Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 369: Reinforcements

"Even so" the head officer said. "I must thank you"

Ezra nodded lightly. Watching as the barrier surrounding cretin hub slowly receded.

All of a sudden, his senses tinged.

On cue, a mid-sized spaceship appeared a distance away from Cretin hub, exiting hyper drive.

Looking at it, Ezra had a guess as to who the newly arrived guests would likely be.

After a minute of no movement, the spaceship advanced, and it was coming in Ezra’s direction!

"Sometimes I hate being right" said Ezra, shaking his head.

"What is it?" the head officer inquired.

"It’s nothing much, but things might become troublesome" Ezra replied with a helpless sigh, shrugging.

With his eyes on the spaceship. Sure enough, it came to a stop a distance in front of the astral beast’s corpse, allowing Ezra to fully take in its structure.

Coloured grey with red stripes, its main body looked like an bloated elongated box equipped with wings on each side with all sorts of weapons attached.

He could also spot dozens of weapons attached to various sides of its body as well, both for long and short range attacks.

A minute passed with nothing happening, Ezra guessed those within were discussing their plan of action.

On his end, Ezra had pulled out Skyfall, and was thinking up multiple routes of escape if things turned for the worst.

A door popped open from both sides of the cube shaped spaceship with two people exiting each side, making four.

Covered in head to toe with ruby coloured scales, they wore matching clothing-black suits with an emblem embedded in different places.

With a single horn on their heads, fairly large tails, three toed feet, gleaming black claws equipped on all their limbs, white jaws and wings folded at their backs, Ezra deciphered their identities instantly, as would many others.

’Dragons. Red dragons’

He narrowed his eyes but remained still. Those that attacked Orion were dragons, but they were black dragons, and having inferred from the information in his grasp, the mastermind would most likely be a black dragon as well.

There was no reason to start needless hostility with other dragon races.

Moreover, he already had some guesses as to the reason for their sudden appearance.

’Are they the reinforcements or some other party?’

’If so, then...’

On cue, the head officer’s voice rang out.

"Ah. Sir Evanol, it is a pleasure to see you. But the current situation is not ideal, might I ask what brings you here?"

"I was dispatched along with my colleagues as reinforcements to assist you in combating an astral beast" the biggest dragon replied, "But I see that our help is no longer required"

The entire time he spoke, his eyes were glued to the corpse of the astral beast.

"Might I ask who it was that did such a gracious deed?" Evanol intoned, but this tone was not friendly.

"Ah, that would be this young man"

At that, not only Evanol but all the dragons snapped their heads in his direction.

Staring down at Ezra from above, Evanol’s gaze was full of doubt and surprise.

"And who are you? Reveal your name and rank"

Ezra stayed silent for a few seconds, staring straight at Evanol whilst gauging the ranks of all four dragons.

’Three rank four and one rank three transcendent’

Only then did he reply.

"You call me Silver Star. I’m a mercenary"

"Mercenary?" Evanol frowned, while the rest were visibly bewildered. "Which mercenary group do you belong to, if I might ask?"

"None"

"None-yes, wait what? None?"

"Yes"

There was a pause before Evanol spoke once more.

"What is your rank?"

"Hmm, I don’t feel like telling"

Evanol blinked a few times before brushing it aside.

"I see. But where are the rest of your group?"

"It’s just me"

This time there was a long pause as this was more surprising than all they’d had till now.

Evanol slowly repeated Ezra’s answer. His tone was full of disbelief.

"It’s...just you...? A-Are you saying you killed this beast alone...?"

Ezra nodded casually, acting as though oblivious to the building tension.

"I had the head officers help, but that’s about it"

Immediately, he was rebuked.

"Impossible!"

But the remark came not from Evanol, but one of his comrades, who had his communicator on.

"That’s impossible!" he repeated. Pointing at Ezra "You’re a newly registered mercenary who’s only a rank two transcendent!"

With Evanol’s brows raised, he sought to placate his overzealous comrade. "Calm down, Azen, It’s very possible that his profile has simply not been updated-

Azen cut him off with another shout. "He only registered a few days ago!"

This caused Evanol to pause as well, whilst Azen continued his rant.

"I don’t know what’s going on here, but it is beyond absurd for you to expect me to believe that a rank two transcendent took down an astral beast alone!"

