As Aaron made eye contact with the hulky man, a stream of thoughts flowed in his mind.
'He's the head? The one I need to take down to weaken the rest?'
While in thought, he casually massaged his chin. 'Cut off the head and the body falls.'
He quickly glossed over the crowd of foes before him and made a singular assessment of them—if the hulky man is defeated on the spot, the others will lose the will to fight.
Aaron could tell from a single glance that they didn't stand strong with the big man but only followed him out of fear; fear birthed from a source that he was yet to discover.
This was in his favour since the defeat of their boss would easily discourage them from further pillaging.
Ordinarily, the hulky man should be able to squash someone of Aaron's size into paste from the sheer strength of his massive muscular body.
However, this fact may have held true for the old Aaron but certainly not for this new one whose body belongs to the Demon King now..
****
The big boss of the bandits barked at Aaron like a mad dog ready to tear the flesh of its target, corrupting the atmosphere with the rotten ooze from his mouth.
"I'll teach you to control that mouth of yours!" he bawled at the peak of his fury.
Aaron merely stared him dead in the eyes, not shaken by his fruitless agitation. The young man's gaze was condescending as he looked at the boss like a father would look at his little son throwing a tantrum.
"And I will teach you how to brush yours," he retorted, laughing hysterically at his joke.
The man immediately stole a spear out of his comrade's hands and stepped forward towards Aaron, poised to use the long, jagged-bladed weapon.
His movements were not slow, having played out almost simultaneously in the eyes of those who watched.
The man swatted the spear at Aaron, who bent backwards, allowing the swung weapon to breeze past and above him as he slid his way past the man.
Aaron perked up immediately after and turned to face his opponent.
'He's definitely stronger and faster than the other three. But still… too slow,' Aaron made a mental assessment of his enemy's first attack.
"You are too slow!" Aaron taunted the bandit boss.
His mocking statements infuriated the boss bandit and he snapped, breaking the spear in two with his thighs.
"I'll show you slow then," he bragged loudly. He took a small bottle from inside his cloth and uncorked it.
Aaron noticed black scripts manifesting and coiling around his shoulders. The strange inscriptions swirled down his arms from his shoulders and down to his wrists just right after he poured a strange purple fluid from the bottle into his mouth.
"He's using it?" a bandit muttered to another.
"Right off the bat? It can't be!" another added.
Whisper stepped forward and stood in front of the rest of the bandit group. "That guy must be strong for the boss to use that potion at the get-go."
They were black at first but within a few seconds, the inscriptions on his arms glinted with transient purplish light.
The man moved and raised his arms in different ways like a person who had acquired new powers and was ready to turn his opponent into dust.
"Let's see how you handle this speed!"
He growled at Aaron and in a flash, he vanished, leaving an arc of dust and tiny particles of stones in his wake.
Meanwhile, Aaron's eyes glinted with a tinge of amazement. He was surprised not because his opponent had run to a new source of power, however, he was awed by the fact that he could manipulate the form of energy which existed in this world. Learning this, a smile formed on his face as he watched his opponent take action.
The big man suddenly appeared behind Aaron, aiming to take him out with the element of surprise, at least that was his plan until he met Aaron's gaze which was already fixed on him like a lock on tracker.
Even with the boss's newly acquired superhuman speed, Aaron was able to turn his head and make eye contact with him. The man shuddered and stepped away from Aaron.
Aaron's gaze sent cold chills riling inside him and he stammered.
"Im-Impossible!"
He thought it unbelievable that Aaron was able to follow him with mere human eyes and a head turn. What triggered the bandit even more was the fact that Aaron showed no fear or shock, instead, he had smirked at him.
"How... dare... you... belittle me!" the man lashed out.
He put an arm forward and supported it at the wrist with his other arm as he began to gather small, round purplish orbs of energy on his palm. At the same time he gathered the energy, the strange patterns on his arm flowed toward the palm of his firing hand, further strengthening the technique he was planning to use.
"Boss, no! Wait... you'll kill us all as well!" Whisper shouted as the bandits sought cover.
The rest of his crew were thrown into a frenzy having realised what he was about to do. Every one of them took to their heels.
Their reactions baffled Aaron more than the loading mass of energy that was pointed at him.
"Disaster Blast!"
The man cried out and was pushed back from the recoil of his technique.
An enormous mass of energy was expelled from the palm of his hand with the black marks disappearing with it.
BOOOOOOM!
A resounding explosion followed suit with a massive cloud of smoke covering the area, stretching through a sphere of about fifteen to twenty metres radius.
The sound of the blast reached far and wide, both within and without the Bambara Village, so much that Alicia felt the tremor of the blast and her heart skipped.
CRRRKK!
The ceramic plates in her hand fell and shattered on the floor, worsening her anxiety.
She rushed to the nearest window to see what the cause of such a disturbance could be, only to see a clearing cloud of smoke that erupted into the air following the explosion.
****
The bulky bandit gasped from exhaustion and then let out a boisterous laughter, boasting in his strength as he watched the screen of smoke and dust clear out.
"I warned you," he continued, "...with that mouth of yours, you were certainly going to get it."
As the opaque gaseous screen disappeared, the man saw the young figure still standing, unfazed by the effects of his Disaster Blast.
The bandit's eyes widened and shot out of his sockets in shock. His jaw reached down, touched the ground and retracted back.
He could feel the pounding of his heart hasten.
"Im-Impossible! How... how is... it... possible?"
The bandits who had fled, stopped on seeing Aaron alive, well and unscathed, and shouted out in surprise.
"Wait!" Whisper exclaimed, looking at his body, "We're unharmed too."
He had only realised after a few minutes that there was no way they could have outrun the explosion in such a short time.
The explosion did occur but no one was harmed.
Aaron stared at his own palm which oozed black smoke with minor bruises.
"I didn't think humans in this world could also manipulate the energy of their world," he muttered to himself.
"It seems they are not as weak as I assumed them to be."
His expressionless face assumed a sinister, ferocious countenance as he thought about it. A wide, menacing grin appeared on his face, born from the little excitement the bulky bandit managed to rouse inside of him.
"That's good," he remarked, clutching his fist.
The bandit cried out in rage, taking out yet another potion to drink.
"Two is too much, boss!" Whisper yelled out to him.
Ignoring the concerned voice of his comrade, he popped the cap and proceeded to pour the liquid into his mouth.
However, before a drop could come out of the bottle, Aaron's palm was already plastered to his face and in one very quick movement, he lifted the man and slammed him hard on the ground, knocking him out cold as whitish, frothy foams seeped out of his mouth thereafter.
BAAANNNNGG!