Nolan charged in, his millennia of experience showing off as he cut down demon after demon.
One lunged from behind, but he sidestepped and connected an elbow to its jaw. Another charged in from ahead and he threw his weapon, embedding it into the demon's head.
[Level Up!]
[Level: 2]
[Exp points: 0/200]
[+1 skill point rewarded!]
"How boring." Nolan's brows furrowed as he read the message displayed on the screen.
As the last three followed him, Nolan ran towards the one in front of him, retrieving his half-sword before the demon fell.
He continued forward, kicking off the wall, backflipping over the three demons behind him, slashing the eyes of two in the process.
As he landed, he watched as one of the blind ones attacked the one who's sight was still intact. In defense, the other retaliated and they got into their own duel.
"How pitiful," Nolan commented as he walked over to the second blind demon that was swinging its claws aimlessly at thin and then slit its throat.
He waited for a moment longer before getting bored of the show the two fighting demons were putting on.
Nolan slashed them severally before swatting his blade to get their blood off as they fell to the ground.
His breath came in uneven gaps. "Low stamina too, argh," he complained. "Giving me the best ability I've come across so far, only to make me pathetically weak physically. And then my mana reserves are little, like what exactly do I do with the abilities I gather the, if I can't use them well?"
It was a sound point. Stacking abilities was soon going to become useless if his mana pool was still this low, concerning the fact that some skills may have mana costs.
SNAP!
A twig snapped Nolan out of his thoughts and complaints.
He spun around, looking at the ruined space, now filled with demon corpses. Nothing seemed out of place, or at least to anyone who would have been in his shoes.
A lot of things about Nolan may have taken a big fall since he was starting again, but his perception didn't.
He wasn't fooled by how "normal" everything was right now.
Matter of fact, his number one rule has always been this: the more normal it 'seems', the more abnormal it 'is.'
… …
Hiding behind one of the ruined buildings was a young boy—A teenager, probably 16 or 17—from their team, his hands over his mouth. 'Arghhh, how stupid can you be? Now he knows you're here. But I hid before he turned around, right?' he thought to himself.
He lowered his hand and slowly turned his head to peep at Nolan. 'How did he manage to kill that many demons? He's not a Novice-rank. That I am sure of. Does Sir Einicht know of this?'
The boy spotted Nolan walking away to the opposite direction and he turned back, clutching his chest and exhaling deeply with his eyes closed. "Good gracious, he did not spot me."
He turned again, but Nolan wasn't there. Probably gone already.
"That was a close one, right?"
A voice came from behind the boy, calm and levelled, like whoever it belonged to was also hiding from the person that just walked away.
"Yes, close. Indeed it was," the boy nodded.
Three seconds.
That was how long it took him to realize he actually came alone. He spun around and found Nolan smiling at him.
Before he could scream, Nolan went down, sweeping the kid off his feet, causing him to hit the ground hard.
The boy hardly processed the world suddenly moving upwards and the sudden pain, when a hand covered his mouth and the cold coming from Nolan's half-formed sword stung his throat.
"Don't make that mistake of shouting, mm? You won't want me to mistake you for a demon, do you?" Nolan whispered, his smile still intact.
The boy, terrified and helpless, didn't know how to reply with his head pinned down by Nolan's mouth covered, an ice blade hovering just above his throat and his arms pinned by Nolan's knees.
So he did the one thing he thought of. Moving his eyes up and down continuously, then side to side. Up and down to show he accepted not to shout and sideways to show he didn't want to be dead.
Nolan's expression became blank as he stared at the boy, utterly confused at what he was trying to do.
Nolan raised a brow. "Hah? Are you trying to use some ability on me?"
The boy's eyes widened and he started moving his eyes side to side, as fast as he could.
Nolan finally understood, though the attempts where completely stupid to him, but then again, he thought to the fact that he didn't give the kid enough opening to reply.
He removed his hand from the boy's mouth but didn't move the blade.
The boy gulped, his throat almost making contact with the blade. "I-I swear by my life, I will not shout o-or tell anyone about this. Th-the gods be my witness."
Nolan didn't reply though, his eyes were narrowed, scanning the boy's face as if trying to grasp onto something he had forgotten.
The boy blinked, his nervousness and uncertainty if Nolan was actually going to spare him growing. "Please. I will do whatever you ask of me."
But Nolan was still quiet. He tilted his head slightly and looked away, trying to remember something before looking back at the boy.
The issue was, Nolan didn't know who the boy was. At all. This was not only a different face in the team, the Cerulean Guardians and the entirety of the Kingdom of Cloveland, but a completely new one.
For all his 1046 lives, Nolan could say he had seen almost every person there was to see, though not all, but at least 80% a minimum of 2 to 3 times.
In Cloveland especially, he knew every blessed soul, because he's been here as everything—a noble, prisoner, merchant, farmer, trader, king, baker, all of it—and he made sure to mark faces just incase a need would arise, or a new betrayer rather.
Yes, he enjoyed having his revenge.
And surprisingly, he had never seen this boy before. But something deep inside his chest made him feel like he had a connection to this very person.
The face seemed like he knew it from somewhere, but he didn't.
Thing was, no matter how long the regression, Nolan remembered every single detail of each. His mind was always working out countless scenarios whenever he looks at something, bringing in all his experiences and interactions with the place, person or object.
His first regression was still fresh in his mind, same as others.
But right now? His mind was blank.
Nolan took away his blade from the boy's throat and tilted his head, his expression one of utter confusion. "Who are you?"