11 Battle Freak!

Rastel activated stealth as he moved through the bushes to the back of the warehouse. He was still chuckling as he watched the carnage being brought about by Mary. Only Gai and his friends seemed to be faring better dodging the attacks or using their own skills to counter them.

He reached the back door only to see there was a bandit there protecting it despite the havoc happening in front.

'How disciplined!' He silently thought to himself.

This level of listening to orders was not something he expected out of a ragtag bunch of bandits. He waited until the man turned his face in his opposite direction before running out of the bushes and launching an earth pillar straight to his stomach.

It knocked the breath out of him as he grabbed his face and smashed it in the wall all the while activating a lightning blast. The man didn't even have enough time to scream as he slumped to the ground.

He shifted his body into the bushes before going to the door, he opened it slightly at first to peek in. He saw a lot of hostages tied up all over the floor, all beastmen.

There was a room at the opposite corner to the back door and there were four bandits in the warehouse. Two were continuously pacing around the hostages with their swords drawn while the other two were by a table at a corner of the warehouse seemingly in a silent argument with each other as sometimes their voices would rise a bit and there was a constant waving of hands.

One of the captives, an old bull beastman raised his head slightly and saw Rastel peeking. His eyes flashed with confusion as Rastel motioned with his fingers to keep quiet. Rastel then mouthed the word freedom to him and the beastman's eyes suddenly glowed brightly with hope. He nodded and continued to act as if he didn't see him.

Rastel continued surveying the place. One of the men arguing dressed differently than the rest of the bandits; he was definitely the man in command here. The other one wore a flashy red mage's robe and had bright red hair. They were both facing the table opposite the back door. The problem was the guards, there didn't seem to be a way to enter and free the captives without alerting them.

"Oh well" Rastel sighed as he barged straight into the warehouse.

"Who the hell are you!?" one of the guards turned on him threateningly with his sword.

The two people at the table turned over and as soon as they saw Rastel, the man who looked like the leader shouted at the guards.

"What the hell are you, stupid? He's obviously with the people attacking outside. Kill him!!!"

The two guards lunged towards Rastel, trying to run him through. He stomped his feet as an earth wall appeared in front of one as he focused on the other guy.

The guard went with a normal slash. He casually waved his hand as a water shield appeared to block the sword. As soon as his hand got stuck in the shield, Rastel took the liberty of sending an earth pillar into the other guard who had already bypassed the earth wall. He had learned from his earlier encounter to pay attention to all his opponents or else he'll get a stomach full of steel.

The guard flew as the earth pillar rammed into his stomach. Rastel immediately followed it up with a lightning blast at the trapped guard. He completed those moves as quickly as possible so that the guard wouldn't have any time to recover.

The blast slammed into his body and the guard stood there stunned but still alive, Rastel fired a fire ball to finish him then casually fired one more at the guard he sent flying before to finish him off.

The two at the table were now on alert as the leader guy drew his sword and the mage stood with one of his arms outstretched.

"Do you know exactly what you're messing with? Even if you succeed in what you want to do here now there is no way you'll get away with this!" the leader said looking at him angrily.

"Hey old man I'm just trying to free my friend, no hard feelings?" Rastel said walking towards them while acting unafraid.

"You must be extremely stupid then to mess with us just for something so trivial. No matter if you succeed or not, your death is guaranteed today. IF you succeed that is!" the mage said as an extremely large fire ball appeared in front of his hand.

"Oh wow that's huge" Rastel muttered as he activated his own fire ball and fired.

The man scoffed as he fired his which was much bigger than Rastel's. A resounding boom was heard as they crashed into each other at the center and exploded!

Boom!!!

Smoke filled the warehouse and the captives started screaming.

"Where is that damned muan" the leader coughed while trying to peer into the smoke

"Dead I'm sure" the mage replied confidently.

"There is no way he'll survive the backlash from that" he nodded assuredly.

CLING! CLANG!

The two men froze as they heard the movement of chains echoing loud in the room.

"God damnnit he's trying to free the prisoners!"

The leader ran into the smoke with his sword raised high only to see a chain flying through the air to smack him straight in the face.

"Urghk ahhhhhh!!!" he screamed as he grabbed his bloody nose.

"You really have guts old man, kidnapping a lot of beastmen like this. Weren't you afraid of their retaliation?" Rastel slowly walked out of the smoke leading a whole army of angry beastmen wielding chains.

"Damn it! Damn it!! Damn it!!!" The leader's face scrunched up in anger and despair.

"You guys don't know who exactly you're messing with! If you dare touch a hair on my head, there would be nowhere in the entire Kingdom of Gorm for you to hide!" he screamed.

"Really? You guys are that powerful?" Rastel said with his eyes open wide.

"Hahaha just try it and see. We have people everywhere. You'll have nowhere to hide!" the man said gaining a bit of confidence.

"Well, I guess that'll be bad for me." Rastel said nodding his head thoughtfully.

"But I'm not doing anything. You guys on the other hand might have just incurred the wrath of the entire beastman council so I doubt there's anywhere in the entire world where you would be able to hide" he shrugged.

"Ah... " the man's voice faltered as if he realized just how bad of a situation they were in.

"Don't worry yourself, do you think the branch head would allow any of these beastmen to get away alive? Just focus on killing the muan" the magician in the back said.

"You sure you have the strength to do that?" Rastel said as the entire group of captives rushed towards the men screaming wildly while waving their chains aiming for revenge.

The leader didn't even have time to swing his sword as multiple chains smacked into his head killing him straight.

The magician seeing the captives rushing at him made a run for the door and escaped.

The captives ran outside the warehouse rushing into the bandits outside attacking them on sight.

