The mood in the hall changed, and it changed drastically. When the burly man had been stepping on Silas' face, or bullying him, or taunting and insulting him, the crowd watched in silence. Sure there was some expression of distaste and disgust. Some even looked horrified as they watched. Others just watched indifferently. There were even a few who snickered and joked.
But the commonality between all of those people was that none of them felt compelled to act in any way. No matter what their reasons were, the way they fell in line meant that they knew exactly what they were supposed to do, or what they were going to do in that given situation. Maybe the big guy had a habit of open bullying.
But the moment Nero acted against him, everyone suddenly froze. Their muscles tightened up and a collective shock gripped the entire crowd, mixed in with mild horror. Nero took in everything around him, since he was on the lookout for anyone who might want to aid the big guy. But his gaze was thoroughly locked in on the big guy on the ground.
His foot slammed down on his neck, choking him! If Nero had been even the slightest bit harsher, then the big guy's windpipe would have definitely been crushed! As of now, he was only in shock, and choking.
His face changed colour, turning red, and his eyeballs began to bulge. As quickly as he could he grabbed Nero's foot, trying to remove it from his neck. He was strong, as was clearly evident from his large arms, but he could not even cause Nero's foot to flinch, let alone move.
He tried to speak, his eyes glaring murder at Nero, but all he succeeded in doing was sputtering, flicks of spit landing on Nero's shoe.
"Oh, I get it!" Nero exclaimed! "You want to polish my shoe. Why didn't you say so? You know, spit is no replacement for good quality polish. But if you're so insistent, then I'll let you do it."
The recruits eyes began to bulge even more as he exerted more and more strength, but with him increasingly running out of breath, it was hard to exert any real pressure.
"What the hell are you doing? Do you know who he is? Do you know who his dad is?" a recruit screamed as he began to approach Nero.
"Not really," Nero answered, lamely. "But, do you know who I am? Do you know who my dad is?"
The recruit froze, feeling confused. Of all the things, he was not expecting such a comeback? He really didn't know who this guy was, but he surely wasn't a nobody.
"Nero, don't do this," Silas said, wiping the blood off his face. "You'll get in trouble. It's not worth it."
He tried to sound strong and brave, but his voice whimpered in the middle, revealing just how much pain he was in.
Realisation suddenly dawned on everyone, and they realised that this was Nero who they had all heard about! But… none of the stories said anything about his background. Was his dad someone impressive?
Before they could respond, the burly recruit gave up on pushing Nero aside, and tried slamming his leg instead. His face had turned blue by now and he was getting increasingly desperate.
After a couple of hits without any response from Nero, he aimed for the testicles!
Nero finally moved aside, dodging the attack and giving the burly man a chance to finally breathe.
He took in a deep breath, and immediately started a coughing fit. By now, the other recruits had recovered as well. Even if Nero had an impressive background, some of them could not just ignore what had happened, and began to approach.
"YOU-" the burly man roared, locking eyes with Nero, ready to fight, but he looked just in time to spot Nero's leg right before he kicked him in the face again. He lifted up the man's hand and twisted it, putting his body in a lock.
"This is the hand you used to hold up Silas with, right?" Nero asked.
"Nero don't, he-" Silas began to panic now.
The other recruits realised what was about to happen and rushed Nero, but they were not fast enough.
Nero twisted, dislocating the man's entire arm! Before he could do anything else, three other recruits attacked. But Nero was not exactly in a playful mood at the moment. He did not hold back at all, using aether manipulation to boost his strength as he took advantage of their poor stance and retaliated.
A clean, well connecting uppercut directly knocked out the first recruit, whereas a kidney punch dropped the second on the floor. The third recruit Nero took hold of by the hand he was punching with, and then turned, flipping the recruit over his shoulder and throwing him into the crowd.
Nero's retaliation barely took a second, but to the burly recruits credit, he had thoroughly realised the danger of the situation he was in, and had gotten back up on his feet. He even managed to forcefully relocate his arm, though the expression on his face revealed that he might not have enjoyed the experience.
He did not try to yell at Nero this time, because he was still panting. Nero wanted to immediately attack once more, but he held back. Instead, he looked at Silas, the scrawny, beaten and bruised little artisan.
"Silas, you don't understand," he said, shaking his head. "You told me not to attack him because you're worried that I might get into trouble."
Nero turned to look back at the big guy, whose eyes were firmly locked onto Nero. He was using every available second to recover as much as possible, thinking that he was taking advantage of Nero. Little did he know that this was time Nero was purposefully giving him to recover.
"But when he raised his hands against one of mine, did he even feel a shred of fear?" Nero's eyes, which had up until now been completely calm, finally turned cold.
"Did he consider the consequences of crossing me? No, and that's a mistake I intend to fix."
Nero's words weren't just for the bug guy. They were for everyone, and as soon as he said his piece, Nero attacked.
If before, everyone felt horror at seeing Nero attack, now they suddenly felt chilled. They didn't know what exactly was different, but they all took another step back!
Nero was a blur as he approached the recruit who towered over him, and though he did not have a spear, he was no less deadly with his fists!
The recruit tried to block, but Nero was too fast, landing punches even through his defensive stance. The recruit tried to retaliate, but Nero was too strong, and each time a hit landed, the bug guy ended up flinching.
The big guy roared and tried to kick, taking advantage of their closeness, but Nero simply turned to the side, and with a sweeping kick, knocked the recruit off his other foot, once again returning him to the ground.
But this time, Nero did not intend to humiliate him. Just as he readied himself to punch down on his face, Nero felt a familiar surge of power erupt from down the hall, covering everyone!
"Stop! What the hell is going on here?" someone roared. Simultaneously, Nero felt a force push him off the recruit and slam him into the wall.
Yet a timely manipulation of his internal aether saved Nero from the majority of the impact against the wall, meaning he could still react.
Without missing a beat, Nero stood up and loudly announced, "Sir! I spotted an attempted murder, sir! Suspecting the infiltration of a Clear Path slave trying to eliminate a high recruit, I immediately intervened, sir!"
His voice was loud, and carried across the entire hall, reaching everyone. Suddenly, all the recruits' expressions changed as the situation just went from a lapse in discipline to a murder and infiltration accusation!
Even sergeant Dan, who was approaching Nero and the burly recruit from down the hall, faltered when he heard the words.
Maybe it was a bad habit, but Nero always knew exactly which lie would exaggerate the severity of any given situation. One day it would get him into trouble, and maybe today was that day, but the way he saw it, no one could deny that Nero might have possibly interpreted the situation exactly how he said it.
After all, the big guy had attacked Silas in front of everyone! Alright, maybe his small speech about making the guy fear him might not support that theory, but Nero could still argue he meant Clear Path. After all, everyone knew that he was behind uncovering the massive infiltration.
He did not choose to take the limelight for that - he didn't even know about it - but that didn't stop him from taking advantage of it.
"Lies!" the burly recruit screamed, but before he could scream anything else, the sergeant arrived, followed by a dozen angry looking soldiers.
"Bael, shut up!" the sergeant roared, looking particularly angry. "Restrain all of them! I want to know exactly what happened! And… call the interrogator. We better check if they're Clear Path."
Bael, the big guy, suddenly went pale. After red and blue, that was the third abnormal colour his face was adopting in just a few minutes.