"H-Here! S-Soldiers!"
Julian stared blankly at the slave as, within just a few seconds, tens of soldiers ran up to his cage, surrounding it.
"Explain yourself," a soldier snarled.
The slave quickly nodded and pointed his finger at Julian.
"A-A soldier approached, a-and this g-guy killed him! I-I saw it with m-my own eyes!"
"Bullshit," the soldier replied plainly. "You frail little shits wouldn't be able to do a thing against one of us. Although..." He looked Julian up and down. "You do seem a little different from the others. You're not as afraid as them either."
He raised two fingers and waved them around. Immediately, the soldiers scattered, looking for the fallen soldier. Less than a minute later, a scream resounded:
"Found him! Derrick's fucking dead! His throat's crushed!"
With that, the soldiers ran back and surrounded the cage once again, their eyes locked on Julian.
"Explain yourself."
Julian wracked his brain for a way out.
Acting blind or deaf? He'd be backstabbed.
Pinning the blame on the slave who snitched? They'd just kill all five of them.
As if his day wasn't quirky enough already, it just got a lot worse.
Julian sighed, approached the slave who snitched, and snapped his neck without remorse.
Before the other three slaves could react, he did the same to them as well.
[You have slain a dormant human (x4).]
With how easily he'd done it, the soldiers realized he wasn't weak, so they carefully stepped back, with only a select few remaining close, their swords inside the cage and trying to stab him.
"Would you believe me if I told you I was an envoy?" Julian hummed. "An envoy sent by Princess Diana herself?"
The soldier from before scoffed.
"And? Have you come to surrender?"
"Not quite." Julian shook his head. "On the contrary, I came here to kill all of you."
"Haah?" The soldier held back a laugh. "Kill all of us? You might be strong, but all of us here are dormant humans. But if you give up here and now, I promise that we'll cleanse your body in fire instead of letting it rot in dirt."
Julian approached the soldier, brushing aside a sword.
"How generous of you, but what makes you think I'm human? Is it my appearance? Or is it the fact that I'm talking to you right now?"
The soldier frowned. "What are you—"
Before he could even finish his words, Julian kicked off the ground, tearing straight through the steel bars and grabbing the soldier by the neck, raising him up.
The other soldiers stared at him in shock, especially since there were pieces of steel embedded in his body. Yet he didn't show a reaction. When they surrounded him, they all pointed their swords at him with trembling hands.
Julian observed the soldiers circling him, then glanced back at the soldier in his grasp.
Flashing a smile, he said, "As I said, not really human now, am I?"
Tightening his grip, Julian crushed the soldier's neck, then stole his sword. As he unsheathed it, he tossed the soldier with full force at a cluster of soldiers, creating an opportunity to pass.
And so he did, sword in hand. However, despite all of his strength from his exoskeleton Soul Artifact, the soldiers weren't amateurs.
One soldier in particular parried his attack and tried to stab him.
Unlike what they were expecting, Julian let the blade stab him. Then, while the soldier looked at him with a fearful gaze, Julian sliced his head in two and finally broke out of their formation.
"Get him!"
Since Julian was in less restrictive gear, he ran faster than them. Yet the problems had just begun. From all corners of the camp and from each tent, several hundred more soldiers appeared.
He was being cornered from all sides, and it seemed like no matter where he went, at least ten soldiers would be waiting for him.
He was strong, but not strong enough to take on this many people. Destroying their food supplies was also out of the picture since there were at least fifty soldiers surrounding the carriages.
So, after making up his mind, Julian broke through the soldiers' formation and arrived right by the tall wooden wall before jumping up and over.
Just then, four arrows tore directly into his back, missing his heart by mere inches. Even so, Julian bore through the pain and landed on the ground. There were soldiers scouting all around, but they were more scattered, certain he wouldn't have been able to escape.
But when they saw a man with steel bars, swords, and arrows stuck in his body running at them, they raised their weapons in fright, yet it was too late.
Just like that, Julian killed nearly ten soldiers on his way and continued onward, his consciousness slightly fading.
There was an even bigger mountain in front of him, and that's where he headed. Yet the galloping of horses and the blowing of horns didn't do him any wonders.
Still, he was a lone man in a dark and cold desert. Seeing him without a Soul Artifact would be difficult, and the only way they even tracked him in the first place was because of the trail of bodies he left behind.
He knew he had to hurry up, so he pulled out all the weapons that were embedded inside him and then focused the remaining miasma to cure his injuries.
Once he was done, there was no more miasma left in his body. Any injury from here on out, he wouldn't be able to heal.
So, under the darkness of the desert, he moved swiftly toward the mountain ahead. There were several caves on its side, and his goal was to enter one of them.
But that was when time slightly slowed down, and a loud whistling resounded from behind him. Julian turned his body just in time to avoid the attack.
However, he realized that it wasn't an arrow that passed by him but a javelin. Only then, when he turned around to face the direction where the attack came from, did he spot five soldiers, each on a horse, wielding long blades.
In the middle was a man with red armor resembling a typical samurai suit. In his hand was a glowing red glaive. His pressure alone made the other four soldiers around him seem like ants.
And judging by what Julian had seen so far, this man was at least a general.
But Julian barely had any time to ponder, as from the distance, ten more javelins were launched straight at him.