My smile was long gone. I immediately realized the extent of how flawed my plan was, after I thought it through again. Good thing I didn’t do it.

The perfect method to slip past a large group of people to get to the other side?

Stealth is needed, of course. But the perfect solution is a distraction.

A distraction good enough to shift their attention so that I can get into that passage. My plan was perfect, until I recognized that fatal flaw. Then what?

IF I somehow distract them, the best I can do is slip past them, and make sure the girls are ok. After which, I’m back to square one, except the trouble is more. Those guys might just attack the girls, and kill them, since obviously; I’ll be trying to protect them. Sigh… These are the times when I wish I was a perfect Jack of all Trades kind of character. This, this is hard.

And my initial plan for distracting them was to make the cavern roof collapse. But now that I think about it, it might very well be a double edged sword. And a sharp one at that.

And so, I’m sitting cross legged, just like the boss man, trying to figure out a way to solve this stupid dilemma.

Hm? Another bright idea!

The reason why they would try to attack the hostages would be if I tried to save the hostages, right? So what if I appeared as a neutral character? A wandering hero? Who by chance found this hideout, and decided to wipe them out? It’ll work out right? Right?

I really do suck at planning…

Mili is looking at me worriedly. I guess she’s anxious why I haven’t begun my heroic assault. But before that, I need to check something.

“Ne, Mili, they didn’t see your face right?”

I whispered to her, to make sure those guys don’t find us.

She shakes her head in denial. Yosh~ Then it’s good enough. My plan was already formulated. But, if we go by this scenario, the first thing I’ll need to do is…

“Ara ara~? What might this place be? A gathering of louts?”

My voice echoes into the cavern. A really high pitched voice, so that they don’t track me by that. The only thing left is scent, and I sure hope they don’t smell me out or something.

This was, the perfect distraction. Every head turned towards me, and even the boss man half-opened his eyes.

“Who might you be?”

He lightly replies, his face completely composed. I could barely see his face, shadowed by the light from the pool, but i could sense his eyes, the way they stared right at me, unfazed by my oh-so awesome appearance.

“A wandering hero, I can say. What about you?”

“A wandering bandit, I can say.”

He smirks at me. Tit for tat huh. Whatever.

“Well then, why don’t you guys all surrender, so that I can quickly round you up and give you guys to the authorities!”

The people start laughing. Well, that’s to be expected. A masked man comes in and asks them to surrender? As if they’ll listen.

“Kill him”

The boss man growls, and every one of them roars, taking out their swords and maces and clubs and daggers and lots of stuff I don’t even know about. Well then, time for part one.

Cut off the escape route!

I charge up my legs with Dragon Slayer energy, and crush the pillar like construction supporting the stairs. I jump on the debris and land lightly onto the ground, and the debris crashes behind me, burying the people who wanted to climb it. I’m not a good Samaritan. I like Batman, you know. I won’t go out of my way to save them, and I won’t kill them. A few broken bones are fine.

I immediately stop the Dragon Slayer energy, since I learnt an invaluable lesson at the Curas den. Efficient fighting. I draw Rebellion, and face my first obstacle.

How do I stop them with a super sharp sword?

Tch! And I went to all the trouble of grandly displaying it too. I put it back in my ring, feeling disgruntled.

By this time, the first bandit swings his sword, at my neck. I duck, evading the blow. Bare handed?

I catch his wrist, and twist it. He yells in pain. I push him away and jump to the right, evading another blow that comes out. This, this is gonna be good practice. Anti personnel combat, to be exact. But my plan is not this. For now, I need to look weak. For my plan!

I twist and turn, evading their blows by millimeters. I kick the head of a bandit lightly, sending him flying. Oops. They all wore those creepy black masks. What are they, some kind of cult?

I weave through the horde of people, evading and pushing away the attackers. By now, I’ve established my image as a nimble fighter, so the attacks are getting more complex.

A person rushes at me, swinging a metal club. Is that a baseball bat? I dodge, sidestepping it. As if waiting for it, a man darts out from the crowd behind me, dagger in hand. Good strategy, but something with a longer reach would be more effective.

