Chapter 82: Chapter 82

The team, attempting to evade the impending trap, altered their route multiple times, yet their efforts proved futile.

As they traversed an open road, Sokram abruptly raised a hand, signaling a halt.

Given that the blank contracts bound the cattle to him, the herd ceased its movement instantly.

"Hey there, little friends!" a voice boomed, and Sokram’s gaze swept across the road ahead.

From their concealed positions, a group of hooded, masked figures, their faces obscured by black kerchiefs, emerged.

They were uniformly clad in leather armor and bore weapons. 'So these are the ones the Steelhearts chose, hm?'

Sokram mused, nodding to Savannah to activate the runes on the cattle and signaling his team to stick to their prearranged plan.

“Friends?” Sokram queried, his eyes scrutinizing the ten individuals who had appeared from behind the trees obstructing their path.

He also sensed two other mages, their presence betrayed by the subtle ebb and flow of ambient mana, a clear sign they were casting something. From Sokram’s perception, all of them were above Tier 7, with their leader clearly a Tier 10.

Suddenly, Amber’s voice, a hushed whisper carried by sound transmission, reached him: “Lucy and the Kan said they can hear another ten hiding.”

This intel reinforced his belief that the additional hidden individuals were weaker, aligning with the common bandit tactic of showcasing their strongest members to intimidate victims and potentially avert conflict. Yet, he remained cautious, certain these were no mere bandits.

These were the pursuers, meticulously following the trail Kazzah had laid, unequivocally hired by the Steelhearts.

But even if they were common thieves, he had no intention of underestimating them.

“Yes, friends. I’d like to think we can keep this as friendly as possible. No need to kill you and your party. All you must do is hand over your valuables and the cattle. And we will let you go. Of course, you will also have to leave your women behind.”

The burly, hooded man, who appeared to be the leader of the band, spoke, a creepy smile undoubtedly stretching beneath his mask as the rest of his crew chuckled.

“Oh, is that all you want?” Sokram’s voice was laced with feigned innocence as he dismounted Perikles.

Simultaneously, Savannah quietly activated the protective runestones on the cattle; the azure runes flared, warding the cattle with a seemingly invisible barrier.

The rest of the team also activated their own runestones, awaiting Sokram’s signal.

Lucy and the wolves played a critical role, tasked with precisely pinpointing the other thieves lurking among the trees.

Sokram advanced slowly, his senses sharpening, his left hand resting on his katana, releasing its lock.

Seeing this, the leader sneered, “Heh, boy, are you sure you want to go down that path?”

“Which path? All I came to do is to have a friendly chat, but the thing is…” His tone chilled, his eyes narrowing, counting ten figures directly in front and five concealed, “…I don’t see any friends other than those behind me.”

As his words hung in the air, the ten thieves stepped forward.

They understood this confrontation would escalate into a battle, rendering further words useless.

Yet, Sokram was prepared; first, he needed to take away their numerical advantage.

‘Killing Blade Art – Mighty Thunder: Ten Killing Steps.’

An arc of dark lightning, emitting a blinding flash, tore through the ten thieves.

The leader of the band narrowly managed to dodge, but by the time he spun around to warn his men, it was already too late.

What he witnessed was a horrific ballet of six heads tumbling through the air before thudding onto the pristine snow, which rapidly became stained with arterial blood gushing from severed necks.

Their hearts were still pumping as their heads hit the snow.

The remaining three either fell to the ground, clutching a severed arm or a leg.

It was then that the leader grasped the grim reality: His group had been duped by the rich kids who hired them.

‘If I come out of this alive, I’ll kill those fuckers!’

The leader’s anger surged, burning like wildfire in his chest.

When Sokram reappeared behind the thieves, he finally discerned the mages who were actively casting their spells, and simultaneously, the other ten hidden thieves among the nearby trees.

Fortunately, his earlier conjecture held true; they were all below Tier 4.

The mages, their faces etched with fright, spun toward him, finally noticing his presence, but it was already too late. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ N()velFire.net

Not because Sokram moved, but because a second presence materialized, hovering above him, bluish lightning crackling beneath her feet.

“Frostbite!” Amber’s voice resonated with unyielding resolve.

