As I stood there surrounded by humans, I began to utilize my [Material Forge] to effortlessly handle my would-be attackers, immediately capturing them from the ground beneath them, forcing them to loosen their grips on their weapons and dropping them.

  “Damn it all!!” One of them called out, angered by their failed ambush. “I’m going to skin this lizard!!”

  Once things started to calm down, I took the moment to examine my attackers, recognizing them all as part of the townsfolks. One I even recognized as that pathetic swordsman that had given me an annoying time. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I would be lying to myself.

  “Now now this won’t do, here I was hoping your little ambush would have more success. After all I have been waiting a while for this, you know. ~” I could only shake my head as I shrug my shoulders in disappointment.

  Upon hearing my statement my ambushers looked stunned. “H-how did you know we were planning to ambush you?”

  I simply wagged my finger in an act of taunting them. This seemed to only infuriate the pathetic swordsman who began to thrash within his confinement. I chose to ignore him as I answered their question.

  “Let’s just say I could tell from the beginning I had some people who would be defiant towards me. ~”

  The blood on their faces seemed to drain as it became pale with fear. Probably wondering if I was reading their minds or something. I decided to let them think what they want, which might prove useful to me.

  In truth back when I first acquired my town, I noticed the difference in number from the notification of my newly acquired human minions. I had taken a mental note of the amount of townsfolk when I had them all gathered and noticed that it was higher than the human minion count from the notification.

  From this it wasn’t hard to guess that I had a few people not keen on following me. So, during this time I have been keeping an eye out for anything unusual. I’m honestly surprised it took this long for them to try something. Whatever the case it didn’t matter, for now I would need to determine what to do with them.

  “Let us go damn it!!”

  I could only exhale in annoyance; it seemed the pathetic swordsman had plenty of energy to complain. Not wanting to hear any more of his rambling I had his mouth covered, and yet he continued to muffle loudly in his restraints. The others seemed more fearful about what I would do next.

  Considering our position, I decided to mess with them a little as I began to list possible options I could do. “Now let’s see…. What should I do with traitors who were after my own life….”

  I then snapped my scaled fingers as I pointed in their direction, my back turned to them while wearing a devious grin. “How about a simple public execution, that seems rather appropriate for traitors wouldn’t you agree?”

  Upon hearing the word execution, most of my attackers started to go pale. Realization was forming across their faces as they spoke with fear in their tone.

  “Y-you can’t be serious right? Didn’t you say some nonsense about wanting every single one of us or something?”

  “Yeah! You wouldn’t actually consider killing us, right??” His eyes darted around him in a panic, as if he was trying to find some way out of this.

  Meanwhile the pathetic swordsman continued to struggle through his bindings, without showing any signs of stopping. Clearly the anger towards me was stronger than any fear he would have had otherwise. He was definitely going to be more of a nuisance to deal with than the others.

  For now, I chose to ignore his attempts to address the rest of the humans. “Well, you see unlike the others in this town, none of you have accepted in becoming my minions. So, I don’t have any reason to protect what isn’t mine now wouldn’t you agree?”

  Seeing no other way one of the men started to beg. “W-we’ll do it! We’ll be your minions so please let us go!!”

  As if on cue my familiar [Game Screen] pulled up a notification.

  Good…. But not good enough. ~

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I stroke my claw around my head, imitating the act of rustling hair as I turned my gaze towards my captives in the corner of my eyes. “I see, indeed seems some of you have accepted being my minions now but…. Not all of you. Now I wonder which ones of you are still refusing~”

  Small spikes start to form around the rocky bindings around their neck, of course what they didn’t know was that the tips were dulled out just to be safe.

  “H-hey! Who’s the ones still refusing! Come on man!” One of them yelled, sensing the danger increasing around him.

  Another could only click their tongue, before sighing in resignation. “…Fine fine I accept too Damn it!”

  “M-me too….”

  Good, seems they all finally accepted being my minions. ~

  …well, everyone except for one. That swordsman was still relentlessly struggling through his restraints. I could only sigh an air of exasperation, you got to admire his dedication at the very least.

  Still, he really seems to hate me though I couldn’t blame him too much. I DID break his sword after all. Must have cost a decent amount of coin to replace. No matter, there was only one other way to handle him.

