«No! Take me too...!»
«...I'm sorry.»
Once the explorer closed his eyes and entered the portal, the battle ended. The reason was simple. There were still knights all over the passageways blocking the scouts.
«Ríndanse.»
«Excuse me? But our portal has not been prepared ye-»
«That portal was the last one. I feel sorry for you.»
«C-commander, what...! Ahhh!»
As soon as a knight lowered his sword, the scouts rushed randomly to trample and beat him.
«Talk! What does that mean? Why is that the last portal?!»
The knight simply endured all the violence. He answered questions even when his teeth were blowing out and his eye veins burst. «It's like he said».
«Crazy bastard! Then you knew they would abandon you and still...!»
«Someone had to stay behind. Your anger is justified, so pour it out on me. My body is still worth that».
«¡Te food!»
«¡Por... Rafdonia...!»
Some knights surrendered while others brandished their swords to the end, but the result was the same. The scouts outnumbered them and broke their lines, ruthlessly and unilaterally displaying their desperation and anger. Of course, the scouts also knew that those knights were in the same ship as them, and would serve as valuable forces. However, there needed to be someone to vent their emotions against.
Similar scenes were occurring throughout the central region.
«Ahh! Who are you? Don't push!»
A barbarian easily pushed through the crowd in a hallway and made his appearance. «Hey, gentleman.» He grabbed the arm of a scout hitting a knight and spoke. «Kill...»
«Let me go!»
«...It's a problem.»
«What!? These bastards abandoned us. Are you on his side?»
At that moment, the barbarian unloaded his fist into the face of the resisting explorer.
Hit!
Soon, the scout collapsed weakly.
«I said it's a problem». The barbarian spoke, breathing heavily. Simultaneously, a stillness settled. There were no more scouts attacking knights, at least in that place.
***
The situation downtown didn't differ much from my expectations, except for one thing.
I didn't expect there to be so many gentlemen left.
It was a happy miscalculation. They wouldn't follow my orders, but at least they were still high-level staff. Just traveling through this cave with their lives intact was good bait for me.
«Mr. Yandel!» A heartbeat later, my companions appeared along the path along which I made my way.
«Oh, you can take care of them.»
«Excuse me?»
«I mean, protect them from dying.» Entrusting the half-dead knights to my team, I left the passage and headed to the common area of the center.
«¡Ahh! ¡P-Para...!»
Screams came from all directions at every turn. They were mainly gentlemen.
Yes, you are human too. Those who feel pain in a gang.
«... Known sea!»
Angry rages broke out. On the other hand, there were also those collapsed to the ground a step back in a daze of despair. Even anger was meaningless to them.
«We are all going to die.»
«Cecilia... Sorry, I...»
They accepted their own deaths as a fait accompli. Among them were also those who bore the marks of the great clans. There were some team units and some people on their own or in duos. Not even a large clan could take everyone with them. Even the knights were abandoned in this situation. They would have chosen the lower-ranking members first because entries were limited.
From time to time, I heard voices trying to quell the anger. «Please stop...! This doesn't change anything! They are in the same boat as us». In these cases, it was divided into two categories: those who fully trusted emotions and raised their voices to preserve morality and humanity, and those who still clung to hope.
«Have you all gone crazy? At this rate, we will all die!».
They put aside their anger and tried to stop these atrocities rationally. In some ways, I probably fit into this category. These were the people who would help me the most in this situation, too.
Step.
Finally, I stopped walking. In front of me was the monument I had seen many times, the Last Great Sage. It was the only building erected in the labyrinth to commemorate the achievements of Diplan Groundel Gabrielius.
In commemoration of his great first step.
There was a hidden piece in this monument, something that opened the crack on the first floor. However, it was impossible to enter the rift and avoid war. Not only did we not have a rank 8 mana stone, but having it was useless because the last crack opened a month ago. So I deliberately skipped it thinking that it was more beneficial to explore the fifth floor, making it open naturally. Well, it's not that the disappointment changed anything.
«Ahem, ahem». I coughed and cleared my throat. Still, he wasn't particularly worried. If a barbarian had any notable traits other than outstanding physical stats, it would be his clearly shrill voice. «Altoooooooooo!»
A thunderous cry made in the state of Gigantization was enough to pierce everyone's ears, even in this chaotic situation. For a moment, everyone stopped their actions and turned their attention to me. Of course, it didn't last long. They looked at me for a moment with eyes that asked, Who is that bastard? and then they stopped worrying.
So this isn't enough for you, huh?
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. Could something so close to a cartoon happen in real life? «I am Little Balkan, Bjorn, son of Yandel!» Whether they ignored me or not, I kept screaming and screaming. A rule about being a barbarian: if your voice doesn't reach people, it's because it wasn't loud enough. «If any compatriot knows who I am, let them do what I say from now on!». I asked for support, because I wasn't the only barbarian here.
«Little Balkan, Bjorn, son of Yandel!»
«Great warrior!»
«This is the order of the next boss! We must follow her!»
«¡Behell-aaaaaaaaaaa!»
Starting with the screams of Kharon and Ainar, the barbarians spread throughout the cave shouted in unison. Our barbarians haven't stopped watching me since I first screamed. Although they weren't sure what he was going to do, they probably thought they should help a compatriot.
«I repeat again! Everyone still!»
As I screamed, the echo followed me.
«I repeat again! Let everyone stop!»
«I repeat again! Let everyone stop!»
