The following morning, Zane and Eve once again went through their plan so as to not make a mistake. It was a simple plan, while Zane was talking, Eve would then use her trait and Zane would increase its power to see just how strong the amplification was.
They rode of to the next encampment, this time it was in an even worse state than the first encampment they were in. Zane and Eve then suddenly heard screams and they rode in even faster. The encampment was in the middle of a raid.
There were apparently bandits taking food, taking children and women for slavery, and some just having fun torturing the weak soldiers.
Zane was furious at this and started to wield his sword. Eve wasn't affected until she saw the children and women being taken.
Zane solemnly said to Eve, "How confident are you in the range of your trait?"
Eve replied with an even colder tone, "As long as they can see me, it'll work."
Eve shouted with all her might which attracted the attention of nearly no one due to all the chaos happening all at once. After realizing that no one was paying attention to them Zane reinforced his body and slammed his leg on the ground which made the ground crack and caused a small tremble.
The bandits then saw them and some of them even spoke some unsettling comments.
"There's still a little girl! She's mine!"
"That little boy looks like he'll be worth quite a few coins."
"Hell, it looks like they got some expensive stuff on them!"
Eve then used her trait while being empowered by Zane. Her eyes then turned a pinkish red which attracted the attention of everyone who saw her. There was no exception, man, woman, child, elderly, even some animals let out by the bandits. Everyone stopped moving and just gazed at her.
Eve simply said, "Die."
At the moment she uttered that single word, swords pierced hearts, spears met heads, arrows met necks, the sheer amount of blood on the ground was astonishing, enough to color a river blood red.
Leaving aside those women and children who were still remaining, all the men died. Eve wasn't merciful, even those people who were soldiers who tried to protect the people and those men who didn't even do anything at all.
Zane said just one word and one question, "Why?"
Eve retorted with a still cold tone, "They couldn't even protect them, what worth do they have? All the men who were worth saving have already died."
Zane sighed and started to think of what they should do with the remaining people. They couldn't bring them along nor can they leave them be. No one could fight and no one could protect them.
Eve disrupted Zane's thoughts, "Let's go. Adam's waiting for us."
Zane realized this, he couldn't do anything. He was may have no way to help them out but it doesn't mean that Adam can't. Zane took out a scroll and activated it. He contacted Adam.
Adam was leisurely walking when he got interrupted, "Hey Zane, what seems to be the matter?"
"I want these people to be safe."
"Why so? What do their situations have to do with me?"
"Adam I know that you don't care about people but it matters to me."
"I see quite the number of bodies there, say, have you taken a human life yet?"
"I didn't, Eve was the one who did it."
"That's unfortunate, tell you what. I'll save them but I'll seal your mana. That would be something interesting to see."
"Fine, now keep them safe."
"Don't worry I always keep my word. By the way, the person following you from before also died. Just a little advice, bring his body, you can use it in a very interesting manner. Eve will tell you all about it."
Adam cut off the transmission and everyone except Zane and Eve was teleported away into an unknown location.
Eve almost lost her cold disposition when she saw this. She knew how rich and powerful Adam was but this was just beyond her expectations.
Teleportation requires them to pinpoint the target and to have a set location on where they would teleport to. Another thing that this requires is an astral stone that costs enough to bankrupt an entire kingdom with a single usage.
There were at least a couple of people who were teleported all at once. Eve could only imagine how extravagant Adam would be if he really wanted to be.
Right after, Zane couldn't feel the mana around him anymore. He tried to gather mana to reinforce his body but couldn't anymore.
Eve spoke out, "I can sense Adam's mana inside you. He's preventing mana from entering your body."
"Let's go find that person who has been following us since the beginning."
Zane skimmed through the dead bodies and looked if they were the person that was following them. After looking for a while, Zane flipped over a body beside in an alley and realized it was him.
"How are we going to bring his body along?"
Eve innocently offered a suggestion, "We can put him in the storage ring if we chop him up."
"Better than nothing"
Using Zane's sword, they cut up the black-clothed figure and stored him in Eve's storage ring. With no left in the encampment, they left in silence.
After traveling being just a day near the place where Adam noted, they set up camp for the last time. Zane hunted some rabbits and Eve properly prepared them.
After eating their dinner, it was time for some questions.
"So, what do you wanna ask this time? It's going to be the last so make it count."
"Since this is the last day where we can ask each other questions, how about we each come up with our own. You go first."
"What a gentleman! Though this little lady would like to ask you something a little bit more personal, is that alright?"
"No problem."
"What's the contents of your contract with Adam?"
"I didn't have one, just a simple verbal agreement. I become his bodyguard and he would give me anything within reasonable means."
"You- What?! What do you mean? Are you sure you didn't sign one? Please carefully search through your memories, this isn't a joke anymore."
