It happened in an instant.

Before knights, cultivators, and peasants could react, a massive scaly tail had pierced the torso of the announcer, pinning him to the ground. Blood slid down the tail as his legs and arms went limp. Aside from the Valhannas and the sect disciples who regained their calm, the peasants rushed out of the plaza, and the knights paled at the sight.

The head of the Valhannas humphed. He splayed a hand forward and announced, “Stay calm! I swear upon my name of Ress Valhanna that those dragons are mere illusions! You have nothing to fear!”

He noticed it? How is that possible? Himo widened his eyes.

[The user’s expertise is too low. Any cultivator in the Dantian Core Formation realm will notice easily that they’re illusions. Besides, dragons in a place such as this. Who would believe it?]

They did! Himo resisted the urge to point at the appalled knights. Shaking his head out of those thoughts, he turned to Ress and grinned. “I see that you liked my spectacle. But while they might be ‘just illusions’ for you, that does not apply to everyone.” With but a thrust of his, the bow danced over the cords, bringing lively notes that commanded the dragons. And the dragons sang. They sang a cascade of flames which sprung into a mad dash to the lifeforms underneath, crushing the lives of several Body Strengthening cultivators—the Valhannas’ juniors.

Flames wrapped them and clouded their sight as their lives turned off one at a time. The heat burned them, or so they believed. In truth, their own khenqi consumed their bodies from within as if bewitched by the illusion. But it affected only them. Anyone in the Dantian Core Formation stage didn’t feel the heat, for they had already beaten the ‘existence’ of those flames.

“You…!” Reddened in rage, Ress unsheathed a rapier from his storage ring. Turning to look at the others, he said, “Stay in a defensive formation, I will take care of… eh?” He froze. Instead of seeing his allies as he had expected, he found that half of them had died, now lying on the ground in the form of bleeding corpses. All by the hands of a little girl.

Rushing through the crowd of frightened cultivators, the little girl seemed invincible. She was attacked with swords and spears and axes and pikes, but to her, they were toys, unable to make the slightest wound. At the same time, as long as she got close to someone, that someone would soon be dead. It was a massacre.

“Regroup, now!” Ress yelled. “Stand in a diamond formation!” After taking a glance at Himo who stood still on the dragon’s head, he dashed to aid his allies. Meanwhile, the Valhannas and the sect disciples stood back to back in formation, defending from the relentless attacks of the little girl. But as soon as he reached them, the little girl stopped attacking. She stood motionless, staring at them from afar.

Ress used that moment to catch a breath. He turned to a woman whose cultivation level equaled his—his wife. “I’ll hold that girl occupied, how much do you need to kill the brat?”

“Ten seconds should be enough.” She frowned. “Let’s act quickly, before he frees his family.”

“Take your time, no need to worry about that. Those chains are made of ‘raverium’, even Nascent Souls can’t break them, much less him.”

Mined from a pacific rank two monster, the raverium was a particularly dense material, granting it a toughness far superior to steel. It was a semi-precious material, but two fatal flaws made it unpractical for standard weaponry—a considerable weight and the brittleness it would gain upon touching a dead cultivator’s blood. Popular belief told that such property was born from the monster’s loathe of violence, but no one managed to verify such belief.

While they talked, Himo jumped to his parents, took out a sword, and slashed at the chains. As Ress had predicted, he failed to cut them—his sword didn’t even make a dent on them.

“See?” Ress said. “Let’s do as I said, you don’t need to— What?!” Following the appearance of a dark scythe that froze even his heart, the child severed the chains effortlessly. The Shu Family was freed. As despair clouded his mind, the knights had long run from his side.

Aria jumped into Himo’s arms. “Big brother!”

Mo laughed. “Good job, my son!” He stroked Himo’s hair and looked at the one who had planned his fall. “Stay back, Himo. Now it's our turn!” He and Ashey took out their weapons.

Himo touched his own head. I just got patted… Feeling a warmth from within, he shook his head and poked at his father’s shoulder. “Father, it’s still my turn.” His eyes glistened in fighting will.

“But…” Mo frowned.

“If possible, stop them from escaping. As for the rest, I’ll do it by myself.” Himo pointed at the crowd of commoners standing just outside the plaza. “I have to show to my citizens that I’m fitting to be their ruler, after all.” Grinning, he stepped toward the Valhannas.

“Rul…er?” Staring blankly at the ten years old kid, the Shus blinked uncontrollably.

His words dumbfounded the Valhannas and the sect members. Even so, they treated them as wonderful news. If Himo were to fight by himself, there was still a chance for them. Ress turned to his wife. “Pay attention that they won’t sneak attack us. I’ll take care of the brat.”

She nodded.

Pointing his rapier to Himo, Ress stepped forward, when the child raised a hand and made a swinging motion. Three times. “What’s wrong with him?” It wasn’t only Ress who grew confused, even the others watching couldn’t help but raise their eyebrows.

Then, Himo did it a fourth time. And something appeared—a wooden log. As many faces warped into disbelief, the massive log departed from Himo’s hand, darting toward the Valhannas. Despite its weight, its speed could rival a slow arrow. Soon, a quake shook the plaza, coming from the log which planted itself in the white stone.

