I gripped my new steel sword, feeling the reassuring weight in my hand. Beside , Michelle silently drew her bow, her eyes sharp and focused. She didn’t speak—but she didn’t need to. What we had to do was already clear in the air between us. Boris had drawn the attention and fear of the group, so now it was our turn to strike while their formation was unbalanced.
With that in mind, I dashed forward, targeting one of the original trio who had tried to mug us before. His eyes widened in alarm as he saw coming, clearly not expecting to take the initiative. He raised his sword in a panic, but he was too slow.
Clang!
I deflected his blade with a sharp upward arc, knocking his stance open. Then I slamd my knee into his gut, the force sending him reeling. As he staggered back, I followed through with a clean slash across his shoulder, dropping him to the ground. The sensation of cutting human flesh was not that different than cutting zombies and thralls, and I didn’t flinch in the slightest.
Still, the wound was not fatal since I had no plan on killing anyone here. Clearly, there was so sort of penalty for killing fellow divine warriors, and while I didn’t know the full extent of it, it likely involved a massive deduction of soul coins. I wasn’t about to waste mine for the sake of petty vengeance.
Michelle moved in as well, firing an arrow at one of the other trio mbers. The shot flew with perfect accuracy, striking the man’s thigh and forcing him to stumble back with a shout of pain. She was already nocking her next arrow before he even hit the ground, but then one of the enemies jumped at her with a panicked swing, forcing her to raise her bow in defense.
The impact knocked her off balance, but she reacted quickly, retreating a step and drawing her dagger with a bit of ease.
Unfortunately, this attacker wasn’t a pushover like the trio. He was one of the Bet-rank divine warriors, and his movents were more controlled. With a swift kick, he struck Michelle’s hand, sending her dagger clattering to the ground. And just as he raised his sword to deliver a finishing blow—
Sothing in seed to shift, and my body moved purely on instinct.
It appeared that Predator’s Step had activated as my footwork beca fluid and silent, like that of a predator closing in on prey. My posture dropped low, movents swift and precise, causing the distance between us to vanish in an instant.
He barely registered my presence before I was upon him. With a swing, my steel sword crashed against the side of his blade mid-swing, deflecting it just before it could strike Michelle. His eyes widened in surprise, but he had no ti to react. I twisted with the montum and followed up with a quick, clean strike to his side.
“Aargh!” he cried out, staggering back before falling on his butt.
“Are you okay?” I asked Michelle.
She gave a quick nod, already back on her feet and regaining her stance. Michelle might require a lot of training, but it wasn’t sothing that could be done right now.
[Predator’s Step]
Rank: Rare
Type: Passive
An instinctive movent skill that refines footwork, making the user’s movents more fluid, silent, and deceptively agile. When dodging, there's a small chance to instantly reposition a short distance.
While Boris had drawn their attention earlier, I had quietly used the skill book and learned it in silence while waiting for the perfect mont to put it to use.
“They’re fast—watch out!” one of the Bet-rank warriors shouted, trying to rally the others.
At this point, the rest of the assailants had regained so composure. Though four of them were already down, they still had the advantage in numbers. Boris was still keeping the majority of the stronger ones occupied, holding his ground against their coordinated assault while keeping Ryan in check.
“Fuck! You trash are so useless!” Ryan’s voice was full of frustration as he unsheathed the cutlass strapped to his hip. He pointed it toward us, then turned it directly at .
“I’ll kill you first.”
Without another word, he lunged at . His movents were precise and practiced, far more refined than those of his underlings. All his earlier threats weren’t just bluster—Ryan was a real threat.
Out of instinct, I managed to raise my sword just in ti to deflect the first strike, sparks flying as our blades clashed. His strength was no joke. The force behind the blow was imnse—I could feel my right hand tremble from the impact. Even though we were both Bet-rank divine warriors, the gap between us was obvious. His level had to be at least thirty, maybe higher.
“Ghh—!” I gritted my teeth.
“Maxim!” Michelle called out. But before she could move to help, two enemies broke off and charged at her, forcing her to defend herself.
Ryan didn’t let up. The mont our blades separated, he followed up with a fast horizontal slash aid directly at my side. I barely managed to step back in ti, the sharp edge grazing the hem of my coat as it passed. Even without resorting to any skill, his sheer strength and relentless pressure kept on the defensive. Not only that, but his sword proficiency was clearly better than mine—every swing, every movent was honed from experience.
“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that,” Ryan said condescendingly between strikes. “But the difference between us is pretty clear. Now die!”
