William was furious.
After all the pain his disciple went through only to get a bit stronger, he got betrayed on his first mission by a worthless soldier.
Mason stood up and explained with his head lowered.
"Vice-captain, we last saw him a day and a half ago when he got hit by the rank 3 beast. The last thing we heard was him cursing Balor."
He pointed at the man tied on the ground.
William focused on the man on the ground, the mental pressure he was emanating made Balor incapable of breathing.
"Please vice-captain have mercy! That kid threatened and insulted me, and I was scared for my life, I only did what I had to do to survive!"
Lies came out of Balor's mouth as William was getting closer.
He took the tied hands of the trembling soldier and held them in his hands.
Then he spoke with a cold voice.
"If my disciple threatens you, you lower your head and ask for mercy."
The grip became tighter as the flow of blood in Balor's hands stopped.
"If my disciple insults you, you smile and thank him for his pointers."
Cracking sounds came from his hands as bones were compressed on each other.
His anger was so overwhelming that he didn't hear the faint sound of steps coming from the cavern entrance.
"If my disciple is risking his life, you exchange your place for his and put yours at stake, and if you die in the process, you do that happily."
CRACK
The bones in Balor's hands shattered, but he could not make any sound. He was too terrified by William's anger that he had no air left in him to talk.
The guards watching the process trembled when they heard the sound of his hands breaking and prayed that they could survive the vice-captain venting.
"Master, what are you doing here?"
A young voice came from the cave as a figure was visible at its entrance.
He was a kid with his upper body naked, pieces of his suit were pending on his sides.
He was bathed in a green substance from head to toe, making him look like he had some kind of skin disease.
A broken saber was in his left hand, with only half of the blade remaining.
He was looking half smiling at William with tranquil eyes.
"Noah?"
William immediately got up and jumped on him as he checked for injuries on his body, but apart from some scars and his suit reduced into pieces, everything was fine with him.
"Yes, Master?"
Noah looked at him in confusion, he still could not link his presence with this place.
The other guards were looking at him with wide eyes, and even Balor had his mouth hung open as if he didn't believe in what he was watching.
William was happy beyond measure in seeing his disciple safe and could not help but release a storm of questions.
"How did you survive? What about the rank 3? Why didn't you come back earlier? And why are you green?"
He was holding Noah by his shoulders, shaking him every time a question came out.
Noah was forced to answer to calm his Master down.
"Well, the cave is pretty big, so I just kept running around killing spiders. The fatty destroyed the wall, so I had to find another way out. The rank 3 is dead, and the green is the blood from the other spiders."
This time, everyone had their mouth open as they digested the information.
William was the first to recover and kept on questioning him.
"What you mean the rank 3 is dead?"
"Well, dead is dead, I killed it."
Another wave of shock went through the men hearing this.
This time it was Balor, the one who talked.
"Bullshit! How could you kill a rank 3 magical beast and come out uninjured?"
He regretted saying that when he saw the Master-disciple duo staring at him with killing intent and he lowered his head for fear of another round of torture.
"That scum is right though, how did you do it?"
Noah took out a folded sheet from his waist and showed it to his Master.
"I showed it the Kesier rune and took the chance when he was confused to strike a fatal attack. I believe it was still in its process of adaptation to the evolved body, that's why I could hurt it."
William felt a bit of irritation going through him.
He smiled at Noah and said with a calm voice.
"And why would you have the rune with you during the mission?"
Noah answered with honesty like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Well, it was a travel of six days, and I wanted to train in the breaks."
A light punch arrived at the top of his head.
"You are impossible! Do you really think of nothing but training? Ugh, I guess it's fine since it saved your life. Still, how are you uninjured?"
Noah seemed to remember something. He took out an oval-shaped item tied with a cloth and gave it to his Master.
When William unfolded it, a blue light shot out from it.
"Breath blessing! No wonder that specimen managed to reach rank 3! Haha, my disciple, this time, you really did an exemplary job. Don't you worry, I will intercede with the inner ring for you and take the best reward I can bargain for."
Hearing the word "reward", Noah's eyes lit up and he licked his lips.
"I will need better sabers, Master. These cracked only after some hits from a rank 3 beast."
William was about to reprimand but then shook his head, smiling and ruffled his untied hair.
"Most importantly, what do you want to do with him?"
He pointed a Balor on the ground that was looking at him with pleading eyes.
Noah got closer and looked at his pitiful figure.
"Please, young master have mercy. I swear I will serve you with all my expertise from now on, I will..."
A torrent of pleads came out of his mouth, but Noah only kept on looking at him with cold eyes.
When Balor stopped talking, Noah gave only a short answer.
"No."
The saber did a horizontal arc, and Balor's head detached from his body and rolled on the ground, blood flowed tainting the terrain.
His Master got close to him and asked in a soft voice.
"Are you ok? It is the first time you kill a human after all."
Noah looked at him smiling and said in a shameless voice.
"You know, my second cycle is complete, so I thought we could do the third treatment as soon-"
Another punch hit the top of his head and forced him to shut up.