Silas wanted to talk, but he only managed to cough up blood.

"Take this." Nadine pulled out a health potion from her bag and gave it to him. "Take it slowly. I don’t want you to drown on it."

"Ah, Ah. Nadine, Franco, you saw the opening in the sky too?"

"Yeah, we were coming to the capital for the party when we saw it. I wanted to regroup first, but Franco had a bad feeling. Turns out he was right."

"How did you know how to attack?"

"Who else do you think told us?" he pointed to her ear. Nora told them the situation, and they made a plan to save Silas.

He had no time to say it, but he felt proud of his guildmates for taking action and executing a good plan in response to his failure. He focused on the opponent and talked.

"He’s resistant to fire, but he doesn’t have any skills. He can make those fire whips. He hasn’t shown anything else. Stay on your guard."

"Understood, I’m taking him head on." Franco jumped forward without hesitation. He dodged the whips and got close. Se’ky had to use his arms to defend himself.

"More and more insects keep crawling from the earth!" This time, the exchange was much different. Franco was keeping up with Se’ky; the two of them exchanged punches at an equal pace.

Franco was only human, so every hit he took hurt a lot. His muscles were quickly getting tired, and his bones were reverberating inside with pain. In a one-on-one combat, he stood no chance against the tolgar, but he wasn’t alone. From his left and right, Nadine and Silas were getting closer.

Nadine took another item from her bag. If fire wasn’t good, then some of her guns would be useless, but she still had other things. She pulled out a small tube and fired a net. It was big, like those used for fishing. She made it herself of a hard and resistant rope.

Se’ky raised a whip and burned it before it could touch his body. He wasn’t going to give them any chance to pull off a trick. At the same time, he tried to strike at Silas, but Franco punched his arm away. This insect was the strongest one among them. At the same time, the barrage of bullets took the opportunity to hit him in the side.

"So annoying! Just lay down and I’ll spare your worthless lives!"

"You messed with us and now you think it was a bad idea. Maybe don’t start fights you can’t win!" Franco threw another hook, and the air around them exploded. The sharp sound of his fist being caught by Se’ky’s hand made a sound similar to that of a gun.

"I’m not done yet!" He threw another strike, but Se’ky dodged by jumping high in the air. The trees behind were blown away by the force of the punch.

Nadine prepared another net and fired at his feet. "So persistent!" Se’ky tried to hit the net with his whip, but this time the bullets made it change trajectory. "What?"

They read him like a book. He couldn’t believe they planned this without saying anything to each other. Or was there a way they were communicating he couldn’t perceive? Shit! What is going on? How many powers do they have? I’m fighting at least five of them. all with System powers. If I only had my armor and weapon, this would be over already!

He remembered the words of his master. "You aren’t weak, Se'ky, but the powers of the System are very different from what you’re used to. If you fight a System user, try to fight with numbers and discover their power. If things start going bad for you, don’t hesitate to retreat immediately."

I can’t retreat. I don't have a way to go back to the desert world. I need to take the one who can make portals with me. He was backed into a corner.

The moment he touched the ground, his legs were trapped by the net. He burned the net with his own skin by making heat, but then he felt another stab in around the same spot where he was hurt previously. "UGH! You!" he vomited blood as he noticed Silas had become invisible again and had done the same attack.

He attacked, but his hands were blocked by the boxing gloves. "I told you, don’t look away from me!"

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The whips dispersed in the air and he used his other two hands to catch Silas. It didn’t matter; he had to kill one of them right now to turn the battle in his favor. He stretched out his hands, but one of them was pierced by a green harpoon. That was thanks to Nadine.

The other hand was blown off in a flash under a small explosion. It was Jacob who used his strongest bullet. His attacks were neutralized. This was the power of Dawn.

Silas was twisting the blade on the inside of the tolgar. Nora was helping him, and he was close to killing him. At that moment, he felt fear; it was his fighting instinct telling him to run away. He heard Se'ky's voice as time seemed to have slowed down to a crawl.

"Enough." The next thing he felt was the fire whip piercing his chest. It was small, unlike the other whips that he made with his hands. This small whip was more like a rope extending from the stumps on his arms.

