Chapter 49: Show your value
"You guys, leave that dragon to me," Ford said as he slowly headed toward the chaotic scene. But just half a second later, his expression shifted slightly.
Instinctively, he sensed danger around them. Because of that, he instantly lunged forward, shouting a loud warning to his comrades.
"LOOK OUT!"
...However, it was too late.
A stream of flame exploded and thrust toward them.
The next moment, Carl landed lightly on the ground from the building by the alley. He sighed and took a quick look at Earth and Slater, assessing their condition.
He should have guessed this situation would happen sooner or later, but living alone for a few years had made him forget about these siblings. Fortunately, he had given Cobb to Slater for another reason.
"My fault."
Nearby, the cloud of darkness turned into a black dragon and perched on Carl’s right shoulder. It groaned, pointed its claws at the culprit ahead, then moved them toward Earth and Slater.
Carl tried to understand Cobb’s sign language and nodded.
"Okay... I got it."
Suddenly, Earth by Carl’s feet coughed. He managed to move slightly and groaned weakly.
"P-Please... s-save my sister."
Carl scratched the back of his head and smiled bitterly.
"You’ll be fine, and so will your sister."
He quickly pulled out a healing potion from [Inventory] and gave it to Earth.
He scanned over Earth and Slater’s condition for a while and frowned in displeasure.
Their bodies were covered in wounds and bruises, though most weren’t fatal. It was clear the culprit had been toying with them on purpose. They didn’t want the siblings to die early — they just wanted them to suffer.
He glanced at Slater, who had already passed out, yet he could still see tear stains on her cheeks.
"Damn it! I haven’t even thanked you yet for your prediction."
"Well, well, well... let’s see who shows up now. A hero... or just trash?"
Ford emerged from the cloud of dust along with his comrades. He scoffed, gazing at Carl with full amusement— clearly sizing up his power.
Carl’s previous strike had been pretty strong, so Ford found it a bit difficult to handle — especially while trying to save Varge and Berry at the same time.
Eventually, he could confirm one thing: Carl was strong — not the crippled heir he once was.
Of course, Carl was still within the range he could handle.
"What a surprise. You’ve ranked up again, even reached Rank E. But there’s still one thing you can’t change — your soul dragon is too weak."
"A one-star soul dragon doesn’t deserve to live."
He grinned and spoke to his comrades.
"I’ll leave him to you. Just watch out for his sword — don’t give him time to use it properly. Lord Marsh already experienced it... but aside from that, he’s nothing more than an ordinary Rank E."
"That’s what I think too," Berry chuckled. "He’s just a garbage bin, after all. I can definitely tell his cowardly tricks."
Meanwhile, Varge stayed silent, watching Carl with cold eyes.
Both of them slowly approached Carl, while Ford stood behind, observing every one of Carl’s movements.
In reality, they didn’t need to do that due to that fact their true mission: find someone related to Carl and torment them secretly until Carl accepted Marsh’s dead life challenge. They weren’t supposed to fight him directly — but one unexpected incident had thrown their plan off.
They hadn’t expected Carl to find the place where the siblings were dragged to — a small alley in the town near the academy.
Although their Lord had told them to retreat immediately if Carl appeared, Ford doubted those orders. He believed he could handle Carl easily without running away like a coward.
Carl was just trash — he’d only managed to wound their Lord by chance. Moreover, they had the advantage in numbers; the three of them worked well together. So this shouldn’t be a big deal.
Even with just their teamwork, they could stand on par with Lord Marsh himself.
That alone made them proud.
"We’re invincible."
But over time, his expression tightened a bit as he witnessed Carl’s power — even though Carl wasn’t using a sword. He just fought with his bare hands.
"He’s just lucky."
Yeah, he needed to be honest with himself.
Carl let out a deep breath and looked at his enemies with boredom.
"So, that’s all you’ve got?"
Carl exchanged a few blows with them while sizing them up. Those two weren’t as strong as he thought, but the real problem was Ford — the guy who once bullied him in the past.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Age]: 18
[Class]: Stoker
[Rank]: E
[Soul Rank]: ★★★
[Skills]: Aura of Suppression (Rank C) / Breath Flame (Rank E) / Swordsmanship (Rank C)...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Tsk! He’s still a punching bag like before, old friend."
