Chapter 315 |
The next day, after a brief rest, Josh and the group prepared to leave Sack City and cross the other side of the desert to head toward the Kingdom of Helium.
However, just as they exited the city, they saw the native young man Kalai, whom they had saved yesterday, being surrounded outside the city gate by a group of dog-like humanoids.
Although the city gate guards were watchfully holding their guns, they did not intervene.
“Father?” Mike and Ben looked at Josh upon seeing this.
“Bursta!” Josh didn’t hesitate and immediately told Bursta to check out the situation.
Bursta nodded, got off the vehicle, and walked toward the city gate, finding a guard to ask about the situation.
“Boss, I got the details. Those are the Thark tribe, a bandit species roaming the border regions of the three kingdoms. Kalai had injured some of them before, so they came looking for trouble. Since their influence in this desert area is considerable, even Sack City’s guards don’t want to provoke them much. They would stop them inside the city, but outside the city, it’s none of their business!” Bursta quickly got all the information from the guard.
“Father, let’s help him!” Upon hearing Bursta, Ben was eager to jump in before Josh could say anything.
But judging by his attitude, it was clear the kid wasn’t really trying to help Kalai but just wanted an excuse to fight.
“Don’t ask me, if you want to do it, just go!” Josh laughed and said, while making a signal to Bursta to keep an eye on things.
Alright, the kids are grown now; let them do what they want. After all, Josh was there to back them up, so nothing serious should happen.
“Yes!” Seeing Josh’s approval, the two boys cheered, slapped hands, and grabbed their gear to get out of the vehicle.
“Hey, my old bones don’t move much and might be getting rusty. I’ll join the kids for some action!” Seeing the kids ready to move, Howard the Duck, who usually avoided trouble, unexpectedly pulled out a huge gun—bigger than himself—and hugged it.
Josh smiled slightly, thinking this duck was cool.
At the city gate, Kalai, ready to return to his tribe with two beast mounts, looked very displeased seeing dozens of Thark tribe members blocking his way.
Last time he came to town to buy food, he had a slight conflict with a Thark tribe member and accidentally injured him, then left Sack City.
He never expected the other side to hold such a grudge. Their noses were sharp too—he just arrived in town yesterday, and today they brought this many people to block him with no way to run.
Of course, he could stay inside the city—then he would be safe.
But he couldn’t stay; his younger siblings were waiting for him to bring back food.
Kalai’s parents died early. His tribe was a small group of only a few hundred people. Most were struggling to survive and couldn’t care for several orphaned children like them, so he was the pillar of his family.
Just when Kalai was at a loss, an energy cannon shot flew past him and slammed directly into a leading Thark tribe member, blasting him to pieces!
This sudden attack shocked not only the Thark but also the Sack City guards.
“Who fired that shot?” the guard captain, a green-skinned creature resembling Shrek, spun around and shouted angrily.
Although there were only a few dozen Thark here, who knows if they were backed by a terrifying large tribe.
These guys were like ancient nomads on Earth, moving in groups across the desert with no trace. If a real battle broke out, even if they couldn’t take Sack City, the traveling merchants would have a hard time. Sack City would likely have to report to the federal authorities and ask for troops to eliminate them—though even then, it might not be easy, as once the Thark crossed into the other two kingdoms’ territories, the federal patrol fleet would be powerless.
So as long as the Thark didn’t show a real threat to Sack City, the guards didn’t want to stir trouble, especially since the loss only affected some insignificant desert nomads.
Desert nomads like Kalai could trade inside the city but were not really considered citizens by the Federation or the other two kingdoms. Essentially, they were marginalized, much like Native Americans during colonization.
Yet someone dared to shoot first at the Thark?
The captain’s gaze quickly landed on Howard the Duck holding an outrageously large weapon. Just as he was about to reprimand him, an older human guard pulled him aside.
“Captain, their weapon power is abnormally strong. Also, look at their vehicle!” the human guard cautiously warned.
Hearing this, the captain was suddenly shocked. Indeed, their firearms, due to the Thern Crystals, were energy weapons.
But limited by the low quality of the conventional crystals, their power was actually average, roughly comparable to a full-power rifle bullet on Earth. Usually, it only caused penetrating wounds and might not be fatal unless hitting vital spots.
So hitting a much stronger Thark tribe member and blowing him to bits like that was impossible.
Moreover, the vehicle Josh’s group used—transformed from Strike and Knockdown—was not something ordinary people could ride. Because of energy issues, all mechanical transport was a luxury in this world, nowhere near as common as on Earth. Most ordinary people could only ride beasts of burden.
The guard captain immediately reined in his temper and prepared to talk to Josh’s group, who looked to have some status.
But Mike and Ben obviously did not want to give the captain a chance. Right after Howard the Duck fired the first shot, the two half-grown boys charged into the Thark tribe crowd.
The Tharks were startled by the shot, but seeing Josh’s small group and only two half-grown human kids charging at them, they laughed.
The two leading Tharks jumped off their mounts, drew their swords, and lunged at Mike and Ben.
As a humanoid species evolved from beasts, though their technology and tool use were inferior to humans, their physique and mobility far surpassed humans.
