“In order to help us exterminate these bandits, Lady Mo Ke made an arduous trip around the other villages asking for aid. After killing those tamed wolves, she originally could’ve just distanced herself from this matter, yet she chose to stay behind in this village in the end. Why? Because she’s a kind person.”

“It might be ironic to call a devil a kind person but you, you and you, just take a look at what you’re holding in your hands right now. What is in your bags right now? Magical tools, potions all of which are top-grade goods that can fetch a combined sum of over ten thousand gold!”

“And where did all these items come from? Did they come from you all? No, it was all Lady Mo Ke’s. She was worried that you all would get injured, she was worried that you all would get defeated, that’s why she chose to selflessly loan out these treasures. Yet what did she get in return?”

“You all are nothing but an ungrateful bunch of trash that fell for the bandits’ simple lies. To think that you would actually point your arrows at someone who sincerely wished to help you. Do you mean to say that even after all she has done for you all, she still isn’t as trustworthy as a bunch of low life bandits? You guys aren’t blind, you’ve closed off your hearts!”

That rant of a yell ended up suppressing the old man’s prayers completely, who even now was still in the midst of praying even though no one gave him a single look anymore.

While it was an effective outburst, it was also an unexpected one. Ever since we met, the impression Moranthal gave me was that he was soft. So soft that he even chose not to take revenge after his fiance left him for another man….. though he did say that his fiancee did so willingly and wasn’t forced...alright, I guess I shouldn’t stick my nose into another person’s love affairs. However, it’s precisely this matter that cemented his soft image in my mind.

Yet nothing in this world was absolute. A short while after I pinned the image of a wuss onto him, he suddenly stood up and showed me a entirely new side to him.

He actually stood up for me, a devil, in front of all these people...that took a lot of courage. Perhaps he used up his entire life’s worth of courage to do that but the fact remained that he did. Without any regard for himself, he took on the risk of being labelled as a devil’s accomplice and defended me.

After that performance, my impression of him couldn’t be any better. This fellow was definitely someone you could entrust your entire life to. However, I’m a guy so this rating was kind of pointless to begin with...

Not only did his stirring performance win me over, it successfully turned the tables on the bandits. The hunters were completely invigorated by his speech leaving only that babbling old man who was still busy praying to his G.o.ddess to send down her heavenly wrath and smite me.

The fact that matters would take such a turn was completely unexpected even by Dohby. He had actually turned everyone against me but was foiled right at the crucial moment, and now he was nothing but a tool to prove my innocence.

Naturally, he wasn’t one to take this loss lying down. Tossing aside the hostage in his hands, he dragged his greatsword towards me: “I see his mouth has been pretty well trained. Seems like he has fallen under your skirt. Not a bad showing, he’s rather protective of his master.”

“Cut the slander!” Moranthal immediately stepped in to deny those allegations. “I don’t have any relation to Lady Mo Ke. It’s true, I admit that I have feelings for her and want to pursue a romance with her, but what I just said came from the bottom of my heart. Lady Mo Ke has never hurt an innocent person unlike you, a human being, I bet you don’t even remember how many people you’ve killed so far!”

“Hmph, such a pointless argument.”

Having lost the war of words, Dohby gave up on his initial plan and simply attacked the man. With sudden sweep of his greatsword, he forced Moranthal back a few steps.

Compared to Dohby’s greatsword, Moranthal’s short blade was clearly lacking not only in quality but in weight as well, so he had no choice but to retreat while simultaneously looking for a chance to approach the bandit.

At another corner of the battlefield, George was currently in the midst of a tenuous ceasefire with Dawson. “You believe in that devil?” Asked Dawson as he threw the hunter a look.

“I don’t know if she is trustworthy or not but...at the very least she hasn’t hurt anyone yet and is even contributing as hard as she can to help us fight you.” He gave a shake of his head as he said that. With a mix of doubt and determination in his eyes, he continued: “However...until I see her hurt someone, I choose to believe her.”

“Compared to a devil, you find me more repulsive?”

“Isn’t that just a fact?”

“Haha, such an interesting rating.” After raising his sword, Dawson charged in. “Come then, let the battle commence once more!”

“Hmph.” George began his attack as well with a cold snort.

Back on our side, Moranthal had been forced on the defensive since the beginning. His combat strength was roughly the same as Dohby’s, but thanks to the bandit’s larger weapon and the fact that it also had a low-grade strength enchantment placed on it, Moranthal didn’t dare to take his attacks head on despite that enchantment being run of the mill. All he could was constantly retreat backwards.

Seeing that his defeat was only a matter of time, I promptly began channelling a fireball to aid him. With the enchanted blade in my hand, my fire magic actually gained a boost in casting speed; a fireball which usually required 10 seconds now only required 5 seconds.

Seizing that window of opportunity created when Dohby forced Moranthal back with his attack, I threw a glance at the retreating hunter before swiftly tossing out my fireball. As the crackling ball of flames burned through the air, the astute hunter had already taken a couple of extra steps backwards having received my warning beforehand. At a safe distance of 5 meters, there was basically no chance of him getting hit.

By now, the fireball had gotten to the point where even Dohby could feel its scorching embrace. However being a strength type fighter, he didn’t have the speed to dodge it at such a close distance; thus he had no choice but to ignite his Fighter’s Aura in a last ditch attempt to block the attack with his greatsword.

*Boom...*

The spell exploded with a thunderous boom that resounded across the battlefield. The shocking noise even reached the two other three-stars; who momentarily halted their battle and reflexively threw our side a glance.

