Branos stood close to the entrance the tavern with his gaze fixated on an unfamiliar figure seated in the far end of tavern alone.
"Let's go" Branos ordered to his group before walking in the direction of the man he found suspicious.
Young Thyrus remained in his mother's embrace and just looked on without passing a comment. Soon all gazes in the tavern were on Branos as he approached the lone man's table.
*Bam*
With a loud thud, Branos placed his large and rough hand at the table the man was seated with a bit of force. This caused the table to shake slightly along with the things on top of it.
"..." Silence. The entire tavern had their eyes glued to the scene curious as to what would occur next but to everyone's surprise, the man who sat at the table continued to casually sit there and never even bothered to glance at the large bald man that appeared in front of him.
'This guy has balls...' Branos thought to himself before switching the facial feature he wore to a more friendly one.
"Hey there friend, this tavern is packed so I hope you don't mind me and my two companions here joining you" Without waiting for the hooded man to reply, Branos took a seat along with Rilda and Luke.
"..." Soon after they sat, another short silence took place.
"Hey are you mute or something?" Luke spoke out in irritated tone but almost immediately after he did so Branos intervened.
"Now, now Luke that's no way to treat a new face in the tavern now is it? Haha, sorry for that. Hostess? A few good meals for my table and new friend uh...mind telling me your name?" Branos asked in a sincere tone with a smile on his face.
"...Aron" The once silent hooded figure revealed his name in a plain tone without bothering to face the group. 'At least they speak my native language.' Aron quickly thought.
'He's starting to speak, that's good, now to just get him to answer more questions...' Branos felt at ease and turned to Rilda before giving her a quick nod.
Rilda smiled at this before licking her succulent pink lips and turning to the man named Aron. Before speaking, she went a step further and took her hand forward across the table and placed it on top of his.
"Such a nice and manly name. I don't think I've heard anything quite like it, is it a popular name where you come from? I'd love to hear more intriguing things if that's the case..." Rilda's voice was smooth and alluring as she made a request to Aron. Her eyes remained fixated on him awaiting an answer which Aron soon gave.
"No. It isn't the case" He replied in a blunt and unmoved manner as he retracted his hand away from hers. This caused her to show a smirk and try a more convincing approach.
"Oh I apologize...but I still am curious about you Aron. Would you mind enjoying a little chat with me later tonight?...alone." Rilda suggested in a very bold manner causing Luke who sat near Branos to clench his fists below the table. Something about her words bothered him and he looked ready to speak but Aron spoke first.
"Yes I would mind. I have no interest in speaking to any of you." Aron replied bluntly once again not bothering to even look at the trio that sat with him.
'It's too suspicious for me to ask for information that may be common knowledge to even children. I just need to wait until it's dark then interrogate someone but if they persist trying to question me then...' Aron's plan was to simply avoid drawing too much attention to himself without knowing more about his Origin world first.
However, plans rarely ever go as planned....
"Why you ungrateful little miver!, do you think you're better than us or too good to speak to us hmm?" Luke slammed the table with both his hands in anger while glaring at Aron.
Aron who hadn't faced them this entire time finally raised his head and showed a small frown. His mood was already sour due to practically being forced into this unfavorable situation, now he had to deal with humans of all races.
"I chose not to speak to you because I don't wish to, or do you force all your guests into conversations?" Aron asked casually, causing Luke to glare at him all the more but Branos quickly stepped in and held Luke before he could react. The reason behind Branos's caution was that Aron's gear looked fairly expensive so he had to be at least competent in a fight, it was best finding out his identity before anything.
"Enough Luke, we have no right to force him now do we?" Branos quickly told Luke who still seemed very angry, however it was Aron's next words that really caught the entire taverns attention.
"To answer your other question, I don't think I'm better than you. Don't compare yourself to me, it's revolting." Aron's words were sharp and direct. They caused many of the hunters present to see him as arrogant but he was in fact just stating simple facts.
"That's it I'll kill you!" Luke was someone who was easily angered so such provocation easily pushed him to break out of Branos's lose hold in an attempt to attack Aron.
As Luke approached to attack, Aron looked completely calm and unfazed. Then just as Luke was prepared to launch an attack, he stopped.
[ Limbo Strider Aspect: Stride ]
His abrupt stop seemed odd to many and Branos who was near stretched his hand to try and hold him from behind when all of a sudden Luke fell backwards and hit the dirty wooden tavern floor.
"!!" What followed was the sound of a great many people gasping in shock along with the sound of chairs being moved and tables being rattled as hunters gathered near the fallen Luke.
His body laid still and his eyes looked devoid of life. A dead body was no strange sight to any veteran hunter, but the cause of death on this particular dead body had the people present shocked and somewhat in disbelief.
A spoon. An item present in almost every household was stuck deep into Luke's throat. No one had even seen Aron move but many turned to him fearfully after looking at the now dead Luke for a moment. Rilda looked pale and simply covered her mouth while Branos clenched his fists and turned to a now blue eyed Aron with an angry look on his face.