"What's this all about? I didn't sign anymore with Adam, that's that."
Eve started ranting on, "Adam the True Underworld King, someone who even the sorcerer-king couldn't deal with, someone who cares so much about his plans that even bankrupting an entire nation would be worth it even if his plans would have even the slightest chance of working, the same man who wouldn't even trust me with even a slightly important task! We had a soul contract! I can't go against him, he literally owns everything that I am!" In the end, Eve stood up and was essentially shouting out everything at the end.
Zane felt lost at this sudden outburst, he tried to calm her down but had difficulty in doing so.
He replied in a calm and composed tone, "I didn't know. In fact, I don't know anything. Adam just told me to train and that was it. I only knew his title and nothing more beyond that, he hasn't told me his history if it didn't include Richard. All I know about him right now is that his name his Adam, he is 13 years old to date, he has a Mind trait and, he has a friend called the doctor."
"Fine, just tell me your question so we can be done with it."
"Do you regret it?"
"Regret what?"
"Making a deal with Adam."
Eve silently mumbled almost inaudible to Zane, "In the end, it doesn't matter I'll get my revenge. So my answer would be, I don't regret it."
A sudden applaud ruined the somber mood that finally took its place at the end of the conversation. Adam showed up with a smile on his face and a clothed sword and dagger.
"My, oh, my! What an interesting conversation you have there! First of all, Eve, don't think you aren't doing anything important, you are teaching Zane ruthlessness but it looks like you haven't done anything with it yet. And Zane, you know much more about this than you think, I didn't take you because of your trait, I did it because of something else."
"What are those Adam?"
"Why these? A simple early gift, if you will. Here."
Adam threw the clothed sword to Zane and the clothed dagger towards Eve.
"Take care of these, Richard sure made a lot of effort to get the highest quality available."
Zane removed the cloth covering on the sword and gazed at it under the moonlight. It had a thick handle but was contrasted by its thin blade. There was an engravement on the golden handle, 'Z.'
Eve also removed the cloth on the dagger and it perfectly fit in her hand. The sleek design made it perfect for quick attacks with balance in mind.
Zane spoke up, "Where's the sheath?"
"There isn't any. Why would you want a sheath when enemies could attack you at any moment? By the way, there are some mercenaries going to this to exact location right now. Make use of those weapons now."
"By the way, Zane, your sword is a little special, that blade is pretty elastic but sharp at the same time. You can use mana to manipulate its shape at will but you can't use it right now so, good luck. A little tip, Zane, cut their tendons."
Adam disappeared right after he said that. Zane and Eve took up positions immediately, they sat quite near to the campfire and with a reasonable distance away from the forest. They didn't seem alarmed as they had the knowledge of knowing the attack, if they showed any signs they could lose their advantage.
While Zane was relying on his instincts and training, Eve was using her mana to see if there were any movements as to check if there were any spells being cast.
After a few silent minutes, an attack finally occurred, it was targeted towards Zane. A hail of arrows showered down at Zane and he took out a blanket form his storage ring. The arrows were all caught of the blanket and Zane managed to survive without a scratch.
Eve immediately used her charm and Zane empowered it. The archers started to daze around and Eve ordered them to die. Right after, a few mercenaries attacked from behind Eve. They had some sort of barrier blocking their vision rendering Eve's trait useless.
It was now a close-quarter fight, Zane dashed forward to help Eve but was slower than he originally was because he lost his ability to reinforce his body with mana. Eve took them as they came. Everyone in this fight knew how to reinforce their bodies with mana so everything attacked at quite the speed.
One man used a giant axe and tried to cleave Eve in two but she agilely moved around and she used her new dagger and cut the man's fingers making him drop the axe rendering him useless. She wasn't able to take him out because another man who used a long sword prevented her.
The man who lost his fingers backed away and a wizard was in the process of healing his wounds. The man who used a long sword took quick short stabs at Eve causing her to use the dagger to disrupt the destination of the sword.
Luckily, the materials that consisted of the dagger were incredibly high quality so the long sword was the one that started to show cracks. Noticing these cracks he immediately backed off and another man with a mace took up his place. While the man using a longsword was changing his weapon, Zane finally arrived.
Zane slashed at the man who was being healed but was blocked by the man who had changed his weapon on time. Zane had no experience in actual sword fighting but he did learn a few tips from Adam.
Zane muttered a few words, "Keep your balance, using your footing to your advantage."
The man facing Zane said a few words of praise, "Oh? Seems like you have an inkling of knowledge about swordsmanship. Let me experience your skill!" After saying that, the man thrust his sword towards Zane and feinted his attack actually going for Zane's leg.
Zane reacted in time but didn't fully prevent the attack causing his leg to have a shallow cut. Zane tried to attack with his full might but only managed to get his attack deflected, he was losing in skill, not in power.
