The knife was closing in on Andrew and he was still focusing his attention fully on the leader. As the knife was about to stab his neck though, Andrew blurs all of a sudden and to the amazement of Lucy, she stabs the afterimage of Andrew and falls forward.

Since there was nothing to cushion her fall, she starts falling forcefully towards the ground but she was indeed a veteran fighter and in quick succession stood up valiantly at a distance just a bit forward than the bandit group. She was amazed that the boy who was in front of him with no aura could easily have avoided her assassination move. She had thought that since he had no aura on him, he would be a quick kill.

Although she had heard the initial words of the leader, she took it as just normal blabbering and didn’t believe that the boy in front of them was strong enough to hide his aura from them.

Lucia was equally as shocked, as her mouth was shaped into the “O” alphabet. The strongest commander just squints at the recent happenings, while the leader wasn’t shocked a bit as his signature smile was still plastered on his face. The expression on his face even seemed to be saying that he expected such a scenario to occur and not seeing it happening would have left him shocked instead.

In the next moment though, the strongest commander shouts towards Lucy, “Watch out”, but seems like she was a bit late as in the next moment, a kick lands on her waist which throws her backward at a neck-breaking speed.

Not having expected such an attack, she who usually sneaked up on other people was now sneaked up on and she didn’t even have a chance to block the attack which came at her, such an irony indeed.

She faints the moment she reaches the ground, she won’t be available for the next round of the fight as it seems. Lucia seeing her sister in such a state was virtually very angry. How could such a young kid possess such terrifying battle prowess?

She moves at great speed towards the position of Andrew, but all of a sudden, she feels a breath in her neck and at the same instant, she was knocked unconscious. Andrew appeared behind her and using the hilt of his cutlass hit her behind her head which causes her to be forcibly pulled into unconsciousness.

At the next moment though, a whip extends at a neck-breaking speed towards Andrew, using all the force he could muster, he dodged to the side and was capable of evading the strike. The whip wheezed passed him and like a snake was still whipping out until it got close to Ceros who was sent flying by it. He coughs up blood as he flew backwards without pause, after a while, he falls with a thud but unlike the rest, he doesn’t seem to have fallen unconscious.

The leader of the bandits just watches everything happening with a smile plastered on his face, he doesn’t order his men to attack as he knew sending them in this fight would just be wasting their lives, although the boy before him hasn’t killed any of his commanders, it doesn’t mean he was not a killer as killing intent could be seen flickering by his eyes occasionally which he was forcibly withholding.

The reason that he could think of that have prevented this young boy from killing any of his commanders would be because he feels like they could sort out the issue and didn’t want to burn down all the bridges.

The whip was withdrawn and the owner of the whip happens to be the strongest of all commanders.

“Be careful Lauretta. If you feel like you can’t defeat him, fall back”, the leader spoke in a lovely and gentle tone towards this commander of his, as if she was the only thing that matters to him in the whole world.

Lauretta just nods in reply, as she alights from her horse with her whip in her hands. A closer look at the whip shows that it has spike-like edges and seems to be made of a special kind of material that has enabled it to be capable of stretching that far. Andrew looks at this new opponent of his whom has sent Ceros backwards and has almost led him to his early death.

Andrew felt like although he could defeat this person before him, he would take some energy off him which he would have loved to save for fighting the leader.

Gritting his teeth though, he storms in the direction of the woman holding the whip and in a fast move brandishes his cutlass in the direction of the neck of the woman. As if having known beforehand where Andrew’s attack would be coming from, she dodges the attack easily without wasting too much energy.

Andrew expected this from happening and hence followed up with a second strike while twisting his cutlass in a stabbing motion towards the head of the woman who has just dodged his move. As if having an eye behind her head, she dodges the attack swiftly once again and tries tangling Andrew with her whip but he blocked her move with his cutlass and using the force pushes himself back a bit.

After separating from the woman, Andrew's eyes forms slit as he releases all his aura. Dragging this fight more would be dangerous for him, although seeing Andrew releasing his aura and even knowing that from the aura being released by Andrew, he had a high chance of defeating Lauretta, the leader still was on his horse without moving even a single bit.

Although he was a bit shocked by the aura Andrew released although expecting it, it still shocked him that such an aura came from Andrew. But he never moved one bit and continued watching this young boy with interest, looking forward to his next form of attack.

