Chapter 67 (1/2)

After exiting the bubble, Shin and Saphira quietly made their way out of the forest.

They encountered no problems given their magical power and the aura of life that Shin gave off, S-rank monsters are smart and know how to respect the strong, at least some of them and for the rebels, Saphira only subdued them.

”Finally” said Shin as they reached the exit.

Ahead of them was a large, vast plain with no end in sight.

Shin closed his eyes and used his life energy to sense any life at all.

”Over there I can sense life, a small village,” Shin said, pointing to the left.

”I can also feel a life energy similar to the elf queen over there, I guess it's the elf kingdom” said Shin looking to the right.

”Let's go to the village first” said Shin having made his decision..

”What are you going to do?” asked Saphira telepathically, curious.

”Explore. I want to explore this world, gather books and knowledge. Know everything and see everything” said Shin with eyes shining with excitement and a playful smile.

”I didn't know you liked it so much. Are you a wise man or a Hermit?” said Saphira with a gentle scoff.

”Pfft,” Shin huffed as he walked off in the direction of the village.

”What about you?” asked Shin to Saphira.

”I'll look for opponents and get stronger, but I'll always be watching you, wherever you are,” Saphira said in an overprotective voice.

”Okay.”

And just like that, Saphira flew away while Shin walked towards the village and took his time to look at everything curiously.

1 hour later, Shin had finally arrived. The village was quite far from the forest so 1 hour might seem normal but Shin could have done it in a few minutes.

”Aaaah!”

As he approached the village, he could hear a scream of terror from a woman so he hurried to the village.

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\ ¶ In the village /

In the middle of the village, all the inhabitants were grouped together while in the middle were several men.

There was a very large, muscular man with a huge machete with several other men next to him.

And in front of this big man was an old man on his knees with an ugly wound on his ċhėst.

”That'll teach you, old man,” said the big muscular man.

”Ahah, he really thought he could do something against the boss?” laughed one of the men next to him.

”But still, that big guy is a former C-rank, that's pretty impressive” said another.

”Maybe, but he's just a pile of old bones now” laughed another.

This group was a group of raiders, thieves, in short, people who killed others for their pŀėȧsurė or for goods.

And the old man in front was the village chief.

This village was in pretty good shape so the raiding party had decided to steal and make a base out of it.

This kind of people didn't really have any principles or goals.

The village chief was opposed and being a former C-rank, he was able to resist but his body was not young anymore.

The wound that he received was very deadly for him in his condition.

The leader of the group was a B rank so he was already at a huge disadvantage.

”Leave him!”

A girl's scream was heard as a sword collided with the mercenary's machete.

”Ohoh, a young girl wants to oppose me,” said the robber chief with interest.

”Surely she will become a beauty later on. Try not to damage her too much, Ozard” said one of the men.

”Hmph” gasped the girl in disgust.

The girl had long silver hair and grey eyes.

She was very pretty but her eyes didn't show much emotion except anger and disgust, which gave her a rather cold temperament.

She had a beautiful black sword.

”Olivia, stop,” the village leader said with difficulty as he spat out blood.

”Shut up old man, girl, I'll let you attack first” Ozard said with a mocking smile.

Olivia squinted her eyes as she ran towards the man.

Quick!” thought the thief leader.

*SLASH*

*CLANG*

Ozard was able to react quickly enough and parried the attack with his sword as he pushed Olivia away.

Ozard rushed towards Olivia without delay to Olivia's surprise but she did not lose her composure.

He pelted her with high-speed blows but Olivia managed to dodge them and deflect them with her sword.

But each blow she blocked was strong and numbed her arms and entire body.

”That girl... She's at least a C-rank” said one of the shocked men.

Olivia was C-rank but she had incredible speed and agility not to mention good swordplay.

Only, that only allowed her to compete with a B rank like Ozard in just those two areas.

Olivia continued to deflect his blows, but she would soon be unable to do so.

So on a sudden impulse, she dodged a sword strike and moved in immediately after putting all her strength into her legs.

Her speed surpassed even Ozard's and she passed behind him without him being able to see anything.

*SLASH*

She swung her sword, but when she did, she suddenly felt heat at her side.

*BOOM*

One of Ozard's men was a mage and he threw a fireball at Olivia and she took it head on.

But to everyone's surprise, when Olivia swung her sword, it changed its trajectory towards the fireball and cut it in half.

Everyone was shocked, even the villagers and the chief, but that moment gave Ozard time to turn around and swing his arm behind him to punch Olivia in the face.

Olivia was able to put her sword in front of her but she had no strength left in her arm, so she was thrown against the wall of a house.

”Ahah...” Olivia breathed hard and spat out blood.

”You... I have to admit, you're good and you have a very interesting sword” Ozard said in a husky voice as he walked towards Olivia.

”Don't hurt her” said the village leader with great difficulty as he tried to stand up.

”Stay down grandpa!” shouted Ozard angrily as he gave the chief a nasty kick.

”Anyway, your sword, it's the one that helped you slice the fireball, right?” asked Ozard looking at Olivia with a sadistic smile.

Olivia couldn't say anything but look at Ozard with a cold, venomous stare.

Ozard walked over to Olivia on the floor and picked up the sword stuck in the ground with his other hand.

”It's a shame but I don't like you,” Ozard said with a cold, murderous face.

”Thanks for the gift,” Ozard said, pointing his machete skyward and swinging it at Olivia.

'This is how it ends...' thought Olivia as she closed her eyes.

”...” But nothing happened to her so she opened her eyes to see the reason.

She was surprised to see a person in front of her wearing a hooded coat that completely hid her identity.

But the most shocking thing was that the man had stopped Ozard's attack with his hand without difficulty or injury.

”You... Who are you?!” shouted Ozard angrily, but one could see the terror.

”You don't have to know” said Shin with a cold voice.

Shin had seen his soul and he felt it, this man was evil and had done atrocious things.

”Die!” yelled Ozard as he was about to use his other hand with Olivia's sword to attack Shin because he couldn't get his machete out of the grip of Shin's hand.

Except that the attack never came to Ozard's surprise as he looked at his hand to see that it was gone and that blood was flowing profusely.

”Aaaaaaaaah” Ozard screamed in pain as he dropped his machete, stepped back and held his arm or his hand had been cut off.

Whether it was Ozard, his subordinates, the villagers or Olivia, they were all shocked because they hadn't even seen the attack and it looked like Shin had cut off his hand with his hand.

”This sword is not yours” said Shin as he threw Ozard's hand and the machete he was holding away and took Olivia's sword.

”I'll borrow it for five seconds” Shin said quietly to Olivia who couldn't even respond as she looked at Shin with admiration and a dėsɨrė for strength.

”Go ahead and kill him!” said Ozard to his mage subordinates as they all rushed to send in their attacks.

A fireball, a gust of wind, a water bubble, and spikes of earth from the ground rushed towards Shin.

”Careful,” Olivia said with difficulty.

She didn't want to involve any innocents and receiving four simultaneous attacks from C-rank mages was too much.