Chapter 12: Holy Messenger (2)
The villagers might be relatively weak, but they weren't stupid. Even they could tell that they were weaker than Paul, especially after having had all the time in the past year to observe him.
However, this was a matter that had their pride on the line. The entire village had believed that Paul was the Holy Messenger, and had been treating him with the utmost respect, providing him with every bit of courtesy and benefits. Yet he actually turned out to be an undead being who corrupted the lands around their village?
If they just accepted things as they were, how would they face their ancestors when they returned to the earth? What could they say to explain themselves to their ancestors when they were questioned on the other side?
They had no choice! They had to fight! Even if they couldn't win, they had to at least show the resolve to defend their home!
This might sound foolish to some, but to these villagers, their ancestors' words were higher than the law. This was also the reason why Paul had been treated with such respect when they initially believed that he was the one mentioned in their ancestors' prophecy!
With a loud war cry, the village warriors charged at Paul! They were fearless! Determined to lay down their lives just to take down the abomination who was Paul, all of them had a clear and bright light in their eyes, feeling pride in being the first wave of offense!
Paul bent down and casually picked up the sword from the ground. At this time, the ground was practically littered with swords, one from each of the soldiers who was killed earlier. With his sabre gone, the swords provided a convenient alternative to his weapon problem.
There was a bright flash, and three heads simultaneously left their owners' necks.
While the villagers were high on adrenaline, they were relatively low skilled, or at least lower than the soldiers who were lying motionlessly on the ground. Paul simply stood there and waited for the warriors to enter his attack range, then casually took out three of them with a swing of his sword.
No one could react in time.
Yet this was only the prelude to the massacre.
One by one the warriors fell, then the others who joined after them, then the ones after them. Villagers poured in from all parts of the village as they heard about the situation, only to rush right into their deaths.
The village head stood behind, staring in disbelief as despair slowly crept up in his heart. It was about to completely engulf him, threatening to make him fall into depravity. All these villagers, all his friends, all their lives had been snuffed out like a bug with a single swing of that cursedly well-polished sword.
Had the Beast Spirit Wrox finally abandoned them? Had the end finally come for the village that he had worked all his life on governing?
No! Not like this! There was no way that he would allow it!
The village head took out the ancestral dagger that was hanging by his belt, staring at it with deep emotions.
This ornamental dagger had been passed down to every generation of village heads, meant as a symbol of their authority. This day, however, that was not the reason why he took it out.
Raising it into the air, the village head shouted out in regret.
If only he had not accepted this monster into the village a year ago, maybe things would have been different today! It was his fault! And to save the village, he did not mind sacrificing his life to call upon the ancestral spirits. As long as the village could be saved!
With one swift action, the village head plunged the dagger right into his heart!
Paul was relishing in the feeling of killing at this moment. Though the death energy emitted by these villagers was nowhere near that of the two magic users from before, it was still a lot greater than that of the animals in the forest.
With his newly improved senses, Paul could sense exactly what everyone around him was up to. When he noticed the village chief commit suicide, he frowned unhappily.
What a waste of death energy! That was one less person for him to absorb!
Yet contrary to his expectations, the village chief actually did not fall. Instead, he completely froze after the dagger pierced his heart, his hands seemingly stuck on the hilt of the dagger.
The other elders beside the village head were shocked upon seeing the village head pierce his own heart, and all of them staggered back in dismay. But even they could sense that something was wrong. Why was the village head still just standing there? Did he die standing?
There was little blood trickling out of the wound on village head's chest as the dagger stayed securely embedded. Unbeknownst to everyone, right now a mystical energy was slowly flowing from within the dagger into the village head, imbuing him with a strange power.
Suddenly, the village head's eyes opened wide! A strange light flickered in his eyes and he slowly drew the dagger out from his chest. Upon removal of the blade, the slit on his chest actually started to close up, regenerating at a visible pace!
Paul noticed it as well, and started to focus his thoughts. This was already something that belonged to the realm of the supernatural, something that his superior brain could not comprehend. At least not for now when he was still relatively new to this game.
But what he could be sure of was that he could feel power brimming up in the village head's frail looking body. Even the most naïve of children could tell that the village head was no longer the same person from just a minute before.
"Vile undead, things have gone far enough!"
The voice that bellowed from the village head was in no way similar to his voice that everyone had gotten used to over all these years. It no longer felt old and hoarse, now it was authoritative and gave off the feeling of him brimming with life.
Paul stood his ground as the village head started taking slow steps towards Paul. He threw aside the staff in his hands, his fingernails quickly growing out into sharp claws. His two canines grew out, and his hair grew slightly longer as well. An air of wildness seemed to surround him, as if he was an animal in human form, staring straight at Paul like a predator eyeing its prey.
Since the fight first started with Wizard Mirror and their soldiers, Paul had been nonchalant and felt at ease, knowing that he had the fight mostly under control. But right now, that same feeling had long fled from him.
