Chương 84: An Onslaught of Bandits and a Costly Victory

The thunder roared in the back of the bandits, a deep rumble that shook the ground like the sky itself was angry. The Bandit Leader stood tall with a massive two-handed axe, its head forged from dark iron-coal with diamond-shaped blades honed to a killing edge, the entire weapon gleaming in blood-red and gold accents that caught the dying light like a promise of slaughter. He was big, 1. 86 meters tall and rather corpulent in fat, yet the power in his frame was unmistakable.

A leather bandana in green was tied around his head, no turban, and his clothes were baggy, loose to accommodate his size. He walked casually at the back, juggling coins in one hand with a lazy rhythm, the metal clinking like mocking laughter. He hollered, voice booming across the battlefield, "My name is Washuiang, the Leader of this Area! And you lot killed my precious boys from a shakedown!" His eyes burned with fury as he kept juggling the coins, the metallic clink never stopping.

"My dear cat Qijian gave our price, but that's not enough. I want your heads to be rolled. So, dear Merchant, you either let us in and kill them all and just enjoy your savagery undisputed without any disturbance." He looked at the elite guards with fierce eyes out of dark yellow, a predatory gleam that made them flinch.

"Your precious little mansion will be the consequence of collateral damage, as we call it in our 'buiz'." His accent twisted the word business into something crude and threatening.

"So what will it be?!" The Merchant Faihzu stepped out, voice steady but laced with steel.

"I am a merchant first and foremost. I would offer you food to quell your appetite, but I am no fool. I can tell you guys are going to attack us before or after taking care of them." He held the pearl tightly in his hand, knuckles white.

"And I have an inkling... on why your so keen to enter."

"Ohhh," Washuiang answered back with a mocking laugh, still juggling the coins.

"You know your 'buiz'; I guess you've got us right now. But those guys you have still won't be enough for us. GO GET THEM AND BE ROWDY, BOYS! MURDER, SLAUGHTER, RAPE—I CARE NOT, BUT BRING ME THE PEARL!" A loud scream of euphoria rose from his two thousand men. From the trees, from the front, from the sides they bombarded. They threw spice bombs, filling the area with thick, choking mist that burned the eyes and throat.

But our leader Hifui jumped in and curled the mist into the rain with a powerful swing of his longsword, clearing a path. The Guards fought with all they got, clash of steel against steel ringing out. Their strong presence held well, but they were just too many running in, overwhelming the outside standing Guards even in their Vestuto. Our Leader Hifui spat on the ground, a thick glob of saliva mixed with blood and dust, his eyes burning with the fury of a man who had seen too many good men die on these roads.

"Enough of this filth," he growled, voice low and dangerous.

"If they want blood, they'll get it from me first." He rushed into the front, going as a sacrifice with his earth Attribute. His Vestuto " Scopio Armor" activated with a deep, rumbling roar that shook the wet ground. Armor infused with a scorpion in brown-dark color formed around him, the plates like hardened chitin fused with living stone, spikes and segments shifting and clicking with every movement like a living exoskeleton.

A long, paralysing tail whipped behind him, tipped with a glowing stinger that dripped venomous earth energy. As an earth attribute user, the armor looked like ancient mountain rock given deadly insectile grace it was heavy, unyielding, yet terrifyingly fast when it struck. He ran with his weapon held high, cut into the ground and split the earth in two deep lines with a single powerful swing, the fissure cracking open like a wound in the land, making it harder for the bandits to rush straight at the carriage.

"Come on then, you green dogs!" he bellowed, voice echoing across the battlefield.

"I'll bury you all!" He went in a berserking style into battle, tail whipping and sword flashing. He fought against a Vice Leader in his Vestuto was a dark armor with necrotic aura that pulsed like rotting shadows. Every time the Vice Leader Barbu got close to being damaged, ghostly hands from his soul world came out, holding attacks at bay, grasping Hifui's blade mid-swing and slowing it with cold, dead energy.

"You think your little ghost tricks will save you?!" Hifui roared, his scorpion tail lashing forward and stabbing into the Vice Leader's shoulder. The paralysing venom surged, making the man's arm twitch and go limp for a moment.

"I've crushed bigger worms than you on worse days!" The Vice Leader Barbu laughed through the pain, his necrotic aura flaring as more ghostly hands erupted to block the next strike.

"And I've buried louder fools than you, old man. Your earth will rot just like the rest I've killed!" Their clash was brutal and unrelenting. Hifui's sword met the Vice Leader's dark blade in ringing explosions of steel and energy. The scorpion tail struck again and again, each hit leaving black paralysing lines across the Vice Leader's armor.

The ghostly hands kept intervening, grabbing Hifui's limbs and slowing his momentum, but Hifui powered through with raw earth-fueled strength, shattering the spectral grips with sheer force. The ground around them cracked and heaved as their Animo collided, dirt and rain turning to mud under their feet. Hifui landed a heavy blow that cracked the Vice Leader's chest plate.

"For every man you bastards have killed on these roads… this is for them!" The Vice Leader Barbu staggered but countered with a necrotic blast that withered the grass around them.

