The bandits had already surrounded the merchant and Evan headed straight for them. This time he wasn’t going to be ceremonious or negotiate anything. He had a goal, but there were some obstacles to achiving this goal. Right now, he was going to get them out of the way.

The bandits had their backs to Evan, but the merchant could see the dark-haired young man walking toward him.

Unlike Rosa, who had shouted and asked for help at once, the merchant didn’t show that he had noticed Evan. The man calmly continued playing the part of the victim.

The merchant’s cold-bloodedness pleased Evan and a slight smile appeared on his face.

Swing.

Getting close enough, he struck one of the bandits` back with his sword. To his deepest shock, the blow was blocked. Nevertheless, he managed to inflict a serious wound on the man.

Evan didn’t understand how the bandit he was about to decapitate had time to react to his attack. But he had no time to think. As soon as the bandits became aware of his existence, Evan started a battle – one against three.

He decided not to wait for them to attack and crush him in numbers. The first attack in their direct confrontation was launched by Evan.

Whoosh.

As he swung his sword and struck, his opponent’s head fell from his shoulders, but that wasn’t what surprised him.

<How has he dodged an attack in the back if they are so weak?> That was interested Evan the most.

He surmised that one of them might just be several times stronger than the others. But Evan refused to believe such nonsense.

Whoosh.

Deciding not to waste time, he struck another blow to the second bandit. Once again, he easily pierced his opponent’s heart.

Having dealt with two weak opponents, Evan quickly retreated. The whole situation seemed very strange to him. And it all started because of the wounded man.

“Boy, what organization are you from?” The bandit was holding his hand to the spot where Evan’s sword had hit him.

Naturally, Evan didn’t understand the question and didn’t know what he was being asked about. Nevertheless, his answer followed immediately, “A dead man doesn’t need to know that.”

“Heh, well, as you want.” Despite all the pain from his wound, the man gripped his two-handed sword tightly and prepared to fight for his life.

Whoosh.

Evan ran straight at his opponent while maintaining full concentration. He kept his eyes on everything going on around him, as the situation was still quite unclear. Surprisingly, it was his opponent, who attacked first. He raised his sword high above his head and brought it down directly on Evan.

<Yeah, he’s strong, but it`s not enough.>

The blow was incredibly powerful, but it didn’t matter how strong the blow was if he could dodge it. Evan was simply too fast for such a slow attack to catch up to him.

So he bounced to the side, and quickly plunged the blade of his sword right into his opponent’s side.

“AAAAH!” At that moment, the bandit could no longer stand the pain, and screamed loudly. Unfortunately for him, Evan wasn’t going to stop.

Whoosh.

Taking the blade out of the bandit’s body, Evan grabbed his sword with a reverse grip, and thrust it into his opponent’s heart from the back. After the deadly attack, he quickly drew his sword and swung it sharply, shaking off all the clinging blood.

“Thank you, young man, I don’t know how to thank you.” Seeing that Evan had dealt with all the bandits, the merchant thanked his savior.

As for Evan, he wasn’t going to talk at all.

Rosa wanted to come out of hiding, even though Evan hadn`t shown the signal yet, but she quickly dismissed the idea.

For while the merchant was trying to make contact with Evan, the young man was looking somewhere in the distance. He was completely focused, his gaze was icy and his eyes were unbelievably cold.

Rosa didn’t know how, but she realized that Evan didn’t think it was over at all. That’s why he didn’t give the signal.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, Evan saw a bright glint of metal among the trees, and a moment later, there was an arrowhead before his eyes.

Swing.

As he had already prepared for something like that, Evan had time to react and deflect the arrow flying at him.

In one motion, he blocked the attack and flung the arrow aside.

“Come out, there’s no need to wait.” Evan wasn’t going to play with anyone. He wanted to see his opponents and deal with them quickly, without playing hide-and-seek. Fortunately, he was heard.

