"Sir, what should we do? They already killed our guards. With just us, it is hard to protect this caravan. How about we..."

A young man signaled to run with his gaze to the middle-aged man beside him, his expression anxious. He had thought he had struck gold by joining such a big business, but reality struck him hard.

On his first mission, he was surrounded by bandits, and that too by someone who was in the Invoker realm.

He was just an Apprentice realm warrior, and standing before such strength made his entire body tremble uncontrollably.

'Such bad luck.'

"What are you saying? Is this how a guard should behave? If everyone tried to run as soon as someone tried to loot, how could we do business?"

However, the middle-aged man directly scolded the young man in anger.

The last thing he wanted right now was the remaining guards to lose hope and run for thier life.

Together, they could still put up some resistance. If you really did what this young man said, they would die without a doubt.

After all, these bandits weren't stupid enough to leave evidence. They were clearly trying to earn big while taking advantage of the situation of the Goldveils.

'It seems this guy is too immature.'

Not only him, but even the veterans behind him shook their heads in disappointment.

"Okay, make a circle and… try to hold them off. I've already asked for reinforcements, and they should be here soon."

After scolding the young man, the middle-aged man gave the order while taking out a gleaming artifact from his mana ring, a dark, palm-sized shield charm etched with faint glowing runes.

"Don't worry about that Bandit leader. I will hold him off. You just need to take care of the rest. Be careful."

As the head of the caravan and someone with a rank in the Goldveil exchange, he had enough status to have a trump card.

Although he wasn't at the Invoker realm, with the Iron Guard in hand, he could at least stall, or even injure, an opponent of that level.

After all, the Iron Guard was an advanced-rank artifact, forged to both shield and strike.

When activated, it could conjure a barrier strong enough to withstand even an Invoker's assault for a short time, while simultaneously unleashing bursts of condensed mana blades against the opponent.

In the hands of someone below the Invoker realm, it was truly a worthy trump card as it worked as both armor and sword in one.

In fact, every caravan leader of Goldveil exchange was given such an artifact so that they could protect themselves in case something happened, like right now.

That's why, even after getting surrounded like this by a foe more powerful than him, he was so calm.

After all, with this advanced-rank artifact, he could easily hold them off before the reinforcements arrived.

At least he thought so… until he saw the bandit leader faintly smile mockingly at him before pulling out the same Iron Guard, its dark runes glowing faintly, mirroring his own.

"What…?"

"Hehe… what a coincidence. I also happen to have the same toy."

The bandit leader laughed, savoring the stunned expression on the middle-aged man's face, clearly enjoying his look.

"How about we activate this together?"

He asked with a smirk, directly channeling a faint trace of mana into the artifact, not wasting a single second.

Earlier, just because of this artifact, he was caught off guard and lost a few of his men in the process.

Otherwise, why would he only have around ten members here?

Even due to the delay, he was almost caught by the reinforcement. So, this time he wasn't going to make the same mistake.

So, although he knew he could defeat them with his strength, the bandit leader still directly activated the Iron Guard before even the middle-aged man would.

"Shit...this is bad."

Sure enough, seeing him use the artifact directly, the middle-aged man panicked and immediately cursed inside.

'Do you have any shame? Who is in the Invoker realm here?'

He thought, feeling bitter inside. The opponent was already stronger than him, and he even used an advanced rank artifact now?

How shameless could one be?

"Swoosh!"

"Boom!"

The moment the Iron Guard was activated by both of them, a dim yet sturdy shield appeared out of thin air, wrapping around both the bandit leader and the middle-aged man like a cocoon.

Suddenly, the mana turned restless. Countless shimmering blades formed in midair and swept forward, intending to pierce the target ahead.

All of them glinted like shards of broken glass, spinning with lethal precision.

The furious collision shook the ground as dust and debris exploded into the sky.

But in the end, both shields managed to hold. From the outside, it almost looked as if they were simply testing their artifacts against each other.

