When a martial artist grew, reached a certain level, and was finally recognized as a master, they received a second na, otherwise known as a byna.
Of course, I’d yearned for one for a long ti.
Bynas like Sky-Sundering Sword, Doomfist of Malevolence, or Flash... Just hearing those magnificent nas made my heart thud loudly against my chest with all kinds of emotions.
Soday, if I made a na for myself as a hero, I too would get such a byna.
I wonder what kind of na I’ll end up with.
To be honest, I’d already co up with so cool ones myself. Since the Strongest Fire Technique and White Sun Form were my main martial techniques, it would be cool to have the na relate to sothing like fire or the sun.
Sothing like Supre Fla Fist or Blazing Sun Blade...
I an, I wasn’t really a sword person, but having blade in the na just made it sound cooler. It was an instant upgrade.
But hold up. “Golden Fairy...?” I asked.
That was way too cute of a na for soone like .
How should I put it? It sounded like a character from a fairy tale. Like one of those little sidekick fairies that would chatter nonstop beside the protagonist.
—Master! I’m Luan, the Golden Fairy!
Damn, now that I think about it, even my actual na sounds kinda cute for a guy.
I felt a vein bulge in my forehead. I didn’t think I’d ever felt so much anger in my life before.
Okay, I probably had, but for the mont, I forgot all about it and beca the angriest person alive.
“I’m angry, motherfuckers!” I shouted, and imdiately, Ashol and Hallo moved.
They sprinted forward and clashed with the approaching masked enemies.
Clang!
As expected of disciples of the Sky-Sundering Sword, they both used swords, while their enemies wielded shortswords.
The clashing of tal was quite loud, but the loud voice of the host on stage drowned it out, keeping the audience unaware.
Anyway, Hallo and Ashol were holding their own. Even in a confined space against multiple enemies, they were keeping up well.
No, wait.
Keeping up well?
Two disciples of the Sky-Sundering Sword were barely holding their ground against a bunch of auction-house staff? It should be the other way around.
The staff were the strange ones. They were holding their own against two disciples of an S-Rank hero.
Who the hell were these guys?
“Shit, they’re so fast!”
Hallo frowned as if realizing sothing. “Wait, could these guys be...?”
At this mont, I sensed movent behind .
It was the wolf mask from earlier. “Golden Fairy, I will be your opponent.”
I gritted my teeth. “Don't call that.”
Maybe it was because I was already burning with rage, but my body burned as if I had activated the Strongest Fire Technique. You could say I was fully ward up.
Heat pulsed in my palm.
I closed the distance and thrust out my left palm, unleashing the close-ranged Second Technique, flaming wheel, but surprisingly, the wolf bastard didn't dodge. He t my strike head-on.
BOOM!
I was a little surprised.
Of course, I didn’t get pushed back or anything, but the power writhing within his body was not normal.
Mana... His internal energy isn’t that deep.
That ant the wolf mask’s pure physical ability was overwhelming.
I glared at Wolf for a mont before hurriedly ducking my head.
Clang!
The sharp clash of two large tal objects rang in my ears.
“Holy shit.”
What the hell did I just see?
For a split second, the wolf mask had split open, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a tongue as thick as a snake.
Did...
Did this bastard just try to bite ?
Clang! Clang!
I had not imagined it.
Wolf kept snapping his jaws at , leaving with no choice but to quickly back off to distance myself.
“It was a real face, not a wolf mask? That ans you guys are...”
“Yes.”
Riiip... Tear...
Wolf’s shirt tore apart as the skin beneath bulged, revealing grayish fur. His upper body lurched forward and his spine arched. Fingernails rapidly grew into claws, and his size nearly doubled before my eyes.
Blinking his glowing yellow eyes, he spoke in a slightly distorted voice. “We are beastfolk.”
“Ha...”
Starting with Wolf, all of them began to change, each transforming into a different animal.
To be exact, they beca bipedal creatures with animalistic features. Before I knew it, our group of three was surrounded by dozens.
I tilted my head slightly and said, “I heard beastfolk warriors are all fierce and unyielding and don’t know how to back down.”
