As his words fell, the circle of men around him took another simultaneous step back, their faces filled with dread.
This was a joke. An Advanced-rank Sword God Style user had lost. Were they supposed to go up and offer themselves as sacrifices?
Behind the crowd, a bandit who was only at the Lower-rank in Sword God Style, knowing his own weakness and using the human wall in front of him as cover, turned to run.
But he had just turned when a sharp whistle of wind erupted from thin air behind his ear, and a sonic boom exploded at the back of his head!
Then, in the corner of his eye, something glinting shot past and disappeared into the distant forest.
He was stunned for a moment, feeling a chill run down his side, and heard the sound of water splashing on the ground. He subconsciously turned around and saw the horrified gazes of the men beside him.
His mouth fell open in shock. As if realizing something, he looked down.
A thick jet of crimson blood was shooting out from his chest. The pectoral muscles he was once proud of were gone, replaced by a massive, bloody hole.
A clot of blood mixed with viscera coughed out of his mouth. He struggled to turn and look at the crowd behind him.
The faces of his 'comrades' were already blurring in his vision, but for some reason, the figure of the seemingly harmless god of death in the distance was crystal clear—
The person's hand was open, in the posture of a thrower, planted firmly on the ground. Seeing him look over, he even gave him a distant smile.
His vision went black.
With a thud, the mutilated corpse fell to the ground like a rag doll.
Everyone's gaze shifted from the corpse to the perpetrator of the stunning North God Style throwing technique.
Alan slowly closed his open hand. The sword of the corpse's owner was gone. A faint green light quickly flowed over his body, almost imperceptible.
The night wind was chaotic, but his voice was crystal clear.
"I need to remind you: tonight, you only have two choices."
"One, kneel and offer your necks to be slain."
"Two, kill me."
"And before that…"
Alan glanced at the stunned faces of the men before him. His sword, caressing the firelight, passed over their heads and pointed directly at the grim-faced Leopard outside the crowd.
"No one is leaving."
"So… my advice to you is to attack all at once. After all…"
Alan brought his sword back to rest on his shoulder and licked the blood from his face.
"I'm in a hurry."
Silence fell all around.
The bandits looked at each other, all frozen in place, trapped between a rock and a hard place.
Behind the crowd, Gray Hawk and Leopard exchanged a knowing look. In the deep night, they saw each other's faces.
Their expressions were both extremely grave.
Gray Hawk took a deep breath, about to shout something, but the wind blew dust into his eyes.
Leopard moved!
Sand and wind kicked up from under his feet as his figure shot out and leaped high into the air! The gleam of his sword drew a long ribbon of light in the campfire! The blade, whistling with wind, fell from the sky towards Alan!
'Perception.'
Alan looked up with a light laugh. The forest instantly fell silent. The surprised expressions of the surrounding bandits had just begun to form on their faces when Leopard's slender figure, like a tiger released from its cage, brought his sword down with both hands!
The glint of the blade danced in Alan's contracting pupils.
'North God Style Counter-Slash Form One—Avalanche Drop.'
'A fierce overhead slash from the practical combat style. All battle aura is concentrated on the blade, designed to explode in an area-of-effect.'
'The way he's gripping the sword is changing. Is he unskilled? Or is it a feint?'
As Alan's thoughts flashed, the pressure wave from Leopard's attack had already violently collided with him! However, just as his blade was about to cut into Alan's neck, Alan's own blade was already hovering in front of his face.
Perfectly positioned at the point where Leopard's blade would land.
In that instant, a sharp light shot out from Leopard's effeminate eyes!
With a loud bang! Leopard's sword was sent flying by Alan!
However, the attacker was no longer holding a sword! At the moment of impact, Leopard had abandoned his blade! His body flipped in the air, missing Alan's sword tip by a hair's breadth, and he landed brutally on all fours beside Alan!
Amidst cracking stones, Leopard lunged at Alan's waist!
At the same time, a gleaming dagger was sent towards Alan's ribs.
But before he could stab Alan, Leopard's expression changed. He abandoned his weapon a second time, backflipped like an acrobat, and pushed off the ground with his hands to get away from Alan.
The next second! A sharp screeching sound exploded between the two!
The dagger in the air had been shattered and pinned to the ground by Alan's backhand strike. He casually pulled the tip of his sword from the dagger fragments and tilted his head to look at Leopard behind him.
Leopard had already retreated to a safe distance and casually took a sword from a comrade beside him. He looked quite disheveled, but a smile had appeared on his lips.
"…I thought your legendary self-created secret technique had improved, so I decided to test it. So you intentionally interrupted the Flow technique and switched to a Sword God Style wrist-drop to stab at my wrist? But… it doesn't seem fast enough."
Alan smiled, unfazed.
"Avalanche Drop, mediocre. Four-legged Form, a bit interesting. But that makes sense. How could someone who focuses all their energy on the Eccentric school grasp the essence of the Practical school? I think you'd be better off continuing to develop your doggy paddle."
Leopard's smile faded, a hint of resentment flashing in his effeminate eyes.
"You don't match your rumored taciturn image. You have quite a sharp tongue."
Alan blinked.
"Likewise."
As Leopard spoke, the grave expression on his face had mostly disappeared. He intentionally raised his voice.
"Against me alone, you can interrupt your Flow technique to counter-attack. But if everyone attacks you at once, will you still dare to interrupt it to counter-attack?"
Without waiting for Alan's reply, Leopard immediately roared.
"Everyone saw my test just now, right? This kid is good at defending with the Water God Style, but his counter-attacks aren't fast enough, and he can't use the Soundless Tachi! As long as our attacks are dense enough, he'll be a sitting duck! Once we get the thousand gold coins, we can go to Rigate and have some fun!"
The majority of the bandits present were practitioners of the North God and Sword God styles. Having witnessed the exchange when Leopard flew in, they had also seen Alan's problem.
It really seemed like this kid was waiting for people to come to him, and his constant verbal taunts seemed to be a tactical ploy…
Once this thought arose, it was impossible to suppress.
Under the powerful temptation of a thousand gold coins, they subconsciously began to make excuses for their earlier failure, to give themselves a 'reason' to keep charging forward.
Excuses like the previous Sword God Style bandit's Soundless Tachi was indeed 'barely grasped,' and that if they all charged, a few more would surely die, but they wouldn't be unlucky enough to be one of them.
If they were just a little careful, wouldn't the thousand gold coins be theirs for the taking?
They felt like they could do it again.
While the men were gearing up, Leopard, with a barely perceptible frown, quietly retreated, using the crowd as a shield, and discreetly exchanged a look with Gray Hawk not far away.
Alan, however, had been watching Leopard's movements with an amused expression. He had remained silent, happy to see this exact scene unfold.
If this were before, dealing with so many people in one night would have been impossible to do head-on. At most, he would have had to rely on his superior battle aura quality to fight a guerrilla war, wearing down the bandits one by one in the forest.
Just like the ambush at the Red Dragon's Upper Jaw.
But this forest wasn't too far from the city. There was a chance some might escape back, and then his whereabouts would be exposed, which would be troublesome.
But… things were different now.
Some things had undergone a qualitative change over the past few months.
For example, the improvement of his swordsmanship.
For example, the healing magic sigil.
And for another example.
His already 'evolved' self-created secret technique.
A note for friends who don't like reading fight scenes:
Tomorrow, the revenge arc ends. The day after, a new character who can be part of the harem (a woman) will make her debut.
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