Not long ago, Millia had inwardly lamented, wishing for someone to come and exterminate these vile sand bandits. And then, that person actually appeared.
He was a middle-aged man with a rather sleazy appearance, but that didn't matter. In Millia's opinion, when this middle-aged man killed Geralt, there was no one more handsome than him!
There is a huge difference between sand bandits and the captives, and Law had no trouble telling them apart.
Activating his Domain to explode the heads of over a hundred sand bandits on the spot was undeniably efficient, but it consumed a significant amount of his Aura.
If not for the need to eliminate potential threats to the fifty captives, Law wouldn't have so recklessly activated his Domain under such circumstances.
Had there only been five or six hundred sand bandits, Law wouldn't have hesitated to go all out, regardless of Aura consumption.
But precisely because the number of sand bandits was so overwhelming, he couldn't afford to be careless in choosing his methods of attack. Fortunately, the sand bandits lacked firearms, otherwise, with such numerical superiority, only Law might have survived to the end.
His goal was to achieve the maximum effect with minimal cost… this was the thought that crossed Law's mind the moment he saw the sheer number of sand bandits. And the same went for Buhara and the others.
Facing such a massive horde of enemies, Nen could provide an 'absolute safety' barrier. But once their Aura was exhausted, even an elephant could be brought down by a swarm of ants.
Leaving behind the corpses of over a hundred bandits, Law retracted his Aura, dispelling Ken and switching to the least demanding Ten, covering his body with only a thin layer of Nen. He initially thought of drawing Shin, but then remembered he had tossed Kuro away earlier.
With no other choice, he picked up Geralt's greatsword and charged into the sand bandit horde, unleashing a one-sided slaughter.
Geralt's head soaring through the air did have some effect on the bandits, but it didn't shake their overall morale.
If their leader died, they could simply pick the strongest among them to replace him… it was no big deal. Right now, the most important thing was to slaughter their enemies and seize all the wealth of the Millennium Capital!
With their bloodlust ignited, the sand bandits swung their blades even more fiercely, pushing the remaining defenders to the brink of collapse.
At that moment, Salin joined the fray. She leaped down from the rooftop, landing right in the center of the encirclement, easing the pressure on her allies.
Her focus wasn't on killing but on protection, so her involvement didn't drastically alter the situation. Still, it improved her allies' position slightly, preventing them from being completely overwhelmed.
As for Buhara and the others, adhering to the principle of not overexpending their Aura, they couldn't quickly eliminate the dozens of Nen Users surrounding them.
Since the battle began, over ten Nen Users had fallen, most of them taken down by Gel.
Therefore, among the Nen Users, only Law had the capacity to slaughter enemies on a large scale.
Law's swordsmanship was derived from the Nen remnants on Shin's, granting him exceptionally solid technique. Enhanced with a trace of Aura, cutting down these sand bandits became as easy as slicing melons.
It wasn't that the sand bandits were weak, it was that Law surpassed them by several levels.
This god of slaughter, once he plunged into the crowd, forced the sand bandits to retreat, creating a vacuum around him.
To their credit, the sand bandits were ruthless. Even as Law displayed terrifying strength, they refused to be intimidated, continuing to charge at him with bloodshot eyes.
Such behavior lived up to their reputation as the desert's most malignant tumor.
However, no matter how relentlessly the sand bandits threw themselves at him, each fell to a single strike from Law. No matter how coordinated their attacks, no matter how vicious their ambushes from behind, not a single one could land a hit on Law.
Instead, they were all cut down effortlessly.
The pile of corpses on the ground grew steadily, blood spreading like a river, staining the imperial capital red.
After cutting through the sand bandits for a while, the horde around him still seemed endless, creating the illusion that they could never be fully exterminated.
Law noticed that Buhara and the others still hadn't dealt with the dozens of Nen Users among the sand bandits. He also glanced at the group Sarin was protecting and realized that if she continued holding back for the sake of defense, an accident was bound to happen.
With that in mind, he suddenly changed tactics and headed toward the smaller skirmish on Buhara's side. Arriving in an instant, he swung his sword, and two sand bandit Nen Users, caught off guard, were instantly slain.
Having killed two in a single encounter, Law no longer cared about conserving Aura. Pivoting on his foot, he used [Instant], and before the sand bandit Nen Users could react, he cut down two more.
