The Moonlight Swordsman

The once-peaceful town of Tidalheim had become a battleground as the night progressed.

As smoke filled the air, flames licked the walls of buildings. David's gang had wreaked havoc on the town, leaving a path of destruction and murder in their wake.

Restaurants and stores were set on fire, and anyone who attempted to stand in their way was brutally killed.

In the midst of the chaos, a small boy was seen sprinting hurriedly, tears rolling down his cheeks.

He was the son of a restaurant owner whose business was currently on fire. His parents were slain because they did business with the Goldwyns.

The child had somehow escaped the terrible attack and was now fleeing for his life.

The young boy's eyes frantically scanned the burning town as he searched for a safe haven. Amidst the chaos, he spotted a small tavern and dashed towards it, throwing himself against the door to barge his way inside.

The kid scanned the empty tavern and noticed a few unconscious individuals on the floor. As he approached the bar, he observed a lone figure, a man lost in awareness, silently sipping his drink.

"Help… They are burning the whole town, killing everybody who defies them. They killed my parents.

*Sob*

"Please save the town." As he pleaded with the lone man in the tavern, the child went to his knees, tears flowing down his face.

"Then why are you here? Left your parents to die alone?" The man suddenly asked.

"Huh... I escaped because of my mother. She told me to run." The boy replied.

"Then you ran, leaving them there to die; Why were you even born?" The man commented and stood up, holding a bottle in his hand, as he slowly went outside the tavern.

"I... how can I beat them? They are big and powerful. Nothing would have even mattered."

"How do you know? You didn't even try.

"Piss off, kid, I am in a bad mood."

The kid stared in dismay as the man strolled amid the chaos, taking occasional sips from his bottle.

*****

Despite the roaring fire that had engulfed the restaurant, David's party continued pillaging, stealing from shops, and wreaking havoc wherever they went.

The helpless townsfolk were tied up in a circle, forced to witness the chaos unfolding before them.

"MOOOOOOTHERRR......"

The piercing sound of a child's scream resonated through the air, as a young boy watched in horror as one of the hunters seized his mother by her hair and dragged her towards his comrades, who had gathered in a circle.

"No, please leave me….." the mother begged as she cried.

"Hehehe... this one's figure is quite gorgeous."

"Yeah, let me go first, but...

"Are you sure we should do this? I mean, we weren't told to do this type of thing. What if the higher-ups hear about this afterward?

"Fuck you, why are you scared? They don't care about shit. Even David left early.

"He has no feelings left for anyone now and only wants to see this kingdom burn.

"Yeah, yeah, no one will care as long as we are doing our task properly…"

"Then let me…" With that said, one of the hunters quickly tore the dress off the woman as she begged them to stop.

Suddenly, a glass bottle hurled through the air and smashed against one of the hunter's heads, dousing him and his friends in alcohol.

"Motherfucker! Who threw the bottle,"

They looked in the direction where the bottle came from and saw a man making his way towards them with an unhurried pace.

His shoulders were slack, and his eyes were emotionless as he stared at them without blinking.

As the man approached the hunters, the one who was hit by the bottle stormed towards him, fury etched on his face. He unsheathed his blade with a fast stroke, ready to attack the green-haired man.

He swung his blade down with one hand, intending to kill the man on the spot.

But the man bent slightly and spun his upper body, letting the blade pass by his face, and then struck him hard in the jaw with his hand.

The force behind the attack was immense, shattering the hunter's neck and sending him crashing to the ground face-first with a resounding thud.

As the man continued his walk, another hunter launched a punch enhanced with mana.

The man swiftly turned his body and caught the hunter's arms.

With a swift movement, he struck his knee towards the hunter's elbow, the force of the impact breaking his arm in a sickening crack.

ARGHHH…

The man's cries were cut short by a swift strike to his face, causing him to crash to the ground with a thunderous impact that left a small crater in its wake.

The man lifted his leg and slammed it down with force, crushing the hunter's head into a pulpy mess. With his task done, he resumed his walk.

"Damn it, who the fuck is he?"

"Where the fuck did he come from?"

"Let's rush him altogether,"

The group of hunters swarmed towards the man, their numbers totaling around 20 as they charged him with reckless abandon.

"Fucking peasants"

With a slow raising of his hand, he exerted an overwhelming gravitational force that pushed down all of them, crushing their bodies into a bloody mess and creating a deep crater in the middle of the town.

The landscape around them was reduced to rubble.

The mother who had been held earlier had already scrambled towards her child as she and the others who had been held gazed in wonder at the man's enormous power.

They couldn't believe what they'd just seen and were rendered speechless.

The boy from the tavern had followed the commotion and arrived just in time to witness the man display his incredible power by effortlessly dispatching the group of hunters who were wreaking havoc in the town.

The boy was taken aback, unable to fathom the magnitude of the man's powers.

"Who are you really?" he asked.

The man's gaze went to the boy from the tavern, his eyes piercing through him before scanning the other townspeople. His attention was soon drawn to the devastation created by the hunters.

"The King," he left after saying.