For example, these Tharks could leap three to five meters high, which was beyond ordinary human capability.
Unfortunately for them, Mike and Ben were no ordinary humans… ah, scratch that, they had long surpassed normal humans. Blessed by the Celestials, though not fully grown, their strength was far beyond these half-beast men.
While the two Thark were still laughing midair at the boys, Mike and Ben’s hands already emitted blue and green light respectively!
Not heat blades, but real Jedi lightsabers from the Star Wars world, personally crafted by Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One of the Force!
Because Jedi lightsabers required precious kyber crystals and due to the crystals’ rarity, the Jedi Temple strictly controlled them, making it very difficult for ordinary people to acquire.
Over the years, Anakin, as a Jedi apprentice, only managed to get a small number of crystals and made five lightsabers, all traded to Josh.
Four of the lightsabers were given to his wife Margaret and their three children, and one was kept in stock—Josh himself had the powerful Divergent Sword and a Broken Steel Sword, so he didn’t use the lightsabers much.
But even with more lightsabers, they were not very useful because they weren’t widely accessible.
In the hands of ordinary people, these weapons didn’t show much power, far less convenient than firearms, and one false move might get the wielder cut down before the enemy even noticed.
So in the Star Wars world, only Force users could effectively wield them.
It was the same in the Marvel world.
Although the Marvel universe did not have the Force, Josh’s experiments showed that Celestial power or sufficiently advanced magic could also manipulate these dangerous weapons quite well.
So the family’s use of them was perfect.
Mike and Ben lightly waved their lightsabers, and two members of the Thark tribe were instantly cut in half in midair.
Before the remaining Thark could react, the two boys imitated the move, leaping high into the air and jumping into the crowd of Tharks.
However, the Tharks obviously didn’t have as strong reaction abilities as the two boys. By the time they tried to fight back, it was already too late.
The two lightsabers danced like spirits among the crowd, and wherever they passed, Tharks fell to the ground.
Although this was the first real combat for the two boys, they had trained in practical combat skills, including gun fighting, just like the students of the Jedi Academy founded by Josh!
More importantly, even though the two kids had no real combat experience, it didn’t mean they hadn’t seen blood before!
So in this fight, it was possible they might neglect some parts of the battle, but they definitely would not hesitate to strike, especially since they were facing a group of “beasts!”
With an absolute power gap, even though the fighters were just two half-grown kids, the battle was overwhelmingly one-sided.
Soon, some Tharks couldn’t bear the pressure and tried to flee.
It was at this moment that Howard the Duck and Bursta, who had not acted until now, stepped in.
Anyone daring to flee was immediately targeted by Howard the Duck with a single shot, or intercepted and killed by Bursta at even greater speed. Also, there was Yondu, who usually had little presence, but took down targets one arrow at a time, almost as efficiently as Howard the Duck!
Quickly, dozens of Tharks were slaughtered clean, and the air was filled with the smell of roasted meat — caused by the damage from the lightsabers.
The guards of Sack City and Kalai, who had originally been the victim, were all stunned.
“I think I won’t want to eat barbecue for days!” muttered the older human guard, sniffing the roasting smell in the air.
The captain of the guards swallowed hard. Luckily, he was a bit slow, or else the few hundred people at the city gate probably wouldn’t have been enough to stop these people from slaughtering.
Even if all the city’s thousands of guards were summoned, it might be useless — after all, several of these people hadn’t even really fought yet!
Who exactly are these people?
But Josh and the others obviously had no interest in talking too much with the guards. After Mike and Ben finished off all the Tharks, they went to check on the still dazed Kalai.
“Hey, Kalai, are you okay?” Mike patted the beast Kalai was riding on, then asked.
“Ah, I’m fine, thank you! You saved me again. I really don’t know how to repay you!” Kalai quickly got off the beast, very grateful.
When Mike and the others saved him from the sand eel’s mouth yesterday, Kalai already felt these people were extraordinary. Now it seemed their level had completely surpassed his imagination.
“Haha, it’s nothing. If you’re okay, you should hurry back!” Mike patted Kalai’s shoulder generously.
“No, I can’t just go back like this. You saved me twice, and I have no way to repay you except to invite you to visit my tribe. Please don’t refuse!” Kalai’s expression turned serious. “Of course, I know I have nothing good to offer you… but—“
“It’s okay. Your tribe is actually right on our route, so it’s convenient to stop by!” Just as Mike and Ben were about to refuse, Josh, who had appeared behind them without them noticing, accepted Kalai’s invitation.
Though no one knew why Josh agreed to Kalai’s invitation or what was worth seeing in a small desert tribe, since Josh said so, no one else spoke out.
Thus, the group ignored the complicated gazes of the Sack City guards and the surrounding crowd, slowly leaving Sack City and heading toward the desert.
Only after they had completely left did the Sack City guards begin cleaning up the mess and reporting everything that had happened to the city’s higher-ups — leaving how to handle the follow-up to those officials!
But the guards guessed that the officials would definitely try to cover up the incident, because these people were so powerful and definitely not ordinary — probably beyond what a border town like theirs could handle.
“This world, it’s probably not going to be peaceful anymore!” The older human guard sighed slowly as he looked at the distant yellow sand.