The Broken Halo

"How troublesome."

The carriage was silent after Simon said those words.

Mira’s face had already become pale, and Devia, Brukk, and Orven were not any better.

They were only merchants and their battle prowess was nothing extraordinary.

To save some money, they had decided to move without hiring guards. They were depending on luck and the expertise of the driver to get them to Velmora safely, but they were currently out of luck.

"Over twenty bandits. What sort of dogshit luck do we have?"

Devia could not help but curse with visible fear in her voice.

Akaza, Sonya, and Simon ignored her and the others.

Sonya glanced outside the window and yawned softly.

"I’m too lazy to look at these fools. How many are there?"

Akaza opened his eyes.

"More than twenty."

Sonya frowned slightly.

"Bunch of insects."

Simon looked at the bandits for a few seconds, then he shifted his gaze to Akaza.

"Kill them."

Mira, Devia, Brukk, and Orven immediately looked at Simon.

For a moment, they wondered if they had heard wrongly. However, Simon’s expression was calm.

He did not say beat them.

He did not say scare them away.

He said kill them.

Akaza stood up slowly. His black robe covered his body, and the hoodie hid part of his face. He did not look like somebody going into battle. He looked like somebody who had been disturbed from a short rest.

"All of them?"

"All of them."

Akaza nodded.

"Alright."

He opened the carriage door and stepped out.

The driver was standing a few steps away from the carriage with an ugly expression. When he saw Akaza come out alone, his expression became strange.

Why was only a single demon coming out?

What was going on?

The driver could not even see Akaza’s face properly because of the hoodie. Akaza was tall, but he was not releasing any aura, and there was no weapon in his hands.

What the driver and the bandits did not know was that Akaza was currently restraining his aura so that very few would be able to accurately know his heart rank.

This was something he learned in the Shadowgrave Academy.

The scarred bandit leader resting a large hammer on his shoulder also looked at Akaza and laughed.

"Are you here to give us the money or to die?"

Some of the bandits laughed with him.

Among the bandits, most were Fiends. These fools were the ones that thought Akaza was weak and helpless because they couldn’t perceive his aura and rank, so they looked at Akaza with greed and mockery.

The Archfiends were different. Their expressions were more careful, and the three Supreme Archfiends near the leader did not laugh as loudly as the others.

They could not sense much from Akaza.

And that alone made them cautious.

Akaza looked at the bandit leader.

"Are you the leader of these wastes?"

The leader’s smile faded.

A Fiend holding a curved blade sneered and foolishly rushed forward.

"I’ll cut off your tongue first!"

He was fast, but to Akaza, he was slow.

His blade came down toward Akaza’s shoulder, but before it could land, Akaza moved.

He stepped to the side and punched the Fiend in the ribs.

Crack

The Fiend’s body bent strangely before flying across the road. He crashed into the ground, rolled twice, and stopped moving.

The laughter died.

The driver froze.

The bandit leader’s eyes narrowed.

"Archfiends, move."

He gave the order immediately after seeing that Akaza was too strong for the Fiends to handle.

Several Archfiends stepped forward, and the air around them changed immediately.

One raised his hand, and flames gathered around his arm.

Another stomped his foot, causing earth spikes to rise from the ground.

A third swung his spear, and sharp wind blades flew toward Akaza.

Akaza’s robe fluttered slightly as the attacks approached him.

Then he exhaled.

Ohm

A heavy pressure suddenly descended on the road.

The earth spikes cracked before they fully rose. The wind blades curved downward and dissipated before touching the ground.

The flames around the Archfiend’s arm flickered violently, as if they had suddenly become too heavy to maintain.

The expressions of the Archfiends changed.

"Gravity?!."

Akaza walked forward.

His pace was not fast, but every step made the ground tremble slightly.

The Archfiend with flames gritted his teeth and sent a stream of fire toward Akaza. Akaza raised his hand and pressed downward.

The flames crashed into the ground before reaching him.

The next moment, Akaza appeared in front of the Archfiend and punched him in the stomach.

Bam!

The Archfiend’s eyes bulged.

His body rose from the ground, then slammed down violently as the gravity around him increased.

Boom

The road cracked beneath him.

Akaza did not look at him again.

The wind spear came from his side.

Akaza turned and caught the shaft of the spear with one hand, then he pulled him closer and struck his face with his elbow.

The demon’s head snapped backward, and blood sprayed from his mouth. Before he could fall, Akaza grabbed his throat and smashed him into the ground.

The Fiends finally realized that something was wrong.

The Archfiends were being defeated way too easily, so they foolishly thought that numbers would do the trick.

"Surround him!"

"Don’t fight him alone!"

"Attack from a distance!"

The Fiends tried to move, but the pressure around them suddenly became heavier. Their feet sank slightly into the road, and their speed dropped greatly.

Akaza moved through them calmly. He was like a shadow that appeared at a place and in the blink of an eye, he was at another location.

He moved like an assassin.

He avoided blades when he needed to.

He blocked spears with his arm when he had to.

But every time his fist landed, one demon fell.

A Fiend’s chest caved in.

An Archfiend’s jaw shattered.

Another demon tried to strike Akaza from behind, but his knees buckled under the sudden increase in gravity. Akaza turned and punched his head with the back of his fists.

Splatter!

The demon’s head splattered into pieces.