"One... two..."
A groan sounded out from beneath Grey.
"Hey, can you shut the fuck up, I’m trying to count here," Grey clicked his tongue, "now I need to start again. Alright. One... two..."
Brad sighed. "We’re never going to have a moment of peace again, are we?"
Mauve actually laughed. She tried to stop, but it wasn’t working at all. The stifling only made her sound more ridiculous, almost like she was drowning in the middle of an ocean without a lick of swimming experience.
Her hands fell to her knees and she bent over, finally letting it out.
"That’s it, then." Amunet sighed as well. "He finally broke her."
"He’s going to break me soon too, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up."
"Be a man." Amunet said.
"Those are some really backwards moral standards you’ve got there. What if I said get in the kitchen?"
"Sure. Point me toward the kitchen. You think I want to do this shit?"
"Touche, touche."
The Relentless’ disciples were supposed to be, well... relentless. By the time Rosie skidded to a stop by the entrance, her small hands bundling up her long robes like a dainty little princess running for her life, she truly couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Bas was on the ground... whimpering.
Grey was using him like a convenient bench in the middle of her rose garden, her precious rose—.
Rosie’s head snapped toward the flowers and only then did she breathe out a sigh of relief.
The pavers and grass were completely ruined. But, luckily for her, the roses had survived. She patted her chest in relief, and then turned back to the real point of shock.
Bas... whimpering... bench...
What the hell was going on here?
"Here comes the music..." Brad mumbled. "Hey, Grey. Maybe we should run or something?"
Grey looked up from his counting, tossing four spatial rings into the skies and catching them. As expected, the disciple of a Guardian was truly wealthy, and Bas was even weaker than Pandro. Honestly, Grey had no idea what he was thinking.
Pandro was in the Vanguard Class so he at least had a chance, but Bas was still in the Vector Class just like the last time they fought.
Unless you were from one of those powerful alien races, Grey couldn’t see how anyone here could affect him if they were weaker than Vanguard.
"Run?" Grey shook his head. "That’s too inelegant. We should definitely skedaddle."
By the time Grey said this, he had already flashed ahead to the gates, moving so fast the trio and even Rosie could hardly track him.
"Come on!" he called out.
"Shit. Mauve, come on. Stop laughing."
"It’s no good, she’s broken." Amunet said.
"Dammit!" Brad hauled Mauve over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes, but she just kept laughing, and laughing. The shoulder bouncing into her gut didn’t do much to help. Her wheezes only came out wilder.
Rosie could only stand there as her nuns caught up. They watched as Grey and the others scurried away like bandits in the night. Except... it was broad daylight... and they had to stop at the gates for the guards to slowly let it creep open...
Then they ran away.
Rosie sighed, and then looked down at Bas, then back toward where they ran, then back at Bas again.
She had never thought it was possible for Bas to end up so broken. He might have been of a weaker Class than Pandro, but his grit was on another level.
Whimpering?
"Rosie, we need to heal him. Every bone in his body has been minced near to ash."
Rosie reacted like a jolt of electricity had just ravaged her. But before she could move, a figure just... appeared.
Reaching out, Rosie stopped her fellow nuns from rushing out to help the fallen disciple, her gaze becoming exceptionally serious.
The Relentless stood over his disciple’s body in silence, his gigantic form looming. He didn’t say a word, just looking out toward where Grey had left, but a heavy gloom hung over him.
Chaos. It had been nothing but chaos since that man appeared.
There was no Guardian more protective of his people than The Relentless.
And there was no Guardian who cared less of the rules than The Relentless.
**
"About damn time you slackers caught up. What took you so long?" Grey hid out in an alley, pulling the others in as they finally caught up to him.
"You left us!" Amunet immediately started to complain.
"Left? Am I not here now?" Grey grinned. "Alright, let’s go. Dinner’s on the fat fuck!"
Grey immediately chose a restaurant he had passed by the two times he had been here before. He had really wanted to stop and eat anything back then, but he was on a time crunch so he hadn’t been able to.
Now that he had finally had a good night’s rest, the next thing he needed was a real meal.
And a real meal he had.
He was truly salivating at the spread. He didn’t even know what kind of beast meat they mentioned on the menu, honestly. He just ordered one of everything.
The waiters and staff were very cordial and helpful, especially after they sensed his holy aura. Maybe they couldn’t tell he was a Paladin, but to them there was little difference. They would have to treat a Holy Knight with just as much earned respect.
Unfortunately for Grey, he was bound to bring chaos wherever he went. Amunet was just in the middle of calling him something between a fatass and a wastrel who wasn’t going to finish this meal at all when someone kicked open the doors of the restaurant.
Grey didn’t know the person, nor were they related to the Relentless. But he recognized the unique aura instantly.
He had met all three potential heirs of the Valdi Dukedom, so whoever this man with an entourage was couldn’t have been one of them.
But they definitely had Valdi blood.
And they had obviously come for Grey as well, because the moment the little prick appeared, his gaze landed on Grey.