I thought, as I extended my leg, kicking him square in the chest. He gets pushed back, into the huge crowd. It creates a good measure of confusion, as his dagger causes some damage to his ‘brothers’. I take advantage of it, and quickly release the Gust I had chanted, throwing them off balance. I jump, and use their heads as footholds, to run towards the back entrance.

“e’s goin’ toward’s the treas’e!”

Someone yells, and their fighting spirit increases drastically. Wow. Some people love their trea-

Wait, treasure? The treasure room! Gold! Silver! Rais! I’m gonna be rich!

“Why’s e’ smilin’ like tha’! Weird’o! Kill ‘im of!”

It’s kinda tough to understand their thick accent, as I jump across the crowd, kicking and dodging at various spots.

Finally, I reach the intended spot. In front of the passage. This needs a lot of timing and acting to pull of perfectly.

The first person that lunges at me, I catch him and throw him back. Blunt weapon is no good. Come on, you guys! The next person uses a spear. Good.

Accurately, I bend when the spear approaches me, somehow allowing it to graze my chest, cutting the strap of the bag on my back. The bag fell, and in a smooth motion, I fumble with it, and ‘somehow’ toss it into the passage. I hope Mili is ok.

“Oh no! My bag!”

I yelled, to make sure they thought that it was legit. I must say, I’m quite pleased with my acti—

Woah! I couldn’t help but exclaim in my mind, as an exceptionally strong attack comes at me. I barely dodge it, but it cuts across my chest. With a *clang* the coat deflects it, preventing injury. A dagger huh. No good. Focus on the battle.

I clap my hands together, and hold them as if in prayer. The plan still has to be completed after all!

“Summon boulder technique!”

A 3 meter tall boulder appears out of thin air behind me, blocking the sole escape route that was left. Now, be amazed!

“Oi, didn’ he jus’ use a interspacical rin’g?”

I was found out! Whatever. Time to clean up the trash.

I take out the wooden sword from the ring, and begin my assault.

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I parry the attack from the mace, and kick him in the temple, in the same motion, I hit a person in the shoulder, disabling their attack from initiating. I roll on the ground, dodging the barrage of strikes. I keep up my defense at all times, since there’re strong guys hidden among these common thugs.

There were about a 100 of them, and I defeated around 15 by now. I don’t know about the rest 900 people, but a 100 are enough for me. I’m the kind of person who’s happy with what he has.

I twist the sword in, and he yells in pain. I grasp the wrist of the person who tried to stab me, and throw him into the thicker crowd. I jump at them, and in a flurry of strikes, wipe out all who were defenseless. A swing at their head would be enough to knock them out after all. And Master had made me do this as an exercise more than a few times. Brrr~

I jump up, at swing the sword in an arc, parrying the dagger. Another phantom strike eh. Too bad I noticed you!

I mark the person who threw the knife, and decide to head after him, after I deal with them. I wish I had some aerial movement skill. Gust does the job, but the mana consumption is too high for me.

I begin murmuring, in order to prepare the chant. So what if I’m airborne? You’re clearly in my sights!

“O,Earth, Pierce through, Earth spike!”

I fire the spike, rotating it for more speed and piercing power. It hits the expert’s leg, wounding him. Good enough for me.

I dash out, using my sword to hit the heads of anyone who were in arm’s reach. I kept my focus on the expert. Hidden experts are troublesome.

I bring my sword down on his neck, for a perfect KO. Or so I thought.

“Gua!”

The basics of group fights, never concern yourself with a single opponent. I was hit point blank with the stone hard fist, and  two of my ribs cracked. Damnit!

But ignoring the pain, brought my leg around, in a roundhouse, to incapacitate the sneaky attacker. My leg meets with resistance, as a thick arm blocks my kick perfectly.

When I look at my opponent, I immediately understand. The boss finally began moving huh.

He looked almost 25 years old, with dark blue hair. His ears were well, webbed and like a fan. His eyes were like his hair, a dark blue shade. A fearless grin played on his face, as he looked at me.

