(Brendan POV)

For a bunch of people living on a desolate mountain, I had expected them to look frail and maybe even broken to some extent.

Yet these men looked well-fed and even quite spirited for some reason. 

They were quite fearless to appear in front of senior sister Eris who, by the common sense of this Plane, should be much stronger than they are even when outnumbered.

The largest sized man stepped forward, cracking his knuckles menacingly, "That missy over there. I was going to go easy on you, you know? It was just going to be a simple robbery before letting you go since you looked cute and all. But hearing you talk about us like that just pissed me off. Unless you get on your knees and beg for forgiveness, you're going to have a really bad time you know? How about it? I'm quite generous, you know?"

At least we now know they were nothing more than bandits.

They were obviously ignoring me of course, already deciding that I wasn't a threat to them in the first place.

Something that they will most definitely regret very soon.

Senior sister Eris raised her sword to her chest, "It seems like you don't know your place, trash. The only person we will ever kneel to is our beloved Master. Should I show you where you belong?"

The bandit punched his fists together, "Ha! We have a feisty one eh? I like that. It's much more interesting to break you if you put up a fight. Mark my words, by the end of the week you'll be my begging me to have my way with you--"

Senior sister slashed her sword in an arc, summoning a fire blade that cut towards the bandit's neck.

I expected to see the bandit's head fly off but the flames seemed to die out before it even travelled half the distance between senior sister and him.

Odd, it's not like senior sister to make a mistake in her Technique at such a crucial moment.

The bandit grinned, "Ha! Surprised? Unfortunately for you, this area has been suppressed of Quarks! Any Techniques you use, even body strengthening ones, will immediately dissipate when you try to use them! You are nothing but a helpless damsel here! Hahaha!"

Huh, no wonder they were so confident. But how did they do it? And senior sister managed to use Air Quarks to jump into the air earlier, does that mean it's only limited to this building or was it something they needed to activate?

Senior sister Eris didn't seem quite convinced and brought her sword up again, shooting a lightning bolt out of it towards the bandit.

The bandit merely crossed his arms and smiled, watching the lightning bolt fizzle out of existence the same way the fire slash did.

"Hahaha! Give up yet, little girlie?" He laughed.

I raised my hand to get his attention, "My apologies good sir, but my mistress here is quite the stubborn one. Unless you can explain how you're doing this, she would just stubbornly keep trying and waste both our time."

Everyone turned to me, as though just realising my existence.

The bandit grinned at me, "So… You her toadie eh? Shouldn't you be helping your mistress?"

I shook my head, "Oh no, she keeps tormenting me every chance she gets. If an opportunity to get back at her comes to me, of course I'll take it."

"Hahaha! Even your own servant is selling you out girl!"

Senior sister Eris gnashed her teeth and glared at me, playing her part of being the mistress who was betrayed by her retainer. She played it so well that I actually got scared she was going to pummel me.

She does know I'm pretending, right?

The bandit took out a vial of red liquid from his shirt pocket and held it up in the air, "See this? Blood from the only living Life Spring Phoenix in existence! Put a drop of this on a special inscription we made and every Technique in the area gets nullified. That's not all! All of us drank a few drops of it, allowing us men to use Techniques using the energy within the blood too and this trap does not affect us! You don't stand a chance, girlie!"

I faked a gasp, "A real Life Spring Phoenix?! You have one under your control?!"

"Ahahaha! Impressed aren't you? That's how awesome we are! No one can stand in our way, not even the top Sects! We'll rob them and rape them too! It's time for men to rise!"

"I heard enough," Senior sister sighed. "Do what you need to do, Brendan."

Oh good, she knew I was acting.

I nodded, we know our objective was here already so all we need to do is to leave one alive in order to show us the way. Everyone else is a hindrance.

I took out two vials of red liquid and tossed it behind me before taking out another one that was filled with a green liquid.

The vials I tossed behind me exploded when it hit the ground, scattering its contents as a red mist that enveloped several of the bandits.

Their skins swelled up and their eyeballs popped, all of them opening their mouths to scream only to find out that no voice escaped from their lips.

They grasped at their throats as their skin began to blister, blood slowly pouring out of their orifices as they drowned in their own blood.

It would be a slow and painful death for them.

I tossed my head back and downed the contents of the green liquid, feeling my body strengthen almost immediately.

The inscription might have nullified our Techniques, but potions were still usable so I was not handicapped at all.

One of the bandits screamed at me, visibly upset that one of his friends now lay dying on the ground.

He raised his hand and shot a ball of fire at me, something that I could easily deal with using my now strengthened body.

But before the ball even reached me, it was deflected away by something invisible in front of me and sent back to my attacker at double the speed.

He only had time to widen his eyes before the fireball consumed him.

Strange, did senior sister Eris save me from that?

The bandit leader scowled at us, "You… You dare trick me?! I'll kill you! Your mistress is still helpless without her Quarks! You think you can take us all on?!"

Senior sister Eris smirked at him, "Ya dumb ass, before I learnt to do all this fancy smancy shmucks, I was a master swordswoman trained by Master! I coulda cut ya all down without using any Techniques!"

To prove her point, senior sister's figure blurred and she disappeared from where she stood, reappearing behind the bandit with her sword held at her side.

A second later, several of the bandits around the leader had their heads cut off, blood spurting out from their necks like a fountain before toppling over.

I took advantage of their confusion and tossed a few more red vials at the bandits surrounding us, killing a few more of them.

The bandit only just realised his position and made a dash towards me, no doubt trying to use me as a hostage like I thought he would.

His body glowed for a second, evidence that he had used some kind of physical strengthening Technique on himself.

Too bad it won't be enough.

When he tried to reach his hand towards me, I grabbed him by the wrist and twisted my hand, snapping his wrist with a loud 'crack'.

Leaving him to collapse onto the ground in pain, I joined senior sister Eris in wiping out the rest of the bandits who were now in a complete state of panic.

Even if they had the ability to use Techniques now, that doesn't mean they could use them effectively, so they were still no threat to us who had been taught by Master Himself.

It almost felt like we were bullying student Practitioners. Almost.

I honestly hadn't been expecting to find our objective here but I guess we hit the jackpot with this.

Now let's clean up the last few pieces of trash and we can start interrogating that idiot on where the Phoenix is.

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