"You are wondering who I am," even the village head's facial features had started to deform and reform back into that of a complete stranger.
"Who are you?" Paul asked warily, not caring that the other party seemed like he would still say the answer even without him asking anyway.
The village head gave an eerie grin as those were the exact words he wanted to hear.
"I am Mazinga, direct subordinate of the Beast Spirit Wrox! You who falsely assumed the identity of the Holy Messenger, feel the wrath of the true warriors of Wrox and learn the difference between the authentic and the fake!"
Paul's eyebrows twitched ominously upon hearing that.
Mazinga? Subordinate of the Beast Spirit Wrox? The authentic and the fake? Didn't that mean this guy in front of him was the true Holy Messenger? Was that not just some rural bullshit used to control the mindless masses? How could that kind of superstitious talk come true?
But while he was shocked, the villagers were elated! Even though many of them were already dead, the rest of them could clearly hear what their previous village head just said.
The Holy Messenger! The real Holy Messenger!
There was still hope for the village!
None of the villagers continued charging mindlessly at Paul anymore, all deciding to stand back and get ready to watch the new Holy Messenger do his job.
Perhaps not seeing the panicked face that he wished to see on Paul's face, Mazinga frowned a little. Then without any more delay, he rushed at Paul.
His speed was in no way inferior to Paul's. In fact, Mazinga was even faster! Paul could barely react fast enough to leap back in evasion, then pierced forward with the sword in his hand.
To his surprise, the sword actually connected! It pierced right into Mazinga's body, even completely piercing through his body and emerging from behind his back!
But his joy was short-lived as Paul quickly realised that something was wrong – he couldn't pull out the sword! Mazinga used his left hand to hold onto the sword, firmly fixing it in place. Then he swiped forth with his right hand, directly aiming towards Paul's neck.
Paul was only left with a single limb, so while holding onto the sword, there was no way he could defend against that attack. Left without a choice, he could only let go of the sword and leapt backwards once again.
"Your speed is commendable. You are fast enough to almost make me put in effort," Mazinga wasn't too concerned about missing as he pulled the sword out from the front.
Paul watched in concern as the bleeding wound quickly closed up just like his chest wound from before, rapidly regenerating itself. In fact, the chest wound from before had already completely healed up by now and could no longer be seen!
No way, they were calling him an undead? That what would you call this Mazinga guy? Was he any better?
Paul grumbled in his heart while he stretched out for another sword that was lying around.
"Don't even think about it!" Mazinga shot forward once again, determined to deny him the chance to arm himself.
And it worked perfectly for Mazinga too, his punch connected directly with Paul's abdomen area, sending him flying back and crashing right through the walls of a house that was more than fifty metres behind him. The small house completely collapsed as the walls crumbled, and the roof caved in onto where Paul should have landed.
"Hahaha! Vile undead! Your kind is still as weak as ever!" Mazinga laughed out in triumph.
He had never considered this to be a real fight. He was simply here to clean up the trash that was Paul, saving the village that had always worshipped his master, the Beast Spirit Wrox!
The villagers cheered with all their might! They knew that this time, they were truly saved! This was already the second time they felt something like that over the past few hours. The first time was when Paul defeated the outsiders in the capacity of the Holy Messenger of the village, but who would have guessed that the second time would be of another Holy Messenger defeating Paul?
However, the villagers could not be bothered with all that. All they cared about was that this new Holy Messenger was strong! Far stronger than Paul! And he seemed to be completely on their side!
The cheers continued for some time, but it still gradually died down as an air of uneasiness started shrouding over everyone present. Was Mazinga that strong? Why hadn't there been any movement from the collapsed house at all?
Could it be that Paul was incapacitated in one hit, or even killed?
The villagers were initially thinking that, but they quickly threw that thought to the back of their minds.
What nonsense! The only reason they denied Paul was because he was an undead! How could an undead be knocked unconscious or be killed with a punch?
All eyes slowly turned towards Mazinga, seemingly pleading with him to go check on Paul. But even without the villagers saying anything, how could Mazinga not have thought of the same thing?
"Stop playing dead!"
Mazinga confidently strode over to the collapsed house and tore apart the collapsed rubble with his strong arms. It was as though the fallen debris were pebbles as they were easily thrown to the side one by one.
With every second that passed, Mazinga's expression slowly turned darker and darker, his confidence wavering.
No one was there!
It wasn't a big house, so Mazinga easily searched it through without taking much time. He had combed through the debris meticulously, looking and relooking at where a person could be hiding, but he just could not find anyone.
Lifting his head into the air, he took a few quick sniffs. He was the Beast Spirit Wrox's direct subordinate, and even though he was in the body of the village chief, he had already transformed the body to one that fitted him best. With a few sniffs, he quickly picked up Paul's scent that was still lingering in the air.
He escaped!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone