"Just give up," I said after leaving behind the fifth deep wound over his suit and body, "or else in the next few hits, you are going to fall."
"I won't succumb to such a tyrant!" he screamed again and I slowly grew impatient with him. I wasted almost twenty minutes trying to knock reality into his head. But it seemed all of this was useless.
"Fine, if you want to die then I'll gladly help," I raised my glaive high in the air and was ready to use my full strength to strike his head this time.
This hit was going to be lethal, and he wouldn't survive such an attack. Yet when I was going to hit him, he stood erect, raising his head in pride, as if he didn't care about anything in the world.
"Stephen... Just give up and don't throw your life for nothing worthy!"
Just before I'd move my glaive down, a loud scream came from behind. I turned to look, and found out that Matte was the one who shouted from on top of my chariot.
I stopped and watched that scaredy cat climb down my chariot using the rope left by my jumper. And during his descent, he didn't stop talking.
"This lord might seem weak and without a future, but believe me he has many hidden abilities. Just open your eyes and take a look around. He managed to create such a miracle and brought forth the long lost legendary Hescos in large numbers! I don't know how he did it, but I have the feeling he can do it many times already."
I lowered my glaive, and took a step to the side, clearing a space for that useless brat to show his worth.
If he managed to rope in such a hard nut to my side, then it'd be worth giving him more support and resources later on. Perhaps if his tongue proved effective here, I might bring him with me whenever I'd fight Hescos armies and paragons.
"Shut up, traitors! How can you even think about that! Have you forgotten our race and what they did for you? Such ungrateful son of b*tches like you shall be killed even before born!"
"What did my race do? Hahaha! That's just a joke! Did you forget already or what? Our race never supported us. All they did was to gather us here and place us against each other for one to prove himself worthy! I never wanted to come here, but was forced by that tyrannical race! Coming here means I'll die. I knew it the moment I was forced to step here. Just look around and tell me, who came here out of his own volition? Even you didn't volunteer to such crusade or any of this sh*t!"
The words Matte threw showed how deeply enraged he was. When I heard him, a weird expression rose on my face.
I moved my eyes towards Stephen, and surprisingly enough he kept his silence and didn't even refute back what Matte said.
"Is it true?" I couldn't help but ask, "were you all forced to come here?"
"Can you believe that?" Matte shouted at my face before turning to Stephen as if I wasn't standing next to him, "even such a foreigner finds it strange. It's brutal! Our race doesn't lack anyone who has dreams to prove themselves worthy. Why not grant those who hailed from weak families and poor backgrounds a chance to prove themselves and create a name for their people? Why would they force everyone like us and neglect those who desperately want to come?"
"Shut up! You said too much already!"
"No, I won't! If I was still in that damn race, then speaking a single word like this would have ended my life. But right now I'm serving a just and strong lord, one who didn't interfere to stop me from saying whatever I wanted since the first moment I met him!"
I felt weird while hearing his words. I didn't stop his words before and let him speak nonsense without trying to interfere. I just didn't want to waste my breaths over someone unworthy like him.
Who knew such a negligible act would leave such a deep impression on his soul? I looked at Matte in a weird way. Was that kid faking it all this time and testing me?
Don't tell me the other paragons were also faking being cowards and such!
From the words Matte said, I could feel the burning fire of revenge hot and blazing in his heart. This wasn't the action nor the attitude of a weakling or a coward.
It seemed these kids held deep grudges against their race, deep enough to choose to not help their race at all and just try to find a way out of this cursed life they were living.
Did they let me capture them with ease as they saw me as a way to escape their prisons? I couldn't help but take a look back, taking a long look at my chariot where many paragons were standing.
Tsk! I had to be more attentive with my capable generals and worthy talents. Forcing anyone to do anything would only backfire at some point and lead my kingdom to its demise.
Sigh! Such a high and mighty race as the number one in the universe seemed to not matter that much to those kids. They didn't want to join any of these shitty apocalypses happening in the entire universe.
Many might hail from strong backgrounds, but that didn't mean they'd be just like their ancestors. They might prefer to live a life of peace and prosperity. And to me, that made quite sense.
Forcing such dudes to risk their lives, throw away their good lives and live through dangers like what was happening in any apocalypse was lame.
I engraved such deep and meaningful words from Matte and stuck such incidents to my memory. I hoped that I never forced anyone to work as a general or a leader.
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