The short bulky man stared at them and felt nothing short of anger. He slowly walked out of the crowd holding a spear slightly taller than he was, with a chain connected to the bottom of the spear. As he walked, steam was dispersing all around him. His forehead was riddled with red veins that popped out. One view of the short man, one could tell he was livid.

The old man that was already on his knees had a horrid expression. He looked at Baya and then turned to look at the young mistress. The old man had dealt with different kinds of people all his life, so he could tell that this short bulky man was at the elemental energy level from the way he was dispersing the steam. He thought back to when he was at Oriente city, and how he had been instructed to go with Lydia on an important family matter. He had felt pride in how much he had accomplished to be sent on such an important mission, but now all he could do was feel regret.

At first, they had journeyed with quite a few martial artist, but to their surprise, they had been ambushed. Luckily some of them had managed to escape. Their luck got even worse when they ran into bandits in the forest. That time only four of them managed to survive thanks to Baya. But now, an elemental energy martial artist is completely enraged and wants to kill them. To him, this was the end.

The old man turned to look at Baya, who had a somewhat solemn expression. “We are finished. He is at the elemental energy level.” He said looking towards Baya. Positioned beside Baya, Willard turned to face the short bulky man. “Scram before you also lose your life,” Willard said in a slightly irritated manner. To Willard, all that was happening was just a waste of his time.

The old man, who was still kneeling, expression immediately changed for the worse. This was the first time anyone had heard Willard’s voice. He had remained silent while everyone interacted with each other earlier. And now, the first time he had spoken, his words were nothing short of condescending. “How can this child be so foolish.” The old man lamented. “Even if we had a small chance of surviving this, with what he just said, we will definitely be killed.” The man was about to yell at Willard but lost all will to even speak. Everyone else all stared at Willard with shocked expressions.

The short bulky man’s left eye bulged a little. He was completely furious at this point. He stared at Willard who had a complete disregard for him and the situation. He gripped his spear tightly and was about to say something before Willard cut him off as he sighed and then jumped off his mount. He walked towards the short man staring straight at him. “What are you waiting for? Scram!” he yelled clearly with an irritated look on his face. His experience so far on this mortal world had given Willard a slight sense of empathy, and his remarks to the short bulky man was Willard’s way of showing mercy. The short man completely lost his patience, he hurled his spear with all the strength he could muster aiming straight for Willard’s head.

As the spear flew, a screeching sound was heard as more steam dispersed. The spear flew through the air in a dominating fashion. Everyone that saw it, except for Baya, assumed that was the end for Willard. As the spear got closer to its target, Willard moved his right hand in a casual manner, almost as if he was about to swat a fly. The short bulky man had a disdainful look on his face. In his view, Willard was a fool that overestimated his own abilities. Even elemental energy experts wouldn’t foolishly attempt to use their bare hands to catch his spear.  

Before anyone knew what was happening, Willard had caught the spear with his bare hand. The expression of the onlookers, including the short bulky man, changed as they saw what had just happened. No one could believe what they were seeing, and this was especially true for the short bulky man who threw the spear and the old man who was still on his knees.

“How is this even possible?” The short bulky man questioned for a second before moving that thought to the back of his mind. “So what if you have some ability. Today you will die.” He said as snapped out of his surprise. He yanked the chain that was connected to the spear with all of his strength, aiming to rip Willard’s fingers off. To his surprise, the spear did not move a tiny bit. The short bulky man felt like he had just tried pulling a mountain. His mind was reeling from yet another surprise, as everything had gone against any kind of logic he could think off at the moment. Before he could react, Willard pulled the spear, sending the short bulky man hurling towards him. The man could not even react fast enough to release the chain from his grip as he flew uncontrollably towards Willard.

From the moment he threw the spear to the very point when he was sent flying towards Willard, only a few seconds had gone by. The short bulky man was starting to feel something different from anger, and that was fear. “Who the hell is this person?” He thought as he uncontrollably flew towards Willard. Back when the members had brought the corpse of his younger brother back, they had only mentioned Baya to him, and now to his complete and utter surprise, he was facing something he couldn’t even understand. Now a small sense of regret was festering in his heart.

