Beserker

As Aren rushed forward and came before Honker in a flash, an exchange of punches and kicks ensued. As a strength based fighter, Honker's strength was still higher than Aren's even after Aren cast lesser strength on himself.

But strength alone couldn't decide the outcome of a battle. Moreover, with the battlefield being advantageous for Aren, Honker was having a bad time fending off Aren's series of combo attacks.

In the dark cave, where visibility was extremely low, Honker was like a clumsy bear trying to hit a cunning fox. Even though the bear was powerful, that power was useless if he couldn't hit the fox.

"You damn little... fight me face to face if you dare!" Honker shouted in rage. Although the attacks didn't do anything much to him, but after being punched on the same place for six to seven times, the effects clearly accumulated. Now his body was starting to ache all over.

However, why would Aren listen to him? He immediately condensed runic force on his right hand and propelled from where he was with even more speed. Though Honker was not able to see Aren, he could sense a figure charging towards him. He used a skill ''Hammer punch'' to counter the enemy. As the name implied, the punch had an explosive power of a thousand hammers altogether.

However, the counterattack was not fast enough to match Aren's speed. Just as the punch was about to land on Aren's face, he promptly dodged to the sides. Then with a twist of his foot, rotated a full 360 degree round, just some centimetres up from the ground and gave a karate chop on the bandit's left chest.

snap!

A sound of ribcage cracking was heard. Red blood was daubed on Aren's right hand. The bandit leader Honker was pushed seven and half steps backward and he even had to kneel to stabilize himself to not fall down.

'This should do it... That one attack took all of my strength but the bandit is still alive.' as Aren was about to quickly kill this bandit and go to help Lucian, an expression full of shock appeared on his face. He quickly distanced himself from the kneeling Honker as the expression of shock changed to that of seriousness on his face, under the hood.

Just now, he distinctly felt the change of the aura of bandit leader, who was supposed to be half dead. Not only that but that savage aura was increasing exponentially as time passed. It was like a caged lion that broke free.

"ROARR!..."

An extremely loud roar came out of Honker's mouth the next moment, filled with ferocity and rage. As the bandit stood up, Aren noticed that his eyes were crimson as blood and his muscles had expanded.

"Let me show you the power of a beserker." Honker's hoarse voice rang out in the passageway.

...

On the other side of the cave, Lucian, with the blood stained sword in his hand was cautiously walking through the passageways. The cave was like a beehive, with the passageways and small spaces dug all over. If there was not the signs made by bandits, he would have surely got lost inside here.

After they had come to the cave entrance, Aren had purposed a different plan to Lucian. They would not fight head on with the bandits but silently kill them one by one. All bandits had a different space for them to sleep inside the cave. The only difference between leaders' and their rooms was the size, decoration and... number of ladies they had kidnapped.

Except for the time a leader leads them to attack, they would usually stay in their respective rooms having some ''fun'', counting their loots or gambling with others. At most there would be three of them in a room. That number was nothing for the two of them. With this info given by Lucian, Aren formulated a plan with his quick mind.

It would not have been possible if there were all bandits at the cave, as some would be on a lookout but with Goro leading half of them out, keeping bandits on lookout all time would be dangerous. What if enemy was already inside the cave and the bandits couldn't handle them without those gone on a lookout?

But this move of theirs was completely unexpected. So while the bandit leaders were having their sweet time discussing and waiting for Goro to bring back riches and more girls, Aren and Lucian had sneaked inside the cave, killing their subordinates.

There were some who tried to shout to alert others but if they couldn't even prevent that, then they wouldn't be called rank 1s.

However, the reason why Lucian was prudent now was because of the bandit leader. With Aren going to confront the bulky bandit, Lucian was left with the lean one. Although Lucian didn't know the bandit's name, he knew the fact that this bandit leader was a fearsome assassin.

If Lucian didn't know about what was under the leaders' meeting chamber beforehand, he would also not fight with an assassin inside a dark cave.

He turned from a round corner and saw the metal door of the place where those three bandit leaders met. It was only due to that thing under this room that Lucian had taken this quest. However, he was not in a rush, he carefully looked around then went to the door. As he grabbed the door handle, the felt the cold and rusty metal surface.

kachak!

Just as he opened the door and was about to go in, he was forced to unsheate his sword abruptly.

Shriing!

As he parried the sharp dagger aiming right at his heart, yellow sparks were produced due to the frictional Collison.