His lightning-fast execution left the remaining sand bandit Nen Users trembling in fear.
Seeing that Law abandon restraint in favor of pure killing efficiency, Gel felt he was being reckless. After all, the number of sand bandits was overwhelming, and managing Aura wisely would prolong their endurance.
From Gel's perspective, this was indeed the right approach. But if they continued playing it safe, their non-Nen Users allies, like a small boat in a storm, could capsize at any moment.
Law couldn't bring himself to ignore the potential increase in book pages, but he couldn't stand by and watch Sarin get dragged into danger. That's why he chose to expend his Aura without reservation, eliminating the sand bandit Nen Users with overwhelming force so that Buhara and the others could free themselves and whittle down the sand bandit's numbers faster.
Law made this choice for himself but didn't demand the same from Gel and the others. With several bursts of Aura, he slaughtered over a dozen Nen Users in just a few seconds.
Seconds, not minutes.
'How can he grow so quickly?!'
Gel was stunned as she watched Law cut through the sand bandit Nen Users with unstoppable force.
Her reaction was a rookie mistake in combat, but fortunately, Law had drawn the Nen Users' attention, sparing her from paying the price for that lapse.
With Law joining as a powerful ally, the dozens of hostile Nen Users were wiped out in less than a minute, making Buhara and the others feel like they had been slacking off.
"Kill."
After dealing with the more troublesome Nen users, Law only said one word to Buhara before charging into the sand bandit ranks like a tiger among sheep, cutting down swathes of enemies with every swing.
With several Nen Users now slaughtering the sand bandits unimpeded, the situation finally began to shift slightly.
In the eyes of the sand bandits, their overwhelming numbers meant they could surely grind down these less-than-a-hundred enemies.
But as they realized their own forces were steadily being depleted while their foes remained unharmed, a sense of disparity began to form, slowly building until it was ready to explode.
From an initial force of three thousand, their numbers had now dwindled below two thousand, decreasing at an alarming rate.
'We can't hurt them… we can't kill them!'
This was the thought that took root among the sand bandits after fighting the Nen Users for so long.
Yes… it was a cruel, merciless reality, the undeniable gap between Nen Users and ordinary people, especially without firearms to bridge it.
The sand bandits couldn't see how much Aura Law and the others were expending, so the illusion of invincibility was terrifyingly effective.
If they could just land a single wound, just one… they might still have the confidence to keep fighting.
But unfortunately, that hope never materialized.
So, when more than half of the sand bandits were killed, their morale crumbled, and they broke into a full retreat.
The main reason was that the middle-aged man with the bulbous nose was too terrifying. Not only was he impervious to blades, but even his seemingly effortless swings could bisect a man with ease.
They had come from the west, and now they fled back toward the west.
Leaving behind a field of corpses, the sand bandits scattered in disarray toward the grasslands.
Among the survivors, Gel and William couldn't help but exhale in relief. If the sand bandits hadn't fled, they might not have lasted much longer.
With that thought, they instinctively glanced at Law, who is now drenched in blood.
Throughout the long history of wars buried in the desert, there had been legends of warriors who could fight a thousand alone… but those were just legends. Never had they imagined they would witness such a thing in their lifetime.
The man with the bow was one of the survivors. He stared at Law with awe on his face. At first, he had looked down on Law as a newcomer and acted arrogantly. But now, having witnessed Law's strength, he felt that not provoking him earlier had been the wisest choice.
When the sand bandits fled, the people at the scene naturally would not take the initiative to chase them, except Law...
"Law, don't pursue." Seeing Law chasing out, Sarin quickly stopped him.
"It's fine. I just want to see how terrifying those ants really are." Law gave her a reassuring look before sprinting after the fleeing bandits.
Ali, Yaya and three members of Desert Hawks were lucky enough to survive. When they saw Salin calling out Law's name, they immediately realized that Tam was not Law's real name.
They looked at Law, who was leaving, with complicated expressions.
The fleeing sand bandits were like sheep being herded by Law, rushing out of the imperial capital, across the rocky plains, and onto the grasslands.
Law stopped at the edge of the open ground, silently observing as the sand bandits stepped onto the grass.
Suddenly, something strange happened.
From the lush green grass, crimson fountains erupted, spraying three to four meters into the air before crashing down onto the bandits.
Those weren't fountains, they are swarms of ants!