"Gah!!"
"Help!"
"Save me Mommy!"
Screams echoed around the camp as almost a dozen bandits died in an instant. They couldn't even see what was happening as a blur bounced around leaving fountains of blood in its wake.
By the time Boss Geren and Kate managed to leave their tents, all of their subordinates were dead or on deaths door. The grass and tents were all stained crimson and Geren watched with wide eyes as his once-prosperous gang was now gone.
Brian had just tied up his leather pants after a good piss to come back and find the people he talked with a few minutes ago have their heads chopped off and their heads crushed. He threw up and looked at his boss and 2nd in command staring wide eyed at the scene before them.
Just before Brian could ask what happened, the life left his eyes as a sickle pierced through the side of his head and went all the way through his skull. The two 2nd Rings turned in shock as this was not a monster, this was a human!
The body of Brian got dragged up into the trees by the long chain that followed the weapon and disappeared in the night. Kate took this chance to throw several knives in the direction Brian went. The knives whistled and a trail of air followed behind.
However, instead of hearing someone grunt out in pain, she widened her eyes as the knives came back towards her just as fast! She quickly dodged, opening up her wound in the process but had to grit her teeth and move on.
She managed to get by them all and the camp went silent again.
"Who the hell are you coward?! Show you're self if you're a man with any honor!" Geren yelled out to his surroundings.
They had no idea where this person was and that made them nervous. An unseen enemy was a deadly one. Geren spouted bullshit about honor, hoping it would reveal his enemy but he clearly was underestimating this mysterious person.
"You think I care about honor?" It sounded like a whisper right beside the Boss.
A horrible shiver ran up his spine as he spun around swinging the sword in his hand wildly with his full 2nd Ring strength. He hit nothing but air, only to feel the same feeling behind him. He paled and tried to bring his weapon back using all his strength once more.
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!!!" He screamed, only to hit air again...
Just as he was feeling like this was all an illusion, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. It was almost like he just got a bit of heartburn but it slowly grew unbearable. He looked down and touched his chest to find two sword-like objects poking out in front of him.
Blood dribbled down his mouth and his light tan shirt became stained with his own blood.
'Am I dying?' He thought but it seemed so unreal.
No one really thinks they would die, even until the last moment and he was just the same. Even though there were two swords sticking out of his body he didn't know if this was still an illusion. The aura of whatever was attacking them seemed to appear and disappear making both him and Kate unsure if they were seeing things right.
It all happened so fast that with her condition, Kate couldn't react when Geren was indeed stabbed through the chest. She saw the handsome man standing behind Geren with a demonic smile that chilled her very soul.
She froze in place and watched in fear as the unknown man pushed the two swords further into her Boss. Geren grunted in pain before slowly turning his cold head toward his assailant. When he looked into those Icy blue eyes, he felt many emotions before anger erupted from him.
"YOU'RE ONLY A 1ST RING PIECE OF SHI-" *Slice!*
Geren was cut off as the man slashed upwards and quickly broke through his collar bone to separate his body into different sections. Those sections drooped away after losing the muscle and bones that held them together and became a grotesque blooming flower.
Blood sprayed all over the man, turning their mysterious assailant into a demon.
"You're lucky you get a swift death today, otherwise I would have tortured you to no end." The man spoke calmly despite his excited look.
Kate came out of her frozen state and glared at him as she readied herself.
"Who the hell are you?" She carefully grabbed a few more throwing knives from her fanny pack-like bag that sat on the back of her waist.
The man finally turned to her with a smile as his aura exploded. She widened her eyes and knew Geren was right...
'He's only a 1st Ring?! How the hell can he kill a 2nd Ring?' She screamed in her mind.
Probing him, he was only a 1st Ring, however, his aura was actually potent enough to be a 3rd or 4th Ring. She was really confused and danger signals kept blaring in her mind to run away.
"Does it really matter?" The Demon before her said, "Bandits don't ask their prey what their name is right? They just kill and steal from the weak."
He chuckled sending a horrible shiver down her spine.
"I guess I'm a bandit now too since I'll be killing and stealing from you all as well, just like you did recently."
Kate's eyes widened, he knew about their attack? Was he just stalking them, waiting for the hard part to be over? She quickly shook her head no in her mind that raced a thousand miles a second to figure out why he attacked them.
She could care less about the others dying, but she couldn't! She had too much to lose!
'Wait, did those noble bastards already send someone?!' Her mind went to unrealistic conclusions but it started making more and more sense to her. Although she was off the mark, her thoughts were on nobles who liked to keep spies and family members in every major city if possible and even in enemy territories.
'But why is one way out here in Floren? Did they find "it" too?' She thought as anger spread across her face.
The reason she was here, was specifically for a treasure! Although she was with this group of small-time bandits, she was actually the daughter of a Bandit King! He was a huge figure in the neighboring kingdom of Henril and it took her a long time to go around the Ether forest and make her way here.
Her father had heard rumors that a new dungeon had opened up here near the mines only to come up empty-handed in the last year. She didn't even think about going back since even if she was the daughter of an important figure, that figure only saw her as a tool.
