Dealing With The Collectors

-Minutes later

Alusec stared at his face in the mirror, wondering when last he looked this good. All his facial hair was gone.

Lam finally managed to cut his dreadlocks so it was only reaching his shoulders now.

He styled it in a weird way that Alusec was not familiar with, but had to give him thumbs-up because it looked really good. The dreadlocks were tied in a bun while a couple of long strands fell in front of his face on both sides reaching his chin.

Lam and Chad had to admit that Alusec was very handsome. If they were to go out to pick ladies, he would be able to get females easily. It was not just his looks there was just something about him that made them feel inferior to him.

"This looks really good Lam.... had you destroyed my hair I would have flattened this whole city with your forehead," Alusec spoke after he finished admiring his hair.

"It's all thanks to this..." Lam said while rubbing his blade hand.

Alusec recalled something and smiled sheepishly.

"Since I don't have any money to pay you, how about I leave you with this upgrade..." Alusec asked.

"Really?" Lam asked excitedly

"Of course, you've earned it," Alusec replied immediately, feeling glad that he took the bait.

"Thank you, sir Alusec," Lam said as he rubbed his blade with joy.

'That was close, I forgot that in the mortal realm you have to pay to get something done.

Those times when I visited planets like this, people offered their services to me for free. I never needed money then but now I do.

I will have to be careful for I cannot return to the Celestial plane until I recover at least a tenth of my power. I have only recovered about a three millionth now so shall keep things on a low.

I cannot sully my reputation as the greatest of all gods by owing a debt..' Alusec was lost in thought when he heard a scream.

Kiiaaarrrhhhhh!

"The Asura collectors are here!" A loud voice sounded and the whole street erupted into chaos.

-"Run!"

-"I can't pack all my goods on time!"

-"Those maniacs are here to plunder again!"

Alusec, Lam, and Chad came out of the shop and saw everyone running helter-skelter.

Alusec looked around in confusion and saw silhouettes in the distance riding on giant animals and moving speedily towards them.

"Hmm? Who are those? Thieves?"

"They are a notorious group who are known for collecting..."

Chad replied.

'All discerning eyes'

Alusec activated one of his powers and his eyes zoomed in on them from a distance of over one thousand meters.

He could see a group of forty riding on the back of huge wolves that were about sixteen feet tall.

They were approaching from the angle of the forest. Since they were at the edge of the city, this area was very close to the Vorilan forest.

"This is rather interesting. Thorkans and climeras riding on netherwolfs..." Alusec said with a tone of fascination.

The thorkans were like humans. The only way to differentiate between them and humans was with the tattoo of a glowing red butterfly on their faces. They were also known to be the best manipulators of flames.

While the climeras had the heads of wolves and the body of a human. The climeras were known for their brute strength.

Both Lam and Chad were surprised that Alusec was able to see that far.

The netherwolves were so fast that in less than twenty seconds they were already in the streets. Since there was so much chaos not many people were able to get into their houses and lock the doors.

"Where are the city guards? they should have arrived here by now," Alusec questioned.

However, he quickly noticed the weird look on their face after he mentioned the city guards.

"They're not coming. They don't care about the edge of the city. Everyone living in this area is a low life so they don't even bother sending out guards to protect us. They will only interfere if the collectors infiltrate deeper into the city where the big shots stay," Chad answered Alusec.

"We can only protect ourselves," Lam added while running towards the bandits.

"Lam! what are you doing?" Chad shouted with an expression of disbelief when Lam began running towards them with his big body.

"I want to test these new upgrades that I got from sir Alusec... now that life targets have appeared in front of me, how can I resist?" Lam replied after reaching a distance.

"La..." before Chad could call out to him again Alusec held his shoulder.

"Let him," Alusec stated

Lam ran towards the Asura collectors while transforming his hand into the same blade he used for styling hair.

"Who is this fool? Railey, take care of him." The leader of the group commanded one of the climeras to handle Lam who was charging in their direction.

"Yes Chief," Railey answered while leading his wolf to the front of the group which began charging at the incoming Lam.

Lam stood in front of the street while the helpless traders stood behind him.

His left hand slowly turned into a blade too.

Railey came riding towards him while brandishing a weapon that looked like a machete.

Slash!

Lam's sight followed the blade slashing at him but he didn't dodge. Instead, he leapt into the air, raised his left hand, and slashed towards the oncoming blade.

Shiiiinnnngg!

Even before the two blades collided, the bandit's blade had already been cleaved into two halves. Lam's blade was still headed towards the arm of the bandit with ferocity.

Sweeeevvv!

Thud!