  The bindings on the swordsman started to crack and break apart, as he finally managed to free himself. He quickly grabbed his cheap blade as he went in for the attack. Though I quickly countered it, having already had my Falchion sword out.

  He must have thought he broke free with his own strength but in reality, I had formed some cracks inside it to make it easier for him instead. But sure, let’s have him think that and grow a bit cockier from it. ~

  Our blades clashed and our eyes were locked towards one another. He was towering over me on account of my small stature. His strength was proving to be stronger than my own, but that wasn’t surprising to me. I’ve faced far more overwhelming enemies than this, just try to compare them to a beast like Mordred! ~

  I decided to focus purely on my sword skills for this battle, after all I’ll need a lot of experience if I am to rank up my [Sword Mastery]. Theres something in mind I wanted to do when it happened, and I’m sure I can handle this pathetic swordsman.

  With a quick motion, I pulled back my sword which caused his own to suddenly change direction and towards the ground, but he quickly recovered himself. Using that moment I swiftly swung right at his legs, which was made easier with our size difference.

  “AARRGG!!! Why you little lizard!!”

  His scream of pain was loud enough for passersby to hear as they started to gather near our location, giving our little fight a crowd for all to see in the alleyway.

  Of course, I couldn’t help but take a quick jab in the situation. “Well well well, seems we’re drawing quite the audience wouldn’t you agree? Why don’t we give them something they’d find entertaining?”

  But he had none of it, he was truly pissed and done with me. “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!”

  He began to put more power into his swings, stronger but unfortunately a lot less coordinated. In fact, I’ll need to keep track and avoid having any of those stray swings damage my minions. I quickly reshape the openings to our surroundings to recreate a wall to keep them out of our way.

  With the quick preparations complete, I proceeded to put my focus on the wild swordsman who was still swinging blindly towards me. Reasoning with him was definitely out of the question. I could easily subdue him again, but I needed to show this pathetic swordsman why I was in charge in the first place.

  Despite the wild way he was moving his sword, I found it easy to keep track of it. While his swings were stronger than normal, they were sloppy and readable. I focused on mainly dodging his low swings while countering the ones that came above, making sure that each clash between metal only lasted for a split second.

  I’ll admit, I could feel my arms start to tingle after a few parries, but I ignored it. I could already tell that the man was starting to tire out as his swings were starting to slow down with less force. It had been probably two minutes at this point and while I was doing my best to maintain my stamina, all he did was focused on his relentless attacks.

  I just had to wonder what his rank was in the adventurer guild, it couldn’t have possibly been higher than mine, considering the amateur way I’ve seen him handle himself. I’ll have to make a note to check up on the guild after this.

  After some time, it became clear that he was getting too tired to continue so I figured it was time I ended it. Good thing too, as I could tell I was running a bit low on my mana earlier but now it should be filled back into something more manageable.

  I decided I’d try something and conjured up an Ice Ball in my hand. Instead of just simply throwing it instead at the same time I conjured some wind as well. I quickly aimed my hand towards my target and caused the wind to reshape, forcing it to compress then pushed forward, causing the Ice Ball to shoot out at high speed and right towards the man’s hands. The sudden strength of the Ice Ball as a projectile forced the swordsman to drop his blade from his fingers and right as it drops to the ground, I soon caused it to be buried underneath before he had time to react.

  Seeing this, the pathetic man quickly dropped to the ground in full view of the onlookers. They were all nervous, wondering what I was going to do next. I decided to take the opportunity to do a bit of showmanship as well as remind everyone why they shouldn’t try to betray me.

  With a swirl of my arms spread out, I spoke out loud enough for everyone to hear as I began to address the defeated swordsman.

  “Now then, since your plan to attack me has failed, I’ll give you two choices.”

  I raised each finger as I began to list his options as if to make sure he understood more clearly. “Either stay here and properly accept yourself as my minion or leave for now before I inevitably make you mine once I spread my conquest worldwide. ~”

  Left with no other choice the man quickly got up and bolted out of here, his cheeks red with embarrassment, completely forgetting his sword that I just quickly brought out to the surface.

  I released the rest of my ex-attackers without giving them a glance, already assured they won’t try it again. I gathered V and the others reassuring them that everything was fine and decided to give the adventurer’s guild a visit next.