Chapter 29: Who’s This Man?

After retrieving all the meat from the worm’s body, they put it in enormous containers, which looked to be around six feet tall; there were seven of them.

Emil gulped as a thought lingered inside his mind. ’You’re telling me that I have to eat that worm!? Absolutely not!! A big no!!’ He shouted and exclaimed inwardly.

But no one cared about him because all of them were way too happy to care about their surroundings.

Some of them had built a fire grill in the open field. It was away from the houses and also near the lake, so if something went wrong, they could blow the fire right away.

One by one, they began cooking the meat. Slowly they placed the containers over the grill; the heat did its work by heating it up. Two men occasionally stirred the container to cook all sides evenly.

While the meat was getting cooked, some beastmen brought huge fruits, which definitely didn’t appear to be from Earth. They placed all of them on the ground and started cutting them open. There were three different types of fruits.

The first was a huge, yellow, pumpkin-shaped fruit with a thick outer skin. The second was a red fruit covered in tiny hairs, its outer layer eventually becoming a thick shell. Inside was a white, semi-hard jelly with a strange texture.

The last one was a pink, oval-shaped fruit; its smooth skin was covered in glowing patterns that slowly shifted whenever light touched them.

Emil stood there, blinking aimlessly in sheer confusion. He had never seen or heard about these fruits. ’What are they? Edible at least, right?’

A sigh left through his mouth, he crossed his arms gently as he looked over his shoulder and noticed that Atlas’s eyes were shimmering slightly, but his posture remained intact as if he were prepared for battle.

A faint smirk tugged his lips; another thought appeared in his mind. ’He’s such a character.’

"At—" He was about to call out for Atlas, but he couldn’t because a loud uproar echoed through the ground.

His gaze swept across the area before landing on a man who hadn’t been there before. A sandworm rested across his left arm and shoulder; it was at least forty meters long, which made it look even bigger than the ones before.

In his right hand, he carried a colossal bow, which was nearly ten feet long and a foot wide. Its body was slightly curved with a broad central grip and limbs conical at both ends. The bow had a polished surface with several carved lines across it, while its thick white string stretched tightly from one end to the other.

The man was wearing nothing on his torso, just a necklace of multiple sharp, long teeth stretched across his neck. His lower body was covered by loose sandstone-colored battle robes that draped all the way to his feet. The fabric hung in heavy folds.

He also had black strips similar to those of Atlas’s, but they were imprinted from his lower back, which covered the entire portion of the back, traveled to the front through the shoulders, and finally rested around his navel. But the strips on his body weren’t thick, just small, deliberate strips, and mostly his skin.

His eyes looked sharp and narrow, which made him look eerily calm. His black hair was even at the sides; it seemed as if he cut it himself because, to an archer like him, hair that long usually created a hindrance during battle.

His shoulders were wide and heavily developed, giving him the body of someone who has spent decades pulling absurd amounts of force.

The diamond was placed on his forehead, which shone even brighter in the sunlight. His appearance made him stand out from the rest, almost making him look similar to Atlas in hierarchy.

Emil noticed that the people around him were bowing to him; he didn’t know why, but he had enough brain cells to comprehend that the man was definitely someone of higher caliber than the normal people.

Emil instinctively took a step back; his gaze lingered over the man for a few seconds before shifting to Atlas.

Atlas had already begun marching forward; his battle-axe remained rested at his shoulder, but the way he was holding it reflected that he was prepared to draw it any second.

Atlas’s eyes shimmered brightly with the will to fight; the diamond in his stomach started to bulge as the strips on his body began igniting with golden mana, which seemed exactly like raw fire.

The man had also dropped the sandworm on the ground. The moment it made contact with the ground, a huge THUD resonated through the surroundings. He stepped forward, drawing his bow forward; the stripes on his body also resonated with the diamond, which made them glow brightly with pure golden mana.

Atlas had also taken initiative and swung his axe in a clean circular arc, which made the sand swirl around it once before dropping onto the ground once again.

"Wait!!" Emil exclaimed.

"Why are you both fighting? Atlas, I didn’t expect this from you, at least. I have never seen you lose your patience, so do you mind explaining to me who this man is and why you’re drawing your weapon at him?" He questioned, curiosity dripping through his tone.

Before Atlas could say anything, the old man stepped forward, his head still remaining bowed because of Atlas and the newly arrived man.

"Heir, they’re the captain of the Second Division." The old man said politely.

The moment Emil heard those words, a spree of thoughts started to swirl around his brain. ’What? Second Division? There are multiple divisions... I never expected that.’

He let a sigh leave through his mouth and gently started caressing his temple before he continued. "Then why are they both fighting when they’re the captains of these divisions?" Emil asked.

The old man looked at Atlas, then the other man, before replying. His tone seemed hesitant, but he still had to continue because Emil certainly had a higher hierarchy than others.