"Kill them all!" Came a malicious cry from the left of our group.

  As the bandits began to spring out from behind the bushes, I flung a handful of poison needles to my left, before drawing out my blades. They surrounded us quickly, with some of them hanging back with……human meat shields.

  They had four people tied to wooden shields, and they held them in front of themselves. They were stripped bare and were beaten all over, and had clearly been abused in every way imaginable. Three girls and a guy, they looked about our age or a bit older, and all of their eyes were devoid of life. There were ten bandits around us, and eight more behind, with two each of those hiding behind their meat shields.

  The ten that were circling us then began firing, a couple of them had crossbows while the rest used Elemental Magic.

  AZ quickly raised a thick wall of ice all around us and the carriage with a yawn, keeping out the wave of attacks.

  "Th-those people on the shields……I know them, they were……they were one of the groups in last year's third year class, they're among the recently graduated Adventurers," Muttered Vi shakily, stumbling back with a look of horror, which was slowly giving way to rage.

  "In that case……let's kill all these bastards. Hey, Az! On my signal, open up four openings in this ice wall so that we can slip out and kill them……don't take the whole thing down though," I called up to him, before turning to Mika and adding, "I think it's still too early for you to take on humans in a real fight……so I want you to stay back to guard the carriage and watch our backs, 'kay?"

  She nodded, a dark look in her eyes.

  "Those people on the shields……they must have gone through something like I did……maybe even worse. Why……why do people hurt other people like that?"

  "O-oh, uh……we'll talk about that later, alright?"

  "Okay……yeah, you're right. This isn't the right time to discuss anything, sorry I just……don't worry Bro, I'll keep the carriage safe!" She promised, snapping out of it.

  Should I……be worried about this? Yeah, I'll make sure to talk to her about it later. She shouldn't be able to see the bloodshed through the ice wall, I don't think it's a good idea to expose her to it so early.

  "Az, now!"

  On my command, he opened up four square openings in the wall, as the five of us excluding Az and Mika shot outside the ice wall.

  Vi sprang forward with all he strength and took out three of them with a single, full-powered kick, her expression enraged. She killed them in an instant, smashing in their torsos and shattering their bones and internal organs, sending their corpses flying back like ragdolls.

  Rai shot forward, slamming the back of his scythe into one of their chests, breaking a few ribs, before using his tail to grab another one by the neck and rapidly pulled down, smashing his head against the ground, knocking him out. Still refused to kill, I see.

  Key shot towards one of them, unfurling a rapid triple strike to the throat, chest and stomach of her target with the back of her flaming blade, leaving searing burns across the areas she struck. He collapsed onto the ground unconscious, as she turned her attention to the row of bandits hanging back with the human shields.

  Persia extended out a quarter of the full extent of her Retractable Anima, growing out her teeth and claws while strengthening her body, limbs and reflexes, before dashing towards two of them, springing above them before they could react, and grabbing onto their heads before twisting and ripping them off their shoulders, and then hurled the two heads at one of the pairs hiding behind a meat shield, but they were quick to bring up the shield.

  One of the heads slammed into the side of the shield, while the other hit the leg of the person tied to it, fracturing it badly. The girl stirred but didn't react any further, too mentally damaged to fully register the pain. Persia winced and looked hesitant and unsure as to how to proceed.

  I activated Soul-Eater Mode and gouged out one of the bandits eyeballs with my claws and poked into his brain through the empty eye sockets, before springing at another one and sinking my fangs into his shoulder, draining his life energy before he could push me off.

  That took care of all the bandits who had circled us……that left the eight with the meat shields.

  It'd be hard to take them out without injuring the four that were on their shields……unless I was too fast for them to move the shield in my way. I don't need Vampire Mode, that's kinda overkill……I retracted Soul-Eater Mode and extracted all the Karma in my orb, triggering Lightning Boost at x3, for a total speed boost of x6.75……damn it, so close!……fuck it, I'll just round it up and say it's x6.9……why?……because 'nice', that's why.

  I shot forward and slipped behind them before they could so much as blink, before grabbing them both by the back of their necks and forcing a ton of black lightning into their heads, the top of their heads exploding after a few seconds……no blood burst out because my lightning had completely fried their insides.

