Humanity Return

Ch. 16 - Stupidity

Three followers of Brick began to spread out taking their respective positions.

One man wearing a spear stood behind Brick, the other standing beside him holding several throwing knives in both hands, and the one remaining jumped backwards to take some distance with the bow in his hand.

“Huh”

Leinn noticed a pouch on the waist of the follower using the bow.

From its shape can be seen the bag has been filled with almost round objects that are small.

“What is the contents of the bag?” leinn asked while pointing at the bow wearer.

Seeing the man in front of him not pulling out his gun, Brick thought Leinn was starting to get scared to see their weapon. Looking at the pouch on the waist of his followers, he turned back to face Leinn with a mocking smile.

“If you're curious, why don't you come closer and find out for yourself.” taunts Brick.

Blinking his eyes once, Brick's expression turned confused.

In front of him was only Aura who was standing alone with a surprised expression, with her gaze like she was being fixed on something behind her.

Then a strong wind hit his face quite strongly, surprising him instead of playing.

Brick and two of his followers turned their heads and found the wearer of the bow staring at the three of them in a daze, unaware of the strange atmosphere.

“Beast Core... Rank C's? Without the element as well, there were at least 100 dii” sounds suddenly appearing from behind him.

Hearing that voice, he immediately turned his body while pulling the arrows on him.

In front of him now stood Leinn with a familiar pouch in his right hand.

“Seeing you guys already want to fight me, how about a bet?” leinn said casually.

Leinn did not look anxious in the slightest even though an arrow was being pointed at his face in such a close distance.

Brick's incredible speed makes him a little anxious, but doesn't want to look weak in front of a girl and her followers, so he retaliates loudly.

“Alright! What kind of bet do you want?” brick replied firmly, hiding his anxiety.

Seeing that reaction, Leinn smiled.

“If I win, I want this” Leinn raised the pouch in her hand.

Brick had already guessed that he wanted their Beast Core, he already felt extremely lucky when he found the corpse of one group of Giant Tarantulas with the Beast Core still inside their bodies.

It turned out that the young man in front of him was intending to take that away from him.

He had thought of Leinn as a vagrant who happened to take the academy entrance examination but after seeing what he had just done, he was already not very confident about that assumption.

But his pride did not allow him to retreat when he had already arrived here.

“OK! What if you lose?”

Leinn threw the pouch in his hand back at the archer in front of him, who was shocked and released his arrow.

The arrow pierced through Leinn's head, which then turned into a fake shadow.

Panic began to be felt by the four of them.

“Of course the Beast Core of the same grade will you get” replied Leinn who was standing right behind Brick.

Hearing the sudden appearance of the sound, Brick immediately swung his axe with all his strength horizontally behind him, the wind generated from his swing to move the leaves of the surrounding trees.

Leinn did not look surprised at all, this huge axe swing just passed through his body just like that, he seemed to be motionless from where he stood.

He only took one step back then one step forward, returning to his standing position.

“What...?!”

Seeing his attack miss, Brick proceeded to raise his axe as high as possible and prepared to deliver a follow-up attack.

The spear-wielding follower had already moved beside Leinn and the follower with the throwing knife took a position to the right of Brick.

The huge axe started to fall with the wind screaming loudly.

Booms!

Rocks floated high and dust covered the view in front of all of them.

Aura saw Leinn just standing there without dodging or resisting the attack.

”Leinn!” yelled Aura in panic.

“Ya?”

Hearing the answer that came out from the middle of the dust fog, Aura became calmer knowing that Leinn was still fine.

Swooshes!

The wind generated from his swing blew up the dust fog in front of him, revealing the form of the black-haired youth.

Leinn just stood up smiling with his sword still on his waist.

“You underestimated me!” snapped Brick with anger.

Seeing that Leinn had no intention of fighting seriously, Brick's self-esteem became severely injured.

He began to ferociously swing his axe, cut through the tree and tore through the ground while running after Leinn.

“hue-“

Boom boom boom...!

Brick did not hear a small sound that appeared before the sound of an explosion filled the place.

Slash after slash struck without a clear target hovering over and over again, like wanting to destroy anything that blocked his path.

After attacking relentlessly for a minute, Brick finally regained his senses from the rampage. He also realized he did not hear the voice of his followers either.

He waited for a while for the dust fog that was blocking his vision to subside, finding the area five meters around him had already shattered.

But he could not see anyone there, including Aura and her followers.

“David? Ethan's? Cosby?” panic can be heard in his voice.

But still no answer.

‘a-do they..’ one possibility crossed his head.

His hand that was grasping his axe started to tremble, fear began to emerge from within his heart.

“Where is kalia-!“

“Let's rest they're fine” quiet voice interrupts his screams.

Leinn suddenly landed from the sky, five meters in front of Brick.

His expression looks cold.

“Yes your friend was pretty decent too, the spear and knife that suddenly appeared when I dodged your attack, and the arrow that came from my blind corner. Their combined attack was quite good” the complimenting sentence did not match the flat tone within the voice that came out of his mouth.

A sense of relief appeared on Brick's face, but before he could ask where they were, Leinn continued.

“The same cannot be said for you... Losing your composure due to a missed attack, not thinking of storing up energy for a long fight and your obvious aimless attack was such a mess.” Leinn criticized the big man in front of her mercilessly.

Hearing that, Brick noticed his already disordered breathing and the profuse sweat running down his forehead and back.

He wanted to give a reply, but nothing could come out of his mouth.

“And you know what the dumbest thing you just did?”

A blue mana began to appear and revolve around the black-haired young man, adding to the mysterious atmosphere he was emitting.

“You almost hurt your own friend”

Brick finally realizes that he almost hurt one of his followers again.

Grasping hard the axe in his hand he started swinging his axe once more.

“Aaa-!”

Swoo-cla!

This time the axe hit something, and it managed to stop the swing of the ax.

A dark blue sword.

“Prepare”

Leinn stood up normally with the sword in his right hand, holding back the swing of the large axe without the slightest hint of difficulty.

　

　

His cold gaze could not be separated from the big man's eyes.