At a specific spot 50 km away from the border wall of the Kingdom of Lanthanor, a large team of mages was carefully holding a long block of metal which was around 5 meters in length.
Behind them, there was a long row of such metallic bars laid out horizontally for as far as the eye could see.
Suddenly, a hail of arrows assaulted them, which made them get frustrated expressions on their faces instead of panicked ones as they carefully set aside the block and conjured barriers to stop the arrows.
No one was harmed, but the arrows were followed by explosion trinkets which caused billowing smoke to block their sight.
Behind them, a team of people wearing ragged clothes had just started to assault these metal bars with swords and spears using the distraction of the explosion trinkets.
Only, it looked like this team was prepared for it, as 20 soldiers wearing the uniforms of the Kingdom of the Elves teleported above this group and instantly cast wind blades to kill all of them.
Only, unbeknownst to them, four other spots had also been attacked, and although three attacks had been thwarted, one had succeeded, which meant that this team of mages had to go back to that spot first and fix the rail trinkets there.
"Let's go."
As Daneel said this, Elanev, who was right beside him nodded and froze, allowing Daneel to lay a hand on him and teleport them both into the air above the team of the bandits who had succeeded and were running away at full speed while chattering among themselves quietly.
"Ha, they're helpless! Our brothers may be dead, but we are succeeding! All we need to do is continue doing this for another few days, and everything will go back to normal! Those bastards won't know what hit them!"
As Daneel heard this, he couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows with irritation, as he resisted the urge to kill them right here and now.
Elanev observe this and said, "Since when have you developed this much bloodlust?"
"Since these pests have started to threaten the implementation of my plan. I think we are nearing their base."
As Daneel answered in a cold voice, Elanev shrugged and nodded, and after 10 minutes, the reached a nondescript bush which was carefully picked up and placed to the side to reveal a hole into which the 10 bandits jumped.
"Here goes nothing," said Elanev, following which the two of them also plunged into its depths without any hesitation.
After flying down a distance of around 30 m, the two found the hole opening into a large cave in which 150 bandits were all facing a certain direction.
Seeing this, the two hovered in the air, and no one was able to see them.
As Elanev once again marveled at how effective this camouflage spell of Daneel's was, he heard someone who was standing on top of a rock in the corner of the large cave speak.
"We are once again successful! These suckers want to build a system that will take away all of our livelihoods! Did they really think that it would be that easy? Thankfully, we managed to find a leader who set out a plan to stop it all! All we need to do is hold on for another week! Teams 3, 4, 5, you'll be attacking next. Teams…"
At that moment, a voice filled with silent fury interrupted that man.
"And what will happen in a week?"
As gasps were heard all around, the 150 bandits looked up to see two people flying in the air above them.
As they scrambled to get their weapons, they were shocked once again when they heard their leader answer instead of spitting out one of his favorite curses.
"I don't know, but this was all I was told!"
This made a grimace pass across Daneel's face, as he let go of Elanev who dropped in the midst of all the bandits.
"Take care of them. I'll carry out a more detailed interrogation."
As the King of Lanthanor said this and floated toward the leader and grasped his collar before teleporting them both away, Elanev, who suddenly found himself surrounded by multiple snarling individuals, hit his palm with the fist of his other hand while he smiled with anticipation.
"Haha, your friend abandoned you! You're dead!"
As one of the bandits near him said this, Elanev couldn't help but chuckle and say, "You idiot. He didn't abandon me with you, he abandoned all of you with me. If it were him, he might have given you all a swift death within wind blades. My methods are much more…uncouth."
These bandits weren't stupid. The fact that this man had been allowed to remain meant that he definitely must have a lot of tricks up his sleeve, so the intention had been to test him in some way.
Yet, seeing that he wasn't taking the bait, two bandits lunged forward anyway, as a lot of frustration had been building up in them all these days due to the desperate straits they had been driven to because of everything that had been happening between the two kingdoms of Lanthanor and Eldinor.
The introduction of the highway meant that, for the first time, merchants had a perfectly secure way to tread the path between the two kingdoms, which allowed them no opportunities, at all, to ambush caravans and convoys, which meant that their livelihood was basically destroyed.
They couldn't simply migrate to other areas between Kingdoms which didn't have such paths, either, as those areas already had a lot of bandit groups who would put up a fight if they even tried to encroach on their territory.
The highway had been finished before they could say or do anything about it, but after finding out about this train system, they just hadn't been able to sit still.
