Vampire Ruins Gate (3)

Johnson, whose wrist had been caught, broke out in a cold sweat.

'W-what is this...?'

He absolutely couldn't move the wrist held by the boy.

He tried to pull away with his body and twist his arm, but it was pointless.

It felt as if his wrist was stuck in a tight crack of solid rock.

'What is this!'

As Johnson desperately tried to muster his aura out of panic,

- Ujeojeok!

'...?'

A sound as if a log was being crushed rattled Johnson's bones.

"Uh, uhh, uuurgh...!"

Soon after, an immense pain surged through his wrist.

"Kghh...!"

Johnson urgently checked his wrist, and his eyes widened in shock.

Like a pair of chopsticks snapped by a vise, his wrist was bent in a direction it never should bend.

'Kk-Kkgh! My wrist! My, my wrist...!'

The boy had snapped Johnson's wrist like a chopstick with mere grip strength.

"K-Kgh! Kuaaaagh! Haaah!"

Johnson, as soon as he managed to catch his breath, let out an involuntary scream.

"Don't pretend to be in pain."

But the punishment was only just beginning.

Ian had no intention of stopping at just breaking Johnson's wrist.

― Bbeok!

Ian's fist crashed deeply into Johnson's face.

"Keugh!"

Johnson's nose bone was crushed, and he flew backward, scattering nosebleed like ribbons.

― Kudangtang!

As soon as Johnson tumbled backward, Ian stomped hard on his left arm.

― Kwaak!

The wrist Ian had just broken was the right one.

Now, he planned to destroy the left arm as well.

― Ujeojeok!

"Kk-kkuuh! Kkugh!"

Ian put his weight down and crushed Johnson's left elbow.

― Jeojeok! Ujeojeok!

The feeling of bone twisting and skin being mashed came through his shoes.

"Kk-kkiek! Kkiik!"

Johnson squirmed, letting out noises like a dying pig.

Ian looked down at the scene, thinking for a moment.

'Where should I smash next?'

The decision was quick.

'First, the ribs. Then the neck cartilage. I'll break a knee, pull out his hair, and tear an ear too.'

He didn't have a reason to kill him just yet, so he must not kill him.

But he wasn't about to leave things ambiguous either.

Guys like this, if you didn't break them thoroughly, would just crawl back up in no time.

― Ujeok!

"Kuh, kuhuek!"

As planned, he stomped and crushed the ribs.

― Ttuduk!

"Ku,urk!"

He twisted the neck and tore the cartilage.

― Ttududududuk!

"Gya, kyaaaak!"

He created a bald spot in the front of his scalp.

― Jijik! Jjeojeojeok!

"Kuh, kuhuguk!"

He ripped off a nearby ear and tossed it to the ground.

― Kwajak!

"Kk-kkiheup!"

Finally, he stomped until the knee bent the wrong way.

"Ugh...! Kgrrk! Grrrk!"

Johnson foamed at the mouth and began trembling all over, nearly dead.

It seemed he was having convulsions from shock.

'This should be enough.'

A task finished in a little over 10 seconds.

"Hey! Johnson!"

"What, what are you doing!"

Johnson's party members rushed to help, but he was already half-dead.

"Gasp...!"

"J-Johnson...?"

"What the...?"

Those who rushed over belatedly recoiled in horror at the sight of Johnson convulsing on the floor.

"W-what did you just do!!"

Linda, with a pointed hat, jabbed her finger at Ian and shrieked.

"Wh-why did you do that to him?! What did Johnson ever do!?"

Ian pointed to his own face in response.

A split lip, a nose caked with blood.

All injuries from Johnson's fists and knees.

"He threw the first punch."

"St-still! No, even so, isn't this too much?! Johnson never meant to go this far with you!"

"Ha."

Ian let out a short laugh and shook his head.

The words coming from the pointed-hat girl were so predictable.

'Yeah. I knew it would come to this.'

Guys like these had the same repertoire wherever you went.

He fully expected them to play the victim.

So Ian responded exactly as planned.

"Sophia."

"Yes?"

"Bag."

"Yes!"

Ian took two high-rank healing potions from Sophia's bag and tossed them at their feet.

"These are high-rank healing potions. They won't fully cure him, but should at least get him walking again."

If that guy recovered, there was a very high chance he'd come at them again.

Most likely next time, all five would attack at once.