  Persia steeled herself and used half of the full extent of her Retractable Anima, before shooting forward in the blink of an eye and pouncing onto the shield. She then punched through it and grabbed one of the bandit's head, a loud crunching noise echoing as she crushed his skull with her bare hand. She then grabbed the other one's face, it exploded after a couple of seconds. It took me a second to figure it out……she had formed a Spiral Sphere inside his head the moment she grabbed him.

  Vi slammed her foot forward into the ground at an angle, sending a shockwave towards one of the two remaining pairs of bandits, knocking them off balance. In that opening, Key used her Retractable Anima to increase her agility and shot forward, springing onto the shield and jumping over it, landing behind the two bandits.

  Before they could react, she slammed the bottom of her blade handle onto the back of one of their necks, and then kicking the other in the mid-section, before shooting forward at him and slamming the back of her blade into his ribcage.

  That just left one more, the one in front of Rai……

  He hesitated for a moment, and as he did, the two bandits charged forward, throwing the shield at him. He caught it before he could think, and one of the bandits drove his sword through the shield, piercing through the heart of the girl chained to it and into Rai's right shoulder, as he let out a stifled cry of pain. The other bandit shot past him, and dove into one of the openings in the ice wall.

  Oh, no……

  Key shot towards Rai in a panic as I sprinted back towards another opening in the ice wall.

  I saw Az begin to fire a water or ice attack, before hesitating as Mika shot towards the bandit who made it in. Damn it, he couldn't do anything without risking hurting her too. I didn't doubt that she could take care of herself, but I didn't think she was ready to fight a human in a life-or-death situation.

  As I neared the opening, I got a glimpse of what was happening.

  She flung her left dagger at the bandit, who halted and sprang backwards to avoid, the blade grazing past his shoulder. Mika then shot forward immediately, not letting him regain his balance, and swiftly swinging up her right dagger at his face as she closed the gap. He quickly put up his hands in front of him, the blade slicing off his right arm at halfway down the forearm.

  "You little-!" He cried, pulling out a knife with his left hand and plunging it towards her.

  She evaded it effortlessly, pierced about an inch of the blade into the base of his palm and then swiped it forward all the way up his forearm, leaving a deep cut and causing him to drop his knife.

  She then drove forward that momentum and swiftly swung the blade across his neck, slicing it open, as he stumbled and collapsed backwards, a pool of blood forming around his head. She stumbled back, her hands shaking slightly as she struggled to catch her breath, staring at the large puddle of blood.

  Meanwhile, Key shot towards the bandit over Rai, coated her sword in flames and……

  "Get away from him!" She growled in a fury, driving her sword through just under his right arm, the tip of the blade coming out of his left shoulder, piercing across the heart.

  She then frantically pushed away the corpse of her first-ever kill and pulled away the shield, kneeling down in front of Rai with a desperate and panicked expression.

  "This is so uncool……sorry, Key-Key."

  I let out a sigh of relief. He was fine, a little pale but still conscious, he had lost a bit of blood and had a deep stab wound in his right shoulder, but.

  "Kuro, help!" Cried Key in despair.

  She was kinda overreacting, but I get it. As Az took down the ice wall with a snap of his fingers, Persia hurried over to Mika and nodded at me to first attend to Rai.

  I jogged over to him and knelt down.

  "You gotta be more careful, man……I get your whole 'no killing' rule, but you need to be flexible with that if it puts your own life at risk……jeez, what do you think would have happened if this was before I could share my Healing Factor?" I sighed, picking up his arm and biting into his hand as I activated Soul-Eater Mode.

  "Oww! That really stings, dude! And……my bad, I'll be more careful next time."

  "There, done. By the way, you're handling your first kill pretty well, Key," I remarked, as I stood up.

  She blinked at me blankly for a second, before her eyes widened.

  "I……I killed someone……I'm not really sure how I feel. It's like……it hasn't quite sunk in yet, I didn't plan for it or anything, my body just moved on its own when I thought that bandit was going to kill Rai……," She mumbled, more to herself than me.

  She seemed a bit shaken, but overall was handling it well. I left the two of them to talk it over and headed back towards Mika. I nodded at Persia to go talk to Vi, who was shaking now that her anger had subsided. She had been pretty shaken up when she injured me during our fight in the Brawl if Glory, which meant this was most likely her first kill……and she'd offed three guys with a single strike. Persia walked over to her as I knelt by Mika.

  "Hey……are you alright?" I asked gently, as I noticed her hands were still shaking slightly.

  "Y-yeah, I'm okay. It's……it's just……," She trailed off, shaking her head with a conflicted look.

