Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

When Ethan and the others returned to the camp, they confirmed that the place was completely fine. The explosion happened a few hundred meters away from there when a certain mercenary got careless. Ethan understood that because when he arrived, he saw a group of mercenaries kicking a certain figure that was wearing some really worn-down clothes. It was a boy who seemed to be ten years old. However, he wasn't human. He had a single pointy horn in the middle of his forehead and bat-like wings on his back. The right side of the boy was bleeding heavily, and he had some burn marks there. It looked like he was the cause of the explosion. Some of the mercenaries were wounded too.

"What a pain…" Ethan sighed and then began to walk toward that group.

"Hey, Ethan, you shouldn't…" Ian said.

"Shut up," Ethan said.

Ian thought Ethan would split the mercenaries in half since his sword was still in his hands, but then he unequipped it. He wouldn't need it. Ian's father watched the whole thing with his arms crossed and without showing a hint of emotion. That was a calm leader for you… even when Ethan passed by him, he didn't try to stop Ethan. They looked at each other for a second, but only that.

There were more than a few things Ethan hated on the battlefield, but there were only a few things that he couldn't stand it. Cowardice and scumbags. If you want to fight, fight fair and square, one-on-one. There were a few exceptions for that, for example, when someone is fighting a much stronger opponent or when you try to save the life of a friend, but that wasn't the case at that moment.

The battlefield isn't the place for scumbags. Still, the scumbags always appeared after the battles, looking for loot and for the survivors on the losing side to turn them and their families into slaves or, even worse, to torture them for the fun of it.

While the mercenaries were busy kicking the kid, Ethan kicked the mercenaries one after the other. Men, women… he kicked them all until all of them were rolling on the ground in pain due to the broken bones. However, there was one big guy that managed to withstand Ethan's kick and get up without a single broken bone. Ethan had held back a little, but even so, he was pretty impressed. The man not only had a body strong enough to endure his kick, but his eyes were also the eyes of a real veteran of many battlefields.

The big guy had blond, long straight hair and green eyes. He looked pretty cool from Ethan's perspective even more with that vibe battle-hardened soldier. However, those thoughts disappeared from his mind when the man made a long sword appear out of nowhere and then slashed at Ethan.

"You can use magic?" Ethan said and then frowned after he stopped the swing with his left hand alone. "That is weird, and I barely can sense any mana coming from you."

"Don't mess with me, boy," The tall man said. "You will regret it."

"How so?" Ethan asked. "No, you don't have to answer. How about you explain what you and your low-live friends are doing here? You should choose your words wisely, or you will end up losing this sword."

The blond man tried to pull back his sword, but Ethan didn't let him. He also tried to make the sword disappear again, but that also failed. The anger in the main grew to the point where he decided to do something crazy. From his back, he grabbed a grenade and even pulled the pin before throwing it toward Ethan. Ethan saw all that as if it had happened in slow motion. He kicked the grenade alongside the man's arm. He didn't hold back this time and broke everything below his elbow. A few seconds later, an explosion happened several dozens of meters up above. Aside from the tall blond man, no one got wounded due to a grenade.

"Sorry, but… it looked like your left arm needed some punishment," Ethan said while smiling and watching the blond man and his in-agony expression.

Somehow, even though Ethan broke several of their bones, the guys who got kicked got up and pointed their guns at Ethan. His endurance wasn't quite there, so the bullets of rifles and machine guns would hurt a little bit. That being said, Ethan wasn't planning to get hit, and a good part of his body would be protected with his sword on his back. As for the front side, he decided to use the tall man as a shield. Grabbing him by the collar wasn't that easy since he was pretty tall, but things got easy after Ethan punched his stomach, and he passed out.

"That is enough," Ivan said. "If any of you continue with this, I will stop all of you myself, and I won't be gentle."

Ethan felt some killing intent coming from Ivan… somehow, it felt like he really had the skills to back down his words. In any case, the mercenaries dropped their weapons, and Ethan had dropped the tall mercenary as well. That being said, he didn't move from his spot, and that wasn't over.

"Anna, use potions on them," Ivan said.

"Yes," Anna nodded.

Now that Ethan thought about it, that had been the first time he attacked people who didn't have mana. However, for some reason, he gained experience… as if he had drained their mana. Instinctively, Ethan attacked and kept body contact for only a few milliseconds, but his power was still activated.

"The heck is going on? Ordinary people can obtain mana now?"

After a few seconds, everyone had been healed, and the tall mercenary woke up only to find Ethan looking at him from above. His arms were crossed, and he looked calm enough, but it was obvious that Ethan wouldn't back down yet.

"You little shit…" The tall man got up.

"Insulting me already, huh?" Ethan frowned. "You should be more thankful. You tried to kill me, but I didn't try to kill you. That means that you owe me one."

"Ivan… if you don't do something about this little shit, I will do it," the tall mercenary said. "Why did you hire these brats, anyway?"

"I don't owe any explanation to you," Ivan replied. "Still, the boy is right. You tried to kill him and he held back against you. Putting that aside, you owe me some explanations about this kid you brought here. I didn't think there would be survivors on this planet, and due to that, I didn't think we would get prisoners. Some of us are against making the inhabitants of this world into slaves or whatever, and it wouldn't be fair if I decide this alone, considering that this happened to my mistake. We will decide everything once the others return. Don't do anything foolish until then."