City of Sin
Book 1, 86

Conclusion

The burly man’s laughter alone shook the earth so intensely that the young nobles and the Joseph guards lost balance, collapsing one after the other.

A sinister look flashed on the man’s face, as he brandished the longsword in his right hand to slash unbelievably smoothly at Faulk’s knee. The boy’s right leg was cut off, just like that.

The only thing Faulk noticed at first was a peculiar hollow feeling coming from his knee, but that was followed by an overwhelming pain that immediately drowned out his consciousness. He screamed out in pain, blood spurting out from his knee like a waterfall. Richard, who was still below him, was drenched.

The burly man turned his head to look at the powerful and unrestrained woman, “You don’t need to dirty your hands for a small matter like this, Alice. I’ll handle the trouble from here; you just conquered a big territory, and are still fatigued.”

Indeed, this beautiful red-haired young lady in her twenties was the person deemed to be a god of war amongst the younger Archerons. Alice Archeron, the youngest ever to become an earl through merit and not inheritance.

Alice shrugged her shoulders, “If I knew you were coming, I wouldn’t have made any move.”

The burly man laughed, “I simply happened to be passing by. How should I put this... Is it that this bunch of Joseph lads is too unlucky, or is our boy extremely fortunate?”

At the moment, a few of the guards from the Joseph Family who could still manage to move about saw that Faulk’s right leg had been chopped off. Their eyes turned red in agitation, as they frantically shot up from the ground and rushed towards the Archerons. With Faulk injured as he was, they would either be sentenced to a life of labour upon their return to the clan, or worse still, directly executed!

The longsword held in the middle-aged man’s hand flashed a few times. Two charging guards immediately lost control of their bodies, falling to the floor. Just as their bodies touched the ground, their arms came off at the elbow and their legs at the knee. The cuts were flawless each time, and both guards hissed out in pain as they rolled about on the ground, blood flowing everywhere.

The third one took a step forward, but upon being freed Richard suddenly shot up and punched the side of his rib. He then stepped on the man’s ankle.

This guard was a level 8 warrior with a powerful body, but the sound of bones cracking rang out from his ankle. The blow to his rib was powerful as well, almost causing him to black out. However, he was an experienced fighter. He didn’t dodge the abrupt attack, instead elbowing back almost upon reflex.

Richard took a deep breath. He chose not to dodge the elbow, instead letting it hit his own abdomen. However, even with this strike the guard couldn’t budge an inch from his position. It was then that Richard started a barrage of punches with both fists on the man’s rib, his strength boosted by Eruption.

*Thump! Thump! THUMP!* Heavy and dull thuds echoed one after the other, each attack packing as much power as the last. The guard was trapped in desperate straits, held in place at his injured leg and forced to take the onslaught of punches. He couldn’t even change his posture; the slightest of shifts would expose a larger weakness to the boy, which would subject his vitals to Richard’s attack. Thus, he could only direct his elbow with all his might towards Richard, in attempt to pit his strength against Richard’s to free himself.

Richard did not dodge at all. There was a trace of insanity on his calm and composed face as fists of steel smashed into the guard’s rib again and again and again with a steady pace and strength. It was as if he wasn’t being attacked at all, even if the blood frothing at his mouth proved that he definitely wasn’t having an easy time dealing with the death throes of this warrior.

The guard’s rib eventually caved in. He yelled out a final scream of despair, spitting out a mouthful of blood with bits and pieces of flesh within before he collapsed.

Richard only raised his foot from the guard’s ankle after the man completely collapsed. Once that was done, he couldn’t help spraying out a mouthful of misty blood himself. He watched the severely injured guard, hesitating for a while, but eventually chose not to make any more moves. He instead raised his head, fixing a wolf’s gaze onto Faulk.

