Chapter 22 - Hero's Falling

It had been a few days since King Gascoigne had sent out their newly summoned hero with the S-Ranked adventures to investigate a town that was recently attacked by a hoard of demons....

....and they had lost all contact after the first day.

The mage was supposed to senda hourly report of the hero's progress.

But the last report he received was just a bunch of jumbled nonsense before a loud scream pierced through at the end.

She sounded panicked and scared, so the King feared the worse.

There was only one conclusion he could come to....

The hero's party had fallen.

But the king had to make sure, so he gathered the head of his "Knights of the Order of Light", Jonathan, and quickly assembled a search party.

Not even the old king, who had seen dozens of battlefields, were prepared for what was to come.

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Gascoigne had prepared himself for the worse.

But the sight he saw upon entering the village....

Could only be described as something that came out of a nightmare.

For upon nearing the gates to the village, they were met with the sight of none other than Brand's head stuck on a pike for all to see.

The king quickly had to steel himself, swiftly moving his horse past the remnants of what once was a great warrior.

He ordered a group of his men to handle his corpse and give him a proper burial while leading the rest to follow him into the village.

"What kind of monster could've done that to a S-Ranked adventurer that was over level 60?!" One of the knights exclaimed from the back.

"Whatever it was, it couldn't have been a demon, that's just not their style." Another knight commented as they neared the center of the village.

"They're right...." Gascoigne thought to himself, covering his nose with a cloth as the rancid stench of blood met their noses. "Not even a demon could do something like this.... Just what the hell happened here?!"

Before the king's thoughts could settle in his head, the sight of the rest of Brand's mutilated body could be seen hanging from what was left of a lamppost.

His organs were removed and scattered about the town square.

But, much to their surprise, tied at the bottom of the lamppost was none other than 3 of the 4 S-Ranked adventures that were sent on the mission.

They appeared to be perfectly fine, save for a few cuts and bruises.

Even the recently deceased Abby seemed to be fine.

Erin and Meredith seemed to be in better condition however.

"Quickly untie them and check on their wounds! I want them conscious and able to answer our questions within the next hour! Understood?!"

The king exclaimed, receiving a round of "Yes sir!" from his men who swiftly went about to carry out his order.

He was just about to go and search for what remained of the hero, when a ominous whistle pierced the once silent dead village.

The sound send a chill down the spines of all that heard it.

Not even the great king Gascoigne was spared.

(The whistle from the song "Chill Bill".)

It resounded from every corner of the ruined village and from the surrounding forest as well.

It was haunting, yet undeniably beautiful.

But the longer they listened, some of of the more low leveled knights started to get migraines that soon turned into nose bleeds.

And after that, they started to scream while clutching their heads, blood flowing from their ears and eyes.

Even the old king had to reach up and wipe the blood starting to come from his nose.

He let out a small grunt before immediately beginning to assume command once more.

"Get in battle formation and cover your ears! It could be a extremely high leveled of undead! A banshee!" He exclaimed, keeping his well trained eyes on the surroundings. "Knights of the Order of Light! Show them your crests!"

Upon saying this, the knights on the ground let out loud roars as a golden aura engulfed their bodies, the king himself raising his sword in the air as the image of the goddess appeared above them.

A huge pillar of golden energy suddenly erupted from around the king, dwarfing the gathered knights' golden auras.

Sadly.... Their attempt at intimidation and exorcism of the surrounding area seemed to work.

At least....

That's what they thought when the whistling suddenly stopped and silence engulfed the village once more.

But something was wrong....

Oh so terribly wrong.

Even though the village empty....

It felt like they weren't alone.

Like something had been watching their movements since the moment they entered the village.

"You know.... That probably would've worked.... If your enemy was a undead that is~!"

A strangely familiar voice spoke up suddenly from a nearby roof of one of the uncollapsed houses.

The golden aura quickly vanished as they broke formation to turn to look at the source of the voice, their concentration being broken the moment they saw who it was.

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Puck didn't look any worse for wear, save for the fact that he was covered in a pretty good amount of blood, he sat casually on the roof, kicking his legs childishly.

Though those gathered immediately realized that it wasn't his own blood staining his prestigious armor clad body.

The next thing the group of knights noticed made their blood run cold and left the old king in shock.

Hanging loosely from Puck's left hand....

Was the head of one of the knights from the village entrance.