The other two dragons nodded slightly in response.

Ezra’s voice rang out.

"Then don’t believe it"

"What?" Azen exclaimed.

"Do you have hearing problems? I said don’t believe it. Why would I be concerned with what you believe?"

"You...!" Azen’s tone flared, his pride wounded. Ezra’s ’as a matter of fact’ tone did not help as well.

Then...

"Stop"

Evanol’s words put a lid on the hot pot called Azen, who was thus forced to swallow the rest of his words.

Ezra’s attention promptly went back onto Evanol, catching a glimpse of a wide evil smile before it was promptly erased.

Clearing his throat, Evanol speaks.

"Silver Star. Regardless of your intentions, your actions are a great disrespect to the red dragon clan. In collusion with the head officer, you have sullied the name of the red dragon. To pay for such transgressions, you will have to-"

Evanol suddenly stopped his words, staring hard at Ezra for a good moment.

"No..." he muttered. Holding his chin. "There’s no need for all that witty talk, let’s not mince words"

A smile full of malice crept onto his face and his eyes shone with greed.

"You see, I’m really in need of that astral beast corpse. While I don’t expect you to understand, as the situation stands now, let’s make a deal"

"Let me have the astral beast corpse" fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

"In return" he continued. "I will have my patron personally take you in and make you a core disciple of our clan"

"And I don’t accept this deal? Then what?"

"Then" Evanol began to let out murderous intent. "We’ll just have to convince you of our generosity using other means"

On cue, the other dragons pulled out all sorts of weapons from some sort of subspace.

A silence pervaded the air as the meanings of their actions were clear, but Ezra held no change in his either expression or demeanour.

The development of the situation was of no surprise.

’So, it really did come to this’

Besides, he had taken note of their expressions as they exited the spaceship.

It was full of confusion, displeasure, greed and malice.

Just like right now.

He understood that from their perspective, the astral beast they had plans on had been stolen by another party.

Moreover, unlike them, he was a mercenary without any backing.

In their eyes, there was probably no easier prey than him.

’Well, it doesn’t matter’ thought Ezra as his gaze turned cold. ’I’ll do what I have to do’

Having foreseen this situation, he’d naturally thought up possible solutions as well.

’I just hope they’re not too dumb’

Spinning skyfall a bit, Ezra floated up till he was levelled with Evanol.

"Are you really going to fight us? You know you can’t win!" Evanol questioned with his brow raised.

While they’d undoubtedly win, he had no idea of Ezra’s real rank, not to mention all sorts of trump cards he might have, no one capable of killing an astral beast single handedly was a simple character, he didn’t dare underestimate this Silver Star fellow.

Avoiding the fight would be the best scenario.

Just then, Ezra’s voice rang out.

"You’ve had it wrong from the start" he said slowly, turning to the astral beast corpse.

On the spot, Ezra placed his hand on the corpse and mutters.

"Absolute Induction"

The space around the corpse swirled and right in front of the eyes of everyone there, it disappeared.

Silence!

Surprise and shock appeared on everyone’s face, which then morphed into anger.

"What did you just do?!" Azen shouted, his spear raised towards Ezra.

"What does that concern you?" Ezra shrugged.

"This bastard...!" Azen was furious, but at the same time, wary at the unusual spatial powers Ezra demonstrated and didn’t rush in blindly.

Ignoring Azen, Ezra faced Evanol. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Evanol’s expression had crumpled, looking as though he had stepped on a piece of shit.

"Hoo..."

Covering his face with his hand, Evanol let out a breath, rubbing his forehead.

Things had just become many times more troublesome.

"Do you really intend to fight us alone?" Evanol questioned, fury dripping from his tone.

Feeling that he’d been made a fool of, his pride was wounded.

"Who said anything about fighting?" Ezra replied with a brow raised. "Or do you think you can stop me from escaping?"

Evanol’s fury calmed. He indeed hadn’t thought of that possibility.

"Fine then, but while you might be able to escape, he won’t" Evanol replied, pointing at the head officer.

Ezra made a funny expression, almost laughing before shrugging once again.

"I’m a mercenary, how does that concern me?"

’Got you’ Evanol ’s eyes shone as if his prey had just fallen into his trap. "Because then they’ll be no one to prove you’re the one who killed the beast. Then, I’ll issue a bounty against you...I don’t think I need to elaborate as to what happens after?"

