In the same room that Klaus had made business in, a middle-aged man with scars over his face and a bald head sat down with several weapon hilts for three swords on his waist... Opposite him sat the richest man in the Galen Black Market.

Marius the Collector.

Not only was he a collector of materials, he was a collector of people as well. He personally owned several slave trade markets underground and he had personally killed off and sold off a few of this middle-aged man’s friends, along with their daughters and their wives.

’If only that bitch didn’t come...’ the bald man thought bitterly.

If only the Raven Thief hadn’t killed the other members of their band, then he wouldn’t need to do this.

’I don’t want to work for this disgusting man.’

But he didn’t have a choice.

If he wanted to live, this man was one of the few people influential enough to stop the Raven Thief and the Thief’s Guild from wiping him off the face of the planet. Marius was a noble after all.

On Marius’s right hand, he rolled a large gold metal diamond across his thick, chubby fingers while he looked at the bald man making him flinch.

"It’s good that you answered the call on time, peasant." Marius said. "Now listen up... I’ll make this quick. You have two targets, the first one is an above-average commoner young man known as Klaus who is a D-Rank adventurer in the Galen General Guild."

Marius had done his research, even if it was done by sending one of his girls to trail them and gather information. Marius now knew who Klaus was.

"He holds a storage ring with a lot of gold metil diamond inside it..." Marius said. "It’s either the one on his finger or somewhere on his body, and you must find it. I’m sure he made away with a lot from that Resource Dungeon."

The bald man nodded.

"The next target is a healer known as Serra..." Marius continued. "She follows Klaus around, so they might be in a relationship or a business contract. Once they head out of town, I want you to chase them down and kill Klaus, taking all of his belongings."

Marius paused with his smile widening.

"Then rough Serra up a bit..." Marius said. "But don’t force yourself on her, as a healer from the Holy Church, she’ll be worth a lot once I’ve had my fill. It’ll be better if she’s a virgin too perhaps I can turn her into one of the girls I have here already."

He gestured to the girls who had been counting money. They wore slave collars that had been burned into their necks and one of them was the bald man’s friend’s daughter.

His teeth gritted together.

"After you’ve completed this mission successfully..." Marius said, "I’ll release all of them that are in my custody. They were very tasty, but I grow tired of their bodies. They don’t have as much allure as when I got them initially."

The bald-headed man gritted his teeth harder. He would like to smite this man right here and now, but the vest Marius wore had protective and attacking enchantments.

Others had learned that the hard way.

"But since I need this done properly," Marius continued, "you also require payment to get enough horses and the rest."

Marius dropped an open pouch on the table and five gold coins spilled out making the bald bandit’s breath hitch in his throat.

"This is half of the payment," Marius told him. "When you finish the job, you will get the other half. Just make sure to do as I say, and everything you want will be given."

...

The Bandit Leader opened his eyes and raised one of his heavy swords, lifting it high above his head.

"CHARGE!!!" he shouted, his voice becoming very loud across the darkening road.

He looked at the carriage up ahead with its wheels still rolling steadily forward while ringing bells, however bells would not save them from death.

’We received information to give chase since this is where the Klaus guy and the Holy woman are...’ The leader thought with his grip tightening on his blade. ’If I do this, then I can save her. I can save all of them.’

He looked to the right at the wizard apprentice who was part of their party who was a thin, nervous man clutching a gnarled staff.

"Has the seal been broken?" the leader asked and the wizard apprentice nodded quickly.

"Yes, boss," the apprentice said. "The dispelling spell was inside the fireball so their barrier enchantments won’t work anymore."

The bandit leader lifted his sword higher, signaling the next phase.

"Fire the arrows!" he commanded.

A group of five archers at the far back of their formation lifted their bows in unison. Each one nocked three arrows simultaneously arming fifteen projectiles total, a devastating volley meant to shred the carriage’s occupants.

They drew back their bowstrings with their muscles straining and then they released. The arrows flew through the air in a deadly arc whistling as they cut through the wind and just as they were about to hit the carriage—

The arrows stopped mid-air, hanging motionless like time itself had frozen.

"Huh?"

"What the fuck?"

"How is that even—"

"Is that magic?!"

"Boss, the arrows aren’t moving!"

"What kind of sorcery—"

The arrows trembled in the air, then slowly rotated, turning to point back at the bandits who’d fired them.

"Oh shit."

"THEY’RE COMING BACK!"

"RUN!"

Then the arrows zipped back toward them... faster than they’d been fired.

"IT’S MAGIC!" someone shouted desperately. "SCATTER—"

An arrow hit him in the head mid-sentence, punching through his skull with a wet crunch. His body dropped from his horse instantly, he was dead before he hit the ground.

"MY EYE! MY FUCKING EYE!"

"GODS SAVE US!"

"THIS ISN’T WHAT WE SIGNED UP FOR!"

Several other arrows zipped past, killing members of the band with brutal precision.

One arrow through a throat, blood spraying in an arterial gush and another through an eye socket with the man’s scream cutting off instantly.

A third straight through the heart, the bandit clutching his chest in disbelief before toppling sideways.

The boss managed to deflect one with a desperate swing of his blade, the arrow sparking off the steel.

He looked to the right to see that the wizard apprentice had gotten stabbed by two arrows unluckily... both through his eyes simultaneously with the shafts crossed in an X through his skull.

The apprentice fell backward off his horse, hitting the ground hard. Another horse trampled over him without stopping with the hooves crushing what was left.

The bandit leader’s heart pounded... They were seven men down already and they hadn’t even engaged yet.

