The thief was startled by the shout and almost dropped the box. This made the already enraged Gerald even madder. Looking into his bloodshot eyes, the thief didn't think twice before turning around and running away as fast as he could.

Two brown-armored bandits and two Black Wolves quickly arrived between Gerald and the running thief. It was at that moment that something snapped in Gerald's mind.

'These worms think they can steal from me!? Whoever stands in my way, I'll tear him away limb from limb!'

At this exact moment, under the effect of adrenaline, he felt a sudden surge of strength. At the same time, he lost a part of his rationality and with an animalistic roar, he sprang forth with a sword in hand.

"Get him! Tear him apart!" one of the bandits ordered and his Black Wolf immediately responded, madly growling at Gerald as he jumped at him with the sharp fangs and claws aiming for the latter's neck.

"Out of my way!" Gerald roared and slashed horizontally with his sword. The swing was incredibly fast and it landed right in the gaping maw of the beast, but it didn't stop there.

The sword continued across the body of the wolf, exiting behind his neck, directly slicing off the top part of the beast's head and separating it from the body.

In his rage, Gerald continued rushing forward and before anyone could even react, he already arrived at the other Black Wolf, cutting its skull in half with a downward swing. The skull split apart like butter, starting at the top, between the eyes and lastly breaking the lower jaw in half. The animal was dead before it even knew what happened.

He continued to advance while striking at the brown-armored bandit. The latter used his sword to block the strike and got showered by bright sparks upon the impact. Gerald did not stop with just one strike, however. The swings continued to rain down randomly and the bandit could barely defend himself.

"This guy is insane! Quick, help me!" the bandit called for help from his companion. Without hesitation, both bandits struck back at Gerald at the same time.

Although he was in a rage, Gerald still had a grip on the situation. He sidestepped their attack and dashed forward, arriving face to face with one of his assailants. With his free left hand, he blasted the guy in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out momentarily.

Before the poor guy could even fall to the ground, Gerald spun around and gave him a kick under his chin, sending him flying back. With the broken nose and possibly fractured yaw, as well as a concussion, he was unlikely to get up any time soon.

Now, being face to face with this savage warrior, the brown bandit wet his pants before he screamed in horror, "Wait! We can talk about t-" However, his words were cut short, literally, as Gerald's Fire Sword sliced through his leather armor, across his collarbone on one side, across his chest, and out on the other side near the hip.

The fancy leather armor provided as much protection as a single sheet of paper. None.

Gerald did not spare him another glance as he ran after the thief, roaring at the top of his lungs, "You bastard! How dare you steal my shit! I'll tear you apart!"

The thief kept running, buckets of cold sweat pouring down his back. 'Madman, he's a madman!' he thought. That's when he heard Gerald's roar. He was slowly closing in on him.

'His shit?' He turned around with a confused expression and then looked down at the wooden box in his hands. 'It couldn't be…'

He opened the chest and the sight stunned him so much that he stopped. He had an expression of surprise and disappointment. Before his eyes were rows of neatly packed vials, not at all what he expected.

He mouthed a surprised "Oh," before Gerald arrived next to him and separated his head from the body with a single swing. The surprise on his face stayed even after his head hit the floor and rolled around.

Gerald caught the chest and quickly checked the contents before finally releasing a big sigh of relief. The chest contained his chance at advancement and if something happened to it, he would lose weeks of potential progress, maybe even months. It was way too important for him.

He sat down on the ground, panting, he was exhausted. He carefully closed the chest and looked at the head of the bandit near him. The guy's expression made him frown although he didn't know why.

From the time his chest was stolen till now, just over a minute had passed. He slowly started feeling his body ace all over and his muscles were sore like he was working out for the entire day.

He groaned in discomfort and placed his hand on his chest to heal himself. That's when he shockingly discovered that he was completely dry. Not a drop of Mana was left in his body.

"The fuck? I didn't use any spells as far as I can remember…?" He thought hard about the past few minutes and concluded that he really didn't use any spells at all!

"Unless…" He looked at his hands as he had a sudden realization. "Did I somehow trigger my Mana and converted it into temporary strength?"

It was a big possibility, but even if it was, he had no idea how he did it. And even if he knew, the backlash was quite severe.

He was currently completely incapable of even moving at a normal speed, not to mention engaging in a fight. Also, the strength boost was extremely short for the amount of Mana consumed.

He slowly picked himself up and drank a Healing Potion, "Ow, damn it! My whole body hurts. I don't think the bit of strength I got was worth all of this pain."

He slowly limped back to the camp. Although his body was void of Mana, he could still use magic by utilizing the crystals. His magic combat ability wasn't affected, just his healing spells were.

The rest of the bandits saw him brutally dispose of the two that blocked his path, but they didn't know what happened with the thief in the end since he ran too far away.

When they noticed Gerald slowly coming back with the wooden chest under his arm, they knew that the stealth mission failed. Now the only option left was to fight head-on.

These guys had a particularly interesting fighting style. Instead of engaging Silver Phantom by themselves, they instead sent forth the Black Wolves while they tried to score some cheap shots from afar.

Although the members of Silver Phantom were young, they were no weaklings. Even being outnumbered three to one, they managed to hold the advancement of the beasts and their masters. Both Derrick and Doven were strong warriors at Iron 3 rank. They were quite capable.

Mister Rulgo was of no use in the fight. He was desperately trying to calm down his donkeys, who were totally freaking out and trying to run away.

When Gerald saw the mess of a battle, he felt a headache coming his way. He just wanted to rest for a while and heal up, but it didn't seem like he would get the chance any time soon.

He lifted his hand to cast a Repeating Fireball, but then just before he triggered the spell, he stopped. 'Better not show them I can use more than two Elements… This has to be my trump card.'

He then utilized the Mana inside his bracelets and used the Stone Shower a few times.

Nina and Owyn made the terrain around the camp full of holes and columns, making it extremely hard to traverse. Meanwhile, both Kara and Gelen kept shooting with the bow. The wolves that managed to squeeze through were dealt with by Derrick and his brother.

Sera wasn't too useful in the fight since her specialty was throwing knives, and those weren't that useful in such a chaotic battle. "Ooh, I feel so useless!" she lamented, "When we get back I have to make sure to get myself familiar with another weapon!"

"Stone Shower!"

Woosh!

Gerald finally released his Stone Bolts and they rained down from the sky. He split them up into small groups of five and each group fell on a Black Wolf.

Now that Owny saw Gerald come back he relaxed somewhat and decided to go on the offense. "By the power I control, shifting dirt, warping stone! I call upon the Stone Javelin!"

Crack!

A two-meter-long piece of stone broke free from the ground and flew up according to Owyn's control. He masterfully guided it around the dirt columns, straight to the brown-armored bandits.

Too bad for him, these guys didn't just stand there to be skewered like pieces of meat. They quickly split up and tried to go around the uneven terrain to attack at a close distance.