“I missed.” Himo lowered his gaze. I even underwent a harsh training for it…

[The user trained for a day.]

A harsh day!

[Still a day.]

Himo crossed his arms. He didn’t know how to retort to that.

Meanwhile, Ress was getting impatient. He was first unnerved by the freedom of the Shus, but seeing that they wouldn’t interfere, he heaved a sigh of relief. If I can get my hands on that brat, we can still come out on top of this. After eyeing at the Shus, he turned to his allies. “Stand back, I’ll deal with him by myself.” Retreat was not an option anymore. He knew that already. And so, he dashed forward, his rapier stabbing toward the child.

Himo blocked the attack with the violin and stepped back due to the impact. Even against the rapier’s stab, the violin didn’t get a scratch.

Ress raised an eyebrow and dashed forward once more. The result was the same, the violin guarded the child from his attacks.

As a response, Himo leaped backward with a [Hopper], raised a hand, and threw yet another log toward his opponent. It impaled the ground. Despite the child’s best efforts, all he gained was a standing log.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish,” said Ress as he lunged for another stab. “But don’t expect that it’ll work!” Just as Himo tried to block with the violin, he shifted his aim, and the rapier avoided the instrument. It darted to Himo’s right shoulder, but the child sidestepped it by a hair’s breadth.

Frowning, Himo threw the violin in the storage and took out the scythe. He held loosely the handle in a mixed grip, then pointed the blade to his opponent’s right. The atmosphere around him changed. A dark gloom of death descended in the plaza, bringing heaviness to anyone’s heart. Many cultivators took steps back, terrified. Non-cultivators, meanwhile, fell butt to the ground despite the long distance separating them from the scythe. Some even passed out.

That heaviness grew stronger the closer to the scythe. And the closest one, at that moment, was Ress. Despite his cultivation level at the fifth string, the pressure brought upon him was akin to being deep undersea. He bit his lips until blood drew from them.

Himo, meanwhile, stepped forward and began to rotate the scythe, his fingers intertwining on the handle, driving its momentum into a constant, controlled speed. The rotation was neither quick nor slow, limiting to ‘accompany’ the rhythm of the steps he took. A rotation, a step. A rotation, a step. Separating him from the opponent was just a few meters, meters whose number kept decreasing.

Albeit intimidated, Ress didn’t hesitate. He conformed to Himo’s advancement and retreated accordingly. The two stood at sword’s reach from each other. Since Himo’s expertise with the scythe wasn’t too high, he couldn't move quicker while holding the rotation. They stared at each other, waiting for the other to commit a mistake. Thus, they stood in a stalemate. 

Three figures appeared behind Himo. Ress frowned. Contrary to the Valhannas, the sect members didn’t harbor much respect for him. Naturally, they didn’t follow his orders, believing that capturing Himo was worth the risk of the Shus attacking.

What they didn’t know was that Himo’s scythe technique—the Requiem Dance—wasn’t focused on attacking. It aimed to counter-attack by stealing the enemy’s initiative for itself. Taking a single step backward and altering the scythe’s rotation path, the child slashed at the three without looking backward. They got split in half before they could make a sound.

When suddenly, Ress made his move. Taking advantage of the moment where the scythe’s blade stood behind the child, he lunged his rapier. However, the child smiled. The gaze that Himo gave him said three words—don’t underestimate me. Ress’ heart skipped a beat.

Using the scythe’s momentum, Himo sidestepped the rapier. And shifted the scythe’s direction. Its edge aimed at his opponent’s head.

Letting go of the rapier, Ress jumped backward, barely avoiding the slash. But it wasn’t the end. Before he could grab a second rapier, the child jumped toward him, the dark blade of the scythe aiming at his throat. He dodged by bending backward as both child and blade ‘flew’ past him. Sighing in relief, he took out the second rapier—and got beheaded from behind.

“It turns out that the logs aren’t so useless after all!” Himo laughed. “The deforestation operation is a huge success!”

[Again, is that name necessary?]

Same answer—absolutely! Himo grinned and turned to the remaining foes, but the glimpse of a now-shattered log stopped him half-way. It broke from just a jump?

[A triple [Hopper] generates a shockwave beneath it. That shockwave is already enough to make a hole in the ground, much less breaking some wood. Also, considering the pressure that the skill applies to the user, it’s quite surprising that the user’s legs aren’t broken.]

Eh? Broken? Himo widened his eyes. Ah! Now that you say it, they do feel a bit numb. Could it be that I didn’t notice it due to adrenaline?

[Likely so.]

Himo frowned, then shook his head. Oh, well, it’s not the moment to think about that. He turned to look at the remaining Valhannas and sect members. 

Before his gaze, they felt akin to lambs stared at by a wolf. Most of them had already been killed, and under the eyes of the Shus, they had no hope to survive. Some resorted to threats(the sect members) while others to begging(the Valhannas) but, considering the situation they brought upon the kingdom and what they did to the Shus, their prayers were ignored.

Needless to say, none of them survived that day.