Right now, the three other world children were hiding behind the bushes, watching the scene from afar.

Although, Ace and Terri wanted help out (Anna did not want any of that and immediately agreed to hide), this was something that Alva had insisted upon as she did not want to involve people unnecessarily.

Earlier…

Liscia was sniffing the air. As typical of one from the Animalian race, as a Therian with beast-like characteristics she had sharper than those of regular humans.

“They have that typical nasty odor-nya. And from the sounds of those footsteps…probably thirty bandits-nya.”

Ace and Terri groaned. Just when they thought they had just escaped and avoided them yesterday, there had to be another chance encounter with the ones who are basically criminals in this world!

At the thought of a sudden rebel attack, Anna was looking terrified while Terri had a grim look.

All three Adventurers were readying arms.

“You kids better hide somewhere. We’ll deal with them.”

“Deal with them?! But that’s a whole group of armed bandits?!”

“Don’t underestimate us Adventurers! Especially we of Artemis!” Barton chuckled as he handed Ace his huge backpack.

“That’s gonna be in the way so can you hold that for me?”

“Eh?!”

Are you gonna make me your pack mule? Ace thought.

Barton leaned close and whispered something in his ear. Ace looked momentarily shocked but he nodded vigorously. Without another word of protest (rather he seemed convinced), he led Terri and Anna to a thicket to hide.

***

It did not take long for the bandits to be able to approach them. The three Adventurers stood to face them.

“Hey, look! There a couple of pretty ladies in that little trio!”

“I bet we can make some quick bucks selling them off to some slave trader!:

“Oi! Oi! Aren’t you being hasty? Shouldn’t we get a taste of them first? Just to see if they’re quality goods!”

“Oi! Isn’t one of them from the Cat-eared Therian? I hear they’re pretty passionate in bed!”

“Yeah, let’s just kill of that guy and grab the ladies!”

Barton gave a loud snort as though try him. Liscia readied her bow with her eyes gazing at them like a predator hunting her prey.

Alva was looking at them like they were insects but her gaze was right at the insignia that was on their clothes.

“Hmm…That insignia is from Redcliff Bandits.”

“Eh? But weren’t they crushed by Wildfire just the other day?”

“I guess some had managed to escape. No doubt that they’re just leftover grunts. Let’s make this quick.”

“I want to head into to town already and have a nice bath-nya!”

“Hey, we’ve got a bunch of aspiring Adventurers watching us. There’s no way I’m gonna lose face here!”

And with sudden amazing speed, despite the heavy armor and huge hammer he was wielding, Barton rushed towards the bandits and swung the huge hammer in a huge arc, sending several of them flying.

“Wha-?”

“This guy’s an Adventurer?!”

Barton swung his hammer in compete 360 degree turn and knocked several more of them away.

“Damn! Just after we managed to escape that monster we encounter another one-GUHAA?!”

“Don’t forget us, you piece of sh*t!”

The bandit’s words were cut off when Alva’s flaming fist smashed into his jaw and sent him flying into a tree! She then proceeded to beat up the other bandits close-by using a series of enhanced punches and kicks!

“T-This bitch?!”

“Damn it! Why are we always running into monsters?!”

Alva had a vein pulsing in her forehead as she heard that. And putting more Manna into her gauntlet more than usual she swung an uppercut that sent the bandit who said that into the sky!

“Don’t you know it’s rude to call a woman a monster to her face?!”

(Even though it is an accurate description…)

Barton shivered as he thought those words. Either Alva had sixth sense or could guess what he was thinking, she sent a glare at his direction.

Liscia fired wind arrows from a top a tree branch. During the start of the fight, she climbed up a tall, sturdy tree with outstanding speed that it surprised the kids. That was most likely due to her Therian physiology.

But that was not the only thing that was incredible.

Her marksmanship as an archer was nothing to laugh at. Liscia fired wind arrow after another and struck them at the vital points.s was able to strike several of them down without missing her target.

Alva was attacking with a series and flurries of flaming punches and kicks like a martial artist from those anime shows that Ace watched with Benny before.

Barton swung his huge hammer wildly. Whether it was smashing it on the ground and creating huge impact craters or swinging in a huge arc with overwhelming force, it sent Bandits flying left and right.

All three basically formed efficient team.