"Pretty impressive! I attacked with all my might but you, not even reinforcing yourself with mana could deflect it."
They both exchanged a few strikes but only causing Zane more damage as the fight progressed. Meanwhile, Eve was constantly evading the mace that kept going back just to avoid it. She tried to attack the mace with his dagger but she couldn't get enough power behind her strikes to deal with the mace.
At this point, the man who had his fingers cut off had it regenerated and was not ready for battle. The wizard that healed that man was also in the fight now, he tried to immobilize Eve first with ice magic so that the fight would be easier.
Eve noticed this and shouted at Zane, "Switch!"
Hearing this, Zane immediately backed off and met with the man with the mace and axe. He was fighting both of them now while Eve was now against the man with the longsword.
Zane could now properly demonstrate his actually fighting strategy, fighting with pure power. An axe and mace were attacking him from both sides at the same time but he merely smirked. With one hand, he gathered his strength and put his all into this single slash.
His sword met the mace and axe but due to the sheer difference in material quality and power, the mace and axe got cut in half. There wasn't anything left between Zane and the two men but still upholding his commitment and remembering Adam's words, he cut their tendons rendering them immobile.
Zane saw the wizard casting some spells so we went forward and attacked him. The wizard saw this and changed his spell's target from Eve to Zane. Zane got immobilized with the spell binding his feet with ice and then wizard once again started to chant another spell to end Zane.
While this was happening, Eve was fighting it out with the swordsman and she was nicking the sword an attack at a time causing it to weaken. After a few strikes and skillful maneuvering, Eve finally managed to get close enough to deal with a fatal strike but was denied by a sudden kick towards her stomach.
She was kicked quite far away and when she got up she saw Zane immobilized by the wizard, she tried to get save Zane but the swordsman stopped her.
"Where are you going, little girl?"
Eve couldn't waste any more time, she then remembered something that Zane did yesterday, he reinforced his sword with mana. She looked at the weapon the swordsman had and realized that he wasn't reinforcing it. She had no time to think, she had to copy Zane's technique and breakthrough.
She tried to enter her mana into the dagger but she failed to do so. It was a lot harder than it looked, she had to empower the dagger skillfully or had to have enough overflowing mana to forcefully, sadly she neither had these. She wasn't a genius nor was she at all gifted, right now the time was ticking.
Upon seeing that the wizard finally had enough mana to cast a fatal spell, Eve had no other choice but to throw her dagger towards the wizard in hopes of killing him. The dagger traveled at an extremely quick speed but missed the mark ever so slightly. The dagger pierced the wizard in the chest, it was serious but wasn't enough to warrant instant death. The wizard then barely held on while slowing down the blood loss.
Zane saw the dagger pierce the wizard and looked back at Eve. She was now backing away to the point that it could be called running. She sustained a few slashes here and there but was all primarily on her arms, she sacrificed the damage for mobility.
Zane had to get out of there quickly, if not, then she may not make it. Zane was using his sword to shave away at the ice encasing his feet. Zane realized it was taking too long so he started to look around, he once again laid his eyes on the wizard and decided to make his move.
He took out his first sword and contemplated on killing the wizard. Although he did try to stay committed to his beliefs, it wouldn't mean anything if Eve died because of him. As he was about to throw it, the wizard saw what was about to happen, he stopped his magic and bled out.
The ice melted at Zane's feet and had no time to think about anything else. He dropped his first sword and dashed towards the swordsman and Eve in the forest.
"Eve! Come to me!"
Hearing Zane's shout, Eve ran along with the trees towards Zane and behind her was the swordsman running towards him as well. Eve ran behind Zane and dashed for the dagger she threw while Zane took up his stance and once again fought his the swordsman.
Zane was still on the losing side but still managed to put up a good fight. He fought long enough for Eve to get her dagger and fight alongside him. After picking up the dagger and running back, she put up and stance but her arms were now trembling.
After a round of exchanging attacks, the amount of wounds on her arms had started to ruin her ability to wield her dagger. She now couldn't lift her hands anymore and was just a burden.
Zane noticed this and calmly said to her with a gentle smile, "Stay back, I'll deal with this. Worst comes to worst, Adam comes and saves us so don't worry about it too much." Hearing this, Eve went back and focused her mana on her arms preventing it from bleeding and backed away.
At first, the fight was heavily one-sided with Zane backing off at any opportunity he could as to reduce the damage he sustained. Eventually, he got to where he dropped his sword earlier, he picked it up and was now dual-wielding swords.
The swordsman found this amusing and started to laugh, "Hahahaha! Kid, what are you going to do with that? One or two words don't matter if you don't know how to use them!"
Zane now had a few cuts here and there but was still thinking rationally, "I am already losing so what's one more crazy idea?"