Lucen took a step forward, he was once again relying on Acting Adept to keep himself calm and steady his breath as he spoke with a chilling tone.
"Kill those villagers, and I’ll grant you a pain worse than death. So deep, you’ll beg for Velmira’s embrace."
Hearing Lucen’s voice made some of the bandits and even Rugar himself feel threatened. The full force of Acting Adept was on display, with every subtle shift of his body, Lucen radiated the presence of a dark knight, vengeance sharpened by justice.
"But surrender now, and I’ll grant you a warrior’s death. Clean. Swift. Final."
As he was done talking, Lucen could not help but sigh in his mind. The way he was talking was something he copied from something he had seen, but for some reason, he was starting to believe that he was that kind of person.
’... Is Acting Adept eating away at my own personality?...’ That thought suddenly came to mind, but he quickly shook it off, since it was no time to think about such things.
Hearing Lucen’s words had reminded Rugar of the leader of his old mercenary group.
Rugar was once a mercenary who had been to many battlefields. He was once part of a small mercenary group called Blackbane. They were like family and stood side by side with one another. The leader of Blackbane Mina was a good mercenary leader and only took jobs that she felt were good.
It was mostly jobs helping some people who couldn’t afford mercenaries. The pay was, of course, small, but that didn’t matter. Blackbane felt fulfilled and became a mercenary group known to help the weak. Unfortunately, Rugar wanted more than that.
When he told Mina that they should take jobs that paid better, she rejected him. In anger, Rugar almost attacked Mina but held himself back and simply left the team.
He tried to find fortune on his own, but a lone mercenary could not make that much money. He tried joining other mercenary groups, but they were as greedy as he was, and he did not like that he didn’t get the biggest share. So he killed them all and took their riches. That was how he became a bandit.
A few years later, he heard that all the members of Blackbane had been killed in a civil war. They had joined in to save the people, but in the end, they could not save themselves.
When Rugar heard the news, the first thing he felt wasn’t sadness but something different. The first thought he had at the time was.
’As I expected, my choice was right.’
But now, staring at the child who dared speak like Mina, with that same maddening conviction, Rugar felt something stirring he didn’t like.
He shook the memories away and glared at Lucen. That little bastard had no right to sound like her.
"So you’re giving me a choice, to either be tortured or to die by your hands?" Rugar, whose aura was at the first mantle, surged. "How about I choose the third option?"
Rugar once again raised his axe, looking about ready to strike at the villagers. Lucen, who saw this, urged the aura that didn’t even have his first mantle to boost his speed as he charged at Rugar.
Lucen knew after hitting Rugar’s chest before that, at the distance they were at, the Arquebus wouldn’t be able to penetrate deep enough to deter Rugar from swinging his axe, so Lucen needed to get a bit closer.
Seeing Lucen’s actions made Rugar have mixed feelings. It was as he expected and what he wanted to happen, but seeing someone act like his former leader, Mina, made him feel very irritated. When Lucen was close enough, Rugar swung his axe down.
Lucen reacted instantly, aiming the arquebus at Rugar’s forearm mid-motion. With the help of marksmanship, even though his stance was all messed up and the shot was not proper, the lead ball still landed where he needed it to be.
Lucen’s shot penetrated Rugar’s large forearm and diverted his strike, making it easier for Lucen to dodge. Lucen then discarded the arquebus since he had no time to reload, and took out the weird-looking longsword on his back.
This was the Crimson Lord Mk. IV, a vastly improved version of the original blade Lucen, Robert, and Oswin had crafted for Sir Garett.
Lucen, who had already loaded it with gunpowder before arriving, pressed the handle, making the blade that had rune symbols turn crimson from the heat it was producing, and smoke was coming out from an exhaust they made in the longsword.
Lucen charged at Rugar and swung the sword down. Rugar, who took out the lead ball from his forearm, saw Lucen about to slash down at him. He wanted to block, but when he saw the crimson sword, he instinctively knew that he needed to dodge instead of block.
Rugar backed away, dodging the strike, he then countered by swinging his axe using his left hand. Lucen ducked, evading the horizontal slash. He then quickly jumped backward and shouted at his men.
"Secure the villagers, and take out the remaining bandits!"
Hearing Lucen’s command, the members of Thornefang made their move. Unlike the bandits, who were a disorganized mob, Thornefang moved with precision. While Lucen was fighting Rugar, Harlik was the one commanding the men.
Rugar, who was fighting Lucen back and forth, noticed several things. Lucen was not even at the first mantle and had simply awakened his aura. He also noticed that Lucen’s swordsmanship was not that good, which made the battle even more confusing.
He was a second mental aura user, and even though he did not have proper forms, he had so much experience on the battlefield, his axe technique was better than most at the same level.
So why couldn’t he land a single clean hit? The boy shouldn’t be able to dodge him, and yet, he was.
The truth was simple: Lucen’s raw physical stats outclassed Rugar’s. Lucen, who had just awakened his aura and had no talent in swordmanship, was able to even the playing field purely because of his superior stats, which he had honed alongside Sir Thalos.
There was also the fact that his equipment was superior to Rugar’s equipment. The two sides had the ability to end the battle in one hit, and if their weapons clashed, it felt like Lucen’s burning sword would be able to damage Rugar’s axe, which was enveloped by his aura mantle.
That was one of the reasons why Rugar, whose fighting style was taking hits and hitting back, was actually evading each strike and never blocking.
Lucen used gun creation and created his favorite revolver in his off-hand. Lucen then used bullet creation, and with his continued practice, was now able to create bullets in the revolver’s chamber. It did help that both Gun Creation and Bullet Creation were now at the intermediate level.
Once he was ready, Lucen once again charged in and with a gun in his off-hand, the passive skill gun kata activated. His footwork shifted. The chaos became rhythm. Dodges turned to counters. Every bullet danced between Rugar’s swings like a second blade.
Rugar, who was hit in his abdomen by numerous bullets at the same spot, was finally bleeding. Rugar staggered, blood pouring from his abdomen.