Invon City - Execution

In front of the mighty walls of Invon City, 4 guards armed to the teeth were stationed by the entrance. The sun was currently high in the sky, blasting heat on their black armour, causing sweat and fatigue to plague their body.

Nonetheless, as trained soldiers, they relentlessly stood watch, protecting the city from unwanted guests. Just then, a mountainous figure approached from the woods.

"Hey, Mark, can you see that over there?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, what is that?"

Spotting the oddly large and mysterious figure, they immediately stood on guard, their spears poised for attack.

Step by step, the thing slowly approached.

Soon they were able to work out… legs?

Under the massive structure, they saw 2 muscular legs working overtime to lug…a pile of animal skins?, there was so much weight that even the ground was sinking in with each step.

Eventually the person was within 10 metres.

"And…Hup!", with a shout, the figure through the skins of his body, causing a loud thump, revealing a chiselled, 6ft 1 man with dark messy hair and a handsome face, however there was also a stable order around him, it remained the guards of their Lord.

However instead of being a feeling of dignity and authority, the man before them seemed as stable as a mountain and calm as a lake.

This man was naturally Osirus, even though he was only 16, after training this body to such an extent, he looked a few years older than he actually was.

Realising it was a human, the guards acted appropriately, "Present your identification."

Following as Reinhardt had, Osirus pulled out his Mercenary Card and passed it to the guard, after a short check, the guard saw nothing wrong and sent him on his way.

Looking upon those magnificent walls, he took a breath of relief before lifting the lizard skins and walking through the gate, just imagining a warm bath relaxed his body.

However, as soon as he entered the streets a frown covered his face, it was too quiet.

Normally the streets would be bustling with merchants and shoppers, however now, most shops were closed and only few people walked the street.

However Osirus just assumed it might be a holiday like from his past life, as he thought of that, panic filled his heart, if most shops were closed, did that mean the Mercenary Association would be as well?

Thinking about the pile of lizard skins on his back and that he had nowhere to put them, he hoped the Mercenary Association was open otherwise he would be truly stuck with where to put them.

Luckily his heart relaxed as he reached the open doors of the MA, there were much less mercenaries than normal so he was able to talk to an attendant straight away.

Seemingly used to odd situations, the attendant didn't even react to the massive pile of lizard skins and asked politely, "Welcome, how may I help you?".

Suddenly a hand appeared from the skins, in it was the mission card, "I've collected the skins for this mission, I've also got some extra I'm hoping to sell."

"Very, well, bear with me one second."

With a smile the attendant retrieved the card and walked into the back, soon she returned with the full details of the mission.

"Here we are, so the mission was to collect 30 Stone Lizard skins, and the reward was…5 gold. Ok, please follow me to a more spacious area."

Following the attendant to a private room that was especially used for counting materials, Osirus was instructed to throw the skins onto the table.

Putting on protecting gloves, the attendant began professional counting and separating the individual skins into their different types.

As their was so many skins, it took a while for the attendant to count them, in the meantime, Osirus looked at the results of his training during the journey back, he had managed to upgrade {Guardian Golem} by 1 level and {Metal Sphere} by 2, currently his Skills details looked like this:

{Quick Slice Lv.6 (4/60 Proficiency) - Beginner - When activated, for a single bladed attack, the wind resistance is 75% less than normal at the cost of 8% of the Users total stamina}

{Threat Detection Lv.6 (16% Proficiency - Beginner - Within a 7.5m circumference, the User is able to detect any immediate, life-threatening danger towards himself.}

{Guardian Golem Lv.3 (4/20 Proficiency) - Beginner - At the cost of 45% of the Users total Mana, the User can summon a tough and durable 1.4m tall Golem with high defensive abilities and decent attacking power. Maximum Amount - 3.}

{Fire Ball Lv.3 (25/30 Proficiency) - Beginner - Using Mana the User can create balls of fire, after a certain amount of Mana is used to create it, the more Mana added, the hotter the fire. Maximum area of control is 20 metres. Maximum amount - 3.}

{Metal Sphere Lv.3 (14/30 Proficiency) - Beginner - Using Mana the User can create spheres of extremely dense metal, the more Mana supplied in its creation, the larger and heavier the spheres. Maximum area of control is 20 metres. Maximum amount - 4.}

Soon the attendant was finished sorting and counting, "So after taking away 30 Stone Lizard skins, there are a total of 24 Stone Lizard skins and 51 Crystal Lizard skins, which we would be happy to buy and the price of 63 silver per Stone lizard skin and 11 gold coins per Crystal Lizard skin, including the mission reward, that brings the total to 581 gold and 12 silver. Would you like to sell them to us?"

Osirus had actually killed more lizards than that, but there was only so much he was able to carry by himself as he didn't want to show the world his Golems and instead use them as a trump card, although he did use them to carry the skins for the majority of the journey, making them swap carriers when ever he unsummoned one.

