If one didn’t plan for it, one would be easily killed, whether it was Gazef Stronoff or Brain Unglaus.

But that was also his weakness.

Because of his mindset that he would win if he could just scratch an opponent, Malmvist’s skill with sword was rather lacking. However, his skill in lunging was real and if only lunges were judged, it would be stronger than Gazef Stronoff’s strike. In other word, the Kingdom’s strongest lunge. Additionally, his numerous martial arts could even match the former Black Scripture member, Clementine.

But—

Sebas did not dodge. He did not need to dodge.

“...!”

Malmvist, who had just lunged with all his might was lost for words. He saw the tip of his weapon, which could kill anyone with just a scratch, being held back by Sebas’ finger. That was correct. Sebas had blocked the tip of the rapier with his finger.

“...H-how did you?”

Blinking profusely, Malmvist could only moan after confirming it was neither an illusion nor a dream. That was all he could do. Common sense said that it was impossible. There was no way Sebas could stop a lunge that was powerful enough to pierce steel. His experience screamed out it was impossible, but reality told a different story. Even with all his strength, Malmvist could not push the old man’s finger at all.

The “Rose Thorn” was bending. He tried to pull away so he could lunge at a different place, but Sebas held it firmly between his thumb and index finger. He could not move his sword at all. It was as if an immovable mountain stood there. When Malmvist looked at his comrade, he was pulling at his sword with all his might as well. In the middle of it all, a steely voice rang out.

“Then, here I come.”

A moment later, Peysilian’s head burst into pieces.

It was an attack that was rare to be seen from Sebas. Until now he attacked with finesse, but this strike was a thoughtless attack born out of anger.

He shifted his gaze towards his right fist, which had easily pierced through the head, sending pieces of it flying.

His white glove was dyed with blood and had a pungent metallic smell.

“That was unseeming of me...”

Sebas took his fingers off the rapier and removed the blood soaked glove. The moment it fell to the stone floor, Malmvist quickly snatched the glove with his rapier.

Malmvist might have taken pride in his comet-like speed, but for Sebas, it was laughably slow. There were several ways for him to take the glove back, including smashing the rapier and blowing away Malmvist’s head, but unable to understand what his opponent was doing, Sebas asked with genuine curiosity.

“Just... what might you be doing?”

“This is it!!! This is the magical item that makes you stronger right?”

It was a regular glove made of white linen.

A cracking voice, foam at the corners of his mouth and bloodshot eyes. Malmvist had already descended halfway into madness. He was trying to rationalize the unbelievable sights he had witnessed.

“You only need to admit that I am stronger than you are. What a troublesome person... If you wish to, keep thinking so.”

Sebas swung his fist towards the man who was laughing like a madman. After Malmvist’s head flew off and his body collapsed, silence descended. Sebas quickly blew on his fist as if there was a speck of dust. There was not a single scratch on his fingers where he had used ‘Iron Skin’.

“If I hadn’t been so wary of some fake attack like “Void Executioner”, it would have been over in five seconds, but to last twenty seconds against me, I applaud you.”

Sebas pointed at the building where people would have been watching this grisly scene and gave an order to the hidden predator.

“Solution, they might have important information, so please capture them alive. Now...”

He looked at the panicking minions surrounding him with cold eyes.

“Ten seconds for all of you.”

Part 3

Lower Fire Month (9th Month), 4th, 22:13

Climb briskly walked along the empty hallway. Even though they had ‘Invisibility’ magic cast on them, thanks to his helmet, he could see the two people with him. Because of his helm, he even thought at one point that they didn’t have invisibility magic cast on them. However if he looked carefully, the fact the colours were blurry confirmed that was not the case. Though they needed to be careful not to make noise, they couldn’t afford to slow down.

They needed to rescue the woman while Sebas was distracting the others. Even if Sebas was stronger than Gazef Stronoff and Brain Unglaus combined, the opponents were the Six Arms, foes who could stand toe to toe with adamantium ranked adventurers. If they decided to simply swarm Sebas, things could get dicey. That’s why they needed to rescue the woman quickly and escape with Sebas.

After turning several corners and descending a floor, the rogue who was in front stopped.

“Sorry to stop so suddenly, leader. We’re here. Just around the corner is the jail and there’s a woman being held in there.”

It was probably a coincidence, but the moment the rogue spoke, the spell granting them invisibility passed its time limit and the outlines of the three became clearer again. On the rogue’s signal, Climb peeked around the corner and saw a dark hallway with large barred rooms side by side.

“...Nothing else here, just like my reconnaissance earlier.”

There were no other prisoners or guards. It was too suspicious to be explained with just “carelessness”. It was almost like bait. But come to think about it, who would dare infiltrate the building while the strongest of the Eight Fingers, the Six Arms, were gathered there. Without other factors such as Sebas distracting everyone, Climb would not have come here. The Six Arms might have thought so as well. Those were the factors working out for Climb’s group, but they had to be on guard.

“Let’s get this over quick.”

Feeling some sort of camaraderie after being through danger together, Brain asked the rogue with familiarity.

“Can I ask something? What’s that double door over there for?”

When he turned his gaze to innermost part, there was a large door just like Brain said.

“Ah— From my experience, this is more like a holding pen rather than a jail. Behind that door... would be some sort of fighting pit.”

“Speaking of which, I can smell the odour of animals coming from those rooms. I heard that in the Empire, they make monsters fight against each other in a fighting pit...”