Chapter 150 - A Confrontation

Rynold's eyes widened in surprise.

The supposed 'rocket' coming his way was too fast for him to dodge now. All he could do was brace himself for impact.

Reflexively, Rynold raised his Miniature Floating Platform such that it would block the blue projectile. Unfortunately, Rynold's shoddy construction of the thing made for a poor defensive line.

Boom!

Upon contact, Rynold was thrown off the Miniature Floating Platform and crashed on a nearby rooftop. He was effectively and unwillingly thrown off his ride.

Luckily, he had his Protecting Light up, making the injuries significantly less. Although, the Miniature Floating Platform was blown to bits from the impact such that whatever remained fell to the wave of shadowy figures below.

'That's not good.'

Rynold stood on his two legs with whatever strength he had left. He was far from perfect condition, extremely so.

He didn't have any means to fight a long-ranged and capable opponent. Nor was he in any condition to even be fighting. Considering his not-so-light injuries, even walking would be a problem.

So, Rynold did what any sensible person would do in this type of situation.

He stalled.

"Mind telling me what your plan is here?"

Rynold tried his best to stifle the shaking in his voice, but he couldn't really help it. His physical condition was in shambles, and his Mana capacity wasn't in its best condition either.

"What am I? Some third-rate comic book villain? Why would I go out and tell you everything that I have planned for?"

Skeem wasn't an idiot. Nobody would fall for Rynold's rather blunt question. This wasn't some movie where the bad guy would explain every single step of his plan. No, this was real life with actual lives at stake.

"Because you have me beat."

Rynold had already expected that response from Skeem. He himself knew that the question was stupid, but it was all in the hopes of Rynold stalling for a chance for him to escape.

"I'm pretty sure that you're just itching to brag about your plan and how it worked," Rynold added. "So, I just thought that I'd ask."

"Right... And I suppose you're the best person to talk to about all of this? Pssh. I admit that you're good, kid. But, I'm not stupid enough to fall for your damned tricks."

"Fair point. Then, let me change my question. What the hell was the Duke after?"

Rynold wanted answers more than anything. If he could get them out of the last person that had talked to the Duke, he might as well ask.

"I'm surprised you care about the guy."

"I don't. I just want some answers."

At this point, Rynold stabilized his condition. He was standing still with much more ease this time. He couldn't move around just yet, but it was still better than being on the ground.

"Well, whatever it is you want, I'll tell you. That guy was a massive idiot. It's kind of sad, really. He was willing to do anything to revive his dead wife."

"And you told him how to do it?" Rynold quickly interrupted.

"Nah. Nothing like that. I just gave him a little nudge, is all."

'Nudge, my ass.'

Rynold knew that it wasn't that simple.

The Duke wouldn't have achieved all of this without careful planning and execution. Sure, the man had been desperate enough that he had willingly listened to an ogre. To call Skeem's actions a mere nudge, however, was pure bullshit.

The ogre had been stirring the damned pot for far too long. The people of this kingdom were in that pot, along with the Duke and everyone else involved.

Whatever that bastard of an ogre was cooking up, Rynold couldn't help but feel the need to stop him.

However, Rynold kept calm. If he felt the need to punch the guy in the face, Rynold decidedly held back. To fight in his condition would be borderline insanity.

"So, you plan on killing me too?"

Rynold got straight to it. As much as he wanted to talk about nothing, Rynold didn't know how long until Skeem would catch on to his tricks.

"That's not such a bad idea, kid. Get you out of the equation altogether. Unfortunately, the big guy upstairs doesn't want me to waste my time doing nonsense. He's getting really pissed off on waiting. Besides, I already got what I came for, anyway. I'm just here to watch over the army do its thing."

Taken aback, Rynold was actually surprised by that answer. He expected the ogre would've killed him after this conversation was over. He even got shot out of the damn sky!

But, apparently, there was someone much higher pulling the strings.

"You scared of that guy?" Rynold provoked Skeem, testing whether or not the ogre would retaliate.

"Who wouldn't be scare of him? I'll tell you something. You do not want to piss him off. He may be my boss, but sometimes I think he's crazy. One wrong move would probably make him go nuts!"

The ogre, with his big stature, suddenly shivered. He remembered something that his boss had done before and quaked in fear just remembering it.

"You're just letting me go, then?"

Skeem did a double-take as he questioned whether or not he heard Rynold's words correctly.

"You sure do ask the hard questions, huh, kid? Well, here's the thing. I can't really defy my orders and pursue you to god knows where. These things down there need somebody controlling them, and I can't really do that when I'm chasing you. But..."

With a snap of Skeem's fingers, four shadowy figures appeared before Rynold, surrounding him.

"I don't really need to do anything, do I? You're screwed either way. It's been real nice knowing you, kid. But, I've got a job to do."

Skeem opened a dark corridor and left, leaving Rynold to deal with the four figures that had surrounded him.