A wide sadistic grin suddenly split his face, seeing their line of sight, "What? All they had to do was bury a head.... Did you think it'd take this long? I'm just glad they all went down without a fight! Gotta save my strength for the final boss, no~?"

The way Puck said it so casually as if he was talking about the weather....

It made the gathered knights furious!

But they knew that, even together, they'd be no match for the hero.

Their only hope would be their leader and king, Gascoigne.

But said person was at a loss for words at the moment.

The entire time Puck was training he was being monitored by the king 24/7!

Hell!

Even monitored how he slept and went to the bathroom!

Nothing he'd seen ever showed that the once pretty friendly hero, would turn into the monster before him.

"I guess it can't be helped...." Gascoigne muttered to himself, he held his head in his hands with a small disappointed sigh. He should his head before glancing up at Puck's form. "I guess it's up to the master to make sure the dog's well trained.... and to put it down if it ever decides to bite back."

With that calm statement, the old king suddenly disappeared from the spot he once stood, the next thing the knights saw was Gascoigne swinging his blade down towards Puck's still seated form.

It was faster than any of them could react, and they hoped that with this, the fight would be over before they had to get involved.

But what they didn't know....

Was that they were already involved....

They had been the moment Gascoigne decided to move and leave them all undefended.

Blood flew from Gascoigne's swing, but it wasn't from Puck.

In Puck's place was the head of the knight he was holding earlier.

This cause the old king's eyes to widen in shock before the screams of his beloved knights could be heard.

Or what was left of 'em anyway.

Gascoigne's head snapped up to the spot where his knights once stood, only to be met with the sight of dismembered body parts and blood falling down like leaves around Puck's body.

The sickening grin never left Puck's face as he slowly titled his head to look at the old king with wide, crazed, eyes.

A heart was clutched tightly in the hero's hands.

Which he promptly crushed and dropped to the ground.

That was the straw that broke the wolf's back.

Gascoigne took a deep breath before slowly letting it out of his mouth.

His eyes glared at Puck for a moment before the world began to shake violently.

An ungodly weight suddenly crashed down on Puck's form, making him drop to the knees as the armor on Gascoigne began to fall from his body, piece by piece.

Puck let out a small impressed whistle at the sight of Gascoigne's pretty impressive scar littered body.

Gascoigne was left wearing nothing but a loose, tightly knitted, black chainmail shirt and black pants that looked fit for fighting in.

This was all held together by a golden cloth that acted as a belt.

Puck watched as the furious old wolf threw his hand out to his side, causing a greatsword to suddenly shimmer into existence.

The design of the blade was relatively simple, but the moment it touch Gascoigne's skin....

The buildings, and even the nearby trees surrounding the town, fell to pieces as if they had been cut.

~The presence of the "Blade Drenched in Moonlight" weighs down on your form! "King's Grace" has made it so that 50% of your stats have been sealed!~

~Due to the skill, "Sanity's End", that has been boosted by your blessing, all stat decreases have been ignored!~

The intimidating black blade of the large hulking sword had golden runes scribbled along the edge. The guard was replaced with a white wolf's head, biting the blade. And the grip was wrapped in a loose white cloth that waves loosely by the pommel, like a wolf's tail.

All in all....

Puck couldn't help but be in awe at the sight of the blade.

Well....

If this was the normal Puck he definitely would have been, but unfortunately for the old king....

This thing wasn't that impressed.

A small chuckle suddenly broke through the silence of the now completely decimated village.

It started off low at first....

But soon raised in volume and pitch, sounding almost hyena like in nature.

Puck's head suddenly snapped up to look at the old king's form, the whites in his eyes having faded to an ominous black, while his red slitted pupils remained to bore into Gascoigne's own.

But what really made the old king's gaze harden, was the fact that a red liquid began to leak from Puck's eyes as the maddening laugh escaped his throat.

"FUCKING FINALLY! NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Puck suddenly exclaimed, his voice sounding distorted and twisted, as if multiple people were talking at once.

Before Gascoigne could even react, his instincts told him to block to his left, which was just in time to black a bicycle kick from Puck that had enough behind it to send Gascoigne, the house they were standing on, and everything else behind it, flying and skidding for several hundred feet.

Leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

To be continued~

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Chapter 22 End~

Author's Note: I'm honestly surprised no one's asked to see Puck's armor! I got it from a Gacha game believe it or not! I'll post it in Part 20: Questionable Skills and Ideas~~