"You think your sacrifice means anything? We'll take the pearl and your head as a trophy!" They fought like two forces of nature, Hifui's earth-scorpion armor clashing against the Vice Leader's soul-necrotic darkness. The tail paralysed, the sword cleaved, ghostly hands grasped and slowed. It was a battle of endurance and will, both men bleeding, both refusing to fall, the rest of the battlefield seeming to fade around their personal war. Meanwhile, we had to fight the invading force from the Estate wall.

The Guards there had already died under the overwhelming numbers, their bodies strewn across the blood-slick stones like broken dolls. The sight sent a cold spike through my chest. These men had fought beside us only moments ago. The merchant, Faihzu, grabbed his small daughter tightly and ran toward the lodging, heading for a hidden escape route, his face pale with terror upon seeing the onslaught of bandits making it through the wall.

"This way! Hurry!" he shouted, voice cracking. Xhife immediately moved to help him, shielding them with his body while fending off five bandits who tried to pursue from the hundred, who made it inside the Estate. I activated my Vestuto as well. My Heart Flame roared to life inside me, hot and wild, pushing every doubt aside. I was ready to go rowdy and activate my Soul Attribute if needed. Even though I had initially wanted to improve first, this mass of bandits changed my mind quickly.

The charcoal-grey, shadowy armor with a silver sheen wrapped around my body. The Soul Attribute mixed with my fire in a burst of unstable, pure power, bringing that familiar pain once again. The power surged through me, raw and uncontrollable. I charged straight into the amassing horde. I cut crazy with my sword-axe, swinging in wide, blazing combos that left trails of superheated flame.

I spun and slashed, cleaving through three bandits in one motion, then reversed the blade and hacked downward, splitting another from shoulder to hip. Even those I could not reach directly, the flame aura from Elsa di Fuoco burned them alive at a distance, their screams mixing with the chaos. My arms screamed in pain from the earlier banner strain, but I ignored it.

"Get back!" I roared, voice distorted through the Vestuto active over burning pulsating veins.

"You will not touch them!" Xhife reached the entry point and planted himself like a wall. His staff spun in deadly circles, and when he activated his Vestuto the air around him crackled with pure stoppage force. Xhife's Vestuto was a Wind attribute transformation that turned him into a fierce demon-like monkey.

His upper body became covered in sleek black-green fur with glowing emerald patterns, while his lower body shrank and compacted into a powerful, agile monkey form, that made him shorter but far bouncier and more flexible. This gave him insane leaping ability, incredible agility, and monkey-like dexterity. His staff became an extension of his body, allowing him to swing it with ferocious power and greatly increased force, striking harder and faster than before.

The wind swirled around him like a storm, boosting his speed and bounce with every movement. Bandits who got too close froze mid-swing, their bodies locked by his power before he shattered them with precise strikes.

"I've got the entrance!" he yelled over the noise.

"Erumes, keep pushing them back on our flanking spots!" The fighting grew even more desperate. Everyone in our force Vestutoed, their armor flaring in different colors and shapes, while some of the stronger bandits did the same. The difficulty skyrocketed. A Vestuto-using bandit with wind blades lunged at me from the side. I barely registered him. I twisted just in time, my sword-axe meeting his blades in a screech of sparks and fire.

The impact jarred my already burning shoulders, but I countered with a flaming aura cut that scorched his chest and sent him flying into the wall, shattering it and causing it to collapse over him. Another bandit, this one in heavy earth armor, tried to tackle Xhife from behind.

"Die, escort dog!" he snarled. Xhife spun at the last second, his staff cracking against the man's helmet with a sound like breaking stone.

"Not today!" Xhife growled back, following up with a blast of his stoppage power that left the bandit frozen long enough for me to finish him with a downward axe strike. We fought side by side, back to back at times, breathing hard, covered in blood and sweat. Every time I felt my flame flickering from exhaustion, I glanced at Xhife holding the line and found new strength.

"We're not dying here on our first day on a mission!" I shouted to him between swings.

"Especially not after carrying that damn banner all day!" Xhife laughed through the pain, a wild, exhausted sound.

"Damn right, Erumes! Let's show these bastards what the Golden Tooth can do, when cornered!" The battle turned into a brutal, personal storm of steel, fire, and unyielding will. I lost count of how many I cut down. My combos grew faster and more reckless. The Fire Attribute of my Cor Flamma overloaded my unstable veins with immense, pulsating surges, making my movements sharper even as it slowly tore at my mind. Xhife's stoppage blasts created precious openings that I exploited without mercy.

We were no longer just fighting for the merchant or the pearl. We were fighting for each other, for survival, and for the debt that now bound us together. The Leader of the Bandits, Washuiang, laughed loudly, a deep belly-shaking roar that cut through the chaos like thunder. A desperate Guard had just broken free from the fighting and sprinted toward the distant military outpost, barely twelve kilometers away, screaming for reinforcements.

Washuiang kept laughing even harder, still juggling those blood-stained coins.

