Upon seeing the notifications, Paolo smiled and continued to target the remaining bandits, killing them with one strike.
The supposed hostages of the bandits were set free after Paolo cleaned up the battlefield, taking their items and equipments that weren't broken.
After setting them free, he then focused his attention to one of the convoy members, who seemed to be the young lady of the merchant group. The young lady, seeing Paolo approach her, hurried up to the front of the members and thanked him.
"Thank you for your help, kind stranger. We would have lost our lives (goods to trade) if you weren't here." The lady said, causing Paolo to just nod.
"My name is Daniela Farwitz, may I have the honor of knowing your name?"
"Alexander Banhomme. Miss, did you know you have an esper with you travelling the whole time?" Paolo asked, straight to the point.
"We have a fellow member who is an esper?" Daniela was obviously surprised, as she had thought the members of her convoy were merchants and soldiers hired by her family's trading firm.
"Yes, and that very esper tried to block my attacks when I was attacking the bandits." Alexander responded grimly, obviously angry at the esper.
Surprise covered Daniela's face, before darkening in realization. Now she knew why there was a bandit ambush.
Immediately, Paul launched an attack towards the small carriage by the back of the entourage. Everyone who survived the wreck head away from the carriage. They were expecting a strong explosion, but when the attack reached the carriage, there was only a slight rippling of the space between the attack and the carriage, before distorting and vanishing.
Seeing this, Alexander snorted and launched again several tens of [Wind Cutter] and [Torrential Bolt] towards the carriage. Upon contact, the barrier distorted heavily before shattering, and with the remaining bolts, the attack crushed the carriage. At this point, from the rubble, a figure emerged, seemingly covered by a protective barrier.
"Finally showed yourself." Alexander said, obviously annoyed by what the man did.
When Daniela saw the silhouette, she couldn't believe it.
"Uncle Mars? You orchestrated all of this? But why?" Daniela asked, disbelief present on her face.
Mars just shook his head and looked towards the Alexander.
"Fellow Esper, why did you have to interrupt my mission?"
"Why? you have the gall to ask why? When I see injustice, I fight for justice, no matter who it is for!" Alexander replied solemnly, his words shaking the hearts of the people who survived. They were about to praise him when they heard the second part.
"-At the same time, you pissed me off, that's why! Plotting behind someone's back, what is this, the medieval era?" Alexander replied, launching another attack towards the other esper. The esper immediately evaded and began to create more defensive barriers.
"Medieval era? what's that?" The esper said, quite confused with what Alexander mentioned.
"erm, never mind that, you deserve death for annoying me!" Alexander continued, launching several
"Hmph. Do you think all I can do is defend?" The esper sneered, and raised his hands. With Alexander's acute vision, he could see the barriers forming on the esper's hands, twisting and turning thinner, while at the same time creating sharp edges.
"Yes, obviously. What a pathetic skill." Alexander continued to edge him, not caring at least about the offensive the esper was about to launch.
"You-! Let me show you the power of creating barriers!" Immediately, the esper launched the now blade-like barriers towards Alexander, who just laughed at him.
"Yak, yak, yak! Be destroyed!" Rather than evade, he decided to fight the old fashioned way: Bombarding his enemies with attacks.
Immediately, [Torrenting Water Ball], [Torrential Bolt], [Wind Cutter], [Water Bolt] and [Air Bolt] launched towards the esper's attack.
Upon collision, there was a resounding explosion, and the air around the two espers visibly vibrated. Both attacks canceled out, but there was still the impact, which caused the carriages close by to fly a few meters away from the the epicenter.
The other people had long since been hidden, far enough to be not affected by the attacks but close enough to see the situation.
Alexander didn't budge an inch from his original position, since his [Water Barrier] and [Air Barrier] Absorbed the impact of the explosion. The esper close by didn't fare so well; although he had a defensive barrier ready, the shockwave from the explosion still managed to penetrate and cause internal injuries to the man, causing him to cough out blood.
"Will you submit to your fate? I can do this all day long~" Alexander calmly asked, his voice icy.
"Hmph, don't bother." the esper snorted,
"Pity I wasn't able to do my mission." He muttered, only hearable to Alexander. Alexander widened and immediately casted several barriers around the esper, as he knew what he was going to do.
The esper visibly frew in size, bloating in every part of the body.
"Damn it, self-destruction. So annoying." Alexander muttered, obviously displeased with the outcome. He didn't realize these espers had no regard for their lives.
The man bloated to thrice his original size, before exploding. The explosion however, was toned down by the barriers Alexander set up, with the [Water barrier] Absorbing most of the shockwave that came afterward.
The water barrier was still visibly shaking, with lots of ripples present on the surface. This gave another idea to Alexander.
'Can I use the defensive barriers as a weapon, specifically [Water Barrier]? I'll probably experiment on this on the way to Darren City.'
After making sure that none of the esper's bodies were splattered to his body, he came close to where the esper was, and was frankly disturbed with what he saw.
A mish-mash of flesh and blood was contained in the barrier, but what caused him to shiver was that it was still moving, continuously bashing against the barriers.
"Ohoho, so this is your plan B, eh." Alexander smiled to himself, surprised by the determination of these people. It seems he can't underestimate these people in Azur realm.
Using Air magic, Alexander amplified his voice and called towards the survivors.
"Hey guys! It's safe now. You can come and collect your carriages... Er, what's left of it, I guess." He shouted, causing the survivors to be shocked for a moment before heading towards the remains of the carriages they owned and looked inside for the goods.