Peace was never an option.
I mutter to myself as I decimate the soldiers who didn't anticipate my attack after killing the proud commander. After all, they thought we would cower in front of the shogun showing his authority and how he is high and mighty.
But that has no such effect on us. Perhaps he is trying to instill fear in us and intimidate us by using the music the hooded bard is releasing from the flute that guy is using. I even saw his shock when he saw us immediately go into attack mode without even caring about his words.
"What are you all doing?! Kill them all!" the shogun ordered and the soldiers entered berserk mode while some underwent beast transformation. After the order, he went inside the castle alongside the bard who keeps on using the flute as they continue inside.
"As if I will let you escape!" I jumped into the air and changed my Versatile Weapon into a hook and chain before throwing the hook towards the shogun, trying to hook and pull him away from escaping.
But before the hook can even reach the shogun, a big-bodied guy blocks the way and stops the hook from getting into the shogun, allowing the shogun to return to safety and disappear inside.
"You shall not harm the shogun. You will be dying here."
"Just shut up," I didn't back down and immediately dash through the big-bodied guy I tried to slice him with my Versatile Weapon but the moment the blade of the Versatile Weapon landed on him, he blocked it by using his hands. It was hard. It was like I am hitting concrete instead of flesh. Even with the armor penetration passives I got, it didn't even manage to graze the guy.
He then tried to break my weapon as he grab the blade but the moment he tried doing so, his hands starts to bleed and he groaned while trying to even bend it. Unfortunately for him, the Versatile cannot even be destroyed or even bend at will. His hands would break first before he can even put a dent in the Versatile Weapon.
I took advantage of him grabbed the weapon's blade and changed it quickly into a spear. Because the shape changed, he didn't anticipate the length of the blade to suddenly go thin and extend, allowing me to use this chance to immediately push the spear straight to his eyes.
STAB!
"URGH!"
He groaned in pain as I gouge out his eyes. His eyeball is hanging by the blade of my spear but disappeared immediately when the shadow dragon stealthily devours the eyeball without my permission. But that's okay since it's a good riddance.
While he is still stunned from being attacked by my spear, I changed the spear into a gauntlet and started punching him. If bladed weapons don't work then a blunt can totally wreck this guy down.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
Repeated punches slowly make his hardened skin crumble. It's not that hard to deal with but the sheer impact made by the Gauntlet of greed is enough to cause the hardened skin to fall. It's not going to last long enough. Of course, it might be due to the [Weakness Destroyer] passive that I have that causes this to make the guy slowly lose his body parts.
For the final blow, when he is about to recover, I immediately released one final punch, which is packed with the skill power of [Wallop]. And instead of the body, I aim it on his head.
CRACK!
A loud crack can be heard the moment I his head. It was like I hit a big rock and hit its weak point. Of course, it's not a rock that has been broken but the head of the big guy. Like a squashed melon, it burst to pieces, leaving nothing behind, instantly killing him.
But as a result of his death, everyone immediately went into a frenzy. Everyone started unleashing a killing intent. Funny, since their killing intent does not affect me at all.
"I know you guys are angry at me for killing this commander, but is that really all you guys got?!" I immediately proceed to release my own killing intent. Something that I have in the past timeline. It's a developed killing intent and it's not just any kind of killing intent as it will actually cause anyone who can't endure my killing intent to get paralyzed in fear.
Of course, I don't know whether they will be paralyzed in fear especially when they are enraged but it's enough to intimidate them to have second thoughts in attacking me.
Queen Tanya is doing quite well and is enjoying mowing down the soldiers coming to her. She does not even need my help. Queen Tori is also brutal in her ways as she started to go offensive style and play aggressively, especially whenever the enemies get near her perimeter. No matter how near or far they are from her as long as they are within the range of her perimeter, they will not escape her ability to impale the enemies using her paper talisman that suddenly turns into spikes. She is relentless and as she is moving slowly, the enemies that tried to approach her are all dead.
"Bladeheart! What's the plan, should we just eliminate everyone here and be done with it?" Queen Tanya asked.
"I don't know, it will take some time before we will be done with this. Maybe I should just do something. Everyone, let's go to that stage. I will be doing something."
The three of us went on our way to the stage and the soldiers started to try and swarm us there but Queen Tori immediately deployed a [Kekkai] around us to stop them from progressing further.
"What now?" Queen Tanya looked at me with a puzzled stare.
I pulled out the crystal that Yuki-Onna gave me. After charging it with mana, a cold wind suddenly appeared around us and the soldiers who are enraged halted their movements due to the cold. Their armor is not equipped with any cold resistance.
Then, a few seconds later, snow appeared and slowly swirled around before revealing Yuki-Onna materializing in the air.
"A Yuki-Onna?!" Queen Tori was totally surprised to see Yuki-Onna materialized right before us.
Yuki-Onna looked around and her eyes soon landed in my direction, which made her giggle.
"Hehe, who would have thought you would summon me this soon? Are you in a tight spot right now? Because from what I can see, you guys are in that spot."
"Eh, not really. It's just that we needed to finish the battle sooner and stop them from chasing us. We needed to get rid of them before they can even be a big problem later. Can you perhaps freeze them?"
"Freezing them huh? Just so you know, if we freeze them, those who can't endure the cold will die. Are you still going to proceed?"
Although I am not in favor of killing them, there is no choice here. If we let them remain as is, then there is a chance they will just block our way and stop us from getting close to the shogun.
"Do it."
Yuki-Onna smiled before she floats above the air, summoning a hailstorm. An ice barrier appeared where we are standing and the rest are bombarded by the hailstorm.
"One freezing Hailstorm, coming right up."
With one wave of her hand and the surroundings immediately got covered in snow, and the soldiers who tried to escape were slowly freezing from feet up to their upper bodies. They started wailing in despair before their whole body has been encased in ice. Even for those who tried to escape, the ice just didn't let them do so. Their screams were eventually muffled as the ice covers their bodies and their heads.
"And with that, everything is done. Good luck!"
Yuki-Onna waved goodbye before disappearing, just like how she appeared, she disappeared just as quickly as before.
The ice barrier surrounding us also melted and left us with the soldiers, frozen and can no longer initiate combat, or even move. I don't know who is still alive and who is now dead, the important thing is that they are now stopped in their tracks.
"...Let's go." I urged the two.
The two nodded in silence as we proceed straight into the shogun's castle. Since the castle is still very big, I can tell that those leaders are currently inside, waiting and serving as the final blockade of enemies before we reach the shogun. After all, we didn't see the guy who has the stolen wind artifact.
And I don't think we will be labeled as heroes in this situation after the battle against the shogun. There is no way the populace will just accept us from liberating them from the rule of the tyrant shogun. With how we instigated everything, they will eventually come to hate us. However, it doesn't matter. We will just have to deal with the aftermath once it is all over.
This chapt𝒆r is updated by free(w)ebnovel(.)com