(Rudeus POV)
Everything was swaying. I couldn't tell left from right or up and down apart.
But what I could tell was that I was being carried away, probably to some safe place where I would be treated and heard.
My wounds may have been treated, but the blood loss made everything sway around harder.
The guy who carried me over his shoulder wasn't careful at all.
It took quite a while before I was laid down again, but nothing happened for quite a while, and I started to get anxious.
I could hear people talking for a while, but nothing happened until I lay down on my back, facing up toward the sky.
"Stop slacking already."
"Shut up. These things were expensive and hard to get."
"But we got our money, so what's stopping us from just leaving him here? He's already a corpse."
"Don't let his outer appearance fool you. He is not one of us. Remember what we were told about him."
"Quit talking, and let's just do what we were tasked to do."
"Do you really think this will work? He said the first strike won't work."
"That's why we bought one for each of us. Whatever that monster's body is made out of couldn't withstand three of these weapons."
I couldn't figure out what they were talking about, and I wasn't fully sure what to do.
With the circulation of my mana warming up, I was starting to feel a lot better. However, the pain was beginning to get worse as I noticed the twisted stumps where my arms were still missing.
Maybe I'm being taken to the Saint class Healing Circles? I'm not sure if it will be enough to heal an entire arm back, but it's better than nothing at all.
All I can do at the moment is wait. Everyone else will have to handle everything else. I did my part, and I'm getting so… sleepy.
3x*Zing*
A sharp pain snapped me out of the delusion I'd had and made me open both my eyes.
From the corners of my vision, I saw three men above me. In the back of my head, I hoped this wasn't what I thought it was.
"Crap, he woke up."
"Quick, shut him up!"
The guy on the left began putting his hand over my mouth, preventing me from crying out for help.
Without any arms and the weakened state I'm in, getting out of their grip is hopeless.
But they made a miscalculation in their plan. I don't need my hands to cast simple spells.
Breathing through my nostrils, I took in ambient mana and mixed it with my own inside my lungs. With that, I slipped a flame through my mouth that made the man's hand burn, instantly making him pull his hand away from me and scream in pain.
For the other two, I have something I put in place as an emergency for just this kind of handicap.
With [Specter Force], I have prosthetic arms to punch the remaining two away from me.
With the two at my side gone, I bent inwardly to kick the one behind me strongly in the face with Touki.
With the help of my mana arms, I roughly managed to stand back up, albeit with difficulty, with something being stuck in my chest.
My right eye was still blurted from the overuse, but when I looked at the objects stuck in my chest, I was shocked to see that they were daggers made with Sea Dragon scales.
I looked over to the guy with the burned hand and immediately recognized him from him. It was the blacksmith and former swordsman who scolded me for my sword. One of the other two was the teacher who tried to scold me for leaving to meet Paul and his family.
Looking around, I saw that we were in a dark room, and I was standing on top of a pedestal.
Where the hell even am I? Was this some sacrificial ritual? And the daggers in my chest; were they trying to carve out my heart to sacrifice to their god?!
"Shit. You idiots didn't push hard enough."
"Quiet, you brute. Just kill him already."
Now is not the time to bombard my mind with questions. These guys aren't giving up so easily.
But it seems like these three aren't good accomplices. I can use this to my advantage.
I took the daggers out of my chest to use as my own weapon, even if it was a medical risk.
To charge them, I put one of them between my teeth and let it get charged. The other two still had the charge from these guys, but the effects wouldn't last longer than fifteen seconds.
Going down from the pedestal, I stood between those three, but the only one getting ready to fight was the blacksmith, unsheathing his sword and taking a stance in this already cramped room.
"You devil spawn. Something like you doesn't deserve to live."
'Right back at ya.' I was saying that in my head. I'm a newcomer to three sword style, so I can't talk with a weapon in my mouth.
Although the city is still in danger from the current monster attack, cleaning up the trash is a personal priority to me.
I used both Barrier Magic and Touki simultaneously. It may be too overdone for someone like him, but I had enough surprises today to not back down and suppress the killer within me.
I will let him take a hit on me and swing both arms at each of his sides to hit a vital spot.
Both of us went for each other at the same time. His sword went for a diagonal slash, which was actually a feint that would have gone for a thrust instead.
His blade broke under the impact with my Touki, sparks igniting and blinding the guy, giving me an opening to hit.
Extending both mana arms, I gave him a crossed slash against the chest that also cut off his arms.
Because of the loss of hands to help him balance, as well as the huge amount of blood loss he is experiencing, he fell backward and hit the wall with his head.