Right before his very eyes, the bandit subconsciously watched his arm get cleanly severed from his shoulders. It fell to the ground and blood began spraying out from the empty shoulder like a fountain.

"Kiiiaaaarrrrhhhhh!" Railey screamed in pain as he fell off the wolf who rammed head-on into Lam.

Gbam!

Lam was sent flying like a sack of beans.

The bandits were shocked when they saw how Railey's arm was severed from his shoulders. They weren't expecting this to happen since they never got any powerful resistance.

In an instant, they surrounded Lam and kept riding in circles around him. Lam was struggling to get back up because of his size.

"Stay down," One of the bandits yelled and threw a kick at Lam while jumping off his mount.

About ten of them got down from their mount and started raining kicks on Lam.

Anytime he was close to getting up another kick to the loins would send him tumbling down once again.

He kept trying to wave his blades around but the bandits avoided it after seeing what it did to their comrade.

"Stop!" A loud voice made everyone halt in their tracks.

The voice was so compelling, that everyone felt the urge to do as commanded.

Everyone turned to stare at who had just spoken and saw a man in dirty dark robes and dreadlocks tied in a bun walking towards them.

The people on the street gave way to him.

Alusec walked in their midst and arrived in front of the bandits. He walked over to where Lam was and picked him up.

Lam's face was already full of bruises and cuts. His lips and eyes were also swollen. There was no doubt he had sustained heavy injuries, taking into account that the climeras had high physical prowess.

He closed his eyes and stretched his palm out in front of Lam.

'Regeneration,'

In front of everyone, Lam's wounds closed up and his swollen eyes and lips returned to normal.

Lam himself was shocked, 'He has more than one source?'

"I will give you ten seconds to get out of my sight or none of you will be leaving here in one piece," Alusec warned with a tone of benevolence.

"Who is this capable poser?" The leader asked

"Nine," Alusec replied

"Get rid of this beggar," The Chief commanded

"Five," Alusec spoke again

"Hey, it was nine just now how did it get to five?" The leader questioned, feeling like the man was just trying to make the time of his death come quicker.

"One..." Alusec replied to him again.

"Kill him," The leader ordered everyone to get rid of Alusec.

They started riding towards him with their mounts while those around him prepared to attack.

Just when the wolves were a few meters away and the bandits on the ground unleashed their abilities.

"Zero," Alusec said and everyone paused.

The bandits that were preparing to attack with their abilities came to a pause. The ones on the mounts came to pause as well.

Some of them already ignited a fire on their arms and were ready to attack but everyone and everything came to a standstill.

Alusec walked around the area staring at the people who just stood there, some with their mouths wide open, and their arms raised out.

"It is not a good idea to use my space and time source this way... They might catch on. I can still easily win this fight without using it," Alusec said while walking forward.

He stopped in front of the mount that the leader sat on.

The Chief was holding a sword of fire while sitting on the wolf, his mouth was wide open.

"...I want to see the despair in their faces as I take them down one at a time," Alusec said while smirking.

Snap!

Time went back to normal when Alusec snapped his fingers, and now he was standing right in front of the chief's mount.

The bandits were astonished when they noticed he wasn't surrounded anymore.

'How did he appear there?' They all had similar thoughts.

"However you appeared here doesn't matter! Get crushed..." The chief made the wolf increase its speed.

Just when the wolf was right in front of Alusec, he smirked and stretched out his hand.

Gbam!

The wolf's body slammed into his palm and found itself unable to take a step forward.

The bandits paused in their tracks with their eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

Alusec grabbed the head of the wolf.

Awooo!

The wolf howled fiercely but could not remove itself from his grasp no matter how much it struggled.

He lifted the wolf up while the leader fell off and then proceeded to fling it away casually.

Everyone watched the wolf spinning in mid-air with mouths wide open.

Bang!

The wolf slammed into two other wolves at the back.

The leader lost it at this point. He ran forward screaming as he lifted his fiery sword.

A blazing pillar of flames jetted out of the blade reaching a far height in the sky.

Slash!

He swung at Alusec, expecting it to burn him to ashes. Contrary to his expectations Alusec grabbed the fiery sword and the pillar of flames vanished.

"Uh?" The leader watched as his blade returned to normal.

Crraaaccck!

Alusec clenched the sword tight and it broke to pieces in the next instant.

Wasting no time, he followed up with a backhand slap to the leader's left cheek.

Pah!

The force of the causal slap sent the leader tumbling across the air as his body kept flying and breaking through multiple shops on the street nonstop.

The bandits were scared silly after witnessing this scene and began fleeing.

Of course, Alusec wasn't going to give them the chance to escape...

'Reverse gravity,'

Alusec said softly in his mind and all the bandits started floating towards him.