His chest was stabbed by this fire rope. It was in the blink of an eye and he couldn’t react in time. It hurt like hell. Having his insides burnt made his mind lose all senses and he dropped the sword. He looked around at the second rope of fire that was wrapping itself around Franco’s arms.

Time was so slow, he saw his guildmate struggling to get free with a ferocious scream, but his ears weren’t listening. He was only focused on the searing pain in his chest. He couldn’t breath anymore. Maybe a lung was pierced?

Se’ky took out the fire rope from the chest and then used it to slap Franco a couple of times, making sure to burn his face. With his hands tied, he couldn’t protect himself. He raised him in the air and then, with his two remaining hands, he punched him in the face and the gut, sending him to the burning forest.

"Two down." He finished burning the net around his feet and then ran to Nadine's side. She pulled out a weapon, but he was faster and attacked her with the fire whips. They were back to full power. He struck her several times and then threw her to the fire for a slow death, burning alive.

The fire around the forest grew enough to expose the other two in the back, the one shooting at him and the other one helping him change the directions of the attacks. No matter how many bullets he shot, the whips burned them all. He looked down on them like the insects they were.

"Didn’t I say it? Your powers are worthless compared to mine. You were given power on some whim. I have to work for all my strength. Yeah, I was born as a Tolgar, but that is the only thing. The rest of my strength came from winning again and again. The only rule of this world is that you need to have the power to stand your ground. You guys are weak, so your fate was decided long ago. Submit or die."

Despite suffering so many injuries and losing two hands, Se’ky was willing to give them one last chance to surrender, out of respect for their efforts. He observed carefully the faces of the two remaining insects. He was looking closely if they decided to attack. Without any exchange or even looking at one another, they moved.

"You chose wrong!" The bullets were much weaker; they didn’t manage to touch the whip before melting. He looked at the other one running for the others. She was probably going to try to help them. They didn’t have more attacks or tricks.

"You’re next." He charged at Nora, and he was over her a second later. He was about to grab her with his hands when he saw the shocked expression on her face. She was certainly surprised by his speed, but then he only saw the ground as his face hit the earth with force.

A loud crash echoed in the forest. Se’ky couldn’t move. Something was crushing his body against the ground. He looked around and noticed a massive root holding him in place. He heard the voice of the female, with a surprised face.

"Emily!" Her voice was full of relief and happiness. He managed to turn around to see the massive monster towering over him.

It was a creature that looked wrong, a plant with a mouth and teeth in its chest. It was bigger than any beast or creature they had in the caravans. How could something like this obey such weak beings? It only took him a moment to notice the one on its shoulder.

I see, you’re the master of this thing. He recognized another beast tamer like him at a glance. The root moved and trapped him, then took him into the air, close enough so the female could see him. Her eyes were full of rage. He could tell she was half-plant from this close.

"Sorry for the delay, Nora. I was too far from here. You and Jacob go help everyone. I have more health potions if you need." Another root moved and gave her the potions while she kept watching him.

"I could kill you for what you did to my friends." Her eyes didn’t change; they were still full of rage, but her voice was calm. "Pray that all of them are still alive, or I'm going to kill you in the most painful way possible."

"I won’t bow down to you or anyone else. I’m the Master of Slaves of one of the Crimson Caravans. I’m the one who breaks the spirits of fools. I will never submit! Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" He started to burn the roots around him by heating them up with his skin. If it was a plant monster, then it was vulnerable to fire.

He yelled at the top of his lungs and used all his energy. Emily looked at him with disgust. "You won’t even apologize. After all the destruction you brought here."

The root began to squish his body with more power. He could feel the space around him burning, but the root was healing faster than he could damage it. He vomited blood, along with air, and passed out.

"Don’t kill him, Emily! We need to interrogate him."

"I know Jacob. I was just pissed at his cocky attitude." She finally addressed the other party in the field. "Who is that?"

The wounded man was sitting on the ground. His legs gave up a long time ago. He was shocked by the battle and the appearance of the monster. "I-I’m Silvano. Who are you people?"

"Don’t worry here, you are safe." Jacob gave him a healing potion as the footsteps of the pix soldiers arrived. The battle ended, but they needed to extinguish the fire and help the wounded.