As the short bulky man was flying towards Willard, he pulled back on the chain using the force to regain his orientation and proceeded to use that opportunity to attack Willard. At this point in time, it was clear to him, that he was in danger and he needed to give it his best if he wanted a chance at survival. Approaching meters away from Willard, he punched with everything he had or at least that was how it seemed to Willard. On the surface of his hands, violet lightning could be seen dancing about. The short bulky man could tell at this point that he wasn’t a fool who overestimated his abilities. If anything, he seemed more like a demon in human form.

A look of intrigue appeared on Willard’s eyes as he noticed the violet lightning. Originally, Willard was planning on using an earth spike to kill this short man but now, he had a different idea. As the short man’s punch made contact with Willard’s palm, a surge of violet lightning gathered in Willard’s palm, before shortly dispersing all around them. The short bulky man had a look of disbelief as he watched how easily Willard had defended his attack. What shocked him the most wasn’t the fact that Willard could defend his attack, it was the fact that Willard had controlled the lightning he cultivated before dispersing it.

The short bulky man took some steps backward as his expression changed to one filled with fear. Beads of sweat dripped from his face as he stared deeply at Willard. All he could feel now was regret. If he had known he would face such a monster, he would never have thought of getting revenge. The short bulky man already lost hope in this fight and as such started piecing together a plan to escape. The expression on the short bulky man strangely changed as he immediately broke into a deep laughter. “So that’s how it is. Hahaha!” He said “Who would have thought? Brothers gather round and attack this man.” He yelled

The surrounding bandits were a little confused, but none the less charged towards Willard. From their perspective, their leader must have a plan and besides, to this very day, there had never been a problem their leader could not solve with his strength. Even when they encountered a renowned figure, their master had been able to battle him to a draw. To be fair, it was virtually impossible to see a bandit at the level of the short bulky man. Anyone at that level would have joined a household or taken an important role in the military.  

As the bandits got closer to Willard, the short bulky man immediately turned hills and ran in the opposite direction. Beads of sweat appeared on his face once again as he put all of his efforts into escaping. “What the hell kind of monster did I meet today?” He cursed as he ran. The subordinate bandits all turned to look at their escaping leader. They all had shocked expressions as they had never seen such a thing. Their leader had been the most powerful person they had ever encountered someone capable of fighting imperial warriors.

Slowly the expression of surprise changed to intrigue then finally fear. It seemed like a giant bell just went off in their heads as they realized someone capable of scaring their master in such a fashion wasn’t someone they could possibly dream of fighting against. One by one, all of the bandits ran in a direction as they ran for their lives, none of them wanted to stay to find out what level of power a person capable of scaring off their leader might be in.

“Enough!” Willard yelled as he unleashed a gravitational domain. After his coma, Willard had gained much control of the red energy and was capable of using it with his elemental energy. This gave him better control of the elements and greater overall power in comparison to just using the elemental energy he cultivated from the world. The gravitational energy spread within a second to cover the entirety of the escaping bandits. Within a split second, all of the bandits all dropped to the floor in pain. Their body’s weight multiplied to a level they had never experienced before. Some of them as the density of their bodies could not handle the weight. The ones that survived were completely exhausted as they just laid in place. To people of that level, the chances of running into anyone with a very high elemental energy was very slim. The highest attainment in martial prowess they had ever seen was their master who was on the third level of elemental energy.

Before anyone could even utter a sound, Willard a seemingly disappeared from his position soundlessly. Although he had gone, the bandits were still laying on the ground. Off in the distance, the short muscular man still running away. He turned to look back at the escaping bandits, but to his surprise, he saw and heard no one running. An increased sense of danger filled him as he turned to continue running away. “Thankfully I could use them to distract him.” He thought to himself.

“You sure ran fast,” a cold voice rang out in the ears of the short muscular man, who stared in shock as he noticed Willard appear before him. The short bulky man was about to say something but lost all the will to speak. He thought of running but knew it was pointless. Willard slowly walked towards him, slowly stretching his hand to the man’s neck. Before Willard’s hand could grab his neck, the man dropped to the ground and bowed. “Please honorable one, take me as a servant. No, a slave.” He yelled while he bowed.

“I will do anything, please don’t kill me.” The short bulky man continued.

Willard stared at the bowing figure of the man and shook his head. “If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead,” he said. Willard had already lost interest in killing the short bulky man after their minor exchange. “Follow me.” The short bulky man raised his head in surprise. He couldn’t quite figure out what was going on in the head of the young monster in front of him. All the same, he did not dare disobey. He did not even entertain the idea of escaping or trying to retaliate.

1. N/a