C162: Foundation stage of Warrior path: the Gladiator
Danz clenched his fists, tendons standing out along his forearms. Veins bulged beneath his scarred skin, and his eyes flared a violent red, like embers stirred by bellows. His voice dropped low and heavy, each word soaked in menace, vibrating through the barn.
The surroundings erupted into noise.
The Tear Drop men moved as one, boots scraping against straw, and cracked floorboards as they formed a ring around the Golden Land trio. They raised axes with nicked blades, iron rods, and knives sharpened unevenly, assuming crude and unpolished stances.
"He never intended to negotiate from the start!" Davis shouted, his finger trembling as he pointed at the composed blonde man.
"Ye shall pay for this treachery!"
"How dare you make light of our brotherhood!"
"Vile golden cricket! We shall crush you beneath our heels!"
Hearing Davis's words, the last lingering trace of hesitation drained from Danz's scarred face.
"Kill them!" he roared.
The shout detonated outward, a violent wave of scorching air blasting through the barn. Loose straw and dust were flung aside, and the air itself shimmered with heat.
At once, the surrounding men lunged forward.
Their boots thundered against the wooden floorboards as they pointed their weapons with murderous intent.
Some eyes flared with the red light of the Warrior Path, while others let out guttural growls filled with animalistic rage.
Their objective was singular.
Kill these charlatans before they could utter another word!
""""SLAY THEM!""""
"..."
Yet in stark contrast to the chaos surging toward them, the three figures from the Golden Land remained preternaturally calm.
“A violation has been found,” the Trader said evenly. “As such, I, as the designated contractor, shall exercise my right to administer your punishment.”
The Trader swept a dismissive gaze over his surroundings. To him, these dirt-stained, impoverished men were nothing more than vermin to be cleared from a cellar.
He adjusted his glasses with two fingers and took a measured step back.
“Miss and Mister Rowan, if you would be so kind.”
At the same moment, the woman standing beside him, Roson Rowan, stepped forward.
Her long black hair hung loose and lifeless against her white suit. Her eyes looked tired and unfocused, almost dull, until they suddenly flashed violet.
“[Submit.]”
“““AGGHHHHH!”””
With just that single word, the men began to collapse one by one!
Bodies slammed into the dirt. Some froze mid-charge, hands still gripping their weapons as they clutched their heads, teeth grinding together. Others screamed, rolling upon the floor, veins bulging at their temples as though something inside was trying to claw its way out.
Even Danz, who had been poised to leap forward and tear the Trader's throat out with his bare hands, was forced to stagger backward. He grabbed his head, breath hitching as pain detonated inside his skull!
A blob of dark, viscous red liquid surged from the ground beneath his feet, coiling around his limbs like living rope, binding him into place.
"you— what have you done?!" he snarled, his voice shaking with rage and disbelief.
“The explanation, how should I say it, lies within the thing you were so eager to enjoy, sir,” the Trader said, meticulously adjusting the silk of his cravat.
"This is a blatant violation of the contract!" Davis shouted, clutching his own head, his face twisted in agony. Even he, who prided himself on caution, had also consumed the substance!
"Oh dear, is it so? Then I gladly accept the nullification you proposed only moments ago," the Golden Land trader smiled. "But it seems yet another violation has just been made, has it not? You attacked us, unprovoked. You truly force our hands."
In an instant, The Golden Trader agreed to the nullification regarding the substance, which had now been confirmed to be harmful, alongside the debt of twenty Alan coins.
"Clause 7, Section 1. A violation has been found, in which case I declare my judgment as the designated contractor," the Trader said, raising one hand toward the immobilized Danz.
"Surrender your eyeball."
Danz's remaining composure shattered. His eyes flew wide.
"!"
His muscular arms began to tremble violently. His single focused eye quivered.
Beads of cold sweat trickled down his scarred forehead.
"B–Boss!"
Still anchored in place by the blood-red fluid, Danz's hand began to rise of its own accord.
His fingers twitched, creeping upward toward his face.
"HOW DARE YOU!"
Danz roared, using his free hand to pin his rogue limb down, trying desperately to stop it from reaching its target.
But it was useless!
The hand crept upward with overwhelming strength, the fingers curling into hooked talons as they approached his face.
Slowly, his fingers pressed into the soft tissue of his eye socket.
“AGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH—-------!!!!”
With a sickening squelch of tearing tissue and the sound of a wet pop, Danz plucked his own eyeball from its socket.
Soft and wet, trailing a rope of optic nerve.
“B–BOSS!”
“BOSS!”
Bright, hot blood gushed from the empty socket in a torrent, splashing onto his chest and pooling upon the floor.
The white eyeball sat trembling in Danz's gore-stained palm.
The pain assaulted his brain like a hammer upon his head, paradoxically making the earlier headache seem subtle by comparison.
"AGGhhh, UGhhhhhh..."
The possessed hand flung the severed organ forward, toward the Trader.
A broad-shouldered man with cropped brown hair, Rosen Rowan, caught it with ease and deposited it into a glass jar filled with clear preservative.
"A scarred eyeball," the Trader murmured, admiring the floating eye as it drifted in the viscous fluid. "Is it not exquisite? As a collector, I have desired a specimen of such rare vintage for quite some time."
"Ugh, ughhhh..."
Danz clutched his ruined face, blood gushing like an open fountain between his trembling fingers.
His remaining eye burned with crimson fury, heat radiating from his body so intensely that the air around him warped and twisted. He bit his lower lip until it bled, refusing to scream again.
"Customer, I would suggest you fall back," Roson said, his eyes fixed upon Danz with a serious expression.
“Mm,” the Trader replied, putting the jar into his pouch, before taking a single step backward.
