The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 287: Gaze

“You still won’t eat?!” Acton hissed, his voice laced with frustration.

With a single vicious kick, he sent both the bird and the man’s corpse tumbling through a shattered wall like discarded dolls.

The veins on his forehead throbbed, the blood inside his veins boiling at the beast’s defiance. Not necessarily because he cared that much about it refusing to eat a few peasants. Even having to take a detour for a couple of days to hunt a different meal for it wasn’t that big a deal. The real issue lay elsewhere.

“This was supposed to be different! YOU were supposed to be different! My ticket to greatness!” he stormed towards the creature once more, his features twisting in fury.

Lifting his foot, he drove it down on the bird’s knee just hard enough to send a jolt of pain through its body. Though he did stop short of shattering the limb entirely. Despite his words, he wasn’t ready to give up on his minion quite yet.

Defiant or not, the beast had continued to prove its worth at every turn. It was far stronger than a regular Yellow. Probably strong enough to hold its own against a Green. Should it advance, it was bound to become a powerful helper, elevating his fighting strength to the next level. With that, he would finally be able to stand tall among his peers!

“But that only works if my bloodline keeps you under control!” he snarled, slamming his boot into the bird’s chest. A sharp crack met his ears as a rib gave way under his foot, the creature wincing in agony.

Acton wanted to vent some more, to pummel the beast to his will. But he forced himself to stop before he did any lasting damage. This much should be ok: beasts had sturdy bodies and healed fast. He’d been careful to leave its organs and wings mostly intact.

‘I’ll have to carry it to its next meal though…’ he sighed.

After waiting a couple minutes for the dust cloud to settle, he walked to the largest piece of stone he could find amidst the rubble. Pouring some mana, he flattened it, smoothening the rough edges enough to sit on it.

His gaze fell on his minion’s bloodied body, its chest heaving up and down weakly. At the same time, he thought back to its previous actions, contemplating the implications. This didn’t bode well at all! It was way too early for it to be showing signs of resistance… Would the bloodline even hold once it advanced?

‘No. There’s nothing wrong with my bloodline. It worked like it was supposed to…’ he corrected himself.

Technically, the bird had followed all his commands without fail. Acton couldn’t pinpoint any specific action that violated them. At least, none that the bird had taken of its own volition. The problem clearly lay elsewhere.

It had all started when that strange teal mana popped out of thin air, holding the creature back. It had manifested human arms too: not a beast’s doing.

This confirmed that somebody else was involved. Even more unsettling was the sheer range of abilities they possessed. In a direct contest, Acton’s bloodline had won out, otherwise he wouldn’t have managed to enslave the bird in the first place.

However, he had failed to completely override its connection to its previous owner. Worse still, they could control it from afar, and even send their mana to it, somehow.

He shook his head.

‘That’s merely the tip of the iceberg… They can hijack its own mana too. And they’ve somehow brainwashed it more thoroughly: it was more willing to side with them just now…’

One thing was certain: this wasn’t one of his relatives. It couldn’t be. Acton knew all his elders, and all of them had the same crappy version of the bloodline as him. It was possible that one of the younger children had suddenly manifested a new strain in the past couple of years, but he struggled to believe that.

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‘The gods had us breed for thousands of years with nothing to show for it… What are the odds somebody just managed to mutate such a powerful variant right after I left?!’

He frowned. This had to be somebody else entirely. Yet, that was even more disturbing, in some ways. It meant that another House had secretly developed the most powerful beast-controlling bloodline on the face of Remior!

‘Well, whatever. I bet they aren’t a Green-born. If they dare get in my way, I’ll get rid of them.’

Regardless, it appeared this person had a soft spot for commoners. As long as he avoided doing anything this drastic, they might not get involved again. freewebnoveℓ.com

‘Anyway, where are those idiots?! Did they somehow miss the commotion?!’ Acton raised an eyebrow.

