"It looks like you were given a pretty shitty fate as well, huh?" Azmond asked the young, beautiful princess with a gentle smile on his slightly battle-thirsty expression.
"..."
But regardless of the face he was making, it was a smile that she perceived as something angelic when she saw a boy who looked to be twelve years old appear in front of her like an angel from the heavens!
The boy was wearing a black leather coat with white outlines that covered his entire body. He was also sporting large black leather boots, all of which he found in the storage space ring.
"..."
The young princess's lifeless eyes suddenly came back to life when she saw the boy appear before her with a wide grin on his absurdly handsome facial features.
She had never seen anyone so handsome, so beautiful in her entire life! If he was not an angel, then she didn't know what was considered one!
"Is your head still in this world, girl? Why are you staring at me without saying anything?" He asked the blue-haired princess with a confused look on his face.
The princess, still lost in her only little world, didn't even comprehend the words that came out of the 'angel's' mouth until the 'angel' got right up close and personal with the princess and with an 'angelic' voice, asked, "Hello! Are you still with us??"
Azmond's voice echoed out as he got closer to the princess and shook her gently.
"!!"
The princess ultimately came out of her stupor and responded to her guardian 'angel'. "Y-Yesh?"
She stuttered a little as she stared at the now-up-close and personal, unknown man.
She was in awe at the fact that someone could possibly be so perfect-looking. But more than that, it didn't make any sense to her!
However, regardless of her thoughts, Azmond looked at her and finally saw some clarity in that gaze of hers, so he said, "Aiiii~ Well, at least you aren't totally out of it; I thought you turned into a zombie or something with the way you were staring at me like you wanted to eat my meat..."
He backed up a little upon confirming her cogency before he sighed and muttered, "It honestly freaked me out a bit."
He really did start to question whether the princess had actually turned into a brain muncher for a second there. You never know in the world of cultivation.
However, he was a little relieved that such a beautiful girl hadn't fallen victim to some mysterious virus.
But in spite of his thoughts, the only thing that she got from his words was, 'Me eat his what??'
The princess thought in confusion before it suddenly hit her, as a small blush appeared on her rosy cheeks.
Yep, that's right... Her mind went straight to the gutter.
******
Meanwhile, as Azmond and the princess were having their little conversation, another discussion was currently going on a few meters away from them.
"Who the hell was that?!?! And what the hell happened to Anderson?!?? He just disappeared, and an explosion followed soon after." One of the mercenary goblins wearing a strange tunic asked in confusion.
He was speaking to the other goblin mercenaries; however, before anyone even got the chance to respond to him, something changed in the goblin mercenaries expression.
"Wait a minute!! Could it be..."
And as if a sudden epiphany hit him out of nowhere, he looked towards where the explosion happened and saw a beaten and bloodied Anderson planted into a large, 60-meter-tall tree a few miles away from them.
"What the F*ck happened to Anderson in that split second for him to end up all the way over there???" Another one of the goblin mercenaries who looked in the same direction asked with a look of astonishment.
"Was it that boy over there who did it?!?" He asked with his eyes honed in on a human boy talking to the princess.
"That is the only possible explanation, but... it doesn't make any sense! How can a boy who looks no older than 12 years old send Anderson, who is a Late Core Formation Realm Master, flying with a single strike?!" He questioned with a tone of disbelief.
"Who cares if it really was that boy who did it or not!? That boy is in the way of our target, so we just need to eliminate him too!" A different goblin mercenary wearing a weird green hat spoke with malice concealed in his voice.
"You're right! We just need to kill him as well and be done with it!" The first goblin mercenary agreed with the one who said to eliminate the boy.
They conveniently forgot that they just came to the conclusion that the boy standing before them was the one who knocked Anderson unconscious with one move...
...
"Should we just attack him head-on or sneak over and ambush him from behind?" A different goblin mercenary asked with a cunning look in its beady eyes.
"What do you think? We are mercenaries, not knights, fighting with some bullsh*it noble code of honor. We will sneak right behind the little boy and stab him right in the back! Let's get it over with in one move." The First Goblin Mercenary responded with a shrewd-looking grin.
