"Haha! We got you surrounded, put your hands in the air!" One of the men from the group said. This man's name was Greg, and he was the leader of this merry band of bandits and thieves.
"Brother Loyd, Fighting!" Nick cheered Loyd on from the sidelines, which was a big mistake since it only served to annoy Loyd and alert the bandits to his presence.
Kacha! Kacha! Kacha!
But Loyd proved how experienced he was at fighting, as he used this slight distraction to his advantage. Loyd had taken that moment of distraction, to use the Deboning fist against three of the twenty bandits, incapacitating them.
"How dare you attack us?!" Greg roared in rage.
"So, should he just stand there and wait for you to attack him?! Are you that stupid by choice or did someone hit you upside the head with a frying pan too many times?!" Said Nick, which angered Greg and his fellow bandits again.
Kacha! Kacha! Kacha!
Loyd again took advantage of the distraction Nick had caused to take down another three opponents.
"Ahhhhh, you two rehearsed this, didn't you?!" Greg was furious, these two bastards were too skilled in this, which led him to assume this wasn't their first time.
Loyd was about to curse out. Who on earth would rehearse something like this?! He was just sure that Nick would annoy most people in the world with his words, so Loyd took the opportunities God had given him to take out as many of the bandits as he can.
"Of course, we rehearsed this! Do you think good teamwork like this just grows on trees?! Let me tell you, something buddy, we knew you were hiding underground even before you decided to jump out, we even saw the uncomfortable position you guys were in under there!" Nick said with his head held up high, like a proud little peacock. Causing every person there, including his teammate Loyd massive annoyance.
Kacha! Kacha! Bang!
And Loyd went in for the attack as usual, but he faced a problem after taking down two bandits. By the time Loyd had reached the third bandit, Greg was right there waiting for him and had launched a heel kick to Loyd's chest, which led him to be flung away for meters.
"Humph, did you think the same trick could work us three…" Greg was in the middle of his bragging when Nick suddenly appeared behind him. Nick had taken this opportunity to test out the final level of the Deboning fist.
Bang!
But, sadly, Nick's attack was not too much of a surprise to Greg, who had already expected it. Greg had turned just in time to welcome Nick's fist with his palm, but unlike Loyd's second level Deboning fist, the third level was a different beast altogether.
Kacha! Greg's palm became deformed as his bones and joints got dislocated at different places. But this amount of pain was nothing to a cultivator at the third rank of the transcendence realm like Greg. In fact, Loyd being at the fifth rank, he should have been able to make short work of these clowns, but his injuries had not recovered yet, which made him unable to perform at his peak.
After launching his attack Nick chose to make his retreat, which was the best course of action, but Greg had harshly used his already deformed palm to clutch his fist tightly, refusing to let go.
"Humph! Take this, loudmouth!" Greg said with a cruel smirk and threw a playful slap at Nick's face.
Smack!
Loyd had been struggling to get up, but when he saw Nick getting slapped, that joy became the energy for his weak knees, and he got back up, ready to take another beating.
"You…slapped me." Nick was so shocked that he actually told Greg what he did.
"I know," Greg replied, happily.
"No, you know nothing yet, but you will soon enough!" Nick said, with the scariest grin any person there had seen in their lives.
Nick then lifted his arm, which was currently being clutched by Greg high into the air, which prompted Greg to lift his arms as well. Nick then struck Greg's armpit with the Deboning fist, dislocating nearly every joint and bone in the man's arm!
Kacha!
"Ahhh! You actually buuuaala buuu….!" Greg was horrified to find he had lost complete control of his arm.
"What the fuck are you screaming about, punk?!" Nick went full psychopath at that moment as he aimed his next attack at Greg's jaw, dislocating it entirely, causing Greg's words to become incoherent in the middle of his speech.
Now that both his arms were free, Nick went ahead to dislocate Greg's other arm and two legs! And finally, Nick did what he had planned since the moment he had started this line of brutal attacks! He did something that most men would rather die than suffer from, he did something to Greg, that would ruin his life forever!
Slap!
"Why are you slapping yourself?!" Nick had grabbed Greg's now limp arms and began raining slaps on Greg's face using his own limp hands!
Slap!
"Why are you slapping yourself?! Huh? Is this a fetish?!"
Slap!
