Chapter 6 - Three Steps Away

He started by holstering his lightning pistol. Chester moved silently and quickly, taking cover against the group in front of him. The bandits were threatening and shouting with their guns in their hands, giving them one last chance to give up their weapons voluntarily. The three youngster were trying to move away from the bandit group as slowly as possible.

Chester had not yet been spotted by the bandits, but the girl, whom he guessed to be an Elf, had already seen him and was looking in his direction. If she continued to stare a little longer, she might give away his position. Fortunately, after a few seconds of staring, he had to turn his attention to the bandits in front of him. The angry bandits had withdrawn their last peaceful offer and were preparing to take it in blood.

They had all drawn their swords.

Chester stood ready behind them, fifteen meters away, just behind a pile of crates.

He wanted to let them take a bit of a beating, to look like a prince on a white horse in his eyes, but he had already been spotted, and to do so would make him look opportunistic and petty. He grabbed his gun and fired his lightning pistol at five people from his cover, unnoticed. All five people who were exposed to the voltage capsules were a little shaken, but they did not collapse.

This was a serious problem.

This high voltage, which could easily incapacitate people, was not enough against these humanoids. Because of their armor, the capsules did not engage well, and only briefly gave off a jolt of electricity. While the three thugs held the youths, everyone else was suddenly startled, looking for the stranger who had attacked them, Chester.

"What the hell!"

Suddenly startled, the group of thugs started looking randomly around the street, not realizing what was happening.He wanted to finish them off before they got any closer to him.Chester took out the vials and inserted the yellow-red penetrating voltage capsule, the so-called lethal dose, into his pistol.

"I can probably still neutralize them without killing them, but it's not worth the risk."

The capsules now looked more like bullet cores. Chester stopped hiding and stood up. He was going to use his old trick again, the one he'd been using in the back alleys for years.

The thugs began to laugh among themselves. A man not half their size was challenging them.

"You must have had too much to drink, resoskha."

"Who would let such a runt into the guild?"

" Can you see through that helmet? You blind rat!"

"We'll show you where you'll sleep forever, rashaozek!"

"Mag, what are they saying?"

"I think they just insulted you."

It was as if Mag was doing it on purpose to piss them off. What he was talking about were words he couldn't understand. He thought it was being said in another language.

"That much I can understand."

Chester fired his pistol at the two men who approached laughing.

This time, instead of bouncing off their armor or catching the edge of it, they pierced and held on to it for a considerable amount of time.Unlike the other time, instead of staggering, they writhed in agony on the ground for a few seconds under the electric shock, then stopped moving.

Their hearts had stopped.

He wasn't sure they had hearts, but they were dead.

The remaining eight didn't understand what had happened, and all but one of them became enraged and started running towards Chester.

"Seven meters, eight enemies.Reach one hundred and fifty, averaging two meters per second.I wouldn't mind taking control-"

Chester had knocked all eight of them down with a very quick wave of his hand, not even allowing them to take three steps.

It was as if he had eight hands and eight pistols. Chester looked at the idiots lying on the ground, looking down on him. The last man standing was trembling with fear.

"M-Monster!"

He pushed the other two aside with a sudden movement and grabbed the sorceress by the hair, holding his long sword to her throat. He was using the girl as cover.

The elf was too close to draw his bow, the young man too far away to intervene.Things had happened so suddenly that the captured trio had not taken advantage of the confusion to get away. Chester hadn't thought things would turn out this way.

"L-Let go of the staff! 

O-or I'll kill him."

Chester stopped walking and slowly lowered, pointing his pistol at him.

"Right next to them are two idiots and a thug with more than half his body covered. If my gun had been loaded with gunpowder I would have fired it already, but we're at least fifteen meters apart, and even though we're in an alley, there's a lot of wind blowing. I can't risk the capsule blown into the wrong direction. It's like I'm aiming through a narrow hole with a fucking water gun."

Chester whispered quietly.

"Can you shoot him from here?"

"Give me a couple seconds, and then he's mine."

"All right! I give up."

Chester was putting the gun down slowly.

As the bandit relaxed a little, Chester suddenly threw the gun into the sky. For a few seconds, his attention was on the pistol he had just thrown into the air.

