Hero or Villain, Both
Chapter 99: What are these? (1)

Chapter 99: What are these? (1)

"Does that newcomer think he’s that smart for taking down all the surrounding villages? All he’s doing is causing the others to take notice of him."

"It doesn’t matter even if they take notice of him. By the time that we’re done, it’ll all be over for him."

"Right, it was by our grace that he was even able to become the chief of a place like this and now he’s becoming ambitious enough to start taking over the entire area? Doesn’t he know that this area already belongs to our Iron Fist Gang?"

This was a group of people that was sneaking up on Boulder Town.

Though there were guards that were all around Boulder Town, it didn’t seem like any of them noticed them.

But then again, this was a group of scouts that had been specially trained.

It wasn’t as if they would be caught that easily by a group of people that had only been training for a few weeks.

After they finished scouting the town, the leader of this group said, "Let’s head back and report what we’ve found. Boss is already getting impatient, so let’s not keep him waiting. Once we report in, he’ll decide on what to do next with them."

They didn’t waste any time in leaving their positions and with their abilities, they were able to easily sneak away without being noticed by the guards.

Once they were far enough from the town, they started chatting with each other as if they didn’t have a single care.

"There were some cute girls in that town. I can’t wait to play with some of them."

"That’s not up to you."

"Right, it’s up to Boss Iron Fist to decide who gets what. Did you already forget?"

"Can’t you just let me dream?"

Though they seemed to be joking, the tone of their voices showed that they revered the person that they called boss. It was only natural that they would look up to such a person since it wasn’t just anyone that could lead a group in this wilderness.

Especially someone who led a group like the Iron Fist Gang.

The Iron Fist Gang was a group that had started out as bandits, but they quickly took over several towns in this wilderness.

In fact, they were a dominant force in the surrounding area because they had been able to take over four different towns and countless villages to create a fief for themselves.

With this territory that they possessed, it could be said that they were a kind of nobility in the wilderness.

It was all because of their boss, Iron Fist.

He was a cold and ruthless ruler, but he was also a very smart leader contrary to what his name made him sound. He was someone that knew just how to control the people under him and take over more territory.

And this had all started when he set his sights on this town by the border.

Before this, he couldn’t have done this because this town was one that was vied for by many different local rulers. All of them restrained each other from actually doing anything to take the town.

However, that all changed when a certain someone became the chief of this town.

This wasn’t something that was recognized by the surrounding local powers, so they naturally had to do something about it.

Only Iron Fist recognized this as a chance to take this town for himself.

If he were to kill the new chief in the name of liberating the town, he could also bring his men to take over the town.

That was why he had sent people to incite the villages around Boulder Town to raid them.

It was just that he never expected them to actually do something like trying to conquer all of the surrounding villages. It seemed that whoever had become the chief was quite the greedy person.

But that didn’t matter to Iron Fist since it was winner take all in this wilderness.

Even if he built up his forces by conquering the surrounding villages, he wouldn’t actually be able to keep them once Iron Fist took over.

As someone that had taken over four towns already, Iron Fist was confident that he would be able to take over Boulder Town as well.

It wasn’t just Iron Fist that was confident, it was also his men that were confident judging by how they were acting even though they were supposed to be on a scouting mission.

It was just that none of them actually expected what happened next.

"What’s going on? What’s grabbing me?"

One of them suddenly said this before everyone turned in the direction of that person.

When they looked down at his feet, they all couldn’t help revealing shocked looks.

After all, none of them could believe what they were seeing.

It was a skeletal hand that came out of the barren ground and grabbed that person by the leg.

After being dazed for a bit, that person suddenly kicked at the skeletal hand that was grabbing him as he said, "What is this thing?"

Only before could actually kick the skeletal hand, there was another one that came out of the ground that grabbed his other foot. Once that skeletal hand grabbed the other foot, it pulled it right back onto the ground.

It didn’t take long before more skeletal hands came out of the ground to grab at that one person that had been grabbed already.

Everyone stepped back when they saw all of these skeletal hands coming out of the ground.

The one person that had been grabbed couldn’t help screaming in a panic, "What is going on here? What is this? Help me!"

The others didn’t seem like they wanted to help, but eventually they chose to raise their weapons to attack the skeletal hands that were pulling that person into the ground.

Only before they could, they found that there were more skeletal hands that were popping out.

The worst part of it all was that these hands were grabbing at them!