Epic Of The Demonic Sage

As soon as Lucius gave the signal, Kiana activated her gift.

Instead of making them into needles, Lucius had asked her to turn them into bullets… or as close to that shape as she could for now. She had both of her hands extended ahead as the bullets came out of them.

A sound similar to that of muffled gunshot could be heard as the projectiles created by Kiana traveled at a great speed.

These projectiles easily tore through the canvas of the tents and pierced the bandits that were sleeping inside.

"ARGH!"

"Gah!!"

Pain filled cries could be heard coming from the camp as Kiana kept on shooting the projectiles. She shot them non-stop and only when all of the tents were reduced to tatters did she stop.

But by then the cries of the bandits had stopped as well and a bloody scent could be smelled.

"This…" John couldn't believe his eyes upon seeing the scene.

Lucius nodded his head upon seeing this.

'Just as I expected… the contingencies weren't even needed.' Lucius thought to himself.

"Well! It is done, let's do down and check them properly now, shall we?" Lucius said, snapping both Kiana and John out of her daze.

While John was shocked due to the power of Kiana's skill as this was the first time he was seeing it in full force. Back at the mansion, while he had seen its power, he didn't know it could shoot so rapidly.

Kiana herself was surprised by this. The power that she now had felt surreal to her. It was as if it didn't belong to her, yet she had it.

'Of course, it doesn't belong to just 'me'… it belongs to Asher as well…' Kiana thought, attributing this all to Asher's help.

If one thought about it, her justification was correct. Had it not been for Lucius gathering all the items and upgrading Kiana's gift, there was no way she would have been able to do this. Kiana felt pleased in her heart as a smile appeared on her face.

Though if one considered the situation and that Kiana had just murdered over thirty bandits, this smile would seem devious to them instead.

The six guards who were ready to act any moment now felt awkward. They had barely done anything, and their mission was already over. They too were surprised with Kiana's power, but not to the level of John. This was because they didn't know this was not her original Gift. Even John was unaware of how Kiana had gained a new gift.

The entire team gathered at the now destroyed a camp of the bandits and lifted the tattered tents, revealing the blood and gore hidden beneath.

The guards couldn't help but hiss upon seeing the mutilated bodies of the bandits. This was the first time they had seen damage of this level. Even beasts did not damage the bodies of their preys like this.

"Can I take this?" Lucius asked as he pointed at the dagger on Kiana's waist.

"Umm… sure?" Kiana replied, not knowing why he needed her dagger.

Lucius calmly walked to each of the bandits and stabbed all of them in their hearts. 

John and the rest of the team were absolutely puzzled by this action of Lucius. Why was he stabbing dead bodies? What they didn't know was the trauma Lucius had suffered in his past life.

'No way I'm gonna let some random 'merciful priests' come in and revive them.' Lucius thought.

This was just some extra caution on his part to make sure the bandits were truly dead. He had already seen the healing power of the priest and knew there must be someone powerful enough to revive them. While it was a negligible chance that anyone would actually try to revive these bandits, Lucius still didn't want to take a chance.

Only when they were all killed did he feel at ease.

"Now that, that's done. Let's search for clues. Hopefully, some of them are still intact…" Lucius said.

Kiana and the rest nodded before searching among the remains of the camp. Their earlier guess turned out to be 100% correct, as these were indeed fake bandits. They didn't find any loot robbed from people, nor did they find any other materials bandits would keep.

They didn't even have alcohol! 

After scrounging for a while they managed to chance upon a document that was half torn. Lucius took it and read through it, understanding a part of the situation.

"What is this place called Bergan's Band?" Lucius questioned.

"Bergan's band? That's no place, that's a mercenary group!" one of the guards answered.

"Not just any mercenary group, they are one of the outlawed mercenary groups that operate out of the Aisse Territory." John added.

Lucius remembered that Aisse territory was located to the south of the Land Of Etara. They were run by an aristocratic clan by the name of Aisse who actually had the rank of Earl which was higher than the Inanis family.

Lucius didn't jump to any conclusion for now and just made a few hypotheses in his mind.

"So what is the relation of these fake bandits with the Bergan's Band?" Kiana asked, coming to the main point.

"Well… they were promised that as long as they stayed here for a year and acted as bandits, preventing the soldiers from working normally and sowing chaos they would be allowed to join the Bergan's Band." Lucius said as he showed them the half torn document.

John and Kiana took a look over it and found it to be just as Lucius had stated.

"Entry into the Bergan's band is indeed difficult. While they are considered as Outlaws they do have some strong people among them. From what I've heard they have over ten people with Epic Ranked gifts." John said.

"What, 10?" Lucius said, finding it to be a bit too much.

"Indeed. Their power is what has restricted the kingdom from wiping them out. Plus… they have some political backing as well." John explained.