Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me? - Chapter 139

“Wow, little cub. This is pretty cool,” general Zhang happily said while he twirled around in his newly-bought cloak, “where did you get this?”

“Somewhere convenient.” I replied with a smirk. No way I was going to reveal my secret

Thankfully, with only 300 gold, I could get the almighty ‘Water Chameleon’s Cloak’ to conceal his presence. Well, not really, because technically they could still sense his mana, but unable to see him. Good enough for me. As long as their anti-air strategy wasn’t deployed, we were all good.

“Okay, now all we have to do is just climb up.” I jumped in excitement. General Owen and general Enzo, we were coming in just a sec, hang on tight~

… Right, any time now.

… Huh?

“Well? Anyone going to do it?” General Zhang poked my cheek while he gazed up the wall.

“Dude, excuse you?” I glared at him.

“What?”

“You’re the one going up. Why else would I give the cloak to you?” I frowned, “you’ve climbed the castle before like it was nothing, I’m sure you can do this, too. Well, at least I know that I can’t.”

“But, there was your iceeeee. It wasn’t this steep, this wall is literally verticallllll.” He pouted and shot me his puppy eyes, which absolutely didn’t work on me.

‘Crackle, crackle!’

“There you go. Any more complaints?” I puffed my cheeks in anger as I immediately created a steep slope out of ice leading up to the top of the wall. I would’ve made it less steep if I could, but, well, we didn’t have a lot of space here. He should be able to manage this, right?

“But, but…”

“Forget about it, big broth—”

“I can do it.” General Zhang immediately leapt upwards upon saying that, only landing on my ice slope three times before arriving on the top of the wall in a heartbeat.

“… I really don’t get what’s going on between you two, but it’s seriously getting on my nerves.” I frowned while my eyes searched for the white-haired general who had now disappeared upon using the cloak.

Hmm, maybe I could try sensing his mana? How should I do that, though?

I closed my eyes to try to focus on my surroundings, but all I could feel was a wild mix of mana all around me. Like, sure, I could sense that there was a lot of different mana circling around me, but I couldn’t really make out each of their positions.

Best I could do was sense that general Zhang’s mana was around here, somewhere, probably near another minotaur’s mana. Not sure. Ugh, he was right, I still had a lot to learn.

‘Tap!’

“Yo, little cub, you’re looking in the wrong direction~”

“Huh?”

I quickly turned my head to the side to find general Zhang standing right next to me, his face half-hidden by the cloak.

“Ah, you’re down already?” I scratched my head. Didn’t notice that.

“Yup, let’s go,” he smacked my head playfully, “we’re not too far from the village, it seems.”

“Sounds great. Where to go, then?” I asked while I smacked his head back, only harder.

“Follow me~” He hummed while he walked towards the right path.

“Sure. Walk in front of us again, just like how we’ve been doing things all this time.” I chuckled while following his steps.

“Geez, little cub, just because I can turn my body into water, you’re being this cruel to me.” He pouted.

“Forward, my anti-trap machine! Just turn into water and escape if you get caught in a trap. Hehehe~” I exclaimed with joy, ignoring his protest.

——–

“Ah, this must be it, right? The village gate?” I asked while I peeked my head from the side of the maze wall, glancing at the huge, ornate gate that stood tall in front of us.

As expected, the village gate was taller than the maze wall. Specifically, around one or two stories taller than the wall. Fortunately, there were only two minotaur guards left that were stationed in front of it.

There were probably 10-ish of them at first, but they were all taken down already. Now, we only needed to deal with the last two. They looked a bit more prepared than the rest, though. The most striking difference was that they wore chainmail, something that the other minotaurs didn’t have.

“Hey, big brother Luke. Have you seen that symbol somewhere else? Or better yet, do you know what they represent?” I asked while I pointed toward them.

The other major difference, was that their weapons, specifically spears, had a little red cloth tied to them. I could see that it had some kind of yellow symbol on top of it, but because it had folds, it was kinda difficult to make out the shape.