After a few seconds of going over their 'plan', the leading goblin mercenary spoke once more:
"Attack him on the count of 10!" He whispered.
The first goblin mercenary gave his command to the others as he looked toward Azmond with a malicious glint in his eyes.
******
Meanwhile, the princess and Azmond were still talking to each other a little bit away.
"So what are you doing out here, girl? I don't remember seeing any human settlements or anything of the sort on my way over here." He asked the now-standing princess a question with an inquisitive tone.
"I was looking for some 1000-year-old Ice Lilies to gift to my grandmother for his 12,000th birthday, but these scumbags ambushed me and my guards on the way." She spoke the last part with an obvious look of hatred on her beautiful features.
"And my name isn't girl, Angel. It is Aqua, Aqua Mesdeth AquaRing, with AquaRing being my family name and Aqua my first name," Aqua added with a polite tone.
"1000-year-old lilies, huh? It sounds like some more spiritual bullsh*t, and what is with this angel name?? I am far from an angel," Azmond replied with a perplexed look on his face.
"You saved me from those ra*ist bastards without expecting anything in return, so that makes you an angel in my eyes, plus you're too beautiful to be anything else..." Aqua spoke with a kind look in her eyes as she spoke the past part in a nearly inaudible voice.
"Huh? What was that last part you said? I didn't quite catch it," he asked.
"It was n-nothing! Pl-Please ignore what I said, angel... please..."
Aqua's voice came out in a meek whimper as she put her head down and covered her beautiful face with her long, silky blue hair.
"..." Azmond looked at the unusual expression on her face and thought something was wrong, but he quickly set that matter aside and said, "Whatever you say... and stop calling me 'angel'. It's annoying, and I have a name as well. It's Azmond."
He looked quite proud over the fact that he had a name just like everybody else!
"The Angels name is... Azmond... I see..." Aqua started talking to herself with a goofy smile on her pretty mouth as she started mumbling incomprehensible nonsense in her own little world.
'And there she goes again, dozing off into her own little galaxy... What an odd one she is; maybe she has brain problems?' Azmond thought with a concerned look on his face.
'Whatever the case may be, I will leave it aside for now since I still have some sneaky bugs I need to deal with first' His thoughts came to a close as a blade came flying out of nowhere in the direction of the still-lost princess.
WSSST!
It whistled by Azmond's head, aiming straight for the frazzled Aqua.
However, just as it was about to strike her head, he suddenly appeared in front of the blade's trajectory and knocked it out of the air with a flick of his middle finger.
"..."
And just as he thought he could catch his breath for a second, another four blades were seen flying at the princess in the same way as the first.
FWIP!
Azmond was seen, and then he wasn't seen as he disappeared and reappeared in front of each of the four flying blades at lightning-quick speeds as he hit each blade in a certain direction.
Each and every single one of the blades was suddenly sent flying in four different directions.
In fact, the blade's flew right back to their owners as four consecutive screams resounded across the forest.
"Arghhh!!" Four goblin mercenaries screamed in unison.
While the screams of the four goblin mercenaries echoed out, another silent hooded figure was waiting in the shadows behind a tree as he suddenly lunged forward in the direction of Azmond's backside, aiming at him with a 2-foot-long jagged dagger.
'Ha! I got you now!' The goblin thought to himself with a victorious smirk.
However, just as his blade was about to make contact with his skin, Azmond suddenly disappeared from the silent figure's vision.
'Where the hell did he go?!?!?' He thought.
The silent hooded figure looked in every which direction but he couldn't catch sight of the human boy no matter which way he turned.
"I'm right here, little piggy~" Azmond whispered next to the hooded figure's right ear, as a wide grin formed on his handsome face.
"!!!"
The hooded figure was about to jump out of the way in fright; however, following Azmond's voice, he swiftly twisted the hooded figure's head around!
The hooded figure's head twisted in circles enough times that his neck looked like a slinky!
"Pest cleanup is now complete; flawless work, me!" He spoke to himself with a proud and haughty look as he glanced around the area and saw five bodies lying dead on the ground, with disbelief present on their face's.