>>5203695Don't mind me, just a worldbuilding interlude.“W-we surrender!” The lizard-like demihuman throws his rusty axe to the ground. Before his two underlings get the chance to do the same, their heads fly off with the glint of a blade.
His slitted eyes fly off to the side, for any route of escape into the greenery. Not for the first time in his life, her curses his bright red scales. Not like he'd made the leap into the forest, the spectre of death in front of him had cut throught two score bandits in mere minutes. “Y-you can't do this, you're suppossed to be a Holy Knight!”
“Ohhhh?” The young boy, who had not gotten a single drop of blood in his clothes, runs his gloved hand over his bloodied sword, and rubs his thumb against his index finger, spreading the crimsom. “I wonder... did that merchant beg like that?”
The lizardman can't help but look at the corpse of the man whose head he had split in half not even an hour ago, a fate he was soon to receive himself. “You know? Those that kill should be prepared to die themselves...”
His golden sword rises up in the air, and the lizardman closes his eyes, welling with tears.
“Psyche!” Only to open them again when he feels his hand slap his back. “As if I would seriously say a lame line like that!”
“Huh?”
With inhuman strength, the boy forces him back up onto his trembling legs.
“You see, Zilla-kun, I'm something of a killer myself. Not cause my dad beat or diddled me, or something like that, it's just that I always wondered how it felt. And damn if it isn't easy, you even get the System patting you in the back with EXP. So no grudges about that.” With a beaming smile, the boy prattlest on.
“W-what the hell are you going on about?!”
“Just shooting the shit while I get access to your Status. Never seen a demihuman so demi before and I was curious. Hmmm hm. A Race. So you can evolve? That's it!” The boy claps, and the lizarman cringes and recoils as if a cannon had fired in front of him. “You're hired!”
“Huh?!”
“Welcome to the Third Century of the Penal Legion! The position's for life!” When he looks down at the boy's beatific smile, the lizardman would later recall it as the scariest moment of his life. “Call me Armin Tamzarian. Pleased to meetcha!”