As soon as Evan finished talking, he heard rustling in the woods and a couple of seconds later, two men appeared in front of him. They were dressed in black leather armor.

One of them had a bow behind his back and a short sword in his hands, while the other had two sharp daggers.

Seeing these two, Evan realized that this was one more party interested in the situation. Unlike the merchant’s guards and the thugs who wanted to make a profit, these men were of a different level.

You could see it with the naked eye: their equipment, behavior and posture. All this showed that they were no weak adversaries at all.

“Boy, if you’d left right away, we might have even kept you alive. But now that you’ve seen us, you don’t stand a chance of getting out of here alive anymore”, said the man with the green daggers in his hands.

Whoosh.

He quickly attacked Evan, trying to strike him with lightning- fast blows. Evan was far from an easy man and such attacks could not kill him. As he blocked the hail of blows, he pondered what kind of goods the merchant was carrying, since so many people were interested in him.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

His opponent’s blows were getting faster and faster and the attacks were as swift as the wind.

It seemed to Evan that if this continued, he would simply not be able to keep up with his opponent’s movements.

Evan was surprised that the other man was taking absolutely no action. The only thing he was doing was staring intently at the merchant and the cart beside him.

The merchant hesitated to make any movements, and simply hoped for Evan’s quick victory.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

After a few dozen blows, Evan realized what the problem was. The problem wasn’t that he was too weak or that his opponent was just incredibly strong, it was all about the green daggers.

Evan’s sword wasn’t the easiest either. It was sharpened with a special stone as Zak had told him, so its sharpness was incredible. The man’s daggers seemed to accelerate their owner constantly.

Deciding that this couldn’t go on any longer, Evan began to take risky actions.

Bam.

Reflecting another lunge, he quickly lunged forward and hit his opponent with the shoulder. Evan successfully knocked him down with his amazing physical strength.

The man didn’t expect that, and the next moment he saw the point of his sword heading for him. Nevertheless, Evan only pierced the ground.

The man quickly rolled over and dodged Evan’s attack with ease.

“And you’re not a bad guy, but we don’t have time to play with you.”

He realized that Evan was strong enough, so their tactics needed to change.

The man with the daggers attacked Evan again, diverting his attention, while the other pulled an arrow from his quiver and prepared to shoot.

Whoosh.

The arrow went off instantly, but the target wasn’t Evan at all, but the defenseless merchant, standing off to the side.

Evan wasn’t about to risk his life for some merchant, so he only frowned slightly and made no attempt to protect the merchant in any way.

Whoosh.

The arrow hit right on target.

<А?>

Suddenly Evan realized that not the merchant was wounded, but Rosa. When she saw that the merchant was about to be killed, the girl lunged forward in an attempt to stop it. All her life the others had cared for her, protected and solved all her problems. Rosa had never had the opportunity to save anyone herself. Perhaps, that is why she did such a noble but foolish thing.

Fortunately, the arrow did not hit her, but only grazed her arm and flew on. Thanks to Rosa, the merchant was able to stay alive. The arrow still pierced his shoulder, though, and the man passed out from the pain.

Rosa received a rather serious wound. Blood flowed steadily down her arm.

Whoosh.

Evan backed down from his opponent, and slowly approached Rosa.

The man with the daggers did nothing. He didn’t want to attack an opponent like Evan, who chose to retreat on his own. It was too dangerous.

Approaching the girl, Evan reached to her and…

Swing.

With one swift blow to the neck area, he rendered her unconscious. Then he gently placed the wounded girl on the ground.

Evan stripped off his armor, opened his shirt and ripped the sleeve off it. He dipped his fingers into the girl’s blood and tied the cloth around her wound.

He muttered: “You’ve done an incredibly stupid and a completely unnecessary thing.”

Evan sighed.

“But, it was a worthy deed and you`ve earned my respect.”

After these words, Evan stood up and looked icily at the two men standing in front of him.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, the two men saw a huge snake appear around Evan’s arm.