A rain of flames and lightning fell on us as we were talking.
I waved my hands angrily and dispersed the flames and slammed my hand and patted away the lightning and looked at them irritated.
"Excuse me, could you wait a little before attacking? We're in the middle of something." The bandits stood there with their jaws connected to the ground and I signalled Katarina.
"Let's begin the one move beatdown."
The bandits immediately scattered but were stopped but a barrier that shimmered into existence as they slammed into it.
"W-What?" Leader looked in disbelief and I was about o start bragging when Katarina tapped me.
"H... Hurry up. I can't hold this for long." She said with a strained voice and sweat pouring from her head.
I was about to say something when I realized what she was getting at and played along.
"It can't be that the damage from the Splendid Extravaganza Flame from the Golden Glided Phoenix that has undergone nirvana nine times and ascended to godhood and journeyed throughout the nine realms flared up again?"
"Huh?" Was everyone's reaction including the one who asked me to play along.
"A-Anyways, it looks like they're wounded so get them!" As expected of someone who was good at taking advantage of the weak, Leader recovered quickly and his goons jumped at us and I gritted my teeth and prepared... To make the fight last as long as possible.
"One of them swing at me with a great word and I considered taking it head on but then remembered that normal people can't do that and concentrated to lower my defenses and took the slash and blood flew into the air as the blade cut into my skin.
"Arrggh!" I screamed in mock pain and threw my everything into not healing the wound and picked up Katarina and shouted at her, "Dissolve the barrier already! We're going to die at this rate."
"I can't. This barrier has a condition of not breaking until one party is dead." Katarina shouted with tears in her eyes that I was sure was a result of some magic.
Honestly, I've already stopped the bleeding and the wound just looked gruesome on the surface and was nothing much underneath.
"Hahahaha! This is what you get for overestimating your skills!" Leader yelled and I'm sure he forgot how I batted the flames away.
Or did he?
I looked at Katarina who gave me a V sign and I smiled at the little devil and turned around.
"No! I'm not going to abandon you!" I dropped her a decked a bandit that was approaching and made my last stand.
To beat them up.
I counted twenty bandits including. The one I knocked to the ground and sighed at how hard it was going to be. To hold back.
After that, it was a very harsh struggle. Blood, sweat, snot and tears flew as I managed and struggled not to end their lives with one hit.
"I'll help!" Katarina wove a flimsy looking spell and a lightning bolt crashed into a bandit that was creeping up on me.
"You..." Leader muttered and leaped at Katarina who flinched as she most likely tried to find a way to react.
"Haaahhh... I'm already tired." I waved my hands and Leader stopped in the air and I raised my hand and slammed him to the ground.
From my fingertips, tiny strands of mana could be seen.
That was a mana control technique known as threadlike mana.
Using it burns through energy unless one has mastered it and is extremely difficult to master.
I only know three people apart from me who have mastered the technique.
My father cause he's awesome, my mom cause she's cool, and my fiancée, katarina.
"What was that?" Leader crawled back up and I lifted him by the threads and slammed him I to the earth causing weblike cracks to extend from the point of impact.
I'm sure a bone or two would have been broken but Katarina has multiple healing type spells up her sleeves so even if I refuse, she would still heal him.
"We were just getting to the good part." Katarina brushed her clothes and a faint light enveloped her and all her 'injuries' and dirt disappeared.
"But it was getting kind of boring. We still have to get to a city or town before dark and this guy's aren't worth risking them closing the gates on us." I aid and healed the wounds on my body.
"So, yeah. Playtime's over." I cracked my neck and raised my fist.
"Time to go to sleep."
...
"They did make a great warm-up." I placed my hands above my head and stretched my body.
Next to me were the piles of bodies formerly known as bandits.
Of course we didn't kill them but I'm not sure whether the could recover without proper treatment. Both physically and mentally.
"As I thought, we make a great team." Katarina nodded her head in satisfaction and I agreed.
Despite our different goals, our personalities seemed to match each other and we could almost read each others minds.
Well, in the case of Katarina, it was actually just that.
"Should we turn them in or end them here?" Katarina asked in a manner unbecoming of a ten year old and a princess as she nudged the pile of bodies with her toe and elicited groans from them.
"I guess we should turn them in. Killing them looks like it'll be a lot of work. Besides, we might get money for their arrest."
Just because we're a princess and a duke's son doesn't mean we have a lot of money sitting around.
Sure we may have a slightly larger than normal amount of pocket money but it's not infinite so we need to get whatever we can.
"True."
"I have to say, you get bored of stuff like this quite quickly even though you're usually the one who brings it up." A ball of wind wrapped around the bodies of the bandits and lifted them into the air.
"Well, it's usually more interesting in my head. But reality is quite disappointing." I said and we began walking forward this time, at a normal pace.
Though I wouldn't have minded going one more round in Pseudo flight.
"I just felt a chill." My partner said and I ignored it.