Chapter Sixty-One – Hero of the People

The black flames continued to burn violently, consuming Vergu's body, not even the magical items in his body were spared, soon the old Orc was reduced to ashes.

With the Orcs gone, Locke's fury vanished like snow in the summer, and as he cheered himself he began to feel extremely tired, his draconic form automatically regressed to his human form and he dropped to his knees, breathing with difficulty.

The entire fight had lasted less than ten minutes, his raging state had allowed Locke to attack with powerful spells and exert extreme force, but now he felt the rebound the system had warned him about.

Locke sat on the floor, his forehead sweating and his body feeling weak, he took one of the many elixirs Tia had created and chugged it down his throat.

The Elixir was indeed a miracle medicine, Locke had no idea, as it was the most 'basic' potion the system had released, but that elixir was actually an item that any magic race in the world would consider a treasure, a miracle medicine that can heal wounds, end illnesses and even recovered stamina, that medicine was certainly worth the price they had to pay for each one.

Locke rested a little, he felt the comfortable heat wave running through his whole body, he put himself in a lotus position and meditated deeply, the natural invisible mana around was sucked and processed by his body, which acted like a siphon, he he took a deep breath and blew out a cloud of steam.

The Orcs were a race that lived up to their beliefs, the number of lives they had taken was quite large and once again Locke had a huge jump in his levels, all his stats had increased and he needed at least a minute to get used to his new strength.

Locke had reached the level fifty-eight, it wasn't as long a jump as the time he fought Rudra but he could feel a big difference in himself, Locke also noticed something, his intelligence stat had reached a thousand, his brain was more agile than ever and he could understand the world better than before, mathematical formulas, spatial notions, the chemistry and the atoms, everything seemed so clear and logical to him, he also felt a certain impetus inside him.

Locke fixed his eyes on a stone on the ground, it was a simple piece of concrete, separated from the pavement due to the violence of his fight, Locke opened his left hand and the stone flew into his palm.

[Due to the host's actions a new skill was created!]

[Telekinesis – The host has become able to move objects with the power of his mind, this skill does not consume mana but the overuse can cause headaches]

"Now Professor X*vier is going to offer me a scholarship at his private school..." Locke joked as he made a group of stones spin around him. "This skill came at the right time, I can imagine how useful it will be..."

Locke got up, he had recovered enough to fight again, he also needed to hurry, only God knew what the cultist's plan are and he didn't want to be late for the party.

Locke spread his wings and was about to take off, he was going to continue to eliminate the separate groups when he noticed something that made him change his mind, the feeling of nausea coming from the cultist building was three times stronger, it was like the air was becoming thick and swampy, and Locke could feel in his instincts that something big was about to happen, he decided it was time to free the hostages, Locke thought of an elaborate plan.

The plan was risky but he felt it would work, all the people were tied in the same place, separated by mere inches apart, he searched among the corpses of the most whole Orcs and found one that was good enough, an Orc that had died with a shadow spear across his chest.

Locke concentrated his mana which began to envelop the dead body, penetrating deeply into it and marking the green skin with strange patterns, it looked like the Orc had been given a series of tattoos, Locke then took something from his inventory, a strange glowing stone with a Heart-shape, which pulsed and released a magical energy, he stuck the stone in the hole in the Orc's chest and the entire pattern etched on his body lit up in black light, the Orc's body began to shake and soon quieted down.

"ARISE!" Locke yelled exaggeratedly.

The dead Orc obeyed, he rose and stood in silence. Who would have thought that the first golem Locke would create would be made of meat?

"It's alive!" Locke joked. "Now let's make you more presentable!"

Locke collected the Orcs equipment around and covered his creation, trying to make it look like a normal Orc, in the end he managed to do a reasonable job, except for the eyes of dead fish, the Orc was no different from any Orc .

"It should be enough to deceive, it's a shame he can't speak, but I think he'll be able to get close enough!" he admired his work with pride, he took a series of ropes from his inventory and ordered the golem to tie him up, which the golem promptly did.

