When Emery had broken through the middle stage of his plant affinity, he had subjected himself to even harder labor in Granny's garden. He hadn't only spent time concocting, caring for the plants, and sometimes looking for herbs, but also some physical tasks, which had become easier in time. And due to that, Emery's physical strength had increased in line with his elemental affinity breakthrough.

[Emery Ambrose]

[16 years old]

[Battle power 17 (12)]

[Spirit power 32 (21)]

Although his battle power had surpassed way higher than that of the common man in its unlocked form, his current battle power was still above the average physical prowess of the general adult. Aside from raking in some experience in life and death battles, battling techniques of the Magus Academy, he still of course shouldn't face a battle head-on especially with multiple marauders who made a living by stealing, fighting, and killing people with low chances of succeeding.

Inside the old abandoned house, the five marauders stayed behind. The three appeared to be common thugs, and in hindsight, the biggest threat among them was probably the burly marauder whose height almost reached the ceiling. As for the leader, Emery didn't know how to evaluate him, but since marauders usually based their rankings on strength and cunningness, this short man might actually be the deadliest of them all.

Emery quickly racked his brain with different scenarios, considering the fact that Lanzo probably couldn't stand up, he had to make sure he could deal with them swiftly and cleanly. In his heart, he wished for the symbol in his hand to be able to measure the opponents' battle powers in front of him, so he could analyze the situation better and release his full potential but alas, not everything could be handed to him on a platter.

In order to increase his chances of succeeding, Emery opened his bag and took out a small red-colored salve. He then loosened some cords that were holding his fur clothes together and immediately applied to his arms, forearms, thighs and legs before tying the cords back. A warm sensation spread through the parts he had applied the strength paste on before feeling his muscles contracting and relaxing after.

Another notification popped up in his mind that said his battle power had increased by another point. As he was about to head into battle, he remembered what his father had liked used to say, 'The outcome of a battle is determined by the preparation made beforehand,' and this was what he was doing now.

Since that was all he could do with the things he had on hand, he proceeded to the next phase of his plan. Emery picked up a stone lying on the ground just below him and threw it on the area of the ragged house that had trees nearby.

"What was that?" The sound caught the attention of all the marauders inside; the short man added, "The two of you, check it out."

"Yes, boss," answered the two marauders. They first walked together, but with the darkness of the night, one of them said, "I'll go this side and you check the other."

"Okay."

Emery waited patiently for the two marauders to be out of each other's sight while he listened in to the conversation inside.

Back in the room, the leader of the marauders said, "My patience is running thin."

Again, the leader sunk the knife into Lanzo's other thigh. "I won't ask again. Why were you looking for our chief?"

"Graahhh! Please, enough! I-I already told you," Lanzo gritted his teeth as he grabbed on to his thigh pulsing in pain.

The remaining marauder, the one who had been punched, stepped in and said, "B-Boss, if I may?"

"Speak," ordered the leader.

"W-When we followed this lad, there was another person with him. We're assuming he's also the same age but h-he disappeared like thin air," said the remaining marauder. The leader extracted the knife as he stood up, startling the shaking marauder.

"I see, so two boys want to join our ranks but are asking for our chief specifically?" commented the leader, he looked back at Lanzo once more, his eyes extremely cold. "I'd have to be quite dumb if that's all your intent, right?"

Outside of the ragged house, Emery made his move. The two marauders were now quite a distance to see each other clearly in the darkness of the night. If he were to attack inside, the probability of success was still low; so, divide and conquer, one of the time proven successful strategies was what Emery had decided to enact upon. He moved quietly but as fast as he could and knocked the marauder unconscious before snatching the sword.

Emery said to himself, "Excellent, a sword that costs nothing. Lanzo, keep it together…"

He left the man lying there as he went back to his previous position. This was intentional, so when the second marauder shouted the moment he found his colleague, everyone in the house was alerted.

"Gery is down! There is someone here!"

The boss sent the hulking marauder outside. Nothing less could be more than according to his plan now that the most obvious threat had gone amongst the trees, with that said, Emery jumped into the open window and dashed to slash the closest marauder.

The marauder's chest was ripped as he fell on the ground, groaning in pain. The situation had turned into one versus one. Not wanting to miss his preemptive advantage, Emery shot forward at the leader of these marauders, but unexpectedly, he sidestepped Emery's blade.

The short marauder wasn't perturbed even a bit. And just like what Emery had feared, a leader in a band of killers would always be above the others.

"You came," cried Lanzo, hugging the ground.

Emery hurriedly cut off the rope tied around Lanzo's, grabbed the sword of the marauder lying on the ground and gave it to Lanzo. The two marauders outside seemed to have heard the commotion and went back into the ragged house. He then stepped back, Lanzo behind him and placed his sword in front.

It was now three against one. Emery could see how Lanzo's thigh had been injured. Blood peeking through the fur clothing, so he took out his healing salve and let Lanzo apply some of it into his wounds. For now, Emery wouldn't be expecting a person with an injured leg to fight.

"Anyway, this is just funny. Two young lads thought they had a chance against us? Hah, You better know what you are doing, boy. Nobody messes with the Crimson Fang and gets away with it," said the leader, taking a seat as if he was about to enjoy a show.

"Shouldn't we just run while we can?" asked Lanzo, rubbing his wounds with the green paste.

"You know you can't run, " Emery said, carefully watching the two marauders, especially the marauder whose height almost touched the ceiling. He was, however, as calm as still water. Although the height and the protruding muscle of that marauder far exceed anyone he had seen so far, there was no comparison that could be made against the menacing orcs. Quite on the contrary, there was a tinge of happiness that the leader had blurted out the name of their group, Crimson Fang, and the chief was confirmed to be Padraig.

"Just stay low and try to keep out of sight for now," Emery said when the hulking marauder lunged at him with a big sword on hand. Emery tried to meet it but he was knocked back three steps instead. Evidently, he messed up. He became too confident thinking his strength could match against this giant man.

"Stop wasting time, Gondo," said the leader of the marauder.

Gondo grunted and tried to raise his sword once again, but it touched the ceiling. Still, he hacked the large sword to Emery and Emery ducked. The sword got stuck in the window pane from where Emery had entered!

Emery then pierced straight into Gondo's chest but out of nowhere, Gondo's fist appeared on the corner of Emery's eyes and immediately pulled back his extended sword to try and block the fist. The unexpected fist threw Emery, flying. but as he remembered the positioning of the marauders, he twisted his body and stretched his sword once more, hitting a marauder who was moving towards Lanzo. The sword went through the guts, making the marauder fall on the ground, dead a few seconds later. The poor guy didn't see it coming.

The leader laughed before saying, "Hah! Not bad, not bad at all! Ahh, we would have loved to see you fight in the pits more, but unfortunately, this party is over. You have no chance against Gondo. Gondo, finish this boy."

Emery tugged the bloodied sword and got ready for the large marauder who had just pulled out the sword from the wooden window's pane. Looking around, Emery searched for more opportunities, there were only a table, some chairs, and a pouch of coins sitting on top of the table.

Just as he was about to make the first move this time, the thudding of footsteps echoed from the distance and from the sound of it, there were more than one pair of feet running on the damp soil.

The marauder who had left earlier returned with more of his mates.