Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-18

After turning his head back, Joshua brought up his Attribute tab to have a look at it. Thanks to the five warriors he just killed, Joshua had acquired enough experience points to level up. The three attributes that he frequently relied on had been enhanced automatically after his level was boosted.

Warriors nowadays were mostly Perfect Silver. All they needed was to gain two more levels and they would be able to pass Silver tier into Gold, which regular people could only dream upon achieving. By then, the warriors could stand on the edge of glory. They would become the only revered men of that generation.

Lingering by the main hall, Joshua was breathing heavily to recover his stamina. He had no intention at all to leave the hall for the moment. He promised the old butler to clean out any trash in the hall. In other words, he had no intention to let any of his enemies leave the place alive.

Rage, hatred, disdain, all other negative emotions were chaotically spinning in his mind. Then he relaxed little by little. After that, Joshua's face relaxed. However, his heart was ignited with blazing fire.

Decapitation? Was that it?

You've got to be kidding me.

Other than himself and Ying—everyone in the hall room was dead!

Thud, thud, thud.

The sound of intense but yet uniformed footsteps was approaching the hall. They seemed to be gathering not far from the hall at the moment. After that, they marched into the hall like a strong current of water gushing into the hall. Well, they looked like a few schools of fish binding together before they swam into the riverbank. Joshua could sense that the shimmering souls that were initially scattered across the mansion were about to finish gathering together in one spot.

Furthermore, they were just gathered not far from where Joshua stood.

A few seconds later, the second wave of guards that came late had already appeared on the other side of the main hall. Compared to the first wave which only had five Silver-tier guards, they only arrived less than a minute late. Upon observing the current situation in the hall, they were well aware of what was about to come.

"Ying, stand back a little. No, you should stay outside for the moment."

After seeing the group of elite mercenaries that were secretly trained by the Wilson Family, Joshua turned his head around to tell the little girl.

"But, but we agreed earlier on that you'd use me!"

Ying was having a bad time accepting the new arrangement. Ever since she had formed the pact with Joshua, there were several times that she thought her master would use her in combat. However, her master turned out to be so powerful; he actually took out his enemies with his bare hands.

However, this time, it was obviously different. There were over nineteen Silver-Tier warriors in the vicinity!

"Divine Armament transformations can only last for an hour. We should reserve it for unforeseen circumstances where it might put us in the uttermost dangerous situation. So, for now…"

Looking upon the enemies lining up in their own formation, Joshua could not help but laugh.

The leader was a heavily armored knight He glanced at the mess made in the surrounding with a baffled look on his face. He also noticed that five of his comrades were lying dead on the ground. Glaring at Joshua, he commanded loudly, "The enemy is right in front, let's go!"

"Yes, Sir!"

They did not try to stall, nor attempt to communicate with Joshua. After hearing the command to act, nineteen Silver-tier knights let out a battle cry in unison and went into formation. Stomping through the pathway with intimidating auras, the knights charged towards the lone warrior at an intense pace. The walls, the chairs, the houses and the pots were smashed by the knights as if a tank just passed by. Everything was crushed to bits!

They were all elite mercenaries that were secretly trained by the Wilson family so they were supposedly very experienced. They had exterminated countless enemies, some which included orcs and monsters. Most of them even encountered and triumphed over the white dragons that were wandering in the north, hence they were called the 'White Dragons— they were one of the strongest and largest mercenary groups in the north. So they had no fear when there was only one enemy right before them!

In the face of the formation of the nineteen Silver-tier knights, Joshua slowly closed his eyes as if the rampant knights were completely not there.

"After I traveled to this world, orcs, counts, betrayal..."

He seemed to have said something. However, no one could have heard what he said in the chaotic hall, "Urgent news comes one after another. I didn't even have time to react to the previous ones yet."

So would the mercenaries care whether their enemy was dreaming or not? Of course not. They did not even pay any attention to the peculiarities that were happening to Joshua's body. The friction between their armor pieces was getting louder and noisier. The sound of their heartbeats became obscured by the noise of their armor. They were so fired up that their blood had flooded their brains, causing them to ignore the radiance that was getting thicker and thicker around their enemy.

The smell of steel was mixed with the smell of the leather. Meanwhile, the nearest enemy was only less than five meters away from Joshua

The blades and spears were already right before his eyes.

At that moment, Joshua opened his eyes. Red radiance began to spread. He once again raised his right hand and clenched his fist before he proudly said, "But I do not care about any of that!"

Right before his eyes, words from the system were being refreshed rapidly. The final words that were adjusted to his sight were:

[Supreme. Divine Power!]

Boom!

