Swoosh—Spurt—A shallow wound appeared in Cerberus’ shoulder, spewing a little bit of blue blood. He looked taken aback by the sudden numb sensation.
“Hell Merchant!” Cerberus shouted and imagined his body doing the same movements, which he had done countless times in the past. However, no matter what he did, his body didn’t listen to him.
It was as if his body was frozen in ice!
‘Stun effect?!’ Cerberus cried out inwardly in shock. He then looked at the black-haired young man with a new found surprise.
However, instead of feeling anger, he felt giddy. “Hahahahaha!” 𝒪𝗏𝓛xt.𝗇t
He laughed out loud.
“Jesse, don’t attack him; that is what he wants!” Serenity shouted and was about to arrive within attacking range. Her gaze was firmly on Cerberus’ back of the head, and she wished herself to be slightly nearer so she could impale her sword through his skull.
After a few steps, she was close enough.
“Silver Fla—”
At that moment, a sword appeared in front of her path, slashing in front of her. A tiny cut appeared on her cheek, dripping blue blood.
Her eyes widened in utter shock, and she also stopped moving. She couldn’t move, but that wasn’t on her mind. She looked at the person who attacked her with a look of disbelief.
“W-why?”
“High Pain…” Ambrose whispered while looking coldly at the silver-haired girl.
“Oh, lovers quarrel?” Cerberus chuckled giddily and moved his arms like they were rusting. He slowly recovered his mobility; however, before he could even think about making another move, Ambrose turned around and stabbed his sword through his throat.
“Ptui!” Cerberus coughed out blood and fell to the ground with a sword in his throat. However, he continued laughing like a madman. “Aha… cough… ahahaha.”
“Shut up.” Ambrose coldly said and removed his sword from his throat. He then left him alone and walked to Serenity with a tight grip on his swords.
Serenity was still in the same place as before, but she finally regained mobility in her limbs. She backed away from the angry-looking young man.
“Jesse, why?!” She shouted in shock.
“I did not want to fucking see you again!” Ambrose screamed and rushed at Serenity with both his swords flying forward. He released an unrelenting barrage, each strike hitting Serenity’s sword, packing all of his strength.
She struggled to block the strikes, as each strike felt like she was trying to block a fallen boulder. She could feel her strength fading and knew that she would soon be unable to defend herself from the onslaught of blows.
“Why the fuck did you invite me?” Ambrose cried out and hammered his swords down. Serenity placed the sword above her, but her knees buckled, and she fell to the floor on her knees.
“P-please, Jesse, stop!”
“Don’t say my name!” Ambrose yelled and pushed her sword away. He then lifted both his swords, about to strike her down.
Spurt—suddenly, a sharp sword went through his body and heart.
“Ugh!” Ambrose fell to the ground with a thud and a sword in his heart. He coughed blood and looked over his shoulder at a grinning Cerberus. It looked like he was having the time of his life.
“Hehe, gotta say, you surprised me with that stun attack.” Cerberus caressed his throat. Shockingly, the wound had already healed. “But that is pretty much it.
“I have seen enough. Your swordsmanship is sloppy, amateurish, and weak. Alice, why did you bring this weakling with you? It definitely wasn’t to help us in the quest, haha!”
“Cerberus…” Serenity stood up, her legs shaking. She was still taken aback by Ambrose and couldn’t understand why he attacked her. “Y-you see, I didn’t bring him to challenge you.”
“It seems so. He is weak.” Cerberus clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. “I guess I misunderstood. Shame, I was kind of looking forward to an actual fight.”
He rubbed his chin and looked at the bleeding Ambrose, then at Serenity with a smile.
“Very well, we have a quest left to complete. Get up; even though you are useless in combat, at least we can use you as a pathfinder.” Cerberus kicked Ambrose’s back, but he didn’t budge even the slightest.
“Jesse, get up.” Serenity crouched before him and whispered. “We shouldn’t make him angry. So, get up, please.”
After not receiving a reply, she frowned and moved her head down to catch a glimpse of his face. To her utmost shock, he was munching on food with a furious appetite while his eyes showed the endless coldness of a dark abyss.
Once he finished eating his last steaming bun, he looked coldly at Serenity’s sky-blue eyes and said, “Nobody, huh. I guess I am to an outsider. But I thought you would be different.”
