A mysterious man

The two commanders, Organ and Laura, arrived with their men.

Without a word, Laura leapt several meters into the air, passing over dozens of bandits.

As all eyes briefly focused on her, she used the momentum of her fall to attack Andrew, who was caught off guard.

The red-haired young man took a few steps back, having managed to block Laura's kick with his left arm.

A little taken aback, Andrew looked at the young woman in front of him.

She had a face with a few scars and freckles. Combined with short, black hair, she had both a wild air but filled with a maturity that didn't match her age.

"Fiou, what a beauty!"

Andrew blushed slightly at Laura, perfectly displaying the shyness of an inexperienced young man.

The few saber-toothed tigers near Andrew were also unsettled, but most of them were older and more experienced, so they had a better resistance to beauty than Andrew.

However, when they saw Andrew's flushed face, they were taken aback.

"Can the vice-captain really have a face like that?" exclaimed one of the mercenaries in astonishment.

"It would appear that the vice-captain has fallen in love!" scoffed another while blocking the bandits in front of him.

"At the same time who would resist such beauty!"

"Don't you guys think they match perfectly? Young, strong and handsome, what a divine couple!"

Hearing the words of the mercenaries who had come with Terry and Izo to the battlefield, Andrew looked at them with cold eyes.

But the few spots of redness on his cheeks made him lose all credibility, which made these men laugh.

"You..."

Andrew wanted to say something, but a sword came at full speed towards his neck.

With extraordinary instinct and superhuman reaction speed, Andrew arched his back slightly, narrowly avoiding the sword.

Seeing their vice-captain had just narrowly escaped death, the 4 saber-toothed tigers immediately repelled the bandits in front of them.

The next second, they all attacked the young woman with the wild aura.

But the latter easily dodged and repelled them all with explosive power combined with excellent close-combat technique.

Like dominoes, they crashed into the crowd of bandits, knocking several of them down in the process.

When they opened their eyes again, each was on the ground with bandits surrounding them, ready to finish them off.

But reinforcements were not long in coming, and a dozen saber-toothed tigers rushed straight at the bandits threatening their comrades.

"Whew, I really thought I was going to croak on this floor today!"

"Yeah, thanks guys!"

"You got here just in time!"

The mercenaries who had just arrived smiled at them and replied curiously:

"No worries guys, but why did the fight start without the whole group being present?"

"That..." the 4 mercenaries didn't know what to answer, since the fight had already started when they themselves had already arrived.

Meanwhile, after fending off the 4 saber-toothed tigers, Laura, who had arrived like a graceful goddess on the battlefield, clashed violently with Andrew in hand-to-hand combat.

Despite his admiration for the woman in front of him, Andrew managed not to let himself be distracted and managed to block and dodge most of Laura's attacks.

Their duel seemed extremely ferocious but at the same time filled with a certain grace, as if it were a spectacle.

On the other hand, Rodrigo faced Organ as expected.

Romuald was nearby, worrying about Rodrigo.

"It's nothing against you Rodrigo, but it's a bandit commander all the same opposite, with your physique reaching only 1.7 points you'll be at a great disadvantage."

Rodrigo turned to look at Maxime, who was still standing at the back with his arms crossed.

Meeting Maxime's cold gaze, he immediately turned his attention away from his boss and back to Organ.

In front of him stood a skinny old man with tousled hair.

In his right hand, he held an extremely broad and long sword.

In his left hand, he still held a gourd that smelled of strong alcohol from several yards away.

"So you want to face me alone?" asked Organ carelessly.

Rodrigo swallowed his remaining saliva with difficulty and replied by charging straight at the old man.

Organ smiled and swung the heavy sword in his hand in Rodrigo's direction.

"That's fast!"

Rodrigo was surprised and forced to block with his axe.

However, Organ's attack was so powerful that he was thrown against one of the walls of the distant cave.

