[MA] 116. Nondescript Old Man (Patreon)

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[A/N: 2/5 of chapters for this week. The next one should come out tomorrow.]

The road they were at had nothing but desert to either side, only the city at the far distance, and even that mainly was lights in the growing darkness of the approaching night. Reinforcements would come quick, but mostly everyone would not expect a trap there and thus would've relaxed.

Unfortunately for them, even distracted, Shen's D agility made his reaction speed just too fast.

He lost maybe a few microseconds because of the unexpected attack, but that was all. He kicked the Major out of the way of the attack—simple human decency—and was gone from the Humvee in an instant.

Shen briefly considered protecting the soldiers in the vehicle but decided against it. This was not his war. He didn't want his escort to die, but safeguarding others against so many spells would be dangerous even for him, and Shen wouldn't endanger himself for strangers.

It was a bit calloused, but this was a war between Americans. It would be stupid of him to die to protect either side.

However, one side had just attacked him.

They needed to die.

Shen could see no one around him. He guessed he was being bombarded by the Sorcerer King's troops, and whatever spell that made them impervious to surveillance actually turned them invisible. Unfortunately, they were too weak to hide from the Laws and Concepts of Reality itself.

Shen linked himself to everyone around using the Concept of War, and he felt hundreds of people merely a hundred feet away or so. He rushed at them with his full speed.

At some point, he felt himself going through a mana barrier that didn't stop or fight him. Interestingly enough, it seemed the casters had found a way for one's will to not try to clash with others touching it. The spell hiding them was about stealth and nothing else.

On the other side of the barrier, Shen found hundreds, maybe thousands of surprised faces.

They were in a battle formation, both on foot and over cars of all kinds, including military-looking ones. Defenders wielding shields and wearing armor formed a few defensive lines assisted by cars and sandbags. Every attacker had a clear line of sight to Shen's Humvee. Not everyone was a Guardian, or at least not mages; many were wielding pistols or rifles. Some also wielded bows and crossbows.

At least seven hundred people were casting spells or pointing their weapons on the Humvee's way—Shen wasn't there anymore, but they were too slow to react to his quick approach. The non-mages were only now starting to shoot at the car, too, as the average gun had lower damage output than spells. The Humvee exploded in fire and lightning, and slower spells started forming close to it, flying its way. Ice, earth, more fire and lightning, bullets, arrows, and bolts flew to pin any survivor to death.

All in all, that was a well-laid trap. Yet, it had been created by people ignorant of the enormous gap between them and Shen.

Knowing one's enemy was a critical part of any war.

Shen could tell they wanted to kill him right after he had talked to the US President as a statement of some sort. Instead, they would die and fortify the US's position.

More importantly, that was a turning point for Shen.

People of all ages were there, from teenagers to the elderly, fighting for a cause they believed in. Maybe they were misguided, maybe not. Either way, they had attacked him, and thus, that place became a battlefield.

There had been time for talks before the attack. There would be time to negotiate after a surrender. But between a battle's first and last strikes, there were only allies and enemies.

Shen would kill fellow humans that day.

"Surrender or die!" he said using his Lion's Roar.

Unfortunately for his first targets, he would reach them before his voice did, as he moved about three times as fast as the sound. He let go of his E- spear and swung his E+ one against the closest defender in the front line. The man was wearing plate armor, but one that couldn't protect him against Shen's superior weapon and ability. Shen's spear cut clearly through metal and neck, beheading the enemy in a single swipe.

There was no turning into motes of light here; this wasn't the tutorial. Guardians didn't bleed, but the trait disappeared upon death. Both the head and the stumped neck released a lot of blood as the corpse started falling.

Shen didn't stop. He also beheaded the defender right next to the first one. Their corpses were falling too slowly, forcing him to push them out of the way to reach the back lines.

He elected to not jump over the front lines. He was safer on the ground, where he could easily dodge attacks.

The first defense line was followed by a string of cars. Shen went over one quickly and reached a mortal with a rifle. He beheaded the man too and turned to the next targets.

Carnage followed.

Shen didn't hold back. He yelled a few times again to surrender or die, yet it was mostly the young mortal ones who obeyed. The same extra aggressiveness that made Guardians more effective against the Void, and which had probably fueled this entire situation, also made most Guardians fight to the bitter end. Those who surrendered survived.

Everyone else died.

At some point, after he killed a nondescript old man, he got a notification.

| Bounty complete: Kill the Sorcerer King

| Base reward: +25,000 AP

| Rising Star bonus: +6,250 AP

| Total AP: 31,564

Shen didn't stop after that, nor did his enemies. If anything, the loss of the very underwhelming mage—really, Shen couldn't even tell how strong the guy had been—made his followers get in a frenzy. More troops arrived from the other side of the road. They had also been invisible, waiting for the right moment to attack.

They also weren't strong enough.

Those people were not the elites of Earth whom Shen was used to fighting—and winning—against. They were just ordinary combatants with an ideal. Guardians or not, they were weak.

Shen killed exactly 2,763 people in that fight without taking a single point of damage.

