Weapons Collection

Raymond stared at the descending figure of the old man, who appeared just as confused as him, and watched as the man desperately tried to flap his wings to regain control over his flight.

He found it strange. Why was the old man panicking so much?

It's not like he would hurt himself if he crashed into the ground from that height.

He was a Martial Emperor for fuck's sake.

A Martial Emperor's body wasn't so fragile that it would break apart by a simple collision with the ground.

Even if he fell on his head, his neck wouldn't break under the impact. Except for a bumpy head, there wouldn't be any severe, life threatening injuries— yet the old man was frantically flapping his icy wings.

Ahh. It was embarrassing, Raymond guessed.

The old man wanted to keep the powerful and knowledgeable persona he had created in Raymond's eyes.

Raymond thought it was silly. No matter how hard the old man tried, he would always be a weak man made of flesh and bones that he could squash just like others—

'Huh? Where did that thought come from?' Raymond frowned. It was not a proper line of thought.

He had to remind himself that treating everyone like ants would make him a loner one day.

Raymond didn't care if any random person was afraid of him, but the thoughts of his wives worried him.

He would never, under any circumstances, reveal what he felt about the rest of the world to anyone. Not even to his wives. Raymond decided.

Elder Snowfang managed to make a soft landing by desperately waving his wings before they disappeared due to the lack of mana supply.

He heaved a sigh of relief internally as the brat seemed to be totally unaware of his desperation and was lost in his own thoughts.

That was good.

He couldn't just make a fool out of himself after boasting about his Ice Element now, could he?

It would be too embarrassing for him.

And the less he talked about his mana exhaustion the better. No one would fancy being seen in a state of mana exhaustion.

It was almost as humiliating as walking naked on a busy street.

That was why people dreaded fully exhausting their mana. It was an instinct to cut off the connection between the mana nodes and the core as soon as the reserves hit rock bottom.

Besides the obvious discomfort and nausea brought out by an emptied core, no one wanted to feel vulnerable and expose themselves to others in such a way.

Only a fool would do something so stupid as to empty out their core and be left at the mercy of someone.

"Ahem. I see you've brought the leaves," Elder Snowfang nodded, too occupied with keeping up his facade, he hadn't spared anything more than a cursory glance at the shining leaves.

But now that he did, he couldn't take his eyes off of them. A myriad of colours danced on the leaves as the light dawned upon them, making them enchanting to the eyes— almost illusory even.

"Yeah, and let me tell you— they are the most delicious thing I've eaten in my life."

Raymond crumpled another leaf into a tiny ball and popped it into his mouth.

Elder Snowfang, who wanted to dismiss Raymond's words, immediately shut his mouth when he saw Raymond's face lit up with pure joy after chewing that leaf.

It made him hungry and he wanted nothing more than to snatch the leaves from Raymond's hand.

However, at the last moment, he decided against that. Who knows what the brat might do to him if he did that?

Elder Snowfang wasn't too keen to find out.

"If it's the most delicious food for you, how come it is only worth one silver coin?" He couldn't help but remember Raymond's words. "Or could it be that you've never eaten anything worth more than a silver coin?"

"What?" Raymond's face fell. "Of course, I've eaten expensive food before!"

Elder Snowfang felt a bit refreshed when Raymond raised his voice in defence.

It felt good to annoy the brat after being thoroughly humiliated by not being able to reach the top of the World Tree.

He was jealous and indignant about the whole incident. He was born and raised here. The World Tree has been an object of his worship and one of the constants in his life.

Not only his, but it was every elf's dream to reach the top and bask in the glory of the majestic tree.

He felt it unfair for some outsider to waltz in here and reach the top as if it was nothing.

The High Priestess and the elders would be overcome with envy if they found out about this.

Thinking about them made Elder Snowfang realise the situation he was in.

It was the most unreal experience he had in his life. An enemy, a human to boot, had intruded their Inner Sanctum and yet here was talking and bickering with the said intruder instead of handing out proper punishment like an elder of his status should've done.

It was at that moment when he had just come to conclude his bizarre experience, a loud whistle tore through the air.

Elder Snowfang knew that sound, that offensive noise that grated on his ears, he could recognise it anywhere.

It was the sound of Elder Barhawk's battle quoit jumping into action. The decorative rings he wore on his fingers weren't just for show. They could turn into sharp, metallic discs within the blink of an eye and cut through fleshly bodies like a hot knife through the butter.

Sure enough, as he turned back to where Elder Barhawk was lying in his half conscious state before, he found the elder back on his feet, bristling in anger.

"You bastard! You think you can get away after kicking me in the chest!" Elder Barhawk was mad with rage and seemingly out of the realm of reasoning.

There was no going back for him now. Not after he sent the metallic disc spinning through the air, producing a shrill noise, towards the brat.

Only one of them would come out of this alive and Elder Snowfang, to his dismay, knew exactly who would live.

"Who said I want to get away? I am not going anywhere until I find this guy named Barhawk," Raymond ducked as the disc whizzed past his head. "Do you know where he lives?"

"Of course, I know where he lives! He lives inside my head!" Elder Barhawk screamed and the quoit swerved in the air and zoomed in on Raymond's nape.

Raymond ducked again, he would have to be a brick wall to get hit by that noisy thing.

"What? He lives inside your head— oh wait! It's you, isn't it?" Raymond chuckled. "Saves me the trouble of searching every house!"

Raymond cracked his knuckles and for some reason, Elder Snowfang took a step back and then some more, which didn't go unnoticed by Elder Barhawk as he shot him a scathing look.

"Coward!" Elder Barhawk spat in contempt.

"You haven't seen him jump through the clouds, have you?" Elder Snowfang asked but didn't receive any answer from the furious man who was too busy glaring at Raymond.

"And you! Why were you looking for me?" Elder Barhawk asked.

"You have a son— sorry, you had a son, I believe?" Elder Barhwak nodded, a deathly fear gripping his heart. "I killed him. Just so you know, it wasn't because of any petty revenge or anything like that. I killed him because he tried to kill me first! It's that simple."

Raymond waited for the man to digest his words.

"Hah…hahahahaha… I see… You killed him… Then …that brat wasn't lying."

Elder Barhawk's eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale and weary as if he had aged several years in a second.

"Ray…," Elder Snowfang, for the first time, used his name.

"I know…" Raymond held up his hands and waited for the man to grieve.

A haze covered Elder Barhawk's eyes as if he was recalling all the memories he had spent with his son and then suddenly, that haze passed over just as quickly and his eyes were clearer and angrier than ever before.

"Why are you here then? To gloat? To mock? To laugh in my face?" He asked.

"No," Raymond calmly said. "One day the news would reach your ears and you would come searching for me. I am just saving both of our time."

"That's enough! You fucker, I will rip you to shreds!" Elder Barhawk flicked his hands and the eight of his rings on the fingers slid off and enlarged into sharp-edged discs.

Raymond's eyes glinted. That was such a cool weapon. Definitely worthy of entering his collection of exotic weapons along with the sword he had taken from Lord Brownheart back in the Capital.

"Now," Raymond stepped forward. "I will give you the chance to take out your anger by using those weapons! Come at me!" He added.

"Tch, I don't need your pity!" Elder Barhawk scowled.

"I don't pity you nor do I feel guilty about killing your son— I never have and I never will," Raymond shrugged. "I just want to test the sharpness of those bladed discs."

"You bastard!!!" Elder Barhawk raged and charged towards Raymond.