Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

After the flame spear inserted themselves within the Battle Grizzly, the temperature around them started increasing and all of the condensed flame within the spears started erupting out in an explosion.

BOOOMM… a thundering noise reverberated across this forest enshrouded by the darkness of the night.

A few dozen meters of land around the monster was immediately gouged out by the fiery explosion and engulfed the area with its bright light.

The temperature around the battleground at this moment began to rise as everybody's gaze was focused on the figure in between the flames. Even the battle bears stopped their attacks when they felt the frightening might behind the flame spears.

After the fiery glow of the explosion dissipated, a burnt corpse with its upper body missing, slowly came into view and even its remaining lower body was slowly being incinerated by the fire.

The scene of the Battle grizzly being blasted into smithereens caused a deathly silence to descend onto the place, everyone whether they were adventurers or guards, combatants or non-combatants, humans or monsters stared at the remains of the Battle grizzly with wide-open eyes.

What kind of mastery over fire attribute should one reach to deal that kind of damage? These people did not know but what they did know was that the fire magic of this young man did not belong to the novice tier.

The death of their leader sparked a series of terrified growls from the battle bears and after a moment, they turned around and fled back towards the darkness of the forest. The onlookers who came to their senses saw this scene, wanted to give chase but was quickly stopped by a voice that carried authority and prestige.

"Everyone stop! The battle is over, there is no reason for us to give chase, it is unlikely that they will come back again. There are still a few couple of hours for the sun to rise across the horizon. Use the remaining time to recover and mend to the injured".

Cynthia who had been silent up until now, opened her mouth to hurriedly give commands.

Everybody obeyed her orders and started cleaning up the mess. The fire that was raging around the forest was quickly put down and only then did the members of the convoy sat themselves and took a rest.

In one corner of the forest, in a slight elevation not far from the campsite, a group of people wearing different kinds of garbs and a black cloth covering their face, could be seen looking at the devastation around the campsite.

"Boss, what do we do now? The battle grizzly was defeated and the battle bears ran away" a person with a huge scar on one side of his face said.

The person that this man was calling boss, had an impressive muscular build and was using monster hides and bones as armour.

The boss was silent for a while and spoke after he seemed to have seen enough of the campsite where the convoy was.

<br/>"Snort, although the battle grizzly being defeated so soon wasn't within my expectation, these monsters have done plenty by exhausting and reducing their number by a little. It would have been easier for us had they suffered a little more casualty, nevertheless, this northern outlaw forest is our territory. They cannot get away from us".

The lackey with the scarface repeatedly nodded his head before suddenly remembering something.

"But boss the brigand master had asked us to make sure that the convoy loses most of its strength. Looking at them, it seems that they still retain most of their manpower".

The boss of this group simply snorted at those words and mockingly replied "So what do you suggest? There are some individuals with incredible strength protecting that convoy. Unless the brigand master decides to acts himself, it is impossible for us to bring that convoy down. We can only use this technique of luring monsters and slowly chip away their numbers".

When he saw that nobody was complaining after those words, he waved his hand and issued an order to the scar-faced lackey.

"Go and report to the brigand master that we can handle them and there is no need to send reinforcement. Otherwise, he might send those fellows and we would have to share our achievement with them".

The scar-faced lackey nodded his head, there was no need for him to ask who these fellows his boss was talking about were.

Their brigand was divided into four parts namely the east, west, north and the south; each region of this huge northern outlaw forest was managed by a brigand leader who was only second to the Brigand master who oversaw all of the brigand leaders.

Needless to ask, the power of the brigand master was the strongest of them all which made him reign supreme and order the powerful brigand leaders around.

Just like his boss, there were three other brigand leaders who were continuously fighting amongst each other for dominance and recognition. If not for the presence of the brigand master, they might have even started killing one another.

And now they were all viewing their mission with the eyes of a tiger, ready to step in and take all of the achievement. The scar-faced lackey did not want this and hence started running towards the depth of the forest when a sudden feminine voice rang out and made him halt his steps.

"You are not going to call the others? That is so boring, the fun had only just started and you all decided to dampen it. Hmm, if you are not going to call reinforcements then I cannot allow you to move away from here".

The group of bandits which consists of ten people immediately became alert and looked around their surroundings.

They frowned their brows when they were unable to find any presence near them. Never did they imagine that while they were watching over the convoy, they too were being observed by someone.

Many thoughts ran in their heads and they soon realised that the person sneaking upon them, should be someone from the convoy.

The brigand leader made a solemn face when he realised that all their previous talks had been overheard and a dangerous glint filled with killing intent flashed in his eyes. He nodded towards his group and the group apparently understanding the meaning behind his gaze, nodded back.

They spread apart and immediately started searching for the person that had eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Hmph, I don't know who you are but it is better for you to come out or else I'll make it so that when I find you, I'll torture you first until you beg for death" the brigand leader threatened.

His words that were filled with killing intent, evoked a small laugh from the person.

"Hehe, you are the first person that I have met in a long while who is foolish enough to say something like that to me. Alright, since you are all so desperate to see me, I shall fulfil this last wish of yours".

A tone that had a deep childishness hidden rang out and by the time words ended, this group of brutish men felt a sudden presence appear right behind them.

A figure wrapped in a golden dress and had an exquisite figure, appeared in front of them. At a glance, the little girl with doll like face did not even seem to be fourteen years old, was standing unafraid and her hands folded behind her back.

These men who were accustomed to ruthlessness and treachery, were looking with dumbstruck gazes at the delicate figure of this girl who seem to appear just like a marigold shining in the darkness of the night.

After their initial astonishment, these brutish men suddenly revealed a ferocious smile as they observed the delicate figure and licked their lips.

"Hehe, who knew that we were up for some treat? I suppose today is our lucky day" the Brigand leader said looking at the figure of the girl lecherously.

Adalinda knitted her brows when she felt the inappropriate gazes of these men and chilliness flashed in her eyes.

"Little girl, I don't know how you managed to get here, but consider yourself unlucky for meeting us. If you obediently surrender we won't hurt that pretty face of yours" the brigand leader took a step forward and then… stopped.

Seeing that their boss was the forest one to take action, the men behind him revealed foolish smiles, rubbing their hands as they said

"Hehe, boss after you are done playing with the girl, don't forget about us brothers".

The group laughed merrily, however, their laughter was cut short when they saw that their boss was still unmoving after that initial step.

"Boss… brigand leader what's wrong?" the men behind them asked, an eerie silence suddenly descended onto the place.

The cold wind of the night blew over and the unmoving body of the man in front suddenly moved, however, instead of moving forward it listlessly fell down. There was no action after that and the man just seemed like a corpse devoid of any life.

"D-Don't joke around boss… w-what's going on?" the scar-faced lackey asked in a somewhat tense manner.

"Your boss is dead, he will no longer move again" the eerie silence was suddenly broken when the words of the little girl sounded out.

However, instead of giving one a pleasant feeling, the voice was bereft of any emotions and felt like the sound of a grim reaper.

When these bandits tore their eyes away from the fallen body of their boss and gaze at the girl again, for some reason all of their bodies shuddered intensely at the same moment and a feeling of being near death swept over.