Moonlight Blue

Garrin looks at the unknown attacker with eyes filled with shock and astonishment at the same time. What happened? He was just inside the inn a second ago and was about to draw his scythe but then all of a sudden, he was outside in a giant crater. And not only that, his body was aching everywhere and his jaw felt like falling off.

He hit me? But when? I couldn’t even see his movement let alone react to it. Just who the hell is this brat?

The sixteen-year-old kid, with eyes shinning as bright as the moon in a night sky, walks out of the inn. Each step he takes carries an invisible pressure that tenses up Garrin’s muscles. As if an apex predator was stalking its prey. No, is he even worthy to be his prey to begin with? Even though he might look like a kid, his eyes hold no emotions. As if the person he is facing isn’t worth putting him in his eyes.

Chaos ensues around the inn as civilians flee from the scene. Due to the commotion, few soldiers under Garrin who were patrolling the area arrive only to find their commander down on the ground beaten up.

“What’s going on?”

“The commander looks hurt.”

“Who could hurt a Slayer though?”

Light murmurs crop up within the soldiers as shock, fear and doubt spread across their faces. Hearing those murmurs makes Garrin’s blood boil. In all of the years he's been a Slayer, he has never been humiliated like this. Even at that time against that ‘person’, it couldn’t be called much of a humiliation since that incident took place amongst Slayers.

Veins bulge all over his forehead as his eyes redden in fury. As if reacting to him, the scythe emits an intense surge of its dark reddish energy. That energy alone sends shivers down on everyone’s spines as they turn pale from fear.

***

Sigh, what’s with this guy and his bloodlust. He is releasing it everywhere. Hmm, that scythe of his.

“That was a lucky shot kid.” He speaks.

Oh dialogue. How annoying. Come to think of it, I don’t know this guy’s name.

It’s Garrin kid. Also known as the King Cobra Slayer.

Oh yeah, his name was on the information Naomi gave me. I guess I should speak too or the poor guy is gonna feel left out.

“No it wasn’t. If I wanted, I could’ve killed you with a snap of my finger. Well, I still could. But I guess you should be proud since you’ll somewhat be of use to me.”

Aargh, saying that last part felt annoying. Be of use my ass. At least if I was fighting a Demon Lord level threat then maybe the progress bar would go up to at least 15%. I doubt this guy will even get it up to 3%. Sigh, what am I doing with my life?

A sixteen-year-old kid having a mid-life crisis during a fight. You don’t see that everyday.

Shut up Ray. Well, at least I’ll get to gauge one of the top players of a kingdom. That should serve as a reference on how much strong the village guards need to be.

“Kill me with a snap of a finger?”

His veins bulge all over his body. He can’t take it anymore. Gripping his scythe tightly, he launches himself straight at me. The speed he reaches isn’t bad, I guess. He swings his scythe vertically down straight at me. I take a single step as a gust of wind trails past me.

To the onlookers, everything happened in a blink of an eye so they are shocked that I dodged the blow so easily. Garrin isn’t shocked though as he continues with his relentless barrage of attacks. Of course, I dodge them easily even with my hands behind my back.

Hmm, it seems my restructured body’s speed and reaction time has improved from before. Before, I had to use mana to increase my speed and reaction time. This is due to the fact that my training growing up was focused more on mana than body building.

Due to the way I use mana, using it on my cells, bones and muscles, my body grew stronger and tougher even though I was still a kid. After using the Golden energy, my body’s overall performance skyrocketed but that energy was more focused on regeneration than strengthening my body.

But now, I’m not even using a drop of mana and yet I outperform my former body by a landslide. Okay, now it’s time to check durability.

As the barrage of attacks didn’t show any signs of stopping, I decide to test out my durability. The scythe tears through the air at an unbelievable speed but I just catch it with my barehand.

There wasn’t even a need for me to use force distribution on this level of attack since there wasn’t even a reaction from his attack. His attack just went quiet. Only the wind being proof that it ever existed.

His eyes open wide as he stares blankly at me. Even the onlookers made up of the soldiers, civilians and Naomi and her people watch in shock. An attack of a Slayer was caught like it was nothing. And not only that, those few individuals who were well adept at using mana were the ones who were more shocked.

Because while the Slayer used his mana and the energy in his weapon, his opponent caught that level of attack without using any mana whatsoever.

An individual behind Naomi divulges this piece of information which makes Naomi’s eyebrows to rise.

He didn’t use mana to block that attack? Wait a minute, wasn’t this kid a magician? And yet, in this entire fight he hasn’t used any magic. It seems my gut was correct. This kid is dangerous.

A second later, Garrin’s shocked expression changes to that of fear. It is not because his attack was caught. No, no. It is because of the change in expression on my face. My once nonchalant face is now showing signs of anger.

Chills run down his spine as he pulls himself backwards along with his scythe increasing the distance between us. I look at my unscathed hand. There, on the palm of my hand, a residue of black red energy is left lingering.

So my thought was correct, huh. This is curse energy. I open my mouth slowly and speak.

“I wonder, Slayer. Where did you get that cursed weapon?”