Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

"Oi Oi, Aren't you talking big just a moment ago?" Anton laughed, twisting both arms of a fella. He pushed a little further, pinning down the fella on the floor. "Where does that arrogance go?"

"Bastard," the fella pinned to the floor moaned in agony. But he had other companions as well. He yelled, looking at his other companions. "Why are you guys waiting? Beat this bastard. . ." 

"I guess this is all you amount to," Anton said, twisting the arm harder. 

Three fellows came after Anton, hearing the yell from the poor fellow on the ground. They were barehanded like Anton, but their sizes were much better compared to Anton. One was a big baldy with a tattoo on the arms and neck to the side of the bald head, while the other two were less imposing than the baldie, but they were still well built.

"Three against one, that's not fair, actually," he said with a smug expression on his lips. "But it's hardly any challenge."

Anton left the poor guy on the floor as he dashed towards the guy on the left of the baldie. His body made a 360-degree motion in the air before Anton kicked violently on the guy in the chest as the victim went astray on the floor. One dropkick was enough to put that guy down. 

Anton moved behind the bald fellow, attacking the back of the knee of the baldie. One kick was not sufficient for him to put down the baldie, so Anton struck a knock at the other leg at the same spot. 

The baldie groaned in pain as he kneeled on the floor. Meanwhile, Anton already moved to the last of his target, and there was no contest as well.

"As I assumed, hardly any challenge," Anton said, spatting on the ground. Then noticed the bald guy stood up again. "I guess you need more."

The baldie did not say anything, looked ferociously at Anton with his snake-like eyes. A dozen more fellows came in and stood behind the baldie, while the other three Anton had previously put down joined the dozens as well. Now this was going to be a challenge for Anton.

"Oh, I felt some chills now," Anton said, shaking both his palms. 

Three more figures appeared behind Anton as well. It was a short, looking man, a girl with short dark hair, and a redhead. Jacob, Byul, and Michelle did not wait any more, seeing a dozen fellows ganging on Anton.

"You guys wanted some fun as well," Anton eyed the other three.

Michelle snorted. "I only came because it looks bad for you," she said. "Who knows the one who might be thrashed on the ground is you."

"Are you serious? Me? These guys?" Anton said, expressing contempt to Michelle and the gang of dozen. "I can handle them all single-handedly." 

"You can do whatever you want, but I'm not backing down," Michelle said with annoyance. "Ain't I was the one they were looking for from the beginning? Let me see if they can handle it." 

"Are you sure? Don't just ablaze the entire floor accidentally."

"Shut up," Michelle said as she came forward before the dozen. Scarlet flames blazed in a ball immediately as she smiled at them.

"You think you only know some tricks?" the baldie said as his arms hardened into stone. Few of the other fellow showed their worth as well, activating any abilities they have. "Attack."

"This is going to be a big problem," Anton said, looking at the crowds. The concern was not for his companions, but the fellows that were watching the conflict.

Just as Anton said it, Michelle threw a couple of fellows on a grass table with her flame spell. The glass broke with the impact from the fellows as the public regained some of their wit move a little far away.

Before this they were only dealing physically, not he nor the three of the other party used any amount of mana or weapons, but now Michelle broke the untold code by casting a spell with maha mana. Well, Anton could not blame her. As a mage herself, all her force came from spells—and to cast spell maha mana is the essential ingredient.

"Jake, Byul, protect that stupid girl," Anton said warily, seeing Michelle went off her own. "Meanwhile, let me put down this baldie again."

Before even Jacob could answer, Anton's legs moved in a ghostly fashion. There's no need to concern about mana anymore, it would only make more problems for him. So Anton took the wise decision to apply mana with the Shadow steps. He had not yet mastered this skill, but his proficiency was enough to handle the situation.

With a blink of an eye he appeared in front of the baldie, his eyes scanned the stony armour in that bald's arms. 

The baldie did not wait for Anton to make a move first, hammered his right arm at Anton's head. And Anton was not an idiot either, dodged it, dropping his head, then the left arm of the baldie came targeting his stomach. 

Anton blocked it with his left leg, armed with armament reinforcement, but the impact from the stone punch caused the mana coating to shatter immediately.

'Guess the stony thing was not just for show,' he mused. 'Fortunately, the armament caught most of it.' 

While on the other hand, Michelle already blasted off a few of them, and Jake the archer only followed her as he did not have a bow with him. He had it quite hard, protecting Michelle. He faced two opponents a head taller than him with a bare fist, until Michelle could blast them off with her spell. 

The spell needed a few seconds to prepare and in those seconds, Jacob received a few blows already. The Ugliest one was on his right eye that was swollen in black and purple, yet the archer did not dropdown.

Byul was in far better shape. She was a natural fighter, knew she had less strength than her opponents, so she used their strength against them. 

Anton saw the situation of Jacob with the corner of his eyes, he did not delay anymore, channelled the mana in his arm where most of the maha points were. Soon, a constructive layer of armament coating appeared on his arms.

He blocked the stone arm of the baldie with his left, while beating him with the agile movement. He hit him with his elbow right at the chin. Anton followed it with another punch at the nose as the baldie sprayed blood from the mouth and nostrils. The baldie was still standing, Anton frowned at him, before giving another chop just below the ears, and finished it, swinging his left leg on the knees of his target again.

The bald guy could not stand up immediately anymore, Even though he had some skills, he was not skilled with armament reinforcement or had any skill at armament reinforcement, moreover, he was way weaker in agility than Anton let the duel finish instantly after Anton gauged his opponent.

____________________

Support the book with power stone and Golden tickets, I'll really appreciate it. Thanks.

A Little War will start in few more chapters, I'm really excited to write the whole arc, it's probably the coolest scenes I've written.