Chapter 368 The Demon And The Dullahan
Everything else about him looked normal enough; if you ignored the fact that he did not have a head on his neck.
In his hands was the helmet-clad body part that was supposed to be on his neck, with its every breath expelling a blue gas into the air.
He then moved his hands and placed this helmet onto his neck, twisting it slightly and locking it into place with a 'click' sound like a bayonet cap bulb being fitted into a lamp holder.
"No matter how many times I see you do this, it still doesn't change the fact that it's freaky as heck."
The man sitting on the rock rubbed his neck with one hand as he spoke, while the other hand scratched his messy dark brown hair.
He was dressed in an untucked white short-sleeved dress shirt, over a pair of simple black trousers and similar-coloured shoes.
He wore a pair of lightly tinted sunglasses that prevented one from noticing the true colour of his eyes.
"Oh well…among the A rankers, there are a few that stand out to me. Like that woman who took out Beg'dikeec."
"Ah…her. I remember seeing her among the profiles that Dominik compiled.
She's Zylwenys Tisha. She's a promising A ranker who has the potential to become S rank if given a few more years.
Since she's a mage type, Dominik and I picked out a Death Knight with a skill that's very useful against mages for her."
The sunglasses-wearing man replied to his armoured companion's words before pointing at a few other A rankers who he recognized, along with a few other powerful B rankers.
All the names he called out were the names of Adventurers and Knights who had made names for themselves and garnered fame ever since the undead crisis in Cheverton began.
Naturally, a certain young hero who had taken advantage of this incident to garner fame to his name, was on this list.
"The boy who summoned the spirits…who did you say he was again?"
"Hmm? Eris Evan…or rather, Evan Eris. That country's style of calling last names first has gotten to me after being there for decades."
"Didn't you say you had no choice as you had to beware of the Beast King?
But besides that, to think he was an Eris, huh?
So, he's the son of that Blood Duke. He's just like his father when the man was younger."
The armoured man placed a hand to his chin as he spoke, nodding to himself as if having confirmed something.
"Blood Duke? What's that?"
"It's the name the Prime Minster was called in his younger days."
"Oh…come to think of it, you were once a Knight under his service, weren't you, Vazgan?"
The man wearing the sunglasses posed this question to his armoured companion, who only sighed before correcting him.
"I wasn't under his service. I was just a squire serving in a unit he commanded during a war some time ago.
I only became a Knight after I was transferred to Bultom."
"Same thing."
"Not it's not, Zacular."
The armoured man sighed and facepalmed, before turning the conversation topic back to Evan's actions of calling spirits.
"From the looks of that water spell, what he summoned was most likely a high-ranking water spirit."
"Yeah, but it seems like he's at his limit. He was only able to fight for a short moment after that before having to rely on the spirits to carry him.
Guessing he can't use it much."
"Don't be so quick to conclude. He was fighting all day so h-!"
"HEY!"
Vazgan's words were interrupted by a shout that came from afar, with the two men turning to see an adventurer making his way towards them.
The silver tag hanging from his neck showed he was a B ranker, but they could sense his level was at the lower end of the B rank spectrum.
"Wotcha two doing here? The fight's happening over there."
He had a genuinely curious look, accompanied by a tinge of fear in his eyes as he spoke while looking towards the sunglasses-wearing man.
"Ha…he looks scared of you, Vazgan. You should really tone down that intimidating aura sometimes."
"I see no need to do such a thing."
The two continued with their conversation, ignoring the B ranker who didn't seem to like that. However, before he could say anything, a dark shadow was suddenly cast on the ground in front of him.
Before the poor adventurer could even react, a thick hoof slammed into the back of his head and knocked him to the ground.
The hoof was then engulfed in a coat of blue flames, before stomping down on the adventurer's fallen body, multiple times.
Each stomp caused the ground to crater slightly, sending out shockwaves that spread out for a few metres.
By the fifth stomp, the adventurer now had a crack in his skull and three holes in his back. The blue flames from the hoof had spread over his body, melting the steel armour he was wearing before going on to burn his skin.
"Poor guy, if only he held back his curiosity."
The sunglasses-wearing man spoke with a 'sad' tone, before standing up and dusting his trousers. He then alternated his gaze between Vazgan and the large black horse that just stomped the poor B-rank adventurer to death and spoke.
"Let's go. Our work here is done.
We'd wait and see if they'd go after Methik's Corpse puppet that is with Falos. He did say that the puppet may have attracted attention when escaping from Bultom.
So much for the plan to trap the Duke."
Vazgan nodded in response to his words, before holding out his hand and patting the horse that snuggled up to him as the three figures walked away into the sunset, leaving behind the corpse of the poor B-rank adventurer who perished before his time.