Followed by a roar from Joshua in the center, the semicircular air barrier began to rise. The air barrier then suddenly burst. Countless shockwaves were unleashed into the surroundings while reddish-gold light shone across the entire hall. The aura that was spreading out into the surroundings was sparkling as if there was a static-field around Joshua. Joshua raised his head and his eyes turned red under the reddish-gold radiance. His skin was covered with a layer of an unusual radiance due to the highly active aura emitting from his body. The moment he opened his mouth, a stream of white light mixed with gold flakes came right out of his mouth. His arrogant yet heroic voice overpowered all the noise as it reverberated across the entire hall.

"I just want to know how strong I am! I ask for nothing more!"

Originally, the hall was quiet. Suddenly, the hall became ignited, followed by the strange distortions in the air. The light that radiated from Joshua's body began to distort the air in the surrounding hall. White mist-like shockwaves were emitted back and forth across the hall. Everything in the surroundings reeled right and left. Although he was all alone in this battle, his aura was as powerful as the existence of a thousand, or maybe ten thousand soldiers! Encountering the nineteen knights that were charging towards him, he chose not to dodge them!

"Die!"

Following the distorted air that created the howling sound of the gust, a vague figure in red suddenly appeared right before the eyes of the heavily armored leader. With a glare as cold as steel, that knight could not even react to the situation as a fist was blocking his sight.

Splat—

Right before the trembling power that was being enhanced to its maximum limit, the head of the knight in heavy armor was struck by Joshua's fist. His entire head was smashed into tiny bits. His body was still motionless before he began to fall to the ground slowly. Meanwhile, Joshua was moving so fast that he seemed to flash across the surroundings of the hall before disappearing from his enemies' view.

Before that, if Joshua were to use his skills to kill his enemies, he had to use his ultimate skill [Divine Power]. His power level had been boosted by two times. It was the same as using pure brute force to attack. He would be an unstoppable monster within the period of twenty-five seconds. He could be deemed a giant behemoth that could demolish the entire city barehanded. As long as it was a head-on battle, even the Gold-tier warriors would die by his hand if they ever wanted to fight him!

Strength, upon accumulation, was equal to destructive power — Take this power, coupled with an experienced legendary warrior, could you even imagine the extent of his destructive power!

Destruction! Complete Annihilation! Unstoppable!

It was like they were hit by a truck. Another knight in heavy armor was struck and flew a great distance, his weapon was shattered into pieces. His body was distorted after the strike and he died in midair. The knights had lost their captain and one of their comrades within a brief second. The remaining Silver-tier warriors were instantly terrified. Their formation seemed to be showing signs that it would be broken soon because of that.

However, they remained as elites who had received intense and strict training. These warriors did not break formation even then. However, Joshua's experience on the battlefield was f*cking rich! He had experienced countless battles and he had not lost a single one of them. He was deemed as the finest legendary warrior. The briefest moments of vulnerability in others would become an opportunity for Joshua!

"Weak!"

He was holding a war hammer that he took from the hands of the knights' dead captain. He then stomped the ground and moved himself over to the right side of the formation, his eyes blazing. Joshua felt like he was back on the battlefield with the orcs where he single-handedly slew 300 orcs. He laughed out loud without holding back.

"You're just pathetic! Weaklings!"

Followed by his manic laughter, a clean slash was swung straight at the knights right before him!

In the end, those mercenaries were still Silver-tier elites after all. Even though Joshua was moving at a high speed where almost no one could see him, there were still a few of them who noticed his movements. One person in particular noticed that Joshua had arrived by his side. So he raised his weapon and he was ready to attack Joshua...

However, before he could even talk, warn his comrades or raise his weapon, he felt a tremble in the air, followed by a whistle of sharp blows. The crisp sound of bones breaking rang across the entire hall. Two knights were smashed in their shoulders and chests with a war hammer. Blood and bones were flying everywhere!

"A bunch of imbeciles like you… I have killed a couple thousand, no, tens of thousands more of you already! And I'm sick of it!"

Some blood splattered on Joshua's face but he was not bothered by it. Instead, he became even more aggressive than before, revealing a sinister smile on his face.

Because the number of people on the other side was much more, their strength there was stronger now. They could really pose a threat to him. So he decided to do a tactical retreat for the moment. Dodge, block, parry?

That's horse sh*t!

No matter this was just a game or a reality, no matter it was the past or current, he had never been careful to begin with! He had never hidden or dodged before!

No, he never had those experiences before! Ever since he was born into this world, Joshua never tolerated or retreated from anything. If one was capable of defeating him, then just do it or just shut the f*ck up!

Now, Joshua had become invincible with [Divine Power]!

Here in this world, everything seemed like reality. The existence of this alternate world was realistic. The increment in power did not only depend on grip strength, arm strength, and one's explosive power. Even speed would be affected by the amount of strength exerted in one's movement. In other words, if one exerted more power in the movement, that person would be able to move faster. Before the enemies could react, Joshua decided to toss aside the blood-stained war hammer aside, disregarding the consequences. His entire body disappeared in a flash as he took the initiative to charge forward.