Awakened: SSS Ranked Soul king

-woom!!

A cloud of red smoke, condensed at its edges, flew towards Leon at lightning speed, threatening to end him in one fell swoop.

Feeling signals spike in his head, Guilliman quickly jumped aside, narrowly escaping the slash.

But just as he was landing, several more slashes came rushing together in quick succession, forcing him to summon his mythic beastsoul, the Rootstalk, and use it as a shield.

-boom

-boom

-boom

Three consecutive attacks hit him directly, pushing him into a tree. The impact was so great that it not only caused the soul beast to dissipate but also made the tree behind him fall.

"This…" Guilliman gritted his teeth as a trace of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. Taking the full brunt of that attack… was something else.

'I can't let this go on, there's nothing to protect me, I should run.'

For the first time in a long time, Guilliman considered running away from an opponent. The power within that offensive echo was just too much for him to handle.

"Die, little slave boy, your services are no longer needed," Vincent sent a new wave of slashes towards Guilliman. At this point, he was no longer trying to make him suffer.

No, he wanted Guilliman dead; that was all.

"Shit!!" Seeing the slashes phase into existence in front of him, Guilliman cursed and dodged. In the next instant, he activated his waningmoon mind charm, distorting his presence in a more pronounced way.

It now felt to Vincent as if there were three Guillimans running around, dodging his attacks. Of course, he was the only one who could see this.

Either way, he wouldn't give up.

If there were three Guillimans running around, then he would have to just kill three Guillimans.

So he ramped up his attack speed, coordinating well to catch Guilliman off guard. All he needed was one attack to kill him. One.

'I can't die here, this guy won't be the end of me.'

At this point, Vincent's barrage of sword air had all but flattened the surrounding space, turning it into a felling zone.

Vincent had gone all out, but he hadn't. He still had his summons, and 'that' skill. He could still win this.

But before he could.

Out of nowhere, several arrows made from pure energy pierced through the air, connecting with each of the incoming slashes and erupting in a large bang.

"What the…" Immediately shifting his gaze, Guilliman traced the trajectory of the arrows and landed on a figure in the trees.

"Aaron," he murmured; immediately upon spotting the source of those arrows, he understood. This was technically Aaron territory—such loud and destructive attacks would have clearly been heard by a passing patrol.

"Hm? You?" As the dust settled, Vincent's eyes landed on a figure crouched on a tree not too far away, with his bow and arrows trained on him.

Even in the Aaron clan, there were few people who could actually stop his attacks so easily, and he knew each and every one of them by name.

"You're Carlson?" Vincent raised his eyebrows questioningly.

Carlson Aaron, the hidden hand of the Aaron family. He was an extremely mysterious member of the family because no one really knew who he was. The mask, though, was a dead giveaway.

Strong and adamant about hiding his identity, he was definitely that Carlson fellow.

"So? Is that a problem?" The man atop the tree smiled, letting out his arrow to flash through the air and attempt to pierce him.

-boom

An explosion soon erupted, picking up dust and creating a hole behind Vincent. But Vincent himself was unharmed; the arrow had simply phased through him.

Vincent had become a sort of secret card himself.

And as such, the responsibility of taking care of Carlson had fallen on him.

His eyes drifted to Guilliman, who was on the side, panting and holding onto his dislocated arm. He was steps away from cleaning this stain from his reputation… so close.

But Carlson took precedent; that elusive individual had finally come to light, and he couldn't let him go.

He just couldn't.

"Stay ripe for me, slave—soon I'll come to harvest your life," Vincent smiled, then, with large strides, he walked toward Carlson steadily.

.

.

.

In the distance, the fight between Vincent and Carlson reached a new peak as heavy sounds of destruction echoed throughout the forest.

Hearing these sounds as he retreated, Guilliman couldn't help but feel a grim sense of dread. It seemed like he had underestimated the nobles a bit.

Just these two could easily fight on the same level as him and everyone in the cohort.

After getting out of bounds, the fight suddenly took a turn as some members of the Nu reached Vincent and surrounded Carlson.

Fortunately, as they did so, the people from the Aaron clan intervened. Their joint efforts helped push away the Nu in quick succession.

Days later, the news spread about the fight; only one of the two parties was replaced with a mighty mythic beast terrorizing the forest.

Clearly, they were hiding something.

"Hmm, so what do you think? Is there anything strange about the region?" After some rest, Guilliman was questioned by Victoria about the incident.

Being ambushed by Vincent was horrible, but the way Guilliman spoke of it made it seem very light. Even Jemie was bedridden from fighting the Nu, not to mention Guilliman, who had gone against Vincent.

However, since he didn't seem bothered, she went ahead and leaned toward more meaningful information. For example, why was Carlson in that region?

She was still not privy to what efforts that mysterious guy was up to, even after spending so much time with the strike force. It was a bit embarrassing, yet she could understand why.

She was an outsider.

"Honestly? It might really have been just a coincidence… but it's a good place to start. I'll send Ghost to search the area later tonight. Maybe we'll find something," Guilliman said.

He hadn't even gotten around to asking the old man Wilson about Carlson, yet the guy had already reared his head.

It was a really lucky encounter.