Seeing Andrew having released his full aura, obviously taking the fight more seriously, Lauretta also did the same. She fully understood that Andrew was trying to end the fight as soon as possible, not wanting to spend even another minute with her locked in battle.

They didn’t attack immediately as if they were shuffling through their range of attacks. The next moment though, as if settling for which kind of attacks to use, Andrew, threw out a knife in her direction while Lauretta attacked with her whip while moving in the opposite direction from Andrew’s knife, dodging it once again.

But unexpectedly another knife was before her location she just vanished to, although shocked, she dodges once again although with the loss of the beauty of her shirt as it has been torn by the knife which has just escaped injuring her.

Andrew clicked his tongue, he has once again attacked based on instincts but hadn’t expected that his attack would be easily made work of.

He was now fully understanding the works of the sensory realm. It was like having another mind outside your body to predict what was happening outside of you. It was heightening all the senses to the maximum, making it possible to sense the actions of those around you and even their little presence.

He found this very needful though but unfortunately, he hasn’t yet gotten to that realm.

After dodging the attack, a smile blossomed on Lauretta’s face, and Andrew felt danger all of a sudden. His body seems to be telling him something which he couldn’t quite understand.

Although he had learned that he had this instinctual feeling when doing things and during most battles since he came to this world, he still doesn’t have full control over it, and some of its warnings couldn’t be fully understood by him. But he just decided to move his body a bit and the whip which has been held by the woman just wheezed past him in an unhindered fashion, ripping out some of his flesh while being drawn back by Lauretta.

He was lucky that it was just a flesh wound and wasn’t something serious. But being injured in his new perfect body got him enraged. He was a bit proud of this body of his and had taken care of it very carefully.

Ceros who was bloodied couldn’t help but take in a gasp due to Andrew being injured, seeing Andrew defeating two of the commanders easily developed a bit of hope in his heart that maybe Andrew could defeat the leader of the bandits but now seeing him injured by the most powerful of his commanders made his hope worn out totally.

He was sure they wouldn’t be able to escape now. He had wanted to escape three times due to Andrew engaging in a fight with Lauretta and since he saw the leader staring at the fight with amusement on his face as if he was watching kids play. But on that three attempts, immediately as he was about to move a step, he would feel a profound gaze on him which came from the leader, and his smile grew more sadistic and dangerous after each try. He became sure that if he attempted once again, he would be killed, without doubt, hence he had to stop his attempts, and maybe perhaps, Andrew could create a chance for them. But now, he knew definitely that there would be no chance.

Marian had her heart wrenched in pain, it felt like the whip had directly pierced through her and injured her but didn’t utter any word that might distract Andrew. All she could do was tremble as she held back her tears.

Eve who was in the other carriage felt unknown and new emotions in her heart, seeing Andrew being injured wrenched her heart with pain. But the shocking of all came from the leader, who has a bit of shocked expression on his face while saying inwardly, ‘Did I think too highly of him?’.

All of this although took too long to explain happens at the same moment. But something unexpected happens at the next moment, as if enraged by the fact that he was injured, Andrew leaps at greater speed toward Lauretta. Before her whip was withdrawn, Andrew was before her and with a sharp kick towards her waist. She dodges by moving to the side with her whip still withdrawn. More than ten quickening moves were exchanged at this moment and Lauretta was able to make short work of them.

She smiles once again as her whip was before her and she uses it to attack Andrew, but he twirls the whip around his cutlass while grabbing hold of the whip not minding the fact that it pierced through his hands. He pulled Lauretta towards him and since the distance between them was short, she had no choice but to be pulled towards him.

He plans to knock her unconscious with a punch but she dodges it once again, having predicted his move. Andrew is not shocked as he held his last knife in his right hand about using it to stab her. She snickers at the obvious move of Andrew and was too focused on the knife to notice the cutlass of Andrew which has now been free from the grasp of the whip.

Andrew using the knife as a feint grabs the cutlass with his left hand and uses the hilt to bang her hand hardly. She suffers from a concussion after taking the hit which destabilizes her senses but doesn’t fall unconscious and just bled a bit.

Andrew not willing to let go of this chance, rains down attacks on her with reckless abandon, all to knock her unconscious though. He didn’t want to risk the man behind it all being enraged and attacking him swiftly.

Although the leader was watching the match up, and could have intervened countless number of times, he just sat down on his horse while watching the fight go on without even a bit of a comment.