Step. Step. Step.

The man walked slowly past the corpses of the bandits, but despite that, no emotion appeared on his face, as if none of this mattered.

"You seem pretty capable... Killing my guards so easily, damn, that's impressive." The man muttered while shaking his head, then he grinned broadly, "That's great! Then our fight will be interesting, won't it? Try not to die from one hit!"

Zayne flinched at the man's strange reaction. He had expected the bandit leader to be angry, to go into a rage and charge at him, but he looked like a madman.

'Agh...? What's he doing?' Zayne inwardly muttered looking at the man who stopped and began whistling a different method, gradually increasing the volume.

Usually whistling was a pleasant sound, some people were quite skilled at it, but gradually Zayne began to feel a sharp pain in his ears as the small stones on the ground began to shake.

'Shit! If he doesn't stop now my ears are going to explode! How is that even possible?! Zayne exclaimed to himself as he covered his ears with his hands, which helped him a little.

[The leader of the Black Wing - Hugo, Free Whistle, has challenged you!]

[Hugo's piercing whistle causes you sharp pain and significantly lowers your stats and movement speed for 10 minutes!]

[Hugo is unable to cause you true fear! The whistle has no effect!]

"Damn, that was pretty loud." Zayne shook his head, coming to his senses, "You should stop doing that, or all your listeners will go deaf."

'What? My whistling didn't work on him...?' Hugo inwardly muttered in disbelief, 'It's never happened before. Hah, perhaps it's for the best! Victory won't be easy for sure!'

Whooooooooooosh.

Hugo pulled a dagger with a sharp dark blade from his belt and ran at Zayne with a predatory grin.

Zayne looked at Hugo, but he wasn't thinking about the coming battle since he had other thoughts on his mind.

'Looks like he's pretty strong since only Three-Eyed has done anything similar to his whistle before. I've got to get out of here.' Zayne considered as he closed his eyes, intending to get out of the game. He couldn't take the gold and he didn't know if he could beat Hugo, so this seemed like the best option for him.

[Error!]

[You cannot return to your world as you are in combat and in the special territory! Leave the battle area or make sure your enemies don't see you!]

'Fuck!' Zayne internally exclaimed as a blue flash appeared in his hand.

Zayne gripped his sword tightly when Hugo was right in front of him, aiming his dagger at his chest.

Crackle.

At the last moment, Zayne managed to block the lunge as sparks flew away.

'No! Why is he so strong?!' Zayne's eyes went wide as he lost his balance and fell on the bags of gold behind him.

Several coins spilled from the bag, dropping on Zayne's head and rolling down his shoulders.

"Hahaha, what was that? Why were you standing still until it was too late? You're kind of weird, though that's even more fun." Hugo grinned, twirling the dagger in his hand, constantly changing which way he held it.

Whoooooooosh.

Immediately Hugo attacked again, bringing the dagger down on Zayne from top to bottom. Hugo's movements were swift as the wind, but Zayne kept up as he jumped aside, hastily taking a fighting stance.

Hugo's attack cut through the bag with ease, causing dozens of gold coins to roll down, as well as silver and copper coins, which were actually many more.

'So that's the thing... They put gold on top, but it's not like that at all underneath. It makes sense, though, even if they are formidable bandits, getting that many gold coins are something out of the fantasy range.' Zayne said to himself, looking at the hundreds of copper coins that were worth many times less than the gold ones.

"Agh, look what a mess this place is now, by the way getting that money was pretty hard. Intimidating and robbing people is no easy task at all." Hugo mockingly shook his head as he pointed his dagger at Zayne, "Well, since we've already greeted each other, then how about introducing ourselves? Tell me who the hell you are!"

Hugo swung his dagger, causing a sharp flow of wind, but it wasn't an attack he just wanted to throw the hood off Zayne's head, revealing his face completely.

"No tattoos or scars, as well as amulets or other jewelry... How strange, I don't know anyone who has such skills and has such an unusual sword..." Hugo muttered with a confused expression as his eyes went wide, "Wait... Are you a Traveler...?"

Zayne didn't respond, since all his attention was focused on his opponent, but Hugo found the answer in Zayne's gaze.

"Yeah... you are... Wait, were you really familiar with the three I sent to deal with the soldiers? Hah, it turns out you came here for revenge, right?" Hugo smirked as he licked his dagger with a cruel look. Hugo thought those two bandits had completed their mission, well, he didn't know the whole truth.

Zayne shook his head, "I came here to steal from you, don't you understand that? About those three... In case you're wondering, I killed them. People like them can't be my friends."

Hugo's smirk disappeared as for a moment he was stunned, "Unbelievable... Such a cold gaze, you're certainly not lying. Hah, I knew something extraordinary was going to happen tonight!"

Whoooooooooosh.

Hugo grinned widely as he swung his dagger several times with great speed, firing multiple wind blades in Zayne's direction.

'I've seen this kind of attack before, it will be easy, but do I need to dodge now?' Zayne inwardly muttered as he remembered his fight with Rolf, then he stepped forward, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The wind blades collided with the scarlet sword, crashing against it like the wind against a rock. None of the blades could reach Zayne, as he just shuddered from the slight recoil.

"Hah, yeah, now I see it, you're really not like those three idiots, you sure couldn't be friends." Hugo said calmly, preparing for his next attack.

"Hey, can we stop?" Zayne offered with an emotionless stare.

"What...? What the hell are you talking about?" Hugo was puzzled.

Zayne sighed, "It's simple. I'll just walk out of here, how's that for an idea? I can't take this gold with me and our battle won't lead to anything good. Even if you win you're sure to get hurt, is that what you want? If I leave now, we won't see each other again, I'm not interested in you, Black Wing, only your gold."

Hugo was silent until the veins on his forehead swelled and he shouted with a furious look, "You killed my mates and you want to get out of here alive? That's not going to happen!!! I must avenge them!"

Then, a sly smile appeared on Hugo's face as he narrowed his eyes, "Just kidding! I don't care about those idiots, they're responsible for their own deaths, but I'm not going to let you go. After all, how could I pass up an opportunity for such a promising fight?"