The second round would almost surely take place inside the ruin, away from the porters, in a slaughter match.

Ian planned to kill all five of them then, cleanly.

He would monopolize the monsters inside the ruins while they recovered, then serve the five of them to Vladiark as dessert when they followed.

"You, you...!"

Linda glared at Ian with a venomous expression.

"Do you think this is enough, after doing this to someone?! You need to compensate properly!"

"Ha."

Ian laughed again.

How could these guys never deviate from their script, from start to finish?

Every word, every action was within his expectations.

"Are you laughing?! After doing this to someone! Did you just laugh?!"

"Shut it."

"Uh, uh...?!"

When Ian coldly snapped at her, Linda's energy shriveled up.

"From the beginning, the real victim was me, not you. You got what was coming for stepping out of line. Besides, in this situation, shouldn't you be thanking me?"

"Wh-what!? Why would we thank you...!"

"I gave your idiot a very important lesson about choosing his targets carefully, and even provided expensive potions like this. All I got in return was trouble and a punch, but I gave guidance and even saved your lives. I forgave the initial attack, and gave you all this, yet now you want more? Even shamelessness has its limits."

"Kuh... kuh...! That's nonsense...!!"

Linda tried anyway to refute Ian's words.

But—

― Murmur murmur.

"He's right, isn't he?"

"I think that young swordsman is totally right."

"Yeah, what more do they want? He's already done more than enough."

"He gave them potions—he's at a loss here, not those five bastards."

"Those five may be old, but they act like spoiled children. The young swordsman's way more mature."

"Uh... uh..."

Linda was silenced by the voices from the crowd.

― Murmur murmur.

"They get themselves beaten for their own screw-up and now demand compensation? Bullshit."

"With potions given, they should be bowing in thanks."

"If they were the type to listen, they wouldn't have gotten beaten in the first place. I always thought something like this would happen to those jerks one day."

"Phew! I feel refreshed! Worthless thugs—finally met their match!"

Public sentiment was overwhelmingly on Ian's side.

Johnson had a bad reputation to begin with, so none of the porters wanted to support him.

They also felt some gratitude toward Ian, who had decisively smashed Johnson, always a troublemaker.

"Kuh... kuht... The situation..."

"Damn, this is bad..."

"Those parasite bastards..."

"Y-you, shut up...!"

Johnson's party was about to glare at the porters—

"Hey, you beggar bastards."

Ian wasn't about to let them go after the porters.

"If you're going to beg, at least pick the time and person. Am I your dad? How much of your whining do you expect me to put up with?"

"Eek...!"

"U-urk..."

Words that were especially humiliating coming from a fourteen-year-old boy.

"You, you...!"

Normally, they'd have snapped back immediately and grabbed his collar.

"Linda, hold it!"

"Kuh!"

The opponent may be a boy, but he had taken down Johnson—their strongest—singlehandedly.

Maybe Johnson was careless, but challenging someone whose skill they didn't know was too dangerous.

One misstep and they could end up just like Johnson did, half-crippled.

"Linda..."

"For now, let's withdraw. It's not looking good."

"..."

The party members knew this, so they quietly tried to calm Linda.

"Damn it..."

In the end, Linda hung her head.

All they could do right now was fall back.

If they wanted a rematch, first they had to get Johnson—their strongest—treated.

"Just shove off already, you vermin."

Ian had no further intention of tormenting them and dismissed them.

His only purpose was to protect Sophia from them.

If he wasn't going to kill them right here, there was no more reason to keep arguing.

"..."

Linda and the other party members could only groan helplessly at Ian's insult-laden dismissal.

Right now, withdrawing when given the chance was wise.

They carried off the half-crippled Johnson and disappeared into a corner of the camp.

* * *

About an hour later.

While Ian and Sophia went out alone to scout the ruins,

The porters were setting up the base camp,

"Guh, guhugh... it hurts... damn it..."

Johnson was tending his wounds, with his party members caring for him.

"This..."

The fighter, sam, poured potion over Johnson's torn wounds, looking troubled.

"The wounds are worse than I thought."

The potion from the boy was high-rank, so most of the fractures could be patched, but only just.

Any strain and those barely-mended bones would shatter right away.

"He really did a number on you."

But even pouring potion on the hair Ian had pulled out didn't make it grow back.

The torn ear had been glued on again somehow, but in the dark they'd set it crooked.

"Damn it... fuck!"

