Conflict ( Part 2 )

Argus spent a lot preparing for the hunt. He even brought six S rank users with him. But when he came to the Ashpheran mountains, all the beasts vanished into thin air. He checked the scanners again, but there was no sign of life except trees. He was confused and irritated. Why did it have to be now of all times? When they were going over a valley, they spotted fifty or so craters in the middle of nowhere. When they scanned again, they detected three heat signatures near the valley.

After landing, they brought the three people to Argus. He wanted to find out what happened here. The scale of disappearance was so big that it couldn't have been done without the help of national forces. Setria and Marvian always had minor skirmishes after the great war. But never full scale wars. He suspected that they might be the ones behind this.

" If you don't cooperate with us, we have to use force." He reminded them again to surrender.

" Ah, I'm looking forward to that."

Before Argus could say anything Thomas attacked the other party.

' I hope he doesn't kill him. We have to interrogate them later.'

But what happened after that shocked him to the core. Without even moving the man was standing there. And Thomas, who tried to punch him, was missing his arm. He was an S rank user who was trained by the top guild in Marvian city. Even if the other party was an S rank user, removing an arm amidst a direct attack of an aura infused hand was not realistic at all. You have to cancel the aura and then defend yourself, and use a skill to attack. It was even scarier that he did that to an S rank user.

' He is definitely SS rank or higher.'

He never thought that he would encounter a powerhouse here. Marvian had only three SS rank users and only one SSS rank user. To find an unknown powerhouse, they were definitely not from Marvian.

" Get ready for battle. Attack him with everything you got." He yelled out.

*SWOOSH* *SWOOSH*

Three S rank users immediately took out their artifacts and attacked August.

When their weapons reached near August, he vanished.

' Teleportation, damn it, how many scary skills does he have?" Argus found himself in a dire spot.

He gripped his fist, the combat suit started to change and covered his hands and created a black colored blade. He enforced his aura into the blade and started looking around.

*WHOSSSH*

A blue fire-like plasma ray was launched from the sky. The three users who were ahead of them were hit directly with that ray. After the ray stopped, three of them were missing several limbs and lying on the floor unconscious.

In the sky, August was looking down at them in a provoking manner.

' Huh, I controlled the ray just enough not to reach vital parts. Precise control over this gamma flame is tricky.'

*sigh*

He looked down and another two users with their long range cannons were aiming at him.

He teleported behind them and used gamma flame to incinerate their weapons and the hand holding them.

He disappeared again but he didn't use his cosmic bridge.

'Phase'

' If you surrender now, I will only take one of your hands.' He whispered in the captain's ears.

The captain was sweating right now. He never encountered such a strong enemy before. He didn't want to surrender but losing an arm, no if he refused to surrender, he might lose his life.

" I surrender." He raised his hands and kneeled down.

August gave a satisfied nod and incinerated his left hand.

" You made the right choice."

He phased out and looked at the girl who was wearing a mask. From the start, she never drew her weapon. She was standing still in her place without moving an inch.

" Why didn't you join them?" August asked her curiously.

" I knew from the moment you incinerated Thomas's hand, it was a losing battle."

She knew how much power was required to disarm and injure an S rank user. She could do it, but she had to penetrate his defenses and keep up with his skills, it was not easy at all. But August did it with such ease. From that moment she decided to not draw her weapon. From what she could see, he was not killing them, even if they were going for his life. So if she didn't try to attack him, then he won't harm her either, at least she hoped so.

" Someone who can judge the situation at the moment. You're good."

" What do you want?" She cut to the chase.

" Oh.. me, I just wanted to have a nice picnic in here, we are nature lovers you see. You were the ones that ruined our day."

She was grinding her teeth.

" We misunderstood the situation and thought you were from Setria, So apologies."

" Hmm. well if you insist, I wouldn't mind taking a look at the awakened and artifacts research papers." He grinned.

" That is impossible. This is a national secret, only the trusted and loyal users are granted the authorization to look at them." She firmly refused him.

" But you can make it happen right."

From the way she phrased her sentence, he figured that she was a very high ranking official in the government or she was related to someone of that caliber. So he knew she could give him the information he wanted.

" I refuse, you can ask for money or any other type of compensation but I can't give you what you are asking for."

" Well, you are not in a position to negotiate." He used his authority to take out her mask, which was attached to the combat suit that broke and fell on the ground.

She tried to resist but she couldn't move her body at all. She looked at him with horror.

August could see her perfectly beautiful face with a pale complexion and red lips. She was looking at him with horrified eyes. But he didn't care. He wasn't gonna make artifacts by looking at her face. He needed the research papers.

" It would be too bad if you lose your pretty face, wouldn't it ?"

" …"

He released his authority on her.

" So what will be your answer ?"