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Cloud stared at the sky dumbfounded, seeing a Goblin suddenly fly up.

After getting launched good five meters up into the air, it got split into two at around the torso, and then crashed down to the stone paving along with a shower of blood.

Beyond the rain of blood, one man stood still with one of his hands raised.

“Y-You are—!”

He, who held two swords in his long arms, was someone Cloud could hardly ever forget. He was the object of fear, and of hate, as well as a wall he had to overcome.

Though not an enemy at present, the man he ought to loath after cutting his arm off stood there.

“Mateus!”
“Hey there, boy, you look quite lively there eh?”

He loosened his arm down, and approached casually as if taking a stroll. But this was actually his battle condition.

He removed the strength from all his body parts except the ones that mattered, and then twisted his hands like a whip, generating tremendous destructive force.

He hid strength that could effortlessly break through Cloud’s large shield.

Mateus looked down on the Goblin corpse and gave a single nod. But his expression looked like he wasn’t satisfied with something.

“What’s wrong?”
“Hmm? Ah, well, the Goblins aren’t my opponents. So, I’m strong, right?”
“I hate to admit it… But that’s right.”
“And yet, I keep on losing lately. So I feel like I’m losing my confidence?”
“Like I care!”

After spitting those words at him, Cloud suddenly charged towards him.

He held his favorite shield in front and slipped past him. There was a Goblin that tried to attack him from behind. He stopped its claws aiming for the back of Mateus’ head.

At the same time, a sword was swung right next to him. It had a terrific pressure to it, splitting the Goblin’s head, crushing its ribs and finally stopping after reaching the hipbone.

The Goblins were a little small to call human-size, but in exchange, they had tougher skin, and bones. Bisecting them vertically like that was something Cloud found unbelievable.

The skull was the hardest bone of the body. He managed to split it, along with breaking all the ribs and even the spine at parts. The power held behind that blow was apparent even to a novice like Cloud.

“S̲h̲i̲t̲, so you were actually holding back against me back then!”
“Well, I can’t go all out against a brat. Though, I still lost against Nicole despite doing it?”

Despite throwing remarks at each other, they stood back to back and faced the Goblins.

Goblins on the other hand were in disorder after seeing two of their own die in the blink of an eye.

If they were under the Lord’s complete domination, they would have still rushed in a fit of frenzy, but the partial domination actually backfired now.

They had high fighting spirits but they weren’t mad. Due to such unstable conditions, their judgment to flee was delayed by a moment.

Mateus mercilessly swung his swords towards the Goblins who were late to take action. He made an upward and downward swing at the same time, this time managing to bisect one completely in half.

Cloud also set up his shield and charged. He transferred all his momentum to the shield and slammed the other Goblin at the wall, keeping it in place.

The Goblin finally swings its claws trying to escape, but it was already too late. Cloud stabbed his sword to its flank from the side of the shield, making a deep cut.

The Goblin wanted to escape, but it was sandwiched between the wall and the shield, keeping it fixed in place.

As it squirmed around, Cloud moved his sword, widening the wound.

Before long, his sword seemed to have destroyed some important organ, the Goblin started vomiting blood and lost its strength.

Cloud had been trained by Nicole and Lyell, so he had a decent level of experience. He would never lose to a Goblin one on one. The difficulty he faced earlier was all due to their numbers.

“Look now, you can do it when you try, huh?”
“Shut up. They just overwhelmed me with numbers earlier.”
“In these situations, you have to focus on one of them and defeat them in priority, okay?”
“I couldn’t carelessly charge at them when I had kids behind me.”
“I wouldn’t have cared about that, though?”

Mateus, being originally an assassin, didn’t have much consideration for protecting others.

If he was told to defeat the Goblins, he would charge at them without caring about protecting the ones behind him. That was something Cloud, who was used to party battles, couldn’t do.

“Oh well. Hey, you kids over there. The Goblins are crawling out as you already saw. Return to your parents’ side now, won’t you?”
“Eek!?”

He was someone whom even the Goblins that threatened them stood no chance against. Being intimidated by him, the girl leaked a stiffened yelp. She supported the weak-kneed boy and desperately left the place.

“If you go that way, you’ll meet a guy called Argus, so ask him for help.”
“O-Okay!”

Seeing the children running towards the direction he pointed while tumbling around, Mateus snorted in disappointment.

“The cat strategist told me to come here… But it seems I’m hated by kids as always. No wonder Nicole isn’t swayed by me.”
“There’s no girl who’d be swayed by a shady-looking guy like you in the first place.”
“Oh, those are some words. Shall we have a nice long talk after this? A physical one.”
“Bring it on! I’ll show you the fruits of my training!”
“Hah, I guess I should look forward then?”

Finding it amusing that Cloud did not show fear despite his nature to be hated by kids, Mateus returned to patrol.

Cloud followed after him while spitting abusive language. He already had a patrolling route. By coincidence, Mateus’ route also matched his.

“Stop following me already!”
“I feel like going this way too. Why not go somewhere else yourself, boy?”
“This is the route I’m assigned to!”

While cursing at each other, the two still had their eyes carefully monitoring the surroundings.

That day, this pair had managed to save over ten people.

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