The group of bandits set off, leaving their hideout completely empty and unguarded.

They took all remaining rations, as well as Frey along, the former on a big cart, while the latter rode along on the horse of one of the bandits.

Several days went by, their stock of food became increasingly scarce, but soon enough they arrived at the distant edge of a valley.

Trees covered and hid them from the bright sunlight as several of the bandits dismounted, Frey was among them.

Hodwan rode up to him, he and his horse together were several times the size of Frey, so he was forced to bend his back and look up at the man as he spoke “Enough leeching for you, it’s time to make yourself useful.” Hodwan started to explain Frey’s use in this attack.

“We are sending you to scout ahead along with a torch. There are three different signals you need to remember, but you only need to send back one depending on the situation. Firstly, you will light the torch and wave at the edge of the small town to signal if we are to expect guards inside of the town.”

“Secondly, you will light the torch and set fire to a building if there are no guards within.”

“Thirdly, you will return back here if you find anyone with things like these…” Hodwan said as he reached down the side of his steed to point at one of the characters that were cut into the beast’s skin.

Frey looked at the white spots curiously, he neither affirmed nor denied Hodwan’s words, but none of the bandits expected him to, as they were used to his silence, and they pushed him out of the edge of the forest, into the sunlight.

“And one more thing… if you don’t send a signal by nightfall, you are going to be punished.” Hodwan threatened, and the word ‘punish’ caused Frey’s hands to tremble.

Frey began to walk with a small torch in hand, it had yet to be lit as it was still daytime and would simply draw strange looks towards him.

The small town grew in size as he approached it, the valley stretched far, but was devoid of trees, creating a wide open plain with just two entrances.

He arrived at the edge of the town and sized up the buildings made from wood and rock, smoke rose out of several chimneys, the streets were bustling with people, and there even was a small marketplace.

Frey wandered aimlessly, he attracted many gazes, he could feel them, his treatment back inside of his own village drilled this feeling of being watched into him.

“Are you lost?” an old lady in a purple gown, short in height, stopped in front of Frey and smiled at him as she asked, she gave of the feeling of a kind and caring person, but Frey had seen this situation before, her face reminded him of Miranda.

Frey opened his mouth, but then closed it again, his fear of accidentally using this cursed power of his overshadowed his desire to immediately warn these people.

The innocence inside of him screamed at him to give these people a heads up, but his rationality knew that the moment the people of this town became panic stricken and attempted to flee, Hodwan would notice that something was off.

Frey had seen the power and speed of Hodwan’s horse, once it made use of those characters and the blue lines, there was no means of escaping, which was why Frey didn’t try to flee himself.

Inside of this valley there were no suitable hiding spots, and the open plain would allow Hodwan to catch up with him, even if Frey had several hours of head start.

“Are you alright?” the old woman noticed that Frey didn’t answer, and seemed conflicted, she tried to reach her hand out to him, but Frey instinctively took a step back.

The woman noticed his behaviour and stopped herself from further reaching out towards him.

“Oh, its fine, I won’t do anything to you… Have you eaten something today? You look hungry.” the woman told him, then changed the topic.

Frey looked down and touched his stomach, then he looked back towards the old woman and shook his head.

“I made some pie earlier today. You can have some. Oh, I am Giselle by the way.” she invited him and started walking towards her home.

“Frey…” he stammered out in response, a single word, his own name, but Giselle was very happy after hearing this response from him “Nice to meet you Frey.” she showed him a kind smile as the two continued walking.

Frey did not return a smile; he instead lowered his head.

He knew what awaited these kind souls if he did nothing about it… but what could he possibly do except hasten their demise… guards?

So, what if the town had guards?

Frey heard enough stories about how Hodwan cleaved armoured warriors in two, how could they possibly defend themselves, let alone everyone in the town?

But not all hope was lost, Hodwan was obviously worried about there being someone who wore similar characters on his body like his steed.

Frey knew that such a person would likely stand a chance against the raiders, yet Hodwan’s entire group only had his own horse, if such markings were common, wouldn’t there be more bandits or horses with them?