There had been other towns closer to him. The only reason he’d bothered to bring the bird here was because he’d also wanted to rejoin his guards. He wasn’t that surprised those weaklings had lost his trail during the chase, but they should have returned here and patiently waited for him.

‘Maybe they’re out there looking for me? It’s also possible they returned to the Root to report my absence…’

Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to wait here for them. If he didn’t see them by the time he reached the Thirsty Valley, he’d just request a new escort from the people there.

Getting up, he glanced at his minion once more.

“Since you insist on not eating human meat, I’ll make an exception for you, just this once.”

The ground shook as he poured a colossal amount of mana into the dirt. Soon, a giant hand of stone rose from underneath the bird, its huge fingers closing around it. Lifting the creature to the air, the disembodied forearm then travelled towards Acton, cracking the ground in its path. Upon reaching him, it lowered the creature just enough for its eyes to level with his.

“I’ll feed you beasts, but this is the only compromise I’ll make for you. Consider it a gift from your new master. Yet, know this. If you defy me one more time, I’ll squash you like a bug. I’ve no need for a disobedient slave.”

The bird didn’t react. Acton wasn’t sure it had even heard him, its silver eyes dull and lifeless.

He was about to turn around, when he suddenly felt a cold shiver roll down his spine. Startled, he took a step back.

“The hell?!” he spat, trying to make sense of this.

For a second there, he’d felt someone’s gaze run through him like a sword. But there was nobody around: his Mana Sense confirmed that. Nobody besides the bird, and it was barely awake…

Looking into its listless eyes once more, he sensed it again. A torrent of unconcealed fury, seeking to split his very soul apart under its cold edge. Then, he blinked, and it was gone, almost as if he’d imagined the whole thing.

Acton couldn’t help but swallow a lump. Logically, he understood he had nothing to fear. He was a Green-born: a Blue. Very few people on Remior could best him in a fight, and fewer still would dare to even try. Yet, the owner of that glare just now didn’t seem to care in the slightest. Not about his strength, nor about his status, his primal rage branding him with a silent promise.

Was this person even human?

***

The past couple of weeks had been quite intense, to say the least. Ever since they got separated from Micky, the trio had travelled toward the Thirsty Valley at full speed, only taking a break whenever it was absolutely necessary. And their labour had paid off, as they were nearly there, about to reach their destination in a few days.

Suffice to say, everyone was optimistic that they’d make it there in time. They’d have to solve a bunch of other issues before they could enter, of course, but it seemed they stood a real chance of rescuing Micky.

Not everything was going well, however…

“How long has it been?” Nesha whispered.

“An hour or two?” Elaine replied, her forehead creased.

The two kept their voices down, to avoid distracting Percy. Usually, he was the first to urge them all to rush, ignoring his own fatigue to save even a minute whenever possible. Yet, he’d halted his steps of his own accord earlier today for some reason. Since then, he’d stood in the same spot, staring ahead without blinking.

It didn’t take a genius to guess that something had happened to Micky. And, from the looks of it, it was bad…

At some point, Percy had also activated Synchronization, huge volumes of mana disappearing from his body at regular intervals. Needless to say, Nesha and Elaine were dying to ask him what was wrong, but they didn’t dare to utter a word.

“I’ve never seen him like this.” Elaine struggled to contain her worry as she glanced at the ground beside Percy’s feet.

Nesha followed her gaze to the two crimson puddles there. The blood had half-way seeped into the dirt, but more splashing droplets occasionally expanded its surface, dripping from his clenched fists.

“Me neither.” Nesha replied, thinking back to all the enemies they’d faced since they escaped from the Guild.

The wasps… the bandits… House Tantalus… the beasts… the trolls… even the Divine Root. Percy had fought each of them with everything he had, but he’d always managed to remain calm through it all.

This was different. His eyes glowed with cold fury, his seemingly vacant gaze actually piercing the void with murderous focus as it crossed the vast distance separating him from his familiar.

Nesha and Elaine would have to wait for this to end before asking for the details, but one thing was already clear…

“Whatever that boy did to Micky… he’s going to regret it.”