Deep within a cave hidden by brush deep in the outer edge of the Fang Forest a large man sleeps in a room adorned in various expensive items. The man in question is over six and a half feet tall with a body covered in massive muscles that would put a bodybuilder to shame.

The man, Murdoc, is the leader of a group of bandits that operates in the vicinity of the outer edge of the Fang Forest. In the past he was an up and coming adventurer who was well known for his strength, but after a string of incidents he gave up adventuring for a life of banditry.

Things started well with him gathering around thirty or so subordinates and robbing merchants from a nearby road. His success allowed him to fill his room with various expensive items that he personally kept as trophies.

After a string of successes his subordinates started getting comfortable and some tried to steal some of the spoils they’d gathered. This transgression didn’t go unnoticed by Murdoc who killed the thieves without so much as a warning.

With most of the spoils horded by Murdoc there were naturally some who tried to overthrow him as leader to take it for themselves. The mutineers were dealt with in the same way as the thieves before them solidifying his position as the unquestioned and feared leader.

Eventually all good things come to an end and the same could be said for the bandit troupes luck. In the recent weeks they had encountered more and more resistance from merchants. Their most recent raid even ended with all the participants injured in some way or another.

Frustrated at the performance of his subordinates as of late Murdoc lost his temper nearly chocking a poor fool to death in the process. It took a night of heavy drinking for him to finally cool his head.

His alcohol induced sleep didn’t last long before being interrupted by the sound of screaming echoing through the hideout. The livid Murdoc wanted to run out and find who the idiot who disturbed his sleep is, but the screaming came to a swift and abrupt end.

Murdoc’s eyes narrowed when he heard how the screaming was seemingly cut off. Without wasting any time he rushed to put on his equipment. After putting on his armor he grabbed his great sword, which is nearly the size of a regular human being, and headed for the dining hall.

‘An agonizing scream like that doesn’t just stop the way it did. An intruder? That shouldn’t be possible. The chances of someone randomly stumbling upon our hideout are practically nonexistent, and even if someone did they wouldn’t be able to get to the main living quarters so easily. Could there be an entrance I don’t know about? Impossible, I’ve personally checked every nook and cranny of the cave system multiple times so that shouldn’t be the case. Just what is going on?’

Every step closer to the dining hall was accompanied by an increase in tension as his heartbeat grew faster and faster. When the dining hall was finally in site his steps slowed inexplicably as he became increasingly more nervous about confronting this unknown foe.

Upon entering the dining hall he immediately activated the light stones causing the dining hall to be lit up. No longer worrying about being ambushed in the dark he sets his eyes on the living quarters. From the hallway leading to the living quarters the sound of slow plodding footsteps gradually draws closer to the dining hall. The source of the footsteps slowly struts into the dining hall before stopping to look around. When the little goblin’s eyes find Murdoc it smirks while letting out a high pitched laugh.

Murdoc is left completely baffled when looking at the intruder. Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined a single goblin could bring down the group of bandits he spent so much time building up. He had prepared his heart for many possible intruders whether they turn out to be adventurers or monsters that specialize in speed or stealth he was mentally prepared, but the culprit turning out to be a goblin was a curveball he never expected.

‘In the end it’s just a goblin. How could those useless idiots lose to a freaking goblin? Oh well, it doesn’t matter at this point, I should just take care of this little pest and get it over with. Now that I think about it this is a blessing in disguise. The merchants are getting smart to our presence so it isn’t a bad time to move, and with those idiot subordinates dead I can keep all the loot for myself, hehehe.’

The pair calmly close the distance between them casually as if there are no enemies present. Murdoc, with his giant sword, is the first to attack using a simple vertical slash. The telegraphed blow is easily side stepped by the goblin before it rushes in.

The saw slashes at the exposed knee of Murdoc who hastily jumps back escaping with only a scratch and a ripped pair of pants. His expression hardens as he looks deeply at the goblin in front of him.

‘A goblin avoided my attack? It even counter attacked by going after my knee to limit my mobility. It seems I took things too lightly, if I was at a similar level to my subordinates then …’

Murdoc throws out a horizontal slash which is lightly deflected over the goblin’s head by its saw. After parrying the slash the goblin tries to get into range by rushing forward. Murdoc responds by retreating while simultaneously throwing out another horizontal slash. Jellal dives forward and rolls under the blade, avoiding the attack and closing the gap at the same time.

He comes out of the roll swinging but his attack is blocked by his opponent. He follows up with a series of slashes from various angles but is unable to find a gap in his foe’s defense. A slight gap in his offensive opens up room for a vertical strike from his opponent. He tries to side step the slash the same way he did the first blow but the blades curves toward him as if it has a life of its own. In response he jumps above the blade while spinning his body and using the saw as a buffer allowing him to harmlessly roll over top of the blade. The moment his feet touch the ground he retaliates with a throwing knife towards his opponent’s thigh that is easily avoided.

