Glenn's body hung vertical for the briefest moment, suspended in an ephemeral moment in time, then he collapsed, head still firmly stuck into the tree. The rest of him hit the ground in an uncomfortable position, but Glenn was still breathing.
Taku looked at the injured man as he hesitated. The hesitation only lasted a second before he walked towards the tree. He quickly pulled Glenn into a sitting position breaking the man's arm.
"Ahh!" Glenn let out a scream as he felt the pain all over his body. He was already gravely injured and the pain Taku brought this time around made him want to beg for death. He stared venomously at Taku, but behind that ruthlessness, there was a hint of fear.
He could clearly tell that he was at least a level higher than Taku, but in the end, he was still beaten into such a state.
They had been told about how powerful Gutu people were, and this was the first he had fought with one in a one on one fight like this. When his comrades came back with the trio of captives he had begun to doubt all the rumors about the Gutu.
Some of his teammates had been killed off by the trio, but he just assumed that it was due to their carelessness but after fighting with a Gutu soldier he realized that he had greatly underestimated the people from the Gutu Empire.
Taku on the other hand just squatted down and stared expressionlessly at the man.
"How many of you are there?" Taku Asked.
Glenn just sneered and looked sideways, even though he could not understand what Taku was saying he knew that the man in front of him was trying to get some information out of him. It was clear that he was not going to give Taku any information. Seeing this Taku just smiled and grabbed the arm that was yet to be broken by him, but what surprised Glenn was that Taku did not break it, instead, he grabbed one of Glenn's fingers and began to pull.
Puchi!
"Ahhhh! ... You fucking asshole." Glenn couldn't help but scream in pain after Taku ripped off one of his fingers. The pain he was feeling at the moment was enough to make a normal man unconscious. On the other hand, Taku was quite surprised because he noticed that the man's way of speech was very similar to the English language that was spoken on earth.
He suddenly smiled wryly as he realized that the man probably had no idea about what he had just asked him. Taku cleared his throat and surprised the man with his next sentence.
"Do you really think I don't understand your language? Now tell me how many people there are at your camp."
Glenn was greatly shocked when he heard Taku speak his language. There were certain parts that he did not really grasp but he ultimately got the gist of the information that Taku really wanted. He had been told that only nobles in the Gutu empire studied other continents' languages.
Is this child part of a noble's family?
This prospect had clearly excited Glenn as he knew the rewards he would get if he brought a noble back to the camp but this excitement quickly died down as he realized that he was no match for the boy in front of him.
He gritted his teeth and ignored the pain as he stared at Taku with a mocking smile.
Taku just smiled as he ripped off another finger.
"Ahhhh! F*ck" and these actions were repeated three more times. At the moment Glen couldn't wait to die. He regretted bringing Taku so far away from the camp. He knew that none of his comrades could hear his screams.
"You know…" Glenn stated. "Your friends will die if you keep me here for long. Do you not care about your people? Why don't you let me go and go save them? It's not like I am any danger to you now." Glenn had said this with a pleading look on his face.
"First tell me how many people there are in that tiny camp of yours!"Taku retorted.
Glenn just smiled and stared at him and said. "You know I cannot do tha…"
"Old man…" Taku cut him off. "I don't really care about those people that you captured. All I care about are the fruits that are in their possession. If you do not tell me what I want to know then I will go kill everyone at that camp, but I will leave you alive and take you back to the Gutu empire. There you will be tortured until you die and the torturing could take days, maybe weeks or months, maybe even years. It's all up to you."
At the moment Glenn was truly terrified. He was just a low-level soldier. Never in his life had he ever met someone who was so ruthless. He was terrified of the prospect of going back to the Gutu Empire to be tortured, and just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, Taku spoke. "Please think before you answer. I was not afraid to rip off your fingers. If you say shit then your toes are next."
"You…" the man stared at Taku in fear. He could not even bring himself to calm down, he was terrified beyond measure. He looked into Taku's eyes and saw the ruthlessness inside them, and it was at this moment that his last wall of stubbornness crumbled down. He knew that the boy in front of him was not playing with him.
"There are 4 more people back at the camp…" Glenn spoke weakly as he stared into Taku's eyes.
"How strong are they?" Taku asked bluntly.
Glenn hesitated for a moment, but then he noticed that Taku's hand was reaching for his leg so he quickly answered.