"Ah that? Don’t worry about it" Ezra replied. "You see, I’ve actually been recording from the moment you arrived"

"What?!"

"Take a look" Ezra replied, raising his archaic communicator to show that it was indeed recording before using universe induction to make it disappear from their sights.

Just as how they defied the lack of sound in space to communicate using energy, the communicator could also record the movement of this energy to record what they were saying.

Still speaking, Ezra tilted his head to face Azen.

"I do hope you’re not foolish enough to believe that with my powers, I don’t really have a backer"

"Then reveal your affiliation!" Evanol exclaimed.

"I should reveal my affiliation to a bunch of thieves who claim to be dragon clansmen? You must be joking" replied Ezra, flashing a provoking smile.

"Ugh...!" Evanol was heavily annoyed, but still didn’t attack.

In truth, he wasn’t going to place a bounty, as that would complicate things by several times.

If not anything else, even if he set the bounty and the astral beast corpse was successfully recovered, there was only a one percent chance he would be given credit, not to mention an actual share of the beast corpse, rather he’d just get blamed for failing such an easy mission.

Beyond him, his patron was looking forward to the results of this mission, even granting them this high grade assault ship to assure success.

Though it took a while to familiarize himself with the controls. The reason they had arrived this fast was thanks to its speed.

If he returned empty handed after such investments, he’d certainly not be let off easily.

Not to mention the fact that reinforcements from other branches would soon be arriving.

Things were like so whenever an astral beast appeared, treated like hot cake.

Yet he couldn’t just attack the mercenary in front of him. With such great spatial abilities, who knew what kind of origins he had?

Gritting his teeth, Evanol raised another proposal.

"Then, at least give us a share, you can’t possibly take it all for yourself"

"What are you talking about? I killed it. So of course it belongs to me"

"Still, you can’t simply let us head back empty handed after coming all the way here"

His comrades nodded in agreement.

"You keep getting things wrong" Ezra shook his head. "Was I the one who called you here? No right? Then it’s settled. Meet whoever called you here to get what you’re owed"

At this point, Evanol had run out of threats and retorts.

He could only blame his luck for meeting a mercenary with both a silver tongue and sharp brain, most of them weren’t smart enough to talk themselves out of situations like these.

How frustrating!

Seeing that his opponent was fully subdued, Ezra nodded.

Seeing that their flaming spirit was now extinguished, Ezra was inwardly pleased, and decided to give them a way out.

"Now that the matter of ownership has been cleared. We can now talk on equal terms"

"Talk about what?" Evanol asked, feeling trepidation towards this silver tongued fellow.

"The astral beast corpse, of course, or do you not want it anymore?"

Evanol’s eyes opened wide. "You’re willing to give it to us?"

"No, don’t it wrong" Ezra waved his finger, destroying their fantasies. "I’m not giving you anything, I’m simply highlighting an offer to trade"

"Why didn’t you say that earlier?"

"Whilst you were threatening me and about to attack me for my rightfully claimed bounty?" Ezra replied with his brow raised, making an expression of ’are you serious?’

Evanol coughed to divert the awkwardness he felt before straightening his expression.

"So, what do you want?" he asked straightforwardly.

Ezra shook his head. "I don’t think you could have anything I want. Instead, return to your patron and tell...is it him or her?"

"Her" Evanol replied.

"Tell her that I would like to trade the astral beast’s elixirs for items of equal value"

Evanol’s expression crumpled as he foresaw how his patron would react, but this was still better than nothing.

"Alright, I will tell her-"

Evanol paused as something stuck out to him. "What you want to want to trade are astral beast elixirs? Not the body?"

"It is up to me to decide what to sell, just tell your patron to be ready to buy"

Clenching his palm at the abject disrespect, Evanol nodded. "Alright, I will. But how do I contact you?"

"I was getting to that. Spell out your number"

Rather annoyed, Evanol still complied and spelt out his number.

"Are you sure it contains no errors?"

"Yes I am" Evanol nodded.

"Alright, good. You can leave now"

Confusion appeared on Evanol’s face. "Won’t you give me your number as well?"

"What for?" Ezra gave him a combination of a ’what are you even saying and what do you even mean?’ look.