The pair exchange another series of blows with neither side having a noticeable advantage. As if they have an unspoken agreement they both jump back creating a sizable gap between them.

[To think a mere goblin could push me so far, the world truly is a mysterious place. Since it’s come to this I’ll show you why humans will always be superior to monsters.]

After throwing out a taunt Murdoc’s body begins to emit a faint blue glow which extends over his armor and even covers his sword. Jellal’s eyes narrow as the aura around Murdoc seems to have changed making it feel like he became an entirely different person.

‘Magic? No, it feels slightly different. Could it be … Aura? Kekeke, how interesting!’

Jellal’s eyes begin to glow faintly as he watches Murdoc’s every action like a hawk eying its prey. Murdoc lifts his sword high over his head before slashing down at Jellal despite the gap between them. Jellal feels a sense of danger as blade begins its descent. Trusting his instincts he hastily dodges to his left only to see a blue streak of energy fly from the blade past where he was just standing. When the energy dissipates only a six meter long gash is left in its wake owing to its tremendous power.

Knowing he’s at a complete disadvantage when fighting from range he charges forward without holding back. It takes less than a second to close the gap and launch an attack at his adversary. The strength and speed of the attack is on an entirely different level than the ones used during the initial exchange causing his enemy to barely be able to block it.

Immediately following his initial attack with the saw he flings out a throwing knife which his opponent simply ignores. The knife hits the faint blue aura and bounces off harmlessly as if its tip’s made of foam.

Seeing how ineffective throwing knives are he continues his onslaught with his saw. He starts off with simple, straightforward attacks which press his opponent with sheer speed and power. Seeing his opponent struggling to keep up with his attacks he adds in the occasional feint. On top of the feints he even begins shifting the direction of some of his attacks midway making it nearly impossible to know how he’s going to attack.

Attacks slip through Murdoc’s defense one after another but are unable to penetrate his aura enough to deal significant damage with most attacks ending in a light flesh wound or a scratch. Knowing his opponent can’t break through his aura enough to kill him Murdoc abandons defense and starts ignoring the goblin’s attacks in favor of his own offense.

With Murdoc only attacking Jellal is forced to dodge or deflect his blows constantly which in turn decreases the number of attacks he can dish out. During one such deflection he gets an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. As if responding to the bad feeling he was getting, Murdoc’s sword glows extra brightly causing the bone saw which was deflecting it to break. Luckily Jellal trusted his instincts and dropped to the ground narrowly avoiding the blow.

Even though he managed to avoid the attack he was still in immense danger. Lying on the ground without a weapon he was no better than a sitting duck that could only wait for the inevitable flurry of attacks to rain down on top of him.

Rolling back and forth he narrowly each blow as he struggled to pull a throwing knife out of his pouch. Grasping a small gap between attacks he managed to somehow get to his feet. What awaited him when he finally stood up was an aura laden slash coming straight at him.

With no time to dodge he used the throwing knife to try to block the attack. The aura cut into the knife as it forced him backwards. After being forced back four meters his throwing knife was finally cut in two leaving his body to bear the brunt of the attack. With his chest being hammered by the attack he was sent flying backwards, landing heavily before he eventually rolled to a stop.

A triumphant smile makes its way to Murdoc’s face as his shoulders heave up and down accompanying his heavy breath. His aura gradually becomes fainter until it disappears completely as he drags his exhausted body towards his fallen foe.

The smile on his face freezes along with his footsteps when the goblin slowly staggers its way to its feet. A bloody gash extends from the goblins left shoulder all the way to around its sternum even showing bone at some places. The goblin glances down at the wound, touching it lightly with its right hand before shifting its gaze upward. The flames of rage burn brightly in its eyes as it gives Murdoc a death glare while cackling like a mad man.

[Kekeke, kekekekekekeke, you have a lot of guts to still be standing there after injuring me. Since it’s come to this I’ll show you why a pathetic human like you will never be able to compare to a superior being such as myself.]

The goblin’s violet eyes became tinged with red as the glow in its eyes intensified to the point it was hard to see its pupils. The muscles on the body seemed to become larger and more defined as it casually took a pair of bone saws out of a pouch attached to the belt it’s wearing around its waist.

A sense of dread permeated Murdoc’s body as the goblin slowly marched toward him, swaying back and forth with each step it took. Unwilling to accept that he’d been intimidated by a mere goblin he reactivated his aura while trying to calm his nerves.

[Kekekekekeke, how long can you maintain that aura of yours? Ten, twenty seconds? It doesn’t matter; the result won’t change no matter how long you can manage to maintain it.]

The ground beneath the goblins feet broke apart as it launched itself at Murdoc, arriving in front of him in an instant. Spinning as it sped by his left side the pair of saws ripped two gashes into his exposed waist. Before he has a chance to spin around a saw has already caught his ankle pulling his leg backward while the other saw hacks down on it ripping a chunk of flesh out of his calf and ankle.

