His eyes gleamed with a tinge of energy, and the veins on his body slowly popped out, visible through his skin, as launched from his place, heading directly towards the slime. His speed far surpassed that of top human athletes on earth.
The monster reacted, shooting a projectile.
Aryan maneuvered, using the spear to jump above and past the slime. Landing behind it, he threw the wooden spear with his full might, the spear pierced through slime's body, almost reaching its core.
Aryan didn't waste a second, he ran towards the forest leaving the slime. He firmly grabbed the alloy daggers in both his hands, crossing them together.
"Fire magic: fire imbue." He chanted, and out of nowhere a golden energy wrapped around his daggers, turning them into hot red.
"Clang"
He swung the dagger aiming for bushes.
The dagger was blocked, by something, emitting a wave of sparks. When the spark settled, he could see a metallic shield beneath the dagger.
It was held by a short person with leather armor. One of the guards he had seen in the village.
Aryan quickly maneuvered, spin-kicking the man. The guard tried to block the attack from the shield, but the impact of the attack threw him off the ground.
"Elder, save your life. We will take care of this~" Another guard yelled, but before he could complete his sentence, Aryan was behind him.
The man horizontally swung his sword. Aryan dodged and stabbed the burning dagger through his thigh. The man groaned in pain, rolling on the ground.
The one with the shield attacked again, but Aryan dodged, his attention on the old man running behind. He dodged and landed another brutal kick on the soldier, followed by another, momentarily knocking him down.
Aryan sensed the third energy, running away from them, without hesitating a second, he threw the dagger, flying. It hit below his back. The figure cried in pain. Aryan quickly caught up to notice, it was an old man.
Not just any old man, but one of the elders he had seen with the chief tonight. He quickly pulled the dagger out of his back and locked him with the hot dagger on his neck.
"Look what I caught? It's a goldfish." Aryan chuckled sarcastically, pushing the dagger closer to the old man's neck.
[ Warning: Your magic is running out ]
[ Warning: Your magic is running out ]
'Damit, I barely used it for twenty seconds,' Aryan cursed internally, deactivating all his skills.
The old man tried to break free, but Aryan's grip was iron. The two guards he had knocked out also caught up to him, "Let the elder go, or I will make your death more painful than a swine!" One of them shouted.
The red-hot dagger slowly turned cold. But Aryan was least worried, "Moron, why would I capture someone if I had to let him free?"
"You bastard!" One of the guards yelled, running at him, but Aryan responded by applying a little more force on the dagger, piercing through the old man's skin.
The elder cried out of pain, fear evident in his voice. "WAIT YOU FOOL, if you step closer, he will KILL ME!"
The guard halted in his place, gritting his teeth in frustration. The elder, sideglanced at Aryan, cursing him internally, "You filthy bastard, how did you know it was me?"
"What? You don't know basic magic?" Aryan asked curious, his hand slowly moved into the back of his pocket, touching a small transparent orb. "To answer your question...I didn't know it was you, but I knew it was someone...and look what I found?"
The elder continued to move his hands and legs, hoping to break free. "Fine, I will give it to you. You humans are smarter than I thought!"
"Heh?" Aryan tilts his head. "Isn't that quite the opposite? You half-dwarves are even dumber than I believed. Who plans an assassination attempt while watching everything closely? "
"Bastard, don't make fun of our race!" The elder shouted, the stab in his back prevented him from standing straight. But Aryan was low on time, "Who cares? I have been racist since birth."
"Now, for the first step, stop that slime monster thing... however you are controlling it," he said, pointing at the monster slime, still slowly rolling towards him through the gaps of trees. "And second, spit out your plans and ambitions as every side character does."
"Gaah!" The elder moved more violently, trying to break free. But for Aryan, holding him in place was like holding a schoolboy. "I am not telling you a single word even if I die!"
"Alright, then, die!" He casually said pushing the dagger deeper into his neck, a small sprinkle of blood leaked from his neck.
"No, wait, wait, wait." The elder yelled, "Are you seriously trying to kill me? What monster are you?"
Aryan sideglanced, "So I take it as a 'Yes, I will spill everything out'?"
The elder bit his lips; tears welling up in his eyes, he had no choice but to explain, "Fine, I will do it...but not for me... it's for the people protecting me." He said looking at the two guards.
'I haven't heard anything more absurd in a while,' Aryan thought in his mind, he stayed silent and let the elder speak.
"I always do it for them...for my people...for my village."
"I did so much for them; I even fought my own family; we built a village together... And in the end, they choose some young, elf-born bastard as a chief. Just look at me! What am I to them? A pity old man, whose effort they don't even recognize."
The elder voice trembled, and tears dropped down his wrinkled cheeks. Aryan, unaffected, asked, "So you planned all that to get the chief position? You even killed the merchants."
The question hung cold in the air. The elder half-dwarf sobbed, taking a gasp of breath. "I didn't kill anyone. Nor I harm any village property."
"Later, when the villagers chose that young bastard for chief instead of me, I felt betrayed. But I didn't hate them. I knew they were wrong; they were manipulated, and I had to show them the reality. That's why I devised a plan. I used a red crystal to create corrosive slimes who would work on my command."
" I made an army of them. And whenever a merchant crossed the land, I would attack their caravan with the same army. Most of them would just run away, leaving the caravan behind, and this gave me the time to loot everything, all the magical equipment in it."
"Hmm," Aryan nodded. "What about the village guards and the mercenaries?"
"I did the same with village guards. When they came to find Slime, I just unleashed a horde of them at once. Dwarves aren't a race capable of fighting, so it's natural they got scared and ran away. As for the mercenaries, they didn't disappear; they abandoned the quest. I paid them handsomely to do so."
Aryan's eyes lit in excitement. He had the information he needed. Quickly, he placed back the small translucent orb in his pocket and leaned closer to the old man, with a low toe voice "If that's the case, why didn't you just try to bribe me as well?"
"Because..." The dwarf sobbed in pain, but his tears stopped replaced by surprise once he realized the question, "Wait, does that mean you can get bribed as well?"
Aryan nodded innocently.
The elder looked at him with a ray of hope, but his tears soon willed up again, "But we don't even have any more resources or coins left..."
Aryan sighed in disbelief, "You still have the magic equipment right?"
"What do I get in return?" The elder asked, as if he had a machine to cry he could always turn on and off.
Aryan thought for a second, "I will forget everything that happened here and report to the adventurer guild that the quest is more dangerous than expected and the village chief had posted fake information in the guild."
The elder dwarf's eyes widened in surprise. "That way, the chief will get charged for posting wrong information, and his reputation will fall. I can use that as an opportunity to reclaim my position as a chief!"
The elderly man suddenly forgot about the burning stab in his ass and began smiling, "What do you want in against?"
"Any fair price," Aryan responds.
"Fine then, you can pick any two weapons from my loots, any two you want! Deal?" The man asked with a genuine smile.
"Three.." Aryan adjusted his mask.
"Fine, three pieces of equipment. Deal?"
"Deal!"
.
.