“This is real! Real Magic! Real OP effects! Real total Kick-butt Action-GAH!”

Ace was practically shouting loudly so Terri had to hit him in the head to shut him up.

“Are you trying to give away our location to those bandits?!”

“They’re really amazing!” Anna muttered with her eyes glittering amazement!

“Not you too Anna!” Terri groans in consternation.

“Huh…”

Anna suddenly had blank gaze. Her expression had a faraway as she continued her gaze at the battle. Noticing that and filled with unease, Ace asked her what was wrong.

“The Bandits have some kind of poison. Ate Alva and Kuya Barton are in trouble.”

“Huh?”

Following her gaze, he saw a few bandits readying some kind of bottles at a distance from Barton and Alva who were both distracted to notice them from the distance.

In all those RPG games he played sneak attacks when the target is distracted is common thing and usually it’s effective to kill of a member of an enemy team. But this is real life now. And unlike the games you don’t get second lives or respawn.

When he saw what was about to happen, Ace couldn’t stop himself. He grabbed one of the weapons form the bag: a pair of short twin swords.

And before the other girls could stop him he rushed forward towards Barton and the bandit.

Liscia also saw this and was momentarily shocked that she stopped her barrage of attacks.

“Eh? What is he doing-nya?!”

At first she was confused on why Ace suddenly ran out of hiding when he was supposed to conceal himself with the others. That is until she saw where he was heading and saw the bandits readying some kind of bottle to throw.

“Alva! Barton! WATCH OUT-NYAAA?!!!”

Both Alva and Barton glanced at the sound of Liscia’s voice and saw Ace running towards them…with a pair of very familiar swords that were emitting bolts of electricity.

“What is that kid doing?!”

“Don’t tell me…you were on the bandit’s side?!”

It was not surprising that Barton thought that because what kind of person would be running at you with a pair of swords. Also Liscia’s warning made them both think that she was warning them of him.

But Liscia was still shouting.

“NO! BEHIND YOU-NYAAAAAA?!!!”

Knowing there was no time to explain or warn them, Ace gripped the hilts of the swords while willing to himself to run even faster.

He did not know what was going on but he felt a surge of energy coursing through him and into his hands.

The blades of the swords, shot out…great sparks of lightning!

In an instant, like a flash of lightning, Ace sped up and bypassed Alva and Barton who only blinked with the word “eh?” escaping their lips. He quickly appeared just as the bandit was about to throw the bottle at Barton, he skidded right in between them!

“What?! Where’d the hell this kid come from-?”

Ace then quickly slashed at the bandit’s hand as he was about to throw the bottle! The bottle that was about to be thrown flew high in the air! However, the bottle had also been engulfed in electricity and in an instant it exploded releasing a cloud of green smoke.

“Look out!”

“Don’t breathe it!” Several of the bandits tried to run away.

“Tch! So they had Poison Potion!” Alva clicks her tongue in annoyance as she punched another bandit in the face.

“And they were about to throw it at us! Kid there just saved our hides!” says Barton.

“Impressive but we’ll save that for later! Liscia!”

Alva called out to her companion in one of the tree branches.

“Already on it!”

Liscia fired a wind arrow that sent the poisonous smoke away before it could reach them.

The bandit that held that bottle turned at Ace.

“You little bastard! Do you realize what you’ve just done!”

“Same to you! HA!”

Ace jabbed one of the swords at the bandit while emitting thick bolts of lightning!

“UWAAAZBZZBZBBZBZBBBZZZTTTTT?!”

After being shocked with who knows how many bolts of electricity. The bandit was blasted away. Whether from electric shock or the force of Ace’s strike he was sent flying in the opposite direction. The bandit smashed against a tree a crumpled to the ground unconscious.

“A-Ace?! You just~”

The bandits too had quickly regained their senses and in anger they began to attack once more.

“You little brat!”

“You’re gonna pay for that!”

Ace actually smirked realizing he is actually hearing these stereotyped comments in real life.

“Sorry, Kuya Barton but since this is an emergency I already do have your permission to borrow these swords for a bit, I’m gonna enjoy this!”

“Eh? Huh?!” Barton could only flap his mouth.

Ace quickly slashed and struck the other bandits nearby.