He was silent for half a second, before his body glowed with a faint blue radiance. He stepped forward, advancing abruptly as if he was being pushed by an invisible hand behind him. He aimed his hand forward like it was a sword, transforming into a streak of blue lightning that rushed towards Faulk. If one looked closely enough, they would notice that the pale blue light had formed a sword in Richard’s hand!

Silvermoon’s fourth secret sword, Annihilation! It was the only one Richard could execute right now, but although Faulk’s body possessed the tenacity of a level 10 warrior he would still seriously get injured by this dagger formed purely from the moonforce of the fourth moon. Had he been in possession of a real sword right now, even a powerful cleric would have to spend a great deal of effort to heal the damage he would leave behind.

The burly man stuck his long sword into the ground, before holding out a big palm in Richard’s way. The attack crashed into his palm, but for a moment it was Richard that felt like he’d knocked into a mountain at full speed. The violent collision caused his insides to churn, with an indescribably uncomfortable stuffiness in his chest. The moonforce of the pale blue moon that Richard had taken tremendous effort to gather dissipated all at once, and he stumbled back several steps before managing to steady himself.

“Oi, Gaton’s son, the same goes for you too! Don’t dirty your own hands for this, it’s such a trivial matter,” The burly man shook his head, “Gaton is indeed making me jealous, though. He actually got himself a son like you without saying anything about it! Young lad, you’ve got to call me your uncle. Just wait till I’m done dealing with this, then we’ll test how much you can drink!”

Someone from the gathered crowd suddenly exclaimed, “It’s Goliath, Earl Goliath!” The name instantly caused a small commotion.

At the same moment, in the biggest room at the top floor of a club building thousands of metres away, Raymond was sitting in front of the window with his brows knitted in deep thought. He was holding a silver monocular in his hand, observing the incident taking place at the faraway street corner. The monocular seemed splendidly made, its design ancient.

Raymond suddenly exclaimed, “It’s Alice! Why is she here too, and at this timing!”

Upon hearing Alice’s name, a few faces in the room paled slightly. Naseby stood up and spoke in a low voice, “I’ll go deal with her!”

Just as Naseby took large strides towards the window, about to jump out, Raymond abruptly extended his left hand to block his way. That long, fair, and delicate hand that resembled a woman’s barely responded to the collision at all, with only the fingertips trembling slightly.

While Naseby was feeling baffled by Raymond’s act, Raymond had already placed his monocular down. He let out a sigh, “You don’t have to head over anymore. Goliath is there as well, and we certainly don’t have anyone right now who can stand in that fellow’s way. Faulk is finished.”

While both of the Archerons mentioned were earls, Alice was known for her wit and cunning on the battlefield. Although her might was nothing to be scoffed at, with her being at level 17 Naseby who was a level 18 warrior could suppress her. However, Goliath Archeron was of an entirely different standard. He’d long reached level 20 in terms of individual combat power, and he had the capacity to wipe out everyone in this room.

This half-brother of Gaton’s, named after the ancient giant, had long shown his physical prowess. His level didn’t represent his actual combat power. Although he wasn’t ready to take on legendary opponents yet, he could easily take on two saint warriors. His one shortcoming was his mediocre leadership and governance, which left him unable to advance from the earlship he was born with.

During wars across the Sacred Alliance, across human history, and even in the planar wars, Alice’s threat was undoubtedly far beyond that of Goliath. However, in the current situation Goliath alone was enough to foil all of Raymond’s plans.

At this moment, Kevin suddenly remembered something. His face paled, and he said, “There’s still Poison Snake!”

However, the old man Valen shook his head, “Poison Snake is most likely done for as well. However, that’s something we only lost a bit of money on at most. Faulk, on the other hand...”

The people in the room all fell silent. Other than Raymond and a few others, the rest who were present only realized Faulk’s purpose in the plan after witnessing the event taking place in front of their eyes. As it turned out, Faulk, who was gifted, diligent and well-liked by Duke Joseph, had been prepared to be sacrificed from the start. After all, Faulk was Duke Joseph’s biological son.