Saint Cassis Continent was home to many races, but humans had the largest population base. The uncrowned kings of the continent were still humans, and humans were also the wealthiest.
No matter how strong or weak a human nation was, all of them followed the Holy See's lead. Although the Holy See was merely a religious organization and had never proclaimed itself a nation, it carried itself like the suzerain of every other country.
A thousand years ago, after the Holy See kicked and drove the Beastmen of Behemoth to the continent's most barren north, it began racial cleansing in the name of the Holy Father. For hundreds of years, war had never ceased across the continent. The Successive Great Popes had all been religious fanatics, leading the major human nations on a tour of the continent. They had beaten elves, fought Druids to the bitter end, bullied dwarves, and incidentally dealt with giants as well.
Basically, not a single race with any name to it had been spared. The Holy See had picked a fight with every last one of them.
Only the barbarians who had lived for generations on the Barren Plains were the sole race to ever make the Holy See suffer a major loss.
The Popes had organized five campaigns against the barbarians over the years, but unfortunately, none of the results had been satisfactory.
Barbarians had two defining traits: poverty and ferocity.
They were so poor that even rats would shed tears of sympathy upon entering their homes, and so vicious that if you so much as looked at them, they would assume you were trying to steal their tent, grab a weapon, and try to kill you.
When the Pope led his underlings to cause trouble for the barbarians, it was like spending countless hours and tremendous amounts of money to organize a band of robbers, only for the intended victims to have no sense of cooperation whatsoever. Not only would they fight to the death and beat you until you were crawling around looking for your teeth, but even if you finally won, they would be penniless, leaving you with nothing to rob.
Later Popes wised up and simply stopped bothering with those dirt-poor barbarians. Let them mess around on the plains. After all, they had lived there for a thousand years, growing poorer and fewer in number.
There was no need to go through the trouble of killing them. In a few years, they might just starve to death on their own.
There was a reason the barbarians could make the Holy See so miserable. Every barbarian awakened a racial ability after birth. From childhood onward, they constantly hunted beasts to temper their bodies, and they were born with semi-petrified skin. Ordinary weapons could not inflict effective damage on them. If that had been all, it would have been manageable; the Papal Legion's soldiers were no pushovers either.
The problem was that barbarians also possessed absurd combat power. Beating ordinary Holy See Soldiers was like kicking around a mangy dog from their own yard. Usually, one kick was enough to leave some unlucky Holy See Soldier sprawled on the ground, coughing blood without end.
Big Babylon, at that moment, was an elite barbarian warrior who had participated in countless battles and endured repeated trials of blood and fire.
Surrounded by more than a dozen Armored Warriors, he wore a savage grin. The ferocity in his eyes seemed tangible, every muscle on his body bulged, and his violent nature was obvious.
Ever since Allen had crossed over into another world, this was the first time he had received the treatment a top-tier useless noble deserved. In truth, he was benefiting from Dina's presence. If he had come out alone without Dina following him, he could have been beaten to death outside Old Castle and no one would have cared, unless the guards sent by those Grand Dukes and hidden in the shadows had kept watch over his every move.
Whether it was the local bishop Wood or Sakre, Chief of Staff of the Earth Dragon Legion, both understood Dina's importance to the Holy See now. Thus, upon learning that Allen intended to take Dina out of Old Castle to oppress the commoners, they immediately dispatched armed forces to secretly follow and protect them.
How could Allen possibly fail to see through the little schemes of those two?
Although the Holy See was the continent's foremost power, it also had plenty of hostile forces.
Dina had become the Papal Candidate Saintess and the Holy See's best publicity tool. In Outpost County, which leaked information like a sieve, this could not possibly be concealed from the outside world.
To many assassins and killers, Dina was now a walking mountain of gold. Countless people dreamed of killing her to collect the reward.
Allen simply had not expected the first ones to come looking for trouble to be one large and one small barbarian. And from the looks of it, neither of them had fully developed brains, yet they had swaggered straight into Outpost County to make trouble.
Sakre's lackeys were all extremely crafty. Knowing barbarians were not easy to provoke, they shrank behind the local Faith Guardian Knights and shouted noisily, but did not lift a finger.
The Holy See's Faith Guardian Knights and barbarians were old enemies. In recent years, however, the knights' quality had steadily declined. They knew plenty of flashy moves and could throw around all kinds of Battle Aura, but they had little real combat experience. Most of them were especially young, dreaming every day that they would become famous in one battle, win the Pope's favor, and become Templar Knights at Holy See headquarters.
Having never fought barbarians head-on, they were arrogant beyond measure and did not take Big Babylon seriously at all.
With their old enemies, the barbarians, right before them, several young Faith Guardian Knights were like newly released prisoners walking out of prison and spotting a bathhouse in Dongguan offering free promotional services. They raised their greatswords and charged forward to hack Big Babylon to death.
Just as the numerous enemies were about to attack, Big Babylon roared, "Wait!"
His voice was like a broken gong, yet it boomed like a great bell, startling everyone and making Allen and the others' eardrums ache faintly.
Seeing that his enemies had been frightened by him, Big Babylon slowly took off his riding boots, with all five toes exposed, and carefully placed them on the ground. After thinking about it, perhaps feeling uneasy, he warily glanced at Allen and the others, then solemnly handed the pair of worn-out shoes to Little Zack.
As though entrusted with a burden of a thousand pounds, Little Zack nodded solemnly. Then he turned his back on Allen and the others and carefully tucked the worn-out shoes into his chest.
