CHAPTER 144: CHAPTER 144: HERO?

Chapter 144 – Hero?

Kaden didn’t waste any more time speaking with these guys.

The moment his feet touched the ground, his silhouette blurred as he shot toward them with impossible speed, a gust of wind trailing behind him.

He arrived in front of them and struck a bandit in the neck with his fist, making the man foam at the mouth and collapse like a broken doll.

The others immediately reacted, weapons raised, eyes wide.

"KILL! KILL HIM AND TAKE ALL HIS BELONGINGS!!!" the one who had spoken earlier shouted, his voice burning with fury, as if Kaden’s refusal to submit was the highest form of disrespect.

But Kaden’s expression didn’t change.

No intermediate rank being, let alone these awakened scraps, could threaten him.

And he made that clear, slowly and efficiently beating them down with only his fists and legs.

He moved like water, flowing through them with unnatural ease, dodging and striking in the same breath—punching only to kill or render unconscious, never wasting motion.

Seeing the fight turn against them, the bandits regrouped and charged together, surrounding him, leaving no space to escape.

Kaden stood there quietly, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Come on," he said calmly, and the bandits screamed, charging with bloodlust.

Kaden ducked beneath a blade aimed for his neck and jumped over another meant to trip him. Mid-air, he spun—his leg sweeping outward with explosive strength—striking five bandits in a single, seamless motion.

Their necks twisted with a chilling, echoing crack as their heads spun 360 degrees before their corpses dropped to the ground, lifeless.

The sight chilled the rest.

Their bodies trembled subtly, but hesitation in a battle like this was a death sentence.

Kaden took a single step forward and began punching the air. It was swift and snappy.

But it wasn’t normal.

Each punch cracked reality, generating mirage-like afterimages of his fists suspended in space—anchored not by physics, but by sheer will.

And the moment they appeared, those targeted by the fists began coughing blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. Their heads lowered, and on each of their torsos... was the shape of a fist.

It was like their bodies were made of clay and Kaden had embedded his mark deep into their flesh, reshaping them with violence.

They collapsed one by one, thudding into the yellow sand, eyes wide in terror.

Soon, all were dead.

Except a few.

Kaden stood in the silence, his face expressionless, his clothes spotless—but his fists were soaked in blood, the slow drip clearly audible in the now-silent wasteland.

"Hm... not too bad, right, Reditha?" Kaden asked as he slowly sat on a dead bandit’s corpse like it was nothing.

And it was nothing.

They came to kill.

Then they should’ve expected to be killed.

Simple as that.

He took out a simple white napkin from his spatial ring and began cleaning the blood on his knuckles with terrifying calm.

Then....rustle.

A sudden sound.

He turned his head and saw one of the bandits slowly waking up.

The moment the man’s eyes opened, he found himself face to face with Kaden—and his expression collapsed into a mix of self pity, and raw panic and also...

...fear—pure, refined at its finest.

Kaden didn’t speak. He simply observed, tranquil and silent.

Then, after a moment—

"Where’s your base?" he asked softly, still cleaning his fists. "Did you capture anyone?"

The bandit shuddered.

But after what he’d witnessed, he would’ve been a fool to lie or to not respond.

"Y-Yes... yes, we captured humans. The base is deep in the mountains, northwest, beside a small waterfall," he answered quickly, trying to detail everything as if hoping Kaden would spare him.

’It’s in my path,’ Kaden thought. ’So I’ll reach it.’

"What do you do to the ones you capture?" he asked again, this time slowly raising his head, his blood-red eyes locking onto the bandit’s trembling black ones.

The man wanted to run.

Kaden, seated atop a corpse, still wiping his blood-soaked fists with what was now a red-stained napkin, stared back at him—and the soft yellow rays of sunlight fell on his face, making his eyes glow with something... inhuman.

The bandit swallowed. Tried to speak.

"We... w-we..."

He stuttered every word.

Kaden didn’t speak. He waited.

The man bit his dry, cracked lip. "T-They raped them... and then gave them to the monsters nearby."

Silence.

Kaden didn’t say anything.

SPLASH—!

Reditha flashed through the air with lethal precision, decapitating the man in a single flawless stroke. Blood exploded from the neck like a crimson geyser.

She didn’t stop there.

She slaughtered the remaining survivors without a word.

And then—just as calmly—returned to Kaden’s side, her steel body softly levitating, blood flowing through her blade.

Kaden stood up and clicked his finger.

He activated Blood Lotus.

The bandit corpses dried and shriveled—mummified instantly as their blood was siphoned clean.

He mounted his black horse and gripped Reditha tightly.

"Run fast this time," he said.

The horse obeyed without hesitation, becoming a black streak tearing through the lush green flora.

Soon, Kaden sensed multiple presences nearby and just ahead, a waterfall.

He pulled the reins and stopped.

Closing his eyes, he scanned the area.

No danger.

Without hesitation, Kaden entered the bandits’ territory.

Half an hour later...

Kaden walked out, covered in blood.

Behind him, held aloft by a floating platform of blood, were numerous unconscious humans. Men. Women. Old. Young.

Some of them mumbled for help. Some begged not to die.

Even after being raped and kept in such hell—they still fought to live.

Kaden was impressed by their resolve.

So he saved them.

He attached the bloody ropes to his horse and instructed it to take them somewhere safe...somewhere far.

And how would the horse know where that was?

He left that to fate.

He’d done what he could.

Now, he simply sat at the entrance of the bandit’s territory.

And behind him, a bloody flame with blue stars erupted violently swallowing the territory in a deathly embrace.

—End of Chapter 144—