That man, the leader of those bandits, had a vitality of roughly 600 with all his added stats from the items and stuff. He worked on it pretty well since his [Gift] favored Vitality, or Constitution, the most.
Though Queintellia here was born a half elf with her previous life being an Angel. Despite being nerfed down many times, her vitality was still in the range of 400. And that was after she focused her build around speed and strength.
It was quite bad luck to come across an enemy with a gift like that, otherwise she would have easily defeated everyone here. After all, gifts and skill aren't everything in survival. People often forget that, base strength and skills honed over years are often much more valuable than what you are presented with.
And Quientellia was a born swordswoman. Despite getting such a lousy gift and basically no skills, she was actually able to come up to be so strong on her own. And with the barrier of vitality removed, those ghost shields would become rather useless in this situation.
A single slash, and the arm holding Aman was severed. Quientellia looked at that man with a rage filled expression. Her eyes were cold, as if she wanted to cut every part of his body, she glared deep at that man.
That man, a bit surprised, took a few steps back as he looked at Quientellia.
"Oi! Oi! Oi! What is this? Since when did A-Grade armor begin falling out of the sky?" He spoke as he took out a health potion, a quite potent one, before he poured it all on the area where his arm was severed from.
And within the next instant, his entire arm healed before he observed Quientellia with a narrowed expression.
And in the next instant, he appeared right behind me as he moved his hand before placing it above my head. Holding it with slight grip, he smiled evilly and spoke,
"Move a step and this blind kid is dead."
Everyone's eyes were narrowed as they looked at that man with a disgusted expression. Though I smiled as I spoke,
"You shouldn't anger the spirits."
"Huh?" He was confused as he looked at me.
Though before he could even think, his entire body was gripped by tree roots that grew out of the ground, rendering him unable to move even an inch.
"The spirits generally derive their energy from plants, you know?" I began speaking as I started draining his energy, weakening him even more. His eyes sank as he realized what was happening with him.
"But sometimes, you see," I continued," they also take nutrition from other organisms. Namely living beings that walk the forests. It's rare but it does happen."
I made sure to activate his pain receptors. Strong enough to make him feel despair, but not too strong that he would break so easily.
"You loved breaking things right? Breaking people and all that? You are gonna love this one then," I smiled at him, as I saw tears running out of his eyes.
"Save… me… somebody… it hurts… what… are…. You…. Save… me… pain… my body…. Hurts…"
I chuckled a little before speaking," surely many would have begged you more than this. But apologies, I can't control the spirits. I am but a mere wanderer. But don't worry. The spirits don't kill people. Or to be honest, they can't. Once they deprive you of 99% of your energy, you will be freed by them. Can't say about others here though… you sure did make a lot of enemies in a few minutes."
It was a rather gruesome sight. A bulky man was literally sucked out of all his energy, leaving a paper thin young frail man behind. It took about a minute or so, though for this man, it should have taken a couple of hours since the sense of time is also messed up.
'They are already dead, huh?'
I looked at the other B-Grades that were killed within the next few moments. Since Quintellia was strong, it didn't take even a minute before she slashed each of those men to their grave.
'An easy death. I would have tortured them before taking their pathetic lives,' I gave it a thought before pushing it at the back of my mind. Since it was her choice and her situation, I guess my opinion and thoughts aren't worth much.
That man fell on the ground, as lifeless as possible. His eyes were seemingly dead, perhaps from all the pain that he went through.
A smile formed on my face before I looked at the party members who were observing me. And then pondered a bit, I spoke out,
"You can do whatever you want with him."
"Thank you. Even though the situation seemed in our favor after the armor I received, he was still a strong foe. Your assistance was really helpful," Quintellia spoke while I simply smiled before answering,
"Thank the spirits. I am but a mere Wanderer in this world."
"Is that so? But the love of spirits is rather too strong for you, don't you think?" She smiled as she looked at me curiously.
I laughed a bit before speaking,"well, certainly, I have my secrets and you have yours."
To which she nodded before slowly walking towards that man. She placed her solver sword over his neck before slashing it down with a disgusted look on her face.
Re was currently checking on Aman's condition and noticing that he was fine, she sighed in relief. Though once the tension passed, all of us, not including me, looked at her curiously.
"I don't mean to pry but…" Re started her words, before Favius continued them,"… just what exactly was that?"
Even Aman, who was barely on his feet, looked at her with a question-filled expression. Though all she answered them was,
"It's something I cannot say. I apologize, I am bound by a curse."
A lie. There was no such condition.
I gave a silent thumbs up to her.
"Is that so? Guess, we can't do much about that now. Though, what should we do now? Continuing our journey is only going to get harder from now on," Favius asked to which I answered,
"I think I may have a solution to that."