After knocking the bandits inside the house, Thorian and Pete catch their breath and glance outside. To their horror, they see that the entire village is under attack. Fires burn in several places, and the sounds of battle and cries for help echo through the night.
Without hesitation, Thorian and Pete rush out of the house, ready to defend their home. Pete briefly checks on Emily, who reassures him that she's safe. "Stay hidden," he tells her. "We'll be back."
However, before they could reach the first house, they were surrounded by bandits,
Pete and Thorian looked at each other and with determined eyes, attacked the bandits but were quickly subdued by them.
The bandits tied them up with a rope and took them to the center of the village where most of the villagers, including children, were already tied down, their tearful cries echoing through the village square.
Thorian asked a woman: "What happened to others?"
The women replied grimly: "They killed everyone else "
Captain Roderick walked up to them and said in a commanding tone, "Where is Emily Alderlace? "
Pointing towards Thorian, a man spoke up, "She lives with that man at the edge of the village."
Thorian fixed a steely gaze on the man but remained silent.
The man pleaded, "Can you let me and my family go now?"
Captain Roderick's expression turned sinister, a cold smile forming on his lips. "Nobody is getting out of this village alive."
The bandits Pete and Thorian knocked out in their house, also arrived at that moment with unconscious Emily with them and put her in front of Captain saying, "We found the girl captain "
Morsh: "You should have killed them "
Pete's temper flared, and he shouted angrily, "Shut up!" His outburst grabbed the attention of the other bandits nearby.
Captain Roderick: "Don't shout boy, unless you want to be the first to die."
Pete's eyes locked onto Captain Roderick's, his anger flared up, with a surge of adrenaline, he broke the ropes apart easily.
Wasting no time, Pete leaps to his feet. He spots a sword in the hand of a nearby bandit. Moving with surprising speed, he charges at the bandit, grabbing the sword from his grasp. The bandit, taken by surprise, stumbles back.
Sword in hand, Pete charged towards Captain Roderick. The captain stood calmly, unwavering as Pete closed the distance between them.
Pete, just as he swung his sword at captain, found himself flying back with intense chest pain. He crashed to the ground, a gasp escaping his lips as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The force of the blow left him reeling, stunned and incapacitated on the ground.
"Ahh..." Pete groaned softly as he struggled to stand up, confusion and pain etched on his face.
Thorian's expression turned to horror as he said with urgency in his voice, "Don't do it, he's a second-rate warrior."
Pete: "Sensei, why aren't you doing anything... show them how overpowered you are " he said proudly, glaring at Captain Roderick.
Thorian looked bewildered and confused. "What are you talking about? I'm just a third-rate warrior. I can't overpower them,"
Pete's eyelids twitched in shock as he turned his gaze towards Thorian. "So that's why you agreed to train me so easily,"
Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through Pete as a sword pierced through his back and emerged from his stomach. Before he could react, the sword was swiftly withdrawn. Pete began to turn towards the source,
As Pete turned, he saw Captain Roderick standing there, a malicious grin spread across his face.
Ignoring Pete, Captain Roderick strode towards Emily, who lay unconscious nearby. He roughly grabbed her hair and lifted her up. The sharp pain from being held by her hair jolted Emily awake.
"Ahh!" Emily screamed in pain, tears streaming down her cheeks as she struggled against Captain Roderick's grip.
"Don't you dare do something to her!" Pete's voice cracked as he dropped to his knees.
Captain Roderick held his sword against Emily's neck, his tone mocking, "What are you going to do about it?"
"Ahh! " Pete screamed with anger, Adrenaline surged through him as he lunged towards Captain Roderick. However, his effort was swiftly countered as Captain Roderick kicked him away once more.
Blood gushed from Pete's wound as he collapsed flat on the ground, his body trembling with pain.
Morsh: "Run if you want to survive."
Pete, "I won't run away... A hero can't run away."
Morsh: "You are weak now, run away for now and come back for revenge "
Pete slowly rose to his feet, each movement a struggle, accompanied by groans of pain.
"You seem resilient, boy," Captain Roderick remarked calmly. "Why don't you join us?"
Pete replied bitterly, "Why does every thug want me to join them?" his eyes flicking down at his wound that was leaking a mix of blood and stomach juice.
Looking at the blood and stomach juice, his eyes rolled up and mind went blank as he lost consciousness, still standing with his head down.
Captain Roderick commanded his subordinates, "End him and his sufferings."
One of the bandits strode towards Pete, raising his sword high and aiming a deadly strike at Pete's neck.