= - = - =

Shen's stamina took a much harder hit. He had 200 points of stamina total, and almost all of it had been spent. After he was done, he sat on top of a big vehicle the system identified as a recreational vehicle and took a rest.

The aftermath of a battle in the real world was nothing like the tutorial.

To begin with, the desert had been tainted red with blood. The smell was a nauseating mix of blood, emptied bladders and bowels, and exposed guts. Seeing the source of the smell didn't help either.

Shen had moved too fast and been careful about incoming projectiles, so he hadn't gotten marred by any of that. He was the only one. All the survivors were red too.

They were around four hundred people, most of them crying or screaming in despair over the corpses of the fallen. After watching their hopes dying with their companions, some had empty, soulless eyes. A few found their courage to attack Shen again, and he just threw his spear at them mercilessly. They sought their deaths out of shame, guilt, or pain, and he delivered it to them. They were still attackers, no matter their reasons.

One ran away.

Shen estimated she was no older than fifteen, a Guardian crying for her mommy. She had no criminal record except a single attempted murder, probably against him, so it wasn't as bad. Yet, letting her go would only incentivize people to throw more innocent against him, maybe even blackmail innocents into acting. Killing the girl here would be a mercy to other girls in the future that his enemies might try to use against him.

Shen just watched her go with a heavy heart.

Seeing her success, many others tried to run, too. Shen checked their criminal records before deciding on whether to kill them or not. If he let the truly wicked go, others would think they might also attack him and survive by running. It was bad enough that he was setting a precedent by allowing those who were mostly innocent to live; he would not let murderers go unpunished.

Shen's spear pierced an old woman's back, and he pulled it back.

The weapon felt heavy on his hands.

That was real War. He had broken and killed people that would not revive. They had tried to kill him, yet they were also humans. All their hopes and dreams, their beliefs of justice and fairness, everything they were, had been destroyed by him.

Shen didn't regret killing them. They deserved it. But it didn't make things easy either.

Major Cox was dead, too, turned into broken charcoal by too many spells. Shen had taken the man out of the way in the beginning, but the Sorcerer King's troops had kept targeting the Major while Shen killed them. Even as fast as he was, the killing had taken a while. Cox and the driver hadn't resisted that long.

"Murderer!" a fifteen-year-old girl wearing a blue dress covered in blood yelled at Shen.

Shen ignored her. Others joined in a chant, but it was wasted breath. He didn't like doing what he had done, but he knew he was in the right. He had retributed the evil they tried to bring upon him. They were the ones who wanted to murder him, not the other way around.

By all rights, he should tell them that. He should show them how stupid they were. He might even convince some.

Yet he lacked the energy.

Everything felt slow and meaningless. Even as he threw his spear at another real murderer trying to run away, he did it through obligation rather than genuine desire. His anger was quenched, replaced with sadness and a slight disgust directed at the dead Sorcerer King.

How could someone so weak think they had any chance again anyone? What right did an ant have to lead others to self-destruction like this? How could someone's arrogance and self-overestimation bring so much misfortune?

That battle had been a stupid waste of human life.

Ten minutes later, Shen had enough stamina to fight again if needed against the incoming big military convoy arriving at the scene—Shen regenerated 12 stamina per minute, after all. Those soldiers had been the ones making a show of protecting the President and the General, and they quickly surrounded the area.

Shen stood up. "The prisoners are yours," he said, using the Lion's Roar. "Who's bringing me to Washington?"

= - = - =

The following hours were uneventful.

Shen meditated alone on top of another Humvee, this one escorted by dozens of other military vehicles and a couple attack helicopters. He didn't feel threatened by them, but he did ask for—and was given—a hundred ammo rounds that he kept in his backpack.

They avoided all cities and stopped only to refuel, using tank trucks in the middle of the road at Shen's insistence. He kept a good distance from the trucks. He didn't think the US leadership wanted him dead, but the Sorcerer King had had military vehicles. Who knows whether they had a traitor among the people attached to him?

As the hours passed, Shen felt better about the battle. Meditating helped a lot, though he had to wonder if his over-aggressiveness caused by the Alliance also didn't help with making killing feel more normal. Either way, he also took the chance to cultivate.

And at long last, he got a phone call.

"Hello?" he said when he didn't recognize the number.

"Shen?" Alicia said on the other side.

"It's me," he confirmed. "How are you?"

"Tired," she replied and sighed. "So many tests. I got a small break to eat, then more tests before sleep." Her tiredness was evident in her voice, but there was also a growing excitement. "Boy, what a shitty pic you took for your profile! First thing we're gonna do is take a proper pic, then a selfie. Gotta brag to everyone I'm really the Rising Star's BFF. I am your BFF, right?! I also read some news about the meeting going well! Did you really meet the President of the United States?! That's fucking awesome!"

Shen smiled and talked to the girl who might, indeed, turn out to be his best friend forever.

They only had to become immortal and find a way to tolerate each other for all of eternity for that to be accurate.

"You're my best friend," he confirmed. "We'll see about forever, but that feels like a very long time."

[A/N: In a way, Earth's Arc's chapters until now were a prologue or a very long chapter 1. The foundations are all completely set, and some things were also set in motion. Now the real fun begins.]

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