"EDGE OF DARKNESS IN OPERATION"

Mag suddenly pulled out the sword hanging at his waist and threw it at the bandit with incredible speed.

The sword opened in midair and sliced the bandit's head in half, then plunged into the stone wall behind him.

The man's head split open like a watermelon, fell to the ground like a sack while the sword plunged into the stone wall behind him, melted it at incredible speed and soon fell to the ground.

Mag snatched Chester's thrown weapon out of the air and placed it on the holster.

"EDGE OF DARKNESS DISABLED"

After a slight stumble, Chester was in control again. Unlike the first time he had experienced it, this time he was not shaken so violently. After his first painful experience, this was only a mosquito bite. Apart from the pain in his shoulder, which was almost dislocated from the throwing, there was nothing seriously wrong with him. Chester's idea was to throw away his lightning pistol and shoot with a new one, but Mag had chosen to use the sword and had to cope with the incredible distance and difficulty.

"I have to hand it to you, it was pretty impressive. Why didn't you just shoot him with a new gun?"

"You said making noise would be a problem. So I wanted to end it as quietly as possible."

He was right. He had momentarily forgotten the reason for using the lightning pistol. Chester took slow steps towards his sword. The other three were horrified. Especially the purple-haired girl who had been taken hostage. Death had skimmed the top of her head. They stared at a man who was crushing eleven strong men like they were insects.

Chester was about to say something when suddenly they all knelt before him.

The young wizard spoke.

"We thank you for saving us, mister."

"Forgive us for not knowing which guild you are from. This is the first time we have seen such a cloak."

He finally understood why they wore capes.

It was a sign of some kind of grouping, and now they thought Chester was some kind of guild member.

Now he had two choices. 

To play his assigned role and act accordingly, or to tell them it was all a misunderstanding and pretend they were on the same level.The first option was very tempting, but he had to choose wisely, as he did not know whether in this world orders or tolerance prevailed. Chester chose to take his chances with tolerance.

If necessary, he could get his way at gunpoint.

"Stand up."

"I'm just a wanderer, you can talk to me normally."

The sorcerer shook his head from side to side.

"Forgive my rudeness, but we cannot treat you with such disrespect."

"Is that so? And why not?"

The group was surprised.

They felt that the hero standing before them was testing them.

"Unlike us, you are a member of a respected guild, and groups like us in the lower classes must respect you."

Chester picked up the sword before it began to burn, closed it, and put it back in its hilt.

"You can think of me as a demobilized, wandering, common soldier.

My cloak is just an old habit."

They didn't really believe what he said. Because they had their reasons. An ordinary soldier could not easily kill a group of people. His unusual armor and the shimmering, suspicious sword also underlined the word 'ordinary'. The group was still bewildered, but after Chester's words, they began to move a little more easily.

"If you say so, sir?"

Chester held out his hand.

"I'm Chester. Chester Vegner."

The wizard stared at Chester's hand in confusion.

"-Stupid- Partner, you're acting like they know about a habit from the world. "

Chester lowered his hand again and pretended it had never happened.

The gray-haired Elf was speaking.

"I am Yigmir Saramon. The archer and scout of the group, Rim of Welrond, the rebellious youth over there, the vanguard and shield of the group, and finally Eela of Milverr, our mage, who supports our group with her debilitating spells."

They nodded their heads in agreement.

Yigmir and Eela were picking up their belongings that had fallen out of their tugged bags, while Rim was rummaging through the pockets of the man with the split head.

Eela, who had looked quite frightened earlier, acted as if nothing had happened.

Chester concluded that Eela had been in dangerous situations like this before, but he still hadn't gotten used to it.

He turned back to Rim.

"Don't you think what you did was wrong?"

"The one who defeats his opponent has the right to do whatever he wants to the defeated. The dead can't spend money, but we can.

Besides, they are bandits, there is no defense for these scums. Of course, if you want to take what they have on them, we won't object. After all, it was you who beat them."

Chester didn't want to appear as if he were a scavenger, but there was no reason why he couldn't do it if they approved and there was not a moral code.

"You keep them. I'll take the others."

He moved towards the dead people on the ground and started searching their pockets.He had only searched the pockets of three people when suddenly Mag called out to him.

"Five streets away, one hundred and thirty-two southeast, armored troops are approaching.I'm guessing it might be a patrol. We need to hurry."