The old woman and Frey arrived at her home, it was rather small, but the interior was decorated to make the space appear bigger and comfortable, several chairs and a couch stood around a low table.

The living space and the kitchen were connected into one room, while another door lead deeper into the house, most likely the bedroom.

“Take a seat, I will bring out a slice right away.” Giselle said as she headed for the kitchen counter.

Frey slowly walked towards one of the chairs while he looked at the paintings on the wall, he stopped in front of one particular painting which captivated his attention.

“Hm? Oh, that is me, my husband and my daughter.” Giselle said with a melancholic smile “I was a little younger back then when this was painted. Both of them have already found peace.” she explained, to clear up the question in Frey’s mind, why none of the two were in the house right now.

“I am sorry.” Frey whispered as he continued looking at the painting.

“You have nothing to feel sorry about.” Giselle spoke in order to cheer Frey up, to let him know that she herself had already come to terms with what happened, but Frey teared up, his hands trembled as he lowered his gaze towards the ground again.

Giselle just placed down a slice of pie on the low table in the centre of the house when she noticed his odd behaviour again “What is wrong?” she wanted to know the reason behind his tears, did he think of someone that died himself? Or was there another reason entirely?

“You need to run…” Frey mumbled, but Giselle heard his words clear enough.

“Run? What do you mean? Why would I need to run?” the old woman asked, the feeling of concern inside of her grew, while within Frey something else started to intensify, it felt like a warm and cozy sensation inside of his body.

Frey turned around to face Giselle, his tears streamed continuously, his face looked pained “You must run. Bandits have encircled the-” he tried to tell her clearly about the terror that was looming over the town, however even before he finished, Giselle’s eyes lost their focus.

Frey slammed his mouth shut with both of his hands, his own eyes open wide as he looked on in horror at what he had done: Giselle acted like she was possessed, she grabbed several essential items before leaving the house in a rush.

She slammed the door open “Wait!” Frey ran after her, but he reacted too late, the actions of the old lady immediately attracted attention and caused a commotion.

“Leave. I must leave.” she mumbled as several others attempted to stop and help the poor woman.

“Are you alright?”

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“Have you gone crazy?”

“What’s going on?”

“Calm down…”

The townsfolk created an even bigger uproar, and as Frey saw this, he knew that his actions would lead to these people’s deaths, he had already messed up, how much worse could he possibly make the situation?

What was the worst that could happen if he spoke again?

Frey was once again conflicted, he felt horrible, he took away Giselle’s freedom of thought and action with just a single sentence of his, and what’s worse, is that Hodwan would definitely notice that something was happening here.

And sure enough, on the horizon a large dust cloud began to rise into the clear sky.

“What’s that?”

“A caravan?”

“Why are they in such a hurry?”

The people become more and more confused, first Giselle’s odd behaviour, and now a group of approaching horse riders… could the two be connected?

“Wait! Those… those are raiders!!”

“RUN! RUN!”

“Get out of my way!”

Panic ensued even quicker than inside of Frey’s former village; the population of this place was bigger after all.

The people ran with unprecedented speed, knocking each other to the ground to force their own way through, children were neglected and accidentally trampled on as the older folks only cared about their own survival.

“Order! Order! Get into your homes! We will take care of this!” a group of guards finally arrived at the scene, trying to quell the panic, but even they had trouble getting through the agitated crowd.

“Get into formation!” the captain of the guards ordered his men as they finally got through the crowd to face the part of town Hodwan’s group was approaching from.

The rhythmic knocks of the hooves caused not just Frey, but everyone else to shudder, the sound they created made the guard’s skin crawl.

“Don’t falter! The citizens’ safety depends on us!” the captain shouted to improve their morale as the bandits closed in on them.

“Ready your spears!” the captain gave his final order before the pack of horses reached their formation.

Some spears impaled horses, others impaled the riders themselves, but the majority managed to break through the formation.

Hodwan was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t stop the raiders from decimating the common folk.

Several raiders dismounted and followed the innocent people on foot, another group however focused entirely on the remaining guards.