  "It's just what? It's okay, take your time, there's no need to rush yourself," I said in a reassuring tone, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  She nodded and took a deep breath.

  "This felt different to fighting those monsters from earlier……when I was fighting him, and then, especially when I killed him……I really……I really enjoyed myself," She admitted, clenching her shaking fists as the conflicted expression on her face grew more pronounced.

  I……did not see that coming. But maybe I should have. I enjoyed killing after I was trafficked and tortured as a kid, and then enjoyed it even more after my three years tortured as a lab rat. Persia also enjoyed killing after being tortured.

  Okay, I need to be careful about what I say next.

  "Alright, listen to me carefully, Mika. It's fine to enjoy killing, but……it's important to never let yourself get addicted to it. And you can't be indiscriminate about it, you can't lose control of that. You need to always be able to clearly tell and draw the line between the type of people that must never be killed and the type of people that can or must be killed, it goes without saying that you must never kill innocent people, but people who you can say without a doubt are evil, or people who try to kill you, are a different story. And when you kill……never hesitate or regret it. Don't worry, I'll be right there to guide you, alright?"

  After she took a moment to take everything I said in, she nodded slowly after taking a deep breath.

  "Okay……I think I need some time to think it over……I'll take everything you said to heart, thank you so much, Bro," She said with a soft smile, as I patted her head.

  The carriage door then swung open and Fuckboi poked his head out.

  "Oh, I-I see you've all disposed of the trash. Let us be on our way then!"

  "Shut it, asshole. Get back inside, we'll decide when to continue moving," I snapped, giving him a death glare and generating some sparks from my finger.

  He frowned and slipped back in, closing the door.

  Huh……three of the people here had all just killed for the first time. Mika looked a bit calmer but still had a slight look of conflict on her face. Vi was trying to play it cool as Persia checked on her, but it was clear that she was shaken. Key looked pretty okay, she was surprisingly calm, but Rai looked really guilty because she killed the guy in order to save him.

  It took a while before everyone calmed down, after which we continued towards the marked point on the map. As for the four human meat shields, one of which was now dead……I used Store on them after getting them off the shields and bringing their bodies together, using Soul-Eater Mode to heal them.

  I took care of their physical injuries, but even afterwards, they were far too mentally scarred to speak or even move, so I used Store on them. Store and Extract maintains whatever it holds in the exact same condition, so it wouldn't affect them negatively in any way. When I next use Extract to bring them out, to them it'll probably feel like no time had passed at all.

  We had already covered plenty of distance before we ran into those bandits, so it only took us a further twenty minutes or so to reach the specified location, a cave opening partially hidden by shrubbery. Rai used his scythe to clear away the plants growing in front of the cave. It was pretty narrow, too small for the cart to fit through.

  Fuckboi then exited the carriage.

  "This cave was only recently discovered, and is filled with a type of gemstone that was previously unknown. I shall plunder it before the rabble can."

  "I'm sorry, why exactly did you have to come on this Quest too? This would've been better for everyone if you have just posted the Quest for Adventurers to go gather these gems themselves, instead of having to escort a shithead like you to it."

  "Hmph, it is understandable that a crude person such as yourself is unable to understand……do you truly believe some Adventurers would be able to determine which gemstones are of higher quality and which are of lower quality? No, of course not! Without a discerning eye such as my own-!"

  So annoying……

  "Yeah, yeah……we get it, dickwad. Alright, get in there and do your thing so that we can wrap this crap up already," I sighed irritably.

  "How unpleasant. Very well……I shall require a guard to accompany me."

  "Not it!" I volunteered out immediately.

  "Same," Az quickly spoke up.

  "Definitely not me," Added Rai.

  "Me neither," Agreed Key.

  That left Persia and Vi as the only remaining options.

  "I'll do it……this Quest was my idea, after all," Volunteered Vi, as Fuckboi began to struggle to hide the irritation on his face.

  "Good luck……just glad it isn't me," Key let out a sigh of relief, further pissing off her ex-almost-fiance.

  "Hah, as if I would stoop so low as to rely on a soon-to-be nameless Adventurer!" He sneered.

  "Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

  A look of surprise appeared on his face, before an expression of cruel joy replaced it.