"Why are you slapping yourself?! Huh? Hahaha!" Nick laughed like a maniac as he rained down a beating on Greg's face.
"I wuuuuull keeeell yoou!" Greg screamed incoherently through his dislocated jaw.
Slap!
"Sure, you will, but you will have to stop slapping yourself to do it!" Nick sounded like a crazy villain in all this, which confused the bandits about their roles in this story.
"Cough, brother Nick, how about we stop this, hm, killing the man is much more humane than this," Loyd spoke out feeling bad for poor Greg.
Kacha!
"Hehe, you guys think you won just because you caught me off guard?! Keep dreaming idiots?! Bandits, get into the Earth tremor formation!" Greg, who was still under Nick's constant beating found a way to relocate his jaw by shaking his head sharply and sent out some orders to his men.
"Yes, Chief!" The bandits roared in unison, with determination, and sadness detectable on each and every one of them.
And immediately, they got into formation, which wasn't as cool as it first sounded since all the people did was interlock hands and stare at Nick.
But before Nick could ask them why they were acting so weird, the group showed him what they were up to using their actions.
Tremble! Tremble! Tremble!
All of a sudden, the ground Nick and Greg were standing on began caving in, forcing Nick to let Greg go and retreat.
"Haha, just wait to witness the power of our Earth tremor formation bastard! You will die and be buried here before you know it!" Greg said, seemingly unworried about the ground beneath his feet that was caving rapidly.
"But the formation will kill you before it kills me?" Nick asked, honestly confused. Did the man want to die so badly?
"Haha…" Greg was laughing his ass off, but he stopped midway, a little worried. What was taking his men so long? Shouldn't they have sent a person to rescue him already?!
"That's where our Chief and you are different?! You see, he already knew that we can't stop the formation midway because if we did, we won't be able to use it again for a very, very long time. So, when our Chief told us to use the formation, he had already made peace with his death! Our leader started this formation fully intent on dying with you!" A younger fellow among the other bandits said with passion, draining the blood from Greg's face.
Shit, he had forgotten about that! But how was he supposed to think of that with his entire body immobilized and when his own hands were being used to slap him in the face, repeatedly might I add!
Nick could see the look of shock and regret on Greg's face and immediately knew that the dumbass hadn't thought things through.
"Why don't you tell your men to stop now, we can talk things out." Said Nick, thinking that this way the Chief of the bandits would be able to find a reason to stop the attack and save his own life in the process.
"Humph! Now you beg for mercy?! No way! We will have to just die together…exactly like I had initially planned it!" Greg said nonchalantly as if he didn't care for his life.
"Huh…?" Nick hadn't expected such a response, especially not when the man was wetting his pants right now.
"Okay, you're right, I'll beg for mercy. How about we let bygones be bygones and we forget this dispute ever happened?!" Nick said with a warm smile.
"Fuck off, bitch! Either you die alone, or we all die together!" Greg said firmly.
"Well, fuck you then asshole! Let's see if you can really kill me then, huh?! Come on, bring it on, I want you all to hit me with everything you all got!" Nick went crazy, it wasn't like him to act so nice in the first place, he had just done it to avoid causing trouble before he reached the Gathering city, but now, he would rather die than beg anymore, at most he would bring Silver out as his shield and expose him to the peak experts of Gathering city!
"Huh…are you sure?" Greg asked, fully stunned by the sudden change. All he had wanted was for Nick to beg him a little more, then he would have reluctantly given in to his demands and told his men to stop their attack.
"Positive! Let me tell you all something, the first person who flinches under this attack will be the bitch here!" Nick said crazily.
"Brother Nick, maybe we should reconsider this." Loyd felt frightened by the crazy power the formation was gathering and began advising Nick to reconsider because he wouldn't be able to take this attack on when he was at full power, let alone now that he's injured.
Nick frowned and looked around, but he could see the formation had created an energy barrier that forced them to take the attack head-on, but as he thought about the cocky face Greg had earlier, Nick just couldn't let matters rest!
"No, how many chances does a man get, to die bravely?! Let's just die here, Loyd!" Nick said, with a sad smile on his face, which was only there to stress Loyd out. Nick had no plans on dying today and was going to live through this one way or the other, and he wouldn't let Loyd die either. But why let the man relax, he had relaxed enough in Nick's healing pool earlier.