As bandits, they knew more than anyone else just how effective the trains would be - apparently, those magical trinkets that were being laid down on the ground had the ability to make barriers appear all across the hundreds of kilometers of the path of the train which meant that guards would be able to intrude on any attempts of destruction before any damage at all was done, as all of their weapons would be helpless against the barriers.
At least, with the highway, there was a little hope, but if these trains also came into being, they would all have no choice but to abandon this livelihood.
And this was something they were definitely not willing to do. Most of these bandits were criminal offenders in some or the other Kingdom who had chosen this life as there was no other way. If they tried to re-enter these Kingdoms without having sufficient money or means, they would definitely be killed at first sight.
As soon as it became a matter of life and death, unity that had never been there before had sprung up among these bandits who usually never trusted anything farther than how far they could throw it.
No one knew who the leader was, but he had distinguished himself by drawing up strategies which worked surprisingly well against all the plans being put together by that bastardly devilish King of Lanthanor.
Boom!
Even while the scimitars that they were attacking with were just a few centimeters away from the neck of their opponent, the man who had just uttered that confident statement, who was wearing sleeveless training gear of some kind punched out, which resulted in a sight that was branded into the eyes of all those watching.
At the edge of his fist, a concave ball of air appeared, that explosively pushed away the weapons of the two attacking and sent them careening into the bodies of two other bandits who had been standing nearby.
At the same moment, the bodies of these two bandits, along with four others who were in the path of that punch were blown backward as if they had suddenly been flung away by a tornado.
As if this wasn't shocking enough, an old man appeared beside this man at that moment and tapped his chin before idly saying, "Needs more practice. This is called the 'Lion's Roar Fist' for a reason. During the time of the Empire, there was a certain Warrior level lion beast that was the size of a two-story building. Hey, I'm instructing, here!"
Unable to control his fear and panic, one bandit had desperately struck the old man, hoping that he might be weak as he looked just like some old grandpa on the street.
Yet, the blade of his sword had just been caught in midair between the fingers of the old man, who nonchalantly said this before letting the blade go and flicking it with his finger.
Something magical happened the next moment. As if life had been given to that blade, it flew towards the neck of the one who attacked before smoothly passing through it and heading in an arc all around, beheading 12 bandits before finally falling to the ground.
"And that was the 'Puppeteer's Flick' I told you about. Master the Lion's Roar first, and we can get to this. When that lion roared, a wall of air would be explosively pushed out what that would destroy everything in its path, but the core of its strength lay in the edges of that wall. The edges are supposed to bend inwards, so that even everything on the boundaries of it would be pulled inward instead of being blasted outward. This increases destruction to the maximum amount, which leads to…"
As the idle instruction continued, the bandits could only stare between themselves, wondering who these two monsters were who were treating so many Amateur Human in such a casual way.
To make things worse, they were standing right below the only exit, so there was nowhere to run to, either.
The vice leader of the bandit group took command at that point.
"Don't foolishly go at them one at a time! All of us, let's attack together! We can definitely beat them that -"
Only, the voice of this man was cut off as he felt a glare land on him.
The glare was from the man who was being instructed, and it almost looked like he was glaring at someone who was threatening to take away something that he had earned after a lot of effort.
The glare made the vice leader, someone who was almost an Eminent Human, piss his pants on the spot, as it also felt like he had been locked on to by the eyes of a predator that would never relent in its hunt.
"Good. The Predator's Eyes are progressing smoothly. Maybe you'll surprise that younger brother of yours, yet. Now then, try the fist again."
Boom!
As Elanev blasted forward another punch in the direction behind him which made 15 people fly into the air like rag dolls this time, Daneel was on the surface, interrogating the man whom he had captured.
"Tell me everything you know about the leader. Specifically, I want to know a way in which he can be reached."
"I don't know! No one knows his true identity! We get orders from those who're under him, but I know for a fact that even those people don't know who he is! Maybe… Only the other major bandit leaders who are also leading the Alliance might know them!"
"And where can they be found?", asked Daneel, pulling the man closer and letting him witness the full fury that was raging in his eyes.
It was a sight which made the leader wish that he was anywhere else in the world, and he answered without any hesitation.
"Arafell! I know that one of them loves to frequent the bar called 'The Maiden's Waist' in the capital of Arafell! Please, let me go!"
As Daneel finally got a clue, he felt more frustration instead of relief.
Squeezing his hand, he ended the life of the leader in a simple manner before running his other hand through his hair.
Did he really have to go back into the Kingdom of that crazy b*tch whom he had infuriated just a few weeks ago?