“You flatter us.”
“I wasn’t done fucker. Whether you are fearless warriors or battle-hardened veterans, you don’t have enough numbers to stop .”
Wolf gave a small wolfish scoff. “That’s a bluff, is it not? You are not fully recovered.”
I let out a quiet laugh.
I wasn’t weak enough to let soone like him see through my condition so easily. He was just trying to rattle by using whatever information he had heard. It was no secret that Luan Bednicker was sick, after all.
I gave a small shrug. “That just makes it more fair. If I was in top shape, you’d all be dead already.”
“...”
“I’m being nice and telling the truth, but this bastard still dares to keep smirking?”
“Apologies, but my mouth is naturally stretched to my ears.”
Mocking soone’s appearance wasn’t right, so I quickly lowered my head briefly. “Oh. Sorry.” Then I imdiately went on the offensive.
I thrust my left palm forward again, and he responded by sticking out one of his clawed hands.
His claws were so long that they looked like they could tear through my palm, but—
BAAAM!
A loud impact echoed through the air, but my hand remained unhard.
It was Wolf who staggered back.
I couldn't really read his beastly face, but I could tell he was taken aback.
“I’ve heard beastfolk grow several tis stronger when they shift, don’t they?”
“...”
“And since we were evenly matched before, you thought you’d overpower now that you shifted?” I predicted with a chuckle.
There was sothing this guy didn’t know—in that first strike, I’d barely used any of my internal energy.
* * * * *
* * * * *
Wolf kept his mouth shut and said nothing. Perhaps he had a much quieter personality than I’d initially thought.
However, today, I was feeling unusually hyper from both the rare outing and the fight.
aning I was in the mood to keep running my mouth.
“What’s wrong? You’re up against a patient. You should be trying harder.”
“...How can soone your age have that much mana?”
...He finally decided to speak only to say sothing so cliche and boring.
Feeling slightly deflated, I still replied. “It’s 99% cultivation, 1% elixir, maybe?”
Not that the ratio was actually accurate.
Just then, I heard applause from behind . “Wow! That's amazing!”
It was Raizen. He was looking at with genuine admiration.
“To think you could overpower Wolf... Haha. I guess the rumors about you stopping the Demon Lord’s descent weren’t just nonsense. This is why you have to see things for yourself to tell truth from lies.” Raizen then narrowed his eyes at . “Luan. Luan Bednicker. The problem child of the Bednicker family. Wait, then could you be...”
I cut him off with an eye roll and an annoyed face. “Nope. The one who caused trouble, ran wild, never received a blessing, sold off the family’s treasured sword, and got kicked out. All . That was all .”
I was starting to get used to this repertoire.
“Hmm.” Raizen’s eyes looked with more interest. “Interesting. Sohow, I have a feeling you and I will get along quite well...”
“You an personality-wise?”
“That too.”
Honestly, he did seem easier to talk to than soone as uptight as Hector.
“So? How about we put all this behind us and go into business together?”
“Business?”
“Yeah. We'll make more money than you could ever imagine, and I can guarantee it’ll be fun!”
“Sorry to say, but I'm already rich.”
“Oh, really?”
As we made idle chatter, Wolf glared at and said, “Master, I think you should check behind the stage.”
“Why there?”
“Luan the Golden Fairy and the Sky-Sundering Sword’s disciples. They already possess enough skill to be called active heroes. It's unlikely that the three of them alone would have charged straight into enemy territory so defenselessly.”
“...”
He was a sharp guy, though he didn’t seem to realize that the other mber of our group was the Lord of Blood and Iron.
Besides...
They must have known who we were from the start.
Hmm.
I reflected on that for a mont.
I should start being more careful in the future. At the very least, I had to stop assuming that my face wasn’t widely known.
I wasn’t trying to be overly arrogant, it was just that my reputation had already spread.
Maybe I should really do as the duke suggested and create a new identity or two.
While I was lost in thought, Raizen nodded and said, “You have a point. All right then, I’ll be off. Keep them under control.”
“Understood.”
Raizen left like that, but I didn’t move an inch.
Puzzled, Wolf asked, “Are you not going after him?”