“Where is the little prince?! Hodwan wants to flay his skin!”

“Traitor! Where is the traitor?!”

“Whoever finds him first gets to eat double rations for a week!”

The bandits crazily shouted while the guards roared as they attacked, killing one horse after another, one rider after another, but they were outnumbered five to one.

The guards put up a valiant fight, killing more than half of Hodwan’s men in the process, but they just weren’t enough to protect the entire town from this onslaught.

The last guard let go of his spear as he began wielding the dagger on his waist, attempting to take even a single more bandit with him to the afterlife, but his energy had plummeted to rock bottom, the dagger was quickly knocked out of his hand, and launched in Frey’s direction, practically landing right in front of him.

“There you are!”

“Hey! I found him first!”

The bandits verbally fought amongst themselves for the promised double rations, while Frey knelt to the ground, he picked up the dagger with both of his hands.

“What are you going to do with that? Scratch my back? Haha!” one of the bandits made sure to approach Frey first while several others followed right behind him, he had yet to claim the trophy that was Frey.

Frey’s gaze however was eerie as he stood back up, his hands were shaking as the dagger pointed at the approaching man.

The warm feeling inside of him became hotter and hotter, like he was burning up on the inside.

The bandit stopped right in front of Frey, he smiled at him with contempt, looking forward to Frey’s attack.

He was confident in withstanding the strike of such a weakling.

Frey’s mind went blank, memories of the slaughter flashed by his eyes, first the people of this town, then he was forced to imagine the same sight with more familiar faces, his mother, his father, everyone else inside of his village.

Frey breathed out the air inside of him, the burning sensation eased a little, as if he was a machine that finally released some of the steam built up inside of itself.

His mind became clear from this one breath, and then he took a step forward and stabbed at the bandit in front of him with his dagger.

The dagger stabbed several centimetres deep into the torso of the man, however failed to create any life-threatening wound.

The bandit’s smirk widened, he was about to open his mouth and mock Frey when a single word entered his ears.

“Die.” Frey ordered in a tone that sounded almost ethereal, his eyes had lost focus, much like Giselle’s after hearing his words.

The burning sensation within himself flared up to the maximum.

Frey felt like he was burning up, like he was standing in the fire of a burning building, but there was no real pain, in truth, he relished in the feeling.

At first the surroundings turned quiet, before the bandits began trembling all across their bodies.

They slowly raised their weapons in response, and then suddenly rammed their blades and edges into their own throats, either killing themselves on the spot, or causing themselves to slowly bleed out.

Every single one of the bandits followed Frey’s order, and within moments Frey was the only person who remained standing.

The bandit he stabbed his dagger into had sliced two thirds of his throat apart before falling to the ground, drenching Frey in blood in the process.

After the last of these men’s lifeless bodies had hit the ground, Frey felt like a bucket of cold water was poured on his head.

The burning feeling inside of him had already disappeared, it was replaced by a strange sense of clarity.

Frey’s vision turned away from the bloody corpses that painted the town, he glanced all around himself as he saw various glistening spots floating in the air, like stars, but much smaller and with various colours, he felt as if a sixth sense had been born inside of him, allowing himself to see and feel these spots throughout the ground and air for the first time in his life.

He wanted to immerse himself in the sight, to figure out what they were, and why he could suddenly see them, but his concentration was broken by the sound of clapping.

A lone person was clapping his hands, slowly walking towards Frey in a full suit of armour, merely his head was free of any protection.

It was Hodwan, his blond hair was shining in the sunlight, his giant horse was walking behind him.

“Magnificent… You did not fail me. Killing so many with just your words alone, your friends and family were right to call you ‘demon’.” Hodwan said to further agitate Frey, hoping to draw even more power out of him.

He slowly stepped closer, his long axe at the ready, the sharp sides facing towards the ground “What are you waiting for? Attack me as well, otherwise I will inflict upon you that punishment I promised…” Hodwan revealed a devilish smile, his desire to fight surged anew.

Frey wanted to take a step back out of fear, but he quickly noticed that the path behind him was obstructed by corpses.