The sword was just a few inches away from Pete's neck when it abruptly halted in mid-air.
Morsh has taken over the body, his hands firmly gripping the bandit's neck, stopping the sword's descent just in time.
With a sharp cracking noise, Morsh snapped the neck of the bandit, Morsh swiftly grabbed the sword of the bandit before letting go of his body.
Everyone's focus was now on him,
Captain: "Men, attack "
The bandits closed in on Morsh from all sides, their numbers growing closer with each passing second.
Morsh enveloped his sword with dark mist and dodged the first swing of the bandit, with a jump, he decapitated the first bandit, after that, the slaughter of the bandits began.
The bandits were attacking from every direction, some strikes landed on Morsh, but he still kept going, ignoring the pain and blood loss.
The dark mist was also returning from the fallen bandits, swirling around Morsh and infusing with him, making his body stronger and giving him relief from some pian too.
Morsh's attack was getting faster and more precise with each strike, his strength also increased with each strike.
Captain Roderick watched with astonishment, 'How is this possible... he is getting stronger during battle...'
Morsh, now was surrounded by the corpses of the bandits with a stream of blood flowing through the corpses. Morsh was now killing the bandits with ease.
The bandits surging towards him, enraged, stepping of their fallen comrades, swinging their weapons at Morsh, but were killed by Morsh with a simple swing.
The moral of the bandits was going down with each bandit falling.
Captain shouted, "Use villagers as shield "
The bandits swiftly grabbed the villagers, held them hostage and slowly walked towards Morsh, using the villagers as shield.
Morsh: ""I am not a hero. I don't care about these people. Using them as shields will not save you, they are just baggage."
The first bandit approached holding Thorian,
Thorian: "Don't worry about me... just kill them "
Morsh with a straight face, "See... I got permission too "
Morsh swings his sword, both the heads of Thorian and bandit fell on the ground at the same time followed by their body.
"Nooo..." Emily's cry pierced the air once more as she struggled against Captain Roderick's grip, desperate to reach Thorian but unable to break free.
Morsh gaze shifted towards her, making eye contact, Emily's blue eyes shone at that time.
"Ahhh...." Morsh's cry reverberated with anger, the dark mist swirling around him like a shroud.
His vision blurred as the memories of the day his sister was killed by the bald man flooding his mind.
As Morsh stared at the bandits surrounding him, their faces morphed into the bald man's.
With ferocious eyes, Morsh leaped towards the bandits,
Morsh's attacks became violent, he was cutting the faces of bandits, even villagers were not spared, he killed them even after the bandit holding him was killed by him.
This caused a wave of fear among the bandits causing some of them to flee, while the others were being killed by Morsh.
Captain: "Don't run cowards... You will be executed if you run "
But the bandits didn't listen, they were now afraid of Morsh.
Captain's focus was now on the running bandits, by the time his attention shifted back to Morsh again, there were no bandits left.
Morsh was now standing in front of him with his eyes wide open with anger and heavy breathing.
Captain sighed, "You are strong... but not enough to defeat me "
Captain, "Body strengthening ", a radiant golden light enveloped his body, casting an ethereal glow. His sword too, enveloped with golden mana.
WIth lightning speed, captain's fist connected with Morsh's face with explosive force, sending him hurtling backward through the air.
Morsh landed heavily on the ground, his nose and lip bleeding, he slowly stood up, shaking his head in confusion "What happened to me? "
His mind was now clear, anger has subsided, captain's face morphed back to his own.
Captain pointing at disheveled Emily, "Her family possess special eyes that makes people hallucinate their darkest moments... also the reason why we killed her family... she was lucky to be kidnapped by bandits before us "
Morsh glanced at Emily, "I don't care about her... just let me go and I will forget about everything "
Captain chuckled, "You are not going anywhere "
Without another word, Morsh turned and sprinted in the opposite direction of Captain Roderick, only to be kicked in the chest by the captain, knocking him on the ground next to Emily.
Emily looked at Morsh with pleading and fearful eyes but didn't say anything.
Morsh coughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood as he struggled to his feet. His gaze met Emily's, who looked up at him with wide eyed horror etched on her face.
Morsh's voice held a mixture of gratitude and resentment as he spoke to Emily. "You reminded me of that moment again... I'm thankful for that. I almost forgot his face... but now I hate you because of the memories you brought back."
Morsh clenched his hand, enveloping it in dark mist, "Be my experiment... " Morsh said coldly.