Chapter 45 | I Shall Beat You Even Still

“W- What do we do!?”

“Start by dodging!” Theo gritted his teeth, scrambling away from the second-rate’s attacks. An axe swing cut off the left side of his hair, making him wince in cringe. He would have to shave it all off now for it to grow back properly.

“But he’s stronger than me! There’s no way we can win,” Aiden said with a defeated look in his eyes. His hands twitched, searching in vain for his sword. It was gone now.

“Yes! If someone is stronger than him…” Kai added. He was on the ground, hugging his knees.

“Idiots!” Theo shrieked and launched forward. Now, not only did he have to keep his distance, he had to make sure he didn’t let the guy aggro toward the others. Although this wouldn’t work normally, the two were too little of a threat to the bandit for him to actually care about them.

Theo ducked, then shifted the dirt under his own feet to slide himself away from the bandit. The man was like glue, stuck to him all the way through. Theo was severely under-equipped to handle the situation.

“If you two don’t pick up your weapons, we will all die!”

“But we–”

“Shut the fuck up and fight! Or I will roast you alive,” Theo swept a handful of dirt, then blasted some steam using flash vaporize. The one to catch his drift first and pull himself together was Aiden. Either because he truly had some courage left in him, or because his pride as a transmigrator had pushed him to his feet, he raised his fists and dashed toward the bandit.

This was obviously a very stupid way to approach the fight. He should have waited for a better opportunity, but even the fact that he had managed to push himself up to fight was enough for Theo.

Taking advantage of the momentary confusion of the bandit, Theo blasted him with his flamethrower. The sea of fire slammed against the back of the second rate, biting away at his aura shields right under his skin.

The pain and fury seemingly caused him to lose his mind, not even bothering with Aiden before turning toward Theo and dashing. Aiden’s eyes widened at the sight of the flames.

“You were the one who killed the bandit in the forest! You burnt his back off!” Aiden shouted, pointing a finger at Theo.

He shivered, his eyes darting between him and the bandit a couple of times.

Finally, he frowned and came to a decision. He rushed forward, slammed his fist square into the bandit’s nape, causing him to stumble forward.

Theo took the chance and shifted the earth under his feet, making him fall down. This was maybe a second or two’s worth of opportunity, but it was enough.

Theo poured his mana in torrents, the two pillars of flame washing over the bandit. His mind wavered as the mana expenditure reached a dizzying amount. But it wasn’t enough. The bandit was about to get up when Aiden slammed his foot down in an attempt to keep him on the ground.

“Kai! Help us!” Theo shouted.

The young knight-aspirant’s eyes widened. He was many things. A coward? Maybe. An idiot? Definitely. A stupid bastard who couldn’t keep his legs from shaking? A hundred percent. And although Theo wasn’t sure where he was going with that tirade, he appreciated the fact that this guy could push himself to his feet.

As Theo and Aiden were busy beating the shit out of the second-rate bandit as if they were pounding mochi. Kai wobbled to their side with terror in their eyes.

By now, Theo’s mana had truly run out. One more spell and he would lose consciousness. He had joined in stomping down on the bandit, but their attacks were clearly not doing any damage. If even one of them made the smallest mistake, he would get up and cleave them in half.

Suddenly, however, all the hairs on Theo’s back stood up. His eyes widened as his senses caught onto something devastating. Kai had raised his leg, mimicking them. His eyes were closed, fists clenched to the point of going white.

Theo could see the air around Kai’s shoes distort. With a whizzing noise, his stomp came crushing down on the bandit’s nape. A shockwave spread out of the point of contact. It caused both Theo and Aiden to lose their balance, stumbling backward.

It was filled with such an impossible amount of force that it immediately ripped through the bandit’s aura defenses. He might have been able to take it on if he had focused all of his aura on his nape, but he had no idea a scaredy-cat like Kai would have this much power behind his attack.

As soon as the stomp landed, his entire neck was pulverized, exploding into pools of blood in two directions. His spine was nowhere to be seen, ground into such fine dust that it was impossible to see amidst the plethora of gore.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

[A good main character knows how to get through a crisis, even if with help. Exp gained.]

[You have leveled up!]

[+2 Attribute Points]

It was a one-hit kill! But unfortunately for Kai, he still lacked any control over this overwhelming power. His knee crumbled in on itself, his leg bending into a very uncomfortable-looking shape. Theo winced as he watched the knight-aspirant collapse to the ground with a gut-wrenching scream.

“Holy shit…” Aiden muttered with a terrified frown. He looked up from Kai toward Theo. “W- What do we do?“

Theo shrugged. The only thing that came to mind was a very crude solution.

Kneeling next to Kai, he placed one hand on his thigh and another on his shin. He pulled them away from each other with a yank, hopefully somewhat setting the bone correctly.

This, obviously, caused Kai to thrash around with tears gushing from his eyes. Not giving him the chance to faint, Theo uncorked a potion and stuffed it into his mouth. A drop of the liquid trailed off his face as Kai drank it all. His swollen and brittle leg started to swell and heal. Seeing that one wasn’t enough to heal him, Theo fed him another three before his cries turned into sobs.

“Hmph,” Aiden crossed his arms with a strange expression on his face. “He can’t handle just this amount of pain. What a weak–”

“Shut the fuck up.” Theo gritted his teeth. “Sure, this guy is bad, but what the hell was that with you? You just collapsed immediately as soon as things went south.”

“But I–”

Theo threw him another glare, which made Aiden eek and shiver in place. One way or another, Theo had been constantly in life-threatening situations since his arrival in this world. Someone like Aiden, who had probably spent his time in this world getting cozy in his village, wasn’t able to handle his demeanor.

Also, the sight of that corpse with his entire backside burnt off might have had an effect. Maybe.