Sabrina looked up at the sky to see a man descending from the sky on his flying sword. He was tall and had sky-blue robes. On his chest, the letters B and W embroidered delicately. When Sabrina's eyes fell on his face, she took a step back in shock, surprise, or both. Half of his face burned, only patches of burned hair occupied half of his head. He seemed ugly and terrifying at the same time. It took her a few seconds to recognize him using his other half of the face.
"Alden...Alden Bellwatch"
"Oh, you recognized me. People don't recognize me anymore because of THIS!" he pointed at his burned face, screaming at her.
"Inferno Punch!" his scream echoed through the forest. It was hard to identify his emotions by looking at his face but his voice contained uncontrollable rage and agony.
A few seconds after his scream, the surrounding air began to become hotter and hotter, melting the snow into water and then vaporizing it. Suddenly, a burst of blood-red flames blasted Sabrina, sending her flying away ten meters before her body hit the ground with a thud sound.
The anger within him amplified the spell's power. The taupe-colored fur on her dress was completely burned by the spell and if it wasn't for her quick reflection to block the spell by covering herself with Arch energy, her flawless skin would have been roasted.
"Kill them!" Alden ordered the men pointing at the three struggling guards.
"Stop!" Sabrina screamed before trying to stand up but she was too late as the bandits already slit the guards' throats. The blood oozed out of their throats painted the white snow in red.
"They paid the price for what you and your family did to mine"
"I'm gonna tear you apart," Sabrina's mind told her that she had zero percent chance to defeat him yet the rage within her heart wanted her to fight, it wanted her to avenge those guards.
"Boss, I cannot believe this stupid bitch accepted my challenge and asked her men to stay down" the man who dueled with Sabrina chuckled. Although he chuckled, he avoided direct eye contact with Alden.
"Because she's too arrogant, just like her brother, Noah Winston" when he said Noah's name, the bandits around Alden felt the overwhelming murderous intent. They all just wished to devour the beauty in front of them but after seeing the murderous intent in Alden's face, they sighed realizing that she wouldn't be so beautiful when Alden is done with her.
Standing a few meters away from Alden, Sabrina drew her sword. Her sword's blade was azure blue that glimmered giving a unique aura to the sword.
"This is not going to be a one on one, this is going to be a gang bang" an evil grin mixed with a cruel expression appeared on his half-burned face.
"Fuck her up!"
"Really?!" The man dueled Sabrina became really excited as he looked Alden in his eyes with excitement filling his whole body.
Plop!
Alden however slapped the man wiping off the excitement from his face,
"Not literally you idiot, kill her"
"Yes, boss!"
Facing twelve Body Strengthening warriors and one Core Formation warrior, Sabrina stood firm as she knew escaping from them was impossible. Even if she used her lifeblood, there was no chance of coming out of this battle alive.
"I should have listened to you, old man" She regretted her decision to only bring five guards with her.
"Frostbite"
Several dozen spears made of ice flew at her from all directions. Her grip on the hilt tightened as she swung her sword, cutting most of the ice spears but few of them already penetrated her. Her grey dress slowly turned red, especially around her shoulder and thighs where the ice spear went throughout rather than grazing her.
"I'm gonna send your body in pieces to your family so they can feel how it's like to lose someone they love"
Pulch!
Sabrina threw up mouth full of blood as her body began to turn pale. She could feel her body failing her. As her life was fading away, she just wanted to embrace her mother one last time, she wanted to see her family.
"When...my...brother...comes" she stuttered, wiping off the blood from the corners of her mouth.
"I know everything about your brother. That's why I won't directly fight him but kill everyone he cares about, no matter how long I have to wait for an opportunity. I will strike from the shadows, taking one life at a time from your family"
"Leave her alone" just as the other bandits were about to end Sabrina's life, a childish yet gruff voice appeared.
The very next moment, they were stunned to see a baby dragon with shiny crimson scales landing in front of them.
"She's now under the protection of I, Nightmare" Nightmare puffed his chest out and held his head high proudly.