“W-wait, Boss! Don’t fall for their trick and attack them any further!” Davis shouted, yet his warning fell on deaf ears. It was already too late.
“RRRAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
[Indomitable Will!]
Danz’s rage flared. Instantly, the blob of dark red liquid pinning him down began to boil, slowly evaporating under the extreme heat radiating from his body.
The air shimmered around him. The wooden floor beneath his boots blackened as moisture evaporated from the planks. With a vicious hiss, the blood-like substance thinned, rising in foul-smelling steam that stung the nose and crawled along the rafters.
“Tch!” Roson clicked her tongue. She waved her hand, forcing the blob to retreat before it completely evaporated.
However, the moment the restraint loosened, Danz vanished, leaving behind only a heat-distorted afterimage!
*BANG!*
A thunderous impact cracked through the barn as his fist appeared inches from the Golden Trader’s face, stopping dead in midair against an invisible wall!
“[Contract Page: Barrier!]”
The Trader shrieked, the shock knocking him off balance. He fell backward onto his backside, scrambling clumsily across the dirt and straw.
"Clause 9! Additional section! The Contractee cannot harm the contractor! This constitutes attempted murder!"
"Another violation has been found! I declare my judgment as the contractor—"
"SHUT UP!"
Danz slammed his fists against the invisible barrier again and again. Each strike sent ripples through the air, like glass being struck by a hammer.
Bursts of violent red energy erupted outward and wrapped around Danz’s body. His single eye flared redder and redder; streams of blood flowed from the socket, running in thin crimson rivers down his cheek.
For the first time, the Golden Trader’s eyes filled with genuine panic. He stammered, shouting at Danz’s contorted face.
"Impossible! How can you resist the force of the contract?! This is—" His eyes widened, sweat dripping down his face. "The pinnacle of the Foundation Stage! You are but a single step away from the Silver Sky Stage!"
With each strike, the fracture sound of his barrier grew louder. Without care for his dignity, the Golden Trader immediately called for help!
“H–HELP!!---”
Before Danz could wind up another strike to shatter it completely, a fist came flying at him from the side!
Danz stepped back with instinct, narrowly avoiding the blow.
In that same instant, he twisted his body and countered, his punch crashing into Rosen's exposed chest with the force of a battering ram.
"!"
The impact threw Rosen clean off his position, sending him skidding backward.
Behind them, Roson's eyes flared violet once more.
"Ugh!"
Pain tore through Danz's skull. He leapt backward, his figure blurring, landing several meters away in a crouch. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth as he clutched his chest, his breath coming in ragged, burning gasps.
"F—Finish him, before the stimulant wears off!" the Trader shouted, scrambling frantically to his feet.
He yanked a blank, pristine white sheet from his leather pouch, intricate golden patterns etched along its edges, and began to write furiously upon its surface!
Accepting the order, Roson drew a dagger and flew toward Daz.
"Roson, what are you doing!"
The moment Rosen's warning shout reached her ears, she realized that she had flown off course.
'What?'
"[Distraction!]"
Roson's body slammed into a stack of wooden crates. The wood exploded outward in a shower of splinters. She crashed through the barn wall, the planks snapping and raining down over her head in a deafening cascade!
With pain still gnawing at his mind and his warrior's will blazing ever hotter, Roson's power over his mind weakened dramatically.
"DAVIS! GO AWAY!"
Regaining a bit of his senses, Danz roared, his single burning eye fixed upon the broad figure of Rosen, who was already leaping toward him once again.
"But... Boss!"
"TELL EVERYONE THAT CAN STILL STAND, GO—!"
Before Danz could even finish his sentence, Rosen had already closed the distance. Both men threw punches at each other with blurring speed.
"An... APPRENTICE STAGE DARES TO FACE ME?" Danz roared, fixed upon his opponent with murderous contempt.
"HA! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A GLADIATOR!" Rosen smirked, goading him with provocation.
Veins popped across Danz’s forehead, his eyelid twitched furiously. He stopped his frantic movements immediately and stood upright, unmoving.
Seizing the chance, Rosen slammed his heavy fist filled with power directly into Danz's chest!
*BAM!*
“…Oh.” Rosen’s face showed clear astonishment.
Danz took Rosen’s blow straight to the chest without even a flinch. His face remained as furious and terrible as ever, that single burning crimson eye looking down upon Rosen with the disdain one might reserve for an ant beneath one's boot.
In the same breath, Danz threw a quick punch toward Rosen’s head, sending the man flying across the barn and crashing into the far wall!
At the same time, one, two, three—five blazing spheres of fire materialized behind Danz, shimmering with intense heat.
The fireballs, upon materializing, launched themselves in streaking arcs toward the Trader's direction.
“[Submit!]”
Roson had regained her stance amid the wreckage of the crates, her eyes flashing brilliant violet.
Instantly, five of the half-feral Tear Drop men leapt in front of the incoming fireballs, their bodies intercepting the fiery projectiles in midair.
"""GAHHHHHHHHH!!"""
"W-WHAT?"
Danz's single eye dilated in shock. Slowly, as the drug's hold continued to weaken, the chaotic scene around him became clearer, his vision slowly returning to him.
'The stimulant's effect... is wearing off.'
Danz looked over his surroundings.
""Grrr!""
""Grrr!""
""Grrr!""
Surrounding him on all sides were his own men.
They were no longer the loyal followers he had commanded mere minutes ago. They looked like ravenous beasts, half-conscious, half-feral. Their posture was stiff. Their eyes were sunken, glowing faintly violet, and their mouths hung slack with drool.
“The stimulants… they turned them into blood addicts?”
Danz’s single eye moved, his gaze fixing on Roson.
“YOU.”
“!”
“ONCE I KILL YOUR ARSE, THEY SHALL BE FREE!”