Mysterious cloaked man(1)

Five thought quickly about his options. He did not know if it would work, but he still decided to go all in. He immediately brought back his dagger in his inventory and chose to take out the remaining gunpowder he had and the torch.

Seeing the new items, Andre became wary and raised his shield in front of him. He did not need to take any risks. If he waited just a little bit, Five would end up completely surrounded.

"Be careful!"

However, the latter could not afford to do so. He coldly smiled as he set the wick on fire. He immediately tossed the small box of gunpowder at Andre and took a few steps back. There was no specific reason for aiming at Andre rather than the guard captain, it was just that by doing so, Five could also take revenge for being given such a crappy tent at the camp.

Time seemed to slow down as the recipient was flying towards Andre. The NPCs did not know what this box contained but they were very cautious. The box slowly fell on the grassy ground just in front of Andre as the wick was being devoured.

The NPCs were nervous. They all immediately took defensive stances and tried to avoid the item by going around it to charge towards Five.

The latter did not move! Instead, he calmly took out his dagger again and waited at a relatively safe distance from the gunpowder.

A few seconds later, seeing nothing happening, the guards started to think that it was just a bluff and disregarded the box. But it was at that precise moment that the wick was completely burnt out and the flame met the powder.

"Boom!"

A strong shock wave swept through Five but when he opened his eyes, he did not expect to see such a negligible area of damage. The direct zone of the explosion only had a radius of 5 meters and as a result, only a few guards were actually seriously injured.

Many had dirt on their face, but only five guards, including Andre had severe burn marks and were lying on the ground, unconscious. Besides these five guards who were bleeding, all the other guards looked completely fine; they were just shocked by the sudden explosion.

Five was disappointed. He knew very well that the gunpowder would not cause a ton of damage. He knew that even with the help of the system in grinding the materials, they would not be as effective as in real life. But when he recalled how Kroff and the other monsters were so scared of the gunpowder, he expected something completely lethal. Now that he thought about it, the explosion was hardly enough to cause serious damage to Kroff's core. As far as he was aware, he did not make any changes to it except for adding a wick so that the powder would not explode right in his hands.

The HP of the guards severely dropped; their 200 HP bar was drastically reduced in the tens. They were all bleeding and slowly losing health, but that was it. Dozens of other guards were completely unscathed and were now cautiously approaching Five. A few other guards quickly ran to their injured comrades and tried to pull them away to give them first aid.

"Be careful! He has demonic weapons!"

"Surround him and push him towards the moat!" shouted the guard captain who managed to close the gap. He naturally saw the explosion and had a tinge of fear in his eyes.

Instantly, two [Mana Bolt] flew towards Five, he managed to dodge one but the other directly took out a quarter of his HP.

"D*mnit!"

He was forced to retreat towards the moat! A wall of paladins was formed, all of them were raising their shields towards Five. Behind, mages and rangers were ready to fire at any time.

Five continued to walk backward but soon, he could not continue to retreat. One more step and he would fall into the water. He did not need to look behind him to know that the carnivorous fishes were eagerly waiting for him. He could hear moving water and a few splashes.

"Don't take any risk! Push him in the water!" ordered the guard captain. He was still wary of the weapons Five might have; he just wanted to minimize the damage his team would take.

Three rangers shot their arrows, hitting Five's leg, "-16","-12","-14"

His HP reached a critical state. Five knew very well he did not have any escape route left!

"Is this how it is going to end? D*mn, if I had known, I would have just founded the dungeon!"

He was full of regrets, his decision of trying to take revenge as quickly as possible backfired. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Seeing his look of despair and regret, the guard captain gained confidence! He stepped up with his spear and charged at Five. The latter was only level 9 while the guard captain was level 30.

Five knew he was already doomed; he remembered how on one of his missions, one of his teammates found himself ambushed and was about to be captured. However, to avoid revealing the identity of the organization, his teammate chose to kill himself by swallowing a pill of cyanide.

"Was this how he felt at this moment?" thought Five.

He looked at the guard captain who was grinning. The latter raised his spear and thrust it towards Five. At the same time, he activated a skill called [Rapid Thunder Thrust]

Wind rotated around the tip of the spear as sparks crackled all over its body.

Seeing the violent attack coming his way, Five knew he would not escape. At least, he would die in a single hit. It was better than being slowly eaten by the carnivorous fishes behind him. He simply closed his eyes full of regrets, waiting for the shock.

But to his surprise, the expected painful stab never occurred. Puzzled, Five opened his eyes only to find the headless body of the guard captain standing in front of him. It was not just his head that was gone, his arms that were thrusting the spear had also been chopped and were flying in the distance, still firmly holding the spear.

"Gasp"

Not knowing what happened, Five looked at the other guards. But they were not paying any attention to him. Instead, they were all looking upwards to the right.

Five followed their eyesight. Floating in mid-air, a tall lonely figure was slowly approaching the group. His features were completely hidden, he was wearing a long dark cloak that completely hid his body, not even his legs could be seen. As for his face, he was wearing a hood that projected a dark shadow, making him appear faceless.

The guards immediately raised their weapons at the floating figure.

"Who are you? Why are you protecting this demon?" shouted a guard.

Nervousness appeared in the eyes of the guards; their powerful level 30 captain had been slain with a single attack. They did not see the origin of the attack, all they saw were two transparent wind blades suddenly cutting through the captain's neck and arms like butter. Even as the protective amulet of the captain displayed its effect, the wind blades instantly dispersed the barrier.

Another guard stepped forward and raised his shield, "I am the vice-captain Evans, please identify yourself!"

Currently, none of the guards wanted to confront this person. It was clear that he could easily kill all of them. The vice-captain doubted that this person was a demon. If he was, he would have already slaughtered all the guards. The fact that he did not, already proved that he was not merciless and was inclined to negotiate.

The tall figure slowly approached, "Let him go!" said the person with an old aged voice. The voice sounded genderless, but the tone made it sound rather old.

"Sir, we are executing the empire's order to eliminate all demons who try to infiltrate our kingdom! This is the territory of Baron Ansel. Please refrain from interrupting our operation!" answered the vice-captain.

Immediately, an aura of hostility was emitted by the floating figure. "Do you really want to test my patience?"

"Sir! The baron has already heard of this event and is on his way. I don't think you want to confront the Baron directly?" cautiously asked the vice-captain.

Baron Ansel was well known in the region and even at the capital. The reason his territory was so close to the orcs was simply that he had similar temperaments to them. He was known to be ruthless and merciless. He was also violent at times and anyone who fought him would either die or be crippled for the rest of his life.

But to his surprise, the mysterious cloaked man was not even scared of the threat that Baron Ansel represented, instead, he simply coldly laughed.

"Do you think I am scared of a puny baron?" coldly said the man. At the same time, a powerful aura appeared around the cloaked figure causing the guards to shiver.

The guards immediately knew what that meant; even Five saw a change. As the aura was emitted, he saw the cloaked man's level appear above his head!

It turned out that the man was level 56!