"Guh!"
The woman let out a short grunt as her vision began spinning, however, her instincts warned her of impending death and she rose her war hammer and swung it in the opposite direction.
A beat later, vanitas came slashing down, colliding with her Warhammer as the flames spread out and burned her arm.
Evan then took the chance to pull the knight to the ground to safety, tossing him beside the noble's daughter and her maid.
As for the rest of the knights, they took action the instant that their lady was free, attacking the bandits ferociously as their swords and spears glowed with the light of skills.
Naturally, the bandits weren't sitting fucks and also rose their weapons to fight back, brining with vigour as they saw the knights kill their companions who had been held hostage without hesitation.
"RAAAAAAAA!!!!"
A beastly roar rang out in the distance, followed by the sound of something shattering as a huge figure shot through the air in Evan's direction.
The young hero was not caught off guard, with his hand disappearing into a small half meter-wide hole that appeared mid-air and pulling out not his usual weapon, but a large shield that was almost his height.
All these happened within the span of a few seconds, before two large curved blades slashed towards Evan from two different angles.
"Hup!"
Evan took a step back and rose the shield, forcing the blades to land on the shield.
*CLANG!
A short clanging sound rang out as the shield blocked the full force of the attack and absorbed the resulting shockwaves, however, Evan was still knocked back a good ten meters.
'Tsk…the damn shield still doesn't accept me as its owner.
In that case, I'd toss it into the trash.'
The boy's expression distorted as he let the shield fall back into his inventory, before clenching his fist and blinking.
He reappeared beside the bandit leader who had just attacked him and punched forward, activating one of his recently gotten skills.
"Fracture."
Golden lightning crackled around his palm as he unhesitantly attacked the man's head.
**BAM!!
Sadly, his fist was blocked by the flat side of a curved blade that suddenly appeared mid-punch.
The metal of the blade conducted the lightning and caused it to flow down towards its wielder's arm but the bandit leader instantly roused his magic power and dispersed the lightning with relative ease.
Immediately after, he swung his other weapon towards Evan, however, the young hero blinked out of the way and reappeared a few meters from the bandit leader.
He turned his gaze to the bandit leader for a moment before looking towards the other knights who were battling against the other bandits and then to the noble's daughter and her maid who were still on the ground behind Eliza.
Appraising the bandits and seeing the leader's level sitting at 184, Evan narrowed his eyes as he felt that this might be a bit troublesome.
He looked towards the Warhammer-wielding woman who Pride was fighting and saw she was a bit higher at 187.
'This looks like it might be a tad bit troublesome as I can't instantly go all out because of those two behind Liz.
If I use enough power to kill the bandit leader in a single blow, even the mere shockwaves from the attack would be enough to turn them into a bloody mist.'
The young hero clicked his tongue in annoyance as he tilted his head to the side, dodging the piercing attack from the bandit leader who dashed to him, intending to take advantage of the moment Evan was not looking.
'This guy is about five levels lower than me. Coupled with my various stat boosts and higher stat effectiveness, dealing with him would be simple.'
Those were Evan's thoughts as he grabbed the arm of the bandit leader with both hands and roused his magic power, activating his paladin at full power and using body-strengthening magic.
"Brace yourselves guys."
He said casually in the next moment, as he turned around and pulled the surprised brown-haired middle-aged man with all his strength, flipping him overhead and slamming him into the ground.
"Huh?"
**BAAAMMMM!!!!
The ground trembled loudly as the bandit leader slammed into the ground with his back faster than he could react.
Spider web-like cracks spread out in all directions as the ground split open, followed by multiple shockwaves that knocked the knights and bandits who were caught off guard, off their feet.
However, the leader of the group of knights, the Warhammer-wielding woman Pride was battling and Evan's companions, all jumped up to avoid the shockwaves that spread out on the ground.
As for the noble's daughter and her maid, they were saved by Eliza who created a barrier under their feet and lifted them up from the ground and into the air with it.
**BZZTT!!
Lightning Crackled around the arm of the woman, flowing up the handle of her Warhammer and onto the head of the weapon.
She took advantage of her current position in the air, raiding her staff overhead and swinging it down towards Pride.
"What tha?!"
Mid-swing, she let out a voice of surprise as she saw Pride drop her sword and grasp the air, just before a Warhammer-shaped construct of flames appeared in her now empty hand.
**BOOMM!!!
The lighting engulfed Warhammer and the and its flame-constructed counterpart clashed mid-air, causing a loud explosion that blew both Pride and her opponent away, sending them flying dozens of metres into the air.
Evan who was now nearly two hundred metres away, dropped the noble's daughter and her maid to the ground and popped the cap of a magic potion bottle, downing it instantly as he watched the clouds of smoke and flames rising into the air.
"Kayla."
[Yes, Master?]
"Can you watch these two for a bit? I wanna go kill that guy real quick."
[Mouu...I wanna fight too!]
The young lightning spirit pouted in displeasure as she manifested her physical body, causing Evan to chuckle lightly upon seeing her dissatisfied expression.
"Maybe next time, okay?"
[Promise?]
"Promise."
While this conversation was ongoing, explosions were ringing out in the distance as Pride and the Warhammer-wielding 'bandit' clashed repeatedly, with Eliza's flower cannon going off and turning the upper bodies of three unfortunate bandits to bloody mists.
The noble's daughter on the ground stared at Evan with a gaping expression as she saw him promise the young lightning spirit who looked like a small child at the moment.
Evan glanced at the girl briefly, appraising her before revealing an expression of surprise at her identity.
"Hmm. This would make things a lot easier."
He nodded to himself as he said that, turning around and taking a few metres of distance away from her before kicking off the ground with enough force to form a small foot-sized crater.
He shot through the air at breakneck speed, putting his hand into his inventory and pulling out the unforged while pouring his golden aura into the blade.
"Aura slash."
Activating a skill, he swung his blade, sending multiple aura slashes in the direction of the bandit leader who was fighting off Eliza and the Knight leader simultaneously.
The brown-haired man's eyes glowed with an eerie light as he swung his curved blades with force while Eliza and the Knight leader dodged with difficulty.
His pupils suddenly turned in Evan's direction as he engulfed his swords in his aura and released similar aura slashes to block Evan's attacks.
"Blade cannon."
The young hero suddenly activated another skill, releasing a singular aura slash that shot out five bullets of aura in the man's direction.
However, instead of dodging as Evan had expected, he stomped his foot into the ground and channelled his magic power, summoning a thick three-metre-tall wall of earth that took the brunt of the attack for him.
The next moment, Eliza dropped to her knees as she grit her teeth in indignation before shouting to Evan.
"Be careful. There's something weird about him!"
As soon as she said that, she created a barrier around her to block the curved blade that suddenly tried to lop off her head.
The sword was deflected by her barrier and crashed towards the ground, splitting the earth open and forming a small crater as the aura coated around it dispersed into the ground.
"Tsk...?!"
The bandit leader clicked his tongue and was about to attack once more when he realised something.
'At that kid's speed, he should have reached this position long ago. Then why hasn't he done so?'
His pupils darted around as he tried to find Evan's position with his eyes, not bothering to rely too much on his aura sensing as he guessed that Evan most likely had a means to conceal his presence from being sensed that way.
A chill suddenly ran down his spine, causing him to turn around and stomp his foot on the floor, erecting another earthen wall just in time to block the invisible aura slashes and blade cannons that come from behind.
Turning around once more, he saw Evan grab Eliza and vanish once more, before reappearing a few metres away.
'Hey, Pride.
The thralls are this brown-haired dude and that Warhammer woman you're fighting, right?'
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