"Haaaa!"
The guards and the 'bandits' were clashing fiercely. They had been fighting each other for a while. And as expected, they had spent a lot of Spiritual Energy.
They were staring at each other. The guards tried to hold on while the bandits tried to push them back.
The captain was keeping a close tab on his subordinates' conditions, making sure that none of them were heavily injured.
They thought for a moment, wondering if there was a chance to escape.
It seemed that despite the fierce fight, the enemies continued creating an escape chance for the guards.
The captain thought, 'It seems that the enemies have known about the plan. But since they're still fighting us, it means there might be some experts hiding around us, monitoring the situation. If we don't act well, those experts might realize it. Just a few more minutes and we will retreat.'
The captain shouted, "Guards. We are going to unleash the Fire Tactics!"
"!!!" The guards were surprised, but their expressions soon changed, knowing what kind of strategy they planned to use.
Suddenly, all of them began to release their Spiritual Energy. The captain and the vice captain, who were a Spirit Wielder and had awakened their Spirits, immediately stomped the ground.
The intense Spiritual Energy from the Spirit Practitioner Guards was flown to the sky because of the shock wave.
Then, the Fire Spirits from the captain and the vice captain released their fire, igniting the Spiritual Energy.
Suddenly, a huge flame burst in the air. The captain and the vice captain clasped their hands, starting to control the fire above their head.
The fire gradually formed a humanoid figure.
"!!!" The masked man widened his eyes, recognizing this power. This was the same power as the Fire Devil the Countess had.
"What?!" The masked man gasped.
"Fire Tactics, Devil Form!" The captain raised his hand. At the same time, the Fire Devil also raised its hand.
"Haaaa!" The captain shouted while waving it down.
The fire devil slammed the ground with its fire hand.
"Dodge!"
The enemies tried to dodge, but the hand caused an explosion, swallowing three people.
"Aaaahhh!" They were screaming in pain. Although they didn't die, they still suffered some burns.
The teammates who were near them tried to extinguish the fire that still burned their bodies. Meanwhile, the captain had sent another hand, trying to hurt them as much as possible.
"Not good!" The masked man gritted his teeth, realizing he had no choice but to reveal his strength. He suddenly raised his sword and waved it straight at the fire devil's hand.
A crescent-shaped energy flew toward the hand, clashing with the fire.
The sky felt like it was being split. The upper sky was bright red as if it was being burned by eternal flame, while the lower air was dyed in blue as if pushing the heat away with its coldness.
"!!!" The captain widened his eyes because the sword strike actually started freezing the fire devil's hand. He roared. "Haaaa!"
He released all the remaining energy inside the fire devil to explode the hand.
*Boom!*
The explosion shattered the ice and shot a few fireballs down.
"Watch out!" The masked man hurriedly returned to his teammates' position while erecting an ice wall, blocking the fireballs. But some of his teammates were a bit too far and the fireballs ended up hitting them.
"Aaahhhhh!"
His people suffered some damage.
Meanwhile, the captain hurriedly used the last bit of energy to set the cart on fire. "Retreat! The enemies are too strong. They have a Spirit Master among them!"
The Fire Tactics were used so that multiple Spirit Wielders could go against a Spirit Master. So, the fact that the masked man managed to stop them meant he was a Spirit Master.
There was no way they would stay since it would only lead to a pointless death.
The guards were a bit hesitant about that order since they had to protect the goods. But because the captain had started burning the cart, they could only follow him since he had burned the only thing they had to protect.
The 'bandits' were trying to chase after them. But the masked man shouted, "Don't chase them. We have to stop the fire and get everything inside!"
His teammates wanted to avenge the injured comrades, so they were a bit unwilling. But the masked man shouted once again, reminding them that this was an order from the Third Prince, not himself.
In the end, they had no choice but to forget about the grudge and started saving everything they could from the cart. Obviously, the chest that stored the book was built with better material, so it wasn't burned away. Meanwhile, most of the goods had started to catch fire and a part of them had been burned.
Luckily, they didn't really bother with the rest of the goods since they were not normal bandits. They only retrieved the books and let the rest burn to ashes. This would also help them clean up the battlefield.
As soon as he confirmed the book, the masked man ordered, "Let's go hide somewhere to treat the injured. After that, we shall return to give the goods to our master."
The people nodded, acknowledging the orders. Those who weren't injured immediately came over to help carry the injured and hid inside the woods.
It looked like they had passed the worst. However, they didn't know that there was one more party that had been observing them from a distance aside from Anna.
Now that the group had suffered some injuries and exhausted a lot of their Spiritual Energy, they wouldn't be able to handle an ambush from a group at a similar level.
But as expected from a Spirit Master, he managed to find their presence no matter how hard the other party tried to hide it before they arrived. Their groups were at a similar level after all.
"Not good. Rise and pull out your weapons! There's an ambush!"
As he said those words, fifteen people came out of their hiding and attacked them.
