Chapter 234 Don't expect to return alive
"Tell me, how many of you bandits are still in the caves?" Max raised the bandit in the air by the neck and asked coldly.
"Argh! Who are you?" The bandit struggled to speak. He wasn't able to breathe properly.
"Tell me what I asked." Max used a bit more strength but his expression remained emotionless.
"Argh! I'll... I'll tell you." Fear flashed in the bandit's eyes. Max nodded and loosened his grip to let him speak more freely.
"No… Cough! There is no one there. The gang leader has taken everyone with him in the morning..." The bandit started to speak.
After telling him everything, the bandit had a begging expression and tried to speak "Can you let me-"
Crack!
Max didn't bother with him anymore and snapped his neck without hesitation, instantly killing him.
After that, he took their spatial bags and found a total of four hundred Mana stones, a few pills, and one grade-two weapon. He then stored everything in his inventory and tossed a fireball on the bandit's body before moving in the direction of the city.
After interrogating the bandit, he found out that the bandit leader had received the information that a relatively wealthy merchant group was coming to sun feather city to trade.
Therefore, he had taken all of the members with him to ambush this merchant group a dozen miles away from the sun feather city.
Half an hour later, Max neared the place where the bandit group should be waiting for the merchant group while making sure not to make any noise.
"Hm?" When he was half a mile away, he suddenly heard some fighting sounds coming from the direction of the main road.
Whoosh!
He increased his speed and sped off in that direction.
...
Meanwhile, on the main road...
"Keke, Resistance is futile. I advise you to hand over all the precious things you have if you don't want to die." A one-eyed man in black clothes laughed wickedly while swinging a yellow-colored spear in his hand. Six more figures in black clothes stood behind him.
In front of them were three people, one middle-aged man, and two females. One of which was very young, while the other one was a middle-aged woman.
"Young miss, we should just give up. It's not worth it to die for some wealth." The middle-aged man suggested as he looked at the young girl in a red dress in the middle.
She was barely nineteen years old and looked very pure. However, right now, her expression was deathly pale. Blood was flowing down from the corners of her mouth, and she was clutching her stomach, which had a deep bloody wound.
"Yes, young miss. He is right. We need you to get treated as soon as possible, or you might die due to blood loss." The other woman also agreed with the suggestion. She was even more heavily injured, and her whole body was bloodied. She looked as if she would collapse anytime now.
The girl in red glanced at the two of them and could see that the current situation wasn't in their favor. However, when she looked at the corpses around them, her expression became deadly.
She looked at the bandit group, and her eyes radiated intense killing intent as she spoke through greeted teeth, "I can't let the deaths of my people in vain. These bastards must die."
As she said this, a strong surge of Mana exploded out from her body. A flame lit on her hand, which she used to burn the wound on her stomach and stop the bleeding.
"Young miss!" The middle-aged man and the woman's expressions changed seeing this. They knew that their young miss, although somewhat arrogant and short tempered but was very kind and couldn't see her subordinate suffer. But they didn't expect her to treat herself so brutally.
Even the expressions of the bandits changed. They hadn't thought a young girl like her would be so cruel to herself, and the expression of the bandit leader became grim, and killing intent flashed in his eyes.
Whoosh!
After stopping the bleeding, she moved toward the bandit leader and punched out. Two large fire fists materialized, which also followed her motion and punched at him.
"Hehe, little beauty. You have quite the temper, huh?" The bandit leader laughed grimly and thrust the spear toward her.
Bang!
The spear collided with the fire fists and easily destroyed them, and then continued toward her chest.
Whoosh!
A deep gash was left on her chest as she was thrown backward, spitting out blood.
"Young miss." The middle-aged man and the bloodied woman appeared behind the girl in red and stopped from crashing. The middle-aged man then quickly took out some pills and made her eat them.
The woman looked at the bandit leader and said in a hoarse voice, "We'll leave everything here. So, let us go."
"Let you go? I would have if you had agreed a moment ago, but now I'm going to kill you all." The bandit leader said with a murderous expression. From how decisive and vengeful this girl was, he knew that if he let her leave, there would definitely be problems in the future.
Right now, his group was already on sun feather city's radar due to how active they have been recently, so he didn't want to increase problems for himself.
Weng!
The spear vibrated lightly as he poured his Mana into it and then stabbed toward them.
Whoosh!
The middle-aged man wanted to carry the girl and move out of the trajectory of the spear. However, the spear radiated a heavy aura, and he couldn't even move his body properly.
He and the bloodied woman watched the spear stab toward them with unstoppable momentum, their faces turned pale, and despair flashed in their eyes. The woman dragged her body in front of the spear to block it with her body and give them a chance to escape.
"Nooo...!" The expression of the girl in red changed as she cried out. She didn't want anyone to die because of her. She regretted not leaving when he gave them a chance and attacked him in anger.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Just then, a few fire arrows rained down on the bandits in the back, and a few also pierced toward the bandit leader.
"Hm?" The bandit leader reacted the instant he heard the piercing sounds, turned around, and waved his spear in a crescent arc, destroying all the arrows heading toward him.
He then shouted at his underlings, "Watch out, you idiots!"
The bandits were off guard and were watching their leader kill the trio leisurely. So, when they suddenly saw him turn around, they were dazed for a moment before reacting and dodging to the side. After all, as bandits, they had been in many life and death situations which had sharpened their reaction speed.
However, two of them were still hit. But it only caused some injuries, and none of them died.
"Sigh! So unfortunate." On top of a tree behind the bandit group, Max sighed in disappointment.
He arrived just as the bandit leader attacked the trio. In a hurry, he couldn't cast his spell properly, which caused its power to be reduced by more than half, or else he could've killed at least half of them since they were completely off guard.
Shua!
Seeing that none of them had recovered from the sudden attack yet, he jumped down in front of a bandit who was slightly injured and punched toward his head with his full power.
Bang!
The bandit was caught off guard, and Max's punch landed on his forehead, and his head exploded.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden change in the situation.
"A disciple of the Cloud academy?" The bandit leader's eyes furrowed as he recognized him by his uniform and the emblem on his chest.
The middle-aged man and company looked at Max, and their hope was reignited.
"You quickly take the young miss and escape. I'll try to stall these bandits as long as I can." The woman said in a hurry.
From Max's looks, he looked of the same age as their young miss, and at most, he would be a two-star mage. However, he still wouldn't be the bandits' match since the bandit leader had a grade three earth elemental weapon.
The middle-aged man shook his head. "You take her away. With your injuries, you won't be able to stall them. It's best I stay and give you some time to enter the sun feather city." Saying this, he stood up and started circulating his remaining Mana.
The woman looked at him, and sadness flashed in her eyes. However, she still stood up and carried the young girl, ready to escape.
Whoosh!
However, the bandit leader suddenly pointed the spear toward them, and an earth barrier enveloped the trio.
He then turned toward Max and said in a surprised tone, "I hadn't expected you to come even after knowing about my grade three weapon."
Then his expression became deadly as he laughed. "But since you were dumb enough to come, don't expect to go back alive."