"Boss, that's a dragon!" Many of the men behind Alden screamed in unison as they subconsciously took a step back. Although after the Dragon clan disappeared from the face of this planet, there were still many dragons living scattered around the world and all of them were extremely powerful, powerful enough to burn an entire city in a matter of hours.
However soon the fact the baby dragon was only a Foundation stage level 3 beast reached their brain as the sudden fear emerged in their heart faded away.
"Who...what...fly...away" Sabrina coughed up blood, warning the baby dragon to escape.
"Boss, let me catch that dragon. We'll be settled for life if we auctioned this dragon" one of the men reminded Alden. They wanted to quickly finish off Sabrina and catch the dragon who's just pitifully looking at them.
"I dont know where the fuck you come from but this is between me and her, get the fuck out of here lizard!"
Alden was in no mood to catch the dragon or sell it to the highest bidder. After what Noah did to his family, he no longer cared for anything but revenge.
"If you can interfere with an honorable duel, why can't I interfere with your despicable attempt to kill this human girl?" Alden gritted his teeth as blood already started to seep through burned muscles in his face.
"What will you do? What CAN you do?" Alden menacingly asked Nightmare, conjuring a fireball in his hand.
"Nothing but I have two buddies. Either of them can and will end your pathetic lives in a couple of minutes tops. So if you value your lives, I suggest you start running now" Sabrina's body now completely becomes pale as white paper due to the blood loss. She saw the world around her spinning, dizziness finally caught up with her making standing still a challenge.
"Kill her and this lizard"
The men were disappointed with Alden's order as they wanted to catch the dragon alive. However, they did not dare to question Alden because he was the one paying them and he already killed one of them by burning him just because he questioned Alden's orders once.
They did not want to make the same mistake. Sabrina slowly dragged herself to shield the little dragon that tried to help her, she wanted to do one last kindness before dying.
"Stand down, you stupid girl" Nightmare sounded calm but one could sense the disappointment and bitterness in his voice.
Nightmare was hunting for meat when he saw everything that happened with Sabrina and the bandits. At first, he just wanted to leave them be but the images of him chased by humans helplessly flashed across his face. He felt sympathy for the human girl, he wanted to help her just like Ghost helped him.
However, he also felt pity for the guards. If she quickly captured the man before accepting the duel or brought more men, she would have had the chance to escape, or at least the guards would have survived by running away.
Because her arrogance and overconfidence made her overlook the obvious ambush, she got her guards killed and almost got herself killed. Without giving her any time to react, Nightmare flapped his wings creating a blast of wind that knocked down Sabrina.
"Frost-"
"What's going on here?" Just when the men were about to cast spells to attack Nightmare, a calm voice sounded from above before Alden saw a youngster and a young girl in full black descending from the sky.
"Whoa, you're fucking ugly" the men behind Alden almost tripped on their feet when they heard the young woman comment on Alden's face.
"Dicky, what the fuck are you doing here, and who the fuck is this?" Gaya pointed at the unconscious Sabrina.
Nightmare already accepted being called Dicky as he knew there's no stopping the Naga from calling that.
"Core Formation stage" Alden and the men frowned looking at Michael's cultivation level.
After looking at the dead guards and the girl, Michael could connect the dots to see what had happened here. Nightmare quickly flapped his wings, taking off from the ground. He then landed on Michael's shoulder before explaining everything from Sabrina's duel to Alden's ambush.
For a moment, a glint of anger appeared in Michael's eyes, not towards Alden or his men but actually towards Nightmare. The baby dragon was not aware of this but Gaya read Michael's expression like a book.
"Dicky put his name on the line, human. We should help him keep his word"
"Get out of my way!" Alden screamed after seeing them whisper among themselves, interrupting his perfectly plotted murder plan.
Michael turned his gaze towards Alden and sighed,
"Look, I don't care what's the history between you two but I can tell her family did something bad to yours. You have every right to kill her, her family, and do what you like, I get that. But my familiar here put his name to protect the girl, so leave her alone this time and kill her another time"