The monster was slowly walking out of its cage observing the world outside, Teras felt a very strange aura of mana coming out of this monster, it was something he had never seen before, it made him feel intimidated, Marco's laugh also made him even more anxious

"Get him Beast!"

Marco yelled, after he said that a collar that the monster was wearing started to glow, shortly after it shocked the monster, and after the shook the monster went berserk at Teras, Teras tried to dodge but the monster was way too quick, Teras was struck by the monster's powerful tail, the attack sent Teras flying even though he blocked it with his hands, before Teras could recover from the hit the monster attempted to hit him again but this time Teras barely managed to pull out his mana charged sword to defend himself, he swung the sword at the monster but the monster was too sharp, so sharp that it could predict Teras's attack, the attack simply slashed the air creating a wave of air pressure

'Shit if that hit landed then the monster would have taken great damage'

Teras thought as he saw the monster approaching him again, this time the monster punched Teras to the ground, when Teras hit the ground he also kicked the monster with the movement of his fall in the head but it didn't cause any damage to the monster even though it was mana enhanced, Teras ended up losing his grip on his sword when he fall down, Teras was driven into a corner so he pulled out one of his tricks to drive the monster away, while pointed to the ground Teras rose up his hand and created an explosion to the monster's face, that explosion made the monster back down

"Don't use explosive spheres when you are that close to them, you might hurt yourself"

Marco said while laughing at Teras's position, little did he know that Teras could use mana overload to create explosions, while the monster was backing down from Teras, Teras launched himself off the ground directly at the monster hitting it with a powerful mana-enhanced punch, the monster hardly took any damage, Teras was surprised by the monster's durability

'What the hell is going on? I didn't hold back even a little, but I barely hurt it at all'

Teras thought, but his thought was quickly interrupted by the monster's attack, the monster attacked Teras using its strong hands, Teras was dragged to the ground from the force of the monster's attack, but he barely managed to stay on his feet, Teras was furious that he was getting beaten up by a mindless monster, for him it somehow was humiliating

"DIE!!!"

He screamed while punching the monster's face, the punch was heavily enhanced with mana so after punching the monster a huge explosion happened, this time Teras didn't use overload only in his palm but his whole hand, the explosion that was created was much bigger and destructive than the previous ones, this explosion almost reached the bandits watching from afar but thankfully the monster had absorbed most of the impact, the monster was launched back from the impact of the explosion but it was still standing

"No matter how hard I hit you, you won't fall, why is that? Am I that weak?"

Teras said in desperation, he was asking himself but of course, no answer ever came

"Do you see the difference in strength we have now kid?"

Marco asked while looking down at Teras, he had a big smug smile all over his face

"Don't make me laugh you bastard, the monster is doing all the work for you, you are just watching from the distance"

Teras replied while glaring at him with a deadly look, Marco felt like he was pierced by the glare of Teras but he didn't let it get to him, he knew that Teras couldn't hurt him

"A leader's job is to find strong and talented people and make them work together to achieve a common goal, monster or not"

"A leader also has to protect his comrades when the time is needed, which I doubt you can do when I finish with this monster, also you claim to be a silver adventurer and that proves how wrong this system is, we, a bronze party is able to stand up to you and in some occasions defeat you"

Teras said as he left out a burst of small laughter, Marco was a bit annoyed by it

"Don't make me laugh! Are you implying that you are stronger than us? Fine! Then I will let you experience our full power"

Marco said, he then used a specialized whistle, the moment he blew it the monster started acting weird, it started trembling and started making jerky movements, before Teras could realize what was happening the monster had already charged at him, it attempted to attack him with its tail using it like a spear but Teras slightly moved his head to the right barely dodging the attack with nothing but a scratch on the right side of his head, the monster landed behind him and immediately attacked Teras again, but this time Teras was ready for the attack since he activated his mana overflow, Teras grabbed the monster's hands with his own 2 arms, the monster had a hard time freeing its hand so to fight back it used its tail trying to pierce Teras's belly but Teras quickly reacted by jumping and while he was in the air he started kicking the monster over and over again after some hits the monster was weakened, Teras took advantage of that by releasing the monster, he then grabbed it by its head and slammed it to the ground breaking the road beneath them, Teras then stepped on its head with force trying to crush its skull but the monster overpowered him throwing him in the air with its hands, the monster jumped too and slammed Teras with its tail to the ground, it then accelerated itself and fall in top of Teras, When Cara saw what happened she quickly intervened in the battle by healing Teras, and before the monster could injure Cara, Marco used his whistle to make the monster stop

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"Lock it up before it turns berserk"

Marco told to the people that were holding the cage

"I will sir, you there, help me"

the man holding the cage requested help from another man, the other man quickly came to help him, the 2 men carefully approached the monster, when they finally got close they threw the cage at it so they can make it enter the cage without the need to touch it, people were very cautious and scared of that monster, but after witnessing what happened they were equally worried about Teras, fighting this monster and lasting more than 1 minute was unheard of for them, while they were caring the imprisoned monster Cara was healing Teras with all of her might, after withstanding an attack like that most people would have died but not him

"Teras open your eyes! Please! If we lose you then who will show us the way to win?"

