Chapter 198: Second Slaughter Part – Two
"This is crazy..."
A guard of the Sterling House spoke in a trembling voice while numerous guards and mercenaries rushed past him.
Some enhanced their arms with Cognis to increase the force behind their sword swings and spear thrusts. Others pushed Cognis into their legs to increase their speed as they charged across the bloodstained courtyard. Revolvers fired repeatedly while Kalthoff Repeater rifles unleashed bursts of gunfire toward a single person standing amidst the chaos.
"He’s just a boy..."
The guard stared ahead with disbelief.
The sounds of clashing weapons echoed endlessly throughout the courtyard.
Swords collided.
Spears scraped against steel.
Gunshots roared.
Men screamed.
Several female Alchemists from the mercenary group shouted in pain as bullets and blades tore through bodies around them.
The entire battlefield had become a mess of blood, snow, smoke, and death.
"How?"
The guard’s breathing became uneven.
His heart pounded so hard he could hear it inside his ears.
"How?"
Sweat mixed with dirt and blood rolled down his face as he slowly retreated away from the center of the slaughter.
"He isn’t even a War Alchemist."
He pushed past two guards rushing toward the battle.
"How? How? How?"
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The gunshots behind him sounded like thunder.
The guard stumbled and fell onto the snow.
The once-white ground had already turned red.
Looking up, he saw three mercenaries collapse only a few meters away.
Blood burst from their skulls.
The sight froze him.
"AH...AH...AHHHHH!"
He screamed and covered his head.
"I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!"
His body shook violently.
The courage he thought he possessed disappeared completely.
He began crawling through the blood and snow like a frightened animal trying to escape a predator.
Behind him, sparks of Cognis continued to flash.
The sounds of battle slowly became fewer.
Not because the fight was ending.
But because there were fewer people left alive to continue it.
"Ahhh..."
The guard slowly lifted his head.
"What has the Main Family created?"
He struggled to his feet.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
CLANG! CLANG!
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The violent rhythm of battle stabbed into his ears.
The sounds followed him as he ran with everything he had left.
"WHAT MONSTER HAVE THEY CREATED?!"
BANG!
A bullet pierced through the back of his head.
A clean hole appeared instantly.
Blood poured out.
The guard’s body lost all strength and his corpse fell face-first into the snow.
Dead.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The remaining guards screamed as they charged.
The mercenaries were already dead.
All of them.
Only the Sterling guards remained and newly hired guards.
Ezra calmly removed the empty magazine from his Kel-Tec PMR-30.
At the same time, he stepped around a spear thrust and tilted his head away from a sword slash.
A fresh magazine appeared from his Space Bag.
Click.
Reload complete.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several guards carrying Kalthoff Repeaters fired together.
The melee fighters immediately moved aside to avoid friendly fire.
In one fluid sequence...
Ezra fired.
Three incoming bullets exploded apart in midair, then he accelerated.
The snow beneath his feet shattered.
The distance between him and the gunmen disappeared instantly.
The first guard flinched.
Fear flashed across his eyes.
He hurriedly raised his rifle, but too late.
Ezra slapped the barrel away.
Bang!
A hole appeared in the guard’s chest.
Bang!
His stomach exploded.
Bang!
The force tore through his internal organs.
The guard collapsed before he could even scream.
Ezra sharply turned, hitting another Kalthoff Repeater which was pointed toward him.
Bang!
The guard panicked and pulled the trigger.
The shot missed completely.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ezra bent slightly as he fired.
The bullets tore through the man’s knee joints, then his thigh, then his eye socket.
And finally...
His heart.
The body collapsed.
Without wasting a single movement...
Ezra pivoted again.
A guard who had completely given up on fighting was now running away.
His weapon had already been discarded as he ran with fear filling his face.
Bang!
One knee shattered.
The man fell.
His scream echoed across the courtyard.
Ezra ignored it.
Cognis surged from his stars into his veins, then into his legs.
Boom!
His foot smashed into the ground, stone exploded upward.
Broken chunks of rock filled the air.
Two guards rushing toward him suddenly lost their vision.
Their eyes widened.
They could see nothing.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four shots.
Four kills.
Even with the flying debris blocking his view...
Every bullet struck perfectly.
