“This is bad,” she muttered under her breath.

Noir, up until now from the Jayce’s summons, stood beside Alice and kept watch about their position hadn’t made a single sound to indicate any intruder in their vicinity.

Alice later asked Noir for an advice, but it kept its eyes and ears focused on their surroundings.

“Guess you were able to communicate with Jayce, then,” she concluded.

She returned her attention back to the camp. Her mind began racing, thinking every possibility from this point onward. The first possibility was that Jayce and the other prisoners escaped from the camp, avoiding the fight against the bandit leader. The second was Jayce stayed behind to hold off the bandits so that the prisoners could escape. The third was something happened to Jayce during his attempt to open the gate. But the third possibility was very unlikely, he wouldn’t go down that easily, she thought.

At her current position, she couldn’t get a clear vision of what was happening in the camp, so she circled around the camp to the west, jumping from branch to branch with Noir following behind her.

Up until now, the reason she could cast spells to specific positions was due to Jayce’s information. Jayce might not be able to communicate with her telepathically while fighting against bandits and keeping his enchantments active.

When Alice and Noir reached their destination, she equipped and activated the enchanted monocle, her right eye searched around the upper platform of the entrance of the camp until she located Jayce and a blindfolded stranger that seemed to be one of the prisoners whom he had rescued. Wait… Why is this guy blindfolded, she wondered. But Jayce’s expression was serious as he was gazing toward the south. She followed their gaze and soon found out why.

On the south side of the camp, there was a large build man carrying a greatsword and placed it on his shoulder, approaching toward Jayce’s location. The large figure seemed to be the bandit leader as there were about twenty or so bandits following him, brandished themselves with swords.

“Jayce, I will cast a few buff spells for you,” said Alice through their telepathy enhancement.

“Thank you. But can you cast your spells onto Aiden who’s standing next to me? He hasn’t equipped his proper gear at the moment,” he requested.

So the blindfolded person next to Jayce was Aiden. Either way, the safety of prisoners came first, so she cast her spells upon Aiden.

The amount of mana required to cast a spell to the caster’s target depended on the distance between them. The further the distance between the caster and the target, more mana will be required. As for Alice, she had to bear the burden of casting multiple spells to support her friends.

After casting her spells, Jayce asked a question, “Alice, by any chance you know the location of the weapon storage?”

She understood what he had meant, the weapon he asked was referring to Aiden’s. Aiden was attempting to assist them in their quest for an unknown reason.

She scanned the camp from her position and found a tent with an opened drape. With her monocle, she could see a variety of weapons stored within. “The weapon storage is on the east side of the camp, look for a tent with an open entrance, you will able to see it,” she began.

“Understood,” he replied.

Jayce later relayed the information Alice had provided to Aiden. From her enchanted monocle, Aiden nodded to Jayce and sprinted off to the location she had mentioned.

“Alice, we’re going to have to fight the bandits until Aiden comes back with his gears. Do your best to provide support. Don’t push yourself too hard to avoid mana deficiency. Understand?” He commanded.

She gave him her affirmation. With that, she took out two mana potions from her magic gloves and drank them. Once she replenished her mana, she began her incantation to cast buff spells to Jayce.

____________________

Jayce felt the power surging within him. He kept his eyes on the bandit leader, who was about fifty metres away from his position, walking leisurely toward him. He jumped down from the platform and landed gracefully to the ground, and walked toward the bandit leader.

Once they were about ten metres apart, the bandit leader broke out the silence between them: “So, you’re the one who dares to enter my territory and release my prisoners. Do you have a death wish, boy?!”

Jayce let out a sigh, thinking about how they had reached to this situation. Never mind that, he looked up toward the bandit leader and said, “I don’t have any intention to get killed by the likes of you.” He grinned toward the bandit leader.

The bandit felt angry and pointed his greatsword toward Jayce, who had yet to draw his weapons. Jayce felt a killing intent coming from his foe. This guy meant business, he thought.

Meanwhile, Alice began to tremble, not that she was there, to begin with. She began to worry about Jayce more than herself. How could a pair of scimitars be able to beat a greatsword that was able to break any weapons it lay upon? If the information they had gathered from the village chief was true, and Jayce’s weapons broke... No, she had to believe in Jayce. He chose to stay behind and got to have a reason behind it.

“Alice, focus your offense on any other bandits who attempt to go after the prisoners. Don’t let them leave the camp and don’t kill them.”

He wasn’t expecting any response from Alice, he knew she heard him clearly. He drew his pair of obsidian scimitars and took his stance, his left blade, held in a backhand manner, positioned by his waist while the right was lifted over his right shoulder.

Without any words spoken, the bandits rushed toward the gate, leaving the battle against Jayce to the bandit leader. They, too, had faith in their bandit leader to settle their business.

One by one, the bandits were taken down by Alice’s attack spell, but there were a few bandits evaded her barrage of spells approaching the gate.

“!”

Jayce sensed something slipped passed the bandits. He turned to look while keeping the bandit’s leader presence in mind so that he wouldn’t strike him unaware.

There was a silhouette, clad in dark gray clothing and scarf, equipped himself with a pair of silver gauntlet blades, taking down five bandits in one swift motion. His action alone left other bandits around him stunned.

“Well that was quick, I thought it will take some time for you to look for your gear,” said Jayce.

“You know, it’s hard to look for my gear when I’m blind,” replied Aiden, retracting his blade gauntlets. “At least you and your partner gave me the location of the weapon storage. Anyway, I will handle with these guys. I will help you when I’m done with them.”

