The Master of Uradan

Notes: There is a bit of gore at the end of this chapter, it doesn't seems for me to be much, but I still prefer to warn you all! Good reading!

After Rohan, Matthew and Halem finished tying up the two prisoners, they stood in the middle, with a choice to make. The problem was that behind the door going back into a dark corridor, there were two paths, one going on the left while one the right. According to Matthew, the first one was going west while the second one north, though Rohan didn't know how the hell could he know about it.

So now, they had three passages. The first one being upstairs and the others being the two paths behind the door. But in the end, since Halem was only a rank 1 Beginner Warrior and thus couldn't be left alone, they decided to separate only into two groups: the first one with Rohan and Halem and the second one being Matthew alone.

The trio stood in front of the fork, and with a last glance at each other, they took their paths. Rohan looked at this scary-looking warrior as he sunk into the darkness, with only a weak flame flickering on the torch he had found in the room. 'Well, I hope he's not going to kill himself in there.'

He turned back to see the young warrior waiting impatiently for him, and without wasting more time, they entered the corridor made of rock, toward what would be probably another room full of warriors.

The corridors were not that long, as the last one only made them walk a couple a minutes, but as it seemed to be more and more of these dark roads, the basement of these bandist felt like they were really walking in the middle of an infinite maze.

The step of the two warriors echoed against the humid rocky floor. This time, it was Rohan taking the lead with Halem behind him, following like a puppy. They were almost the same age, although Halem didn't know about that since Rohan always had looked older than he was. Plus, as one of them was much stronger than the other one, Halem let himself be led without any problem.

They continued to walk into this small tunnel, sometimes going straight, sometimes turning, sometimes going down and sometimes going up, playing with the nerves of all warriors who were walking inside. Suddenly, the clamor of a fight reached Rohan.

"A fight! We need to rush!" Before Halem could rush alone in that direction, Rohan caught him by his shoulder, stopping him there with only his strength.

"For what? to be killed earlier? We go slowly, only once they are in front of us we attack." Before the boy complained, he cutted him. "We don't know if we're alone, and I don't want to be ambushed in a random place, so we walk, that's all."

Halem, without a lot of choices, could only agree at this injonction. Rohan shook his head while resisting the urge to slap him. Rushing in the dark, making a ton of noises, while they were maybe not the only ones to have heard the fight going on. What a stupid way to put his life in danger for nothing. After all, it shouldn't be forgotten that they were currently inside the enemies' lair.

Without wasting more time, he marched forward, at a constant speed. He was walking faster than before, but he still cared about the noise he was making with his leather boots.

The muffled sounds of the battle grew closer and closer, until a door appeared in front of them, hiding and attenuating the scene unfolding inside. Reaching it, Rohan and Halem stood on each side of the entrance. Then, with a wild kick destroying the weak wooden door and sending shards everywhere, they engulfed inside.

In front of them, hell welcomed them. Four corpses were already lying on their blood, dismembered. Among these bodies, Rohan recognized two of them: they were warriors who came with the group to fight the bandits. Two warriors were fighting inside this gruesome room. But before Rohan and his comrade could do anything, the enemy cutted off the head of his opponent, splashing himself in the blood while the headless body fell on the floor, followed suit by the plop of the head.

This bloodied man turned toward the place where Rohan and Halem stood, watching what had happened, the mind blank. With a carnivorous smile, and with blood dripping out of his whole body against the floor, he spoke to them.

"So you two are also part of these rats, trying to kill us all eh? Curious, how you have all come this day when we're all gathered here." The tip of his sword pointed to the floor, letting the blood flowing on the floor. "You, I know you, right? You, on the other hand, I have never seen you, are you a new warrior? Bha it doesn't matter anyway. I will still kill you, noble's henchman."

Next to him, Halem was starting to shake. The warrior in front of them was not anybody, he was one of the most powerful rank 4 Beginner Warriors in the whole city. The right hand working for Bradley, and a commoner like him.

It was at the last words of this warrior that Rohan understood in which situation he truly was. He should have understood earlier. It wasn't only a battle of the forces of the city against vulgar gangsters, but against commoners. Warrior commoners. While it didn't excuse the comportement of these warriors to rob or kill for money, it still explained a lot about the way the count of this city was ruling it.

Rohan shook his head to snap back into reality. He could feel that this man in front of him was strong, and the reaction of the boy beside him was proving it: this fight will be a tough one. He held his sword with his right and took out a potion with the left one, as he knew he would need it.

The warrior in front of him smiled seeing this action, but he didn't seem to care. In his head, Roha was probably only a rank 1 Beginner Warrior anyway.

Without waiting more, Rohan ran into his enemy, at a low speed to imitate a rank one warrior. Halem, seeing this, resolved himself and rushed after the young warrior.

