Chapter 21: Beating up a gang

'Hmm, was I wrong about him?' Ezra thought as he moved through alleyways.

He looked behind him but didn't see the beggar.

'Maybe I was mistaken and he was actually crazy?' thought Ezra, it seemed no one was perfect. While he was wrong about the beggar, it didn't mean there weren't others like that.

So...

'I just have to look for them' Ezra thought as he moved along, when three mean looking guys wearing armless clothes stepped in his way. Two of them had daggers attached to their clothes and the third had a sword, all of which were trash by the way.

"Good Sirs, I would like it if you could excuse me, I have somewhere to be" Sir Fredrick said when the three guys simultaneously laughed.

"Hahaha, did you hear what he said?" one said while laughing.

"It doesn't seem like he knows who we are" the other said.

"Then we'll just have to explain it to him, right boys?" the one who seemed to be the leader of the group said.

"You see, we're part of the Dark Tooth group, and we're the overlords of these parts of the slums" one said.

"So, you need to pay up before you can go through here"

"Hmm, I see, and how much is this fee exactly?" Sir Fredrick asked.

"Everything you have on you, of course" the leader said.

"Hmm, is that so? Then I guess discussions are useless, right?"

"Of course. You just have to give us everything you've got and we'll let you go" the leader reiterated.

Sir Fredrick was about to ask what he should do when...

*Bam*

A punch resounded, as we see the boss smash into a nearby building.

Sir Fredrick saw Ezra's movements clearly and was shocked.

The boy was already at adept rank in terms of both skill and mana usage!

But he was pulled out of his reverie when he heard...

"We take out the trash"

It was a confirmation from Ezra to kill the two.

"Ugh!" turns out the leader wasn't dead, because he stood up while shaking up the rubble and dizziness from the first attack.

"What kind of cowardly knight hits his opponent without a proper warning?!" he yelled, trying to gauge his opponent and also stall for time.

After all, everyone knew that Knights mostly loved fair challenges so as to adequately demonstrate their might while talking some bullshit about righteousness and all that.

Yet, he couldn't have been more wrong, for at the next moment a figure that couldn't be more than ten years old appeared before him, his fist already going for the punch as he said...

"One doesn't need righteousness when taking out the trash"

*BAM*

We hear a resounding boom, louder than the last one, as we see the boss pounded into the ground with his hands in an "X" shape, but his eyes had turned white.

He passed out from the impact alone.

'Did I hit him too hard...or is he just that weak?' thought Ezra, annoyed.

He wanted to test out his improved physique, but it seemed he had to find better opponents.

As he thought this, he looked at Sir Fredrick, only to see the other two bowing and begging to be spared.

It seems the old man couldn't bring himself to kill those who had surrendered.

Ezra quickly planned his next move and was about to go back, when he suddenly looked at his empty body and took the leader's sword.

And true to Ezra's expectation, it was trash. Even the swords he used in the army as a greenhorn wouldn't be this bad.

"Well, it's another form of training I guess" Ezra thought, trying to convince himself as he reached Sir Fredrick before speaking...

"Oi, you" he said, pointing to one of the two boys.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Take us to your base" I said and the boy's face became pale in an instant.

"Sir, if I do that, I'll die" he said, acting pitifully.

"And if you don't do so, you'll also die. I implore you to think carefully" Ezra said as he put the sword against the boy's neck.

"I'll do as you say" he said hurriedly when his life was threatened.

"Any funny business and your head rolls, got it?" Ezra said, stressing the last part.

The boy made an awkward gulp before leading us two alleys away and stopped at a wooden building.

He knocked and said the password as I, along with the second guy and Sir Fredrick, went in.

Inside was a boisterous atmosphere filled with men of different types that had one thing in common, they had a black tooth symbol tattooed on some part of their body.

It was exactly the same as the ones on the boys neck.

The laughter suddenly stiffened as they saw one of their own come in along with three others.

"Who are these guys Wily?" someone asked.

But before he could answer...

"People who came to take out the trash" Ezra's voice resounded, causing those in the bar to look each other in the eye for a few seconds before...they burst into delirious laughter.