Chester wanted to take the other three with him and get some information.

Just as he was about to say that they should leave, he was asked the golden question unintentionally.

"We are planning to stay in an inn close to where we are. If it's all right with you, we'd love to buy you a drink for what you've done."

"Of course, but we need to move fast. There are some people a few blocks away heading this way."

Yigmir confirmed after a moment of focus

"Indeed Some armored people are coming this way."

Someone who could hear what was going on a few blocks away, who could overwhelm his opponents with his strength and speed, who had no name and no reputation, wanted to disappear before the guards arrived. There were tons of questions to be asked. Or rather, both sides had tons of questions to ask.

"There's supposed to be an inn around here somewhere. If we can find it, we can continue our conversation there."

As everyone quickly packed up, Chester was changing the tubes in his pistol, trying to figure out how much he had taken from the bandits.They kept some things on him, but he didn't have enough time and most of them were unnecessary for Chester. He hadn't taken anything except a silver bracelet and money pouches.

"Thirty-six silver coins and forty-seven copper coins.I have no idea how much it's worth."

It was as if the whole city had taken to the streets, heading towards the scene. Soldiers were carrying them through the streets. They were all armored from head to toe. Chester looked suspicious, but they didn't pay much attention to him. Eventually four soldiers stopped them.They looked very strong, with two red cloaks on their shoulders, long and broad pikes in their hands, and armor shining like silver. Their helmets were also closed. He could hardly see their faces in the dark street.

"What are you doing here, tell me quickly!"

Chester expected them to say they were being attacked by a group, but they stared blankly at the soldiers in front of him.

What was so bad about being attacked? Chester quickly concocted a coherent lie as the soldiers reached the limit of their patience. Obviously the incident had to be kept secret.

"We are traveling from far away and are looking for an inn to stay at during the journey."

"Hey you, why do you have blood stains on you?"

Chester hadn't noticed, but he had involuntarily stepped into the pool of blood on the ground, and his cape and boots was stained with blood in certain places.

Even if the bloodstains were fresh, they couldn't tell they were fresh in the dark.It was hard to make up a lie, but he immediately thought of his cloak.This time he could play someone respectable.

He pointed his cloak towards them.

"As a respected member of the Ruby Point guild, I am forced to brave various dangers on the road.I hope you will understand that my armor is dirty."

He had managed to convince the four muscle-brains in front of him. If a normal person had told this lie, they would have quickly recognized their suspicious behavior, but Chester's oratory skills were quite good. He could adjust his tone of voice to suit the situation and tell even simple lies as if they were the truth.

The soldiers immediately believed this easy-to-understand lie.

They didn't seem to have much time for questioning anyway.

Other groups of soldiers were hurrying towards the street where the incident had taken place.

"All right, let's look at the magic signature on your cloak."

Chester paused for a brief moment. He realized what a serious mistake he had just made.In a magical world, of course, there had to be a security measure for cloaks that served as identification. Otherwise everyone would look like a nobleman or some such snob. 

Like Chester was trying to do right now.He was thinking quickly.

"Where I come from, we don't have magic signatures on our cloaks or objects. We use those magical badges instead."

Chester reached into the antimatter parser and held out the first thing that came to mind, a BIC city guard badge, towards the guards.

At first the soldiers were a little startled by the light, but then, with the help of a powerful spell, they thought he was showing them a magical item.

"You must come from far away. We have never heard of such a guild before, nor have we seen such an emblem. It's also the first time we've seen a guild not use a magic signature on cloaks."

After a few seconds of suspicious staring, one of the soldiers spoke.

"Well, there seems to be a problem. Welcome back to the city of OkVahrl. As long as you stay out of trouble, there shouldn't be any problem."

"We have information that there are men of the Belic group roaming around here. Don't wander too much in the dark alleys late at night."

The soldiers stopped holding them and started running again towards the street where the incident had happened.

They took a deep breath. As this strange situation was escalating, they quickened their pace a little to avoid a similar situation again.

According to the patrolman's account, the group he had just attacked was some kind of gang.

"We're saved."

"Looks like it."

After walking for a while and observing what was going on in the streets, they finally came to the inn they were talking about.

The inn they were talking about was right next to the bell tower.