Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

Wrik felt a strong pull on his legs—not a painful pull, but someone literally pulling his legs. With the pulling, some frightening shots came into his ears as well. His head was still fuzzy, as he could not hear the voice clearly. He tried to open his eyes as rays of sunlight assaulted his vision. He tried to shade his eyes with his palm, but his mind raced crazily as he heard the crying. It was a female voice. A familiar voice, crying, while pulling his legs.

"WRIK. . .  WAKE UP . .. BYUL YOU NEED TO HELP HER."

A shiny silver ring of corona lit up in his eyes, as he distinct who the voice belonged to. Wrik's vision cleared and so was the fuzzy feeling on his head. He found a rush of strength in his body and so was a rage.

The one who was sticking to his leg was none other than Tanya, yet she was not pulling it. Tanya was just gripping his legs with all her might where another person was pulling Tanya towards him. Tanya was trying her best to resist and struck him, crying.

Rage swirled inside Wrik, as he lunged up towards the man pulling Tanya. Tanya noticed his awakening left his legs as he tried to muster a kick on the chest of the scum. Wrik did not get the elevation behind the kick, so he was only able to free Tanya from that scum's grip. 

He unconsciously tried to pull his sword from his back and found nothing there. Then he noticed he was not in his armour as a faint recollection hit his head. He did not have time for that as the scum was advancing towards him with a machete in his arms.

Wrik ducked the move from his opponent easily as he could glimpse the attack in slow motion. There were very few rare occasions this kind of vision occurred to him, and on those very few occasions the [Eye of Insights] awakened by itself, just by instinct. Most of the time, when he could not control his emotion as the rage consume him.

Wrik ran his legs low, swinging his leg horizontally. The kick clicked with the scum as he almost dropped to the ground,  but Wrik did not leave the guy in a free fall. His arm caught the machete, yet no blood came out. He instinctively coated his palms with armament reinforcement as he pinned the scum down against the ground like a raging bull. 

In between, he did not forget to twist the machete in the opposite direction as it sank into the stomach of his opponent. All this happened in a matter of a couple of seconds. 

"Wrik," Tanya yelled in panic from behind. "Byul. Help her first."

Wrik turned on his side to notice Byul was laid on the ground, almost half bare while two other scums were standing and looking at him. They had the gaze of fear and bewilderment in their eyes.

Wrik had not to guess twice what had happened here, seeing the poor girl on the ground in such conditions. Byul had gone unconscious, or these garbages had made her unconscious to make their job easy.

The rage has not died down inside him. It only blotted up seeing the scene. He head-butted violently at the guy he was pinning, uncaring if he broke his face or not. He pulled the machete out, and without waiting for a moment, he threw the machete, aiming at one of the human-garbage. 

It struck right at one of the guys below heart as he dropped to the ground, agonising in pain.

The other guy cried in fear. He pulled out a sword as he threatened in his shaking voice. "Don't come close or I will. . ."

"You will do nothing," Wrik interrupted. His voice seemed to have some power as the sword in the guy's hand started shaking. He forgot what he was doing.

Wrik advanced with the silvery cruel eyes as the guy became still in his spot. Now that he looked at him, the scum looked nothing extraordinary, his eyes were sunken with deserved hair. The armours or clothing they were of poor quality, and the eyes showed a pure fear of death. 

Wrik pulled away the sword as the guy let him. Then he kicked violently at the gut of the man. The scum coughed out a mouthful of blood as he joined his other two companions on the ground.

Wrik did not stop, he kicked both of them as violently as he could, uncaring where he was hitting. They could not even agonise out loud as their face was almost disfigured, yet he did not stop. This the most violent he got in his life.

"Wrik," Tanya called from behind. Her voice was slow, but it had a charming effect on Wrik as he calm down a little. "Calm down, you will kill them if you go further."

Wrik finally calmed down as he dropped his last kick on the crotch of the scum.

He sighed in relief, but then he felt strength leaving his body. Even his vision darkened, as the light from his eyes darkened. Wrik had to use the sword to stand still as his vision grew dark. He guessed the sudden impulse of strength came with a price.

"Tanya, look after her," he said, looking at Tanya, who had not waited for him to go near Byul. 

The scum had torn a good portion of Byul's clothes, even hit her on the head to silence her. Even though Byul was a strong girl in mentality, she went unconscious, and he could only hope this incident had not caused heavy trauma to her. 

He felt like all of this was his fault. Sophia had given him only one task before she left, yet he could not follow that one damn task well. He stumped one of the scums in anger again. 

"Sorry," he said quietly, noticing Tanya's gaze on him.

Tanya started to take care of Byul. She covered the torn clothes to a new one. Now she was trying to make Byul drink a vial of potion. Wrik was about to say something, but he went silent, noticing the tears on the corner of her eyes.

Tanya was crying. He felt a sudden heartache looking at her.

"It was all my fault," he muttered, gritting his teeth. "I will never let this happen again."

This is not a vow to just Tanya and Byul, it is a vow to himself as well. He could not see this scene of a girl he liked crying in front of him. 

"What are you going to do about them?" Tanya asked, calming down her emotions.

Wrik did not answer and looked at the three scums cruelly. The thought of killing came into his head, but he shrugged that off. They were in the middle of a test, and besides, these three might be animals, but not him or Tanya.

"Please let me go, I'll never show you my face," One of the guys who was in better condition than the other two cried out. His face was unrecognisable, as blood and tears clouded together. He was barely able to say that much.

While the other beside him tried but could not muster out words. The machete was still stuck on his chest, just below the heart. He was not stupid enough to pull it would without any medical care, or he did not have the strength to attempt. Writ guessed it's the latter.

And the last one of them is in a similar state, though Wrik abused him less compared to the other two. It's the first one of Wrik's targets. Not to talk about the wound on his stomach, the headbutt from Wrik had broken not only his nose but also disfigured his face. He was unconscious. 

"We did not do this on our will," the guy who could talk cried, showing twisted marks on his arm. "We're nothing but slaves."

Wrik frowned, and so was Tanya. This complicates many things. Wrik gripped the sword he took from the guy as he walked towards him. His legs were a little shaky, but he managed fine.

He came closer to the slave to look straight into the eyes. "Who's your boss? How many are there apart from you?" he asked.

"I can't tell you, I can't betray the mark," The slave was refused, even though the guy in front of him beaten him black and blue. "She would kill me."

Wrik bit his lips, as he did not know how to open the mouth of this frightened fellow.

"He's lying," Tanya said from behind. "A slave mark like that can only make them follow orders, yet they still could betray their master, but it would also notify their master as well with their location."

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End of Chapter: Scums.

Next Chapter: Negotiations.

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I don't know when the privilege system will be fixed, it could take a couple of days to a couple of weeks, all depends on the IT guys.