Hearing those words coming from the esper, everyone, except for the hostages, felt fear. Immediately, a few rushed towards Paolo attempting to strike him unaware, but before they even reached him, they all fell down, with a limb or two missing already.
There was no sound, no signs of attack that the bandits and the hostages could detect.
No one saw what had happened except for the bandit leader.
The bandit leader was quite special. He had a distant ancestor who was an esper, allowing him to inherit sharp eyes ability, giving him the ability to actually perceive small movements. Although it was not to the point that what he saw would slow down to almost to a stop, only reaching to be able to decrease up to 2x the speed of sound, the slowing down effect was quite enough for him to survive out there in the wilderness.
He knew how his men had been attacked. The instant that they moved, small orbs of blue light shattered in front of their legs and their arms, taking these limbs with them. These orbs only appeared within a split second, and disappeared without a trace.
"Oh, so it's over? that's it?" Paolo muttered disappointingly. He then began to step over the dead and headed towards the ones still alive at the rear, who managed to stop their bleeding even if a limb of theirs were destroyed.
Upon seeing his actions, the other remaining bandits were scared silly.
"M-monster!"
"D-don't come near us!" they shouted, as they also inched back to their leader, hoping for their leader to protect them.
"So let me get your logic straight. Just because you said 'don't come near us' means I would not come near you? Really?" Paolo rolled his eyes at this scene. He was expecting more action from these people, similar to the party he met in the forest. After all, they were bandits and were supposed to be experienced in the ways of slaughter and robbing.
Before he could take another step, a flash of light appeared a split second in front of him, only to be stopped by his barriers. Paolo was quite surprised because that one attack shaved off a barrier, indicating the strength of the attack and of the attacker.
Before he could see which one launched the attack, 2 more flashes of light appeared in front of him, destroying two more shields. At this, Paolo smiled.
He immediately casted [Torrential Bolt] and targeted the necks of the remaining bodies behind him, making it impossible for any of them to make sneak attacks. Immediately, a cacophony of shrieks, grunts, and wails briefly appeared before dying out behind him.
He then casted his the second branch of elemental spells he had decided to learn, Air-offensive skill tree.
He had unlocked the first three spells, [Air Bolt], [Windy Currents], and [Wind Cutter].
The good thing about this spell was that they were invisible, making it perfect for assassinations and surprise attacks.
For example, combining [Windy Currents] with [Torrenting water Ball] allowed him to destroy the legs of those people earlier.
[Windy Currents, lvl 5.
The spell allows the user to hide all air fluctuations while causing the air around the target to be soundless.
This increases air affinity by 2*skill level.]
[Wind Cutter, lvl 5.
Releases invisible blades of focused air traveling (1*skill level) times the speed of sound. Maximum number of blades created is based on skill level*2.
Wind Blades created can be fused on one another.]
"Air Bolts, appear." Immediately, a hundred plus bolts of rapidly rotating air appeared around Paolo, all of which could barely be discerned by the twisting of the air in the center of the bolts.
"Launch." Paolo targeted the remaining bandits, but as the bolts were flying, they were instantly stopped as well by an unknown film, causing it to be unable to pass through. Paolo frowned at this and checked the map. He had the map check the count of red dots before he decimated the bandits behind him.
Accordingly, before he began to kill those he passed through, there were 145.
When the flash of light appeared, it turned 146.
Paolo checked the map and was surprised to see that the red dot appeared behind the convoy party he was going to save.
I'll deal with it later, Paolo thought.
"Wind Cutter, appear. Cut down my enemies." Immediately, 10 blades of air was launched without warning, cutting through the seemingly flimsy barrier that was in front of the remaining bandits. The blades cut the remaining bandits without resistance, some of them being bisected, while some being fortunate to evade and have an arm cut off.
The leader, upon seeing the blades appear, couldn't dodge in time and could only result to attacking back. Compared to the lackeys he currently had, he was able to utilize the so called "Qi" within the bodies and achieve a great completion in the way of the sword.
He channeled the Qi into his sword and activated his ability to the fullest. 2x the speed of sound, decrease!
The blades slowed down, but was still travelling fast enough to kill. With his abilities as a swordsman he gave his own counter slash for every wind blade, except for one, which cut off his left arm completely.
Upon seeing this, Paolo didn't hesitate. He launched again [Wind Blades] without hesitation and aimed them towards the bandit leader.
With that, the other bandits saw their glorious leader, who had led them in countless battles and robberies, fall into pieces.