THE GUARDIAN OF MIDGARD

CHAPTER 2

Thunder crackled in the air and a terrifying presence spread.

In the midst of all that, Jayd stood, staring down at the gang

Anger flashed in his eyes. “Who gave you the authority?”

He moved again, and his hand gripped the neck of another gang member.

The man's feet left the ground as his fingers dug into his throat.

"I asked you a question." Jayd said, tightening his grip.

The gang member clawed desperately at Jayd's wrist, his face turning purple.

"Cough.. let me go! You bastard!”

The others finally snapped out of their shock.

"Do you know what you've done?"

"You killed the boss!”

The gang lashed out, drawing out steel swords, ready to fight. To them, Jayd was more of a cockroach and they believed the death of their boss was simply because of the element of surprise.

One of the men, a broad-shouldered brute with a scar running across his face, pointed his blade at Jayd and laughed.

"You're making the biggest mistake of your life."

Another spat on the ground.

"Even if you kill us all, you're dead."

Jayd's expression remained cold."Oh?"

The scarred man grinned viciously. "Commander Kraden owns this district. He'll skin you alive. And this woman,”

his eyes shamelessly wandered over Larissa's trembling figure. "He'll do far worse with her. The commander likes ensuring he gets his hunger filled before selling them off."

The words had barely left his mouth before the temperature around them plummeted.

Larissa instinctively looked up. She had seen Jayd angry when he was a child, but it was never like this. Something has changed, and deep down, hope bloomed.

Could he save them all from this chaos?

"Kraden." Jayd repeated the name quietly. "So that's the man responsible."

The scar-faced man laughed again, placing his sword on his shoulder.

"You don't know who Commander Kraden is. Hundreds serve under him. The moment he hears what happened here, he'll cut off your limbs and make you watch while he—"

Crunch!

The man's sentence ended with the sickening sound of bones collapsing.

The gang member's neck in Jayd’s hand folded unnaturally before his body went limp. Jayd tossed the corpse like a piece of rag.

The remaining men stumbled backwards while blood drained from the face of the scar-faced man.

Monster. That was what they all thought.

“Don't run! We can beat him if we fight together.” The scar-faced man said, gritting his teeth. If he could win this here, he would be able to convince Kraden for a promotion.

One of them turned to flee, this one had a family so he didn't want to die, “I can't do this!” He yelled, throwing away his sword.

He never took a second step, as a streak of golden light crossed the street. His body split cleanly in half and blood painted the broken walls.

The others paled, and they knew they had to fight till the end.

“Damn it!”

“You are making a big mistake!”

Jayd walked towards them, his eyes held a cold expression, each of his steps made the ground tremble. There were no other words to say to people who would be dead soon.

One of the men swung the axe at his head, and on impact, the axe broke into countless fragments, one of the shards flew into the eye of the axe swinger.

He fell down, clutching his bleeding eye as a scream erupted from his mouth.

Seeing what had just happened, the scar-faced man fell to his knees. There was no way they could defeat someone like this.

"We're sorry! It was Kraden's orders. We had no choice!"

Jayd looked at him, his face was expressionless.

The scar-faced man thought he had convinced him, and he dug into his pocket."I have money! Gold! I'll give you everything!"

The next moment, a golden sword appeared in Jayd’s hand.

"What you did deserves more retribution than what you are offering.”

All it took was one swing, and heads rolled across the ground.

Silence returned to the ruined street and rain began to fall. The blood that had flooded the road slowly washed away.

Jayd stood amongst the corpses without any emotions, after spending all these years fighting monsters and training endlessly with the Valkyrie, these men weren't even worthy of being called fodder.

The sword vanished and he turned to Larissa, his bloodthirst died instantly.

Jayd removed his cloak and gently wrapped it around her trembling shoulders, making sure she was fully covered.

"I'm sorry I came late,” There was finally an expression on his face, “You are safe.”

Larissa stared at him through tear-filled eyes. "Jayd?"

A faint smile appeared on his face. "It's me." Jayd answered.

She had grown over the years, and it saddened him that he wasn't available for her, after everything she had done for him.

Larissa threw herself into his arms as fear poured out, soaking his clothes with tears.

In his years, no lady had gotten the courage to get close to him. He had never even paid attention to any of the heavenly princesses. But Larissa was different.

Jayd gently held her until she calmed, and then his expression grew serious.

"Larissa. Where is Ria?"

The colour drained from Larissa's face, and he heard her heartbreats–they had gone faster.

Jayd's expression sank, "What happened to my sister?”