As the waves of shadowy figures seemed to continue on their path, Rynold had to deal with his four opponents and rendezvous with the mercenaries back at the orphanage.

"Light's Discerning Eye."

A bright light immediately shot out from Rynold as it filled all of the surroundings as fast as light would travel. Thinking that a simple spell might work, Rynold felt confident.

Unfortunately, he immediately rescinded that five seconds later.

The four shadowy figures still surrounded him. In fact, they seemed to have only shunned away from the light, not really disappearing from it.

As soon as the light disappeared, the four creatures gnarled at Rynold. Their figures resembled something humanoid, but they didn't seem to have any faces or any individual qualities.

If anything, these creatures simply looked like moving humanoid shadows.

With a closer look at these creatures, Rynold figured something out. These creatures were extremely similar to the Shado Beasts that he's encountered before. These things never really stopped moving until Oliver had finished off Shado.

Does this mean he would have to do the same?

'No, I just gotta deal with these things, then I can leave.'

If only it were that easy. The creatures were annoyed because of the bright light that Rynold had recently used. They circled their prey, careful of what Rynold was capable of doing.

'These things behave like animals.'

Rynold extended his Mana Gauntlets to Strength-form and anticipated whatever attack that would come his way. Whatever these things were, Rynold felt weary of them.

Quietly, Rynold activated Mana Infusion on his gauntlets. However, these creatures suddenly attacked him just when the thin veil of Mana surrounded the Mana Gauntlets.

'What...'

Incapable of finishing the thought, Rynold had to quickly get out of the way. One of the four creatures pounced at him with its claws first, while the others went for his limbs. He had no time to dilly-dally.

Rynold threw himself to the side as he activated his Protecting Light. Three of the four creatures' attacks missed him, while one of them managed to grab ahold of his leg.

'Shit.'

The creature swung Rynold to the side and hit a metal antenna. Afterward, the creature didn't seem to want to let go and swung Rynold to a nearby clothes rack.

Rynold was in a daze.

The creature did not want to let go of his leg as it started to swing Rynold around like a baseball bat. Rynold's initial impression of these things immediately changed.

He first thought that these things weren't a threat to him. Clearly, he had never been more wrong about anything in his life. What's worse, it seemed that Skeem was the one who had played him like a fiddle. The ogre had accurately established that he didn't need to do anything himself.

After a few more swings, the creature had finally let go of Rynold. The creature managed to throw Rynold with enough force that he smashed through a small satellite dish.

'Damn it. This is how it ends, huh?'

Rynold's field of vision was slowly fading. He felt exhausted. His recovery speed wasn't anything he could be proud of. Thirty minutes could barely heal a small wound. That being said, his current condition wasn't far off from when he killed the Soul Doll.

Just when he was about to pass out, the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance.

Boom!

Each second passing, the sound seemed to have been continuously getting louder and appeared much more frequently.

"Quit lying on your back, man. Now's not the time for you to sleep."

Leo's declaration was poorly met as he received no answer from Rynold. He figured that the sound of thunder rumbling above them was too loud. Leo thought that it was because of the consistent booming that Rynold couldn't hear what he said.

"Well, whatever."

Arriving with a rather thunderous entrance, Leo made quick work of Rynold's assailants. The creatures could barely fight back as Leo's speed and Thunder blade made an unstoppable force.

With quick swings of the weapon in his hands, Leo managed to kill the creatures off. From there, he grabbed Rynold and swung Rynold's arm over his shoulder.

"O... orphan... age..."

Rynold mumbled as his consciousness slowly faded. He was in no condition to move long before this moment. He focused everything he had to convey this one final word before he fell back into a deep sleep.

'Sleep well, buddy.'

Leo let Rynold's unconscious body down. From there, he grabbed another teleportation stone from his inventory and activated it. The teleport wasn't meant for him, though, as Leo quickly threw it to Rynold, who was asleep.

A light enveloped the sleeping guy and teleported Rynold back to the Tree of In-Between. With a satisfied expression on his face, Leo was glad that he had followed his instincts.

From the rooftop, Leo stretched his back as he overlooked the horde of shadowy figures down below.

'Give me a break.'

With a deep and frustrated sigh, Leo ran back to the path he came. On the way here, he spotted what Rynold was referring to. However, he didn't pay much attention to it as he was focused on finding Rynold first.

If only he knew that Rynold planned on going back, it would've saved Leo some time going back and forth.

'Ah well... Can't really complain anymore.'

Leo had grown numb to the otherwise consistent frustrations that he had been getting in one single day. He eventually learned how to buckle down and just do the damned job.

Jumping from the rooftop clad in electricity, Leo made his way back towards the orphanage. Whatever reason he was going back was a mystery even to himself.

With every swift movement, Leo managed to make his way back to the orphanage. But, what sight greeted him as soon as he got there was rather unpleasant.

Hordes of black humanoid creatures were swarming towards the orphanage. The people who were there were fighting back rather ineffectively. It would only be a matter of time until they would get overrun.