Not far away from in the darkness of the plain'ss border lurked 2 men who were talking to each other. "Do we intervene ?" The first asked "No, not now we should see what they are capable of and in what mind set they are. Moreover they are only a bunch of weaklings to play the great bandits, they may be able to handle only this much with the training they got." The second replied to him.
Back to the budding bandits who were about to make their move on Zach and his friends.
"Get them, let me the boy with the scythe, and don't damage too much the girl or we won't to be able to sell her for a hefty sum." The leader instructed his two underlings. The two underlings pounced on Arnold as he was in front of Jess and they felt like Jess would not be a danger even if she wielded a bow and could harass them while they were on Arnold.
As for the leader he unsheathed his saber and leaped on Zach, he felt he was the most dangerous of them so he decided to deal with him by himself and let the other two take care of the other boy and the girl.
The moment they appeared in front of them Zach was already ready to draw his scythe. At the instant the leader took a step forward Zach was already in a battle stance waiting for the leader to come at him.
The leader emerged in front of Zach with a speed Zach could not attain but could see so he was ready. The leader raised his saber and went to slash vertically.
Zach parried it with the handle which he gripped with both his hands, when the saber collided with his scythe's handle Zach sunk a little bit in the ground, he was taken aback by the power his opponent could muster. He had underestimated the gap between him and this mid rank 1 cultivator but he did not despair.
When the leader saw Zach successfully parry he was utterly stunned, he did not feel the aura of a cultivator in the kid before him. It could only mean two things, one the kid was a more powerful cultivator than him or second he truly was not a cultivator.
In fact there was a third option, some skill could conceal one's aura but the mastery of those skills took great time and for a 12 years old kid already mastering one of those did not make the slightest sense.
But when the leader saw his attack made Zach sunk in the ground he knew he could discard the first hypothesis. The leader connected the dots and concluded that the kid before him was truly not a cultivator.
This fact filled him with dread, extreme dread, even if he had the advantage the kid before him was able to repel him a mid rank 1 cultivator without being one himself. At this exact moment the leader felt that they may have done a huge error, but it was too late to step back.
He reacted quickly to Zach's parry, he decided to kick his legs in order to break them. Zach trapped by the saber above his head and because he was slightly in the ground could not evade this kick.
To suffer the least from this incomming Zach made a choice in the split of second he had, he decided to not resist the kick and let its power free him from the position he was in.
Zach executed this scheme and achieved to escape from the state he was in, he got projected 12 meters away. "ARGHHH !" Zach felt a terrible pain in his left leg but it was not the time to worry about such small things, he got himself up and prepared himself for another onslaught from the leader.
"Zach !" Jess exclaimed, Zach's scream distracted her for a split of second but it was enough to break the stalemate they were in with the two bandits. Arnold and Jess were slowly losing to the two bandits, they would not be able to hold too long at this pace.
Exactly like he expected it when he lifted his head to look at the leader he was already on his way for him, brandishing his saber. Zach got in a state of utmost focus to achieve the plan he just thought of.
For now everything went along what he expected, when the leader was about 1 and half meter from him he payed attetion to the attack the leader will launch. By observing his muscles he deducted the type of the next attack, the leader was about to thrust his saber to Zach's torso.
Zach got it right, the leader was indeed thrusting his saber to his torso and so Zach reacted immediatly and shifted his body on the left.
The leader went past Zach with a look of surprise visible on his face, a look that disappeared right after because Zach exploited this opportunity to counter attack. Zach held his scythe with the blade downward and when the leader went past him he slashed at his right leg with all his power.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHH !! YOU SON OF BITCH." The leader howled. Contrary to Zach's expectations the leader's right leg was not cleaved, and was still connected to the rest of his body, but a deep slash could be seen and lot of blood flowed out of it.
In his misfortune Zach got lucky, the wound he inflicted to the leader would made him much slower so now Zach will be able to keep up with him, maybe even outstrip him.
It was now Zach's time to lead the fight, while still keeping his guard up, he went to the leader, with his scythe in hands he tried to slice the neck of the leader by slashing horizontally. The leader had fast enough reflexes to block the scythe with his saber but when he saw Zach's smile a chill went down his spine.
Zach rotated around the leader so his scythe's blade was now just behind the leader's neck and with his best evil smile Zach pulled his scythe toward him, The scythe's blade sliced half of the leader's neck.
The leader fell on the ground, "PTFF PTFF, you ... son ... o.. of ... bitch." The leader said his last words while coughing up mouthfuls of blood and finally giving his last breath.
[Ding ! Mid rank 1 cultivator eliminated : + 50 EXP]
When Zach looked at the leader's corpse he could see a faint cyan light that was hovering around it and he could see it was fading, the moment he tried touching it he heard the system voice.
[Soul detected, does host wants to collect it YES/NO]
'Yes' Zach said in his head [Soul +1] , he then checked his quest not knowing if he still had time to complete it.
[Quest : Death shall not be taken lightly : Lowly being are trying to confront host, the one that shall become death, as an unforgivable deed, host shall slain those lowly being to remind them that death is not something that should be provoked so easily
Target eliminated : 1/3
Remaining time : 0 hours 17 minutes 08 seconds
Rewards : 1 random skill]
'Oof, I still have a bit more than 15 minutes, I thought my fight lasted much more.' Zach was relieved. Actually the fact he could kill a mid rank 1 cultivator, although one of the lowest one possible, in such a short time was an amazing feat.
"Leader !?" The other two bandits saw their leader giving his last breath, it did not make any sense to them, it was too unbelievable. Then they got a hold of theirselves again and went blind with anger. "I will make you suffer for having done this to our leader." The two said simultaneously, in fact the three of them grew up together and were more of a family than friends a bit like Arnold, Jess and Zach.
There was a problem for the two of them, they did not realize how absurd it was for them to want to avenge their leader as Zach, though a bit tired was still able to fight, and his friends would be able to beat them without any issue.
The two of them pounced toward Zach both brandishing their saber to bisect him. Unfortunaly for them they forgot about Jess and Arnold, an arrow pierced the foot and another pierced the shoulder of one of them he dropped on the ground unable to get up due to the pain. The other got cancelled by two slash on his back thanks to Arnold's swords, he too dropped on the ground unable to get up.
"What should we do with them now ?" Arnold inquired.
Zach approached them slowly, he brandished his scythe and sliced both of their throats, like this they died slowly. Zach heard two notifications in a row in his head.
[Ding ! Low rank 1 cultivator eliminated : + 10 EXP]
[Ding ! Low rank 1 cultivator eliminated : + 10 EXP]
"Why have you done this Zach ?!" Jess was taken aback about Zach actions, she did not expected Zach to be so swift and at ease when he killed them coldly.
"Honestly Jess after what they said do you really think they deserved a better ending ?" Zach replied coldly to her.
Jess lowered her head, she could not respond to this, now that she thought about it they got what they deserved.
"Calm down guys, we should put their corpse on the side and go on our way." Arnold calmed them.