Johnson ground his teeth, stewing in anger.

"That damn brat... I'll kill him no matter what... no matter what! Ugh!"

Getting angry made his whole body ache.

Even his bloody nose, which he'd barely stopped, began to flow again.

"Damn it..."

His right-hand tendon had healed wrong, making his shoulder tingle each time he tried to clench or stretch his fingers.

"I'll never forgive him. Before leaving this Gate, I'll pay him back double—no, tenfold...!"

Sam shook his head and soothed Johnson.

"... For now, just rest. Recover first, Johnson."

"You guys cooperate, too! I'll kill that bastard for sure—! Mph!"

As Johnson, flustered, raised his voice, Linda clamped his mouth shut.

"Shh! Keep it down, Johnson! What if someone hears? What if that boy hears about it? We're in a tight spot!"

"Fuck..."

His pride wanted to scream 'Let him hear!', but if he got punished by the boy again, he might really die this time.

Johnson took down potion like water, parched.

"Johnson, why did you get beaten so helplessly?"

"Fuck...! I just let my guard down! He hit me by surprise—I didn't even have time to draw my aura!"

"By surprise...?"

Dean, the tough guy, tilted his head.

... He got beaten in a counterattack while he started the fight, though.

Does that count as a surprise attack?

Dean thought that, but didn't bother saying it.

"If I just used my aura properly, I'd never have lost!"

Johnson felt saving his aura was his fatal mistake.

He'd wanted to conserve it, as the Gate attack hadn't even begun yet.

If he'd known it would turn out like this, he'd have used his aura fully from the beginning.

"If I'd known he'd do this, I'd have started by breaking his arms, too... should never have held back... argh!"

"... So what now?"

Linda asked.

"If we just leave, all five of us will become laughingstocks."

For adventurers, reputation was as important as it was for nobles.

Especially, one's reputation for skill must never be tarnished.

Lucrative targeted commissions came because of that reputation.

If they left the Gate like this, the story of Johnson being beaten up by a fourteen-year-old would spread quickly.

"Damn it..."

Even if they won a rematch, it'd be a joke to say they beat a fourteen-year-old.

Only way left was to kill all witnesses and shut every mouth.

An extreme measure, but they had to protect their rep for skill at all costs.

"We have to kill them. That was the plan to begin with, right?"

"So how are we going to do it?"

"... For now: clear the Gate first. Until the boss room, pretend to follow that guy obediently."

"Then what?"

"Once the clear is in sight, we do it. No need to fight fair. We do it in a way we can't lose."

Johnson met eyes with each party member, seething.

"Before going in the boss room, at the last camp. That's the time. Let one of us stand watch."

No one knew how strong that brat was, but by then he'd be exhausted.

"When that guy's so tired he collapses, the one on watch wakes us all up. Then we take him out."

Johnson's eyes glowed with a wicked smile.

"First, we kill that brat and the girl. Then the porters. Everyone. Slowly, savoring it."

All the party members' faces twisted into a grin, matching Johnson's.

"We make this attack a disaster and we're the only survivors. Better to be suspected than ridiculed openly."

True, bad rumors would make Gate matching tough, but the Gate wasn't their main source of money anyway.

They could earn in normal dungeons or labyrinth towers, with less risk.

"Anything but ridicule."

If their reputation for skill fell, not just Gates but dungeons and labyrinth towers would be off-limits for raid parties.

No more targeted commissions either.

"We were going to kill them anyway, but now we have no choice."

Killing that gray-haired boy, the brown-haired girl, and then all the remaining porters—was now necessary for their party's survival.

The five men and women's eyes burned with malice.

However—

There was one thing they missed—

― Kwajak! Kwajik!

Ian, out scouting the ruin and slaughtering monsters, was far beyond anything they imagined.

― Kwajik!

― Shuuuuuk!

Ian smashed a gargoyle's head with Vladiark and absorbed its magic power.

'Indeed, the amount of magic power I get from monsters is substantial.'

They planned to target Ian when he was tired, but with Vladiark, his strength could never be depleted.

What's more—

― Kwadedeudeuk!

"Kuh, kuoohh!"

'Wow. I can rip a gargoyle's belly open with bare hands now, and barely used aura. The Heavenly Sword family head's blood is truly something.'

For Ian, whose body was strengthened by the Heavenly Bloodline, adventurers like Johnson's party weren't even worth using his aura.