In a state of shock, he looked at me with wide eyes, almost like he was begging for mercy.
But that will not happen. I am done with this. I don't care if this is just my curse speaking. These bastards endangered the city for this petty vision from a self-announced god!
Taking out the dagger between my teeth with my left hand, I filled my mouth with Toxic Magic and breathed into the blacksmith's face, making it melt off, giving him an extra special death instead of regular blood loss.
He fell back in the next second, either his blood loss having ended him or the clogging of his airways.
Retirement hit his swordsman skills hard. That bastard Hitogami must've been so sure that their ritual would kill me that he didn't bother giving the guy warning advice against me.
I wasted no time to go after the next one. The guy beside the teacher.
He was one of the awakened candidates who had made significant progress with Fire Magic. And that affinity made it obvious to me what attack he was aiming to shoot at me.
Reinforcing the barrier on my right fist, I shot it directly at the guy as he launched his spell to counter my attack.
Both collided in an ear-bursting explosion, the dagger in that hand getting damaged but giving me another perfect distraction for me to use.
I used that opportunity to hide behind the pedestal and use it as a shield before going for a surprise attack.
This guy may have made progress in forming his spell, but what he lacks the most, (more than other awakened candidates) is his inability to adapt fast enough to surprise attacks and feints from being too much of a book nerd.
As the two of them were wondering where I was, I let out a small smokescreen from the left side of the pedestal with my mouth.
Of course, this is a feint. Once I knew they were keeping their eyes on one side, I came from the other side, charging at the awakened Magician. I plunged the dagger in my left into his chest, pulled it upward, and sliced his front side open in half.
Blood sprayed everywhere and his body fell back, hitting the wall with his back and sliding down as every muscle limbed down on the ground.
The last guy, the teacher, dirtied with blood and shocked by the horror of seeing his accomplices die in front of him by the like of me, who was basically without proper arms and wounded all over.
My detection was still not good, but his signals of fear were strong enough for me to feel them nonetheless.
As I walked up to him, my left eye probably glowing from the resentment I was feeling toward him, I prepared the interrogation.
With the dagger in my mouth put together with the one in my right hand, I extended the arm far enough to get their edges to make contact with his neck.
"Answer me, and I might just spare you. Who sent you, and what were your orders?"
"I-I-I won't s-say a-anything. B-By my lord and savior, Sa-Saint Millis."
"Pray all you want. The choice is solely on you. So speak."
I pressed the two daggers firmer against his neck, trying to get him to talk. But all he did was try to cast a spell on the ground to distract me while he fled.
I threw the damaged dagger in my left hand and stabbed the back of his hand with it. He suppressed a scream and glared at me, his pants soiled at the look at me.
"Damn you, filthy Demon. Divine judgment will rein upon you before the day you show your true self will come."
Well, this answers at least something. Hitogami gave him the same kind of vision as he did with Luke.
But how does that connect to the task of using aphrodisiac bottles? Unless...
"You guys found and then sold those aphrodisiac bottles in the alley, right?"
It has to be for that purpose. The scales and fluids in the bottle are valuable, so buying them must've been easy once they came onto the market.
And with the help of the blacksmith, they prepared the daggers to use them against me.
Finding me unconscious must've been a lucky chance for them to finish it easier than it should've.
"For what reason should I tell the likes of you!? You're nothing but a brute that doesn't set his heart on one woman at a-AAAAAAA!"
For that sly comment, I twisted the dagger plunged in his hand a bit for extra torture. I think it was still a bit hot, so his flesh must be burning from the metal.
Did Hitogami inform him about my issues, or was it a rumor he misunderstood? Either way, I don't have time for this.
Anyway, I already figured out what I wanted, so keeping him alive isn't much use anymore.
"Oh well. I think I figured everything out on my own for now. I don't have any use for you anymore, Millis runt."
My words infatuated him immediately, and anger came from him as he gave me a teary-eyed death glare.
"Go on in agony knowing that Saint Millis will one da- URRR~!"
Like a scissor, I cut through both sides of his neck until it reached his airway, letting him suffocate in his own blood like the bastard he is.
That was the end of this trio of haters, their pathetic attempt to kill me having failed hard.
It was weird. Looking at the corpses, I felt nothing but indifference. What once felt like the wrong course of action to me now feels normal. There wasn't a shred of grief or regret in me, not even self repriment for taking another one's life.
Now, let's move on to the same problem I'm still having.
"Where the hell am I ?"
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