Emperor's Reckoning

The standoff of the three took all of the attention away. One was confronting another and the mortal side was on the brink of yet another bout with the unknown assailants.

"Who are you?" the leader of the beast squinted its eyes with its brows furrowed.

"If you knew him, you wouldn't be here with that tone," Graham said raucously before he extended his arm.

"?!" the beast's heartbeat hasten as Graham's movement turned slower. Its pupils were looking at the hand that was about to reach its neck. Its feet immediately left the ground it was posing of.

"Gah?!" the beast had its eyes opened wide. "W-What?!"

Its neck was caught by Graham's hand and the tremendous pressure forced both of its hands to grab a hold of his arm. The mortal that was beneath it, lifted it up with a single arm. The massive scene force caught the adventurers in awe and gawks.

"Leader?!" the loud one stared in disbelief as its leader was lifted up in a single hand.

"Ah... hah...." the last one had its heart crying for a beat as it watched the tail of their leader tyrannically smashing against the ground left and right with devastating loud crackles that followed after the impact.

( W-What power?! What kind of halfling is he?! ) thought the beast as it was struggling for air. ( He didn't tell me this! He didn't tell me any of this! Is this a setup?! His hand won't budge! ). The beast let go of the struggle for half a second before trying to pierce Graham's forearm with the claws from both of its hands. However, the sharpness and the power were futile to even graze the bare arm, they failed, to the bulged eyes of the beast.

Dreading powerlessness immediately occupied its mind as Graham grew a lot more in its view. It saw Graham as a mortal no more, it was a celestial being that no matter how many times it flapped its wings it won't reach his level.

Zelena gulped at the sight. It was ultimately raw power that held the beast by the neck. ( That's raw power... it's raw power... and that kind of power, was at the beck and call of... him ) she darted her glance with the speed of a snail toward the man that misidentified her.

"W-W-Wait! Wait!" the leader talked with the best smile it could show.

"Hm?" Lyon raised one of his brows before he stood right beside Graham.

"Th-This is all but a misunderstanding, hehe," the beast smiled whilst taking huge breaths through its nostrils.

( Leader... ) the loud one furrowed its brows but refrain from taking another action as Kesya was watching it.

"Misunderstanding?" Cecile stepped up to the stage. "What are you talking about?"

"Bullshit, your misunderstanding was exterminating us?!" Baiyun exclaimed.

"Shut up," Cecile said without facing Baiyun. "Your right to talk is nil when you did nothing but plucking some string, you don't even shed blood."

"W-What?" Baiyun was taken aback by the sudden aggressive tone from the auburn woman.

"Now then, you were saying?" Cecile asked.

"Heh, you need to let me go first, it's hard to breath let alone to utter a word this way," said the beast's leader with a smile.

Graham stoically kept the pressure at the same amount of force. The absolute control over his own strength was valued rarely, however, the utmost silence of the situation bought the beast uncomfortably.

"U-Ugh..." the beast looked at Graham but the halfling didn't lessen the power of the strangle. "O-Oi, you should let go of me."

"Why would I listen to you?" Graham answered.

The beast's glance turned into a glare. "Are you deaf?! Didn't you read the whole situation?! You halfling!"

Graham twitched his brows before the beast suddenly couldn't feel the air from its right cheek. Graham's left hand was a hair away before the beast's eyes bulged out. The slap was crisp and clear as blood splurted out of the beast's jaw.

The two underlings had their jaws slacked open as they saw their leader being casually slapped like it was a doll.

"He slapped that thing..." Sakya gulped. She had wondered about the power of those who followed the man that killed the Great Ivory Wyrm with mere words. Just like she had thought, they were powerful beyond her imagination. The dreadful feeling occupied all five leaders of the Guild Link but his group showed no fear, even when the first devastating attack approached the main town.

"They are on a different level," Farash muttered before she focused her glance on Lyon.

Lyon shrugged, "Are you stupid or something? Why would he want to let go of you? You don't demand something from us, it is us who will demand something from you."

"My husband is right," Cecile added. "You brought this to yourself."

The beast spat another piece of blood toward the ground. His majestic presence a short while ago had been reduced to a state of a chicken. It was powerless to even when the beast got free reign over its wings. Its sharp claws couldn't even penetrate Graham's skin. It was simply outrageous for the beast's pride. They came here to exterminate but got humiliated.

The beast gritted its teeth. "You mortals don't deserve the place that you're in now!"

"I don't care about worthiness or not," Cecile uttered coldly. "Who is sending you? Why is he sending you, and what are you to him?"

"Heh, like hell I would tell you!" said the leader.

"If you don't tell me, then perhaps your friends would," said Cecile.

"Heh, they won't tell you a thing either! The truth will paralyze you mortal!" said the beast. "This is not The Swarm or anything of your make-up bullshit! If you know who sends us then the very revelation would petrify your soul!"

"That's a lot of words for someone that said they can't breathe," said Lyon as he rolled his eyes.

"Are you threatening us?" Cecile asked.

"Threat? I don't need to threaten, what I did with him is nothing but a deal, however, it seems like that bastard set me up for this."

"So that means nobody will come to save him," muttered Lumina.

Lyon raised his brows, "I don't get it, you said that whatever that sends you here set you up, why wouldn't you tell us who he is?"

"Because it wants to escape," said Lumina. "It is trying to look for the creeks and corners of the situation it's in for an escape. That way, this beast would get out of here without having to face the wrath of two sides at the same time."

"Heh," the beast smirked. "You think that I'm afraid of him?"

"Is that not why you're acting like this? You're more scared of him than us," said Luna. "Why are you even doing this in the first place? What happened to you? Who, hurt you?"

"Tch! Stop looking at me with that sore eyes of yours!" shouted the beast with a glare. "I have faced over hundreds of punishments before, your life is just a kindle of flame on a candle for me, so your words mean nothing!"

"Punishment? From who?" Cecile asked.

"Forget it!" the beast shouted. "You mortal fools don't understand! If he decided to obliterate all of you, then it would be nothing left out of you! Hehehe, it's inevitable."

"Then your death shall be inevitable too," said Cecile. "Kill them all."

"Don't think that I will lay down my life just like that!" The beast shouted before it Graham's fist went under its vision, coming toward its chest. It grins ( Fool! That is the hardest part of— ).

Blood splurted out of its draconic mouth with its eyes trembling. Everyone froze at the sight. Graham's thick left arm penetrated through the beast's stomach and appeared on the other side. The gruesome attack left everyone in gasps as they saw Graham's finger dripping with blood.

The beast looked down with few blinks as the image that it saw turned hazy.

Graham let go of his strangle before pulling his left hand altogether. The beast looked up at the sky before coughing off blood to the dismay of the two others.

"Leader!"

However, Graham was not done. His hand stretched out to grab the beast by the face before pushing it down against the ground. He raised his right leg before giving the head a heavy stomp. The crack was satisfying for the adventurers but eerie for the other two beasts as pieces of its hide even crumbled into the air.

"You!!"

Kesya grinned toward the howl before she revealed her claw and black hair. She moved like a hurricane as she dug her way toward the beast's body. There was no scream as the blood turned into mist, only the laughter of a mad woman.

The last one to live was the one that Lyon had just beaten up. Its eyes were horrified seeing the state of the two others, but his vision was already falling. It saw the frightened eyes of the adventurers before it got closer and closer to the ground.

The head fell with a thud before rolling away and making its way out of the crowd.