ROTLE- Chapter 188- None Of Your Business (Patreon)

As they retreated into the safety of the trees in the distance, Estabel watched Aiden walk into the chaos in his weird flowing jacket.

Who even wore jackets that long?

But that was not what had her attention. It was in the way he walked. She thought he was an alert person bothering on paranoid before. Now, however, a different person walked into the chaos. His shoulders relaxed and he held both hands gently to his side.

The light refracted in his right hand as he drew something from his storage space. A longsword, she guessed. She was right. It appeared, its hilt settling softly into his hand. When the light fractured around his second hand, the blackened one, she wasn’t sure what it would be.

Anyone’s guess, she thought, then gambled. Dual wielding. Another sword.

The handle of a double headed battle axe settled into his hand.

Her eyes followed him as he moved. His shoulders were relaxed, his steps steady, even if careful. She’d seen people like this before. People whose bodies took up such composure. This was the form of a man comfortable in where he was. Men only walked like this in their homes.

And his apparent brother was completely unbothered by it.

Her eyes glanced to the one called Ted for a moment.

One watched a battle like a king watching his subjects slaughter and maim, she thought. While the other is at comfort in the heat of battle.

It was slightly worrying. Just what world had the king of Bandiv drawn these boys from.

She was still watching and pondering when Aiden moved.

A man rushed at him, crazed with the frenzy of bloodshed. The man held his sword low and to the side, after just escaping a wide range attack from Nosrath. His eyes were wide and his sword glowed a rough brown. A skill. Its form was too chaotic and singular to be an enchantment.

The man raised his voice, shouted something at Aiden as he swung.

Aiden moved.

It was not a blur, it was not an execution of the [Dash] skill. At least, not in anyway she’d seen before. Aiden simply disappeared.

Blood sprayed from the man’s neck. His sword fell from his hand before he hit the ground.

Estabel blinked.

That had been too fast for her eyes to follow. Still, she tried to follow him. Eyes darting around in their sockets, she sought him out through the blood and pain and wishes for victory. She sought him out within the battle of a raid.

“Over there,” Ted inclined his head in a direction, speaking calmly.

Estabel followed his motion and found that he was right. Aiden was blitzing through the group, rushing towards a destination that was not Nosrath.

He was going after the person they had called Oncot.

Telma frowned. “He is reckless.”

Estabel almost laughed. Was that how she saw what was happening? As reckless? She couldn’t be more wrong even if she tried. No. Aiden was not reckless. He was being precise.

“His love for battle makes me think often,” the [Healer], Elami muttered.

That brought her attention to something that had been bugging her for a while. For a moment, she forgot about Aiden and turned her attention to the [Healer] and the man in his arms.

Her eyes narrowed at him. Something just wasn’t sitting right about him in her magical senses.

Elami looked at her. “May I help you [Mage]?”

“Yes.” Elami tried to pin him with her gaze, but he remained unmoved. That only helped worry her more. “What are you?”

Elami blinked, frowned, then looked away.

“None of your business,” he answered.

Did the brothers know what he was? And if the answer was no, the next question was why?

…

Aiden dismissed the notification informing him of the fatal blow he had dealt the man as well as the death of the man.

Moving as fast as he could without draining any of his energy, he ran through the battlefield. His eyes darted about, still seeking out the possibility of an Order agent. Witnessing the battle did not necessarily mean from a safe distance. Members of the Order were not often the sanest, after all. God knew the things he had done, risking his life to gain information.

The confusing part was that some of them did not risk their lives for such pieces of information for the Order. No. Some of them did it for the love of the game. For the challenge. Some of them did it just to prove a point—to prove that they could do it.

A fewer number did it because they were simply battle hungry. There was a section of the Order designed to find those ones and dispatch of them quickly. The Order was a place of order, not madness, instructors liked to say.

Something shined bright to his left and he ducked to his right immediately. It struck the ground, completely missing Nosrath. Aiden doubted the attack had anything at all to do with Nosrath. In the chaos of swinging blades and active skills, some fool was trying to cheat with the fastest method of leveling up—taking lives.

He dashed forward, decreasing the distance between him and Oncot. The large man was busy crushing the head of some opponent while he bled from a massive laceration in his side. It was a gory wound, but he moved as if it was just another day in his life.

Ducking under a flying arrow coated in green wind that dealt a blunt force attack to Nosrath’s side, Aiden rolled forward. His body moved over corpses, making it one of the most awkward rolls possible.

When he came up, it was in time to activate [Leap]. He soared high in the sky as Nosrath turned and gouged out the ground, raising packs of dirt as large as boulders.

Stuck in the air, his eyes darted about, focusing on Oncot.

His instincts flared suddenly. Danger stared at him from the edge of his perception. His eyes moved. The world froze.

A massive flare of fire crackling with bolts of lightning stared at him.

Thinking quickly, he moved his sword. His finger landed on the flat of the steel and moved. He used [Unarmed Engrave].

