The sound of metal being crushed pulled them back from the trance.
"No!" The knight words were faint but she managed to utter with shock and apprehension in her eyes.
The sight of blood flowing from the cracks of the metal headgear wrapped and deformed around the paladin's head was blood-curdling!
Plus, Adam's hands were slowly pressing the head flat!
Knuck~
The reality that the paladin's head is irreparably injured was revealed to their consciousnesses.
In other words, he's as good as dead.
Watching this scene, only one word resonated in their hearts.
Run.
RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!
The zoomorph woman standing behind the pack slowly took steps backwards. The peculiar feline characteristics enabled her to walk soundlessly.
Making a sufficient distance, she turned around and picked up the pace. But before the fourth step, something heavy came and collided with the back of her neck.
Bam!
The momentum embedded within the tough shield of the paladin was nothing to scoff at as it knocked the women unconscious. The force even threw her a few metres ahead after which she faceplanted on the ground without hesitation.
[She's brain-dead.]
Adam relaxed his arms and brought them back to his sides after receiving notification. Without wasting the adrenaline, he picked up the broadsword dropped by the paladin.
"W-wai-wait! We surrender!" The four surviving leaders of the expedition group quickly let go of their weapons and remained on their knees.
A few seconds before when Adam suddenly took the shield into his grasp only to throw at the crowd, they had staggered and fell on their rear in fear. When they witnessed that he shot down someone among their team whom even they were unaware of the actions of, their limbs lost the ability to move and their throats became dry!
How?
Does he have eyes behind his back?
Despair was the only thing that possessed them as they stared at the armoured person with fear. Their hands had raised into the air without any voluntary command. Their bodies were exclaiming their desire to surrender.
But...
Adam picked the broadsword from the dead paladin's hand and gripped its handle like an unyielding tiger.
"Do you think that I'll accept your surrender?" With the sound of the broadsword's blade being dragged on the ground as he walked ahead, Adam raised a question. His voice rivalled the most ruthless serial killers in intensity.
Gulp.
The fearful eyes widened in revelation and their souls almost escaped their shells. The thought of intense hopelessness and attempt to escape flashed in their eyes more than a million times in a second.
But neither way, death was imminent, they confirmed.
Walking to the dwarf, Adam dropped the sword only to raise the giant war-hammer into his grasp. As if inspecting the massive blunt weapon, he turned around and took a step ahead when he heard a sigh leaving the mouth of the dwarf.
"I heard dwarves are resilient to damage. Let me test it out."
The stout guy almost choked on his breath as an ominous premonition dawned on him. He couldn't even flinch and evade the strike that came descending on his head.
Kadak!
The massive hammer shattered the dwarf's skull as if flattening a sandwich under hydraulic pressure. The weight of the weapon pressed his torso further downwards and crushed it to a pile of meat paste.
"AHHH!!!!!"
The blood and flesh that splattered around had reached the remaining three. While the young man with katana and the archer in his mid-thirties was frozen solid, the knight was the only one to retain her voice.
Screaming wildly, she sprang up and attempted to run, only to fall because of her limp legs. Her spirit wasn't discouraged as she pulled her torso away from the incarnate of death.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The blood-dyed hammer came down once more and the crisp noise of shattering bones were heard. A numbness immediately crept upon the female knight's legs and they felt heavy.
With a pale face, she turned her shivering head to see a hammer pinning her legs like a giant anchor.
"No one leaves." Adam's thunderous voice shuddered the two men that had flopped down devoid of strength.
The archer guy seems to have remembered something and immediately reached for his pocket in his pants and pulled out a small pill. Before Endevil could alert of this action, the pill went down the man's throat and he fell on the ground spasming.
[Quicksilver Poison.]
Watching the froth exiting the man's lips, Endevil could only notify the name of the poison.
'Quicksilver? You mean mercury?'
[No, this is a plant.]
Nodding in understanding, Adam turned to the young man with katana.
"You got any of such ideas?" Adam tilted his head as he literally looked down on the guy plopped down on his rear, his legs akimbo.
Actually, Adam only inquired whether he has any thoughts of suicide. Never in his wildest dreams did Adam imagined that he would be considered as the armoured version of grim reaper staring down at a mortal!
The stern and impassive words made the young man's grip go limp and the sword fell from his grasp as he shook his trembling head vigorously.
"Good. There shouldn't be." It was in the tone of appreciation, but the other party was paler as Adam spoke. The man's piss leaked out of his bladder under the overwhelming pressure, wetting his clothes.
[Eww...]
Staring at the pathetic young man, it was then the sight of katana came into his peripheral vision.
I've only seen this sort of weapon in Japan. Who would've thought that I would see one here!
Unaware of Adam's delighted demeanour, the frozen young man and the pinned down knight saw the gauntlet reaching for the katana. Their hearts skipped a beat.
"T-that..."
The thin, delicate yet powerful sabre class weapon had already caught in the grasp of Adam when the man attempted to raise his hand and interject.
Noticing the peculiar expression on his face other than fear and despair, Adam raised the sheathed sword to the man's face. "Is this yours?"
He was only curious to know whether the weapon is this man's belonging or not.
In response, the fellow first shook and then nodded his head in a truly erratic manner.
[Something's not right. His body language indicates that his claim is false.]
Curiosity slowly bloomed into doubt and Adam gripped on the handle before pulling the blade out. With a beautiful note, the sword exited the cocoon.
But halfway, Adam froze.
Unbeknownst to the two individuals drenched in urine and sweat and blood, Adam was flabbergasted as he saw some inscriptions on the sword.
'Japanese!!'
As someone who had travelled around the globe in an attempt to evade the heartless pranks of fate, Adam was exposed to almost all the civilisation on the planet Earth. Thus Japan and its beautiful culture was not a stranger to him.
Just like Chinese and Korean, the unique script of the Japanese language had caught his heart for a while before moving on.
There was no mistake.
But... how?
A number of questions popped up in Adam's heart as he stared at the inscriptions on the sword. But they were all dispersed within a fraction of a second as Endevil asked to put up an unfamiliar demeanour with these inscriptions.
"What are these symbols?"
The young man was expecting this question and quickly spat out the predetermined answer. "They are lucky charms."
Oh! Is that so?
Adam's lips twitched as he had an urge to thrash this man into meat paste before extracting the information, but he reined the desire.
Instead, he lowered his sight and skimmed through them again.
"So... how does this lucky charm work? If I cut you with this sword, you won't die?" Slowly raising his torso over his legs, Adam straightened his spine as he asked the question. Simultaneously, he pulled out the sword effortlessly.
Gulp.
The young man's courage he had painfully amassed was dissipated in an instant. His demeanour turned grim and dark again.
But as he was brandishing the sword, Endevil notified. [That female over there is dying. Though they are hostile entities, delivering them alive to the guild might give us some opportunities to look into the disappearance of the Rising Valor. Plus, one more prisoner makes a great difference.]
Turning his head, Adam saw the woman lying with her legs crumbled and bleeding. Her face was pale, denoting the blood loss.
'Okay. Then... shall I cut this guy's limbs?'
[Why would you want to do that?]
'In case if he tries to escape.' Adam replied nonchalantly.
[Just break his bones.]
Without replying, Adam sheathed the sword back. Instantly the weapon disappeared.
Turning to the trembling young man, Adam grabbed his limbs and break the bones like snapping twigs.
"Ahhh!!!!"
The verbalised agony was infuriatingly shrill and Adam had an urge to punch his perfect tooth out of his mouth. But he instead upgraded the simple fracture in the imprisoned's bones into compound fracture.
Krack~