“Enough of him. For now, I have more questions for you guys.”
“You really think we’ll just—”
I closed the distance before Wolf could finish his sentence and reached for his shoulder.
Wolf twisted his upper body and easily dodged my attack, but he was too big of a fur ball to completely avoid it as I grabbed him by his fur.
“This isn’t your head hair, is it?
“...!”
Instead of answering, Wolf bared his teeth again. This ti, however, it felt more like an instinctive reaction, like a startled dog trying to bite out of impulse.
And just like that, an involuntary growl ca from the spooked mutt. Of course, dodging such an obvious attack was easy.
I dodged Wolf's bite and punched him in the jaw. He was tough, so I knew that alone wouldn’t be enough to take him down.
So, without missing a beat, I followed up by yanking the arm attached to the shoulder I grabbed and drove my knee deep into his midsection.
“Gah!”
Wolf gagged and crumbled to the ground. My knee had dug in really deep. It should feel like he’d been stabbed—I knew that because I'd taken a hit like that before. I bet his sight turned white right now.
With Wolf subdued, I took a quick look around.
The two disciples of the Sky-Sundering Sword were still fighting the small fries, but it looked like it wouldn't be long before it was over.
“Are you one of the higher-ups or sothing? You're clearly stronger than those little bastards over there.”
“Kill ,” Wolf muttered, his voice weak.
I chuckled humorlessly.
They said beastfolk warriors tended toward the extre. This was a perfect example.
Personally, I didn’t think losing was a good enough reason to die, so I casually picked up a snack from the table and asked, “I heard beastfolk live and die by honor, so what’s your kind doing tangled up in illegal auctions? And helping soone like Raizen, no less.”
“...Don't insult Master,” Wolf snarled. “Soone like you, sheltered like a flower in a greenhouse, has no right to speak of him badly.
“Oho?” That was a stronger reaction than I expected.
I had thought it was simple business between them, but from the way he was talking, this wolf seed to practically serve Raizen like a lord.
Wait a second...
I tilted my head in thought.
At this auction, quite a few staff mbers wore animal masks, and most of them seed to be in so sort of managerial position.
They were all likely beastfolk... which ant there were at least a few dozen, maybe even a hundred or more beastfolk working for Raizen.
That was beyond the norm. Especially since it wasn’t like there was a huge population of beastfolk to begin with. Excluding the nearly extinct dragons, they were one of the rarest races.
Which ant...
There is a large chance the entire beastfolk race is working with Raizen.
I wasn’t being paranoid.
I had so knowledge of how things would unfold in the future, and it was only natural to connect the dots to the present.
The Bednicker family had many enemies...
The Lord of Blood and Iron, Dellark C. Bednicker had even more.
And I knew that, in the future, the beastfolk would beco one of the most persistent thorns in Bednicker’s side.
These troubleso bastards would beco a constant nuisance in Bednicker’s affairs in the coming years, but I hadn’t thought much of it before.
On the surface, the Lord of Blood and Iron seed cool and calculating, but when it ca to demons or the cult, he was ruthless and reckless...
From his past, his tyrannical ways had always led to countless conflicts, both big and small, making it easy for him to make enemies left and right without even realizing it.
Given that the duke prioritized demon hunting and cult subjugation over everything, it wouldn’t be strange if he made enemies with a few mbers of the beastfolk.
The beastfolk valued loyalty most among the seven races, and their sense of kinship ran so deep that it was almost terrifying.
But what if that wasn’t the case?
If I was currently standing at the starting point of the conflict between the beastfolk and the Bednickers...
What if Raizen is like a savior to the beastfolk and the Lord of Blood and Iron killed him, making the entire race harbor resentnt not just toward the duke himself but toward House Bednicker as well?
To the beastfolk, soone who did them wrong was their sworn enemy—an archenemy, to put it nicely. They were an existence the beastfolk could not share the sa sky with.
They would spend the rest of their lives pursuing revenge, no matter the cost.
If that’s the case...
I turned my gaze toward the stage.
I couldn’t let the Lord of Blood and Iron kill Raizen like this.
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