They thought they had the upper hand by reacting first, but Hydra was no weakling. He didn’t have the chance to show it in the dungeon where the monsters were much stronger than him plus he had no equipment or weapons. But that was different now, even though users were unable to tell the levels of one another without being friends, he still felt they couldn’t be too strong with the less than impressive gear they were wearing. Thus instead of running he decided to fight, and the first person to make the move has the advantage and luckily he has just the item to turn the odds in his favour. Hydra pointed his hands towards the magician that had just started writing his magic and called out.

“Shadow Arm”

A black arm suddenly extended out of Hydra’s hand and grabbed onto the Magician’s face. Entirely surprised by this action the mage was unable to avoid it. Even the charging swordsman and archer stared dumbstruck at this site. The crowd’s jaws nearly fell to the ground and started to whisper but were quickly shut up by Hydra’s next action.

“Get over here!”

Hydra pulled his arm back with all his strength, while he hasn’t put many stats into his strength it was still much greater than the mage, and with beginner equipment that chances of resisting was completely impossible. The magician could only follow the direction it was pulled, straight towards Hydra. The upcoming magician was exactly what Hydra wanted. He then struck his right hand not equipped with the glove straight into the mage’s abdomen crushing him into the ground. The impact was so great enough the bricks in the road were cracked in a 1 meter diameter. Now the crowd was enough more shocked. While it was easy to cause cracks into the road they had never seen such a strategy like this before. And now before the villains and crowd had a chance to recover Hydra pierced the magician with his sword impaling him to the ground. Where his health slowly but exponentially started to increase. A mage already had a minuscule amount of health and before the fight had even truly begun it was already at 50%. Thus the swordsman the leader charged in order to save his party member.

‘This was more effective than I thought. But still, this is much easier than I thought it was going to be.’

As the swordsman slashed diagonally Hydra easily dodge with the minimum amount of movement necessary. The Swordsman flinched at the sight and Hydra, took the opportunity to punch his left cheek. But an arrow shot out at him. Hydra tried his best to dodge the incoming arrow but he wasn’t hero and could only invade enough to allow the arrow to pierce his shoulder.

-40 damage

‘Hm. That was weaker than I thought as well. I have no equipment and it only took around 10% of my health. They must be similar levels.’

The swordsman at this time had recover but unfortunately the mage had already turned into particles and died. Hydra picking up the sword waved it towards the swordsman.

“Two more.”

“I’ll kill you you dastard”

“Is that something you should say to the person you were trying to extort?”

“I don’t care just die casual!”

The swordsman angrily swung in all directions while Hydra, was easily parrying this time taking caution of the archer behind him. It was no easy feat to fight 3v1 but with his quick decisions he had easily turned the situation into a better one. However it was still 2v1 and he could not be careless. As the swordsman was getting angrier the more he missed he made a beginner’s mistake and put all his strength in a downwards swing.

Hydra, wasn’t going to let that chance go so he rushed towards his target. The target however wasn’t the swordsman and he ran straight to the archer who fired an arrow straight at his face. To dodge an incoming arrow while charging directly at it can be said to be said to be impossible and for Hydra it was no different. While he did not have a defensive equipment, he had something just as good. An indestructible sword! Hydra knocked the arrow out of the air and rose his left hand archer.

“shadow Arm!”

The archer reacted fast, but it was still too late Hydra was simply to close and the other thing result was the grabbed by the arm. The arm latched unto the leg of the archer where Hydra pulled catching him off-balance, the archer directly fell on his back with a thud. As the the Archer tried to recover Hydra placed his foot on his chest prevented him from doing so.. Fear struck the Archer's face staring at Hydra above him.

“No please don’t!”

As the archer waved his hands in mercy towards Hydra, he was immediately impaled like the magician before him.

“It’s just a game don’t be so dramatic.”

The archer constantly losing health was unable to move due the numbing feeling invading his body. He could only hope the crowd or his party member would save him. But it was stupid to think that the crowd would help the party who willingly provoked this man.

“Now, It’s just you and me. I don’t have a sword now and you do. You still have the upper hand.”

Hydra taunted the swordsman. After all the effort he put in this fight he didn’t want the man to run with his tail between his legs. It was also obvious during Hydra’s fight with the man his emotions easily swayed his logic. Just like Hydra hoped, the swordsman came screaming towards him.

