-Markus!

-On it!

Markus shouted back, dashing forward as he shield slammed a bandit charging towards Avian, the bandit was caught completely off guard as he slammed to the ground from which Markus followed up with a stab of his sword impaling the bandits neck killing him as his blood spurted.

Thinking he was done, Markus pulled his blade and smiled at Avian wanting to say something smart.

-Looks like I…

But he immediately stopped as soon as he raised his head as he witnessed how Avian shifted into an offensive stance right in front of him with his eyes narrowed, Markus was instantly dumbfounded not understand what was going on, but Avian’s next words woke him up as he immediately understood.

-DUCK!

So he did, raising his shield to protect his back side, Avian performed a high lunge technique with his short spear, the bandit who was about to split Markus’s skull from the back was surprised when he saw Markus suddenly ducking, only to witness Avian perforated his chest with his crimson spear head, even in his dying breath he was wide eyed before closing them and collapsing onto the ground dying as suddenly as he came.

Avian momentarily looked at the bandit he just killed, having now become one of the bandits he killed since the fight begun, Avian for some reason felt more powerful each time he killed a bandit, the change was very insubstantial and subtle at the beginning but as they fought and continued to rack in bodies, Avian felt his physical body get more and more energetic, Avian didn’t understand why this was, but he immediately came up with the idea that it must have something to do with his [Hemomancer] blessing, the sensation of murdering someone felt like ecstasy to him as well, Avian immediately took note of that and told himself to stay in control lest he would become addicted to killing if he kept this up.

-You were saying?

Avian asked, putting on a cheeky smile as he gave Markus a hand, Markus could only return a wryly smile before taking his hand and getting up.

-I meant…looks like you saved me again pal, I don’t even know how to repay you since you saved my life 2 times.

-Don’t worry I keep tabs.

Markus momentarily shivered after hearing that, he especially felt cold when he noticed how serious Avian was, maybe owing his life to someone like Avian wasn’t a good thing after all, but then again he had no time to really think about it as they were still in the heat of the battle.

Avian meanwhile looked over to where Avrid and Bennet were fighting.

The battle had been going on for over 5 minutes now, exchanging blows these two rank 2 fighters were making the earth shake with each strike they made and received, no one dared to come close to them and the place they were fighting at was significantly different compared to everyone else’s as their wild duel had changed their surroundings so that nothing was left unturned.

Avian could only imagine what kind of power he would get once he got to rank 2 with his blessing, but alas he shook his head knowing that neither of his blessings were combat blessing, but as he was thinking that a sudden thought came to his mind as he had realized something.

-(I have 2 blessings, meaning that each time one of those two blessings goes up in ranks I will get a boost to all my minor and major attributes, so if both my [Hemomancer] blessing and [Monster Tamer] blessing reach rank 2 does it mean my attributes will be the same as that of a rank 4 blessing?)

Avian wondered, from all the studying he did in his time inside the castle library, he hadn’t once heard about anyone having 2 blessings at the same time.

And this came from extensively shuffling through research papers plus reading the dogma coming from the church of light, from the researcher’s point of view, the reason a person was only born with 1 blessing was because a blessing sort of determined the fate of the person and their way of life, having 2 blessings would mean that you would have 2 fates which should be impossible since you are only 1 person who can only walk 1 path.

Avian very much disagreed with that idea, he didn’t understand why those researchers thought that a person’s blessing determined their fate, maybe it’s because they are inhabitants of this world in which the idea of blessings being things bestowed by a higher power was common, but Avian’s own idea was that blessings were merely a more defined way of revealing a person talents, would likely be viewed as something odd in their perspective if he came out and said it, either way the researchers achieve anything, while the dogma the church of light preached regarding the blessing was more skewered towards spiritualism as they said that a person cannot have 2 blessings at the same time because their soul would not be able to take so much power all at once.

And this explanation sort of surprised Avian as he originally assumed that the church of light wouldn’t be able to come up with any real answer just like the researchers instead they put up a plausible theory as Avian upon consideration didn’t deny this to be a possibility.

After all, magic and all sorts of unexplainable things existed in this world, such as ghosts and spirits, if those things existed then souls shouldn’t a be problem, maybe not everyone was born with the same capacity in their soul as another person, Avian for once didn’t believe that the soul of a bug and the soul of a human were equal, one was an intelligent form of life while the other was barely considered a part of the animal kingdom and more closely related to microbes, this would also explain why animals didn’t have blessings while people did or at least those who were conscious and intelligent.

Really so many things to think about, but so little time as Avian turned around and dodged a sword slash coming from a bandit behind him, even without looking at him Avian had been aware of the bandit through his [Blood Sense] which was active the entire time they were fighting allowing Avian to sense whoever came close to him and for him not to get surprised.

