Chapter 21 - Bandits (1/2)

Gravis walked behind the group of hunters. His armor was one solid, so it was really difficult moving his legs and arms. He constantly had to concentrate on keeping the obsidian 'flowing'. It was draining, but he also realized that it helped him temper his will.

The hunters in front of Gravis were nervous. They felt Gravis' Will-Aura. They didn't know what a Will-Aura was, but they still felt it. It felt like a wild beast trailed them, waiting for a chance to strike.

Gravis kept walking in silence. He wanted to know more about the world and any essential towns or cities nearby. Sadly, he had to remain mysterious, so he didn't initiate a conversation. He needed to wait for them to start one.

”We will arrive in our village in about two hours. The bandits should come tomorrow. That's the best opportunity to strike them,” Sarah said after hours of silence.

Gravis was happy that he could finally talk. ”There will be no issue. When they arrive tomorrow, I will bestow death upon them!” Gravis sneered, but the others couldn't see it. ”That the bandits exploit your village, shows their weak will and power.”

They heard Gravis' disdain but kept quiet. Even if their village was weak, it was still their home. They didn't like someone calling their home weak. Yet, they knew that they lived in a different world than the Earth Spirit.

Sarah continued. ”You should not underestimate them. They have three people with tempered skin. Our village, in comparison, only has two, my father and me. If you stop one, we can fight equally.”

Gravis felt relief. They only had three people with tempered skin. ”I said, I will bestow them death, and I will keep my word. You only need to watch,” he commented. ”If those bandits are so strong, why wouldn't they attack a bigger human settlement?”

Sarah laughed dryly. ”You must be joking. A town has, at least, one individual with tempered skin and muscle. They wouldn't even know how they died. A city would be even scarier. The head of a city must have a fully tempered body, or they wouldn't be able to be the head of a city.”

Finally, Gravis got some information about this world. There was no mention of energy gathering realm cultivators yet, so this was probably an area far away from the core of power of this world. He estimated that he could kill anyone with tempered skin. It didn't matter if they had also tempered their organs and blood or not. If the enemy didn't have a strong will, he might even be able to kill someone with tempered muscles.

He had killed a low-rank demonic beast once, and those can only be killed by people with tempered muscles, usually. Yet, with his luck, there might be an issue with those bandits. He had to be careful.

The party continued to walk and arrived outside the village after two hours. It wasn't very big. From one end to the other, it spanned about a hundred meters. The village was comprised of simple wooden huts, and all the villagers were outside their houses.

The men looked relieved when they reached their home, but Sarah furrowed her brows. ”The villagers are all outside. This seems unusual, unless...”

She realized what might have happened and turned white. ”The bandits arrived early!” She shouted and sprinted into the village. If the bandits arrived, and she wasn't there as intimidation, they might go beyond their usual 'rules'.

The men also blanched and quickly ran after her. Gravis watched her leave and finally got an opportunity to do something he wanted to do for a long time. He started slowly changing his armor to actually have joints. All this 'sloshing around' of the armor was really draining him. After some seconds, he did some jumps and saw no more issues.

Sarah just went beyond the village's border and continued to run into the middle. Gravis cracked his neck to relieve some tension, and also sprinted to the village. Even though the obsidian armor was heavy, he ran just as quickly as Sarah.

When he went beyond the village border, he saw a wall of villagers blocking his way. They weren't looking at him, but into the village center, where Gravis could hear a loud commotion. Gravis continued running, his steps incredibly loud due to his obsidian armor.

The villagers heard the commotion behind them and turned around. There, they saw an imposing black armor charging at them. They screamed and jumped to the side. The villagers further in front heard the screams, turned around, and also quickly jumped to the side.

A clear street appeared where Gravis charged, and he could finally see what was happening at the center. About ten people in leather armor, carrying short iron swords, watched in smugness, as three people fought Sarah and a middle-aged man.

Sarah was fighting with two of them, while the middle-aged man fought with another one. The middle-aged man was already severely injured and bled from multiple cuts across his body. He probably had to fight off all three of them at the beginning.