Chapter 67: Attacking The Thieves Band [I]

“Ha… ah… almost there.” Yuna let out as she clashed her sword with a monster that looked like a small tree with tentacles on its head.

It would have been easy however these tentacles weren’t made of pure flesh… They were reinforced with steel plating that was similar in hardness to that of her sword.

Every strike sent vibrations up her arms that made her bones ache.

Yuna pushed back and chanted once more, sweat dripping down her face.

There were dents on the monster’s skin where her Mana Mode enhanced blade had collapsed into its skin several times… shallow wounds that bled a dark sap but hadn’t penetrated deep enough to hit anything vital.

Apparently this was the last monster they had to face before ranking up so Koya had decided to spice up the difficulty up quite a bit. She could feel his eyes on her from across the blood barrier.

’I have to finish this.’ She thought as her muscles screamed in protest.

“Grr!” One tentacle shot at her like a whip and she lifted her blade mid-chant.

It was not enhanced by anything but she used all the strength in her hands to parry the strike, angling her blade so the tentacle flew into the air instead of smashing into her ribs.

Then she reached Mana Mode and the blue aura exploded around her body.

“Die!” She yelled out as she thrust with her full might, aiming for one of the spots where she had already stabbed… the third dent from the left which was the deepest one.

The sword hit the armor, bending it inward even more however she decided to blast the mana this time at full force.

As the mana followed the blade’s trajectory, the sheer speed of it aligning with the tip created a double strike… physical penetration followed immediately by a mana burst that tore open the steel chest cavity and she pierced inside, feeling the resistance give way as her blade found the core.

The monster fell to the ground and she breathed a sigh of relief.

The monster had died and the tentacles fell to the side as the experience mana flooded her body.

Her breath got stuck in her throat, this was the sixth Iron class monster that she had killed today and as the mana coursed into her body, it locked up and she fell to the ground, completely defenseless and she was knocked out.

Akemi on the other hand gritted her teeth as she parried another tentacle strike.

Unlike Yuna who had attacked several spots strategically, she had attacked only one spot… the same dent, over and over, slowly carving deeper with each strike.

Her arms were shaking from exhaustion but she refused to stop.

’If I can’t kill this monster… then how will I be able to protect Master from that kind of monster again?’ She thought, the image of him being thrown through buildings by the Iron Terror burned into her mind.

She was helpless then and could only see him being tossed around like a ragdoll… It made her feel weak and useless.

She reached Mana Mode once again and held onto the blade tightly. She didn’t like killing… the thought of taking life still made her stomach turn; however these were what stood between her and being fired, between her and being thrown back onto the streets as well as disappointing him.

So she would kill… She would kill as many as Master needed her to.

She dodged another tentacle strike, her body moving on pure instinct now, and forced the full strength of her mana into her blade.

The blue energy crackled along the steel as she struck where she had struck several times before and the armor caved in before finally giving way, piercing through to the soft flesh beneath.

The monster grew stiff, its tentacles falling limp, before falling over with a heavy crash.

Akemi fell to her knees and looked at Koya, he had turned his back to them and was working on something so she tried to get his attention.

“Ma… Ma…” Before she could, a surge of experience mana entered her body and she fell to the ground, her eyes grew blurry and she fainted as well.

Victoria dispelled the blood wall while looking at the girls who were ranking up, their bodies twitching as mana flooded their systems, and then at Koya who was using blue flames to do something with more iron he had cut open from the Iron Terror’s corpse.

“Hubby?” She said as she walked to him and Koya raised an eyebrow though his eyes didn’t leave the gauntlet.

“Yes?”

“We’re done. The girls are ranking up.” She arrived right beside him and he smiled at her, she looked at the gauntlet and wondered what it would do.

“Oh good, thanks for all the help.” Koya said as he kissed her forehead and it made her cheeks very rosy.

“But what is this…?” She asked while looking at the gauntlet, he was putting in magical circuits in them that he had gotten from inside the monster and lining it up properly.

“It’s just a gadget I’m experimenting with.” Koya replied and looked at the girls that were still twitching on the ground. “How about we go to the camping spot of last time?”

…

Yuna woke up with a start. She was laid across the ground and when she did, everything was weird.

She could hear sounds a lot more clearly than before… individual water droplets hitting the lake surface, the crackle of distant flames, even the beating of her own heart thundering in her ears.

Not only that, her hands felt like they were brimming with energy, like lightning was running through her veins.

