'This should be far enough…' The bandit leader thought to himself as he stopped running and leaned onto a tree.
He had been running nonstop for the past five minutes, something that only someone with a decent amount of stamina could do, especially when the terrain was uneven like inside a forest.
Due to the dark forest, he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he went or how far he had gotten.
But judging from his slightly ragged breath, the boss thought that he had run far enough to get away from all the ghosts.
He kept holding the pendant in his hand, refusing to let it go even for a split second. Not even changing the hand that held it no matter how sweaty his hand had become.
He made the pendant his lifeline, and losing it was not an option that he could accept.
The bandit leader planned to rest his body and kept his eyes awake until the sun's first light appeared in the forest before he made his way out of the forest.
So he sat right beside a thick tree trunk, leaning his back onto the tree while keeping both of his two hands busy.
One held the pendant with all his might while the other held onto the sword that he had brandished out of its scabbard.
He didn't know whether his sword would work on ghosts since he actually never interacted directly with them before, but he for sure knew that ghosts weren't the only ones living in the forest and a sword was necessary for his safety.
He wouldn't want to be safe from the ghosts but died from a beast instead.
So with a blessed holy item in one hand and a murder weapon in the other, the boss sat still, keeping his ears and other senses sharp as he tried to catch onto any sounds or any kinds of changes around him.
With that kind of wariness, it didn't take long for the bandit leader to notice one particular sound.
It was a familiar one, one that he had heard before.
It was none other than the sound of a crying woman.
"Don't you dare get close to me!"
"Stay away!"
The bandit leader stood up. Extending his left hand which held the blessed pendant. Pointing it in all kinds of directions in an attempt to drive away whatever ghosts that tried to scare him.
When the sound disappeared, the boss thought the blessed pendant worked and succeeded in driving away the ghost.
But in the next second, the boss started violently jerking his head left and right.
From the edges of his vision, the boss saw people walking around him.
The forest was dark, almost pitch black if not for the moonlight.
But the boss was somehow able to see those people walking all around him very clearly.
He tried looking at them directly and the hand that held onto his sword started squeezing harder than before.
But no matter how fast he turned his head, the boss couldn't see any of those people that he had seen walking on the edge of his vision after staring right in their direction.
Once again, trusting his trusty blessed pendant, the boss shoved the pendant right onto the empty air around him.
"Stay away!" He repeatedly shouted as he used the blessed pendant as a ward against the ghosts around him. Swinging it left and right nonstop.
"You know, that little toy could only do so much. It couldn't really protect you from all things."
A voice came from one of the trees. It sounded like the voice of a young man, an unfamiliar voice that the boss had never heard before.
Thinking it was yet another ghost trying to scare him, the boss extended the pendant in the direction where he heard the voice.
"Come out if you dare! You ghosts are cowards!"
After letting out his provocation, the boss once again got an instant answer.
"Come on, you're not fair to those ghosts. Do you know how hard it was for them to make you able to see them?"
"Why don't you become a spirit yourself before telling them they are cowards again? They would surely be happy to deal with you at that time."
"Which will be soon, that is, so you don't need to worry."
After hearing it for the second time, the boss could finally focus on the young man's voice. From how clear the voice was and the lack of any eerie vibes coming from it, the boss concluded something.
"Come out! I know you're not a ghost!"
"You better show yourselves before I come over and make you join the ghosts!"
This time, instead of shoving his pendant forward, the boss raised his right hand, which held his sword and pointed it toward the direction of the young man's voice.
Staring at a certain tree in front of him, the boss' eyes didn't blink even once as he waited for whoever had hidden behind the tree to come out.
"Well, I guess I could try out a few things with you."
After hearing another answer, the boss' eyes moved as he followed the movement of someone stepping out from the backside of the tree.
It was quite hard for the bandit leader to see the full features of the person who had just walked out of the tree.
But the distance between the two of them was close enough for him to see quite a lot.
The person's height was about a head shorter than himself. His hair was rather long and unkempt, and his build was very poor.
It was as if the boss was seeing a beggar on the streets of the villages around the forest standing in front of him.
The person held out a stick in his right hand, which made the boss raise his eyebrows.
When seeing the person who had come out, the boss' alertness went down several notches as his tensed-up shoulder finally relaxed after more than a dozen minutes of being on guard.
"What the hell are you doing kid?! You dared to mess around with me?" His shout reverberated throughout the surrounding area.
He was already on edge because of the ghosts, and what else could help him vent out other than shouting towards a seemingly helpless child?
"Let me show you what happened to kids who messed around with the wrong people."
The boss then moved his body forward, his right hand raised up high before swinging it down.
His sword aimed toward the kid who stood still in front of him.
He didn't want to kill the kid right away since he needed to vent out, so he aimed toward the kid's arm.
Seeing the kid standing motionless, the boss thought that he would be having some fun, playing around with a helpless kid that was frozen still in the face of danger.
However, in the last few moments before his sword arrived at its target, the boss heard incomprehensible words coming out of the kid's mouth.
At the same time the kid was mumbling those words, his right hand also moved, positioning it right in front of him horizontally.
Standing right in the way of the boss' sword trajectory.
Seeing the useless attempt, the boss did nothing else other than increase the power of his swing when he saw the stick blocking his way and sneered.
But never did the boss expect that the second his sword met the stick, a loud sound rang throughout the forest.
His steel sword was completely stopped by the stick, causing a loud ringing sound as if the sword was trying to cut through a steel bar.
"Well, then, esteemed sir. Why don't we switch our roles now?"