"Run, little dog! Run and beg them to open the gates!" He knew it was meaningless. He had paid the military commander two thousand osmium that very morning to look the other way. The thought made his grin widen into something ugly and satisfied. He had planned this perfectly since the first rumors of the valuable pearl reached his ears. Everything was falling into place. The battle was getting even more brutal. My fire burned hotter than ever, but I was growing desperate, fully knowing I had to stop it very soon.

I didn't want a repeat of what happened in Aegyptus. Hifui kept fighting like a cornered beast, even after finishing the vice-leader, Barbu, and taking his life. His scorpion tail whipped wildly, paralyzing several bandits at a time, while his sword cleaved through armor and flesh. Yet the sheer numbers overwhelmed him. Bandits in Vestuto swarmed him from every side. He took a heavy axe blow to the ribs that cracked his chitin plating. Another slammed a mace into his back, forcing him to his knees.

Blood poured from multiple wounds and his breathing was ragged, but he roared and forced himself up again, tail striking and sword swinging.

"I… will not… fall… here!" he snarled through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse and breaking. Still, more and more Vestuto bandits piled on him, their combined Animo crushing down like an surging avalanche. He was getting weaker and weaker, his movements slowing, earth armor cracking in places... death looming over him. But then, like a miracle, Xhife's sister, Xihua, appeared with her pipe still clenched between her teeth.

She took one long, deliberate drag and exhaled a massive, mystical cloud of smoke that rolled across the battlefield like a living storm, drastically reducing the enemies' vision while leaving ours mostly clear.

"I am Xihua," she declared, voice calm yet carrying through the mist like a blade.

"And you picked the wrong day to come after my brother and my agency." Her Vestuto, Wù Qū also known as the Mist Zone Armor, activated, a light attribute that infused her armor into Phantasmal Incense. The smoke became part of her, allowing her to stretch and manifest wherever the mist drifted, like living tendrils of white-grey smoke that could strike from any direction. She was everywhere, yet nowhere; that was how it felt. Her presence shook the ground violently.

Her aura shattered the thunder overhead and dissipated the rain clouds in seconds. Now, the entire area was trapped inside her pipe's smoke. She moved like a phantom, her whip cracking from impossible angles, wrapping around necks, yanking bandits off their feet, and slicing through armor as if it were paper. She first went to her brother Xhife, who still stood after killing two hundred seven bandits, blood covering him from head to toe. He fought with his last fumes, swaying dangerously.

Xihua's smoke gently wrapped around him and forced him to sit on the bloody ground.

"Enough, little brother. You've done more than enough. Sit down before you collapse and make me carry you home, let your Sister take care of this filth." Xihua then turned to me. A bandit lunged at me from the ground with a hidden dagger, but her smoke tendril shot out like a striking serpent, catching his wrist and flinging him away. She looked at me, her eyes sharp.

"Can you defend this area, Suren?" I answered, the flames roaring hotter in my chest, "Yes. I still have fire in me to burn." But in reality, having just killed two hundred and fourteen bandits, my Cor Flamma was pushed from its unstable limits once again to the lowest active pump i could muster.. I was lying through my teeth. With my heart pumping at its absolute minimum, I was barely keeping up the illusion that my Cor Flamma was still running hot.

Only my sheer will stood tall against the task; I was ready to stand my ground and still defend. She smiled, fierce and approving.

"Good. Then hold the line. I'll handle the big one, that orchestrated this all." She moved toward Washuiang, who was also very strong. He took his double axe and snarled, "Boys, just because a girl came in we should just disappear after coming so far? Not even if I die will I stay in shameful dirt before a runt like you can order me to just go and disappear! My Boys keep going i will personally handle this dirty runt of a princess." His double axe flew into the sky and began rotating violently.

"This is my Vestuto the favored wielder!" He was a Soul Attribute user. His body split into two, his armor greyed out, and he could control the spinning axe from a distance while his soul form fought with eerie guitar-like tones of despair. The haunting sounds rose, making his dead bandits stand up again like broken ragdolls, fighting for him as mindless oafs. The battle between Xihua and Washuiang was brutal and long. Her smoke tendrils lashed out from every direction, her whip cracking like lightning.

Washuiang's spinning axe tore through the mist while his split soul body attacked with ghostly strikes. They clashed for twenty-four full minutes. Xihua's body became covered in blood, her breathing heavy, but she never stopped moving. Her smoke reformed around wounds, buying her precious seconds. Finally, she wrapped her whip around Washuiang's throat and squeezed. Washuiang dropped to his knees, gasping, "Mercy… I beg you…" Xihua's voice was cold.

"I already gave you a deal. And you called me a 'dirty runt.' Remember?" She tightened the whip with a final, merciless pull. Washuiang's eyes bulged, then went still. With the bandit leader dead, the remaining forces broke and fled. Xihua brought us home safely. The merchant had to replace his guards, as over seventy percent of them had perished. At least he still had the pearl… or so he thought. But when he checked the statue where he had hidden it before securing his daughter, it was gone.

He did not know that the small girl Qijian thief had stolen it and was already running toward a hidden base, bringing the precious item straight to the Overlord.