"N-no, stay away!"

A young woman shouted, clutching a sharp piece of glass. Shards of a broken bottle surrounded her feet, and the spilled wine was soaking into the dirt. She held the makeshift weapon out toward a large man who looked only partly human. He stood well over two and a half meters tall, his head that of a tiger. One of his eyes was closed, marked by a deep scar.

"Haha, I like it when they fight back. Now come here."

The man spoke with a grin, his sharp teeth glinting in the dim light. He lunged at her, claws swiping through the air with enough force to leave marks in the wooden wall behind her. The woman screamed and stumbled backward, nearly tripping on the bedframe, before the tiger-headed brute grabbed her wrist and twisted. The shard of glass fell from her hand, shattering on the floorboards.

"Got you now,"

He growled, pressing her down against the bed.

"You'll make a fine…"

Suddenly, his grin disappeared, and his ears twitched. A strange sound came from outside. It was faint, but unmistakable: a groan he had heard many times before. It was the sound a person made when they died.

"What is going on?"

Now that his attention had shifted from the young woman, he finally noticed something. The camp was far too quiet. His men were always loud. Whenever they captured new prisoners or found loot, they would celebrate through the night. There was no reason for them to be silent. Something was definitely wrong.

"You, don't even think about escaping."

Realizing the danger, he grabbed a coil of rope and tied the woman to his bed. After pulling on his pants, he took hold of the two large axes resting nearby. They were his prized possessions, both enchanted and deadly. He tried to guess who could be behind this. Had his partners betrayed him, or was it some kind of monster attack?

"Those bastards wouldn't dare. The money was too good… could it be other bandits trying to take my territory? I'll kill them all."

He roared and charged out, enraged. His foot collided with the door that kept his cabin shut, and it flew off its hinges. The bandit leader burst into the clearing with a roar, axes raised, eyes wild. For a moment, he looked like a beast ready to tear through everything, even his own men if they stood in his way. Once he was outside, however, he froze at the sight before him.

Silence pressed over the camp he had worked so hard to build. The torches still burned in their racks, but their light could not warm the cold, still air. The bandit leader stood at the center and looked around. His face shifted from fury to fear as he noticed something glinting in the distance.

"Who are you? Show yourself!"

He shouted, turning toward the light. A gust of wind swept through, making one of the torche fires move and cast light over the clearing. In that faint glow, he saw a strange white ant with its mandibles buried in a bandit's neck.

"Monster attack?"

Without thinking, he hurled one of his axes at the creature. The weapon flew straight toward it, but just before impact, the ant leaped into the air and spread its wings. The axe struck the head of the bandit it had been biting, cutting it clean off. The creature twitched its antennae, then darted into the shadows.

"You cannot run from me!"

He reached out with one hand, and a magic symbol on his glove began to glow. The axe he had thrown shimmered with magic and began to move, drawn back toward him as if pulled by an unseen force. Once it returned to his grasp, he continued forward, stepping over the fallen. Some of the bandits were still alive, but when he kicked one hard to rouse him, the man only slumped forward as if under some kind of spell.

"I won't let some monsters destroy what I've built!"

The man shouted again as he tried to chase the flying ant, but it was far too agile. He kept throwing his axes at it, missing every time. One axe whistled past the creature and smashed into a tree. The bandit leader roared in anger and hurled his remaining weapon. It spun through the air like a blade, but the ant darted aside. The axe struck the ground and stuck there with a heavy thud.

"..."

His rage was clear. His single eye turned bloodshot as he called his weapons back. While one axe was flying toward him, he noticed something. He shifted his stance and raised his remaining axe to guard his face. An arrow struck the metal with a burst of sparks.

"Another one?"

He was taken aback. At first, he had thought the strange ant was the main threat. The small creature did not seem dangerous at first glance, but it had likely been the one that poisoned his men and put them to sleep. Yet after seeing the bodies, he realized that the wounds were not just from bites. Something else had been involved.

From the shadows stepped another figure, a body made of metal holding a bow. It was clearly a living suit of armor with a strange glow in its eyes. One eye socket burned brightly, shining more than any torch nearby, while the other was black and emitted a faint, dark light.

"Why would a living armor work with another monster?"

It made no sense to the bandit leader. He had lived through many battles and one truth had always held: monsters like these never cooperated. There was only one explanation. Someone must have summoned or tamed them. He glanced around but saw no one. At least now he had a visible target. As his second axe returned to his hand, he leaped forward.

The bandit leader soared through the air toward the living armor, which stood perfectly still as if waiting for him. Just before he struck, the creature began to change. Its body expanded, and with a flash of blue light, its bow vanished. In its place appeared a massive halberd and a towering shield.

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"What?"

He shouted as he came down with both axes. His weapons crashed against the shield. Any normal fighter would have been thrown back, but the creature did not move. The bandit leader strained his muscles to push through, but the armor held firm. He was forced to retreat as the halberd lunged forward in a powerful counterattack.

This monster had taken on a new form, wider and nearly as tall as the bandit leader himself. As it moved, the ground sank beneath its heavy metal boots. It was strange, since only moments ago it had been living armor, yet now it carried the weight of an iron golem.

The bandit leader gritted his teeth as the halberd's edge sliced across his shoulder, tearing through flesh. Sparks burst into the air when his axes struck the monster's weapon, the sound echoing through the night. The creature's strength was overwhelming, and each blow carried tremendous force. Every clash sent a painful shock up his arms, but he refused to yield.

His muscles swelled and his teeth sharpened as he unleashed a skill that heightened all of his abilities. Fur spread across his body, and he grew slightly taller and bulkier. The monster was powerful, but not enough. Once he fully embraced his true bestial hybrid form, the tide of battle turned, and the massive iron creature was driven back.