The bandit who was sure that he would get the jump on Avian was immediately surprised when Avian dodged his attack, unfortunately he couldn’t continue to ponder how Avian dodged before a crimson spear head went through his stomach from bellow and came out the other way.

The bandit died within seconds, his blood coursing down Avian’s short spear before staining his hands as Avian felt the warm blood on his skin exciting his soul.

Avian quickly took this event as a sign that he should quickly focus more on the battle then his scientific pursuits, but just as he was getting ready to continue a guard suddenly shouted out.

-THE BANDITS ARE ATTACK THE PASSANGERS PLEASE HELP!

This announcement was met with quiet indifference by the mercenaries as they weren’t obligated to actually help the passengers on the sole carriage that weren’t hired by the merchants, they also were a tad too busy fighting their own battles to come over and help.

The actions of the bandits were also understandable, as lowlifes they would obviously go for weaker prey compared to the strong mercenaries, not everyone in Bennet’s group was expected to obey when things were this chaotic, after the whole fire barrage incident a few of the bandits had lost spirit and decided to make a quick getaway before it was too late, but the greedy few wouldn’t just go empty handed, since they couldn’t steal from the merchant carriage where everyone was fighting they decided to steal from the carriages that weren’t guarded which were mostly small time peddlers and travelers on carriages.

Markus too ignored the cries of the guard and fought the bandits near him who were trying to kill him, he was a mercenary after all, on the battlefield everyone was for himself, Avian’s personal philosophies agreed with that mentality, unfortunately for him there were 2 individuals on the civilian carriage that Avian felt hesitant about ignoring.

The image of Cornelia and Marco popped into his mind as he listened to the terrified cries of the passengers in the carriage.

Again, Avian was totally merciless when it came down to it, he never did something that didn’t benefit him as he thought that doing something that didn’t benefit you was a waste of time, he was merciless because his old world required him to be merciless to get out of the dump his life was before he climbed out of it.

But children were one bottom line Avian didn’t want to cross especially when the person it concerned was someone he knew.

-Markus, I’ll be right back try not to die.

-What?! Wait where are you going! Lukas!

And with those words Avian jumped into a sprint as he headed towards the carriage he originally was in, a few bandits stood in his way as he ran forward thinking he was easy pickings, but Avian’s crimson tipped spear proved to be anything but easy, though they couldn’t stop him they did slow him down a solid minute or so before Avian finally arrived at the carriage.

He narrowed his eyes to the image he bore witness as he came close, bodies of the former passengers were strewn around who were mostly male as he walked forward before finally seeing what was going on.

-We hit the jackpot!

-She will be worth a lot on the slave market and she has a high air about her too!

-We can even have a bit of fun with her before selling her! I can’t wait to experience a high class lady like her!

-MISS!

-MARCO! HELP ME!

The familiar voice of Marco and Cornelia came to his ear as he saw these two stand at opposite areas within a significant distance from each other, Cornelia was being held down by 3 bandits as she was tied while Marco was surrounded by 3 bandits while looking like he was heavily injured barely standing his ground with his short sword, between them stood 3 more bandits who were all looting whatever they could loot, women and children were gathered in one place tied to obviously become the play things and slaves of these bandits while grown men were all mercilessly slaughtered as they had no use for the bandits.

Any other person by now would show all sorts of emotion upon witnessing what was going on, be it rage, terror or sadness these were all common emotions upon seeing tragedy, but Avian was indifferent, in a sense he looked more at peace seeing what was going on as he felt that things were as they should be.

Having lived for 2 years with righteous idiots had somewhat made its mark upon Avian even if he didn’t want to admit, now that he saw this he felt more like himself before he came to this world making his head feel cold as he regained some of cool headedness he thought he lost.

Yes, being cool, if Avian wanted to help these two he needed to stay cool.

Hiding near the carriage, Avian snuck closer as started to form a plan in his head, as soon as he was close enough he crouched down before putting two fingers between his lips and blowing hard.

(Whistle)

-What?!

-What was that sound?!

-It came from the carriage over there!

The bandits who were preoccupied with their looting suddenly stopped as they heard the loud whistling coming from Avian who was hiding behind the carriage, not understanding what was going on, the bandits didn’t even realize that a few murder of crows were nestled near the trees watching them with their red and feral eyes.

Avian waited patiently as he sensed the presence and location of these bandits with his [Blood Sense], the bandits quickly started to talk to each other, feeling this was suspicious they decided to send 4 individuals divided by 2 groups on either side of the carriage to surround Avian not knowing that this was exactly what he wanted.

This is maybe the right time to explain the abilities of a [Monster Tamer].

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