In order to prevent himself from toppling over he’s forced to stab his sword into the ground for stability. Without having a chance to react his arm is sliced by the saws causing him to drop his sword. Knowing things aren’t going his way he focuses his entire aura on defense in hopes of outlasting his opponent.

The goblin darts back and forth hitting him from every angle imaginable. He tries to follow it with his eyes but is only able to faintly catch sight of the glowing eyes streaking about as if the goblin is able to use the air as a platform to bounce off of.

Wounds begin accumulating on almost every part of his body with the only exceptions being his head and neck. His aura begins fading as the attacks intensified, but to his surprise none of the attacks were fatal. After a minute and thousands of wounds a terrifying realization dawned on Murdoc.

‘This bastard is intentionally avoiding killing me! Kuh, does it want to torture me till I bleed out?’

Just as he was racking his brain trying to find a way out of this situation the attacks stopped. The goblin came to a halt directly in front of him and stared at him with those glowing eyes while a malicious grin decorated the goblins face.

[Vampire Style: Secret Technique – Blood Evacuation]

The goblin lunged forward striking the middle of his chest with a punch and palm that hit a split second apart. The force of the strikes went directly to his heart, forcing the blood flowing through his veins to accelerate a thousand times faster than normal. Blood instantly rocketed out of the thousands of wounds that coated his body leaving him completely devoid of blood. Without so much as a whimper Murdoc fell face first to the bloody ground below devoid of life.

Jellal’s shoulder heaved up and down as he wobbled back and forth barely keeping his balance while panting heavily. Feeling exhaustion starting to set in he sits down while steadying his breathing. After catching his breath he walks next to Murdoc’s corpse and proceeds to remove his head.

Having finished his double tap on Murdoc he sets his sights on continuing his exploration of hideout. Even though the leader of the bandits has been killed he refuses to let his guard down as he cautiously makes his way through the final passageway branching off the dining hall.

Step by step he makes his way through the hallway until he finally comes across a room. The room is at least double the size of the rooms in the living quarters and is decorated lavishly with expensive looking items all over the place.

The bed is also of significantly higher quality when compared to the other beds he’d found so far with its soft mattress and fancy silk sheets. The bed is more reminiscent of the bed a noble might use than that of a bed jammed in a cave for a bandit.

‘A superior being such as myself has been sleeping in trees while these bandit bastards are lounging around on such fancy beds. If I find any more of these pricks I’ll have to make sure to teach them a lesson about respecting superior beings, kekeke.’

While inwardly planning how to torture any new bandits he comes across due to the difference in sleeping conditions he begins thoroughly scouring the room for any hidden valuables.

‘This room is so much better than the other ones I’ve come across so it probably belongs to someone important if it isn’t the leader’s personal room. What kind of self-respecting bandit would leave their most valuable possessions lying around in a thieves den, especially if they’re the leader? The best things should be hidden in a secret room or compartment, right? It’s okay little secret room; I won’t hurt you I just want to remove your insides. Come out, come out wherever you are.’

While muttering like a madman he begins looking under the bed and flipping table, chairs, and rugs as he searches every inch of the room for hidden compartments. In the end he found a total of three secret compartments which housed expensive looking gems as well as a pair of suspiciously plain bags.

‘What kind of idiot would put a plain bag in a secret compartment? Only someone who is a complete and total idiot would do that and such a person probably wouldn’t be able to weasel their way into becoming an important member of the group. The only logical explanation for such plain looking bags being hidden so well is that their plainness is a disguise.’

He decides to put playing with the bags off until later as he leaves the fancy room to continue searching the hideout. After a short walk he comes to the next room.

Eagerly entering the room he finds piles of boxes containing various materials and products filling the room. He excitedly goes around the room checking out the different types of cargo the bandits had managed to steal from merchants and other unfortunate souls they encountered.

‘Treasure room! These bandits must have put a lot of effort into gathering all these things for me. If there are any left alive maybe I should mercifully end their lives without making them suffer, after all a superior being such as myself should forgive past transgressions if the foolish lowly beings make such a genuine attempt to make up for their mistakes.’

Jellal finishes checking out the treasure room before yet again continuing on his mission to explore the entire hideout. It doesn’t take long for him to reach the end of the hallway which contains the only door in the entire base up to this point.

He opens the door while keeping his saw at the ready but his caution is entirely unwarranted. Behind the door the cave slopes downward making it hard to know what lies at the end of the tunnel.

He continues down the slope until it finally flattens out revealing the last section of the cave. He frowns as he scans the room with his eyes while his face twitches slightly.

Unsure about what to do in this situation he stands there while his thoughts run in circles. In the end he’s unable to hold it in anymore as he inadvertently blurts out what’s on his mind.

[What the hell am I supposed to do about this?]