It was almost comical.

However, while the bandit leader grinned at such a fierce confrontation, the middle-aged man's face instead was already dark.

After all, he couldn't sustain the artifact for long with his limited mana, and once the shield vanished, his defenses would crumble instantly.

After that, he would definitely die, especially with the leader eyeing him like a hawk.

He was no match against someone in the Invoker Realm.

Suddenly, feeling the inevitable, panic gnawed at the middle-aged man.

He felt the stench of death creeping closer and closer as the fierce collision continued to unfold before him.

Each second that passed reminded him of the dread that he would go through once the artifact stopped.

Hence, the fear finally overwhelmed his reason, and he suddenly shouted loudly, startling the young man beside him.

"All of you run! We cannot wait for reinforcements to arrive. Leave the caravan behind and save your lives first!"

He bellowed and turned to flee from the encirclement the moment danger closed in, leaving those allies behind.

What bravado?

What reasoning did he share with the young man before?

The moment his own life was threatened, the middle-aged man abandoned everything without hesitation.

He didn't care whether his decision would doom the others. In his opinion, as long as the artifact held, he might still survive.

The remaining guards could even act as a decoy for all he cared.

"What? Sir, didn't you say you can hold him until the reinforcement arrives?"

The young guard, along with the few remaining ones, looked shocked after hearing such words from the leader.

Wasn't he the one who said to hold the bandit for a while?

They were so busy fighting the bandits that they didn't see what was happening behind.

But when the young man asked and all of them looked behind, they found that the leader had already fled the area.

He didn't even wait to respond and directly left, leaving them in danger. Fortunately, the bandit leader clearly targeted the leader following him and didn't attack them, otherwise.

"That fucking bastard!"

The young guard couldn't help but curse, deflecting the attack of the bandit in front in anger.

If he was going to run, why didn't he do so when they had the chance?

Now, they were already fighting, and these bandits weren't going to leave them alone.

Their style of fighting was clearly lethal; the moment your attention wavered, even for a heartbeat, you could be fatally injured.

How could they run in this situation?

'Fuck my luck!'

The young guard was so angry that he fought the bandits with everything he had, pushing his energy to the limit.

He wanted to pour out his anger, to strike back at least once before dying.

"Why the fuck are you following me? I already left the caravan, leave me alone."

While the group of guards was fighting desperately behind, the middle-aged man wasn't having a good time either, as the bandit leader didn't let him run at all.

He was clearly following him, clashing with his Iron Guard, consuming it in the process.

He even seemed to be enjoying his despair a bit.

"Hehe...how can I do that? Especially when you have such a good artifact in your hand."

The bandit leader laughed and licked his lips, and asked,

"How about this? Why don't you cancel this Iron Guard of yours and give it to me? I might let you leave if you do that. What do you think?"

He said it, making the opponent's face dark. It didn't take a fool to know what would happen to him if he really did that.

"Fuck you, bastard... reinforcement is already coming. If you don't hurry, you'll be dead. Do you really want to take that risk?"

The middle-aged man asked, cursing in anger. He had already put a considerable distance between himself and the caravan.

If he could make the leader leave, he could save his life. Just that… his luck wasn't on his side.

"Oh? You are right. That would be very bad."

Although the bandit leader nodded at his persuasion, what he said next almost made the man cough up blood.

"It will take too long to wait for the artifact's duration to end. Let's speed it up, shall we?"

The leader suddenly laughed and unleashed a ferocious, swirling attack that cut through the air like a blade of lightning.

"Boom!"

The shield shuddered violently, already showing signs of scrambling under the pressure. Besides blocking the blade, now it had to withstand another attack from an Invoker Realm opponent.

By saying those words, he had essentially accelerated his own death timer.

"Fuck... I am so stupid."

He couldn't help cursing at his own stupidity while trying to defend. All he could do now was pray he could survive until the reinforcements arrived, a hope that was already faint, until suddenly:

"Oh? You are here?"