Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

He at this moment had finally stopped holding back and used the rare [Mana Lines] skill he had to dish out a swift attack.

The Brigand Master did not expect a magic attack to be conjured so fast and hence was caught unprepared. He was hit squarely by the Lightning arrow and carried along as it flew towards the distant forest.

The power behind the lightning arrow was so powerful that it gorged a straight line on the ground and crashed onto the distant trees with a thunderous noise. RUMBLE… dozens of trees fell onto the ground and ignited in a fire, smoke rose up in the air and obscured everyone's vision.

No one whether the convoy or the bandits expected the Brigand Master to be the one suffering such a devastating blow. Their minds which should have been numbed from the repeated surprises, became baffled even more when they saw such a scene.

This was especially so for the bandits who had suffered a moral damage. They were just recovering from this shock, when another astounding event occurred. The young man who had just sent the Brigand Master flying after one of his attacks, changed his direction and charged towards the butler who was about to crush the guard commander's neck.

With a whistling sound of the wind, a foot came smashing towards the wide open butler sending him backwards in the process.

"Kugh.. hah..haa… thanks" Alvara who was now free from the clutch, took hurried breaths of air. She did not forget to thank the person who had helped her at her dire moment.

"Alvara" Cynthia face which was pale with worry, called out. She was just about to rush forward when she was suddenly stopped by the latter.

"Don't worry Miss, I'm fine. I was just a bit careless that's all".

ROAARR… a deep beastly voice that made one cover their ears, sounded out. The butler who was sent flying by a kick from Simon, stood up once again and glared at its assailant. His bulky body which was now more than two meters big, enlarged even more after the rush of power from those beast marks on his body.

Alvara narrowed her eyes and straightened her sword, she was just about to engage with the enemy when Simon stopped her.

"His powers are on another level, you are no match for the current him".

Those cold words from the young man made her unable to accept it, nonetheless, the reality was so. Even after using all of her strength, she wasn't even able to fatally injure him. However, as the guard commander of all the silver guards and the one responsible to secure the safety of her miss, how could she back down?

She was just about to press forward ignoring those words, when Simon suddenly made his move. His body was like a rocket as it fiercely engaged with the butler who had increasingly started attacking like a beast.

Some might even find it difficult to associate him with a human after seeing him clawing and trying to bite.

After exchanging a few blows with the butler named Jeeves, was Simon able to truly feel the dreadfulness of those glowing beast marks. Every time Jeeves attacked those marks would glow with a brilliant light making his strength multiply manifold.

<br/>Even with the stats of a Demon Viscount, Simon had to be careful, those attacks were enough to even overcome his defence stats.

BANG… BANG…

Punches and kicks flew around and landed onto the body of Jeeves who was full of openings. Nevertheless, the butler seemed unfazed even after suffering those damage. After another heavy attack from a flame spear, Simon sent the person flying back only for the latter to spring back up.

The young man's clash with the butler naturally attracted many gazes onto them, even those at the frontlines, were keeping an eye on this battle. They wanted to see if the black-robed young man who had repeatedly shown them many surprises, would be able to defeat the enemy in front of him.

"AHH… Kill, Kill…I'll kill you" Jeeves started charging towards him after throwing those words in between his snarls. The beast marks on him glowed even brighter and his energy level had reached a point where it even threatened Simon.

BANG… his body had become so heavy and bulky that with just a step, he caused the ground to shatter and cracks to appear.

WHOOSH.. with a speed that was unimaginable for such a heavy body, Jeeves appeared in front of Simon in a lightning-like fashion and furiously swept a claw towards the former.

Simon widened his eyes in surprise, nonetheless, he shifted his body backwards just in time to dodge the attack. Although the butler had enough strength to overpower all the others in this campsite, he did not have enough battle experience or sanity to utilise his strength skilfully.

Hence Simon who was used to fighting strong monsters and adventurers over and over had quite the edge over him. That being said, if he wanted to defeat the butler, he had to go all out.

Obviously, if he did something like that, his façade as a human would fade away. But if he still held back, Simon was not sure if he could defeat him before the person becomes even more powerful. His thoughts showed how much he was wary of the peculiar glowing beast marks on the butler's body.

Taking out the twin blades, he exploited his advantage and dished out lightning-fast attacks to stall the enemy before kicking him backwards again. While it was a problem that his enemy was ignoring the pain, the damage was still being done.

ROAARR… a despairing voice like that of an anguished beast, came from the throat of the butler. The noise made ripples around the air and dissipated the lightning arrow that Simon had just created into nothing but particles of mana.

"W-what?!" the absurdity of the situation stupefied the young man who was unable to react in time when a fist came smashing towards him.

BANG… the fist was about to land on his chest when he hurriedly crossed his arm in front of him. the moment from the punch sent him airborne quite a few distance away.

While the damage was not much, the berserk energy from the fist still made the blood flow within him erratic. Simon swiftly got back on his feet, his eyes clouded by the matter previously. He was about to send a few more lightning magic attacks to better understand the situation when suddenly his instincts flared up and sounded alarms.

He turned his back just in time to see the Brigand Master come rushing at him with an extremely glaring crimson hammer. The heat released by the scorching hammer was so high and packed with power that even with the [Fire Magic Resistance] skill, he was sure that he would be burned quite badly if that attack hit.

Determining his resolve to deal with two powerful enemies while still limiting himself, Simon was just about to show some of his powerful cards like the Amalgamation magic when suddenly he felt a rush of wind and the sexy figure of Alvara jump in between to engage with the Brigand Master.

CLANG… the wide body of the hammer collided with the sleek and elegant long sword, erupting in an intense spark. Wind that dissipated the heat, blew around the surroundings and instantly cooled the area.

Both parties disengaged after that attack and glared at each other.

"We are even now" Alvara declared turning her head a little. After that she ceased talking and started attacking the Brigand Master who had previously been wounded by Simon.

Simon simply shook his head and laughed helplessly, it seemed that the prideful girl didn't want to owe and thus helped out even though she was not fully healed yet. He glanced at her adamantly fighting the Brigand master before tearing his eyes away.

Though she was exhausted and had suffered minor wounds, the Brigand Master was similarly not completely unharmed. The previous Lightning arrow Simon had dealt quite a bit of damage to him who was caught unprepared. His skin was scorched quite badly and half of his body was somewhat numb.

The level difference between them was not that high and unlike the butler who had some unknown source of power, the Brigand Master had no such thing. Hence, Alvara should be able to contend against the latter.

"Don't get in my way woman. I must kill that man myself" the bandit roared aggrieved with shame and humiliation after being dealt such a sneaky blow.

"Snort, your opponent is me" the guard commander snorted coldly and stopped any sort of conversation with him.

She knew how important achieving victory against Jeeves who was the strongest amongst all the enemies was for their convoy. Therefore even if she had to put her battered body at the enemy, she must stop anyone from disturbing their battle. 

A fierce clash between the Master of Bandits and the commander of the convoy started. Meanwhile, on the frontlines, Chuck was fighting two bandit leaders with all his might. This way, the battle raging across the campsite, could be said to be divided into three main parts.

The fight continued to progress for a while before some changes started to occur once again, two of the bandit leaders who could no longer keep up with Chuck's relentless attack were finally injured trying to suppress his attacks.

The bandit leader named Grime was lying down on the floor with blood spewing out of his mouth. His armour were in tatters and his skin black due to receiving the impact from the adventurer. While Osbin was relatively healthy compared to Grime, his powers had clearly declined showing signs of fatigue.

They would occasionally glance at the area where two other fights were currently occurring and click their tongue in frustration.