It became nothing more than a target dummy as his speed and power increased. His twin axes rained down on the shield, shattering the steel. The monster was losing, and even with the weight it carried, it could not do much against his onslaught. Nevertheless, the bandit leader sensed that something was wrong. The ant monster, instead of attacking him directly, had vanished and turned its attention toward his unconscious men and the few who had somehow managed to stand back up. He realized he was not alone, yet he could not tell where his true opponent, the monster tamer or summoner, was hiding.

"Come out and face me!"

With a single kick, he sent the monster crashing into one of the guard towers, which collapsed instantly. He raised his axes in a victorious pose, believing the battle was over. Yet the monster did not fall. Even though its body was riddled with cuts and gashes from his weapons, the wounds closed almost immediately. This was not an ordinary creature. He had never heard of a being like this, one capable of healing while not being made of flesh. Its kind already possessed strong armor and great endurance, so how could it also be able to regenerate inorganic parts?

"Do I need to find the one controlling this thing? But where are they?"

The bandit was certain this was not his true enemy, but he could not see, smell, or sense any other powerful presence nearby. It made no sense. There were limits to how far a monster could move from its summoner, which meant the mage responsible had to be close. Tamers usually worked with living creatures made of flesh and blood, and this one was clearly formed through magic. He was sure a mage was behind it, but he could not find the culprit.

"Then I'll just kill this thing and find the one responsible!"

He charged at the steel monster again, but just as he was about to strike, a strange haze of energy surrounded it. The creature suddenly became faster and stronger, and its attacks carried magical power. Its halberd clashed with his axes, and this time an electric surge shot through his body, leaving him paralyzed for a brief moment. The weapon struck again, piercing one of his legs and sending another shock through his body.

"Arghhh!"

He screamed as the monster continued to attack with relentless force. Despite its heavy frame, it moved with unexpected agility, striking with precision and going for critical body parts as if it were a practiced warrior. One of his axes was knocked into the air, and before he could pull it back, the monster's weapon sliced clean through his wrist, severing his hand.

The bandit leader roared in pain, clutching the bleeding stump where his hand had been. His eyes burned with rage as he bared his teeth. Blood streamed down his arm and mixed with the dirt beneath his feet. Still, he refused to fall.

"You think this is enough to stop me?"

Even with the injury, he did not stop. He lunged at the monster, catching it by surprise. His teeth sank into the metal hide, but aside from a slight bend, it did little damage. His remaining hand swung the axe again and again in a desperate attempt to wound the creature, yet his strength was fading fast. His body was covered in new wounds, and his breath grew heavy and uneven.

"Damn it… What do you want? I'll give you everything. You want the gold? The women? Anything!"

With a single kick, the monster sent him crashing into the corpses of his fallen men. When he realized he could not win, he began shouting into the open air, hoping to draw out the hidden mage. He knew that monsters could not be bargained with, but perhaps the mage would spare him or reveal himself in exchange for treasure.

"Stop! Without me, you'll never find the hidden chest. Only I know where it's buri-"

Before he could finish, the monster hurled its weapon at him. The halberd shone like lightning as it struck his bare chest. He looked down in shock, his vision fading as he drew his final breath. His life flashed before his eyes, and then he fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

*****

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"Oh… He buried the treasure?"

Rusty looked at the man with his halberd still lodged in the man's chest. He had been too focused on the battle to listen to anything the man tried to say, and now he regretted it. His goal had been to reach this place and take all the loot, but if the bandit leader had hidden it somewhere, finding it without information would be difficult. If Rusty had been human, he would have sighed. Instead, he walked over and pulled his halberd from the dead bandit leader's body.

"Maybe next time I should leave the leader alive and ask questions… Maybe he also had a good skill to absorb…"

Now that Rusty had some time to cool off his head, he was sure he had made a blunder.

"Indeed. A little torture can loosen the tongue quite nicely. It used to be one of my favorite pastimes."

Aburdon said with an amused tone.

"Let's just take what we can and get out of here. And don't forget to free the prisoners, Rusty."

Alexander said as Rusty examined the spoils of battle. The axes the bandit leader had used were well-made and had been capable of injuring his tough D-rank body.

"Of course you'd want that. Why don't we just leave them? They're not of any use."

"Because it's the right thing to do."

"Hah, was it the right thing to do when your firien–"

"Be quiet, you two."

Rusty grew frustrated as his thoughts refused to settle. With the bandit leader defeated, the camp had fallen into silence. The only sound came from Gleam's wings as she flew toward him, no longer needing to maintain the silence spell.

"Good work, Gleam. That should have been all of them."

"( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و"

Their plan had gone even better than expected. Once the lesser bandits were down, he and Gleam finished the rest quickly. The bandit leader took a while to understand what was happening, and while Rusty fought him, Gleam circled around and finished off the remaining enemies. Her mandibles dripped with blood, and she looked fierce.

"Alright, Gleam. If you find anything valuable, put it there. The only signs of life are from that prison and the bandit leader's quarters. I'll check those."

Rusty did not plan to kill anyone who did not attack him, since the experience from these people would not be worth more than fighting weak goblins. All that remained was to gather the bandits' belongings and store them away. With this haul, he would not run out of steel for some time. His only regret was the buried chest the bandit leader had mentioned, but before he could dwell on it, something caught his attention.

"Gleam, wait. Someone's coming! Quick, hide!"

"( ˶°ㅁ°) !!"

Just when he thought everything was over, his life detection skill sensed movement. A small group was approaching, not from the direction of the city but from the opposite side entirely…