Osirus didn't think for very long before he agreed to sell them, afterall he didn't have any connections to sell them anywhere else.

With a smile, the attendant brought out a large bag of gold, with such a large sale, she might even get a bonus or raise.

Osirus turned to leave, but a thought suddenly flashed through his mind, "How come it's so quiet today?"

Taken out of her thoughts of a promotion, she replayed "There's a public execution being held by Lord Invon himself, so most people are watching that, you should give it a watch yourself, Lord Invons strength is nothing to scoff at although it can't compare to Master Baradiel."

The attendant had a proud face as she described Master Baradiels strength, clearly proud to work under such a mighty person.

However Osirus didn't seem to care as he was more interested in this public execution, and more specifically how he matched up against a Stage 2 cultivator.

With a thank you, Osirus left MA and slowly strolled to his inn, enjoying the quiet streets. After storing his gold in his room and asking the receptionist where the execution was being held, he headed towards the City Palace.

Invon City was loosely sectioned into 3 rings, an outer ring that mainly consisted of commercial buildings, armouries, inns restaurants and similar buildings, if Invon City were to fall under attack, and the city walls to falter, the Commercial Area would be a second line of defence for the 2nd ring, the Residential Area.

The Residential Area, as suggested by the name, was where all average citizens of Invon City lived, to be considered a citizen required you to have either been born here, live here for 10 years, or have good enough in the City Guards.

The 3rd, final and smallest ring was the Lordship Area, this consisted of the highest ranking nobility and Lord Invon himself, it was naturally the most highly guarded location in all of Invon City as well as the smallest.

However there was a slight issue, as Invon City had hundreds of unruly mercenaries travelling through everyday, a couple of laws were set in place to stop any issues, the main of which was that only official citizens could enter the Residential Area, of which Osirus was not.

Standing in front of the guard that had just denied him entry, he was stuck in a dilemma, 'Why did that attendant not tell me about this stupid rule. Anyway, should I just force my way through? But is it really that worth it? What if it blows out of proportion and I end up being hunted down? Am I really that intrigued?'

Turning around, Osirus began slowly walking back the way he came, a dejected look on his face. Glancing back he saw the guard turn around, not caring about what he did next, suddenly Osirus's mouth turned into a grin, "Thump.".

Turning around the guards eyebrows shot up as he saw…noone.

"Where…did that guy go?"

However he wasn't paid enough to deal with disappearing people, so he just assumed he ran off and continued his watch.

10 metres away, Osirus stood quietly in the shadow of a nearby building, like a hunter tracking prey, he slowly followed the guard, making sure to stay in the shadows and alleyways so as not to be caught.

Luckily, the city isn't crawling with guards as it normally would, this was because a lot of them were stationed at the execution as another show of Invon Cities unparalleled strength.

So it wasn't long before he entered the Lordship Area and mingled with the few actual citizens who had arrived late. Suddenly, "Boom. Boom.", just as he saw the crowd, multiple small booms sounded from beyond the people.

Even more interested, he sped up, eventually walking into the crowd before forcing his way through, "Ow! Get out of the way! It just got interesting!", a couple of disgruntled voices sounded as he pushed past everyone, but he ignored them.

Finally he broke through and saw…Annie?, 'How did she get in here?', just as he was about to walk over to her, he realised something, she wasn't in the crowd and…she was in a fighting stance.

Suddenly, with a speed that he could barely follow, a mighty fist backed by unparalleled momentum appeared, aiming for Annie's face, the hand was so fast she didn't even have time to feel fear before it was upon her.

"No!"

Osirus shot forward with his maximum speed, the ground caving in behind as the nearby citizens were flung back, their safety unknown.

He was only 10m from Annie, but watching them fist close in on her, the wind flinging back her hair, the distance felt insurmountable, it was as much as a small gap as it was the difference between heaven and earth.

He was too late.

"Thump. Splat."

A gruesome sight followed, Osirus felt his stomach drop watching blood, brain matter and bone splat onto the floor behind Annies headless body.

Looking past Annies corpse, he realised she wasn't alone, many corpses scattered the floor, he recognised Simon, his heart replaced by a gaping hole, and another headless corpse belonging to Elisa, the only way he knew it was her was the signature staff embedded with the crimson gem.

There were also others he recognised as belonging to the Crimson Talon, looking slightly further, he knew why this had happened, under the blades of a guillotine were Reinhardt and Armen.

Armens eyes were pure red and full of despair as he struggled to free himself to no avail.

Reinhardt on the other hand, was pure rage, looking into his now dark crimson eyes Osirus felt consumed by the overflowing wrath, his serene disposition even trembled upon glancing at such unparalleled anger.

Osirus noticed something wasn't right, that rage continued to grow and grow, a raging crimson glow began to surround Reinhardt's trapped body, it caused wind to whip around the surroundings, shaking the guillotine.

Soon, the unfazed Lord Invon realised something was wrong, he felt fear.