10 or more men stood in front of Robert's house, a few have already entered the house. Probably sent by the leader of the men to be scapegoats to Robert’s weapon and provide the others a chance to rush in. There were also a number of men currently walking through the road to join the crowd.

Robert was in the windows that were in the top of the house and had a clear view of the men. He looked for anyone resembling a leader, if he takes out the leader first, there was a higher chance for his escape. But sadly no one stood out from the crowd as a leader.

The Guy that led these thugs already knew that Robert possessed a ranged weapon and thus hid behind his troops. He had made everyone stand close so that he was indistinguishable from the rest, but this made Robert merrier.

“Stand even closer!” He wanted to shout to those guys.

Suddenly hearing the sound of men climbing the stairs to the top of the house, Robert decided to not wait anymore.

He lit the fuse of a bomb in his hand and opened the window and threw it into the middle of the crowd. A small commotion formed but seeing that it was just a cauldron, they laughed it off. Has that guy used up all his weapons that he is now throwing kitchen utensils at us?

A second passed, and the fire slowly burned through the fuse and entered the cauldron, and the next moment

“BOOM”

A deafening explosion accompanied by a flash of fire occurred and a large cloud of smoke rose. The men who were near it was blown to smithereens, and even many of those who stood away were pierced by the shards of the exploding cauldron.

Robert had ducked down and covered his ears for the explosion. Once he heard the explosion, he climbed out of the window and caught the bottom of the window and jumped down, hoping to not break his leg.

Landing on the ground, he ran through the center of destruction towards the narrow road that leads to the main street. He didn’t even look back to see how much damage he has done. The men in the road near the house were stunned by the explosion for a few seconds and thus didn’t even see the man who was running towards them.

While running, Robert lit the second bomb and threw it into the carriage he had loaded with his stuff. There was no way he would leave behind his centrifuge equipment or the tubes of magic cells to be on their hands.

Robert didn’t stop and rushed through these men, but was met with a few men who got out of the stun and drawn their weapons to deal with the guy who was running towards them. He had dressed in a very different attire than the rest of the men and thus they were sure he was not one of them. They drew their weapons and rushed towards Robert, there were about six of them.

Robert aimed his gun at the center mass, from one of the five cold black metal barrels of the gun, a spray of metal came out along with a cloud of smoke. And even before he could think about dodging, the man felt his chest being hit with a sled hammer and the pain of a thousand needles came about. He fell on his back, dead.

Another explosion rang out behind his, but it didn’t budge Robert who was clearly prepared for it. Robert didn’t stop and aimed the gun at the next man, and the same scene happened again. He shot down 4 men and missed one, but Robert had no time to think, a man wielding a spear of flames was closing in on him.

Having no time to reload, concentrating his earth elemental power on his right leg, he kicked down. A boulder, the size of a fist shot out from the ground to his hand, his hand was already ablaze with his fire magic. Robert poured in energy into the flame and heated up the rock for a second before sending it flying into the man who was rushing towards him.

The red-hot rock hit the chest of the man and he was thrown back. The other men were 20 feet away, Robert reloaded his gun and started to run again. Rushing through the corpses of the men he had shot down, he gained some distance before again aiming a man with a short sword and shooting him down. The men behind who saw this carnage started running away from Robert.

Robert was already out of breath from his running that when he saw this he became happy and ran towards the street.

Suddenly, a fireball landed right where he was standing and exploded, Robert escaped from a direct impact in a hairline difference. His left leg was hit and was bleeding.

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“Shit !”

Robert realized that there was a powerful mage among the men whom he had missed. Robert was in direct line of fire from that mage. He stopped running and turned around to see someone amassing flames in his arms to cast another fireball. Robert aimed at the man and fired his gun, but that man was standing far away and thus he missed the shot. But it was enough to stop the magicians cast, Robert limped, reaching the street successfully.

The whole thing took place within a minute, a party of 20 thugs was annihilated by Robert.

The explosions have woken up the whole neighborhood and many curious heads were staring out of their windows. The streets that were bustling with activity had fallen into a stark silence, curious of the source of explosions. Then the streets again became loud this time they were enquiring others about what had happened.

Robert was a lone man, injured, walking against the crowds that were all looking towards the source of the explosions. He somehow got into the nearby horse stable and threw a bag of gold coins to the man.

“Give me your fastest horse! Now!”

The man hesitated for a moment seeing the bleeding man in front of him, but seeing the bag of gold coins, nodded quickly, ran into the stable and brought out a jet black horse with a muscular build. Robert took off his belt and used it as a tourniquet to stop bleeding.

Robert got onto its back and hurried into Sophy’s mansion. He had already lost a lot of blood and was almost fainting when he reached the front gate. The soldiers there knew Robert and helped him into the mansion.

“Wha-what happen? How did you get hurt?” Sophy was worried seeing Robert being helped into the mansion by the guards, his legs were still bleeding.

What kind of trouble have this guy gotten into? Hopefully, he didn’t go around asking for blood like a vampire outside the mansion. Sophy didn’t think that he was that dumb.

“Long story, call a doctor for me will you?” even Robert was unsure of many things about what had happened and wanted to take a moment to recollect everything.

He asked for a chair and used it to place his leg when lying on the blood. He wanted to stop further bleeding by putting legs higher than the level of the heart.

A guard rushed off to call a doctor, and manager Naoki arrived when Robert was narrating what happened. After hearing the story, Naoki stroked his chin pondering over what Robert had told. He could have offended someone and thus had the normal thugs sent after him. But why did Snake skulls get involved in this? But when Robert described how he handed over the thugs to the guards, Naoki understood what had happened.

This kid. He Almost made the whole city a battleground. He did two idiotic things. Firstly why the hell would he leave anyone who had came to kill him alive? Then he even handed them over to the city guards, which made the snake skulls make a move.

After listening to Robert narrating the whole thing, Sophy’s mouth was open from disbelief.

He just fought with 20 thugs and escaped with just an injured leg!

Sophy was glad that he was alright. He had helped her get rid of that scamming alchemist who was leeching off her money. 100 golds were nothing for Sophy, but she didn’t like getting scammed.

Breaking through the barricade of 20 armed mercenaries does not only depend on brute force, it also requires high intelligence. Especially when the 20 men were way above his cultivation. This, Sophy was sure of. She had the strategy knowledge as she was the heir of the clan, and the strategy Robert had used just now was the best he could have used in that situation. And didn’t he mention that he made up that “bomb” on the spot? What kind of calmness does it require to create something when he was surrounded by enemies, and turn around the situation.

Although he was astonished, Naoki didn’t show it on his face. This guy didn’t just fight with 20 random thugs, but with 20 of Snake skull men. And he broke through their barricade.

Naoki wanted him to explain what the “Bomb” that he used was and so on, but decided to do it later. They anxiously waited for the doctor while Naoki explained whom these Snake skulls were and their power in the Goldfair city.

Robert broke a cold sweat when he listened to all that.

“What kind of trouble have I brought upon myself”, he asked himself.