Now why would a kid from a peaceful country and from another world would suddenly know how to do life-and-death sword combat? Well, that was because he already has experience in wielding a sword. Not in combat but as a sport. To be more specific, he took up Arnis and Fencing. This was something his dad had stubbornly insisted he do since he was a kid. If there was a kendo dojo nearby his dad would’ve been forced to take that up as well.

Ace wasn’t really interested in the sport though as he preferred soccer, basketball or other team sports. But for some reason he was a natural in the sport. So much so, that the coaches often ask him to become captain of the team in competitions. Ace always declined though as well as the competition participation. He was already a captain in the Soccer Club and being captain of another sport team would be too much responsibility. Ace’s father wasn’t particular about either as long as he kept up his training.

Because of that…

“Ha! Hyah! Haaa~!”

Ace utilized both his skills in Fencing and Arnis to attack and dual wield. It could even be seen as though he were an experienced Swordsman! Ace expertly parried away some of their sword attacks while striking away at their weak points.

Effectively, he mowed down every enemy that came his way.

“What the hell is this kid-GUHAABZTTZTZ?!”

“Just how many of these guys are there?!-UWAAHBZZZTT?!”

“He’s a monster-GAAHBZZZTT!!’

With each strike of the swords, Ace let loose several bolts of electricity to electrocute and stun his opponents like an electric baton. He had no idea how he was doing it but it felt natural as breathing air.

Although he was practically fighting for his life… he felt excitement!

He was fighting with actual swords! He was fighting while using actual Magic! He was defeating bad guys left and right!

He felt like he was playing the character of his online games.

Another bandit came rushing at Ace with an axe. Ace readied his stance to strike when…

A foot smashed into the face of the bandit.

“TERRI KICK!”

It was Terri, who had performed her signature full powered flying kick, had sent that bandit to the rest of the group of bandits knocking them away like a group of 9 pins in a bowling alley!

“Ehh?!” Ace yelled.

Ace’s reaction is quite to be expected. For one thing, Terri can give a mean flying kick but it was not at the scale of sending someone “literally” flying. That sort of stuff only happens in the movies.

“Hm? I guess these boots aren’t just made for walking.” Says Terri, while checking the new boots she was wearing. It looked like regular boots but as she was checking the bottom of the boots, a large gem was glowing at the heels.

“Terri?! When the hell did you?! Or rather that boots.”

“Who says you get to have all the fun? Ha!”

Terri used her gymnastic skills to dodge the bandits. As though it knew what she wanted, the boots released a powerful boost of energy the greatly enhanced her jumps and kicks! She leapt into the air, drop kicked several bandits, performed several axe-kicks and all the while maintaining the grace of a gymnast.

“Damn it! Don’t go stealing the spotlight on me!”

“Oh, yeah? Wanna see which one of us takes down the most bandits?!”

“You’re on!”

All the while, Alva and Barton were looking at them dumbfounded. Rather than them doing the fighting and showing how it’s like being an Adventurer, these kids were fighting as though they were experienced ones…at least in skill. For some reason, the whole thing was degraded into a competition between the two on which one defeated the most bandits.

It’s probably because of the “new threat” that just appeared the bandits (or most likely because they been reduced to mere target practices for children) they were now aiming for Ace and Terri. If it were in gamer terms, Ace and Terri just earned the “aggro” of every enemy.

“Doesn’t it feel like we’ve been upstaged or something?” asks Barton.

“Those two are actually pretty good…” admits Alva after observing for a bit. “I can see great potential in them being Adventurers.”

“Ho? You don’t usually give compliments like that.”

Alva ignores him and focuses on the swords Ace was using and just remembered something.

“Speaking of which, the kid mentioned about him getting your permission to borrow our stuff.”

Barton shuddered.

“H-Hey! I just thought that if there was a need for them to fight they can use whatever weapons in the bag to fight!”

“And a good thing too-nya!” Liscia leapt down from one the branches. “Had they not come to our rescue, you’d been in pinch from being poisoned-nya.”

“Hmph…I guess the Musclehead does have some good judgment sometimes.”

“Oi!”

Alva was still glancing at Ace as he fought using those twin swords.

“But those swords he’s using…”

“Yeah, I know…shocking, right?”

“Lierally-nya…Are you alright Alva-nya?”

Alva didn’t reply but she did thought silently.

(To think there was someone else who could wield those custom-made weapons of yours…brother…)