"What the..." The tenth guard was about to voice out his doubts and curse but he was stopped by the pain that a.s.saulted his hand. He felt and heard the unusual sound of cracking that was similar to sticks but he was sure that it was coming from the bones of his hand.

"Eeeeehhh!!!" A loud shriek came from an adult like him and backed out from Aster with a stagger. "You... psycho! You broke... the... bones of my hand! You hear me!!! The bones of my... hand!"

"I hear you and you threw the punch first, not me. Also, the proper terms are between carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges. I don't know what I have specifically broken but it is within those skeletal structures." Aster felt like a boss and leaned on the walls of his gate while explaining. His calm face and shrugging tone felt like a mockery to the tenth guard.

Not wanting to dwell on his shame, the badly injured guard gritted his teeth through the pain and issued another attack. This time, he punched with his left fist that was unharmed. It would not be left in that state for long though because of Aster repeating the same process as before.

'This man must really be stupid to do this again.' This was what was in his head while catching the fist in a simple grip. The tenth guard's mana was clearly in the 3rd level of Initiate but it was clear for Aster that he was not putting in effort in mastering the punch. "It is just an act for show that you even had to color your punch with useless mana. It is just your normal adult punch and you want to test it out on me whose body strength is a bit abnormal."

"Hehe! Bad decision for you." Executing force on his empowered fingers, Aster crushed the man's hand bones with another succession of cracks.

"Aaaaaahhh!!!" The tenth guard shrieked again while he was kneeling in place from having not much force to move. He was about to do his useless yelling of how his bones were being crushed but was stopped by Aster with a mocking sentence. "Pfft! Are you going to shout out that I broke the bones of your hand, again? I guess I have to say this again as well, it is your carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges but I am not sure which of those was broken."

Kamryn and the whole guard ensemble could not see the state of their companion's arms because his back was facing them while he knelt but they were sure that it would be badly mangled just by basing it on the loud cracking noise they heard.

"Let's see. If I am correct then your name is Kamryn Valentine. Should we stop here? It was impulsive of me to badly injure him but that was only in self-defense. I personally think that it would be better for both of our parties to let bygones be bygones at this moment." Aster pretty much had fun with his little exercise and can't wait for things to escalate to a full-scale brawl but he has to think of the bigger picture. 'If I continue with beating all of them up, the bigger mamas such as the acclaimed Romance Whatsit would be the next opponent. I would like the pressure of fighting some bigwig but it would be hard on the girls.'

'This must be what they call as a responsibility. I know the definition of the term before but this time I really get to embody it.' He really felt his change from interacting with the siblings. Unfortunately for his acts of finding remediation, the Valentine party was not seeming to let his act of bullying go.

Guard Number One and Guard Number Two was good friends with the beaten Number Ten. At least, these were the names that Aster a.s.signed in his head. He did not bother to waste his brain cells on finding out their names.

"Brat, I am..." Guard Number One was about to announce his name but he was rudely interrupted by Aster through saying. "Guard Number One, right."

Guard Number One was announcing his name to be implicitly be remembered by Kamryn while imposing his anger on Aster. Too bad for him, his plans were foiled and it seemed to anger him more.

'Guards and whatnot are really mob people that constantly seek and vie for attention. An organization simply hires too many of them that they find it hard to stand out, so they do whatever they could to be memorable.' Aster felt the psychological struggle of the guards and can't help himself but feel a bit of pity, only a bit though because they are enemies at the moment.

Seeing his partner getting his words stuck in his tongue from the anger, the second guard that Aster labeled as Guard Number Two was ready to say his attention-getting speech. "You really look down on us, brat. But I tell you this, we security guards are merely p.a.w.ns but essential in society. Low pay but we are committed to service with our very best. We may not amount to much but we have braved dangers to keep our employers safe. Seeing that you beat up our comrade, it is our option to fight for him because we who serve under the Valentine name would leave no men behind."

Aster, Kamryn, and the rest of the guards can't help but clap at his speech. It was practically just a paraphrasing of their security guard motto but the moment and timing of delivery of the speech were impeccable. The speech giver was feeling good about himself and loudly proclaimed. "I am a security guard but also a human who deserves to say his name. Remember me because I am..."

"Guard Number Two." Aster burst his bubble and put a stop to his name advertis.e.m.e.nt. He really wanted him to fulfill his goal to be called by his employer by name but they were enemies and he had to use psychological tactics to his advantage.

Realizing Aster's degrading att.i.tude towards them, the entire group of guards was fuming. Even Kamryn was angry at his blatant disrespect and was thinking. 'These guards have practically helped me brave through the dangers of my journey to here and I never took it to myself to remember their names. If I were to let this incident pa.s.s, it would not sit well with big brother Glenn. It would be best to beat this guy now.'

Aster also realized his contradictory actions of making peace by aggravating them even more. 'It looked like it would lead to more violence anyway, so who cares. I will just beat up the guards and hope this cross-dressing Kamryn won't take it to heart and complain to the famous Glein Valeintino or whatever.'

"Don't take this as bullying, brat. Let's go and show them our dignity, brothers." Guard Number One hollered as the group charged towards their condescending enemy. Mana was being stirred in their proximity as they attacked Aster. They had to follow up on Two's speech of doing the best in service, so they had to beat the c.r.a.p out of Aster

Guard Number Nine was the closest to him and was the first to employ an attack by throwing out a knife-shaped mana directed to puncture his heart. The mana density was enough to overpower Aster's mana but the force of the throw was bearable for him. The knife was caught in between the index and middle finger of his left hand. Number Nine was shocked but had no time to find out what happened because his enemy suddenly appeared in front of him.

Aster did not have to use s.p.a.ce Skip but a simple hastened running that made him look like he teleported in front of Nine. Nine was about to issue another attack but Aster was faster in his movements and issued a finger flick in the center of Nine's chest right by the sternum.

"Aaaa!" Nine was sent flying while feeling profound pain from the sensation of having his ribs lightly broken. Seven and Eight are magicians and was about to call out a spell attack but was disrupted by having Nine thrown into them.

Before they could regain their bearing and chant another spell, Aster was already behind them and issued finger flicks to the back of their heads lightly and had them pa.s.s out from the concussion.

Four, Five, and Six were triggered by his nonchalant manner of wiping out their companion guards and tried to stab him with their customary sabers. Through his speed and heightened senses, Aster effortlessly maneuvered through their actions while saying. "You could have killed your trusty companions if you were to stab a bit more, you know."

"Shut up!" Five said while moving and slicing faster. Five was a bit better at controlling his mana and was a true blue cultivator at Initiate 2. Aster tensed up but still found lapses in Five's technique. 'Pity for him. He is not a body cultivator.'

Aster found a spot in his back that was not covered with dense mana and skillfully performed another flick to shock the fifth guard to weakness.

Four and Six took this chance as their cue and moved faster and not much different than how Five did. "Be torn to shreds, brat! Cross Cut!"

Cross Cut was a basic cutting technique that would need two sharp weapons slicing each other at an intersection and hence the name cross. Fortunately, Aster was a well-read bookworm and evaded the overpowering attack by pa.s.sing through the gaps of the technique. Like in a cartesian plane and avoiding the sharpened x and y-axis.

He had practically dashed towards them while evading. It did not take long for him to punch out to their heads with his fullest might to overcome their mana covers. With that, their heads were practically smacked down towards the ground and effectively knocking them out.

"Three more numbered guards to go." He said while looking at his next targets with ease.