As Asher walked into the entrance, he saw two bronze-ranked warriors emanating green lights that shrouded their bodies and ran toward him. He immediately recognized the wind element as the source of their battle force.
After slaying several men, Asher no longer felt he needed to prepare to meet these men. His mind was calm as he walked toward them. The moment the gap was closed, Asher’s speed skyrocketed. He glanced at the wall and dashed toward it.
The entrance was long and narrow, so it didn’t take long for him to reach the wall and step on it. With that borrowed momentum, Asher flew above the warriors, landed at their backs, and swung his sword backward.
He didn’t feel any resistance as his sword cut through their flesh. Both men staggered forward and spat blood.
Asher’s eyes gleamed, but he continued moving forward at a calm pace. When he was almost out of the entrance lobby, he heard the sound of bodies hitting the ground.
In those two weeks of continuous training, he didn’t only learn how to swing his sword a thousand times under gradually increasing weights, but he was also under tutelage by Alex and Alec. The twins forged their lord to become a skilled swordsman.
The next place after the entrance was a large hall with long wooden dining tables and a throne dominating the middle of a semicircular platform that was connected to the wall at the other end. Right beside the throne was a woman holding a nocked bow.
The moment she saw Asher, the arrow was let loose. The next place Asher found himself was on the ground, reeling in shock and pain as the arrow lodged into the spot close to his shoulder and above his chest.
He blinked, his eyes dilating as a certain noise bombarded him from all sides. The last silver-ranked warrior wasn’t a he but a she, and she was a sharpshooter!
This was outside his calculations. He didn’t expect a woman to be among the mercenaries since he saw men so far.
Roll!
A voice screamed inside of him, and he rolled to his left. Right at that moment, an arrow lodged into the ground. It pierced through the stone ground!
Neglecting the pain, Asher jumped to his feet, rushed toward a chair, and kicked it with all his might. The wooden chair flew into the air, heading toward the sharpshooter. The sharpshooter frowned, but to Asher’s astonishment, she leaped like a bird, stepped on the chair, and fired two arrows at him.
He swiftly picked a chair, but the arrows pierced through the chair, grazing his arms.
With clenched teeth, Asher spun and flung the chair with so much force that although the sharpshooter dodged, when the chair hit the wall, it broke and one of the legs hit her head from behind!
“Ah!”
By the time she regained her bearing, two more chairs were before her.
Bam!
One slammed her face, and the impact caused the woman’s head to tilt backward. It wasn’t over as the second slammed her torso, launching her to the ground.
Asher got up from under a dining table and approached the woman. He looked down at her and found out there was no more breath of life in her.
Breaking two chairs with her body might have been brutal, but either he survived or she did.
He looked at his bleeding wound with an arrow stuck to it and puffed out. Adapting to the cruel way of life in Boundless wasn’t easy, but there were lots of burdens on him. If he refused to change fast, he would die.
Sirius squeezed itself into the hall, prompting Asher to scowl. “Why didn’t you arrive earlier?”
Sirius looked at him for a short while, came close, and sniffed his wound. “Don’t lick it; your saliva doesn’t have healing properties.”
Sirius removed its head, and Asher chuckled.
“My Lord, you’re injured!” Jon had a panicked expression when he saw the arrow and bloodstain. Both he and those he hired to work for him gathered inside the hall.
“I’m alright.” Asher replied softly.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps and turned to his right. From the corridor emerged over thirty women who, with just a glance, Asher knew they came from brothels.
“What’s a beast doing inside here?!” One of them screamed.
“Get your things and get out.” Asher commands while frowning. Upon seeing the corpse of the silver-ranked sharpshooter, fear gripped the women, and they ran out of the hall without going back to get their belongings.
Asher scoffed and proceeded to search the castle. When he entered Baron Snow’s room, he found a letter that had not been completed on a wooden table. There was a quill and ink beside it, meaning Baron Snow was writing this letter before he came out to meet Asher.
“Sir Tigris, I have received the messenger falcons. I will proceed to investigate the mines in Ash Town and find out if they have truly reclaimed them and how. I hope you fulfill your promise of forging a breastplate made with some of the iron ore and sending more men. While the Ashbourne barony will soon be yours, the Flamehearts, Tyre, and Scarlets are growing, and this will hamper your plans. I request you send more silver-ranked warriors.”
Asher stopped reading, as this was where Baron Snow stopped. Asher couldn’t believe his eyes. How could Count William Tigris sell lands to people to become barons and then come up with a scheme of placing bandits that would rob them?
There was no doubt that his iron ores, which were worth thirty thousand gold coins, were now in the hands of Count Williams.
Bam!
He slammed the table. His hand left a palm print!
“So they don’t have any stash of gold here, and my iron ores are gone.” Asher’s expression became hard.
He turned and saw a tall cage with a tall, white falcon, which had a metal cylinder case attached to its back by a golden belt.
The bird was busy looking at him.
Asher squinted.
He grabbed the bird and ran out of the castle. He located their cages and found a hundred more messenger falcons with two large carts and four brown horses.