"Only the captain is stronger than I am, the other 3 are all a level below me."
Glenn did not bother telling Taku about the other scout because he knew that Taku had been following him right from the camp. So he assumed that the other guy had already been taken care of.
"Thank you." Taku smiled as he thanked the man. He quickly put his hand around Glenn's throat and proceeded to crush it. This was the first time that Taku had intentionally killed someone with clarity and it left him with a bit of a sour taste in his mouth.
After calming himself down for a minute he quickly searched Glenn for any valuables. After searching for a full minute he only found a ring that had a green gem on it. He could not tell what was really special about the ring, so he just casually threw it inside his storage sack and left.
He quickly made his way towards the place where he and Tino had separated. When he got there he saw that Tino was already sitting there with a bored expression on his face.
Tino looked at Taku and smiled wryly. "I'm guessing your fight was more interesting than mine was."
Taku could only smile and replied. "Was it that easy?"
Tino sighed and began narrating his battle to Taku. Tino had followed the man for about a mile before he was discovered. Tino had only exchanged a dozen blows with the man before he critically injured his opponent. When he actually wanted to torture him, the man died from pain and blood loss before he could get anything out of him.
Taku laughed when he heard this and then went on to tell Tino about what Glenn told him.
"Turns out that there are still 4 people in the camp at the moment. The one I fought told me that only the captain is more powerful than he is. Apart from that, the rest are a level below him."
Tino nodded and then spoke. "When I got back here there were two people who exited that tent that those two came out from. Those two went into the tent on the right. Now there are two people in each tent. The two people that went into that tent are both slightly weaker than I am, though if they join hands then it would take me a while to put them down."
"As long as you are confident in putting them down then there is no issue. You go to that tent and fight with them. I will go to the other, I am sure that the captain is there."
Tino nodded and the two teens stealthily approached the two tents. Before they attacked Taku spread out his soul power and to his surprise, he noticed that his range had increased. Back at the Battle Royale, he could only spread it out a distance of a meter. But now surprisingly he could see everything within five meters.
Tino threw caution to the wind and threw himself into the tent. Taku on the other hand spread out his soul power as he reached the entrance of the other tent. He saw that the two people inside were seated a couple of meters away from each other, so it was impossible for him to take them both out at the same time.
Taku rushed in and threw a fist towards the man who was closest to the entrance. Even though the man was surprised he still reacted fast as he grabbed the Blade that was behind him and used it to block Taku's punch.
Bang!
The fist left a mark on the huge bland as its wielder was pushed back several steps. The man looked at Taku with clear surprise in his eyes. He could tell that Taku was weaker than him in cultivation, but for some reason, he was actually pushed back.
Just as Taku was about to launch another attack, a sweet voice suddenly sounded out beside him.
"Gutu people truly are scary."
Taku had clearly underestimated the other person in the tent. After looking at her closely Taku realized that this very skinny lady was actually slightly more powerful than the man he had fought before. He had known that part of the information wasn't going to be false, but he didn't expect it to end up like this.
He calmed himself down as he threw his punch out towards the man with the blade. Only this time there was a faint roar of thunder when he threw it out. Midway through the attack, Taku's Fist turned into smoke, and in the smoke, there were strands of fire and lighting that were intertwining. The fist landed on the blade yet again as the man raised it to block again.
Bam!
This time the man flew a couple of feet away and directly uprooted the tent as he flew out. The lady was slightly surprised when she saw this, but she did not hesitate as she fell back and took out a Bow and pulled on its string. Surprisingly an arrow formed out of nothing, and this arrow looked as if it was made of fire.
She let go of the string and the fiery arrow went straight for Taku's head. Taku did not panic; he knew that he could not dodge this arrow due to its speed so he just raised both his arms to block this dangerous strike.
Boom!
The ground shook as the arrow collided with Taku's arms. The explosion was not big and majestic but it was large enough to fill anyone with fear. The captured trio and the trio that were fighting in the other tent were directly blown away by this explosion.
Due to the shockwaves that the collision had caused the captured trio were freed, but they still could not use their cultivation for the next two hours.
The blade-wielding man stood up after the flames had receded and proceeded to stand right beside the lady who had unleashed the arrow.
But as the flames continued to withdraw they noticed that the boy inside was barely even injured. Only the gauntlets on his two arms were cracked.