Sleazy eyed the Red Mankeys with a little bit more caution once he saw three of his men get put down in a matter of a few seconds.
"Tsk. Don't get scared of them," he shouted at the bandits. "We have the number advantage. Just do as we've always done."
The bandits screamed at the top of their lungs and began to rush towards the Red Mankey soldiers. Their knives began to glow with the power of mana as they unleashed their Physical Art spells.
Their powers reached the heights of 3-star fighters.
Their attacks were made up of basic scrolls they stole from merchants, yet their execution of this spell was nothing less than deadly.
One bandit slashed his knife to the Red Mankey's neck, with his blade creating sharp crescent waters that launched towards its target.
Another bandit beside him completely disregarded the water crescent and rushed alongside it.
This was a tactic that overwhelmed their opponents.
Yet somehow, two other Mankeys came in at the right time for support. One deflected the water crescent, and one clashed with the rushing bandit. The original Red Mankey used this opportunity and rushed forward, with dust exploding behind him, and attacked the bandit who released the water crescent.
He used the 2-star Krav Maga skill [Torpedo Elbow], twisting his torso and creating tremendous acceleration for his elbow.
The bandit ducked and used his knife to strike back at the Red Mankey's elbow, using [Water Pump] to induce a powerful repelling force against the elbow strike.
However, an invisible prismatic shield manifested around the Red Mankey, destroying the water particles from the bandit's knife.
Without the repelling force, the bandit was forced to use his arms to defend against the Red Mankey's elbow.
The bandit felt his whole world shake upon impact, with his arms completely shattered from the elbow.
Unfortunately for him, the Red Mankey grabbed his head and pushed it down for a perfect delivery of a 2-star [Knee Bomb]
The bandit lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
Once his job was done, the Red Mankey immediately rushed towards another bandit to help out his fellow soldier.
The bandits may have the numerical advantage, but the Red Mankeys were somehow able to fluidly exchange and cooperate with each other without much friction.
If one Red Mankey was just a moment away from being lacerated by two bandits coming with a knife, three more Red Mankeys would come at the perfect time and give support, repelling the two bandits before returning to their original fight.
It was as if they were communicating with each other without talking!
This was a very frustrating fight for the bandits, as they felt like they were fighting against three times the actual amount of Red Mankeys present.
And it wasn't just their cooperation that made this a hard fight for the bandits, it was also their hard-hitting skills that seemed to come with endless combos.
If their kick failed to land, they would pivot and punch instead. And if that didn't work, they would feint a kick before using the bandit's off-balance to tackle him to the ground.
Each and every one of their moves were powered by a 2-star or a 3-star spell, creating a much more devastating attack.
"Where the hell did these Mankeys come from?!" Sleazy shouted out. "Aren't they a new company? How did they get these spells?"
Their fighting style was too specific and too specialized for it to be a basic spell purchased in the public market. This meant that their spells must be something that the Reborn company made themselves.
But that wasn't possible. As far as he knew, the Reborn company should only be a few years old at this point. It would take at least four decades to develop and perfect these kinds of unique spells.
"Damn it. They tricked us," Sleazy gritted his teeth. "They must specialize in magic formulation as well. I thought they just developed armor and weapons."
Sleazy watched as one by one, bandits fell to the ground unconscious. By now, their numbers were completely even, which meant that it wasn't long before they were subdued.
In a moment of self preservation, Sleazy slowly backed away from the fight.
He quickly turned around and raced to the truck's front seat. His plan was to run away from this place as fast as possible. Yes, he would abandon the thieves, but he would be able to escape with the treasures from this truck as well. Surely, the boss would forgive him once he presented this loot to him.
However, faced with the unfamilair dashboard of the truck, he remembered that he was completely clueless on how to drive an automobile. He tried to smack the wheel, just like a horse, to make it run.
BEEP
Sleazy was startled, not expecting the horn to sound off.
"You can't run away."
Suddenly, Sleazy saw the leader of the Red Mankeys appear on the front seat of the truck, just beside him.
He immediately lunged with his obsidian knife, but the Red Mankey deflected it upwards with his own knife. Their weapons pierced through the roof, with the two fighting to push each other's knives.
Sleazy smiled. "I'm not like those shrimps."
He pushed the Red Mankey's knife, creating a large gash on the ceiling of the truck, before being pushed down towards the soldier's neck.
"I'm powerful!" Sleazy declared.
With the knife just inches away from his neck, the Red Mankey used his other hand to take out something from his pockets.
With the gold and violet wrapper torn from the top, the Red Mankey was free to take a bite out of the chocolate bar.
Suddenly, a new force erupted from the Red Mankey's knife, allowing him to push Sleazy's knife back towards him.
"WHAT?! How?!" Sleazy screamed.
With the Red Mankey's newfound strength, he began to fight back against Sleazy's attacks.
Sleazy gritted his teeth and pulled his knife back before lunging it back towards the Red Mankey's shoulder.
The Red Mankey tried to parry the knife, but found that his knife merely passed through the obsidian weapon.
It was an illusion.
The real knife was lunging towards the Red Mankey's neck.
But just at the very last second, the Red Mankey moved back, letting the obsidian knife pierce through the leather seat of the truck.
"Tsk." Sleazy muttered, pulling back his knife out of the chair.
The Red Mankey used this chance to leap towards Sleazy in the driver's seat, making this a melee fight. He tried to grapple the bandit, grabbing the seatbelt to try and strangle him.
"[Python Constrictor]" the Red Mankey exclaimed, with his mana pouring through to the seatbelt and reinforcing it with more power.
Sleazy felt his neck constrain, struggling to pull the Red Mankey off himself. In an act of desperation, he used the 4-star spell [Slice and Dice] to cut through the seat belt at the risk of his own neck getting cut.
Blood poured out of his neck from a flesh wound, but Sleazy didn't mind. He immediately tried to skewer the Red Mankey's stomach, with the demi-human having no chance to escape.
The Red Mankey saw the threat and immediately stepped foot on the gas pedal, with the truck accelerating from zero km/h to forty km/h in a matter of a few seconds.
The sudden acceleration pushed Sleazy's seat backwards, allowing the Red Mankey to barely avoid the knife.
With the demi-human on top of him, Sleazy was about to be defeated by a swift [Elbow Meteor] directed on his head.
He kicked and squirmed, turning the wheel quickly to the left and causing the entire truck to skid sideways. One of the wheels ran over a stray rock on the road, causing the entire truck to tilt sideways, with the momentum finally toppling the truck on its side.
With the car crashed, Sleazy used this chance to try and escape.
He punched through the windshield, shattering the glass into a million pieces. He began crawling out of the truck, with blood pouring out of his forehead.
He dragged his own body away from the crash, hoping to escape.
But then, he suddenly felt a force stepping down on him.
He turned around and saw the Red Mankey looking down at him, with barely a scratch on his face.
"Who are you guys?" he asked them.
The Red Mankey took a big breath, a little bit exhausted after that fight.
"As far as you're concerned, we're your worst nightmares. Consider yourselves lucky that we're the ones you faced. If our Orc seniors took on this case, your fate would have been a lot worse than death."
He raised his feet high up in the air before performing a final [Dragon's Leg Sweep] to Sleazy's head.