At that exact moment...
Ezra’s Wave Sense detected movement.
Fast and violent.
His ear twitched slightly.
Without hesitation, he turned and raised the handgun.
And fired.
Clank!
A bright spark appeared in the air.
The incoming sniper round was knocked away.
The deflected bullet struck the corpse of a mercenary.
Ezra’s own bullet dropped to the floor completely bent from the impact.
The power behind the Springfield M1903A is no joke.
His dark eyes shifted again toward the window where the shot had come from.
A spear suddenly rushed toward him; the tip aimed directly for his neck.
Ezra immediately spun, the spear missing by inches.
His coat fluttered as he raised his handgun, pointing at the face of the guard.
The guard’s eyes widened.
Bang!
The handgun fired.
A hole appeared in the center of the guard’s forehead.
His body dropped instantly.
Ezra caught the falling spear, eyes locked on the rushing guards.
Several guards attacked from different directions with swords descending toward him.
He moved the spear swiftly, blocking all their attacks.
In the middle of that movement, Ezra released the spear from his hand and immediately began firing at the remaining guards.
The Kel-Tec PMR-30 sat comfortably in his grip; the weapon almost felt like an extension of his own arm.
Adjusting his aim.
Turning his wrist.
Changing targets.
Everything flowed naturally.
The recoil felt light.
The handling was smooth.
His movements connected together without interruption.
Bang!
A guard rushing forward suddenly had a hole blown through his forehead.
Bang!
Another guard’s eye socket exploded.
Bang!
A third man’s throat burst apart.
Ezra continued advancing.
His dark eyes constantly swept across the battlefield.
Every movement.
Every opening.
Every hesitation.
Nothing escaped his attention.
The guards had originally tried to surround him in a circular formation, hoping to attack from multiple directions at once again.
Instead, they only created more targets.
Ezra turned.
Fired.
Turned again and fired again.
Headshot after headshot echoed throughout the courtyard.
Blood sprayed across the snow.
Bodies continued dropping.
Sometimes he chose the fastest kill.
Other times he chose something different.
A bullet shattered a man’s knee.
The guard collapsed screaming.
Another shot destroyed his shoulder, making his weapon fall from his hand and the final round pierced through his heart.
The screaming stopped.
Like that, one guard after another disappeared from the battlefield.
Their numbers dropped rapidly.
Like flies.
And throughout all of this...
Ezra still had another threat to deal with.
The sniper.
Every few moments, his Wave Sense picked up danger.
His ears caught subtle sounds.
The shift of air.
The vibration of a bullet.
The movement of a trigger.
Again and again, sniper rounds came flying toward him.
Again and again, he deflected them.
Sometimes with bullets.
Sometimes by shifting his body.
Sometimes by using dead enemies as cover.
Yet his gun never stopped firing.
His hands never stopped moving.
Reloading.
Shooting.
Evading and analyzing.
Everything happened simultaneously.
The battlefield had become a giant calculation.
And Ezra was solving it one body at a time.
Time slowly passed.
The once crowded courtyard gradually became silent.
The screams disappeared.
The gunshots became fewer.
The number of people standing steadily decreased.
Eventually...
Only corpses remained.
"Damn..."
The young man holding the Springfield M1903A finally sat down on the floor.
His eyes blinked repeatedly as if he couldn’t process what he had just witnessed.
"He killed all of them."
A nervous laugh escaped his mouth.
He turned toward the elderly man standing nearby.
The old man remained expressionless, his arms were folded and his gaze stayed fixed on the battlefield below.
"Is this something to be laughing about?!"
Zara suddenly shouted while his nails dug into his palms with his face twisted with frustration.
His breathing had become uneven ever since he watched Ezra slaughter over a hundred guards and mercenaries.
The image refused to leave his mind.
That useless trash.
That weak little brother he used to bully.
That same Ezra had just wiped out an entire force by himself.
"What are we supposed to do now?"
Zara looked toward the elderly leader.
The old man finally moved.
"Let’s go."
His voice was cold, calm and steady.
As though everything that happened outside wasn’t important.
"He has already exhausted a large amount of Cognis dealing with those weaklings."
The old man turned around and began walking toward the stairs leading down to the mansion entrance.