[You have used Enchantment of Lesser Blink]

He threw it down, pinning its blade in the soil a distance away. Then his hands moved.

[You have used Weave of Lesser Blink]

Aiden blinked through the distance. The world disappeared and reappeared, as if he had simply blinked and changed positions. He appeared on the ground, holding onto the hilt of the sword, as for the steel, it crumbled into dust.

That was another good steel gone. He banished it from his mind and summoned another sword. When you went through weapons like underwear because of constant enchanting, you collected as many as you could.

The ball of fire fell from the sky. It dropped on Nosrath. There was an explosion, loud and bright. Nosrath roared in pain. Off to the side, Aiden saw a group, three people in hooded robes. Their hoods were raised, covering their faces.

Their staffs were already raised high again. A spell formation was coming into existence. The bastards and whoever was directing them, had decided that consistently nuking the battlefield was the way to go.

Aiden’s eyes moved around, watched. Oncot. Where was Oncot.

He found the man clashing blades with Oncot. Swords clashed with massive gagged claws as he fought, bleeding all over. Aiden wasn’t sure how much of the blood was his and how much of it wasn’t. The man clearly had an injury or two so some of the blood had to be his.

Aiden ignored the [Mage]s, keeping slight attention on them and the sky in case of the next nuking to happen as he ran towards Oncot.

A woman dived out of nowhere with a swinging mallet. It was a large thing.

Aiden pulled himself to a stop, rolling away from the blow. He sized her up. She held the weapon as if she knew how to use it. As if she’d been using it for a long time. As for him, he was still dual wielding.

“Why exactly am I being attacked?” he asked, eyes still on Oncot.

The woman shrugged, cocky. “It’s really nothing personal. I just need the level boost.”

“I see.”

So this was what it devolved to when there was no order in hunting down raid monsters. People ignored the monster and killed others for the level boost. Sad as it was to say, it made sense. It was a reasonable growth strategy.

At least for those who were not near the fifty-level cap.

“Alright then.” He looked at her.

She nodded. “I’m glad you understand.”

Somebody flew past their middle, thrown like a stone.

Aiden used [Detect] on her.

[Basher Lvl 61]

The information made him sigh in disappointment. The idiot hadn’t even considered that she could potentially be fighting against someone beyond her league.

Aiden started walking. She scoffed, took a combat stance, and charged him.

With old instinct he hadn’t used since coming back in time, he activated a perk.

[You have used Aura]

He felt his mana rev like an engine within him. Something escaped him, then. It was like the engine from an exhaust, or the smell from a pot of freshly made stew. It reached out, expanding around him. It wasn’t as refined as he had expected it to be, but it did reach out.

The woman crossed half the distance and dropped to her knees. She hit the ground and her mallet fell from her hands. She gasped for air, struggling.

Aiden cocked his brow at her when he was standing in front of her. She wasn’t even a knowledgeable person. If you had a manifesting skill and someone used a quality of aura that your [Resilience] skill could not overcome, that was the time to activate the skill.

Even now, she still wasn’t activating the skill, only gasping for air.

Aiden spared a slight attention to Oncot. He was currently no longer fighting against Nosrath. He was fighting against two heavy armored opponents. He’d just taken one’s axe and taken his head from the rest of the body.

With all these killings, just what level was Oncot now?

He returned his attention to the woman. He was no longer holding back. There was no more need to slow down his leveling. Killing those who came to kill him was definitely one acceptable way of leveling up. But at level sixty-one, what would she do for his level one hundred and two?

It seemed inconsequential.

He sighed. For some reason, killing her in her current state felt like bullying a child that was throwing a tantrum.

He released his [Aura], deactivating it.

The girl lunged at him from the ground, moving at incredible speed. Aiden stepped back, ruining her planned reach, then stepped forward. His hand came up and slammed into the back of her head.

His hubris was strong enough to keep him from killing her. His sense of superiority might have convinced him that killing her was unnecessary on his part. But it was not enough to let her go around killing others.

Looking down at her unconscious body, he concluded that he would let the battlefield be her judge. How and when she died would be up to them.

Bending down, he touched the handle of her mallet. With a shrug of will, it disappeared into his storage space. As a [Weaver] with the [Weaponmaster] skill, it was only right to have as many weapons as he could get.

The battlefield remained chaotic, some people fought against Nosrath while others fought against each other. Parties fired ranged attacks from the edge of the clearing, peppering Nosrath and whoever else was unlucky with different violent skills.

Aiden saw someone die from an acid rain. He ignored it all, making his way to Nosrath—Oncot to be specific.

They could not try to bring Nosrath down, certainly not in the current situation Nosrath found itself. They would have a better time running and hiding. Why? Because the truth was that killing Nosrath was not the only problem.

Once Nosrath was dead, there would be a new problem: carving out its heart. Among the crowds of parties present each one—if they had sense—would have someone with the [Loot] ability.

