Far out the outpost of Libertas, a large encampment surrounded by large wooden barricades with makeshift houses made of similar composition. Rundown and poorly made yet still structurally sane to not collapse into itself. The area is the encampment of the Praedam bandits, home to the scourge of Libertas outpost for the past weeks.

They go around talking about their lives or daily routine, discussing the best target to hit this season or telling stories of how they left their victims in the dust. Though there is something that felt off for them today, everyone around noticed a group of five comrades shuffling towards them.

As they could tell, these five members are covered in wounds as if attacked by a vicious wild beast. Each of them wears struts on a different part of their limbs as they slowly made it in towards the base. One of them has been bleeding a lot and is now sprouting a pale complexion. They went towards a bandit who seems to be in charge of organizing everyone.

"What happened to you guys? Seemed more like the giant sandworm just went after you."

"No it wasn't but we need to get the boss to burn that town into ashes."

"That backwater place? Pfft, when does that tiny town even start being a problem? You guys probably stink at beating up a bunch of rando-."

"It was one guy."

"Excuse me?"

"One guy did this to us. We are still lucky to be alive."

"Explain yourselves."

After hearing the report from the returnees, he seems unconcerned as he only thought they were just drunk and fell somewhere in town and injured themselves and are now trying to make some excuses for aid. The five of them are annoyed at the unsightly reaction the gatekeeper made. They do understand how ridiculous it was if it was someone else talking about it instead. They look at their friend straight to his face in all seriousness and reinforce their demand.

Noticing the five of them weren't joking about the matter finally listen to their pleas and ask to standby. At the center of the encampment lies a building. It is much studier and taller than the rest of the setup houses around it. Inside is a muscular terran counting some zil, the universal currency of the world. This man is the leader of the entire group and is minding his own business until one of his henchmen arrives at the door.

"Boss, we have a problem."

"I'm sure you guys can handle it. Now go away."

"There is this unusual guy the boys meet today, h-."

"Don't make me repeat myself! I said not to bother me with this pesky thing."

"But boss, that town is starting to fight back..."

The leader looks at his man, with his eyes wide open as he heard the biggest joke and immediately burst out laughing. He laughs so hard that it started to hurt his stomach as he slams his hands on the desk repeatedly that some zil jumps off the desk.

"Bwahahaha, that tiny place where help can't even get to them even if they try? I don't think the people there local or otherwise would be dumb enough to make a move against us. Phew. I never have to laugh this much since the raid on those smelly merchants last week."

"Boss, it was this lone guy who did it. They got beaten up so much that it doesn't look like the work of a Terran."

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"Are you seriously trying to make me believe one guy beat up a bunch of my men? Sure, most of our equipment is in poor condition. But it ain't worn out that bad till the blade is completely dull."

"It was one guy who beat up five of them at once with only one hand."

"Huh?"

"Not just that, that guy might seem crazy but what I can understand from the report is that the guy sounds very confident as he just let them get back here."

"You are telling me there is a moron who thinks he can handle hundreds of men by himself?"

"From what I can gather, that appears to be the case."

The leader is now surprised by what his trusted aide just said. From the aide's facial expression, he does not believe what just came out of his mouth as well. Unfortunately for them, it was the truth thus the leader started to think for a moment. He decided that it is time to leave this place. The real reason he is the leader isn't merely from a show of force or charisma. It included his intelligence and cunningness. As for the purpose for picking such an isolated yet well-supplied area was because some afterthought went into his decision. He knows it will be troublesome if a single man can still take them on. To him, it wasn't a hard matter to get rid of one person but it's different if he is capable to buy time for the authorities to show up.

"Tell everyone to get ready and take as much stuff as we can carry. Then have some of our guys get some oil ready. Remember, we only have a day worth of time until-"

Suddenly, a strong quake shudders. Everything around started to jump around as if the desert worm mentioned is passing by the area. The subterranean worm is at least 10km long which makes such tremors a normal occurrence. The worm however would not be interested in the area the bandits set their stronghold since it has the same properties that make the Libertas outpost safe.The area surrounding the encampment are large hills of magnetic chrome rock. These rocks release a field that the worms can't stand and keep the worms away from the area.

After having avoided being squished by random chunks of rocks which suddenly appeared, the leader and his aide climb out of the rubble feeling safe and relieved. Climbing out ended up being a horrible mistake for both of them. What lies before the two bandits is a disaster. Their base is now completely demolished, the wreckage of broken wood and supplies is scattered everywhere around. Men buried underneath were being helped by those lucky enough to be standing. Due to their poor structural integrity, non of their structure gets to stay intact.

The leader is astonished and could not help but have his jaw hanging down widely. His aide, however, has a different concern than the leader whilst trying to get his attention. The leader slaps himself and looks at his aide, who is even paler than before.

"Boss! It looks like a wall suddenly sprung up around us!"

"What is going on!"

"I don't know either. It looks quite bad, many of us got buried in the wreck and the rest injured."

As the entire bandits are panicking, there is an odd sound that does not match the atmosphere around them. A rhythmic tune, unless someone is close enough to hear it, paying attention to it won't be in anyone's mind given the situation. Someone is whistling happily in the middle of this chaotic mess.

The leader and his aide looked in the direction of the source of the whistling. A tall man in a dusty mantle wearing an outback hat and half a mask along with a boy of deep blue hair is calmly walking towards them. The bandit leader does not recognize the man. As for the boy next to him, he recognized him as the chef at the bar.

They seem to be talking to each other as they got closer. When the conversation falls into hearing range, the bandit leader and his aide heard something absurd.

"I could take on all hundred of them, but I am just too lazy right now."

"I don't know if I could retort to that anymore..."

"I told you numbers meant nothing to me."

"..."

" Well let's keep going." *whistling*

They could not believe their ears, yet it seems the report they received is genuine. A single person is coming after all of them. They were expecting the authority to be after them, yet what they found out was an actual lunatic hot on their trail. The man's reaction to their current mess only made it even more obvious.

The man stops whistling as he noticed the leader and his aide. Despite the mask blocking most of his facial expression, they could tell that he is smiling at them which ended up being eerie. He looks back at the boy while pointing in their direction.

"Oh? Is that the guy there?"

"That's him! He is the boss here!"

With one arm on his chin, he looks back at the bandits standing opposite them. As if deciding something on what their next course of action is supposed to be. The bandit leader, furious at being treated like a piece of furniture, shouts at the man.

"Who the hell are you!?"

The man gazes expressionlessly at the bandit leader, the glow of his blue eyes piercing through the shade of his hat. He gives a simple response to the leader.

"Just a passing-through wanderer, remember that."