MOMENTS EARLIER...

BANG

BANG

BANG

Arnold kept shooting bullets at his opponents but he was careful not to unnecessarily kill anyone. He wouldn't have had much problem with killing them as he'd get more EXP that way, but the orders from Nathaniel were absolute. They only had to refrain themselves from killing anyone until and unless it's an absolute necessity.

Arnold didn't even required to bring out his summons, as the warriors from the family had already infiltrated the guild and were indulged in combat. Since his summons weren't out, his strength was limited and wasn't much better than a B ranked mage thus, he didn't need to control himself very much and stuck to his gunslinger abilities. But sadly this wasn't the case with Nathan.

Nathan's potential was the same as a S ranked warrior, but in order to maintain control over his powers he needed to concentrate. But it wasn't a possibility in such a chaotic environment.

Due to this reason, he had already killed 4 of the warriors and was desperately trying to avoid killing another 'Loyalist' warrior. He had already broken the warrior's dominant arm but rather than giving up, the warrior started headbutting him over and over.

Nathan frustrated by his opponent, grabbed his head and bashed it on the ground, the warrior's head got squished like a watermelon. As soon as he had taken care of his opponent, a swordsman charged at Nathan. The attack was sudden and thus Nathan couldn't defend himself. The sword managed to graze his shoulder.

Nathan was consumed by fury. Enraged, he snatched the sword away from the warrior and thrust it into the warrior's exposed abdomen, killing him in an instant.

"JUST SURRENDER ALREADY!" Nathan screamed and started swinging the sword like a madman. Arnold shrugged his shoulders and kept shooting at the enemies. He too had 'accidently' killed a couple of opponents for some extra EXP so what Nathan did was acceptable to him. He kept his eyes on the warriors who had some useful abilities, so that he could later use [Blood runes] to give those abilities to his summons.

This battle was like a goldmine for Arnold, as he was getting an insane amount of EXP. He wanted to use all of it at once when he reached the 10000 mark and hence kept storing them.

He was happily shooting people in their limbs when, another notification a notification popped up on his interface.

________________

Power signature of another [PALADIN] detected.

Initialising contact protocol.

...

...

...

Unable to establish connection. [PALADIN of the DEAD ONE] seems to be in his own domain.

________________

"What *bang* are you *bang* talking about?" Arnold asked the system as he shot couple of warrior's legs.

________________

[PALADIN] are fighters who are picked by the higher entity to be their vassals and a proof of their existence. Each [PALADIN] is granted a 'helpers' like me, to guide them, and fulfill their destiny.

________________

"Higher existence? Are they Gods? *bang*" He mumbled.

________________

That information has been restricted.

________________

"I don't care that it's restricted. You live in my body so think of it as your rent."

________________

[PALADIN of the DEAD ONE] would soon have enough power to become a true vassal.

If we don't put an end to him, then it would have catastrophic effects on this planet.

________________

"I'm *bang* not going *bang* anywhere until you answer *bang* my questions!"

________________

If you don't comply with me, I'll completely shutdown and then you'll lose all of your power.

You have : 10 minutes to comply before the system shuts down.

________________

At this moment a countdown appeared on Arnold's interface.

"We're going to have a long conversation when we all of this is over!" Arnold sighed and raced towards the direction the system pointed him to.

*****

"KILL THEM!" Jake shouted, and immediately the monsters charged at them, but before they could do anything, the entire floor got covered in ice.

"*Pant*... looks like... I'm right on time..." Arnold took deep breaths as the counter on his interface froze.

________________

You have : 00:15 seconds to comply before the system shuts down.

[Task completed]

[Countdown stopped]

_______________

"Arnold! What are you doing here!? Just leave, you don't have a chance against him." Kolt shouted with all his might.

"Says the man who can't even move." Arnold snapped back. He then used [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE], once again to subdue the 'zombies' by freezing their legs, before quickly firing couple of bullets at Jake.

_______________

You can't harm another [PALADIN].

_______________

'YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME?' Arnold thought, 'First you tell me to eliminate him, and then you tell me, I can't even harm him?'

"You... you're the pipsqueak who abandoned the guild aren't you?" Jake asked in a low voice, "Don't tell me, one of them chose to give you the powers as well?

"Wait wait wait, you don't need to answer that, since you managed to invade my domain, that must be true... but madam didn't informed me about it... Hahaha, aren't I lucky! Now I'll be able to turn you one of my summons as well! But first, show me your abilitie-"

Jake was still talking when a lance made of ice penetrated his torso. He carefully extracted the lance as a fountain of blood flew out of the hole in his torso, but the blood flow stopped after couple seconds as the wound started to heal. The healing wasn't caused by an ordinary healing spell.

"[ ESSENCE OF LIFE ]¹ huh? Looks like some of our abilities are same." Arnold said as he called out one of his golems to throw the [ FROZEN LANCE ].

'Even though, I can't cause him any harm, it seems like that rule isn't applied to my summons... cooldown of [ ESSENCE OF LIFE ] is about one day, so he wouldn't be able to use it again, but that means he'll be on guard from now. Looks like I'll have to use him sooner than I expected.' Arnold's thought.

"You dare to mock ME? You low-leveled SON OF A BIT*H!" Jake was enraged. "I'll show you what truly means to be powerful!"

The 'zombies' who were frozen by Arnold's ability, severed their legs and started crawling towards him.

"Now this is going to be troublesome..."

******

1. For more information on Arnold's abilities, please read the auxiliary chapter.