𝐎𝗏xt.𝗰𝑶𝔪
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 37 -> 38]
“…” Ambrose silently removed his black blade from the corpse of another unfortunate disciple.
He wiped the blood off his blade with his sleeve and looked around the messy battlefield.
‘It’s hard to fight here without getting backstabbed by either a disciple or an outlaw. I would be stupid to believe that Outlaws are allies with each other.
‘They only see blood filling their veins, not loyalty or camaraderie.
‘That is fine for me. More people for me to kill.’
At that moment, a thunderous roar came from the battlefield as a bloodied man tackled everyone on his path with his large shield. He wore a white robe with a white top hat. He was the White Inquisitor!
‘Huh, the White Inquisitor finally entered the battlefield.’ Ambrose narrowed his eyes and tightened the grip around his sword.
The White Inquisitor screamed and smashed his shield into the skull of a nearby outlaw, shattering the skull into fragments. He then got jumped by several brown-ranked outlaws, who launched various attacks.
Despite being outnumbered, the White Inquisitor skillfully parried the attacks with his large shield. He then launched forward and pulled out his gleaming sword, cutting off the heads of all the nearby outlaws.
The outlaws suffered catastrophic losses as they were overpowered by the White Inquisitor.
The public and most of the world had the wrong idea about the rankings of the bounties and Inquisitors. While the Inquisitors were ranked by strength, the rank of the bounties was determined by the severity of the crime.
Thus, the strength difference between the same ranks among outlaws varied crazily. The only way to determine a person’s strength was by the amount of bounty they had on their heads.
The White Inquisitors were powerful enough to kill brown-ranked outlaws below 30,000 silvers. The Brown Inquisitors hunted down the outlaws with higher bounties than that.
The White-ranked outlaws were people with bounties often below 10,000 silvers, but most of them were weak and easy to apprehend. Even ordinary guards would be able to, so they rarely even chased after them.
Still, the Inquisitors were bounty hunters, even though no one called them that except some people who didn’t like them. Whenever there were white-ranked outlaws nearby, they would capture them for easy money.
However, they wouldn’t chase after them for long distances.
That’s why most Inquisitors focused on brown-ranked outlaws. The reason was not only higher bounties but also the chance to prove their strength and worth.
All Inquisitors wanted to get promoted and get a higher paycheck.
“Nngh!” The White Inquisitor let out a grunt.
Five different outlaws suddenly attacked the White Inquisitor. They were smashing their weapons at the sturdy shield but didn’t manage to break the defense.
“Pesky pets!” The White Inquisitor straightened his knees. He towered over the outlaws easily as his height neared three meters. He then lifted his heavy-looking sword and smashed it through the outlaws.
The bones were crushed, and the organs exploded with the impact.
No one would be able to survive such an attack.
Stab—a spear suddenly impaled through his waist.
“Ngh!” He gasped in pain and looked over his shoulder at the grinning outlaw. He scoffed loudly and grabbed the head of the outlaw before crushing it with his bare hands.
The White Inquisitor then pulled the spear off his body and threw it across the battlefield. The spear flew over the fighting disciples and outlaws until it impaled itself into the skull of a screaming outlaw.
“Nngh.” He looked down at his bleeding wound and covered it with his large palm. ‘A moment of distraction. I have to focus more on training so this doesn’t happen again!’
As he grabbed his shield and sword from the ground, he noticed a red-cloaked figure walking towards him. He completely ignored the outlaws and disciples who fought around him.
It was as if his focus was only on the White Inquisitor.
“Hmph, ptui!” The White Inquisitor spat on the corpse of the outlaw he had killed and then walked towards the red-cloaked figure.
Ambrose stepped over a corpse and then kicked off the ground as he darted forward.
The White Inquisitor narrowed his eyes and protected his large body with the shield. There weren’t any openings for Ambrose to exploit.
“Basic Slash!” Ambrose lifted his sword and smashed it into the shield.
Shockingly, the winner of the battle of strength was the White Inquisitor. He didn’t budge even a centimeter.
‘Not bad.’ Ambrose thought and then suddenly started hopping around like a boxer as he began using the footwork he had been practicing.
He hopped to the left, and the White Inquisitor followed, but then he quickly switched to the right side and circled past the shield.
“?” The White Inquisitor followed the red-cloaked man with his eyes, but his left side was now open for attacks as he wouldn’t be able to move his shield in time to defend.
“High Pain!” Ambrose speared the sword forward, and it was about to land on the waist of the Inquisitor, but suddenly a longsword came swinging towards him from the right side.
It forced Ambrose to shift his focus elsewhere and to step backward; otherwise, his head would have been removed from his body.
‘Shit, he reacted faster than I imagined.’ Ambrose thought as he looked down at the White Inquisitor’s longsword.
The White Inquisitor narrowed his eyes and covered his body with the shield again. Without a moment of hesitation, he tackled forward.
Ambrose smashed his sword at the shield, but his legs slid across the muddy ground as the tackle continued pushing him further back. Eventually, the tackle stopped, but not before it had pushed him five meters back.
“Hmph!” The White Inquisitor lowered his shield and suddenly stabbed his sword forward from behind the shield. The attack was a complete surprise.
Ambrose’s eyes widened, but he quickly reacted and bent his knees enough for the sword to impale the air above him. However, it managed to stab through his hood, removing it from his head.
The bald head and his pale, sickly face came into view.
“…” The White Inquisitor didn’t speak a word as he reeled in his sword before delivering another round of hard strikes.
Ambrose quickly used the boxer’s footwork as he weaved through the attacks. His heart pounded in anxiousness as several of the attacks grazed his cheeks. He was very close to dying.
Suddenly, a loud scream came from the side as the brown-ranked outlaw leaped across the air with a sword in hand.
He attacked the White Inquisitor, who only gazed at him before stabbing his sword through the outlaw’s face.
The outlaw turned limp and slid off the blade with a hole in his face. His blood painted a gruesome scene around his corpse.
“Humanoid Imperfecta!”
A shallow scratch appeared on the White Inquisitor’s cheek. He touched his bleeding cheek and then looked at the red-cloaked figure with a scoff.
“You missed.”
“Did I?” Ambrose smiled.
…
On top of the fortress walls.
A White Inquisitor with a bushy beard looked at the battle with his binoculars. “Hmm, who is the red-cloaked man?”
The disciple browsed through the bounty posters in his possession and shook his head. “I don’t have his bounty.”
“Then go look for it.” The White Inquisitor commanded. “I haven’t seen this one before, and he is fighting surprisingly well.”
“Yes, sir!” The disciple then left with a heavy look. His shift would have ended in twenty minutes; now he most likely had to browse through the gallery for several hours until he found the correct bounty.