As the fiery cloud dispersed, a pair of tracks could be seen trailing backwards from where Dohby once stood. While Dohby had managed to block the attack successfully, his aura had been scattered while he himself ended up getting pushed back several steps. The t.i.tle of the strongest attack spell wasn’t just for show after all; even with a tier difference, the spell was able to push him back a significant distance.

“Blasted girl, you’ve done it now!” Yelled the furious bandit as he noticed the singed hairs on his head and his aching body. Wrapping his body in aura once more, he charged at me with his greatsword readied like a raging bull. Moranthal immediately stepped in to try and block him, but the force of the charge was simply too much for him to handle and he ended getting knocked back by a single swing of Dohby’s sword.

Originally, I planned on firing off another fireball, but seeing the approaching bull, I had no choice but cancel my channelling and immediately focus all my attention on dodging Dohby’s lethal attack.

Yet the enraged bandit was simply too fast even for me. Even though I managed to dodge his greatsword, he took that opportunity to throw out an aura clad fist which barely grazed me. While it was just a graze, the fist of a three-star wasn’t something that was easily countered either; that short moment of contact was enough to send me flying away, tumbling several times before I finally crashed onto the ground.

As I picked myself up, a wave of lightheadedness. .h.i.t me; which I forcefully suppressed with sheer willpower while I promptly went to pick up the blade I dropped. In the meantime, Moranthal used this chance to close in on Dohby as fast as he could in order to buy me time to recover.

In such close quarters, his smaller weapon had an advantage over the c.u.mbersome greatsword. Yet their strength disparity was such that even with this advantage, Moranthal could barely hold his ground.

“d.a.m.n it all, you adulterers actually dare to team up on me?! Well, I’m done playing around.” He gathered his aura into a mighty punch and knocked away the pestering hunter. However, instead of pushing his advantage, he instead turned around to face his minions and yelled: “Lads, I want you to kill all the villagers here!”

At that, not only were the 2,000 over hostages stunned, even his own bandits were stunned as well.

One of the squad leaders immediately chimed in with a question. “Second Chief, are we really killing them all? Killing the hostages?”

“Are you all deaf? Kill all the men, you can leave the young women and children who are shorter than one meter!”

“Got it chief! Hahahaha, brothers it’s time for a bloodbath!”

Upon receiving that command, only a small portion of the bandits defied that cruel order while the majority of the bandits eagerly began ma.s.sacring the villagers. In an inhuman display of barbarism, they began targeting any man or elderly woman that entered their sights.

“Dawson!” Seeing their savagery, George immediately yelled at the bandit chief. “Is this what you wanted? Hurry up and stop them!”

“...” Without wasting a single breath, Dawson swung down at the hunter, using his actions to show his intent. Perhaps in his eyes the moment that order was given, there was no room for reconciliation anymore; thus he might as well double down on this order. They could simply sell off the women and children and relocate to another location right after.

“d.a.m.n it!” George’s attacks grew even more frenzied as he desperately tried to rush off to help the villagers. However no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t shake off this persistent opponent who made sure to stay as close as possible to him. Thus, he started attacking with reckless abandon, sacrificing any form of defense he had in order to boost his attacks. His goal was to settle this battle as soon as possible even if it meant a pyrrhic victory.

It was only now that Io and Eddison finally realized how foolish they were; there was simply no reasoning with a bunch of bandits. They were struck with a deep sense of regret at that very moment, regret that they chose to abandon their weapons, and most of all, regret for their stupidity.

As the hunters were all unarmed when the order was given out, the first wave of attacks ended up taking the lives of over ten hunters right away. Thankfully, even without their weapons, the hunters could put up a fight. Some of the stronger hunters managed to arm themselves with the weapons of their defeated opponents right away and began a counterattack of their own.

The weaker ones on the other hand banded together and teamed up on a bandit. Their plan was to use their numbers advantage and swiftly rearm themselves.

Amongst the surrendered hunters, two stood out in particular. Even without any weapons, Io and Eddison were able to take on dozens of armed bandit minions by themselves.

With their backs to each other, the pair’s combat strength exploded as they formed an invincible duo. At their current rate, they would be able to ma.s.sacre all the bandit minions within five minutes seeing as the bandit’s around them had no three-star of their own. Once that was done, they could finally go and rescue the hostages.

On the flip side, the fact that they were able to mount such an effective counter offensive and turn the tables on their captors meant that what the hostages had to face was a one-sided ma.s.sacre by the rest of the bandits. Because of the previous recruitment drive, there was hardly anyone left within the three villages who could stand against the bandits, especially not in their unarmed state.

The only reason why they could even put up a smidgen of resistance was that there was simply too many hostages for the bandits to watch over, so their bindings weren’t that thorough. Thanks to that, the remaining hunters didn’t have to fight with their arms bound. However, the amount of hostages was simply too much for this tiny band of hunters to defend.

In just a short span of ten seconds, over a hundred hostages died. What made things even worse was that they had to face the terrifying jaws of several hundred tamed wolves while fighting the bandits.

Their partic.i.p.ation in this battle frightened the defenseless hostages into a panic, all of whom wanted to escape but were blocked by the bandits and their wolves. Faced with such a difficult situation, the majority of them ran about in a panicked frenzy and ended up becoming a hindrance for the remaining hunters.

At this very moment in the hostage section of the battlefield, there were around two to three thousand people and wolves running about in muddied field of flesh and blood.