“Die!”

As the swordsman swung, Hydra this time completely evaded it was only 1v1 he had no reason to worry about being attacked from behind. As Hydra dodged he grabbed onto the swordsman arm twisting his body throwing him over his shoulder. With a loud ‘thud’ the swordsman coughed as the air was knocked out of him. Hydra giving him no time to recover mounted him and furiously punched him. The health only went down by ~20 each time but each one would add up. In fact the swordsman turned into particles before the archer did. Hydra, being the person he is, didn’t let the archer simply die like the magician. He grabbed the sword out of the archer who was completely numbed all over but fear covered his face. Just then someone from the crowd yelled towards Hydra.

“FINISH HIM”

And to honour the crowds wishes, Hydra cut the head clean off of the archer thus ending the battle. Afterwards the crowd screamed.

“Winner!”

Hydra sheathed his sword and started to walk away. The crowd was still talking about the sight they had just witnessed.

“Holy did you see that?”

“That guy only had a glove and sword how did he win 3v1?!”

“That shadow arm was amazing!”

“Kyaaaaaa! He’s my hero!”

“I’ll marry him.”

“Wait, you’re a dude?!”

The conversation continued endlessly and it didn’t take long for to spread to the ears of the city. However just as the situation ended fast without any retaliation the it died before long and everyone moved on their agendas.

Now, Hydra once again was on his journey to start his adventure. So much had happened and he hadn’t even technically stepped outside the city.

‘Ah I have built up a lot of stress so I might have overdone it a bit, but that seriously helped me relieve it.’

The difficulties of fighting clearing a dungeon was no joke. Hydra wasn’t able to lose focus for a second otherwise his body would be a possessed by a shadow creature! He was truthfully thankful for the party that came to extort him. It gave him the chance to relieve his tired body and now that he was relieved he decided to find a starting point in his journey. Hydra wanted nothing more than to get a quest that his walking speed was approaching a light jog. But before he could accelerate anymore he was once again called out too.

“Wait!”

As Hydra had nearly lost his patience was about to ‘slash first ask questions later’ he realized it was a young boy. More accurately it was a NPC. So his mood made a 180 and he responded kindly to the boy.

“Yes, young man?”

“Please save my dad!?”

‘Is this? is this what i think it is?!’

“He was kidnapped by the Liza race and hasn’t returned please help him!”

The little boy started to cry falling to his knees. It was a tragic sight, but Hydra quickly pulled the boy up and responded to his feelings.

“A boy should never show his tears to another! Rise up, do not worry I will find your father.”

“Thank you mister!”

The boy sniffed and nearly started to cry again but he held it in. The a window popped up. It was the wasn’t the first window Hydra has seen, but it was definitely the most exciting to receive.

The Liza kidnapping (quest)You have acknowledge a young boy’s plea for help. The boy’s father has been kidnapped by the recent Liza clan who have become actively aggressive in the region lately. Save the boy’s Father and return alive! This quest has a time limit of 24 hours, if you do not save the boy’s father in that time period there is no telling what will happen.

Restrictions: [Stealth], The boy must acknowledge your strength.

Difficulty: C

‘I have no idea how difficult a ‘C’ rating but looking at the restrictions of the quest it must not be an easy feat. But that doesn’t matter as if I would abandon my first quest and it can’t be any worse than that cave.’

Hydra happily walked off leaving the sniffing boy behind. He had forgotten one important piece of information… He didn’t know where the Liza clan lived! The boy was about to tell him after he accepted but Hydra had already disappeared, so he was only able to stand there sniffling….

------------------------------

“Sweetie, can you please forgive me now?”

“No!”

“But sweetie….”

“I said no!”

“I’ll do anything just please don’t tell your mother!”

“Anything?”

“Yes anything.”

“I want to play [Second Saga]”

“.....”

“I’m calling mom”

“Okay but you still have to work properly!”

“Oh don’t worry about that. Landon and I will be able to take some time off for the next little bit.”

“There’s no way! Who will serve the customers?”

“Don’t worry dad. I already solved that”

“....”

“I’ll call mom”

The Old man only nodded and walked away in defeat while the girl, full of smiles, made a slight fist pump motion.