Rodrigo barely had time to reopen his eyes when Organ's sword was again in front of him, ready to strike.

This time, he managed to narrowly dodge the attack.

Beside him, the wall he'd been standing in now had a huge hole in it.

"What monstrous power," Rodrigo thought, shocked.

"Even my older brother known a genius must hardly be on this level."

Recalling some memories, Rodrigo was upset.

He who had been born into a family known for its martial prowess, found himself a piece of trash with a potential of only one star.

His family had long since disowned him and focused their attention on his older brother, who had 3-star potential.

With this potential, even in the realm of the Frost Eagle he was known as a very rare genius.

On top of that, his great-brother had a monstrous talent for martial skills and knightly breathing techniques.

Many believed his great-brother would become one of the kingdom's finest generals.

Next to such a genius, Rodrigo went completely unnoticed and had even become the laughing stock of the nobility by the age of 16.

It was also at this time that he made the acquaintance of Ernest, who like him had become the laughing stock of the nobility for her extremely mediocre skills in all hand-to-hand weapons.

Rumor had it that even if he miraculously reached the heights of a 2-star mercenary, he would still be unable to hold his own against a well-trained soldier in a duel.

"In the end, only this man can help us shake off our status as the scum of the nobility," Rodrigo thought as his eyes were filled with determination.

Organ noticed this and a hint of admiration appeared in his eyes.

"Few dare look at me like that after suffering two attacks from me!" said Organ, laughing and drinking lightly from his gourd.

Simultaneously, he sensed a grave danger coming, and backed off slightly as best he could.

But his opponent seemed to have predicted it: he received a powerful blow in the jaw and was temporarily stunned.

Organ then unconsciously dropped his sword and gourd.

But that wasn't the end of it, as Organ suffered an uninterrupted onslaught of punches as he held on to a meagre guard.

Then, as if making a decision, he opened his eyes, stepped forward and head-butted his assailant.

This was indeed successful, and he was able to catch his breath.

"Damn, to catch the moment when for 0.5 seconds I'm drinking from my gourd and manage to hit me, you're really good, kiddo!" exclaimed the old man, his face full of blood.

Indeed, Rodrigo felt particularly at home in the cave, as if he could easily become what his opponents were going to do in the next second.

"You're pretty good old man too, it's impressive to retain such physique and especially such courage at your age."

"Hahaha, it's clear that compared to those crusty old noblemen, I'm doing pretty well!"

At the same time, he tore off his top, showing off his impressive musculature.

"Second round kid!" shouted the old man as he lunged at Rodrigo at full speed without his sword and gourd.

Rodrigo blocked the first blow and counter-attacked, but Organ dodged and then went on the offensive again.

But each time Rodrigo managed to block and counterattack, putting Organ under great pressure.

It went on like that for a few minutes, then Organ stepped back and struggled to catch his breath.

"At my age, it's hard to keep up such a long fight," he thought.

"If it wasn't for my ability to predict his movements a second in advance, I'd have been dead a long time ago." Rodrigo thought for his part, particularly as he looked at his arms, which had turned blue from the power of the blows he'd blocked.

On Andrew and Laura's side the situation seemed similar, their fight soon reaching the end since both fighters were already badly wounded in appearance and their breath was running out.

"My mercenaries have already all arrived and it's only a matter of time before all the bandits are exterminated," Maxime analyzed from a distance.

Indeed, in the last few minutes, all the saber-toothed tigers had arrived and were now rampaging across the battlefield.

Before, only 4 of them could stand up to twenty bandits, but now that all 30 were there, it was easy to overpower the hundreds of bandits at the entrance to the cave.

Indeed, almost all the remaining bandits were now fighting against Maxime's men.

"Now where is he?" thought Maxime, looking off into the distance.

In the midst of the chaos, a man with a discreet silhouette and a black mask quietly arrived from the depths of the cave.

The two protagonists' eyes met at that moment, as if they had recognized each other's identity.