Locke then Ordered the golem to pick him up and put him on his shoulders and carry him to the other prisoners, the golem performed all actions perfectly, carrying Locke as if he weighed nothing, after about 15 minutes of walking with Locke, he met the first group of monsters, huge humanoids with gray skin and black tattoos, who gave him just a single look and turned their faces, continuing to patrol the area.

After another time of walking his golem finally reached the place where the people were tied up, the monsters around mocked the people, threatening them and shouting curses, which made the children cry even more, but none of them would beyond words, it seemed like everyone was holding back to complete the cultist's plans.

The closer to the building, the stronger the queasy feeling, it wasn't like he was going to be sick or vomiting, but it was like he was standing next to an open pit, the Orc golem kept carrying Locke without caring with nothing else, some monsters mocked him for having the courage to come back carrying a single human, but the golem had no feelings to care and kept walking forward, he reached the other tied people and put Locke with them.

Locke was unceremoniously thrown to the ground, he let out a rather exaggerated howl of fake pain, he truly sure sucked at acting, but none of the monsters bothered with another human, Locke sat up and looked around at the group of humans.

There were more than fifty people, men, women and children, maybe before he had difficulty getting away with this number of people, but his mana had increased so much that now it was going to be a cakewalk, he just needed a little distraction so he could act, and he had already created the perfect distraction.

The golem followed his orders, he followed any instructions given by Locke to the letter, as soon as he left Locke with the humans he walked to the other monsters, stopping near a ratman he stayed there without taking any action.

The ratmen looked at the Orc with a confused expression, The Orc was looking intensely at him without making a move, it made him feel uncomfortable. "What's it? Is there something on my face?" the Ratmen questioned.

As soon as the Ratmen spoke the Orc golem grabbed his neck, the Ratmen tried to fight for air but the golem wouldn't stop squeezing, the monsters around saw the scene and ran towards them, trying to separate the two.

That was the order that Locke had given, after leaving him with the humans the golem should go to the monsters and attack the first monster that spoke to him, he should also attack any monster that tried to stop him.

"You are crazy?" A goblin screamed, he and other monsters tried to separate the two but the golem threw them away with one arm while continuing to squeeze the mouse's neck with the other, soon all the monsters around joined in the confusion.

Meanwhile, without anyone noticing, strands of shadow began to run across the floor, touching the shadow of each trapped human, the shadows are spreading like a large net, the process was slow and steady and Locke was right in the middle.

The monsters had given up on separating the fight and now attacked the golem, they hit and scratched trying to get it to release the ratman, but the golem didn't care, returning hits as it continued to squeeze the creature's neck.

Finally blood spurted from the rat's mouth and its eyes rolled, the golem released it and tried to grab the next victim, the goblin was the unlucky one.

When they realized the Orc's intention, the monsters around started to act seriously, seeing a companion in danger a goblin pulled a huge blade and attacked the golem's arm, the blade entered deeply but was unable to penetrate the bone, and the golem continued to squeeze the goblin's neck as if the wound was nothing.

The monsters began to attack from all directions, tearing pieces from the Orc's body, which continued to retrace with one hand while strangling the goblin with the other, the fight was done and green blood flew everywhere.

Locke finally caught up with the last human, he had them all linked to him by their shadows, a move that would have been difficult to accomplish before was now easily done, his finesse on his mana was many times greater than before, he smiled as his shadows rose like tentacles, enveloping all the people around them, who screamed in fear, drawing the monster's attention.

The monsters looked on without understanding what was happening, black tentacles had sprouted from the ground and enveloped all humans, they were ready to intervene when all humans were enveloped in a strange black mana, which formed black spheres that imploded and disappeared.

The monsters were in shock, they had no idea what had happened, one second the humans were there and the next they were gone, a cold feeling of fear crossed their chests and they even forgot about the Orc who had gone berserk and are strangling one of them.

In the countryside of the city, near the shelter where the people hid, a series of black spheres appeared a few meters from the ground, shattering and revealing people tied up who fell on their asses, people screamed in fear and in pain for the fall, but no one had been wounded, they looked around and realized that none of the monsters were in sight anymore.