Carl shook his head, barely showing any interest in Ford.
"You little shit!" Berry screamed, swinging her razor-sharp right wing at Carl, while at the same time Varge aimed his dragon-scaled fist at Carl’s side.
"What a waste of time."
Carl caught Berry’s wing between his fingers and grabbed Varge’s punch with his other hand.
Without wasting the moment, Carl launched a flurry of strikes at both of them, each fist blazing with crimson mana — brutal, slamming them hard into the wall.
"So tiring... Ford, why are you just standing there? Come at me already."
Carl’s face darkened, his voice turning cold.
"Before I start torturing you."
Ford began to tremble, taking a few steps back.
"It’s wrong... it’s impossible."
At that moment, he finally realized the truth — they were completely no match for Carl, even though they were the same Rank. It was like Carl was already at Rank D, on par with Lord Marsh...
B-But then, what about Carl’s dragon soul?
What was wrong with their senses? It was obvious Carl’s dragon soul was only one-star. That couldn’t be denied.
Maybe... It was all Carl’s technique and skill.
"Damn it! Everyone, get out of here! We need to report this to Lord Marsh!"
Without hesitation, he triggered the [Breath Flame] skill and thrust a stream of fire toward Carl to distract him while they took the chance to flee. If they were still stubborn enough to stay, they might die—worse than they could imagine.
Taking the chance, they quickly flew up. However, before they could reach the top of the alley, they couldn’t move their body even an inch. Stranger yet, they didn’t fall down either, as if the powerless prey was stuck on a cobweb.
Carl just smirked as he looked at them. Then, with a motion of his fingers, Ford fell from that strange web.
"Listen, friend. I’ll say this once," Carl said. "If you beat me in a one-on-one fight, you can leave with your friend... but if you lose, that’s your consequence."
In an instant, Carl moved his fingers and snapped lightly. A deafening scream immediately echoed through the alley.
Ford stood frozen, stunned, staring at the severed hand of one of his friends lying on the ground.
"My friend, what’s the matter with your ears?"
Again, that painful, piercing scream rang out—but this time, a leg dropped to the ground.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Ford roared and lunged at Carl with a sword in both hands.
Carl only shook his head slightly. Fighting someone who’d lost their mind wasn’t what he wanted, so he barely moved at all. The sword aimed at his head—but just a second later, it stopped dead in midair.
Carl tilted his head and scoffed.
"What’s wrong with your sword, friend?"
Ford gritted his teeth, trying to pull the blade back, but he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried.
"Bastard! What trick are you using?!"
Carl sighed.
"If you can’t even realize that much... you don’t even deserve for me to use my sword."
Carl lifted his fingers, then lowered them, performing a series of complicated motions with one hand at incredible speed.
Eventually, Ford completely lost control of his body. His muscles tensed up in pain, and all he could do was struggle helplessly to break free.
"Damn it!"
Carl slowly stepped forward and sighed.
"What was I even hoping for from these fucking dogs?"
Without hesitation, Carl drove his fist into Ford’s abdomen. Then again. And again.
"Y-YOU BASTARD!... How dare you do this to me! My Lord will—"
Before Ford could finish his sentence, Carl slammed another dragon-scaled punch straight into his mouth, sending teeths, some dragon scales and a handful of blood flying.
"Talking too much nonsense."
"Seems you still haven’t realized your situation, huh?"
Carl sighed, already too bored to keep torturing the weaklings. There wasn’t even a hint of excitement left in his eyes.
With another motion of his fingers, the mana thread coiling around Ford’s arm began to tighten—until it finally snapped. The only thing left behind was a scream of agony and horror.
"I said, you talk too much!"
Carl’s next punch crushed Ford’s jaw completely, disfiguring his face beyond recognition even if he already used scales to protect himself.
By now, Ford couldn’t even form a single word.
Carl clicked his tongue in annoyance as the sticky blood clung to his clothes. Then he casually triggered his [Flame Breath] skill to dry himself.
Moments later, he found a garbage bin, sat down, and smiled faintly.
"It’s time to show your value... my friends."