"What great intuition you have Lucian to even sense my ''assassination'' skill coming!" a shadowy figure appeared 10 meters away from Lucian, his voice like a hiss of a venomous snake.

'This guy knows me?!' Lucian immediately went on alert. He began to think how much that bandit leader knew about him but another attack interrupted his thoughts.

This time, the attack was aimed at his neck. Had he not dodged to the sides, his head might have been rolling in the ground by now.

For the first time, a serious look appeared on his face. Even with the fight with other bandits, he had only used seventy percent of his strength. As a veteran adventurer, there were only some times when the enemy would be at his level and this enemy was exactly so.

'Although I had my suspicions from the start, this guy really is not an average rank 1 assassin. Fortunately, I have my trump card or killing him would be exceedingly difficult.'

Lucian brought his hand near his neck and felt the necklace he wore. It was not any ordinary necklace though but a lower tier magical item.

Adventurers were not poor just because the guild gave them far less money. When doing quests, they were bound to obtain some valuables which was their own entirely. If there was a quest about exterminating some monsters, most of the adventurers would take that quest not because the pay would be high but because after killing the monsters, they could make a fortune out of its body parts.

After doing many E-ranked and even a D-ranked quest, Lucian had obtained a fair share of money which he used to buy this item. Magical items, unlike Artifacts could be used by anyone, even if the user was not a mage.

Lucian, clutching a blue gem on the pendant, activated the item. Immediately, a blue luster shone on the sword he was holding as the temperature in the surroundings plummeted.

The sword had gained an ice elemental property!

Now with every attack and parry of Lucian, the assassin would have to bear an additional ice elemental damage. For those who were not casters, a magical attack like this was the most fatal.

Gurlim didn't dare attack again after seeing this. He quickly distanced himself from Lucian and stared at him vigilantly from the shadows.

However, it seemed that he had underestimated the power of magic. Just as he got ten steps away from Lucian, an icing appeared on the floor just below his feet, freezing his legs to the ground.

As he had backed away without turning back, he was still facing Lucian. The adventurer didn't waste any time when he saw that the assassin was restricted for a while. Yes, only for a while. If more than 10 seconds passed, then Gurlim would be able to break the ice using his own runic force.

Clang!

Even though he was restricted, Gurlim calmly blocked the sword attack with his dagger. However, frost suddenly formed on his two fingers.

Using the force which pushed his sword, Lucian maintained his footing and sprang back with greater force. It was one of the simplest of the six skills he got, recoil slash.

Yet, unable to dodge this simple attack, a 15 centimetres long cut appeared on the assassin's shoulder. He did turn his waist but that was already expected by Lucian so the skill hit him exactly where the adventurer wanted.

Gurlim placed his left hand on the shoulder to not let the blood flow out but instead of feeling the hot red liquid, he only felt chilling cold. He turned his eyes to the wound and to his horror, even the blood was frozen. The cold was now permeating through his body towards his lungs and even his heart.

He made a mistake this time. He should have run away like usual when there were two of them. This adventurer in front of him even had a magical item. Although he knew lucian's skills were top-notch, he hadn't expected him to even have a magical item.

10 seconds quickly passed and Gurlim broke free forthwith. But now, his speed was clearly lower than before. He used much of his runic force to dispel the ice formed on his shoulder. Due to it, he was now exhausted.

However, he didn't get any chance to rest as Lucian executed a flurry of sword attacks, one skill after another simultaneously. In the dark passage of the silent cave, clangorous sounds of two metal weapons rang out.

Even before ten exchanges of attacks were finished, Gurlim's hands were totally covered in frost. He was barely able to use his dagger expending large amounts of runic force. The extremely fatal poison he had prepared for his opponent was now frozen to his dagger. If nothing happened, he would lose his life here.

But at this moment, an extremely feral roar sounded in the whole of silent cave. The expression of the two men, who were just fighting till now, changed when they heard this roar. While Lucian turned solemn, Gurlim looked joyful.

Banging sounds came right after that roar, from where it came. Lucian hesitated for a while but decided he should go. If he, as an adventurer, left a companion alone in this situation, then no one would form a party with him.

As for Gurlim? Lucian didn't come for him but something else. His job was to chase away this bandit from here. With his subordinates all killed and him getting a fatal injury, no sane person would stay in the same place and again form a bandit group unless the said person was an idiot.

As Lucian dashed through the passageway, just as he had expected, Gurlim turned back and ran towards the exit. He didn't even take his belongings and ran away. His life was more important, there was no telling when the adventurer might change his mind and decide to kill him instead.