"What... What happened?" A Burreal soldier questioned.

All the people around seemed to be as confused as he was, until a man stood up with his ropes broken, he had a dragon mask on his face.

"I apologize for the fall guys, but it was the first time I did this with so many people!" He bent down and began to cut the ropes of the closest people. "Whoever is already free, help me to release the others!"

People were scared, but they realized that the danger had apparently passed, they soon joined the man and began to loosen the people around them with some difficulty, as they had no way to cut the ropes they were forced to slowly untie the knots.

Locke continued to cut the ropes using the claws of his fingers, people noticed his transformed hands but thought it was a sharp gauntlet or something, as despite the mask the man looked quite human and friendly, Locke finally reached one of the BPD soldiers.

The soldier watched him with a complicated expression, it didn't take a genius to guess who Locke was, the mysterious and interesting target the Bureau wanted so badly to capture, Locke didn't show even a second of hesitation as he released the soldiers as well, continuing to move and release other tied people.

At that moment Sarah ran out the door of the shelter, she was carrying a huge technological weapon in her hands, more to intimidate than to use, since she was sure she couldn't shoot even with her own life at risk, Aliyah was after her with a small revolver in her hands, unlike Sarah she would not hesitate to fire. Upon seeing her soldiers, Sarah ran to them.

"Are you okay?" she questioned. "How did you guys get here?"

"He saved us!" The soldier pointed to Locke, who continued to cut the ropes of the imprisoned people, now less than ten to be released.

Sarah looked at Locke in surprise, she saw the claw-shaped hands cutting the ropes and understood, she ran up to Locke, pointed the gun at him and screamed. "FREEZE!"

The sight of the armed woman caused people to flee away from the fire zone, people who had been released ducked and covered their heads, people still trapped shook like caterpillars trying to get out of the way.

Locke glared at her, his golden eyes over the mask making Sarah's stomach go cold, but he turned back to face forward, continuing to cut the ropes of the tied people.

"I told you to stop!" Sarah yelled.

Locke stopped, he stood up and turned to her. "Do you really think it's time for this?" he questioned.

"I know what you are! Soldiers! Arrest him!" Sarah stated, she continued to point the gun at Locke as she trembled.

The loose soldiers looked at each other with complicated expressions, at last they sighed and were ready to go to Locke, when one of the tethered women stood up and stopped in front of the gun barrel.

"Put it down!" The woman spoke.

"Get out of the way! I'm doing this for your protection! You have no idea what he is!" Sarah replied the woman.

"I know what he is! He's the guy who saved us! It doesn't take a genius to understand that he was the one who brought us here, away from the monsters!" the woman replied. "If it wasn't for him we would still be there!"

The woman's response seemed to arouse a feeling in the surrounding people, who started to get up and stand directly in the gun's path, covering Locke with their bodies, even Locke was incredulous at this unexpected development.

"You don't understand! He is a monster! Look at his hands!" Sarah yelled.

Locke didn't change his claws, he wasn't the type to lie, he never was, he just stood there waiting for the mob to turn and seeing his form, and consequently change sides, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised, he already had saved everyone, so he would just fly away, the important thing is that those people were safe, but to his surprise no one turned around.

"He's not evil!" A little boy screamed. "He released my Mommy and Daddy! He released me too! Even if he is a monster he is a good monster! The dragon man is a hero!"

People seemed to share the child's opinion, none of them moved out of the way of the gun barrel, which caused Sarah to give up and lower the gun.

The people around him turned to Locke and started to thank him for saving them, approaching him with wide smiles, not knowing how to act he spread his wings and flew to the skies, leaving the people behind.

[Atention! Due to user actions a new title was created!]

[Hero of the people – Your heroic actions were recognized by many people and will be spread to the four winds, your charisma increased!]

Locke continued to fly back to the city center, he still didn't believe what had happened, he didn't think he had the right to be called a hero and... being called a hero made him feel ashamed.

Maybe it was time to make that title count.