'Sh*t, they arrived before we could kill her,' Alex cursed in his mind.
'Who came?' Anna asked when she heard his curse.
'The two other level 5.'
Anna fell silent, understanding the seriousness of the situation.
'I'm coming, I might—'
'No, your mission is to rescue the heiress of the Drazen and Cedrix's daughter,' Alex denied her.
'I can't rescue the heiress by myself. I'm sorry,' Anna apologized.
'You don't need to apologize,' Alex replied as he and Lilia regrouped with Amelia and Cedrix.
"Things are getting complicated," Lilia commented as she observed the cloud of dust that arose when the two level 5 appeared.
"Yeah, I know," Alex nodded with a grim expression.
A bit later, the dust settled, showing two men – one standing and the other crouching.
The standing man was the same muscular guy who had led Anita's group.
The other man, on the other hand, was a short guy with dirty blond hair and appeared a bit chubby.
Observing the two men, Alex raised an eyebrow when he noticed that both of them were in bad shape. They looked battered, with torn clothes, and remnants of dried blood were visible on their garments.
Just then, Alex remembered what Anna had said about the Night group members being absent due to dealing with an emergency.
'So they have fought before coming here. Great to know,' he thought.
Despite being observed by Alex's group, the two men ignored them and turned to look at the woman. "See, Niya, I told you shouldn't have gone alone," the chubby man said.
"Shut up, Todd. I could have dealt with them alone," the woman snorted at him.
Plopping on the ground, Todd glanced at Niya and said in a teasing voice, "Are you sure? Because it seemed like you were the one on the losing end."
Niya glared at him, making Todd shiver a little.
"Don't take it like that, my love," Todd said in the same teasing voice.
"Who are you calling your love? You-"
"Enough, you two!" The muscular man interrupted them, then focused on Alex's group.
"You are not from our group. Who are you guys, and what are you doing here?" He asked coldly.
"Would knowing us or our motives change your decision to fight us?" Alex asked indifferently.
"No."
"Then shut the fuck up and let's just fight already," Alex exclaimed.
Although I'm saying this, I don't have a way to deal with them,' Alex thought.
'On one hand, we need to save the heiress of the Drazen family before something happens to her. On the other, we also need to fight three level 5. Fortunately, two of them are already in bad shape. Hmmm.'
Anna, who could actually read everything he thought about, remained silent not to disturb him but ultimately had to when an insane idea popped up inside his head.
'Master, it's not a good idea!'
'Hm? Why did you revert to calling me master again?'
'Huh? Oh, don't distract me! Your idea is dangerous to you and Lady Lilia!'
Alex smiled faintly, 'Thanks for worrying about us, but did you forget who your husband was? Stop worrying and concentrate on your mission. I will send Amelia to help you.'
'Okay....' Anna replied reluctantly.
'Good,' Alex nodded, and glancing at Amelia, who was at his right, he whispered, "At my signal, take Cedrix with you and go inside their base. From there, you will help Anna rescue the heiress of the Drazen family."
"Then what about you and Lilia?" Amelia whispered back while keeping eye contact on their enemies who, judging by how they didn't seem to be in a hurry to attack them and were slightly panting, were probably recuperating.
"We can take on those three, right?" Alex turned to Lilia.
Lilia lingered for a bit, then nodded her head in agreement.
"See? You don't need to worry about us," Alex reassured.
Amelia still wanted to argue that it was still dangerous, but remembering who those two were, she sighed and nodded her head, "just don't die."
"Of course that won't happen," Alex flashed her a smile for an instant before his expression became serious again.
"I will take on those two; you can manage that woman, right?" Alex glanced again at Lilia.
Lilia nodded her head again.
'She is not very talkative today,' Alex remarked.
Throwing that at the back of his head, he concentrated on his control of his smoke, and in a split second, before their enemies could understand what was happening, Alex enlarged the smoke in the surroundings, making it as thick as he could.
"Now!"
The instant he gave the signal, Amelia picked up Cedrix and ran in the direction of the Night's group base.
"Why is she running towards our base?" Niya wondered.
From the beginning of the fight, she was not only using her eyes to see, but also through mana, so the sudden emergence of the smoke didn't really disturb her that much. It was the same for the other two next to her.
"I'm also wondering that." Todd scratched his head while still sitting on the ground.
From Todd and Niya's laid expression, it was certain that they weren't going to do anything to stop Amelia. Why bother? There was no way she could open that door unless she had the help of those two idiot guards. Plus, staying here and fighting them would just lead to a less gruesome death than what awaited her inside. So, for those two, there wasn't really a need to stop her. Only the muscular man seemed a bit concerned.
'I have a bad feeling about all of this,' he thought, although he also wasn't moving to stop Amelia.
That was a decision that was going to cost them a lot.
"Hm? Where is that other woman going?," Todd wondered when he sensed Lilia going in a random direction.
"Now that you mention it-"
Before Niya could finish what she was saying, a fist appeared before her.
Crack
A cracking sound resonated in the surroundings as Niya was sent hurtling far outside from the smoke, in the same direction Lilia was running.
"NIYA!" Todd exclaimed, swiftly standing on his feet, intent on flying to her rescue. Before he could move, he felt something quickly approaching his face.
Raising his hands to protect his head, Todd blocked a kick coming straight for his face.
'Tsk,' Alex clicked his tongue when he saw that his surprise attack failed and, using his smoke, retreated.
'It seems that even if they can't sense my presence when I'm far, it's not the case when I'm near,' Alex remarked.
It was the same as the monkey-like monster he had fought a few hours prior. Although it couldn't see Alex when he was far, the instant he approached it, it managed to take him by surprise and even blocked his attacks. Such a thing was possible due to the sharp sense every level 5 had.
'Then it's not necessary to maintain the smoke screen; it's eating too much of my mana anyway.'
Using his control over the smoke, Alex made it thin again and wrapped it around himself in a sort of haze.
When the smoke cleared, and they saw Alex, both men smirked.
"Fool, do you really think that woman can defeat Niya?" The muscular man sneered.
They could perfectly sense Lilia running towards Niya, but they didn't care to stop her nonetheless. What could someone who isn't even at level 1 do to a level 5 anyway?
"You guys are quite arrogant for mere bandits," Alex scoffed.
He had complete faith in Lilia's capabilities. Despite not having a specific level like others, she could easily handle level 4 opponents without them even touching a strand of hair on her head. Even though level 5 beings were powerful, she could still hold her own in a fight against one. In the worst-case scenario, she could prolong the fight until Alex finished dealing with those two.
"Arrogant? It's rather you who are overestimating your strength. But even then, come on, you seriously think you have a shot at defeating the two of us?" Todd looked at Alex as if he were some idiot.
"We will find out soon enough."