Chapter 157 Cain's Mission (Part 2)

"What's the supposed to mean?" The large man asked, a confused expression appearing on his face.

"It should be obvious. Haven't you noticed our uniforms are different from the military? No? What about our ages? We're all the same age as your ability user." Cain said with a condescending tone.

A look of realization flashed across the man's face "You're that new group... The one with just ability users!"

"Correct. We are known as Infernai, from the organization known as Infernum. As you said, we're all ability users." Cain said.

The entire bandit group seemed to terrified to hear this piece of news. Here they were bragging about how their one ability user is worth at least 10 people while they were staring at a group of 10 ability users.

Even the girl, the ability users, was visibly afraid now. She had been looking down on the Infernai the entire conversation with a look of disdain.

"I can see you're all reevaluating your choices. I'll give you an easier way out then. If you surrender now then none of you will get hurt and I'll even put in a good word with the person deciding your prison time, maybe you can get a slight reduction thanks to your cooperation." Cain said.

Although the prospect of going to prison wasn't favorable, the bandits still understood that their chances of escaping were practically 0, same thing regarding a victory if they were to fight.

'All things considered, its not a bad deal' Tia thought. 'I don't like giving them a shorter sentencing but if it's makes the arrest smoother and there isn't any collateral damage to the town then it's worth it.'

The offer did seem to appeal to most of the bandits, their demeanors became less threatening and they seemed ready to give then and there.

'One more push.' Cain thoight "If one of you tells us where your base is then that person would barely even get prison time at all."

The reason behind this proposition was that all the resources they had taken could be gathered and redistributed back to the towns and villages, at the same time any other bandits not present could be apprehended as well.

The bandits not present would be caught eventually regardless but the quicker the resources are reclaimed, the better.

A bandit stepped forward from behind the leader and dropped his sword on the ground "I-I'll do it." He sheepishly said.

Before he could take even a single step forward from that point, the leader swung his sword and decapitated the bandit with a single strike.

"We are not going to surrender! If you want to take us then you'll have to work for it!" The leader shouted.

The ones who were considering the deal begrudgingly readied themselves for combat, seemingly fearing their leader more than the Infernai.

~Sigh~ "This could have been much easier... Well, now that's its come to this. Try not to kill them." Cain said.

The Infernai activated their abilities upon Cain's order. Some charged in for close combat while others used ranged attacks.

Chains wrapped around the ability user, preventing her from joining the fight. Cain rushed in alongside the other close combat fighters and aimed for the leader.

There were flashes of light all around as abilities were clashing with the bandits. Most of the bandits took only a single hit to go down with most of those being knocked unconscious.

There were a few bandits that died from the attacks despite the Infernai trying to hold back. It was unfortunate but they were warned beforehand so nobody felt any guilt over it.

The leader attempted to swing his sword at Cain with a diagonal slash but Cain was much quicker when he lightened his body, allowing him to dodge with ease.

Since his talk with Leo, he came to realize that lower his own density might grant him speed but it also lowers his power and defense.

It opened his eyes to the potential risk involved with using his ability for the purpose. In this case he was rather confident that it wouldn't be a problem.

After ducking down and side stepping the strike, he increased the density for his body and hammers. He swung one at the leaders knee, snapping the bones surrounding it and forcing the leg to bend backwards.

The leaders body started to fall forwards and Cain swung his other hammer upwards, slamming into the leaders chin and knocking him out.

Cain made sure to use significantly less power on the second strike since the leader was the most important in terms of getting information.

The female ability user was still held by the summoned chains by the time the rest of the bandits had been dealt with.

Cain walked over to her and used his finger to flick the back of her head and knock her out. It was much easier to do since she was being held down by the chains.

"Why did you knock her out?" Tia asked.

"I know she was already caught but we don't know what her ability is yet. I know the mayor said it was to improve weapons or something but that could be wrong. It's better to be safe." Cain replied.

He looked around and saw that nobody from his squad had suffered any kind of injury. This was to be expected from a threat of this level.

An average level ability user could have handled these bandits alone depending on their ability, having the whole squad almost felt like overkill.

"Nice work everyone. Let's put them in the cart and head back." Cain said. 'That was much easier than I expected... Have we all gained more power than I thought or were they just weaker than expected?'

He brushed those thoughts to the side and started helping his squad place the captured bandits into the cart they brought with them.

It was similar to the cart Leo was kept in when he had been arrested, only there was one large cage rather than several smaller ones.

9 of the bandits survived the fight, if it can even be consider a fight, while the rest died instantly. Their bodies were carried a bit away from the town and burned to prevent disease from spreading.

After the last of the bandits had been plaved in the cart or burned, cain noticed that there was an unusual amount of people in the streets given the time of night.

At first he believed it was so they could watch the bandits get dealt with but he noticed they weren't standing around. They all moving with purpose, each of them going in a similar direction.

When looking closer, he noticed there was a panicked expression on their faces. The others were beginning to notice the towns peoples strange behavior as well.

Tia sran forwards and stopped an older woman that was jogging passed "What's going on?" she asked.

"There's a man turning people into monsters on the other side of town!" The woman said in a panic as she continued her movement.

Tia turned back to Cain and saw that he had a very concerned expression on his face as he was staring at the direction the old woman pointed "Captain...?"

Cain stopped staring into the distance and looked around at his squad, each of them was now looking at him.

"Well, this just got very serious." Cain said with an ominous tone.

"Its probably nothing Captain, the woman was probably just confused. There isn't anyone with an ability like that." One of the Infernai said.

"There is someone like that. I've seen him myself and one of those beasts he creates is enough to fight me one on one." Cain said.

"But there wasn't anyone like that at the academy!?" A different Infernai said, his voice slightly panicked.

"His name is Trent Zemor, someone you all should know. He joined the cult and became one of those Imperiums as General Rune called them. He has more than one ability now and both his fire and the beasts are hard to deal with.

The first time I encountered them, he had created around a hundred of them. General Rune fought with Trent one on one and although he didn't lose he didn't win either. He alone could fight our entire squad and win..." Cain explained.

He wasn't trying to scare them by saying these things, he just wanted to make it clear that they needed to take this seriously.

" If he really has that much power, how are we supposed to beat him?" An Infernai asked, his voice filled with fear and doubt.

"We just have to try out best." Cain shrugged. This wasn't the response the others were hoping for but there wasn't anything they could do, Cain was their leader and they had to follow his orders.

"Tia, I want you and one other member of the squad to escort the prisoners and towns people back the city." Cain suddenly said.

"I can't just leave you guys here... I can help fight!" She protested.

"You need to help the people. What's the point if they don't survive. Like we said, let's be the ones that show up to help them. Don't worry we'll be fine." Cain replied.

Tias face portrayed her mixed feelings but she nodded in agreement and left with another squad member she picked at random.

Cain then started walking to the other side of town with the remaining Infernai "Saving the people is our priority. Don't risk your life if you can avoid it, we'll save as many people as we can and retreat.

And no matter what, don't engage Trent. None of us can beat him right now."