Armipotent

"They are not the unreasonable bunch, so we can still talk it out if something happens," Mayor Celap let out a relieved breath after Russo and Vina got out of the room.

Russo claimed that Rodin was not good enough to hold the Guild Master position, yet he chickened out in front of Rodin. He did not say a single thing when Rodin scolded him aside from looking down at the wooden floor.

"I am not sure about that, Celap. If they are not an unreasonable bunch, it should be enough to subdue those adventurers instead of hurting them," Guild Master Rodin massaged his forehead.

"There's a limit, you know. They can ignore us the first or the second time, but if our people keep bothering them, then they will snap at us. Our guest is not just a normal player, but an Emperor too at that. The fact they don't boss us around is good enough," Mayor Celap tried to see things in a positive light, "But what makes you worried about them? Are they so strong that you fear them?"

"I don't know about the others, but the emperor you are talking about, I can't see his status," Rodin shook his head, "What does it mean? It means the emperor is far above me; even my detection does not work on him. I am trying hard not to piss that emperor, but my stupid subordinates just don't listen."

Mayor Celap was stunned after hearing that. He was a mayor, but he was also the former adventurer, second after Rodin. If Rodin's [Detection] did not work, that meant it was bad news.

"That's right. I can only confirm his name, Tang Shaoyang. Nothing else displayed on the status screen," Rodin rose while shaking his head, "I am going to follow Russo for a moment. I am afraid he will do something outrageous. That guy is obstinate and prideful for a mere gold rank. I need to stop him before he does something stupid."

*** ***

Tang Shaoyang and his party did not leave for the quest after leaving the guild. They went back to the inn for lunch even though it was not lunchtime yet. The others thought the emperor was just hungry, but he had another reason.

"We will depart in twenty minutes," Tang Shaoyang said after the food arrived on the table. Everyone looked confused because twenty minutes was just too long to finish their lunch.

It took a few moments for Ava to realize what Tang Shaoyang wanted to do, "Ah, so do you think that annoying Russo will chase after us? That's why we wait for them here and finish them for once, Your Majesty?" She lowered her voice to the point of almost whispering.

Tang Shaoyang nodded, "I have met a lot of people like Russo. He's the prideful type of guy, and he will not stop until he can trample us because we just embarrass him in front of many. Or if he's part of the people who try to stop us from completing the mission. Either way, we wait for them and finish them off. They are quite annoying."

Right at twenty minutes, the party departed from the inn. Instead of splitting right away like before, they walked together in a group. Tang Shaoyang immediately noticed Russo with his party following the group. The man realized Tang Shaoyang and his party was quite strong, so the man brought a number this time, fifty of them.

Five minutes on the way, they were already far away from the town, yet Russo did not make any move yet. Ten minutes passed…. Fifteen minutes passed…. Twenty minutes passed….

"I can't wait any longer," Tang Shaoyang lost his patience. He stopped and turned around, looking toward the direction where Russo was, and yelled, "How long are you going to follow us? Waiting for us to split up?"

They were in the middle of the woods, the perfect place for an ambush. If Russo and his party wanted to kill the travelers, this was the place. No one would find out who killed the travelers.

A few seconds later, Russo came out from his hiding spot, followed by ten people. At the same time, the other four groups came out of their hiding spots, tallying the number up to fifty people. Russo had his men surround Tang Shaoyang with no path to escape from five different directions.

"So you have found we are following you," Russo smirked as his gaze landed on Tang Shaoyang, "Then you make a mistake. You should run instead."

"Are you part of the group who doesn't want the travelers to complete the mission?" Tang Shaoyang had been curious. This was his second day, and he did not have enough time to investigate Russo's background. He had been curious if the man acted because Russo was merely a prideful guy with an inflated ego or if the guy was part of the resistance.

"Bingo! It seems Mayor Celap has told you about us," Russo snapped his finger with a grin on his face, "But I am also curious how strong you are to make that rotten Rodin fear you," He used [Detection] on Tang Shaoyang and was confused with the result. He got nothing but a name from the detection. His forehead crumpled with bad feelings inside him.

"There's no need to hesitate. Clean them up!" Tang Shaoyang gave his order and motioned his party to take down the fifty people after getting Russo's answer.

The nine people charged to the other four groups while Tang Shaoyang faced Russo's group. He took out the Dragon Destroyer instead of his myth grade sword. The [Detection] gave him everything he needed to know about Russo and his party. The highest level person was the man with a black cloth to cover his face, Epic Rank, level 1048. Russo himself was just level 819; there was no need to use the myth grade weapon against them.

Tang Shaoyang activated [Flash Step], arriving in front of Russo in a flash. When he appeared in front of Russo, his battle-ax was already in the air, glowing in dark red. Russo and his party were startled by how fast Tang Shaoyang was. They could not react in time as Tang Shaoyang brought down his battle-ax toward them [Thousand Blast].

Thousands of shattering booms resounded in the air as the dark red mana spread out after the blast along with the dust, covering what happened to Russo and his party. The ground shook for a solid five seconds. With a swing of his battle-ax, Tang Shaoyang cleared the dust and revealed what happened to Russo and his party. There was nothing left but ground stained with blood, bones, and crushing equipment.

However, there was one survival from Russo's group. He was the Epic Rank, but the man's condition was bad. His armor was tattered, holding into a spear weakly as he coughed up blood. His hair shriveled as he looked at Tang Shaoyang with an expression beyond belief.

Tang Shaoyang put the battle-axe on his shoulder as he approached the dying man, "It seems there's nothing to be worried about the resistance group. You don't even try to find how strong your enemy is." When the distance between them was two meters, the emperor raised the battle-ax. He intended to finish the man off.

"Wait! Don't kill him!" Someone came out of the wood, and he was Guild Master Rodin, "It's more valuable if we catch him alive and find the rest of his group in the town."