a toddler! I'm twelve now! I wanna watch Uncle Paz win!"

Leon looked shocked at the girl's calmness.

'Her life's being threatened but she's still throwing a tantrum because she can't watch two people fight?'

The maid sighed but looked sternly at the girl.

"Fine Miss Aurora, but you have to be the furthest one back for your safety!"

The girl named Aurora stamped her feet but eventually came around.

"Fine! It won't matter since Uncle Paz will win anyway."

The mercenaries all had their jaws dropped as they saw the child not even bat an eyelash at their current situation of being trapped with no way out.

Paz had reached a few meters from the line of spearmen before they parted and Arulo stepped out once again. Arulo raised his rapier and pointed towards Paz as he spoke.

"I accept the Holmgang."

The moment Arulo finished the word, Holmgang, he lunged so fast that Leon couldn't even make out what happened. Luckily Sir Paz was nonetheless faster and easily dodged the strike by sidestepping.

At this point, the mercenaries could only look on at the fight with awe. Even Leon looked surprised with his mouth open.

'For them to be this fast...they must be both equivalents to the top B-Tier adventurers?'

Although it was merely speculation, Leon estimated that based on their speed alone, their prowess had to at least be equivalent to a B-Tier adventurer. Aurora looked at the shocked mercenaries and spoke with a little hubris.

"See the power of Uncle Paz! I suggest you, weaklings, step back if you don't want to be accidentally hit by a strike."

Normally the mercenaries would be angry and annoyed about a little girl calling them weak, but none of them could care less as they watched the fight progress.

At the moment Arulo was the only one on the offense, he continuously lunged and struck so fast at Paz that Leon could only see the occasional blur. Paz did his best at handling the strikes by deflecting with his short sword, but due to the weight difference some of his parries came late and cuts had started to appear all over his black robe.

Luckily, Leon could see the glint of metal underneath the robe which most likely meant Paz was wearing armor. Although the armor effectively caught the tiny blows that were leaking through his defense, Paz's armor had started to sustain damage.

Suddenly Leon felt the mana in the surrounding turn chaotic as they all flew straight towards Paz, Leon could only be in shock.

'What mana!'

A green aura surrounded Paz's body as he shouted.

"Stance of the mountain!"

The cry may have sounded weird, but Arulo obviously knew something about it as he halted his onslaught of lightning-quick stabs. After the pause, he just started laughing.

"Haha, come on gramps. You're gonna have to take me seriously!"

Arulo hovered his hand across his blade and suddenly white lightning started to crackle around his rapier.

"CLAP OF LIGHTNING!"

Like a clap of lightning coming from the heavens to strike down a fool, Arulo fired off like a bullet and his rapier hit Paz's shortsword head-on. The surrounding ground started to shake from the impact like a small earthquake and many of the mercenaries who were still trembling fell on the ground, but they didn't even bother going up.

The only thing that mattered was the result of that ferocious attack, so they stared at the giant cloud of dust, waiting for it to dissipate to see whether or not their fates were sealed.