  "You mean to say that you truly do not know? This is brilliant! Allow me to explain, my dear Key. My family, the Dassens, have reconsidered the withdrawal of the partnership offer to the Angors, on the condition that……they disinherit you. I am proud to inform you that it was my suggestion, and my parents agreed to it. And as soon as we made the offer to your parents……well, it was quite humorous, just how eager they were to accept, without so much as a hint of hesitation! I imagine you will be learning about it soon enough!" He chuckled in amusement, before turning to Vi, "Well, then……let us be on our way."

  "……right," Vi followed after him into the cave with a look of disgust.

  Well……this is, uh……awkward.

  Key had a look of shock on her face, tears beginning to form in her eyes. What a way to find out that your parents are disowning you for their own personal gain. In addition, while probably not her immediate concern, being disowned would mean that she could no longer use her last name. I still didn't understand why, but having no last name earned you the scorn of other Adventurers. No matter how thick-skinned you are, being discriminated against for something out of your control was bound to be painful.

  Rai was shaking with anger, the rest of us weren't too happy either, even Az had a visible grimace on his face.

  "Hey, are you okay, Key?" Persia asked in concern, walking over to her.

  "No, of course I'm-!" She began to snap, before shaking her head as the tears began running down her face, "……sorry, I shouldn't be taking this out on you……I'm just……I can't believe this."

  "It's okay, no one's going to blame you for taking out your anger right now……just let it all out," Persia replied with a soft smile, patting her back comfortingly.

  "That son of a……," Rai growled with his teeth gritted, his clenched fists shaking with rage as his voice trembled with anger.

  "What a fucking asshole," Added Mika, before a sheepish look appeared on her face after earning herself an indignant glare from Persia.

  The carriage driver looked pretty uncomfortable, he had probably been hired just today, and this was likely more than what he'd bargained for.

  Persia and Rai managed to slowly calm Key down over the next few minutes, when Vi and our bastard of a client emerged from the cave. He had a satisfied look on his face as he carried a bag that looked to be full……probably a bunch of gems. A wide smirk spread across his lips as he saw Key's tear-stained face.

  "A splendid haul, if I do say so myself! Hm, what's all this? How pitiful, you weep over something you brought on yourself- agh!" He began to laugh, before he was interrupted as Rai snapped and shot towards him, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him up.

  "That's enough out of you," He growled in a cold, angry voice, a furious glare in his eyes.

  "Y-you cannot frighten me with such bluffs! I-if you hurt me, I-I will be within my rights to refuse payment and even invoke a penalt- gahh!"

  "Do you honestly believe I give two shits about that right now?" He cut him off by strengthening his grip around his throat, the hatred in his eyes growing as Fuckboi's mouth began to foam.

  At this rate, he was going to strangle him to death. The carriage driver looked uneasy, but didn't speak up or make a move. No one else seemed to be moving to stop Rai. I sighed and reluctantly stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  "If you really want to kill him, then by all means go for it, I sure as hell won't stop you. But if it's just a heat of the moment thing, then stop……you'll definitely come to me to talk if you're all regretful or whatever later, and I'd rather avoid that."

  He snapped out of it and slowly put Fuckboi back down, loosening his grip as he calmed down. Well, 'calmed down' as in he was less furious……he was still pretty far from being calm.

  Fuckboi collapsed onto the ground and coughed while rubbing his throat, before standing up and getting back to the carriage, slamming the door shut without a word.

  "Thanks, dude……I don't think I'd have stopped if you hadn't stepped in."

  "Sure, whatever……I just figured it'd suck if we didn't get paid because the client is dead. Well, now that that's over……let's head back!" I declared, the others immediately agreeing with that notion.

  I tapped on the carriage door and called out to Fuckboi……

  "Hey, just so you know……if you try to stiff us out of the reward for this Quest……I swear, I'll make you regret it."

  He didn't respond, as we began heading back, but I'll take his silence as compliance……he would be pretty stupid to cross me after seeing what I'm capable of……

  We arrived back at the east gate without any incident, it was around mid-evening now, the sun was just starting to set. Vi headed for the Guild with the carriage and the Store and Extract scrolls to report the completion of the Quest, turn in the traumatized Adventurers we found and collect the reward, we agreed to all meet up sometime tomorrow to decide how to split it between all of us. Key decided to head home and confront her parents, Rai and Az went with her.

  "Alright, I guess we should get going too," I said to Persia and Mika, before turning to the latter, "We need to have a thorough conversation."

  "About what, Bro?"

  "I guess you could say……the morals of killing."

  _____________________________________________

  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.