The situation inside the cave became tense. Everyone was looking at each other. All of them knew that it would only take a few seconds before a blood bath ensued.
Aldred looked at them one by one. He had never seen their face before, which meant they came from a different path than him. This was interesting. A lot of powerful people seemed to climb the mountain currently, but all of them were scattered on different paths.
One man in majestic red armor clicked his tongue. "I have no time to waste. Kill all of them," he said to his subordinates who wore the same red armor as him, but less majestic.
"Wait!" A man shouted. "This might be a trap trying to fool us. All this time, we face no challenge that told us to kill each other."
Some people nodded in agreement, while others still hesitated.
"Fools. It's so obvious." The man raised his whip about to attack.
Maverick widened his eyes. "Ferrant?"
"Did you know him?" Aldred asked.
Maverick nodded. "He's also the son of a count like me."
What he didn't tell Aldred was Ferrant's ability. He was more influential despite their county having the same strength. Some say it was because of his decisiveness in leadership.
"Does all son of a count this arrogant? First was Byron, and now this guy."
As Ferrant and his subordinates went on a killing spree, the crystals on the ceiling of the cave continued to glow one by one.
Aldred was planning on doing nothing about him, but the man just had to come after him.
"Die!" Ferrant shouted as his whip came at Aldred's face.
Aldred sighed. Targeting a ten-year-old as your first target… how cruel could someone be. With a flash of light, the whip was deflected.
Ferrant stared at the boy with widened eyes. 'Did the boy just parry my whip?'
"Ferrant," Maverick called. "This boy is not your match. Look for someone else."
"Maverick? Humph. I know you would try to obtain the treasure. Don't bother to continue. That treasure will be mine."
Maverick said nothing. He found something better than the treasure. His eyes glanced at the boy who was still calm.
"Maverick, I will let you live if you don't disturb me."
Maverick sighed. "You don't have the power to say that."
Ferrant frowned. "Are you saying your new friends can defeat me?"
Maverick shook his head. "Just the boy is enough."
Ferrant stared, and then laughed. "I admit the boy is good at parrying my whip, but he will need more than that to defeat me."
Mira held Aldred's shoulder. "Don't kill him."
Welp, Aldred wanted to kill him, but he didn't want to make Mira sad too much. He had been doing a lot of killing these past few days.
Ferrant snorted. "Take this, boy!"
The whip was engulfed with a powerful red aura. It slammed at Aldred, sending out dust in the air.
When the dust subsided, everyone was shocked to see the boy holding the whip with his bare hand.
"Imp—Impossible." Ferrant took two steps back.
Aldred smiled and activated his Eye of Nightmare.
Ferrant flinched and his mind entered the realm of nightmare. In his vision, he was suddenly transported into a dark place with water all around him.
When he saw a large wooden spoon stirring the water, he realized he was in a cauldron. The wooden spoon was moving by itself, swirling the water around.
The water began to warm, but seconds later, it became so hot that the water started to boil. Bubbles popped. Ferrant couldn't move, and pain washed all over his body.
"It burns! HOT! HOT! HOT! AHHH!!!"
Everyone was shocked to see Ferrant rolling around on the ground, screaming. Their subordinates came to his aid, but they didn't know what to do. Ferrant's eyes were hollow, but he was screaming in so much pain.
Seeing they couldn't do anything for their lord, the subordinates stared at the boy. "What did you do?"
Aldred smiled. "I did nothing."
"AHHHHH!! KILL ME! KILL ME! IT BURNS!"
"Lord Ferrant..." his subordinates called. Some of the magicians enveloped him in healing magic, and anti-burn magic, but their lord still screaming like he was being boiled.
Maverick, Mary, Bartrem, and the others looked at this scene in slight fear.
Mira on the other hand felt pity for Ferrant. "Aldred, stop this."
Aldred stopped the nightmare, and Ferrant's eyes returned to normal.
"Lord Ferrant," his subordinates called with worry in their eyes.
Ferrant was trembling in fear. He caressed his skin like he was making sure they were fine. When his eyes looked at the boy, he flinched and looked away.
"I want to go home."
"Eh… but what about the treasure?"
"I don't want it anymore. I want to go home."
His subordinates looked at each other. Lord Ferrant sacrificed many things to climb this far, but now he said he wanted to go home?
"But, my Lord. You spend a lot of treasure to climb here. Your father will be very mad."
"I DON'T CARE. Bring me home now!"
His subordinates finally relented and brought Ferrant to leave the cave.
Aldred simply smiled when he saw Ferrant did not dare to look in his eyes.
"Aldred, what did you do?" Mira asked.
"It's my new skill. I can give him a bad nightmare. What he feels and experience is simply a nightmare. It's not real. I don't think anyone could die by this skill."
Mira doubted that. When Ferrant was screaming, she saw his life force flickering like he could die at any time. This skill was like the tool of a demon to torture its enemies. Mira wanted Aldred to not use this skill anymore, but she didn't want to control him too much.
She could only sigh and be grateful that Aldred did not kill the man.
Aldred looked at the unlit crystals. He needed to at least kill 12 people to activate them all. "Mira, we need to kill people or we wouldn't be going anywhere."
Mira bit her lips but eventually nodded.
The other people flinched in fear when Aldred set their eyes upon them. They all saw what happened to Ferrant earlier, and none of them want to experience the same thing.
But a new group came from a tunnel. It was the vikings earlier. The larger viking seemed to have upgraded his shield. It was the Bajaragon head.
Aldred was impressed by these guys. They even used the head as a shield.
What he was even more impressed about was the bravery of the large viking. He was staring at Aldred through his viking helmet.
Aldred smiled. He did not know what beef this man had with him, but he would defeat anyone that come at him.
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