"The kid is still a Binder Rank Alchemist."
He continued speaking without turning back.
"Remain vigilant."
"Yes, Boss."
The three Novice Alchemists immediately responded.
One was the young sniper carrying the Springfield M1903A.
The second was a woman in her late twenties with short brown hair and a long sword hanging at her waist.
The third was a broad-shouldered man in his early thirties carrying a long heavy sword across his back.
All three followed behind the Binder Rank leader.
Zara quickly moved after them with his two remaining guards following behind him.
Although both men looked frightened, they still forced themselves forward.
The presence of a Binder Rank Alchemist gave them confidence.
At least enough confidence to keep walking.
As for Zara...
His reason was much simpler.
He wanted to see Ezra die.
No.
He needed to see Ezra die.
The humiliation.
The fear and the shame.
Everything that Ezra had made him experience since returning.
Zara wanted to return all of it.
And if possible...
He wanted to personally participate in killing him.
Meanwhile...
Ezra pushed open the mansion door.
Creak.
The large entrance hall greeted him.
Unlike the battlefield outside, the interior was strangely quiet.
Broken ceramic pieces littered the floor.
Several flower vases had been knocked over.
Furniture had been displaced.
The signs of panic were obvious.
The maids had clearly fled in a hurry.
Ezra calmly reached into his Space Bag.
A small lime-colored healing elixir appeared in his hand.
He uncorked it, then drank it in one gulp.
Warmth immediately spread through his body.
Using Cognis healing feature to increase the medicine’s effects, the small cuts and wounds he had accumulated throughout the battle gradually closed.
The bleeding stopped and the pain faded.
His condition quickly stabilized.
Then...
Bang!
A gunshot echoed through the mansion.
Ezra stopped walking.
A bullet buried itself into the wooden floor only inches from his boot.
Wood splinters scattered.
He slowly raised his head.
His expression remained unchanged.
The young sniper stood above him.
A smug smile rested on his face.
"That was a warning shot."
The young man casually spun the Springfield M1903A.
"The next one won’t be."
He raised the rifle.
The scope aligned perfectly with Ezra’s forehead.
"Ezra Ashenlocke, right?"
The elderly leader spoke from the balcony.
His arms remained folded and his gaze looked down from above.
"You fought well."
His voice carried confidence.
"It almost makes me want to spare you."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"You’re a promising child."
The way he spoke made it sound as though Ezra’s life already belonged to him.
As though Ezra wasn’t a threat, as though the outcome had already been decided.
"What do you mean, spare him?"
Zara suddenly shouted.
"Kill him already!"
His voice echoed through the hall.
But nobody listened.
The old man completely ignored him.
"I will giv..."
He started speaking.
"Enough talking."
Ezra interrupted him; his voice remained flat.
"Come at me already."
He stared directly at the group.
"I don’t have time to waste on you."
The atmosphere instantly changed.
The three Novice Alchemists narrowed their eyes.
Killing intent surged from their bodies.
The old man’s faint smile remained, but the veins near his temple bulged slightly.
Clearly...
Ezra’s interruption had irritated him.
The old man slowly raised his hand, then extended two fingers.
A simple signal.
Attack.
Immediately...
The three Novice Alchemists moved.
The sniper adjusted his aim, the woman drew her long sword and the other man unsheathed his heavy blade.
Cognis surged from all three bodies.
The pressure spread throughout the hall.
At that exact moment...
Ezra moved first.
His hand entered the Space Bag bringing out a gun and he fired fast.
"You are dead, kid!"
The sniper pulled his trigger at almost the same time.
Through his scope, he noticed the incoming projectile.
It looked larger than normal.
His first thought was simple.
A Big-4barrel revolver round.
He adjusted his aim, preparing to intercept it.
Meanwhile, the other two Alchemists prepared to launch their attacks the moment they landed.
Then...
CLASH!
The two bullets collided... and the next instant...
A blinding white light exploded outward.
Ezra immediately covered his eyes with his black coat with the hall becoming a sea of light.
The brightness swallowed everything.
Zara.
His two guards.
The elderly Binder Rank Alchemist.
The sniper.
The woman and the other man.
Every one of them was caught completely off guard by the flash that illuminated the entire mansion.