Rastel looked around and saw a young beastman boy running to a small room at the edge of the warehouse. He looked like a teenager with a strong build, short blonde hair, sharp yellow eyes, and a thick long brown tail. A lion beastman!

"Hey! What are you doing? Don't you want your freedom?" Rastel asked walking towards him.

The boy turned around and looked at him.

"They locked my sister in this room here because she escaped. I'm going to free her" he said then continued running.

"Wait, sister? Wait a minute... "Rastel mumbled as he thought. Why did the boy look kind of familiar?

He stared at the boy again as realization dawned on him.

"Fuck! Lou! I didn't notice that she wasn't around!" he quickly ran towards the room too.

He got there just as the boy opened up the door. Lou was tied up and unconscious at a corner of the small room.

"Lou!" the boy untied the ropes and cradled her on his lap.

"I have a spell that might help" Rastel crouched down as he cast Insta heal on her. A light glow covered her body as he activated the spell.

Her eyebrows furrowed and twitched before she suddenly opened her eyes.

"Lou! Are you alright!? Don't worry you're safe now. You're safe." the boy hugged her happily seeing she was alright.

"Big brother?" she looked up at him weakly.

"Hey girl" Rastel nodded at her.

"Ah mister, you came to save me?"

"Of course I did" he stroke a heroic pose.

"Are you feeling alright Lou?" Her brother asked.

"Yes, just a little tired".

"Let's go" her brother picked her up and took her out of the room.

"You guys take the back door. I'll go out front and help with the fight." Rastel advised her brother.

"Okay" he nodded.

He took Lou through the back door as she blinked at Rastel who was walking to the big open door at the front entrance.

As soon as Rastel walked out, he had to duck a swinging chain as a beastman swung heavily at a running bandit. The entire field was in chaos as the beastmen went around venting their rage at the bandits while the bandits were fighting desperately for their lives all the while trying pitifully to dodge Mary's water blasts.

Beastmen were innately far stronger than humans so it was going badly for the bandits.

Gai and his team never managed to reach Mary. The old man was casually sitting in plain sight under a tree while Mary kept on firing with a seemingly bored look on her face.

Unlike the first time when she was consecutively blasting them out. She was now launching them at strategic intervals to maximize damage and reduce mana cost.

There was only one place that didn't seem natural in the ensuing chaos. Gai and his team had set up a formation and were fighting a group of 5 beastmen and actually had the upper hand.

Gai ducked a flailing chain to his left and punched the user hard in the stomach while going up in one fluid movement to deliver an uppercut to a beastman charging from the front.

An opportunist wanting to take him from his blind side was smashed by a fire ball as he went down screaming.

Ann, their mage turned her attention to two of the beastmen rushing in from the side and sent a wall of flames towards them. They screamed as the fire enveloped their bodies. Marco was going around with extreme speed dishing out cuts and stabs here and there as Gai went through the group like a bull destroying anyone in his way.

'This Gai dude has issues! He seems like he's enjoying himself.' Rastel silently thought as he watched the grim scene.

He was scanning through the field to look for the mage that escaped. Even though he couldn't take him down alone. He could use the help of the beastmen or the old man to finish him off.

Suddenly, he saw the man appear behind Gai as he took down the last beastman near him.

The man whispered in his ear when he suddenly saw Rastel looking at them.

He snarled and he pointed at him while whispering something into Gai's ear before disappearing into the bushes.

Gai turned towards Rastel with a sharp gaze before rushing towards him.

"Ann! Marco! Take care of the rest, I want to kill that muan."

"Shit!" Rastel cursed as he shot a fire ball.

Gai responded by thrusting his right palm forward. A ripple appeared in the air in front of his palm as it was launched towards the fire ball. It was a basic monk skill, Rippling wave. It was a powerful mana-based attack that even the highest level monks use because of its power and ability to scatter magic attacks.

The ripples went through the fire ball as it collapsed on itself and exploded!

BOOM!!!

Debris was scattered as Gai jumped and launched a punch at Rastel who quickly reacted by raising an earth wall in front of him.

Gai's punch smashed through the wall only to meet Rastel's fist with an activated lighting blast!

Blzzzt! Boom!!

The earth wall was able to absorb a lot of Gai's damage making up for his lack of strength. Adding up with his lighting blast. He was able to contend with a Monk's high physical strength. They both flew back as the explosion threw them back.

Rastel stood up painfully as he saw Gai standing up. Fighting a monk would be hard as his melee skills as a mage was bad. He also didn't have any high-level skills to choose from.

Gai stared at him warily now but still rushed forward. This time, he slid low and aimed a kick as he neared Rastel.

Rastel launched a fire slash horizontally and jumped back. Gai slid lower to dodge the slash feeling the fire burning his face and hair.

Rastel jumped back again as he adjusted his footing while watching him so he could notice his next move.

Gai stood up and jumped forward while he activated a skill.

"Stone fist!"

A layer of brown coated his fist as he punched with extreme speed!

"Shit!"

Rastel couldn't dodge on time as the fist hit him sorely on the face. He only had time to launch an earth pillar and both of them flew back again.

Rastel smashed into the floor with a bloodied face feeling hazy and faint.

Gai smashed into a group of beastmen and bandits fighting. He coughed out blood as he fell.

Ann and Marco came to his side and picked him up. The bandits were trying to retreat on the carts outside the warehouse. Marco dragged Gai into one as Ann fired off a few spells to ward off pursuers.

A beastman went to help Rastel off the floor. He was feeling dazed and confused. His health bar was down to its last 20 percent and he could feel the blood running down his face.

Through blurred eyes, he could see Gai staring at him from the back of a cart with his friends supporting him.

They continued staring at each other as the cart disappeared through the woods under the canopy of trees with the neighing of horses and the sound of hooves echoing in the distance.