"Everyone here can not only attest to what he said but also his actions. He tried to kill me so I simply killed him first. I was quite scared for a moment there." The manner in which Aron stated this was calm and collected, not at all like a victim but instead someone who saw nothing wrong with his actions.
It was plain mockery...
This only seemed to anger Branos more but he didn't let that drive his actions. He wasn't stupid enough to attack carelessly after seeing this.
Branos let out a deep breath and approached Aron. The other hunters only looked on whilst some left the tavern hurriedly.
"I agree that Luke said those words but he would not have killed you and you could have restrained him or dodged...he had no weapon, so why?" As Branos began stating this, his large hands where clenched into fists that were trembling with anger.
As Branos waited for an answer, two individuals wearing a matching set of armor walked into the tavern with some hunters in tow, these were the town guards. Aron however remained seated casually and scoffed and Branos's words.
"Why? I didn't use a weapon either, I simply threw a spoon at him. You can't blame me for him being so pathetic that he couldn't handle it." Aron said the latter statement in low tone that only Branos and Rilda could hear.
It had now became fairly apparent to Aron that the others were around the same levels of strength as Luke, hence he didn't need to be reserved anymore.
For someone close to Luke as Branos was, the provocation was too much for even him to endure, he at least wanted to punch the face of his friend's killer. So he directed a fist towards Aron with plenty of force behind it.
Just the fist was about to hit Aron, he brought his hand forward and pushed it to the side with force, causing it to forcefully hit the table.
Branos quickly tried to raise his hand but Aron reacted far quicker and picked a folk from the table before stabbing it into Branos's hand, this time without even needing to use an aspect.
"Gah!" Branos let out a pained grunt and caused the guards who had just entered to quickly rush over. Rilda who was closest immediately tried reaching in to help but once again, Aron moved quicker and struck Branos on the chest with a fierce punch.
Upon contact, the sound of bones cracking resounded and blood was coughed out as Branos's large figure was sent flying, hitting many unprepared hunters in the process.
"!!" The reaction this action received was to be expected. Many hunters looked at Aron fearfully, some already began to flee why others where unable to even move.
Branos, someone who was obviously considered strong by the many people present was killed easily. The armored guards lost composure for a moment before pointing their cheap spears towards him.
"Is it that you don't know how to hold a spear? Or are you just scared of me?" Aron finally pushed back his chair and stood up before questioning the guards whose spears were shaking vigorously as they held them.
He stature had grown considerably as compared to when he was a pup now standing close to two meters tall, his facial features however matched those of a young adult so it was hard to tell what exact age he was.
'I didn't want to cause a commotion but then I realized...everyone here is weak.' Aron thought to himself before shaking his head.
"What fragile beings." Aron stated casually causing the hunters that still remained in the tavern along with the guards to huddle together.
Rilda rushed away from Aron and went towards the back of the group of the adventurers and the guards before pulling out her daggers from their sheathes.
"We just have to attack him as a group. He can't handle us all" Rilda confidently stated but in truth even she didn't believe this.
'Most of them will die for sure, but I just need him to be distracted for a moment. All I need is a cut and my numbing poison will do the rest" Rilda thought to herself before looking forward and gripping her daggers tightly.
Meanwhile outside, a group of curious and fearful individuals gathered including some guards but none dared to enter after veteran hunters warned them of what awaited them.
"...Thyrus, let's quickly go home" Thyrus's mother suggested in a very worried tone but the boy was unwilling.
"Don't worry mother, they are many brave guys there. They'll handle it, we don't have to worry." The boy reassured confidently but even he had a look of worry as he gazed at the tavern from afar.
'Why is it so quiet?' The boy thought to himself before falling into contemplation.
Back in the tavern, the reason for the silence was plain to see.
"Argh..." A soft feminine voice muttered, ending the silence within the tavern.
The voice belonged to Rilda, who was slowly opening her eyes. Once she did so however, the first thing that met her gaze was the head of one of the guards...detached from the rest of its body.
"!!" Rilda let out a gasp as her eyes began to wonder the tavern, leaving her in a state of complete speechlessness.
The tavern was covered in blood all over, splattered on the walls, dripping off the tables, seeping through the many holes on the floor. It was simply everywhere. But more shocking to Rilda where the many dead dismembered bodies laying around.
She panicked and immediately tried to stand but found she couldn't. She slowly lowered her eyes only to find her legs crushed. Her eyes widened at this but before she could react a voice that sent shivers down her spine resounded in the tavern.
"You resolved to use your people as shields for a chance to just kill me, they really are only two types of people. Those that use others and those that get used..."
Aron's voice resounded in the tavern as he appeared from behind her and began walking to her front. Rilda only had a pale look on her face as Aron crouched and held her cheek gently.
"You offered to talk alone later correct? Now it's just us. The only change is...I'll be the one asking questions." Aron declared to the trembling woman in a cold tone that left no room for refusal.
....
[ Miver:-this world's equivalent to fucker ]