Chapter 2669 Statue "Hi!" I said to the two Grimms and waved my hand to greet them as I saw the old friends rather than the enemies. One of the Grimm is familiar to me; the other is completely unfamiliar, but one thing is clear, both of them are very powerful, especially the Stone Teeth Antman Yda at the front; that bastard is very dangerous; I should be careful against them. Though I do not fear them, if they attacked me here, I have full confidence that I would be able to survive under their attack. Those two continued looking at me for nearly a minute before they moved their neck, and a few seconds later, I saw an unknown Crockaman moving its body slowly before taking a slow step toward me; it was clear that it coming toward me. Its steps were slow at first but soon became faster and faster as the suppression began to lessen, and soon it began to walk at normal Grimm speed. 'Father, let me fight it,' asked Nero from the core, surprising me. I opened my mouth, but before any words could come out of my mouth, he spoke again. 'Father, you have promised you will let me fight a Grimm,' said Nero, and his tone was forceful. I did promise him, and hearing his tone, I know he will not accept any other way, and there is a high chance that he might throw a tantrum. 'There is suppression here, Nero,' I said, and I know it is a weak excuse, but I have no other words. The enemy is quite powerful that even I could only guarantee my survival against it and nothing else. 'Don't worry, father; I don't think the suppression here would affect me as much as to you or these Grimms,' said Nero and appeared over my head, 'I was right; it did not affect me as much as you,' He added, just when I was about to protect. 'Fine, you can fight against it, but don't take too much risk. If it becomes harder, come back to me,' I said to him, and this time, my voice was serious. This was no easy Grimm; if it was outside, it would crush me, and while I have confidence in Nero's abilities, I couldn't help but feel worried about him. 'Don't worry, father, I will crush it,' said Nero with confidence, and all I could do was sigh and turn to the Crockman, who had just stopped in front of us with a sawtooth blade in its hand. "What happened to Rsas?" asked the Crockman. "I killed him, of course," I replied. I had planned for an elaborate answer but decided to do a short answer seeing how Nero is literally shaking over my head at the thought of fighting against it. "We just gave one job to that idiot, and it couldn't even do that well," It cursed before turning to me. "You must have trapped him way before killing him, right?" it asked, "Something like that," I replied. "Then you will pay the price for that," it and moved its tooth blade toward me. "Sorry, I will not be fighting against you; Nero is more than enough to deal with you," I said to it and walked away while Nero leaped at it. It took a moment to realize what I had just said, and as it did, it burst into rage. "You Bast!" it shouted, but that shout was cut off mid-way as it lastly moved its ax to defend against Nero, who is the size of an ant compared to it. I am worried about Nero, but I have full confidence that he will be able to defeat it. It won't be much of a problem for him if his spoken words are true. Even feeling 10% less suppression than Grimm would give him a huge edge against it, and considering the strange abilities Nero has, he will be able to defeat it, even if both of them have a similar strength. While I gave Nero permission to fight, it produced another problem; the Stone Teeth Antman saw the fight, and that meant I couldn't let it leave this place alive. It is not for the world to know Ashlyn and Nero's abilities yet; they need to remain secret. I needed to kill it or have it kill somehow, and it was going to be a challenge; though not an impossible thing, it would have been an impossible thing if we had been outside. There is also a considerable advantage; unlike the Crockman, Yda the Antman had the Bloodline. If I was able to kill it, then I would leave this ruin with so many advantages that I had never imagined; those would be comparable to going to several ruins. Though, I understood how hard the task and I barely had 30% confidence in doing it. Before I could even think about fighting it, I had to reach it, and it will be an incredibly hard task, but I am confident that I will be able to do it. So, I flashed Yda a brilliant smile and increased my pace; each of my steps would bring me close to it and would increase the suppression. There is also that compulsion or something else that is making me bow to the statue. I have already done it three times, and it seems like it is also getting stronger with each step. From what I could see, it is not just me that is suffering from it and Grimms too; both Yda the Antman and the Crockman also kept their head bowed most of the time. Even now, the Antman's head is bowed, though it would lift it every minute as it is fighting the compulsion actively. Time passed as I took one step after another toward the statue, while my power reduced with every step. From the King to it had descended the Prince stage and now had reached down to the Duke stage. It won't be long before it descended to the Lord stage and then the Knight; I am very sure that would be my stage when I touch the statue.