NOVEL NEXT Chapter 68: Zane arrival
Ragnar and Noah's arrival was met with joy. The people gathered around them, jumping and chanting their names. Their loud voices echoed across the Hamlet.
Ragnar and Noah had smiles on their faces. Both of them felt a sense of pride at this moment, not the bragging type, but one of a man who was able to protect his loved ones from danger.
The three wounded men were also proud, especially Old Man James. They were his students in the first place, so it was natural for him to be proud. The two scouts who had also joined them in battle felt proud of the two.
Nevertheless, as their celebration was still ongoing, Nature had something worse for them.
Flying through the forest was a small group of three gigantic flying-type monsterborn. Each of them had the face of a human but gigantic bodies and wings that flapped majestically as they darted through the air.
The one in the middle flew ahead of all of them. Currently sitting at the back of this particular monsterborn was a young man with white hair. Zane's calm gaze scanned his surroundings as they drew closer to the tenth Hamlet, crossing the forest.
"What are those?" Zane's voice trailed off as he spotted the heaps of goblin corpses gathered in the area between the woods and the border of the Hamlet.
Zane made the monsterborns fly lower and was able to properly observe the objects on the ground. His eyes widened. "Goblins! There must be close to two hundred, but they are all dead!"
Zane's eyes furrowed in suspicion. "How is that possible? The tenth Hamlet is not under our jurisdiction. As far as our knowledge could fetch, there is no one strong enough in the Hamlet to even go against a single goblin warrior. But yet, almost two hundred goblins were slaughtered?"
The more Zane thought about it, the more confused he became—this was insane. More than 70% of their gang members would not be able to take care of so many goblins.
As Zane thought about these in confusion, his gaze darted to the settlement and he ordered the monsterborn to fly towards it.
They crossed the border, the storage house, the farms, and flew past some huts, and then their gazes were drawn to the illumination from the clay oil lamps held by the crowd who were currently cheering for Ragnar and Noah.
Zane got curious and they flew closer.
Nevertheless, as they drew closer, the sound of their wings flapping quickly grabbed the attention of the crowd, halting the jubilation and quickly replacing their joy with horror.
"Something is coming."
"Mommy, they look like the monster I saw that night."
"No, what are those?"
"Demons! They are demons! Our Hamlet has become a target for demons. It is over for us."
"Oh please, what is happening now?"
The people began to react as they spotted the gigantic bizarre flying creatures moving towards them. Some ran and hid behind nearby huts. Some fell on the ground and shivered while a few of them simply froze in place.
But not Ragnar and Noah.
"Monsterborns..." both of them whispered as they faced the approaching adversaries.
Ragnar turned to Noah and told him to lead everyone further away from the soon-to-be battlefield.
"Everyone, come with me. Do not panic." Noah moved and helped everyone. He led them further away from the meeting spot, towards the other exit of the Hamlet, one rarely used.
Ragnar strode forward and observed the approaching monsterborns with a cold expression on his face. His focused gaze spotted the white-haired human male sitting atop one of the monsterborn, and his gaze turned even more chilly.
At the same time, Zane spotted Ragnar and his gaze, too, became chilly. "I can feel something different from this fellow. He must be the one who killed those goblins. He is not ordinary," he muttered.
But at the same time, he ordered the monsterborn to fly lower. He was going to test the strength of this human with his monsterborns.
The monsterborns flapped their wings and slowly landed in the midst of the Hamlet. Their large bodies quickly took over more than seventy percent of the street.
Ragnar quickly checked their status. He quickly realized that they were all above level ten—the weakest was level 11 and the strongest, the one the human male sat on, was level 13.
But Ragnar was even more surprised when he observed the status of the human male.
====
Human — Level 17
Physique: 10.5
Agility: 13
Spirit: 27
====
'Such a high spirit attribute,' Ragnar exclaimed inwardly. His gaze fixed on the young man. 'Is this guy the leader of the Ironhand gang?' he wondered.
"Who are you?" Zane asked in a loud voice.
"Who am I?" Ragnar repeated his question in a cold tone. "You came into my territory and still dare to question my identity? Don't you have manners?"
Zane frowned. 'This guy. Three monsterborns before him and he still has the balls to talk back; he is definitely extraordinary.'
"Were you the one who killed those goblins close to the woods?" he asked.
"And why should I answer you?" Ragnar's frown deepened. "I should be the one asking. Who the hell are you? What are your intentions for bringing those ugly things here with you?"
GROWL! The three monsterborns let out a low growl of protest after being referred to as ugly.
"It seems you do not realize whose presence you're standing in," Zane's gaze turned chilly.
"The presence of a shameless intruder," Ragnar replied. "Also, I am aware that these monsterborn have been infiltrating my territory for some time now to steal the hard work of my people. I guess you coming here today is to my advantage."
'He knows about that?' Zane became even more suspicious of Ragnar's identity. 'Could he be the one who killed our monsterborns at the eleventh Hamlet? Judging by how he is not displaying any sort of fear despite seeing the monsterborn, he must have fought one before and, with such confidence, he definitely won.'
Before the monsterborn rose up to the sky, Noah arrived after ensuring the others were at a safe distance away. He stood beside Ragnar and observed the monstrosity and the human before them.
Unfortunately, he did not have enough time to observe his foes as Zane commanded one of the monsterborn to attack both of them.
SCREECH! One of the monsterborn flapped its wings as it slowly flew into the sky. It screeched at the two of them and with an insane speed, it darted towards them.
As it drew closer, it opened its mouth. Just like the last flying-type monsterborn Ragnar had slain, a small ball of energy began gathering in front of its mouth. It grew larger and stronger.
The next second, the energy ball exploded towards their location.
Ragnar and Noah swung into action right away. They evaded the energy ball, causing it to land on the ground with a loud explosion sound that shook the Hamlet.
Cracks appeared on a nearby hut. Slowly, it began to shatter. Seeing this, Ragnar and Noah were infuriated.
"Static Strike," Noah activated his new lightning affinity skill. His blade glowed blue and buzzed with electricity. The cold electric glow was reflected in his cold eyes.
He dashed in the direction of the monsterborn that had just fired the energy ball. He used the walls of a nearby hut as a medium to swing himself into the air, reaching an adequate height to attack the monsterborn.
"Die!" Noah barked.
His electric blade buzzed with even more power as it slashed towards the gigantic body of the monsterborn.
Fortunately, his attack landed. The [Paralysis] effect was immediately activated.
GROWL! With a loud growl of pain, the monsterborn lost its aerial control and fell to the ground, landing a few meters away from its colleagues.
Zane's eyes widened. 'Lightning element affinity! He looked so ordinary but yet he has such a unique affinity? And what the heck did he do to make a huge monsterborn go numb with a single slash?'
Unfortunately, while he was deep in thought, Noah landed on the ground and, without wasting time, he charged towards the monsterborn that had just fallen numb to the ground, thanks to his newly acquired skill.
'The numbing effect only lasts for a few seconds. I have to finish it off immediately,' thought Noah.
At the same time, Ragnar had already sneaked closer to his opponent and was about to activate his new skills.