Tch… I’ll need to sohow create an opening fast. I gritted my teeth as the intensity of Ryan’s attack grew even faster. Blocking every strike was quickly becoming unsustainable. Unfortunately, I lacked any offensive skill that could shift the montum in my favor, and at this rate, I’d be overwheld.
So, I made a decision. I hated doing this, but I had no choice.
Quickly, I opened my status screen and funneled twenty free attribute points into Strength.
Strength: 59 → 79
In an instant, a rush of power surged through my body—my muscles tightened, my grip steadied, and my stance beca more grounded. On paper, an increase of twenty points to my already fifty-nine Strength might have seed like just a one-third boost, but in practice, it was much more than that. Stats scaled increntally—every point carried more weight the higher it went—so the increase had a compounding effect.
As Ryan raised his blade for the next strike, I channeled all that newfound strength into my arms and t him head-on. Our blades collided again, but this ti, it wasn’t who stumbled.
It was Ryan.
The force behind my strike sent him reeling back, eyes wide with disbelief.
“What—!?”
But I didn’t give him a chance to recover, as I had noticed sothing in the middle of the fight. Before Ryan could even stabilize his footing, Boris ca barreling in like a wrecking ball. Having just finished off the remaining divine warriors, he zeroed in on the now-exposed Ryan.
With a savage grin, Boris grabbed him by the back of the neck and hoisted him clean off the ground—
“—Heavy Smash!” Then slamd him into the stone road with a thunderous crack.
The ground seed to tremble under the force of the impact. Several small objects—likely teeth—were scattered across the ground, clattering as they bounced along the broken pavent. A cloud of dust kicked up, and Ryan let out a choked cough, the wind completely knocked out of him.
“That’s what you get for trying to ss with us, little man,” Boris said with a booming laugh.
Amazing. Boris wasn’t an elite martial artist for nothing. Despite not having done his class advancent, he could beat ordinary Bet-rank divine warriors with relative ease, and that signature move made it all the more terrifying.
Michelle rushed to my side, eyes scanning quickly. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I gave a short nod, steadying my breath. “Looks like Ryan wasn’t going all out… and Boris took the opportunity to knock him out cold.”
Ryan was strong, no doubt about it, but he was far from being invincible. It was a critical mistake to underestimate us and not go all out from the start. Had he brought more n and set up a proper ambush, the outco might’ve been very different.
I could have used one of my class-related skills to tip the scales in my favor, but that would have required spending plausibility, and more importantly, I wanted to avoid revealing anything about my secrets. Unveiling sothing like that too early—especially without the ans to fully protect myself—would be dangerous.
“Lad, you’re not half bad. Clearly, you’ve gotten stronger than before,” Boris praised, slapping my back with a grin that nearly knocked off balance. “Care to spar soti? I’ll teach you everything I know about hand-to-hand combat.”
“Uh, sure. But now’s not the ti.” I shook my head, redirecting my attention to the groaning assailants sprawled on the ground.
Michelle glanced around, wary. “What should we do with them? Should we leave?”
“Yeah,” I replied after a brief pause. “There’s not much we can do about this.”
We’d made it clear that ssing with us wouldn’t co without pain, and sticking around any longer would only invite more unnecessary attention. For now, they likely wouldn’t cause any more trouble today, though it would be a different story tomorrow and beyond. These third-rate thugs weren’t the type to swallow their pride quietly. Sooner or later, they’d co crawling back for revenge.
“Oh, wait.”
Before we left the scene, I quickly went around and looted the weapons from each of the groaning assailants, depositing them into my inventory. Most of what they carried was decent and would sell for a pretty penny. It’d be a waste to just leave them lying there. Besides, stripping them of their gear would delay whatever pathetic plans for retaliation they might co up with. If nothing else, it’d make things harder for these bottom-feeding scavengers.
Steel Cutlass (Uncommon) x1Reinforced Iron War Hamr (Uncommon) x1Curved Bone Dagger (Uncommon) x1Spiked Mace with Leather Grip (Uncommon) x1Balanced Short Sword (Uncommon) x1Rusty Long Knife (Common) x1Cracked Iron Spear (Common) x1
There were a couple of other weapons lying around, but they were on the verge of breaking and probably wouldn’t be worth anything, so I didn’t bother taking them.
“Let’s go,” I said, turning away and walking ahead toward District F.
According to the usual flow of a scenario, Scarface would soon seek revenge for his subordinates and stir up more trouble for us. But I wasn’t soone who played by the book. I had no intention of wasting ti on small-ti, paper-cutout, third-rate villains like them. And lucky for , I had just the way of getting rid of them.
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