Don’t mess around.

In a flash, I turned my body, using his hand as a foothold, to bring my other leg down on his head. He immediately shifts his hand, ruining my balance, and raises his leg up, perfectly hitting the joint. Or it was supposed to. In the last moment, I pulled back, and his leg hit the outer arch of my foot.

We immediately jump back, creating some distance between us. On the way, I knocked out a few more of the goons.

So, let’s check the situation.

Almost 60 goons, with some experts mixed between them, and a boss. Not too good, considering that the boss equals my base abilities. I ready my wooden sword, in my first serious fight ,with just my physical abilities.

“Oi, you guys. Back off. This guy is mine!”

The Boss yells out, and the goons immediately back off. Hm? Well, what a nice guy. He bows down, and introduces himself.

“Xhoing Narkiar. The sin of Greed Arlenid’s right hand. If I lose, then all of us shall surrender”

Greed? Arlenid? Wasn’t Arlenid the slayer guy? Greed huh. Sin of greed, to be exact. The Seven Deadly Sins?

My mind was a whirlpool of thoughts, and I realized Xhoing was looking at me expectantly. Oh! This is a duel.

“Yuuya Nakajima. Silver ranked adventurer. I shall give you information about my treasure, if I lose”

He cocks an eyebrow.

“Silver rank? Surely, you jest.”

I stay silent. Then, his eyes widen with surprise.

“Ou! Have the outside’s people gotten so strong? To think a Silver rank is as strong as a Mithril rank now!”

Confirmed. Marco was a weak little Mithril rank. Maybe because of his party. As I thought, my strength was only at the level of Mithril rank… Looks like he misunderstood, but it’s not my job to correct him.

“Then, let’s begin!”

He dashes, heading towards me.

I punch him and knock him out.

Is what I’d like to say, but I bend down, preparing for a counter.

He raises his knee, going for my left side. I sidestep to the right, and try to slam him on to the ground by grabbing his shirt. He dances away, and I follow after him, sword aiming for his leg.

He stops and gives a powerful kick, which I parry with my wooden sword. No good huh. With a crack, the trusty wooden sword breaks in two, and the broken part flies off into the pool. I throw away the stick, for that’s all it was now, and dash in, aiming a punch at his right lung. He captures my wrist and tosses me. As soon as I reach the apex, I grab back at his wrist, and use the centrifugal force to land, and slam him into the ground in the same motion. The peanut gallery were ‘oooh’ing and ‘aah’ing.

Annoying.

I jump back, dodging his leg that was coming for me. He jumps on to his feet, and without pause, attacks. This time, he goes for a more subdued approach, rushing straight in. I raise my right fist, aiming at his face, while I ready my left fist at his abdomen.

My right goes straight into his face, and he magnificently blocks it, but he fell for it. My left buries itself into his thick body, and he spits out blood. Not willing to give him any respite, I keep attacking, continuously punching at his abdomen.

He tries to kick with his left leg, from my ‘blindspot’. I swing my leg, full force, and both our legs clash. His leg gets bent out of angle. My strength, is it increasing?

With the suspicion in me, I immediately aimed a kick at his temple, aiming for a knockout. He jumps back, evading it. Tch.

He does some emergency treatment, and his leg looks, usable. He glares at me, and finally, finally uses enhancement magic, to get that extra spark. Well, mister, I know some enhancing tricks too.

His speed increased, without doubt. An overall boost, I guess.

But so did mine.

I release the Chaos energy, accelerating my body. In a second, I was already at his flank, aiming my knee at his ribs.

A square hit, and he coughs out, unable to bear the pain. I twist and aim a kick straight at his face, with all my power.

He flies off and crashes onto the wall, and the rocks come crumbling down, from the huge impact.

The dust cloud races over here, and I stand calmly.

“Now, surrender!”

The entire room stays silent. Really? Did it work?

“OOOOAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!”

With an ear splitting yell, they all come at me. That’s more like it.

I crack my knuckles, for the beat up bonanza.