Chapter 359 - Father And Son Bonding

Mercury and Annabel were the only ones that didn't move, Mercury didn't move because he couldn't be bothered to hold back enough to not kill the bounty hunters, and as for Annabel? She was too stunned to move so she didn't when she finally raised her hand to prepare a spell it was already over, soon the bounty hunting mercenaries were lined up in front of Mercury one of them spoke definitely

"Kuh… Kill me!"

Mercury sighed before he stomped the ground and a stick made of compressed dirt shut up from the ground which he brought over his shoulder as he spoke

"So… Did any of you bother to check the bounty before you took it?"

The mercenaries fell silent, then Mercury waved Julia over and spoke

"Because you just assaulted a judicator"

The mercenaries began muttering, most of it was doubt if not outright mockery for Mercury's words, Mercury showed a smile and spoke to Julia

"If you would dear"

Julia sighed before she spoke

"[Judgment]"

As the judgment took effect some of the mercenaries that had attacked them felt a particular feeling of their skills decreasing in level, this was one of the milder punishments that a judicator could use, the mercenaries paled instantly, they knew very well that the next [Judgment] could turn them into black stone, Mercury showed a smile and asked

"Does any of you still have the bounty paper?"

One of the mercenaries quickly handed over a bounty paper with Mercury's face painted on it, Mercury skimmed the text before he showed a frown

'Let's see… So apparently I burnt down a village 6 years ago..? How long has the dragon spirit planed this?'

Mercury's face sank even further when he saw that the bounty was signed by the king of the Klaman islands, this made it a whole lot more complicated

'That means that the king is in on it… Or that he's being threatened by the dragon spirit…'

Mercury's mind spun quickly before a flash of blue lightning flew out from his fingertip and set the bounty paper alight, the flame burned slowly as it did the paper was covered in frost before it was burned by a blue flame that seemed chilling to the touch, Mercury soon let go of the bounty paper then he stomped on it snuffing out the eerie flame before it could burn any further, then he spoke

"Alright then… You want to play, then let's play…"

Mercury looked over at Maire, Asma, and Julia before he asked them

"Can you take these stupid mercenaries to the nearest city?"

Maire exchanged looks with the other 2 before she nodded

"Sure… What are you going to do?"

Mercury showed a smile

"Nothing much, just a little father and son bonding"

Then he looked over at Max that was busy stuffing his face with the mercenaries rations, Max looked up and asked

"...What?"

"How's your endurance?"

Max wiped his mouth before he showed a grin

"Better than your's old man"

"Alright say goodbye to your girlfriend, we have a scaly bastard to wipe the floor with"

Max nodded then he visibly gathered his courage for a moment before he walked over and kissed Annabel on the forehead and spoke while having a full face blush

"I'll be back… Would you wait for me?"

Annabel seemed to overheat once she realized what he had just done but quickly.y calmed herself and nodded

"Okay… Be safe"

Mercury and every single person present for that matter looked at the two with a warm gaze, Mercury was the first to snap out of it however as he walked over to Asma and gave her a kiss before he asked

"Would you unseal me?"

"Sure…[Dragon seal level 0]... Be careful"

The mercenaries, Annabel and Max all shuddered as they felt Mercury being unsealed it seemed that he was an entirely different person

"I will"

Then he kissed Marie and Julia in turn before he looked over at Max that nodded as a pair of phantom horns appeared on his forehead, then Mercury exchanged looks with the girls one last time before he spoke

"We're off, Keep up Max"

"Sure!"

Then Mercury kicked off the ground at once, Max followed after him and too disappeared from view, then after a bit, Julia clapped her hands and looked over at the mercenaries and asked as she loaded her crossbow

"So… Are you going to be good little stupid mercenaries or dead little stupid mercenaries?"

Soon the group was moving again, this they headed back the way that the mercenaries had come from, and after half a day's travel they arrived at a fortified city

"Halt, state your business!"

The guards weren't all smiles as Julia's group came armed with a lot of captives, Julia showed a smile and used a skill

"[Announce] I Julia Helia Juliantia, 3rd in line to the Juliantia throne, Judicator by the honor of the 33, hereby announce that the king of the Klaman islands has issued a false bounty and are to appear here in 7 days for trial!"

Julia heaved a deep breath as her voice rang out over the entire Klaman islands, the skill [Annouce] was very convenient as it was a bestowed skill that only high-rank judicators possessed

Mercury showed a smile as he sped over the plains along with Max, soon they spotted a giant herd in the distance, they were the wooly horses' that Annabel had talked about, Mercury stopped a few kilometers away from the woolly horses' and faced skywards as he yelled

"Come out you scaly bastard!"

His voice boomed and echoed a few times before the sound of glass shattering rang out, Max looked around and asked

"What's that sound?"

"That's the sound of our reality being invaded by an immortal spirit, a very angry immortal dragon spirit"

"...This is your idea of father and son bonding?"

Mercury showed a smile and patted Max on the shoulder before he spoke

"You've been holding back for some time right? This is your opetun8ity to go wild for once"

Max looked surprised for a bit before he showed a smile and spoke

"Alright, I'll show you serious"

Mercury pointed upwards as he looked into Max's face with a smile

"That's good, course scaly just arrived"

[MERCURY!!! HAND OVER THE VESSEL! Or I'll peal what's left of your soul from it while I burn down your world! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!]

Max looked up and saw the black smokey dragon spirit's from, no not kind of smokey, literal smoke that vaguely formed the outline of an oriental dragon with scales made of suffering human faces

"Motherf---"

"Yeah I know, suck it up… This'll be fun!"

Max looked at Mercury's face again before he nodded and replied weakly

"Yeah… Fun…"

Then the next instance he reached up and cracked his neck as he let out a deep-sounding growl as he kicked the ground and flew straight up with his sword and carved the dragon spirit up that let out a howl of pain, around halfway up its body Max ran out of upwards momentum and kicked off the dragon spirit's half illusory body and shut down towards the ground like a meteor, the dragon spirit wanted to pursue Max and smash him to bits with a swipe of its tail and it also attempted that very action, Mercury, however, had other plans and after using [Essence consuming] formed a long metal wire made up of adamantium which he controlled using [Lesser metal weaving] and caught around the dragon spirits tail as it shot down towards Max before he forcefully yanked it to the side making it miss Max by tens of meters, Max roared as he raised his sword, a red phantom formed around the sword extending it by several meters before he swung down and severed the trail of the dragon spirit, the dragon spirit let out a roar of anger and pain as energy begna gathering at its mouth before it shot out a beam of desturctive energy at Max

"Oh no you don't ye scaly bastard!"

Mercury appeared in front of Max and using [Essence consuming] and [Lesser metal weaving] again he quickly formed a giant shield that held exactly 2 seconds before the beam of destructive energy overwhelmed the shield and melted it to pieces, Mercury and Max appeared about 20 meters away from the shield, Mercury breathed a sigh before he asked Max

"How's that? Are you loosened up yet?"

Max showed a wide smile as he spoke

"I've been warmed up by running here"

"You call that running son? I know a multi millennium old man that could move 10 times as fast as you!"

"Oh shut it, here it comes again!"

"Got it, You go high, I got you!"

"Sure!"

Max stomped the ground and was propelled into the air and delivered a slash to the side of the dragon spirit's face that instantly reacted by firing a beam of destructive energy at Max that were suspended in the air

"Yoink!"

Only Max was pulled away by a metal tread that was around his waist by Mercury that stomped his foot at the same time sending several rock spears up that went straight through the dragon spirit's body which caused it to let out another roar of pain and ange