THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

"Krieek-"

The first of the group of three Longinus men tries to advance but I launch my raizen with full strength at his way too open mouth. The upper part of his head flies like a cotton ball while his body drops like a rock. No traces of blood anywhere as well. 

The other two turn on their berserker mode while I unleash Raizen and strikes the head of the second one.

"Krieekk!!" 

The third one launches himself like a bolt at me but I use Disperse and land on the side of his comrade whose head is separated in two. Though he isn't dead yet, it seesms. His body is still moving and he even tries to grab me when I reappear near him. Sadly for him, I am faster.

"Shadow stab." 

My raizen passes through his hand and pierces his stomach all the way through, exiting on the other side. Lightning Angas is really great when use like this. His body starts decomposing into ashes while I remove my Raizen, cutting him almost in half. At the same time, the third guy is almost on my neck. I release the Raizen, pushes his hand with my left hand and places my right hand on his stomach but before I can use any script. The guy is yanked backward by an enormous mouth.

"I had this, you know." 

K'nor decided to intervene even though there was no need to. End result: he severed the guy's neck by biting him. As soon as he did, he faded as well. Leaving a crystal filled with Regas like his companions.

Now, the house is clear. Or almost clear, the two cocoons are still there. What to do? If I destroy them, we might not know what was inside. But if I don't, a strong Longinus could appear from it and complicates things. 

"Hm…" 

"Woof!" 

While I am thinking, K'nor suddenly barks and right after, another explosion resounds. This is one is closer to the house. Is the Theodore guy trying to flee here? Then he is in for a big surprise. Let's leave the cocoons for now. 

I leave the house and as I get out, there are people running around, villagers mostly though there are one or two guards as well. There are two smoke columns in the sky as well. 

"Everyone, take refuge at the village chief's house.!! Those who can fight, regroup with the mercenaries to push the Longinus back!!" 

"Are you crazy?!! Who is going to fight those things?! Those mercenaries got into that mess themselves!! I don't want to die!!" 

A guard is trying to rally people to fight with Willhem's group. It seems they are helping as I thought. But will it be enough? I can feel ten crystals assembled in the same area right now. and they are moving over here as well. 

"Let's just wait here." 

I jump to a roof under the screams of some people who have finally realized I was there, or maybe it is because of K'nor? Anyway, I will wait for the guys to arrive here.

***

"Seriously?" 

The guys made me wait for almost five minutes, all the while enjoying the fight on their own. Meanwhile, some of the guards have assembled around me and K'nor on the roof. They must be thinking I am another one of Theodore's ally since I came out of his house.

"Who are you?!! What is your identity?!"

"Put your hands where we can see them!!" 

They all start yelling at me with powerful voices. K'nor is yawning even harder. That's disrespectful, K'nor. Bad K'nor.

"I said who are-"

Before the guard in front of me gets the chance to finish yelling again, an arm goes flying between us. Finally, they are here. 

"Come on!! Stop running already!!"

"You crazy fuckers!!" 

Theodore appears on the roof where we all are. He is missing an arm which can easily be explained. He is also in berserker mode and his eyes are shining even redder than those I have seen using it so far. But still, he is somehow perfectly sane. 

He pass between us like we don't exist but before he can jump down to the door of his house, Willhem has already shot a powerful bolt, imbued with Angas, that hits right between his shoudlers' blades. The impact of the bolt is strong enough to raise my hair while Theodore crashes on the roof, right near K'nor.

"Fuu…Finally got you. Hm…Oh, captain. What are you doing here?" 

"Enjoying the sun. And you?"

"Oh, nothing much, you know. Just some light exercises."

Fighting a longinus man who is obviously strong is just exercise to you? I hope this isn't just bravado or you will certainly die fast. Still, this guy is indeed strong. To pin Theodore down like that with a single bolt was impressive. Even more so considering he was in berserker mode. But also, this is giving me a very good hint on how to handle them. 

Earlier I manage to kill one of them even though he was in berserker mode as well. Samson and Willhem are also able to put them down using arrows an bolts. So that means they are especially vulnerable to elemental Angas and accurate damage. I have fought a fair number of Longinus so far and whether you use physical or elemental Angas, the only point is to strike their crystals. Longinus men seems to be different however.

While I am thinking, Willhem walks to his prey and grabs his head.

"You..Cough…Cough…How did you-" Theodore has his head slammed into the roof like a vulgar pumpkin. There is no blood coming out just like the others so I can't really say this is a gore scene.

"Kriekkk!!" 

While his head is still buried in the tiles of the roof. Theodore launches a loud scream. Almost like he is calling for help.

"You are calling for help again?" Yup, like I thought, that was a call of help.

"Are you calling them?" I launch the crystals of the six guys near him and like the sound of death knocking on a door, it brings him into thz harsh reality. His head drops immediately.

"No…No way. She said everything would be working perfectly. She said I would be invincible." I can't determine who SHE is between those two liars but you have definitively been duped. It doesn't really matter to us but I guess we can now say that this is mission accomplished.

***

The aftermath of our fight was peaceful. Eduard arrived with a whole platoon of eternal army's soldiers lead by a captain and immediately stabilizes that situation. Though, there wasn't much to do. We had already taken care of all Longinus men and the people weren't even trying to show any resistance.

It seems Oregon and other villages near the border aren't agreeing with the whole rebellion thing like the other cities. I heard the village chief speaks to Eduard and they really don't seem to like the hammer hands or what he has done. Does it mean he did it out of his own hatred? Or is there something else he is trying to achieve? I am also worried about the reason the pope sent me here for. N'donkeu and Maria. I should try to dig for intel.

"So much to do. Damn." 

"Hey, capt'. What are those things seriously?" 

The guys from the platoon Eduard brought have removed the two cocoons from the walls of Theodore's house and we are escorting them out of the village to the base while Eduard and the captain with him handle the rest.

"I don't know." I can feel a crystal inside each of these things but I can't say what they are. "But I think they are the reason we came here." 

"Look at it giggling, man. It's like those jelly cakes your sister makes at her bakery." 

"Don't touch it, you savage!!" The people transporting those cocoons reprimands one of us so hard even I felt bad about it. 

Savage? We are the ones who did all the work here, you know?

"What did you say?" 

"Please, don't touch those things. They represent corruption and we don't know their effects yet." 

Sensing the growing tension, another guy comes in front of Hendrick who got angry and was about to grab his halberd. Oh yeah, Hendrick is using a halberd by the way. I should try fighting him once, he must have a style similar to Selene since a great axe and a halberd aren't all that different.

"And you guys should watch the way you speak." Hendrick specifically points his finger at the rude guy.

"Or a tongue might need to be cut." That's unnecessary, Willhem. I think... Or not. 

"Like I said, we are sorry for the behavior of our comrade and apologize if it has offended you. However, please remember that we are your employer as well. It wouldn't be wise to create conflict with us." 

Yup, true that. We pass by the alley where they started the fight and a see a whole house collapsed. So the first explosion actually destroyed a whole house, huh… You guys are really reckless. 

"See? I told you that house would collapse."

"Shut up." Apparently, Hendrick is the one who did it. It must have been a sufficiently powerful script for Willhem to tease him about it.