As Aiden declared his assurance, the bandits turned their attention from the escapees to him. He brought all his concentration to his sense of hearing. Within seconds, he envisioned his surrounding, twenty metres in radius. Based on every single information he could hear, the slightest movement or the sound of the wind was sufficient enough for him to picture his surroundings. Fifteen bandits left. There might be reinforcements to assist the bandits, but whoever they are, Aiden and Alice will take them down.

He didn’t bother to take his stance. He just stood there, waiting for his bandits’ next action. Earlier, he had heard a few bandits knocked down. Definitely not by Jayce, he thought, that means there was someone outside of the camp providing support. Oh well, I’m just going to assume that they are Jayce’s comrades.

With that contemplation concluded, the edge of his lips curved up slightly and he provoked his assailants. “Come at me with everything you got. I will take all of you down unless you’re too afraid to fight a blind adventurer.”

Seven bandits rushed toward Aiden with their swords. He listened to the flow of the wind, flowing by the swords and the bandits, each produced unique frequency at every possible position in his hearing range. Three bandits positioned their swords for an overhead attack, two bandits went for a horizontal strike and remaining focused on the lunge attack.

When a particular sound was heard, he began to move toward the opening between a pair of bandits. One of them was attempting an overhead strike while the other was a horizontal strike. At the same time, his blades extended below his gauntlets and he swung his blades to their necks. Fortunately, they were also equipped with magic gloves, so they were pushed back away from their assailants and knocked unconscious.

But he didn’t stop there. Once he was out of the circle, he turned to his right, aiming for the third bandit. The next target immediately changed his stance and swung his sword toward Aiden, but it was too late, Aiden swung his weapon to his torso, enough strength to push him further away than the first two bandits, not enough to knock him unconscious.

As he turned his attention to the other bandits, all he heard was groaning. Turned out that the other bandits were knocked down by their supporter from outside the camp. He silently thanked whoever helped him and moved on to the next group of bandits.

____________________

“Now that no one will disturb us, may I ask: what’s your name?” asked Jayce.

“My name is Axton.”

The foe that stood before Jayce lowered his greatsword and balanced his center of gravity. He’s going for an upward diagonal slash, huh? thought Jayce, as he analyzed his stance.

He even reminded himself about the leader’s weapon from the village chief: the weapon he wielded destroys anything it contacts. Should Jayce risk using his scimitars? Surely everyone around him would voice out that he shouldn’t engage that kind of weapon. But deep down, he wanted to test out the durability of his main weapons.

The bandit leader shouted. He activated a warrior skill: Shoulder Charge to close the distance between them and swung his greatsword upward.

Instinctively, Jayce raised both of his blades, forming an X shape, to block the blow while activating its hardening enchantment. The strike was heavy; it almost twist and break his wrist, so he adjusted his wrist and use it the momentum to distance himself away from the bandit leader.

After landing away from the bandit leader, Jayce quickly checked his weapon’s condition. So far they were fine, but he had a feeling that they will not last for long. Not yet, he told himself.

He returned his attention to the bandit leader. This time, Jayce sprinted toward the Axton. Just when Jayce was in his range, he voiced out to activate his skill, “Thief skill: Reversal!” The Reversal was a basic skill that allowed the user to immediately circle around their target. Unlike the Side-step skill he had used against Chima the chimera, this skill was far superior, but…

Once Jayce was behind Axton, he had to time it well to stop at the right position, or fall due to the failure of balancing the user’s center of gravity. Once he was behind him, he shifted his pair of blades in position for the next skill.

“Thief skill: Elusion strike!”

He made an upward cross strike, then downward to lift himself up in the air. While in midair, he gave a barrage of horizontal strikes with his blades, chipping away the mana shield that kept producing after every strike he landed.

Sensing something was off, he finished his skill with a downward strike with both blades to keep himself in midair.

Axton unleashed another skill: Warrior skill: Reversal Slash. Jayce took the strike head-on with his blades. If he hadn’t done that, the greatsword would have landed on his side.

“You’re pretty resilient, aren’t you?” asked Jayce after he landed pass a tent.

“Ha-ha-ha! Not bad for a young adventurer! Finally, a worthy opponent about my level!” he proclaimed.

Jayce narrowed his eyes. His brute strength and skill with the greatsword were not to be overlooked. He had to be careful from this point onward.

“About your level?” asked Jayce.

Without a word, the bandit leader took his stance. He lifted his greatsword with both hands, right hand positioned horizontally and toward the back, while the left hand was positioned vertically. He positioned his right foot to the back and the left foot on the front. He steadied his breath, ready to charge.

Jayce imbued his mana to the hardening enchantments of his gauntlets and blades. As predicted, the bandit leader charged at him with a lunge attack, but this strike was a lot faster than his first. Jayce lifted both blades to shield himself, taking the hit from the bandit leader. It sent him further away from the bandit leader by forty meters. He kept himself balance when his boots landed on the grassland, leaving a trail and sending dirt and grass in the air.

Once he stopped, he did another check on his weapons. Just as he had thought, the blades were now blunt after receiving three strikes from the greatsword. Not only that, his arms felt numb and heavy, even with the hardening enchantments from his gauntlets. Guess I have no choice but to use that, he thought.

“!”

There came an explosion occurred between Jayce and the bandit leader. A third party? But the question would be: Is it a friend or a foe?