Even though she could never see him as a father, she was still loyal to the bandit king who she believed could one day take over the kingdom through rebellion. The kingdom of Henril was in a bad state politically and it was only a matter of time before things crumbled to the ground.
Many kingdoms were already eyeing their weakened country so the bandit king needed to unite the people before they could fall into anarchy. However, he still needed the power to accomplish that dream, and getting a treasure like Kate was searching for was his ticket to royalty.
Without any more speaking the two suddenly vanished before reappearing around the center of the camp.
*BOOOOOMMMM!!!*
Everything within 10 meters of them exploded while everything further away was thrown into the distance except for a few tents that managed to hold on.
At the center of impact, the young man's claw gauntlet clashed with two knives that Kate held in her hands. She gritted her pretty teeth that let a little blood run out of her mouth.
'So strong!' She thought as she held on with all her might.
As an agility-based fighter, she would normally be fast enough to kill her enemies before they could react, however she was injured on top of fighting this ridiculous monster of a man who was even faster than her top speed!
It was unheard of for someone to jump through the boundaries Rings set yet she was witnessing it herself as this handsome young man was pushing her back.
She felt a lot of pain in her stomach but had to react quickly when a fist came at her left side. It was also where she got hurt so she quickly rolled out of the way and did a few flips to gain space.
However her actions didn't work as those icy-blue eyes followed her. The man ended up right in her face and with shrunken pupils, she activated a live-saving skill.
"Bastion!" She cried out as a translucent giant shield blocked the man's blurry strike.
It gave off a holy aura which was quite ironic that a bandit had something like this. The man hit his hand hard against this foreign object causing another loud boom. Her head buzzed from the shockwave and paled when she saw cracks had formed on her shield after just one hit!
This was a skill that saved her life against a 4th Ring monster before!
'Just how strong is he really?' She couldn't help but be interested in this abnormal creature.
The man didn't let up and struck the shield that followed her body once more shattering it for good. The man casually looked down at his hand which was bloody but seemed to not think it was worthy of being careful with as he threw another punch.
Kate noticed he was favoring his right arm, using it almost the entire time to hit her. She thought at first it was because of her injury, but soon noticed that he never used his left arm. In fact, that arm was the one with the gauntlet over it and just kind of dangled at his side.
'He's injured too.' She smiled before quickly covering it up.
She was completely on the defensive which was bad for an assassin like her, but after the next strike she dodged, she suddenly vanished from her position. Using another one of her strongest skills, she instantly appeared by the man's left side with a huge smile on her face.
The man hadn't even finished his swing and it would take him too long to move that arm toward her. She used two different knives that were coated in a dark green liquid before stabbing at him.
"DIE!!!!" She couldn't help but scream out in glee.
Her frown was long gone as the berserker in her came out. With all her remaining strength, she aimed for his neck and torso. She could already imagine his look of horror as he fell to the ground foaming at the mouth... however that moment never came.
She couldn't process her thoughts as the arm that was supposed to be dangling by his side was now holding both her hands at an odd angle. She couldn't even see him move and she was now trapped in his grasp. Despite holding her like his arm was backward, he didn't seem to be in pain and still had that same demonic smile on his face.
The bones in her hands began to break, bringing her back to reality. Before she could scream out, she was hit on the side of the head and blacked out.
- - -
*sigh* "That's over." Alex sighed as he looked around.
The entire place was a mess and now he was holding an injured woman by her hands. He scrunched up his nose a little from pain as he let go of her and her body fell to the ground. He rubbed his left hand through the gauntlet.
"I shouldn't have done that." Alex had reacted out of instinct when he saw her vanish.
Since he didn't have a lot of experience in dealing with skills, he was surprised that she vanished and appeared near his injured arm. He only avoided using it, but it didn't mean he couldn't use it. He had used that arm to kill Geren yet the woman seemed to have forgotten that.
He had also used the "Kill me now" technique to bend his arm at an angle where he could block her attack. It hurt like hell but he found the technique had a lot of potential in surprise attacks once he got the skill. It still hurt too much to use but he would need to keep practicing it maybe once he got back to the inn.
Both Sharla and Alan had said that it could take years of practice to gain a skill for whatever you practiced. That's why treasures were so valuable. It saved years to decades of life and could also help save a person's life in dire situations.
With her knocked out, Alex quickly stepped on her arms and legs to break them. He wasn't letting her get away anytime soon and wanted to interrogate a bit. He walked by the dead boss and glanced at him before stepping on his head too.
It never hurt to be too careful.
He then walked into the tent that looked the biggest and assumed was one of their rooms where he found tons of gold and weapons all over the place. Many of the chests he looked into had tons of gold and jewels and he couldn't help but widen his eyes.
He had no clue just how much money was in this one room. Just as he was going to leave, he heard rustling further in the tent. He narrowed his eyes before dropping the unconscious Kate and walking over carefully. He had his claw out and held the sickle of his Kusarigama before turning a corner.
There on the ground, he found a young woman with scrapes and bruises on her and messy hair.
"Huh?" She turned toward him with a blank expression and sat up with sleepy eyes.
Alex furrowed his brows as he looked at her naked massive tits, perky nipples, and mother-bearing hips.
If it wasn't for the chain around her neck connected to a wooden pole, he might have gotten a boner in an instant.