Almost immediately, a terrible fight exploded in the bloody room. Rohan attacked with his sword, putting up the least strength possible. It was parried easily by the man, still acting leisurely, as if he was fighting two ants. But it wasn't the first time that Rohan was fighting against a rank superior, and the only difference was that his constitution was in fact of the same value that this rank 4 Beginner Warrior.

While the enemy was playing with Rohan, Halem charged on his right and struck at what he was expecting to be an opening. But coming from nowhere, a powerful blow smashed against his sword, the shock making him lose his balance while his arm was starting to become numb.

The enemy smiled with disdain at these insects, they were so weak for him! But Rohan still continued to play his part. He chopped and slashed and struck, each time concealing his strength and using the rebound of the metal against metal to use it to his advantage. He could feel that his swordsmanship was much more scuffed when he compared it to the man before him, wielding his sword with an extraordinary stance.

But suddenly, the man was getting bored playing. He used Strengthened Blow at an unimaginable speed. His blade seemed to teleport as it arrived in front of Rohan, who widened his eyes. It was too fast.

Without the time to do anything more, he could only try to defend with his sword. His concentration was maximal, and even the world seemed to slow down a bit, covering it with a thin gray veil. Rohan put his sword in the way of the enemy's, with a slight angle to scatter most of the strength.

The two blades connected and grinding each other in a loud shrill as the blade going down slid against the one standing still, sending sparks around the two fighters. Even though the force behind the blow was minimized by Rohan, it still was enough to crush his wrist under the impact and send him a few steps back, fragilizing his balance. The power behind this hit was a mighty one, but Rohan tried to ignore it. Now was the time.

Rohan knew that if he didn't attack now and let the rank 4 Beginner Warrior continue his way, he would be screwed up. He must take back the advantage. The moment his left foot tapped the ground, he directly used Charge to appear in front of his opponent. This one raised a brow when he saw the larva before him transforming into a slightly more powerful insect.

Following this short acceleration, Rohan chained it with a powerful Strenchened Blow, slashing his blade from the right into the left. His opponent didn't have the time to bring back his sword to defend, so he used the only way he had. He stomp his foot on the ground with all his strength and gathered his mana to send it all in his leg to launch Charge and crashed against Rohan, sending him flying away with a loud and brief groan, as his breath was simply crushed.

Rohan stood up in a second while feeling dizzy, but before he could act in any way, he saw the warrior in front of him using Charge again to shorten the distance between them. He didn't have the choice anymore, and used the stupidest idea he had in his mind. As the warrior was approaching at high speed, he threw an item with all his might at his head. No one was waiting for this object to be thrown, and the warrior, seeing the object flying in his direction, didn't have time to act.

The weak mana potion, resting inside its indestructible vial, smashed into the face of the warrior. The impact made him lose his concentration as he still flew toward the young warrior in front of him. It was only for a short time, not even a second, but a second in a fight against warriors was more than crucial. Before he could snap back from his daze, he collided with a sharp and strong pain invading his whole body, and spreaded from his stomach.

He looked with disbelief in his eyes in front of him. What he could see was the young warrior with a purple ribbon tying up his hair who he had believed to be a weak puppy, holding his sword, staring in his own eyes. This sword was penetrating his body, crushing his guts in terrible pain.

But such a small injury would not kill him. After all, he was a mighty rank 4 Beginner Warrior. The young warrior in front of him was now restrained since his weapon was currently useless, and so without hesitation, he raised his arm to prepare to slash with his sword.

Before he could do so, the bloodied tip of an iron sword appeared on his chest, stopping him in his action. It was Halem, turning around during the fight to find the best moment to strike. And now was the best one.

The man, with two swords piercing his body, suddenly let out a warcry filled with rage and bloodlust. He would not die this way! He used Charge to give a strong kick toward the warrior in front, cracking the pieces of metal protecting the chest of Rohan. In the same movement, he turned on himself while preparing his remaining mana to launch the last skill.

Halem, too slow to flee, saw the sword powered by the skill Strengthened Blow appeared in front of his arm. The edge of the blade arrived at the base of his neck, and cutted through the collarbone before going down. The blade continued his path as if it was cutting through water in an oblique way, destroying everything as it went down. Before even a second could pass, the sword was already outside of the body, exiting at the level of the chest.

The right arm of the warrior detached itself from the body and fell on the floor, taking with it the shoulder and a part of the chest. Halem was watching stupidly in front of him. The pain was so terrible that his brain couldn't compute the information. From the base of his neck until his hip, a large cavity had appeared, and a bloody sight took the place of what should have been here. The bones of the rib cage were broken at the passage of the iron sword, and as they couldn't do their job anymore, organs and guts began to fall on the ground.

Halem fell on the floor, and blood and pieces of bones scattered around him, trying to escape this gruesome scene.