This large sound stunned everyone. However, they quickly regained their bearings and their expressions grew dark. No one present was a mediocre person and had a decent sense of hearing. Just from hearing the door break into pieces, they knew that someone had forcefully breaking in.
"Impudence!" The clan leader of Collin Clan slammed his hand onto the armrest of his throne, causing a large splitting sound to ring through the room.
"Who dares to be so audacious? To cause trouble for our Collin Clan? Everyone, with me! Let us go see who dares tread on this sacred ground." The Collin clan leader stood up with a dark expression. As he stomped out of the room toward the courtyard with a furious mood, everyone else followed.
The Collin clan leader brought the group to the entrance of the courtyard where ten guards of the Collin Clan were already stationed. From every corner, more and more guards began to pour in, and their number kept increasing.
"Move out of the way, the clan leader is here!"
A sharp-eyed guard cried the moment he saw the clan leader come toward them. Like water, the crowd of guards immediately made way for the clan leader to walk through. But even after that, the entire area was filled to the brim with Collin clan guards.
Surrounded by the Collin clan guards was a girl that was around the age of eighteen. The girl wore a simple white robe that seemed to be of an inferior material. On a glance, the girl was just like a common village girl. She was not beautiful, but also not ugly. She had pale skin that emphasized her facial features.
The moment they saw this average looking girl, the Collin clan leader's glare flashed with a cold look as he spoke out, "Who are you to dare cause trouble for our Collin clan? Do you think our clan is an easy target to bully?"
Erza returned the leader's stare with a teasing smile as she spoke to the elder, "And who are you?"
"Hmph." Seeing the look of disdain from Erza, the anger in the Collin clan leader's eyes intensified. "This old man is the leader of the Collin Clan – Abraham Collin."
"Oh, so you're the leader of the Collin Clan?" Erza had a faint smile on her face as she cupped her hands together with a sneer. "This one is called Erna. I've come to find a person; as long as the Collin clan leader brings out this person, I will leave."
Abraham laughed angrily, "Looking for someone? Hahaha, little bitch, you need a lesson on knowing who your superiors are! To dare demand something from the leader of the Collin Clan. Girl, within Mirage City, the amount of people that would dare demand something from the Collin Clan are nearly none, you are the first!"
Erza laughed as well, "It would appear that I should be happy about this. Collin clan leader, I won't mince words with you, do you know whether or not the leader of the Rage Mercenaries, Edward is here?"
"I am Edward Collin." The moment Erza spoke, Edward walked forward from the crowd with eyes that emanated a killing intent that felt as if he was a hungry wolf waiting to devour the girl. "I've heard you've slaughtered my Rage Mercenaries in an instant, is that true?"
"It is."
Hearing those two words, Edward could not hold himself back. His eyes flashed dangerously as the killing intent flew out toward Erza.
Instantly, a long spear appeared within Edward's hand as he shouted, "You dare to destroy the mercenary group which I had spent twenty years creating? Bitch, it matters not who you are, I, Edward Collin, will make you live a life worse than death and suffer from the eternal torment of the world! With this, I will take revenge for my fallen brothers!" A heavy pressure originated from his weapon as he stabbed at Erza.
Erza revealed a cold smile as Melforce appeared in her right hand and flew out at the same time as the spear.
*Ding!*
The black sword carried a large amount of essences as it struck against Edward's spear firmly. A loud sound rang out into the air as the two weapons made contact with each other. In every possible direction, a large shockwave spread out so dense that it could be seen by the naked eye.
Along with the shockwave, a large cloud of dust was kicked up and surrounded the area. At the same time, the weaker guards of the Collin Clan were forced back a few steps because of it.
Sword met spear as Erza and Edward were locked in a stalemate. All of a sudden, a black coloured lightning spark appeared and shot toward Edward's throat.
It was unbelievably fast so that before Edward could react, it was already less than a foot away from his throat.
Edward's face suddenly grew startled, but because of his countless years of battle experience, he remained calm under pressure and instantly kicked backward. At the same time the long spear in his hands sprung back to him and went to block the attack.
*Boom!*
Just as Edward brought his spear in front of himself, the lightning hit the spear, transmitting a large amount of power through it. The power continued to transmit from the spear to Edward and forced him to stagger a few steps back. He felt his hands were numb from the paralyzing effect.
Although this was not a fatal attack, Edward's face was suddenly wet with perspiration as it went pale with shock. "She is a sword mage!"
Even though Edward was a Mid King, it had not been a long time since he made that breakthrough. He was still not used to his new power.
As Edward was pondering to himself and tried to stabilize his backward momentum, a green light suddenly flew at him with an even faster speed than the black lightning.
In a split second, Melforce had reached the throat of Edward. This moment, Edward could only look at the sword in shock due to how fast the sword was, instantly realizing that he had no time to react. He was thoroughly caught off guard.
Suddenly, just as Edward resigned himself to death, a large broadsword flew out to come across Edward's body. At the same time, Edward could feel two elderly but powerful arms grab him around the shoulders and pull him away from his death.
*Ding!*
A screeching sound could be heard as the sword that was originally meant to pierce into Edward's throat stabbed against the horizontally flying sword.
The owner of this sword had unexpectedly been the leader of the Collin Clan, Abraham Collin.
Looking coldly at the newly arrived Abraham, Erza gave a small smile. "Collin clan leader, seeing you right now, it would appear that you wish to bring the Collin Clan into this."
At this moment, the Collin clan leader Abraham's face was exceptionally grim. Staring at Erza with a gaze that had lost the original glare of disdain, he no longer thought Erza was just a naïve girl. Now, Abraham thought her to be an opponent of an equal level and did not dare to belittle her any longer.
That was because of Erza's first two strikes allowing Abraham to determine Erza to be very strong. If he had not made a move, then his son Edward would have been killed.
Secretly, Abraham had felt shock within his heart. Erza could not have been any older than twenty. For such a young girl to have this level of strength, she was definitely a great chosen from a major clan. How could someone like her have a vendetta with his son?!
Abraham stared at Erza. "I don't know which clan my young friend here is from and what grievances you have with my son Edward, but perhaps this is a misunderstanding?"
"Whether or not this is a misunderstanding, my heart already knows the truth. The past I will not speak of, but today I will definitely kill Edward. If your Collin Clan stays out of this, then naturally nothing will happen to you, but if your Collin Clan decides to take part, then I will eradicate it as well."
Erza's voice was calm on the surface, but there was a hint of a domineering tone to it. As the Collins heard the words of Erza, their expressions grew dark and the air around them began to fill with an impressive amount of killing intent.
Even as the atmosphere grew tense, Erza's attitude did not change at all from her cold demeanour.
Abraham's face grew darker as well, but nonetheless, he stared at Erza and said, "You speak far too loud my friend. I can admit, your strength is quite decent, but for you to try and eradicate the entirety of my Collin Clan? Hmph, you truly think that my Collin Clan is like mud."
"Collin clan leader, it would appear that Edward is someone you are determined to protect." Erza's voice gradually grew colder as her eyes flashed with a biting cold killing intent.
Abraham readied his own sword, "If you wish to claim my son's life, then let's see if you have what it takes."
"Wait a moment!"
Just as the two sides readied to fight, a loud voice called out. Looking to the source of the voice, both Erza and Abraham realized that it belonged to a heavily armoured middle-aged man.