The encounter

More than half of the caravan was completely destroyed.

Forget about the merchandise. The merchants, their helpers, and the bodyguards' bodies were sprawled around the debris.

All of that from a single shot.

A single arrow.

Well, a single spear, actually.

"..."

For a few seconds, Norn could not focus his sight properly after he got thrown off the exploding wagon and slammed against the tree.

His eyes wandered absentmindedly along the destruction, the bodies, the blood, and the gore.

The body of Severyn, the merchant who bought monster parts from him, had been torn in two, with both halves tossed in opposite directions.

Old man Wits's legs were convulsing from under the body of the now headless Four-eyed Goat.

Roy, the bodyguard, was leaning against a tree, standing upright despite missing most of his torso from his left side, and his comrade Bern was in front of him, impaled on the splintered axle of the armored carriage.

"...ghh…"

Still concussed, Norn shook his head, trying to pull himself together or at least crawl up on all fours. He was still holding onto the best bow he had made to date, although the threatening-looking medium-quality bow lost its intimidation factor by being broken.

That alone wasn't that much of a loss, though, as it really didn't have much going for it except for looks.

What was intact was the quiver with the enchantment of Wind Boost still active and infusing the few remaining bone arrows with it.

"...ghet up… Get up…!"

Norn gritted his teeth, furiously tossing the broken bow aside and fighting with his own body to sit upright.

"...!"

He flinched, and his eyes widened as he spotted that the nightmare of an archer in the distance was picking up another spear for his outrageous ballista-like bow.

"...one bone bow…"

The platinum-haired man spat through his teeth, gritting them as he took one of the arrows, giving off swirls of the bright green light, and placed it on a not-as-much intimidating bow that appeared in his hand.

If only he would manage to be faster than the bandit…

"...!"

The blurriness just wouldn't leave Norn's eyes, making him bite his lips as he desperately attempted to focus his aim, already seeing how the monstrous archer took aim once more.

Cold and cruel like a grim reaper who decided to try out another weapon…

"...damn it…!"

Norn's face twisted with despair as the feeling of powerlessness clenched its cold fingers around his heart.

And then…

"...?!"

*BOOOOOOM*

A burst of red was immediately followed by the ground in front of the monstrous archer exploding, sending him flying!

"..."

For a second, Norn could not comprehend what was happening.

But then he saw the bandit's body tumbling back while splashing red everywhere…

And then he even managed to sit upright…!"

"!"

Norn's face twisted again, this time with pure hatred. His shaking arms calmed down, and his aim became steady, allowing him to shoot an arrow that sped up thanks to the enchantment and reached its target.

Although it was slightly off course, the arrow still pierced the bandit's throat, yanking him back but somehow not killing him despite the clearly critical hit!"

"Ghh!"

Norn showed his teeth like a rabid dog and unleashed the next arrow, reaching out for the third one and releasing it before the previous one even reached the target.

He would shoot out more, but with the second one felling the enemy, depleting his HP, and the third arrow simply flying over the corpse, wasting all of his ammunition would be the most foolish move.

*thump*

"Gh-haaaah…!"

Norn plopped to the side pitifully, the haziness and nausea hitting him like a speeding carriage, making him draw a desperate breath as if he had almost drowned.

The sound of level-up ringing in his ears was so loud that it felt as if it was about to split his head, and it certainly didn't help.

The few remaining members of the caravan struggled to get up, struggled to find the healing scrolls - a bulk of which got destroyed by the monstrous bandit's attack - and struggled to get them to their wounded comrades.

"All recovery potions…"

Noticing the others, Norn shifted in place and groaned, completely expelling certain items from his Pocket Storage.

The potions worked outside combat, but when used during an encounter, their healing properties were boosted significantly.

"Here… the scrolls work better…"

"...!"

The platinum-haired man couldn't stop flinching when someone suddenly spoke to him.

"!"

He then flinched again when he turned his head and saw a limping green-haired leader of the caravan offering him a healing scroll without tending to her own injuries first.

And she was in a far worse state than he - the limping was caused by the ankle twisted in a definitely wrong direction, her left arm was just limply handing down while oozing blood from the gaping wound where the pinky and ring fingers should be, and even more blood was dripping from the side of her head.

From his perspective, Norn could more or less peek at Doyen's face for the first time, catching a glimpse under her thick fringe, and it was easy to notice that there was something wrong with her eyes.

Doyen's right eye was normal, although a bit bloodshot, but her left eye was… lazy, to the extreme. The pupil of her left eye seemed to be stuck in the left corner of her eye with no sign of movement, regardless of her right eye's position.

It seemed that she hit her head a lot harder than even Norn, resulting in her left eyeball getting stuck.

And even with all that, she still got to Norn and offered him the healing scroll.

The reason was pretty obvious.

"Heal up. If the encounter didn't end, it means that party members of that freak are far too close."

Doyen gritted her teeth and wheezed in pain. She stared down at the wobbly platinum-haired man, seemingly getting tired of extending her hand and tossing the healing scroll onto his lap instead.

Then she slowly and carefully sat down while wincing in pain and reached to grab one of the healing potions.

"You know? Around three months ago, in Jade City of Emeraldios Empire, a miracle happened and turned all maneless water into healing potions."

Doyen pulled off the cork of the bottle and drank it up in one go, pointing out before taking the next one.

"...wh-what…?"

Norn, who was clearly out of it, flinched and looked at her in confusion.

"A miracle. I'm talking about a miracle. Because… we will definitely need it. Now use the scroll."

"...why didn't you use it on me…?"

Doyen shrugged her shoulders and pointed at the item in Norn's lap, making the platinum-haired man shake his head and ask.

"...use it…"

The green-haired woman frowned, staring at the platinum-haired man with accusation, but the only words he spoke to him were the one of hastening.

"Target, myself."

Norn groaned, propping himself upright, and grabbed the scroll, tearing it in half to activate it.

As the paper dissolved, the green light it released engulfed the man in a warm cocoon, sipping into his body and restoring his HP.

It wouldn't heal a serious or complicated injury, but luckily, nothing of the sort seemed necessary.

Although…

"...Healing Scrolls don't lift status effects… One Cleansing Potion."

Norn yelped while standing up and holding his head. He felt as if it was about to float off his shoulders at any moment, and he called out a specific item from his Pocket Storage.

And as he was drinking…

"I wasted two scrolls on you before coming over with this one. Your name isn't Norn, is it?"

"PFGHHH…!"

…Doyen said coldly, causing the platinum-haired man to choke on and spit out at least half of the medicine...

"Are you a bandit after all? Although not one associated with that bunch…"

The green-haired woman asked with a bitter expression, motioning at the corpses pierced with Norn's arrows.

"Or maybe you had a falling out or something?"

"I am not a bandit in general, Lady Doyen."

She added with a sigh, but the platinum-haired man denied her sternly.

"The name was the only willing lie you've experienced from me."

"...?"

He then added rather awkwardly, making Doyen lean away from him while carefully examining his expression.

"I have no connection to the bandits, especially someone so bizarrely powerful, and although this will be of no help to us in this situation, my name is Es…"

"LORENS, NO!"

The platinum-haired man added, taking a deep breath about to reveal his actual name, but his words were cut short by a faraway scream.