“Don’t come any closer! Stop!” Frey decided to face Hodwan resolutely and screamed out with every intention to force him to obey.

Hodwan halted his movements for but a moment before he broke free and continued walking towards Frey.

“Is that all you’ve got? That would be kind of disappointing. I can feel that your aura has grown stronger… show me what you are capable of!” Hodwan asked Frey as he cracked his neck in preparation to the upcoming ‘exercise’.

Cold sweat was running down Frey’s back, he knew that he needed to think up something quickly, but what else was there?

This cursed ability of his was the only thing he knew of… maybe these strange lights in the air?

Frey wanted to put his focus into them, but how could he when death was coming for him, literally.

“Tch, I guess I shouldn’t have put my hopes on you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bandit group to rebuild.” Hodwan spoke while raising his axe into the air, casting a shadow down onto Frey as the weapon blocked out the sunlight due to its insane size.

A weapon came crashing down from the sky, piercing deeply into the neck of its victim, but the victim wasn’t Frey.

A brown semi-illusory monkey had appeared on Hodwan’s shoulder, it held onto the handle of a dagger which it struck into the superhuman’s neck.

Hodwan showed a look of surprise, he coughed out blood before striking at the figure of the monkey with his other hand.

Though the monkey had see-through characteristics, Hodwan’s strike hit its mark and sent the monkey flying, proving it to be material enough to be harmed.

“L- Lu?!” Frey blurted out as he recognized the hue and characteristics of his best friend, Lu also had a habit of appearing whenever Frey needed him, so he was inclined to believe it was him.

“What a nasty trick… I like it.” Hodwan said as he grabbed the hilt of the dagger and pulled it out of his body, causing quite a bit of blood to gush out, however he still looked fine “An interesting last-ditch effort… I never expected a summon to appear out of nowhere, but this should be the end.” Hodwan declared as he raised his axe once more.

“For you, that is.” a young woman’s voice could be heard, just a moment before the sound of metal being pierced echoed through the air.

A sharp blue object struck Hodwan’s back, travelled through his chest, and protruded back outside.

Another mouthful of blood was coughed out by the armoured man, but he remained standing, the projectile had missed any vital organs.

Hodwan turned around to face his assailant, and his eyes fell onto a woman in her late twenties, she had blue eyes, long white hair, and wore thick clothing, as if the surroundings had negative temperatures.

Every time the woman breathed out; white mist would escape from her lips.

“You are strong, I didn’t notice your aura until I was already hit. You are far more interesting than the little demon! Come!” Hodwan roared as he brandished his axe.

Frey stood on the sidelines and observed as Hodwan approached one of the peculiar spots of light in the air, it was light red in colour, and the moment Hodwan’s axe cleaved it in two, a bunch of sparks sprayed all around him.

“He can see them as well?!” Frey was shocked to realise this fact, it appeared that Hodwan was much more knowledgeable about these lights, perhaps Frey could learn something from observing even further.

Hodwan continued slicing the lights with similar hues to the first one, and after two more cuts his axe suddenly caught on fire!

“A physical mage? It’s a shame you are only of rank one.” the woman noted out loud as she weaved her hands and icy dust appeared from thin air.

Frey saw that several blue and white lights were drawn towards the woman, and instantly gathered at her hands.

The white-haired woman then pushed both of her palms out towards Hodwan, and a small snowstorm emerged, that originated from the icy dust around her hands.

In a matter of seconds Hodwan was engulfed by the storm, the fire on his axe dispelled the cold wherever he struck, but the storm would simply regenerate to its former state.

Every time the fire and the ice collided, the fire would grow weaker, and after some more moments it vanished completely.

Hodwan disappeared inside of the small icy tornado, however the cold that enveloped Frey’s surroundings did not last for long, as the temperature increased drastically, the storm was broken apart in one go, as a brightly burning figure stood at the centre.

Fire flared into the sky, it looked like a burning human, the metallic armour that covered Hodwan’s body had already melted off of him, his axe too was getting liquified with each passing breath.

“So, this is how it feels to be looked down upon… quite unpleasant!” the human inferno spoke.