“J-Jesse, I didn’t mean that.” Serenity tried to explain herself, but Ambrose had already stood up with sword still stuck in his chest.
“I liked you.” Ambrose said while slowly removing the sword from his chest. “Very much so, but that time is in the past.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, but she then bit her upper lip and looked away. She didn’t share such feelings.
“A confession, man, not the fucking time; get moving!” Cerberus reached for Ambrose to shove him forward, but then suddenly, a flash of metal appeared from the side, and a sword slashed through his arm.
“Like I said, it is in the past.” Ambrose moved his tongue inside his mouth and spat out the blue blood. “I was fucking naive.”
“Argh!” Cerberus looked as his separated arm fell to the ground beside him. The arm was still holding one of his swords.
“I might be nobody.” Ambrose placed the blade of his sword at Serenity’s chin and lifted it slightly to make her look him in the eye. “One day, I will be somebody.”
“J-Jesse, I didn’t really mean it. I-I wanted Cerberus to let you go!”
“Perhaps.” Ambrose said with a smirk. “However, I don’t care. I will say this only once; I don’t want to see you ever again.”
“I…” She opened her mouth, but to her shock, she couldn’t see the familiar warmth in Ambrose’s eyes. His dull eyes had a new-found fire in them as he stared at her with a look of pure hatred.
“V-Very well…” She timidly said and fell to the floor on her buttocks.
Ambrose spun his swords around and sheathed them. He then glanced at Cerberus before running past Serenity and going towards the next room.
“Don’t you dare to run away!” Cerberus screamed, grabbed his separated arm from the ground, and chased after the black-haired young man.
“Wohoo… wohoo… wohoo…” Ambrose panted as he nimbly ran across the room, which had a strangely hot atmosphere. The floor and walls were red in color, and it looked like they were steaming.
However, all the monsters were annihilated by Serenity.
There were three entrances: one going straight, one going left, and one going right. He chose the straight entrances as it looked like it was leading deeper into the facility.
As he entered the entrance, he heard Cerberus’ scream from behind him. He knew he was vastly faster than him. Therefore, his mind ran, thinking about solutions.
At that moment, he noticed the walls, floors, and ceiling of the tunnel were made of dirt and tree roots. It wasn’t made of metal anymore!
‘I don’t have explosives to destroy the ceiling, but I have something else that can block Cerberus!’ Ambrose brought out an ugly green whistle, which smelled disgusting. It was the Orc Whistle.
He placed the whistle against his lips and turned around to look at the entrance of the tunnel and Cerberus, who was approaching him with breakneck speed.
Whistle—he powerfully whistled on the whistle, and soon, green smoke appeared in the entrance.
A green-skinned, muscular orc with large tusks appeared from the green smoke. It held a large wooden mace with ease. The orc looked around and soon saw Ambrose. Its disgusting grin revealed its yellowish teeth.
However, then it heard footsteps coming behind.
Yughragh turned around and saw a green-eyed young man rushing at him.
“Get out of my way, orc!” Cerberus screamed, not acting surprised that Ambrose had an item that could summon creatures. He had seen that before.
He lunged forward with his sword, approaching the orc’s neck.
Yughragh frowned and grabbed the blade with his bare hands.
“Eh?” Cerberus’ eyes bulged in shock. “T-that is impossible. It’s not possible to summon higher-leveled creatures.”
“Piss off, human!” Yughragh backhanded across Cerberus’ face, sending him flying across the room until he crashed into a metal wall. He slouched down, and it was unclear whether he was still alive.
“Now, human…” Yughragh turned around, but to its shock, it couldn’t see the human who summoned it. Instead, there were distant footsteps running deeper into the tunnel.
“Escape? No…” Yughragh grinned and grabbed the mace with both hands. The mace started glowing green, like it was suddenly growing veins.
“Karma El Fatale!” Yughragh shouted and swung the mace in front of the muscular body. A quick green light shot out from the mace and flew down the tunnel, lighting up the dimly lit place significantly.
“Haah… haah…” Ambrose, while running down the dark tunnel, suddenly felt the hairs rise on his arms. He looked around and widened his eyes in shock as a green light appeared before his face.
“Oh, shi—”
Boom!