“Wh… Where…”

She looked over to her side and her stuttering stopped. Akemi was there and she now had three lines extending across her face however that was not the surprising thing.

Why were her breasts bigger? What the hell? They had definitely grown at least two cup sizes.

Yuna looked down at her own chest. It was considerably bigger than before, straining against her bodysuit, but she simply couldn’t compare with this girl.

Perhaps ranking up while being underage had a lot of advantages that adults didn’t get.

’I wish I could be young again.’ Yuna thought with a mixture of envy and resignation, then looked to her right side.

There was the blue lake once more and she recognized where she was again… they were at the camping place like last time. The water looked clearer than she remembered.

Yuna slowly stood up, her body still adjusting to the surge of power coursing through it, and saw that in the distance, about three tents had already been set up in a neat triangle formation.

Victoria was focused on cooking, her back to them as she worked, and the smell felt very different from her usual Ox-tail soup.

It made Yuna’s enhanced senses tingle with curiosity about what was on the menu. She could smell sauces she didn’t recognize and something sweet that made her mouth water.

However she found her Master soon enough. She could hear the searing of flames on iron… the precise crackling sound of blue fire hitting metal and he was seated on a rock with a gauntlet in hand.

It was black and beautiful with a slot in the center and red circuits leading to that slot like veins of light.

He looked really handsome when he focused, his brow furrowed slightly in concentration. She slowly walked over to him and he turned his head over to her without needing to look, probably sensing her approach.

“Oh Yuna… great timing.” Koya said. “How do you feel?”

“Master I feel energetic, however I feel very strange… it’s like I can hear a lot of things with perfect clarity now, for example, I can hear the growls of monsters a bit away from here and the sound of the spoon that my lady is using to cook as well as the searing of the flames against the metal in your hand. It feels strange and will take some getting used to.” She reported and Koya verified from the System instantly, it was a very strong sign of awakening sound.

Plus, it meant her potential for sound magic would be higher than normal when she was able to feel flecks of her magic without being a four-liner, at least that was what the System said.

“So you mean you can hear me from afar… if I’m whispering?” He asked and she gave a small nod.

“I think I should be able to.” Yuna replied. “Shall we test it out Master?”

“Sure, go stand right in front of the lake and hear me out.” He said and that was what she did, standing in front of the lake… and facing her Master.

Instead of focusing her eyes on his lips, she instead closed them and focused her ears and listened to him.

“Nice breasts Yuna.” He whispered low however it was like he said it right next to her in an attempt to whisper and she fell over, entering the water with a red face.

“Are you okay?” He asked as she broke through the water and came onto the surface again, her body was dripping wet… though the bodysuit was relatively dry, he had bought them to be easy to move in and all black as well as water-proof.

“Yes Master and I could hear you loud and clear.” She said, trying to hide her blush as she walked at him. “If I may ask… do you really think so?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t lie to you.” he said and she blushed once more.

She was about to speak and ask him more, however in the distance in one of the buildings, she heard the shutter of a camera… her sight couldn’t extend that far but she knew that this was directed at them.

“Master, someone just took pictures of us.” She said as she heard the person jumping down the sides of the building.

“Oh?” Koya raised an eyebrow and he stood up, walking over to the clean lake. It had been dirty but Victoria had redone the demarcations and cleansed this side again.

He pailed some water onto the slim gauntlet and it steamed from the heat as he kept applying more. “Do you know who it is…?”

“Master, I have a vague idea… there were several bands like ours, like the one where that man that you killed before we attacked you came from.” She said. “I believe that it’s their Thieves Band that did this.”

“Thieves band?” He asked and then stood up, shaking the gauntlet clean. “They usually thief from other bands or what?”

“Yes, they steal women’s clothing and also loot… but the issue is that they have a red-liner amongst them which makes them very cocky.” She reported, this was why her former boss didn’t want to go to their camp… “It’s better to apprehend the member before he gets to base than going to their base direct.”

“Good, I’ve heard enough.” He said as finished shaking the gauntlet and slid his hand inside… it fit his right hand completely and it looked pretty cool, it had less designs than the one on the System animation however it would do for him. “Let’s go kill the boss.”

“Master?” She gave him an exasperated expression. “Didn’t you hear…? He’s a red-liner, he advanced months ago.”

“Yeah and I nearly defeated a right hand man from the Order. These people should be fodder compared to Numb.” He said, he hadn’t defeated Numb but hey, he was close… and doing that deserved a little bit of bragging too. “Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine.”

