Ch. 67 - Encountering A Mercenary

All of this happened in a split second for others, but it had been a whole twenty minutes for Paladin. When Paladin’s time returned to normal, he quickly stretched out his palm. 300 of his 600 light magic elements immediately dispersed and then condensed into light balls suspended in the palm of his hand. Without hesitation, Paladin pressed his palm to the beast’s chest. The light ball buzzed and shot out as a golden light beam as thick as a thumb. It shot from his palm, and then pierced through the scorpion-tailed beast's chest muscles, heart, and back all at once.

"Hey wow wow!" The scorpion-tailed beast let out an extremely painful howl. Paladin sent the beast that was about to pounce on him flying in the opposite direction. It landed on the grass with a bang, causing some dirt and smoke to rise up.

"Huh? It’s burnt?"

When the smoke and dust cleared, Paladin was stunned to see a large charred area on his palm. Plus, there was a black hole on the Scorpion-tailed Beast’s chest that had fallen to the ground in the distance. It appeared like it was burnt. A small flame remained alive and crackling in the scorched areas, burning the piece of flesh and blood. At the time, Paladin had no time to notice Aberleigh’s awe-filled eyes behind him. He reached for a branch and lightly stabbed the scorched black spot. The crisp texture and lumpy scorched black spot told Paladin everything he needed to know. The charred area had turned into charcoal!

"Oh. Oh huh, ha ha ha ha. Is this the power that I have?" Paladin muttered as if possessed. The power that had been displayed exceeded Paladin's expectations. Before, he hadn’t fully comprehended the fact that his power was growing increasingly stronger. At the thought, he subconsciously opened his hand that was holding the branch. The branch snapped unexpectedly. Its outer layer actually turned into charcoal which broke into pieces before being scattered all over the ground.

"Huh, hahahaha!"

Paladin's shocked expression gradually changed to one of excitement and ecstasy, but then, he suddenly remembered that only half of his light magic elements were left. In other words, only three hundred were left. Just when Paladin subconsciously wanted to use his own light magic elements to capture the scattered light elements in the surrounding, the omnipotent eye that floated on his forehead gave off dazzling brilliance again. Like a magnet, it attracted magical elements from the sunlight that came through the gaps in the leaves. It then melted into Paladin's magic circle, as if returning home. In just half a minute, his light magic elements were full again.

"Oh gods, can you tell me what the hell is going on with this eye?!"

All this felt like a dream. When Paladin turned around, he saw Aberleigh kneeling. With a full-blown smile, he stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing on your knees?"

"Woah-woo!"

Aberleight felt a strong sense of fear when he saw Paladin’s eyes that glowed golden and the horizontal golden eye that floated in front of Paladin’s forehead. He was so terrified that he backed away and buried his head in his arms as if begging for mercy.

"Huh? Are you afraid? Hehehe, are you afraid?" Paladin was beaming with delight. He could feel all the beasts, fish, and insects within a 20-meter radius running desperately through the All-seeing Eye. It was as if they felt threatened by something extremely terrifying.

Paladin looked at Aberleigh who was obedient and dared not to raise his head. Flatly, he said, "Alright, this can also do. Fear me and serve me."

Paladin, who felt like a king ruling the world, hadn't had enough fun yet. Suddenly, the All-seeing Eye noticed four mercenaries wielding swords, bows, and crossbows walking into his field of vision with ecstatic expressions on their faces.

"Hmph, here come the ones who are not afraid of death. Aberleigh, let's have some snacks before dinner." Although it was impossible to tell Paladin's disposition from his glowing eyes, his tone alone conveyed indifference, condescension, disregard for human life, cold-bloodedness, cruelty, and ruthlessness.

"It’s a Scorpion-tailed Beast! Isn't this the beast we've been searching for?!"

The old man who led the four mercenaries noticed the two, who were none other than Paladin and a huge man. Beside them, there was the corpse of the Scorpion-tailed Beast. One of his teammates abruptly became greedy and excitedly exclaimed. Meanwhile, the other teammates immediately understood what the captain wanted. A pretty-looking female warrior drew the sword from her waist. She looked at Paladin's back and said, "It seems that you are a priest. We’re grateful to you and your servant for your assistance in defeating the Scorpion-tailed Beast. However, you wouldn't have succeeded as easily if we hadn't fought him for three days and three nights."

At the end of her speech, another man who looked witty immediately nodded and agreed. "Therefore, please give the corpse of the Scorpion-tailed Beast to us. When the time comes we'll go to the priest's church and donate some silver coins." After saying that, the four mercenaries laughed in unison. They were certain they had won. After all, they were stronger than this mere priest, plus they had more people! At least, that was how they felt.

Upon hearing such foolish remarks from these people who didn’t know their place, Paladin smiled disdainfully. Turning around silently, the All-seeing Eyes on his forehead shone brighter. He looked straight at the four humans.

"My Enos!" Obviously, the four mercenaries were afraid of Paladin right now. His eyes were glowing golden, and a horizontal golden eye was floating on his forehead. Paladin’s appearance was far from making people think he was harmless, especially when a cruel smile formed on his face.

“Aberleigh!" Paladin yelled, and the big man slowly rose to his feet. The mercenaries who had frozen in place were unable to regain control of themselves. They all took a deep breath of cold air at the same time. They did think that particular man was huge, but they never thought he would be so big! The captain had been confident in his own height, but it all crumbled when he saw Aberleigh's figure, which was three heads taller than himself. Plus, his muscles were so huge that they were as big as a millstone. Feeling ashamed, a thought suddenly flashed across his mind.

‘Did I bully the wrong people?’

Paladin calmly approached the scorched corpse of the Scorpion-tailed Beast. He observed the sharp barb before kneeling down and curiously touching it. However, amidst that, he gave Aberleigh an order.

"Aberleigh, keep one alive and bring it over. You can eat the rest."

Then, something horrible happened. The priest's words were like an activation button. The eyes of this tall and terrifying monster-like man instantly turned red. He fiercely opened his fang-filled mouth and dashed extremely fast to the mercenaries.

Fortunately, the captain had a lot of experience under his belt. The moment he saw the monster running towards them, he immediately raised the thick oak shield in an attempt to deflect the ferocious attack and give them time to devise a battle plan. The captain was convinced that as long as the four of them were given time to prepare for battle, this mighty-looking monster would be nothing more than mere a blink-and-it-all-would-be-over enemy.

The thing was, the captain was wrong, very wrong. What was more, there was no room for regret. The very hard oak shield was easily smashed into pieces by Aberliegh's extremely fast hit. It felt as if he got hit head-on by a fast-moving carriage. The captain's eyes widened. Before he could even groan in pain, he saw the good-quality chain armor he wore got disfigured and deformed like crumpled paper. Just like squeezing orange juice, a fountain of blood burst from the gaps of the chain armor. The captain’s whole body was flung into the distance until it hit a small tree. He was obviously very dead.

"Captain!" the female soldier shouted loudly. However, she was pulled back by two of her frightened companions who thought it would be better to run away.

"Let’s go back and call for help. This monster is far too powerful for us to fight on our own!"

"But..."

"I also want to avenge the captain, so let's go!"

The three mercenaries who found an opening, immediately threw down their shields and swords before turning around to run away.

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