“Hmm, I’m not sure, either. But it’s probably just their kingdom’s symbol, no?” Luke answered, while stroking his chin, “they’re not the most organized monster out there, but they’re very cooperative when it comes to killing.”

“Huh, so they’re united under, what, a killing banner?” I scoffed, making fun of their system.

“Something like that. They don’t have, like, one single leader or a king, but they can somehow work together only when it comes to killing. And rubbing it in their enemies’ faces.” He explained with a sigh.

“Ah, so that’s why they use that fancy cloth. It’s basically rubbing salt in their victim’s wound, huh? Like hohoho, look, we killed you. Us, the minotaurs, hohoho.” General Zhang raised one finger, as if realizing something.

“Weird flex, but alright,” I paused briefly to think, “in any case, we just have to knock them out, right?”

“Well, yea—”

‘STAB!’

“Hey, I’m getting better at this~” I jumped in excitement while pointing at those minotaur guards.

“O-oi, kid… That’s pretty brutal…” Luke said as he gaped looking at both of them.

“Whooo, I like it~” General Zhang giggled and ruffled my hair.

“This is pretty awesome.” I said as I, too, admired my handiwork.

I was only planning to try this out, since I got an idea not too long ago. I had been able to move objects using my psychokinesis, right? And I was able to propel myself away to some degree, right? Heck, I could also lift dead bodies.

And if I could knit—well, badly, but my point still stood, then I could move only a certain body part using my psychokinesis, no?

Well, that was exactly what I did. Although admittedly, it was very difficult to control, with just a little focus and luck, I managed to make those guards stab each other right in the neck, denying them the ability to scream.

It helped that they were literally standing still without moving an inch, and they were already side-by-side. Also, they were huge, man. Even if my aim missed, I would still manage to hit something. Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d be able to do the same thing while fighting head-on… Yet.

“Alright… That’s… One way to do it,” Luke grimaced as he approached the shaking minotaur guards on the ground, “don’t worry, I’ll put you out of your misery.”

Right after saying that, he grabbed their spears, pulled them out, and with one swift strike, chopped off the guards’ heads.

“Ah, I forgot to end them,” I tapped Luke’s shoulder, “thanks, big bro.”

“Eh, no big deal. Let’s go. We still need to find a way to open this door,” he shrugged, “by the way, this spear is not bad?” Luke said as he admired the spear, examining it from end to end.

“Oh, keep that spear, then. You don’t really have a weapon yet, do you?” I grinned at him. Perfect. He got a weapon without the need to buy one. Yay for saving money~

I glanced at the huge door in front of us, and walked closer to examine it. Hmm, as expected, there was no lock anywhere. Not even a door handle, too. As I continued to look up and down, my frown deepened when I realized that my mind was stuck.

Ugh, what to do?

‘Knock, knock.’

I leaned in closer to listen to the sound, and clicked my tongue when I realized that this gate was thick af.

“Oh? Is our little cub confused?” General Zhang giggled while he approached me.

‘Knock, knock.’

“Whoa, it really is thick~” He chuckled after doing the exact same thing that I did. What did he expect? Urghhh.

“I know, eel, I know. Sssh, I’m trying to think here.” I sighed. C’mon, we couldn’t afford to waste any more time here. I didn’t want to mention it especially in front of general Emilio, but once the minotaurs knew that we were coming, and coming in hard, there was a chance that they would abandon the hostages.

I mean… Hostages are called hostages for a reason. Part of why we decided to have this sneak mission thingy was to save time. There was no denying that we might be able to breeze through the maze head-on, but would we have enough time before they decided to dispose of the hostages? Not sure about that.

“Ah, this is annoying,” I grumbled, “um, let’s just do this in another way. We don’t have to be sneaky-sneaky anymore, right? I mean, I’m sure they’ll notice us when we open this door anyway.”

Agreeing with my statement, both of them nodded at me.

“Well, uh, let’s just—”

‘Boom!’

“Huh?” My head immediately turned upon hearing the familiar sound, the sound of our signal.

“That’s—” General Zhang’s words were cut off when the both of us realized the same thing.

The smoke signal was red.