And speaking of Numb, he was surprised that the Order wasn’t taking any action… he guessed it was due to the actions of Pale Sword.

’But if they sent someone after me… would I be able to kill them?’ He thought. If it was the average assassin then probably yes but someone like Numb… he didn’t really know, it could be close?

“If you’re going then I’ll go too Master.” She said while going for her sword and bow… she wanted to be of maximum use to him though she was surprised that Akemi was still knocked out.

“Tori, we’re going out. Hold the fort down here, I’ll need a lot of food when I get back.” He said and Victoria turned to him with a charming smile while waving.

“Be safe, Hubby. Don’t try and do anything funny with Yuna, I’ll kill her.” She said that so cheerfully that it didn’t sound like she had just threatened someone with death… Yuna herself froze up while reaching for her weapons, Victoria sounded serious too.

“Sure sure. Yuna, let’s go.”

…

It took thirty minutes to navigate through another part of the Outer Zone but they had finally reached the camp of the Thieves Band.

It was one big estate building that looked like it had belonged to someone wealthy before the Apocalypse.

The outside made it look abandoned… crumbling walls, broken windows, and overgrown vegetation however there was a great deal of guards here stationed outside and inside the perimeter.

The walls as well as the gate except for the handle were lined with spiky metal that looked new and freshly welded, meaning they had done it themselves as a deterrent.

There were also canisters outside expelling a gas that he had heard of from Yuna’s briefing.

It couldn’t be smelled by humans but it was very effective in distancing monsters, mainly used by explorers in the deeper zones though it could piss off the stronger, more intelligent ones who recognized it as a human deterrent.

They were standing crouched at the top of a building about fifty meters away, overlooking the whole compound.

The guards seemed to be patrolling outside in groups of two and three, and on the inside in the front yard there were two guys crouched down, sniffing women’s underwear with disgusting grins on their faces.

’Weirdos…’ Yuna thought while nocking an arrow into her bow, her enhanced hearing picking up their perverted laughter from this distance.

It was weird and disgusting, however if her Master did it, then she would love it. She would probably even offer them to him willingly.

“Master… let me deal with those two guys. Should I leave the gate guards to you?” She asked and he nodded.

He was glad that she was confident in her bow skills so he focused on the guards and pulled out one of the Iron Terror eyes from his storage ring… the one that had the ability to send you flying with a burst of psionic energy.

The crystalline surface caught the fading sunlight and gleamed crimson.

These guys were one-liners which meant they were barely above the common people without any mana techniques… It would be easy to kill them, almost too easy.

As he slotted the eye into the gauntlet’s central slot, the mana circuits on the black surface lit up with a deep red glow that pulsed like a heartbeat.

「Eye Of Terror has been slotted in」

「Two skills can be activated: Teleportation, Psionic Push」

「You can use each move about five times before the eye exhausts… To use Teleportation, please snap your thumb with your top finger and to use Psionic Push, please snap your thumb with the second finger after the top one」

He wanted to kill them instantly with no drawn out fight and just overwhelming force.

Koya raised his gauntleted hand and snapped his fingers… his thumb against middle finger and the sound barely audible.

At the same time, Yuna let loose her arrow. It shot through the air with a mana burst trailing behind it in blue light and she immediately nocked another one, already chanting before firing the second shot.

The air around all the guards suddenly changed.

It was like the atmosphere itself had become hostile. The invisible force manifested as distortions in the air… ripples that spread outward from Koya’s gauntlet in concentric circles then the psionic energy hit.

The guards didn’t have time to scream. One moment they were standing there, the next moment an unstoppable force slammed into them like they’d been hit by a freight train moving at full speed.

Their bodies were pushed backward at maximum force… their bones snapping and armor crumpling as they were launched through the air.

They smashed through the spiky walls, the metal spikes piercing through their bodies even as the momentum carried them forward.

The front gate exploded into splinters.

The two perverts in the courtyard were caught in the blast radius and sent flying straight through the estate’s front wall, their bodies punching through brick and mortar like paper.

The entire front of the estate building collapsed inward with a deafening crash, dust and debris billowing outward in a massive cloud.

When the dust began to settle, Koya could see the devastation.

The guards had been scattered across the compound like broken dolls, their bodies twisted at unnatural angles… Some had been impaled on their own spiky defenses, others had cratered into walls and floors.

Yuna’s arrows had found their marks too with two clean headshots on the perverts, though they were already dead from the impact.

All of them had died instantly.

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