Her two hands, pointed at each mage, clenched into fists, and in the next instant, two monstrous, ice-fanged mouths snapped shut around them.

Their agonizing screams, choked by their own blood, were their final living sounds.

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“You guys take care of the rest; I’ll take the leader,” Sokram’s calm voice cut through the chaos.

Before anyone could respond, his form dissolved from its position, leaving only a faint, dark crackle of static hanging in the air.

The sharp, metallic clang of blade on blade echoed through the woods surrounding the abandoned road.

All eyes snapped toward the thieves' leader, who had barely managed to raise his weapon in time to deflect Sokram’s incoming strike.

Sparks flew as the sheer force of the impact pushed the leader back a step.

The man’s eyes narrowed in shock as he struggled to steady himself. “How can someone as young as you...”

But Sokram didn’t let him finish.

His blade crackled with energy, and the faint hum of lightning began to grow louder.

Meanwhile, Kan, leaping from his mounted great wolf, surged toward one of the closest thieves.

Their blades met, and a rhythmic sound of colliding metal resounded: “Peng! Peng! Peng! Peng! Slash!"

No matter the thief’s efforts, he couldn’t keep pace with Kan’s movements, which resembled a fluid dance more than a brutal fight.

Yet, somehow, the thief survived the initial exchange, albeit with a couple of deep, crimson gashes across his chest.

Lara and Nora also plunged into the fray, unleashing a berserk assault on two other thieves.

Their large weapons wreaked havoc with heavy, crushing blows, sending their enemies sprawling as they relentlessly pursued.

Kazzah dashed toward the thieves that Sokram had only crippled, and after killing them, he rushed at one of the thieves.

Knowing that their plan had failed, he had no reason to hold back against them.

Savannah, Kiana, and Timothy remained behind, forming a protective cordon around the cattle.

Suddenly, the figure of the thieves’ leader streaked through the fight, dashing backward with Sokram on his tail.

‘Killing Blade Art – Mighty Thunder: Lightning Dance.’

With a burst of speed, Sokram vanished once more.

The thieves’ leader reacted instinctively, activating a technique of his own to dash backward once more, attempting to escape, but it wasn’t enough. Lightning surged unpredictably around him, weaving and twisting like a serpent, but it was Sokram fully merged with his dark lightning, leaving only lightning flashes and his afterimages behind.

The leader barely managed to parry a strike from above, his blade vibrating with the sheer force of the impact.

His muscles strained as he quickly spun to intercept Sokram’s next slash, a sharp upward strike aimed at his back.

Another desperate block.

The force of the blow threw him off balance, forcing him to stagger.

He gritted his teeth and attempted to retreat further, but Sokram was relentless.

A spray of crimson arced through the air as Sokram’s blade carved a deep gash across the thief's chest.

Blood splattered onto the pristine snow below, steaming faintly in the cold.

“Fuck you! Damn lizard!” the leader spat, his voice a mixture of pain and fury as his free hand pressed against the wound.

His breathing grew ragged, but his grip on his weapon tightened.

Sokram tilted his head slightly, a mocking smile playing across his lips. “Heh, you’re fast. I’ll give you that.”

The thief growled, his body tensing for another move, but Sokram’s smirk widened.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished once again.

‘Killing Blade Art – Swift Wind: One Step.’

Before the thief could react, Sokram reappeared behind him, his sword already mid-swing. “But not fast enough!”

The leader’s instincts kicked in as he spun around, his blade rising to meet the attack.

The sound of shattering metal echoed across the battlefield.

Sokram’s blade cut through the thief’s weapon, the broken shards flying into the air like deadly confetti.

The thief’s eyes widened in horror as Sokram’s sword didn’t stop. The diagonal slash cleaved through his torso with brutal efficiency, a spray of blood painting the snow in a grotesque pattern.

The thief’s torso slid apart with a wet schlick, his innards spilling onto the snow like grotesque ribbons, with its two halvescollapsing to the ground with a dull thud.

The metallic tang of blood thickened the air, the crimson stain rapidly spreading around him.

Sokram stood there for a moment, his blade crackling faintly with residual energy, before flicking the blood from its edge in one smooth motion.