After finishing with the shoes, Big Babylon pulled a piece of moldy black bread from his clothes. He carefully crumbled it and slowly poured it into his mouth as though savoring a delicacy. He stretched out his large tongue to lick the crumbs from his palms, then licked his lips with lingering satisfaction. After that, he pulled out a waterskin, drained it in one gulp, stuffed it back into his clothes, and, like Doraemon, pulled out a beast-hide rope from somewhere inside. He tied it around his waist and tightened his beast-hide skirt.
"Come, you cunning humans." Big Babylon rolled his neck, producing a series of popping sounds. He looked ferocious beyond compare.
Big Babylon's whole routine left Allen and the others speechless, their eyes rolling.
Seeing that the barbarian had finally finished fussing around, a Faith Guardian Knight let out a low roar, raised his greatsword, and leaped into the air, chopping down at Big Babylon.
The greatsword struck Big Babylon's shoulder with a clang like metal hitting iron. The Faith Guardian Knight's expression changed drastically.
With a savage grin, Big Babylon stretched out both hands and lifted the Faith Guardian Knight high into the air. After a low roar, he hurled him toward several knights clustered together as though tossing out trash.
The Faith Guardian Knight, clad in half armor, smashed several companions' ribs. In that single exchange, three unlucky men were already lying on the ground and howling in pain.
The remaining two Faith Guardian Knights were clearly different from the inexperienced companions at their feet who had already lost their combat ability. They exchanged a glance and ignited golden Battle Aura, shining brilliantly like obnoxious human-shaped lightbulbs.
Big Babylon instinctively raised a palm to shield his eyes.
The two knights instantly seized the opening and charged forward in perfect coordination. Their two greatswords stabbed directly at the vital points on either side of Big Babylon's chest.
The two greatswords, infused with Battle Aura, pierced Big Babylon's semi-petrified skin.
The sharp sword tips stopped after entering half an inch into his body.
The two knights froze slightly, then exerted more force, attempting to inflict greater damage, but things did not go as they wished.
A barbarian's life was a life of battle. After reaching adulthood, Big Babylon had become the Bloody Hoof Tribe's top enforcer. He was ferocious beyond measure. Ignoring the greatswords embedded in his body, he thrust out his thick arms, seized the two Battle Aura knights by their necks, one in each hand, and lightly squeezed his fingers. The two strongest Faith Guardian Knights in the outskirts of Outpost County went to meet the Supreme God and Holy Father without even having time to leave their last words.
Several of Sakre's guards truly deserved to be called veteran lackeys. Their coordination was flawless. They shouted at the same time, "Protect Lord Count!" Then, as if being chased by dogs, they ran behind Sakre and stared at Big Babylon in terror.
Allen was completely speechless. Looking at those lackeys hiding behind Sakre, he could not tell whether they wanted Sakre to protect them or whether they intended to protect Sakre.
Sakre's face reddened with embarrassment. He shot a fierce glare at the attendant warriors behind him before turning to Big Babylon with a grave expression.
The Bloody Hoof Tribe's top enforcer pointed a finger as thick as a small radish at Dina, his eyes radiating tangible ferocity. "Cunning humans, hand her over to me, and I can spare your lives!"
Dina ignored him and continued eating her roasted meat. Little Zack, watching from the side, stared at the meat as a huge stream of drool ran from the corner of his mouth.
Big Babylon did not attack again. He waited for Allen's answer.
Sakre did not give him the answer he wanted. Instead, he slashed forward with two rusty iron swords in a cross.
"Great Cross Slash!" Sakre was in midair as Battle Aura flickered upon his two rusty swords. Compared to the two dead Faith Guardian Knights from earlier, the difference was like that between a Wuling Hongguang and a Bugatti Veyron—there was a fundamental gap between them.
Big Babylon knew quality when he saw it and did not dare to be careless this time. After sidestepping, he raised his foot and delivered a simple, unadorned front kick.
Sakre's attack missed, and he crossed his swords to block.
When Big Babylon's filthy black foot struck the two rusty swords, the blades, covered in mottled cracks, shattered into countless fragments. The force of the kick numbed Sakre's hands, and he staggered back several steps before stabilizing himself.
His faintly trembling hands showed just how much brute force that seemingly ordinary kick contained.
Sakre, who had won the Duke Lotel Kingdom gladiator championship for several consecutive years, had trained in Martial Skills and tempered his Battle Aura since childhood. At such a young age, he had already begun to make a name for himself across the continent. Among the younger generation, he had never acknowledged anyone except Earth Dragon Legion Commander Xiulunte and Princess Hathaway. In Duke Lotel Kingdom, he often carried himself as though he could draw his sword, look around, and find no worthy opponent.
Unfortunately, in tiny Outpost County, Sakre, a count of the duchy and a leader in his own right, was stunned with one kick by a barbarian who had appeared from nowhere.
"Hahahaha!" Allen pointed at Sakre, who was holding only two sword hilts, and laughed wildly. "You kept acting all high and mighty, waving those two broken swords around the streets every day. Go on, show off now! Dumbfounded, aren't you?"
Allen had long found Sakre unpleasant. That guy had a higher noble title than him, lackeys clearing the way whenever he went out, and a powerful Grand Duke for a father as well. Despite his youth, he had already made quite a name for himself.
That guy also kept wandering around in front of petty Allen every day. Now that he had suffered a setback, Allen naturally seized the opportunity to mock him relentlessly.
After all, Sakre's lackeys carried dozens of rusty iron swords with them all year round just so their master could show off, and Allen had found that deeply irritating.
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