"Ha? How could this be a grave? It's clearly someone inside." The man called Beta said this, then approached Dan Feng's earthen fortress and knocked on it with his hand.
"You inside—come out on your own, or should I invite you out? I mean no harm. It's just that some terrifying monster appeared over there, and my brothers and I are afraid of dying." Beta continued speaking, but his eyes signaled to the crowd behind him.
They hadn't noticed the small ventilation window at the back of the earthen fortress.
Understanding Beta's meaning, they began attacking Dan Feng's earthen fortress.
Dan Feng knew the people outside had come with ill intentions, but he didn't believe they had the ability to destroy his earthen fortress.
Roxy Migurdia also gradually woke up amid the intense pounding sounds.
"Huh? Why is everything shaking?" Roxy Migurdia rubbed her eyes. Since she had been abruptly awakened, her eyes felt especially sore.
"Boss, from the sound of it, there's a woman inside!" One of the underlings heard Roxy Migurdia's voice and immediately shouted.
"Then hurry up and put more effort into it! Look at you all—after attacking for so long, you've only scraped off a bit of dirt?"
"But Boss, this thing is too hard. We can't scrape it."
Roxy Migurdia also clearly heard the voices outside, so she looked toward Dan Feng. "Those people outside are bandits, right?"
Dan Feng nodded. "It's fine. They definitely can't break this magic unless there's a magician among them."
"Boss, we still can't break it." The underling kept chattering at Beta.
Beta kicked the underling once, then cursed angrily, "Can't you use your brain? Bring over that magician we captured this morning along with his wife. I'd like to see if this turtle-shell magic can withstand it or not!"
After that, the outside fell briefly silent.
Some time later, Beta and his group returned in front of the earthen fortress.
"You! Destroy this turtle shell, otherwise…" Beta said to a man dressed like a magician, then stroked the cheek of the man's wife, who was tightly bound.
"I'll do it. Please don't harm my wife." The magician said while crying bitterly.
The two of them had originally been heading to Millishion today. While resting on the road, some people struck up a conversation with them—only for them to be surrounded by bandits. In the end, they killed a few bandits but were ultimately overwhelmed by sheer numbers and a superior North God Style swordsman closing in.
"Don't worry. I guarantee you and your wife will be fine." Beta walked up to the magician, patted his face, and said,
"So, get to work."
"May the great blessing of flame descend upon the place thou seekest! O fierce and violent flames, burn away all great blessings! [Great Fireball]!" The magician chanted in a low voice. His eyes were filled with reluctance, but for the sake of himself and his wife, he had no choice.
The massive fireball struck Dan Feng's earthen fortress in an instant. Flames surged in all directions, the temperature skyrocketed, and the explosion produced thick smoke all around.
In that very moment, Dan Feng took Roxy Migurdia and left the earthen fortress.
Although the fortress itself wouldn't be damaged, the heat from fire magic was still not to be underestimated.
In an instant, Cloud-Piercer appeared in Dan Feng's hand. He immediately used wind magic to blow away the surrounding smoke.
"There are two people over there!" An underling immediately noticed the two figures that had appeared not far from the fortress and shouted.
"You finally came out, huh? That wasn't easy. Before, you wouldn't have died—but now you've pissed me off." Beta roared and charged straight toward Dan Feng.
Seeing their boss charge, the rest followed closely behind Beta, though two stayed behind to watch the magician and his wife.
"Earth Vine!" With a delicate shout from Roxy Migurdia, she unhesitatingly cast earth magic.
In an instant, several thick earthen vines shot up from the ground at astonishing speed, tightly wrapping around the ankles of the large group of people.
A series of cracking and snapping sounds rang out as the group, caught completely off guard, tripped and fell to the ground one after another.
"Damn it, that little girl is actually a magician!" Someone exclaimed in shock.
"Did she chant? I didn't see anything!"
Beta also stumbled and fell from the unexpected trip, but as an upper-rank swordsman of the North God Style's eccentric faction, his reaction speed was extremely fast. With a quick dodge, he stood back up.
"Get out of the way! I have no intention of starting a fight." Dan Feng warned as he saw Beta approaching aggressively.
However, Beta completely ignored the warning and cursed loudly, "Out here in the middle of nowhere, who the fuck cares about you! Even if the Millis knights came, they couldn't do shit to me!" Before the words even finished, he leaped high into the air. His greatsword drew a cold arc through the sky as he viciously swung it downward toward Dan Feng.
Dan Feng's eyes narrowed. Cloud-Piercer spun rapidly in his hand.
Just as Beta's greatsword was about to strike, Dan Feng's right hand suddenly exerted force. The shaft of Cloud-Piercer whipped out at lightning speed, smashing squarely into Beta's stomach.
A dull thud rang out. Beta was struck hard and sent flying backward like a kite with its string cut.
Boom!
With a loud crash, Beta's body slammed into the dirt beside them, kicking up a cloud of dust.
His ribs had most likely all been broken.
"What are you staring at? Hurry up and use magic!" Seeing the situation turn bad, an underling immediately ordered the magician to cast a spell.
When the magician still didn't move, the underling rushed to his wife's side, pressed a small knife against her throat, and said, "If you don't act, I'll kill—"
Before he could finish, Dan Feng kicked him flying to the side.
After that, he made no more sound.
But how could so many bandits be dealt with so quickly? They surrounded Dan Feng and Roxy Migurdia with their superior numbers.
"Water Ball Technique!" Roxy Migurdia shouted delicately. She had originally intended to wet the ground, but someone saw her about to cast magic and immediately lunged toward her.
Before Roxy Migurdia could even react, the water ball on the tip of her staff shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow, flying at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, the person charging at Roxy Migurdia was struck by the water ball and instantly turned into a headless corpse.
"Ah!" Roxy Migurdia let out a startled scream at the sudden turn of events.
She stared wide-eyed, her face filled with shock as she looked at the scene before her.
Crimson blood sprayed like a fountain at Roxy Migurdia's feet, forming a pool of blood.
Her mind went completely blank. She could only stand there dumbfounded, staring at the bloody and horrifying scene.
It took quite a while before Roxy Migurdia snapped out of it as if waking from a dream.
Her face turned deathly pale, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
Ignoring her fear, she hurriedly rushed to the now-dead person, frantically casting healing magic in a desperate attempt to save his life.
"How could this happen?"