‘This is my first time killing people in this lifetime, hm?’

Sokram’s pulse roared in his ears, a predatory grin splitting his face.

The exhilarating feeling during mortal combat, the thief’s last gasp.

It was alive, a familiar thrill coursed through him, like a dragon stretching its wings after centuries of dormancy.

This was the feeling he’d missed, one he had been so addicted to in his previous timeline, one that seemed to have seamlessly followed him into this one.

Suddenly, the sky brightened in fiery red light, painting the battlefield in a similar color, casting jagged shadows across the frozen ground.

Before the thieves could even scream, molten embers rained down in a deadly storm.

“Rain of Fire!” Amber’s voice boomed again as bolts of fire rained down upon the remaining thieves, catching them utterly by surprise.

Amber’s flames fell like falling stars, searing flesh with a hiss.

The thieves’ screams curdled into gurgles as the fire crunched through their armor, the stench of charred meat clinging to the wind.

Their suffering was mercifully cut short.

Lucy, disturbed by the acrid smell of burning flesh and the horrific screams, unleashed arrow after arrow in a relentless series of headshots, not a single arrow wasted.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!” Body after body hit the ground. Flames crackled as snow hissed into steam.

The stench of scorched hair and bubbling fat clung to the wind, the ferals of the team grimacing as the nauseating odor of burnt flesh assaulted their nostrils, mixing with the iron tang of blood.

They were on the verge of cheering, knowing victory was theirs, but Sokram raised a hand, signaling them to remain silent.

Looking at Lucy, he waited.

Her ears had perked, and a few moments later, so did Kan’s and Kiana’s. Lucy closed her eyes, her focus entirely on her hearing, and soon the faint sound of ragged breathing reached her fox-like ears.

Using only her acute hearing as a guide, she loosed an arrow, and Sokram swiftly flashed away in a streak of dark lightning, trailing its path.

As the arrow struck the trunk of a nearby tree, Sokram reappeared, facing one last thief.

It was clear to him that the man before him posed no threat.

The thief, a mere Tier 2, his eyes wide with a mixture of shock at being discovered and terror at the grinning monster flashing before him, stammered, “Aah! Please, spare me! I’m…”

But Sokram didn’t let him finish this time either; instead, he knocked the thief unconscious with a single punch.

The strike was so strong that the unconscious thief skidded several meters across the snowy ground before coming to a stop.

“I found their porter!”

Sokram announced, a greedy smile stretching across his face.

He swiftly relieved the porter of his leather pouch and tied him with a rope intricately woven with runic inscriptions.

This was something he had prepared, knowing something could happen at some point; the rope was enchanted to sever a person’s energy flow when tied.

He carried the unconscious porter back to their mounts, where Savannah inquired, “Why didn’t you kill him?”

Sokram looked at her, feigning surprise. “Heh, am I becoming such a bad influence that our beloved Forest Warden has turned bloodthirsty? Haha.”

Sokram joked, causing Savannah to blush, but then he explained, “You heard the rumors about a new bandit group lurking around, right? So I’m taking him to the city for the city guards to interrogate him, which reminds me of something…”

Sokram dropped the unconscious thief onto the ground like a sack of potatoes and moved from one fallen thief to another, checking for spatial rings, until he reached the leader.

Within the leader’s cleaved body, he discovered four rings.

Then, he performed an act that astonished the others: he beheaded the thieves’ leader and stored the head within his void glove.

Noticing the curious glances from his teammates, he explained, “I’ll check for bounties; he was at least a Tier 10 Uncommon Level, so if there’s a bounty on him, it will be worth at least a few tens of gold.”

His teammates nodded, understanding his reasoning.

But then, something clicked.

Sokram was only a Tier 3, even if he was close to advancing to Tier 4, which he wasn't; he had effortlessly killed a Tier 10 Uncommon.

Unless he used a unique cultivation method or possessed a superior Level of Existence, such a level of combat prowess was unbelievable for someone so young.

Most of them were deeply impressed, but Timothy’s grip on his sword turned his knuckles bloodless.

Kazzah’s jaw worked silently: True Existences, he’d need at least that to crush this monster.