Free Web NovelChapter 4: The Price of Cowardice
The heavy metal boots of the Academy Guild Guards echoed sharply against the stone floor as they flooded into the cavern chamber, shields raised and spears glittering under the magical light-orbs floating above them.
At the front of the group stood Brad, his golden sword drawn, looking every bit the tragic hero. Behind him, the other three elite students wore expressions of manufactured grief.
"Search everywhere!" Brad barked at the guards, trying to sound authoritative. "The Hobgoblin was massive. Professor Elena fought valiantly to buy us time to seek reinforcements, but I fear that useless no talent, Vince, dragged her down with his incompetence. If he’s still alive, he should be executed for sabotaging a royal expedition!"
"Who are you executing, Brad?"
A cold, velvet voice sliced through the damp air of the cave.
Brad froze. The guards halted, lowering their shields as the dust cleared.
Emerging from the shadows of the inner cavern were Vince and Elena. Vince walked with a relaxed, effortless stride, his hands casually shoved into his pockets. Elena walked a half-step behind him—a subtle detail that passed over the guards, but screamed volumes to anyone who knew the proud professor. Her crimson robes were noticeably torn at the collar, revealing a glimpse of her pale, unblemished skin, and her silver hair was beautifully disheveled.
"P-Professor?!" Brad gasped, his eyes darting from Elena’s intact form to the dead, headless corpse of the mutated Hobgoblin lying in the background. His jaw dropped. "You... you killed it? But your mana core..."
"My mana core is perfectly fine," Elena said, her voice dropping to a dangerous, icy register. She stepped forward, her violet eyes locking onto Brad with absolute disgust. "No thanks to you or the rest of these cowards. You abandoned your commanding officer and broke formation the moment a high-tier threat appeared."
Brad’s face flushed a deep, ugly red. He felt the eyes of the Guild Guards shifting toward him in silent judgment. Panic set in, and his gaze immediately landed on Vince, who was watching the scene with a faint, amused smirk.
"It was a tactical retreat!" Brad deflected aggressively, pointing his golden sword directly at Vince’s face. "And what is he still doing alive? Look at your robes, Professor! They’re torn! Did this trash-tier animal try to lay his hands on you while you were weakened? Guards, arrest him! He clearly took advantage of the chaos to assault an instructor!"
The guards hesitated, looking toward Elena for confirmation.
Elena’s aura instantly exploded.
A wave of crushing, crimson-and-violet heat rippled through the cavern, so intense that the stone floor beneath her boots began to crack and glow orange. The sheer pressure forced the front-line guards to take three steps back, their shields burning hot against their hands.
Brad stumbled backward, his breath catching in his throat. "Since when was her magic this fast? This oppressive?" It took her less than a millisecond to manifest that level of raw mana.
"Lower your weapon before I incinerate your hands, Brad," Elena hissed, her eyes glowing with a terrifying magical light. "Vince didn’t assault me. He is the reason I am alive. He killed the Hobgoblin Shaman’s vanguard, and he stabilized my backflow. If anyone is being arrested today for treason and cowardice, it is you."
"Lies!" Brad shrieked, his noble pride shattering in front of the common guards. "He’s a no talent! He doesn’t have a drop of mana! How could he kill a mutated Hobgoblin? You’re shielding him, Professor! What did he do to you? Did he blackmail you?!"
Vince finally took a step forward, brushing past Elena. The moment he moved, Elena’s terrifying aura instantly smoothed out, bowing to his presence like a tamed flame.
"You want to know how someone like me could kill a monster, Brad?" Vince asked, his voice calm, almost bored.
Before Brad could react, Vince blurred. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
To the guards and the students, it looked like Vince had simply vanished into thin air. A split second later, a heavy shadow loomed over Brad.
Vince appeared directly in front of the noble heir, his hand moving like a striking viper. He clamped his fingers around Brad’s throat, lifting the fully armored, teenage prodigy completely off the ground with a single, effortless arm.
"Ugh—!" Brad choked, his golden sword clattering uselessly to the floor. His legs flailed in the air as Vince’s grip tightened like a hydraulic vice. The heavy steel plate armor Brad wore felt like paper under the crushing pressure of Evan’s 500 Strength stat.
"Stop! Release Lord Brad!" the Guard Captain roared, drawing his broadsword, though his knees were trembling. The speed Vince had just displayed was far beyond an F-rank—it was bordering on A-rank physical reinforcement.
[Ding! Host is initiating a ’Face-Slapping’ sequence against a local noble.]
[System Sub-Routine Activated: Dominance Display.]
[Current Quest: Suppress the Academy Guards without killing them.]
[Reward: Unlocked Skill: [Sovereign’s Pressure] (Passive Intimidation Aura).]
"Don’t move," Vince said, not even looking back at the guards.
With a thought, Vince tapped into the 20% of Elena’s magic he now shared. A brilliant, violet-tinted crimson flame erupted from his left palm, swirling into a dense, crackling sphere of pure plasma. The heat in the room doubled instantly.
The Guard Captain went pale, dropping his sword. "Dual-class... a physical monster with high-tier flame magic... Who the hell said this boy was a no talent?!"
Vince looked back up at Brad, whose eyes were bulging out, filled with a sudden, overwhelming terror. The arrogant noble was wetting himself, realizing that the "trash" he had bullied for a year could pop his head like a walnut at any second.
"Next time you want to use me as a meat shield, make sure you can handle the meat, Brad," Vince whispered, a cold, dark smile stretching across his face.
With a careless flick of his wrist, Vince hurled Brad across the cavern. The noble smashed heavily into the rock wall, his armor denting violently as he slid down into a pathetic, unconscious heap on the floor.
Vince extinguished the flame in his hand and turned back to the stunned, silent guards.
"The dungeon is cleared," Vince announced smoothly, walking back to Elena’s side. "The Professor and I are going back to the Academy. Clean up the mess."
Elena stepped in line with him, her violet eyes shifting toward him with a look of deep, submissive adoration that she didn’t even bother to hide anymore.
[Ding! Quest Completed successfully.]
[Skill Unlocked: [Sovereign’s Pressure] (Tier 1).]
[Elena Vance’s Loyalty increased to 65% due to Host’s dominant display.]
As they walked past the trembling guards and into the sunlight of the surface world, Vince knew his life as a slave to the Academy was officially over. The world thought he was a zero, but with his Taming System, he was about to conquer everything.