Cara said as she healed Teras, Cara was crying out of fear for him, to her surprise a hand whipped her tears

"Don't bury me already! I still have life in me"

Teras said with a smile, but his covered with blood face said otherwise, the bandits were starting to walk towards the village

"Don't talk! Save your energy so we can explain to them what happened"

Lia said to Teras as she extended a helping hand

"Do you even hear yourself? Teras is fatally injured he can't possibly walk to the village"

Cara said but Teras took Lia's hand and stood up, he was barely able to stand

"I can't sit idly while the bandits are vandalizing this village"

Teras said, he was full of D E T E R M I N A T I O N, his eyes were glowing, when Cara saw the glow of Teras's eyes she changed her mind

'How can a man be this determined to do something?'

she wondered but she couldn't ask for the answer, Lia then helped Har get up and the 4 of them slowly followed the bandits into the village, when they finally arrived at the village they saw the bandits in the center of the village draining every piece of gold that the villagers had, when Zak saw them he got pissed

"What are you 4 losers doing here? You lost now get the hell away from here, because if you stay these guys won't be the only ones trying to hurt you"

He told them, he was on the verge of attacking them

"They are not your enemies big man"

Marcos told him with a smug, Zak was speechless, he couldn't reply angrily at him since he could end everyone there if he wanted to

"These 4 made a better attempt to defeat us than you and your little friend did all those 3 months, especially the most wounded one"

"Do you really just compared a bronze-ranked adventurer to a gold and silver one?"

Zak asked with hesitation

"Why not? Look for yourself, it's the first time watching our monster bleed from a fight, no matter who fought it, our monster never bleed"

Zak closely inspected the monster and he was surprised, the monster had bled a lot, when he and a friend of his tried to fight it they didn't even put a scratch on it

"I-Impossible a kid like him couldn't possibly..."

"Zak please accept it! These kids are the only way for us to free ourselves"

Jem told him while he grabbed Zak by his shoulder

"You hear him, now that you are all here I will announce something so make sure you hear me perfectly"

Marcos said as he started climbing to the top of the well's roof

"IN 2 WEEKS WE WILL RAID THIS VILLAGE LEAVING NOTHING BUT ASHES BEHIND, SO I SUGGEST ALL OF YOU TO PACK YOUR THINGS AND GET READY TO LEAVE BECAUSE THIS TIME WE WILL NOT SPARE ANYONE, WE TOYED WITH YOU LONG ENOUGH, NOW IS TIME TO END THIS LITTLE GAME OF OURS, I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A CHILDREN OR AN ELDERLY, WE WILL SLAUGHTER YOU ALL AND DESTROY THIS SORRY EXCUSE FOR A VILLAGE"

all of the villagers were shocked, some of them started crying, some even started packing up their stuff, after his announcement the whole atmosphere changed, right now nobody can ease their mind, there was no hope for them left, the bandits quickly left after their announcement, Zak was frozen in place from what he heard, Jem was trying to convince everyone to stay put but it was impossible to convince all of these people to stay, they only had 2 weeks to evacuate

"People please we have to stay calm, we can't just evacuate our homes just like that! We can find more help..."

Jem said but nobody listened some even talked back insulting him

"Shut the hell up Jem, you will soon die anyways so if you want to stay you can stay"

A man told him as he was packing his things, the others were disgusted by the villagers' actions, Teras was especially angry, while Teras was watching them pack their things a thought came up to his mind, he thought of Tokkou, he was the ideal person that respects his town, he would have never left his town fall without a fight so watching them abandoning their village that easily made him feel something more than wrath and rage, so he also got up on top of the well and screamed

"HEY EVERYONE HEAR ME OUT!"

Teras scream attracted the eyes of anyone in the crowd

"ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO LEAVE YOUR VILLAGE LIKE THAT? WITHOUT EVEN ATTEMPTING TO FIGHT BACK? ISN'T THIS THE VILLAGE YOU GREW UP? YOUR MEMORIES LAY HERE, YOUR HOUSES, YOUR WHOLE LIVES, ARE YOU GOING TO ABANDON ALL OF THIS JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE AFRAID? EVEN IF YOU LEAVE WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO GO? YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE SO STAY HERE AND FIGHT THE ENEMY EVEN IF THAT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE TO DIE, AT LEAST THAT MEANS THAT YOU WILL DIE LIKE A WARRIOR, RUNNING AWAY ISN'T THE RIGHT OPTION, AND IF YOU DECIDE TO FIGHT WE WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO FIGHT AND USE THE POWER OF CARDS, SO YOU DON'T NEED TO BEG ANY OUTSIDER TO HELP YOU, YOU WILL SIMPLY HELP YOURSELVES, SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? ARE YOU GONNA FIGHT LIKE A TRUE WARRIOR OR RUN AWAY? I WILL NOT JUDGE YOU FOR WHATEVER CHOICE YOU PICK BUT MAKE SURE YOU PICK TO DO SOMETHING YOU WILL NOT REGRET, BECAUSE THIS DESICION WILL FOLLOW YOU UNTIL YOU END UP IN A CASCET, THAT'S ALL FROM ME, IF YOU WANT TO HELP I WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU IN THE BAR"

Teras told them, Zak snapped back to his senses, as he was watching Teras talking, the image of a long-lost friend of his was taking the form of Teras

'Can he actually do it?'

He thought as he was watching Teras slowly getting in the bar