He raised his sword again, trying to rally what remained of his forces.

"Charge!" he shouted as his voice cracked slightly. "We must not fall back! It’s just a normal wizard apprentice that relies on our—"

Glitters shone in the darkness ahead with metal catching moonlight.

The Captain’s instincts screamed danger and he lowered his head instantly, pressing himself flat against his horse’s neck.

Three particles of metal whizzed overhead, exactly where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier and they hit the woman riding behind him.

Her head exploded.

She was not just pierced... she exploded, like a melon struck by a hammer. Blood, bone fragments, and brain matter sprayed backward in a grotesque fountain.

The sheer force of the impact didn’t stop with her... the metal punched through her corpse and hit the man riding behind her as well, caving in his skull and both bodies toppled from their horses.

The Captain of the Bandits trembled, his sword lowering despite his earlier confidence.

’What kind of devil is this?’ he thought with cold sweat running down his spine.

D-Rank his ass... This wasn’t a D-Rank adventurer... This was a monster wearing human skin.

It was like he was picking them out one by one precisely with each attack calculated for maximum lethality.

The Captain couldn’t help but tremble as realization set in.

’Could this devil of a wizard see exactly what we’re doing at this instant?’ he thought. ’And if so, what does he think of us? Like fish in a barrel? Like insects to be crushed?’

...

"Taula, wake up!" Klaus said, shaking Taula for dear life.

Why were all of these fuckers sleeping even after the bell rang?! Did they clog their ears or something? The driver was screaming "BANDITS" at the top of his lungs for fucks sake!

"Five more minutes..." Taula mumbled, turning over on his lap.

"There won’t be five minutes when we’re dead!" Klaus snapped. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He pushed her off his lap unceremoniously, making her wake up this instant. Taula blinked, looking at Klaus in confusion.

"What’s up?" Taula asked while still groggy.

Serra also blinked awake, wiping drool from her chin with the back of her hand even "Adam" at the back yawned, stretching lazily.

"What’s with all the ruckus?" "Adam" asked, sounding mildly annoyed at being disturbed.

Klaus raised his voice in exasperation.

"We’re being attacked by bandits!" Klaus said and everyone immediately got into action.

Serra raised her hand, and a translucent barrier spread over the whole carriage, shimmering with protective magic.

"Adam" summoned a royal sword from his storage ring with the blade gleaming with obvious quality and enchantments and Taula on the other hand climbed with her heavy knees on Klaus’s thighs, pressing her weight into him as she looked out the window.

"Ooh, bandits~" Taula said playfully. "Though they’re a bit small in number."

"That’s because I took care of most of them already," Klaus said dryly. "You guys can handle the rest."

Taula looked like she was about to move, then stopped and turned back to Klaus.

"If I handle these bandits perfectly," Taula asked as her eyes sparkled with hope. "Would you pat my head?"

Klaus blinked at her.

"Where did you get that idea from?" Klaus asked with a genuinely confused expression on his face.

"Adam" opened the carriage door and burst outside toward the bandits with his sword already drawn.

Taula continued as if Klaus had asked a normal question.

"On the way home from the dungeon," Taula explained, "I saw a man patting his horse while saying that his horse was his bestest friend ever. So if we’re best friends, then you should give me headpats like that man does to his horse, right?"

Klaus didn’t even argue. There was no time, and honestly, if it motivated her...

"Fine," Klaus said. "If you handle it quickly, I’ll give you five headpats."

A small shockwave exploded outward from the carriage as Taula vanished, moving so fast she became a blur.

The wind from her acceleration blew both Klaus’s and Serra’s hair backward violently.

"Adam" was running toward the group of bandits with his sword angled back in a perfect form then a shockwave exploded from beside him.

Taula ran past him... her eyes glowing bright red with pure excitement.

’What the hell...?’ the Prince thought, stopping mid-stride as Taula accelerated past him at a speed that shouldn’t be possible.

The aura around her was soaring, visible even in the darkness in a red glow.

’I didn’t realize it before...’ the Prince thought, his analytical mind cataloging what he was seeing. ’But there’s only one other place I’ve felt that specific aura signature...’

It was the aura of the eldest daughter of the Tho—

A wave of wind exploded in his face as Taula accelerated again, cutting off his thoughts. The pressure made him take a step back involuntarily.

Taula ran forward, lifting her axe high above her head with both hands.

’Five headpats...’ she remembered Klaus saying, the words echoing in her mind like a mantra.

Her aura poured into her axe, flooding the weapon with concentrated red energy that made the metal glow like heated iron.

’FIVE HEADPATS!’ her mind screamed with absolute focus.

The horse had looked like it enjoyed the headpats so much.

The way it leaned into the man’s hand with the contentment in its eyes... She wanted to enjoy it too... She wanted Klaus to pat her head like that, to acknowledge her like that, to treat her like his most trusted companion, not Serra... She...

She was right in front of the bandits now, close enough to see the terror in their eyes as they realized what was coming for them.

Taula swung her axe down into the ground with tremendous force.

BOOM!

The sound was a detonation creating a shockwave of pure compressed air and aura.

The next instant, her aura exploded outward from the point of impact like a bomb going off.

The red energy spread in a perfect circle, a devastating wave of force that consumed everything in its path.

Every single bandit was blown off their horse simultaneously, their bodies ragdolling through the air like leaves in a hurricane.

Horses screamed and scattered in all directions and their riders were helpless against the overwhelming power.

The explosion of aura lit up the night like crimson lightning, painting everything in shades of red and shadow.