«I repeat again! Let everyone stop».
Again, the crowd paused and turned their attention to me. Maybe if I had screamed until my vocal cords broke on my own they wouldn't have done it, but since the same screams were repeated back and forth like a radio broadcast, they couldn't help but be curious.
«Who are you to tell us to stop?».
«This is all because of these bastards, but you want us to put up with it!». The negativity was even greater. Many continued to beat the knights, blinded by anger.
So I kept shouting: «I repeat again! Stop everyone!» Like a simple and ignorant barbarian, I naively repeated myself over and over again, incessantly until my request was fulfilled. That's when my screams reached something like the tenth verse. «I repeat again! Let everyone stop!»
«Someone shut that bastard's mouth!».
The arrows of anger that did not calm down no matter how much I vomited ended up going to me.
«If you're going to side with the palace, die!». There was an explorer who even charged at me.
«Protect the next boss!» The barbarian warriors who saw this ran to protect me.
However, I stopped them. «Stop! We must not fight among ourselves!»
The simple barbarians stopped moving at my cry, but not the explorers who charged at me.
Latigo.
An explorer brandished a sword as if facing an enemy.
"Kak!
I expected this from your team, but it didn't leave a single scratch on my body. How could this penetrate normal iron?
«Uh, umm ... »
I didn't move to block it completely and received it with my body in that position. That was enough to reveal our skill difference. He realized this late. With a cool head after the excitement, the explorer backed away almost in fear.
Hey, where do you think you're going?
I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him towards me. I asked him: «Do you want to live?». Did not answer. «I asked you if you want to live! If you're going to die anyway, why are you running away?».
When I screamed menacingly, the scout's face paled.
«Tell me, do you want to live?».
Like a cornered mouse biting the cat, the explorer couldn't resist the pressure, looked me in the eyes and shouted: «Who would want to die then?!».
It was the phrase I wanted to hear. Everyone was already looking this way at this guy's unexpected behavior. I let go of the explorer's shoulder. «Then run away. If you think you can live like this».
The explorer regained his freedom, but did not turn around to escape. To be exact, he couldn't. He seemed to have lost strength in his legs as he collapsed to the ground with a noise. But did he still have energy left? The explorer shouted furiously: «So what do you want me to do?».
What else could I do? He had already said it several times. I took my eyes off him, looked around and shouted again: «I repeat it again! Everyone still!»
The life of a barbarian had taught me that repentance one day turns into tenacity, as long as you don't give up first.
***
Although it was only for a moment, stillness came. Actually, it was kind of a miracle. What that barbarian did was just scream. He didn't use violence, he just screamed incessantly. At first it seemed stupid to him, because he thought that no matter how many times he screamed, this current confusion could not be quelled. Judging that everyone would come to their senses once all the knights were dead, he walked away with his clan members from the situation.
«Incredible».
The unilateral violence against the knights had almost stopped, a result incurred by a barbarian. How was this possible? The exact reason was still unknown. You could only guess. As it is often said that words have power, perhaps that barbarian's words had something more. Just as one action stuck deeper in the mind than a hundred words, perhaps that stupid naivety sowed anticipation in people's minds.
Smile.
Or, perhaps, they just regained their sanity after seeing something stupid over and over again, like when a serious conversation changed the mood completely when someone brought up something stupid. Of course, this was just speculation. I didn't know what the real cause was. It could have been that they were simply curious about what that barbarian meant.
However, one thing was clear. That barbarian had achieved something he couldn't. The Rank 5 scout Little Balkan, although inferior in power and faction size, had done so.
«Deputy Commander».
«Yes, go ahead.»
«No more observing in silence. If someone attacks a nearby knight, stop them». The man ordered him and moved his feet.
«commander, where are you going?»
«I want to hear what the barbarian who caused that commotion says. If he's just stupid, or...»
The deputy commander tilted his head, but the man kept his words to himself. He himself thought it was funny.
«Stop everyone! Is right. Stop once and for all! And let's calm down».
Just like he had just done, those who had been spectators in all the hallways raised their voices and showed themselves.
Hit!
For some reason, his heart raced. The man stared in the direction of the monument.
«I repeat again! Let everyone stop!» The barbarian continued shouting, and the people who supported him responded with shouts.
«Everyone still!»
Now, even those who had nothing to do with that barbarian raised their voices. Seeing that, it accidentally occurred to him that everything that was happening now was like a scene from a hero's story in a folk tale he used to read as a child.
«Anyone who causes trouble from now on will be considered the enemy!»
***
Someone approached. «I am the commander of the Nartel Clan, Melter Fend. If you have a plan to overcome this situation, I would like to hear it».
A woman approached next. «I'm Lacey Nareth from Heindel Church. I am here to thank you for avoiding this tragedy».
The third was a magician. «I am a battle magician from Rafdonia. They did not abandon me, but I stayed of my own free will. I didn't like that commander at all».
Even after that, more people continued to gather: a priest, a wizard, a clan chief, the deputy commander, a team leader, and even individuals, those who used to belong to a group, but were abandoned or voluntarily left behind.
«I think you can stop screaming now. Everyone is waiting for you to speak».
«Tell us. Do you really have a way? Or did you stop the killing out of mercy?»
Unsurprisingly, a barbarian's order was invincible. Achieving my goal, I turned off the brainless infinite repeat mode. «Nice to meet you all. I am Bjorn, son of Yandel».
Finally the conditions were met for a conversation.