"Well, then, esteemed sir. Why don't we switch our roles now?"
The second those words entered the bandit leader's ears, his relaxed shoulder began tensing up again as he disengaged his sword from the boy's stick.
The boss was someone who trusted his gut instinct a lot.
And when he heard the kid say those words, his instinct had told him to be very wary, which led him to jump backward, gaining some distance between himself and the kid.
'What happened?' His body moved on its own as he followed his own instinct.
And it made his brain wonder what had suddenly made his body take the kid as a great threat.
'And what was that…? How did he stop my sword???' He even looked at his own sword and moved it up and down, checking whether it was still the same steel sword that he used every day.
Fortunately for his brain, it didn't need to figure out anything for long as the kid finally made his own move.
Without rushing forward or being in any kind of hurry, the kid just walked up to the bandit leader and casually swung his sword.
Seeing the simple attack, the boss raised his sword, attempting to swat away the stick from the kid's hand.
However, the same as before, the second the stick and the sword clashed against each other, another ring resounded in the area.
The boss felt his hand that held onto the grip of the sword tightly vibrate hard as it tried to regain its balance due to the recoil of the sword hitting against a very tough object.
Now that it had happened for the second time, the boss knew that whatever happened wasn't his imagination, and his sword was indeed stopped by a seemingly ordinary-looking stick.
Staring at the wooden stick closely, the boss could now really see the stick clearly as it was right in front of him.
A small branch from one of the trees that you could find anywhere on the ground in the forest. That was the stick that the kid held in his hand.
That branch could now somehow become as hard as steel and repel his attacks that came from a steel sword.
And different from before when the kid just stood still and let the boss jump back and disengage after their clash, now, the kid continued putting pressure on the stick, pushing against the boss' sword.
The kid's thin, malnourished body shouldn't be a problem at all for the boss as he should be able to repel the strength of someone with such build with ease.
But the reality begged to differ as the more time passed, the heavier it was for the boss to hold out against the force of the stick.
And it kept on increasing until it came to a point where the boss could fear the grip on his sword threatening to break.
"What are you!?" The boss shouted before using all his might to push the stick away from him, giving him the chance to once again jump back and disengage from the attack.
Not giving an answer, the kid just walked straight forward, once again moving slowly toward the boss' direction.
His right hand raised slightly, ready to swing his stick once again when he got close enough to the bandit leader.
He didn't think too much before when the kid first appeared, but now that he had exchanged several swings with the kid, something clicked in the boss' mind.
'Suddenly appearing out of nowhere after I ran away from the ghosts, an unkempt look that made him look like he actually lived inside this damned forest, and the impossible feat that he had done with the stick…'
"You must be a cursed child!"
A child that had been cursed and followed by ghosts, the boss thought that he was dealing with one right now.
He had heard stories about all kinds of cursed children that gained some kind of ability from their curses.
And it just made sense in his mind that a cursed child would be found in a forest called The Forest of Death where it was said to be the place where a powerful ghost resided.
Knowing- or at least, thinking that he knew the identity of the kid in front of him, the boss decided to not mess around anymore.
His alertness rose once again as he took the kid as an enemy that he really needed to defeat with his full strength.
He didn't want anything to do with ghosts, even if the person he was facing was not an actual ghost and just somehow related to them.
Without uttering a single word any longer, the boss took a few steps backward once more, gaining even more distance between himself and the calmly walking kid.
Seeing that he had the time he needed to do it, the boss crossed both of his hands in front of his body and focused on the energy inside and around him.
Particularly towards the energy inside him.
Suddenly the back of his crossed hands shone as two glowing circles, one on each hand appeared out of nowhere.
The shine lit up the surroundings for a split second before it reduced in intensity, glowing only bright enough to make the two hands stand out without hurting anyone's eyes.
Seeing the unfamiliar situation, the kid stopped in his tracks as he stared hard at the boss' hands.
Farrel knew that the bandit leader's hands were somehow filled with energy.
He didn't know what it was, but he was 100% sure that it didn't have anything to do with ghosts, different from the current ability he was using.
And from the amount of energy that he felt, Farrel knew that he couldn't underestimate it even for the slightest bit.
So when the bandit leader once again lunged towards him, instead of blocking it with his stick, Farrel decided to also jump back, avoiding the attack altogether, letting the bandit leader hit his sword onto a thick tree trunk near him.
Hoping that it would get stuck on the tree so he could use the chance to play more with the bandit leader.
Farrel planned to see how strong the bandit leader's attack was after the unknown energy filled him from seeing how deep the wound on the thick tree trunk went.
However, Farrel never expected that the sword that was made for cutting flesh and not thick tree trunks sliced a part of the tree trunk easily.
The sword did not get stuck in the tree trunk even for a split second. It was like the bandit leader was slicing his sword through a block of giant tofu.
No matter how sharp a sword was, a human wouldn't be able to easily cut through a thick tree trunk using it without causing the sword to get stuck on the tough tree trunk that needed a few to a dozen minutes for a chainsaw to cut down.
But it just happened right in front of his eyes, so Farrel couldn't deny it.
Farrel stared hard at the glowing circles on the bandit leader's hands.
It was something that he had never seen before, but he now knew damn well that it could easily take his life.
'Playtime is over,' Farrel thought to himself as he began chanting more spells and utilizing more ghosts inside him.
"O thy rancorous spirits of the dead, set your sight on thy enemies and fill me, who shall be thy sword, with thy power."