The next scuffle would be in who’s looter would touch the body and successfully use the skill. There would be a lot of benefits to it, most of them would go into the looter’s storage space. But the [Heart of Nosrath], that one would drop to the ground.

Then the third phase of the fight would begin: who would claim the heart.

Once that one was done, the fourth stage would begin: getting away. That was when Aiden intended on beginning. It would be safer to follow the team that claimed the heart and steal it from them.

The small fries, those not interested in being the enemies of kingdoms, would go after the looter, trying to get whatever other things they would have claimed from looting Nosrath.

When Aiden got to Oncot, he was at a disadvantage against the heavy armored opponent standing against him.

Each attack he dealt bounced of the enchanted armor, but Oncot had no protection from the man’s halberd. It was leaving him with too many injuries. He was bleeding out but still going as if he was not.

Aiden dismissed both sword and battleaxe. He ducked between two people that were locked in combat, rolling beneath them, hands weaving intricate signs.

[You have used Weave of Strength]

He felt the growth, the power, as he came to his feet. He channeled his mana into his storage space and the mallet he’d collected from the unconscious woman settled comfortably into his hands.

He came to a screeching halt next to the armored man, his feet moving through a path on the ground not covered in corpse.

When he stopped, he raised his voice. “Hey!”

The man turned, as if shocked to find him standing there. Oncot took the opportunity to strike the man. Again, his sword bounced off the man’s armor. Aiden saw the enchantment come alive on impact. It was an interesting enchantment. But nothing uncommon.

[Tethered Title Knight Killer is in effect]

[Knight Killer]

[Effect: +12% increase in damage when facing opponents with the Knight title.]

[Effect: 12% damage resistance when facing opponents with the Knight title.]

Well, that was nice to know.

Aiden cocked the mallet back, then swung forward.

The knight raised his shield at the last minute, perhaps worried that his armor would not stop a mallet that large. With his strength stats increased, the force of Aiden’s blow was significant. It slammed into the knight’s shield, then broke through the defense.

It hit the knight like a battering ram and sent him flying out of the clearing.

[You have stunned Warrior Level 81]

Aiden ignored it. Turning, his blackened hand landed on Oncot’s bloody forearm as the man turned in search of his next enemy.

Oncot looked back at Aiden. The bloodlust was clear in his eyes. He was battle mad. His eyes settled on Aiden’s arm and he growled.

“NO!” Aiden barked.

Oncot moved his arm, tried to take it away.

Aiden’s grip hardened. He met the man’s bloodlust.

“I SAID NO!” he commanded.

Oncot growled at him. Aiden growled back.

It seemed to shock Oncot, because he paused, taken aback, as if Aiden was not supposed to be able to do it.

“We leave,” Aiden told him. “NOW!”

Oncot hesitated.

Aiden scowled, bared his teeth. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Oncot’s rage died a little in his eyes, and he snatched his arm away in displeasure. Aiden let him.

“We are moving,” he said, pointing off in the direction of Ted and the others. “You will make a way.”

Some of the displeasure dwindled, and Aiden knew that a lot of people not in their way were about to lose their lives.

Oncot ran forward. Aiden turned to move. He paused, as his eyes settled on somebody’s movement.

Fourth Order, first flow, he observed. Conqueror’s sword.

The woman was clad in the flowing robe of the [Rogue] class, cutting through people, with no interest in Nosrath. This was against the way of the Order. She was reveling in the bloodlust in an unnecessary fight.

The Order executioner in him begged to put her down. Aiden resisted, instead, he moved his head, looked around.

If there was one Order member, there were likely two.

As he searched, he half-heartedly followed Oncot. If he could mark one without being seen by another, it could be a boon that he could use.

But he did not see the other as he moved through the chaos, dodging falling bodies and swinging weapons and active skills and spells.

High above, another nuke was coming to life. This time it was not a ball of fire but one of lightning. It would create an electrocution effect, stunning everything not strong enough within the range of its effect.

Since its effect did not travel through the air, there was only one way to avoid it.

“Oncot!” he bellowed as the ball of lightning came down. “Leap!”

Oncot did not look back at him, but he jumped, probably as high as he could. It was not high enough.

Aiden did not hesitate to use [Leap].

The ball of lightning impacted with a blinding boom, letting out enough light to blot out that of the broken dawn.

The crackling of electricity filled the air. Aiden could see nothing. But he heard the groans of countless people trying to withstand the electrocution.

When the light dissipated, the lightning was still going through the ground, going through the people. Oncot was one of them.

Shit.

Aiden’s eyes darted around as he summoned another sword and moved his hand to it. He needed a safe area, unaffected by the lightning spell, somewhere he could get to safely. He was already reaching the height of his leap.

His eyes fastened on something. His finger began to engrave the blade of the sword.

Maybe there.

It wasn’t too far for a teleportation and it was just between Oncot and the others. If he could just—

His instincts flared suddenly. Danger glared at him from the edge of his perception. His eyes moved, and his world froze.

Red beady eyes focused on him…

… Nosrath looked at him.