BXBX NOVEL Chapter 102: Assault.
"Hahaha, boys, this is the end for you."
"Quick, catch them before they run again."
The bandits teased evilly, but the third man seemed to be the smartest among these bandits, as instead of saying the cheap lines of a villain, he advised them to catch them.
"Come on, man, calm down. What are just these four going to do?"
"Yeah, look at them standing all shocked. They\'ve given up running."
The first two men mocked as they stood at their place lazily and didn\'t mind the third bandit\'s advice.
The other bandits, too, gave dirty smiles as they slowly walked to the sides to surround the four boys.
The third bandit gritted his teeth as he felt they were going easy on their targets, knowing how the boys had just sneak attacked them under their noses with those fireballs.
Meanwhile, the four boys looked at each other and gave a solemn nod in unison before Eric again raised his hands to conjure a few fireballs.
The moment the bandits caught sight of the fireballs, they shouted in alert.
"Guard yourselves! Those fireballs are coming again."
This time, the fireballs weren\'t much in quantity and didn\'t cause them any harm as they hit the ground before them, building up dust, which slightly blocked their vision.
"Run!"
After attacking with the magic spell, the boys quickly split up and ran in different directions.
They had already planned this beforehand, and had stopped at this particular spot as it had four ways into which they could escape.
"Shit! They\'re separating, quickly chase them, and don\'t let them escape."
The bandits cursed under their breaths and blew away the dust from the surroundings before splitting up and going after their targets randomly.
The boys, on the other hand, didn\'t look back and ran deeper into the labyrinth-like alleys, bringing along with them a few bandits each who chased after them.
Intending to lure the bandits away for them to not group together, the four boys ran as fast and as far as they could without letting themselves be caught.
But two among them couldn\'t run any longer as they reached a dead-end in the narrow alleyways, which made the bandits gradually arrive towards them.
The two of them were Eric and Felix, who both turned around to handle the few bandits in front of them.
On Eric\'s side, the boy had a grim look on his face as he slowly raised his hand towards the sky.
The three bandits who had chased after him took a step back when they saw that he was the one who had previously conjured those terrifying fireballs to hurt them.
They looked at each other and decided to deal with the boy with caution.
While on Felix\'s side, four bandits had surrounded him.
Seeing the boy standing there with his back towards them, one of the bandits shouted in twisted anger.
"You\'re dead boy, what are you going to do now that you\'re all alone, huh?"
Felix slowly turned around taking his shortsword out, with a playful smile on his face which made the bandits frown.
"Well, to answer your question...", Felix muttered calmly and narrowed as a sharp glint flashed through his red eyes.
".....I\'ll be going all out now."
At the end of his words, he concentrated his focus as the skill Unanimity passively came into use and dashed towards the nearest bandit with his sword out.
The bandits quickly turned alert and prepared themselves for the clash, but moments before striking the first bandit, Felix activated one of his skills.
"Earth Spikes!"
Suddenly, the ground beneath the nearest bandit protruded as a sharp spike emerged from there and attacked his legs.
The bandit who was eyeing Felix didn\'t notice any change in the surroundings until he felt horrible pain as something penetrated his legs.
"Aaaaahhhhhh my legs!!", the bandit screamed out at the top of his lungs as his right leg separated from his torso and his body fell back on the ground.
But that didn\'t stop Felix who ran past him and went ahead to attack the rest of the bandits who were still surprised at the sudden change on the battlefield.
"T-That boy is also a mage!", one of the bandits muttered as he felt his legs tremble seeing his friend\'s gruesome state.
The other bandits too nodded gravely as they mistook Felix as a mage, as he could do something like manipulating the earth which looked like a spell.
Felix finally arrived near the other bandits who had turned defensive with their weapons against him.
The three were standing side by side as they awaited him, and the moment he came within their arm\'s reach, they attacked him together.
Felix who was about to receive their weapons on his body gave them a harmless smile and used another of his skills.
"Agility Burst!"
He suddenly disappeared from the place before the bandit\'s strikes hit the ground where he was standing.
Quickly arriving behind the stunned bandits, Felix made use of the blindspot and used an Assault Impact on one of them.
As his shortsword directly came into touch with the bandit\'s back, it smoothly entered his body before the effect of the technique forcibly pushed the bandit forward.
"Khughh!!"
Spurting out blood, the bandit flew through the air in the narrow alley and crashed on the ground near the other fallen bandit, with a bloody hole in his chest on display.
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 10 skill points.]
The face of the fallen bandit, who had his legs cut off, turned pale as he turned to see his friend\'s body lying unmoving beside him.
With a terrified expression, he shouted out stuttering to his other remaining mates.
"H-Hurry and d-deal with that boy already!"
The other two bandits who were shocked at the quick attack on their friend hurriedly turned around to face the boy, but they widened their eyes as he was nowhere to be found.
"W-Where did he go?!", a bandit shouted in terror.
The other bandit shook his head with sweat running down his spine.
Both of them looked scared as they surveyed their surroundings with caution to prevent another sudden attack on them.
Meanwhile, the fallen bandit had turned completely quiet, as he was incapable of thinking from what he was seeing right now.
The expression on his face bordered to insanity as he stared eye-wide at the silver head slowly peeking out from the ground just below the two cautious bandit\'s legs.
He took a terrified gulp when the boy who was \'swimming\' in the ground gestured for him to keep quiet by putting his finger on his lips.
Partially submerged beneath the surface, Felix glanced at the guarded and tensed actions of the two bandits, before again activating his skill.
\'Earth Spikes.\'
Two sharp and thick curved spikes instantly emerged from the ground, and before the two bandits could even notice, the one-meter-long spikes pierced right into their stomachs.
"Khuh?"
Both of them spit blood and turned downwards, then widened their eyes in shock.
Not because they saw the spikes impaled into them, but because they saw the boy\'s head protruding out of the ground and giving them a devilish smile.
Abruptly, another two spikes emerged out from behind them and stabbed into their backs.
With blood pouring out from their wounds which soaked the ground wet, the two bandits lost the light in their eyes as they slumped down against the still spikes, that remained impaled into them.
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 10 skill points.]
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 10 skill points.]
Felix slowly surfaced out from the ground and deactivated the skill Earth Swimming.
He looked at his shortsword that he didn\'t use much in this battle and regretted a bit as it felt better to fight with the sword.
"Ughh It would\'ve been exciting if I fought with only the sword though...."
Shaking his head, he flicked off the little blood on his sword and sheathed it.
But before the sword could entirely enter inside the sheath, he paused and turned around.
His eyes lit up as he saw the last remaining fallen bandit that he had forgotten to kill.
"Oh...I\'m sorry for forgetting you."
Taking out the shortsword from the sheath, he slowly walked towards him as his eyes glowed eerily.
The fallen bandit was trembling in shock as his mind couldn\'t process anything that was happening at the moment.
He wanted to run away from this place, but unfortunately his legs had been cut off so the only thing he could do was drag his upper body using his arms.
And that was possible only when he had a sane mind.
As the silver haired boy with a devilish expression on his face stepped towards to him, the bandit couldn\'t do anything except for staring blankly at him in terror.
The bandit\'s body remained still in shock as Felix\'s shortsword came slashing through the air, and severed the bandit\'s head off from his body.
Spinning in the air for a while, the bloodied head dropped down onto the ground and rolled away, before the bandit\'s torso too fell back on the ground.
"..thud."
[You have killed a being higher than your own rank.]
[You have gained 10 skill points.]