"Hahahaha, it seems everybody's going crazy these days. A ten year old already has the guts to speak to your elders in such a manner" one said.

"Madness must run in their family, Hahaha, I mean, how else do you explain this? Hahaha" another said

Laughter rained in the bar, until a sound was heard.

*Swish*

That was the noise of a sword when used to strike, because the next moment, we see the first guy who talked decapitated.

His head was in the air with a look of utmost unfairness, before...

*Dum Durum* the head resounded on the floor along with...

"Swishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

All the people in the bar drew their weapons simultaneously because most of them had not seen the blade until the man's head was in the air.

Those whose eyes did follow it saw something only veterans should have.

There was no hesitation in the boy's eyes when the man was beheaded.

The boy didn't even seem to take it as something huge because the next moment he lightly flicked his sword, throwing the blood in the faces of those seated.

He looked like he had just killed a cockroach, something perfectly normal, and he looked at the now headless body before saying.

"My elders? What a laughable piece of trash" he chuckled bitterly before facing the rest in the bar and pointed his sword at them with a leisurely expression, like someone drinking afternoon tea.

"Who's next?" he asked as the others hesitated, before someone said...

"Boys, we're almost thirty and he's only one person. We can take him. Who's with me?!"

The formerly hesitating were now having a change of heart once they looked around noticing they were many in number. They began to radiate hostility and outright killing intent.

Seeing this, Ezra could only shake his head lightly with a disappointed expression while different thoughts went through his mind as he calmly assessed the situation.

'About thirty, no, twenty-nine. They might have useful information, so...I can't kill them all. I'll cripple the weakest ones and kill the strongest link'

'Most of these guys aren't even four star Novice Knights, while the one that riled them up seemed to be an adept, most likely one or two stars'

As he finished assessing the situation, it was time to implement the plan and so he did, because in the next moment, he concentrated mana in his feet and sprung forward.

The first person was hit with four punches before the person beside him could even understand the situation. The man's four limbs were turned in an awkward position as the sudden rush of pain made him faint.

The one beside wielded twin daggers as he crudely tried to cut Ezra, only for a hand to pull and fling him as he breaks the door and lands loudly on the ground.

By now the morale of the others had begun to waver and the weaker were retreating.

Who were they kidding? They never even used a proper mana technique before and they were only stronger than the average man.

They, who didn't even properly know how to distribute mana, could never hope to stand a chance against the typhoon called Ezra that kept crippling people even now.

When the eighth person was crippled, the camel's back broke and then...

"I-I surrender" a man said before dropping his sword and lying on the floor.

"W-What the heck d-" another wanted to forcefully change back the situation by killing the one who surrendered when his view suddenly turned upside down, before it turned dark.

Silence! Pin drop silence at this moment as the other members took the situation in fully and the weaker ones quickly surrendered.

"What are you all doing?! We can still take him, we just have to-"

The man at the Adept rank wanted to rile them up for a second time when a voice interrupted.

"Oi, why are you pushing your lackeys to their deaths while you stay behind?"

Surprisingly, it wasn't Ezra but Fredrick who spoke up. Beside him were a few people lying unconscious on the floor, the stupid enough to think of him as a target.

After watching the battle, no, the massacre, Fredrick was sure his lord would kill them all as soon as they tried something funny without batting an eye.

So he stepped in to stop an unnecessary massacre and flex his muscles a bit.

Ezra took it as Fredrick's cue to take over, so he turned his gaze and went to see the goon he threw outside.

He saw the idiot was unconscious and gave him a good kick, but it seems he was far stronger than he thought because he broke some ribs.

As the man's senses came online with a loud groan, Ezra sensed a pair of eyes watching from behind a pile of stacked baskets.

He didn't know if the person was waiting for an ambush, and he wasn't going to entertain him.

And so he applied mana to his feet and moved in the direction of the baskets with his sword in a cleaving motion, when the person resounded...

"WAIT! IT'S ME, THE SMILING BEGGAR"

It was the beggar I saw earlier. It seems he was looking for me.

I immediately halted my swing which was about to divide him and moved to apologize when he suddenly fainted.

I scratched my head at the awkward situation, before putting him on my back like a sack of potatoes and going back into the building where cries and screams echoed out.