The 4-star spell [Thunderous Burglary] erupted within the knife, creating yellow electricity that surrounded the very blade itself.
With the speed of thunder, the knife reached Jaku's side in a matter of milliseconds.
CLINK!
A sword coming from below Jaku's elbow parried the knife, preventing the blade from going any further.
The bandit's eyes widened as he looked at Jaku, who was suddenly wielding a sword out of nowhere. The bandit didn't even see him have a sword in the first place.
Not only that, but with the very short distance it had to travel, the bandit thought his knife would surely pierce through the demi-human's scales.
The worst part was that Jaku hadn't even turned around yet. He was still taking his last bite of the chicken in his hands, with the sword just positioned on his side near his elbow.
"Tsk. Impressive. But that exchange alone let me know you're just a 3-star swordsman. That's not good enough!"
The bandana bandit retreated his thunderous knife. His feet and arms began to emit electricity as well, giving him a boost in both speed and power.
He thrusted his knife to Jaku's shoulder, but the Dragonborn finally turned around and deflected off the knife with the flat side of his blade.
The thunderous knife slid and thrusted into the wooden table. The whole structure exploded into a million charred splinters as electricity coursed through it from the knife.
Jaku got up off his seat and faced the bandana bandit, who smiled and flipped his knife in the air.
As a piece of wood fell from the ceiling and hit the ground, the bandit rushed to Jaku with bloodshot eyes.
He thrusted the knife to Jaku's stomach, with the Dragonborn parrying it with an upward swing.
The bandit moved closer, using the close quarters combat to his advantage. His knife was very easy to maneuver, allowing him to create a relentless flurry of thrusts.
Each strike was parried by Jaku, with the clashing of their blades creating sparks that flew around the restaurant.
The bandit's unrelenting flurry of attacks forced Jaku to continue to move backwards. Each of the bandit's thrusts allowed him to take one step closer to Jaku until the Dragonborn was standing behind a table of innocent bystanders.
He stepped in and pushed his knife to Jaku's neck, parried only by Jaku with his downward swing. The bandit rushed again, intending to hit Jaku's left ribs.
If the Dragonborn dodged this, the knife would slip past him and hit the innocent people sitting at the table behind him.
So instead, Jaku used the flat of his blade to stop the knife dead in its tracks, perfectly keeping it in place and creating a pause in the fight
The bandit used this opportunity to rush his knife before Jaku could reposition his sword, intending to cut his elbow.
Yet, at the very last second, Jaku's sword erupted in a blue lightning, creating an illusion as if two swords had appeared in front of Jaku and deflected the knife before it hit him.
The bandits' eyes widened. Jaku's entire body was now surrounded by blue lightning, similar to the bandana bandit's body enhancing spell.
Just then, a blur flashed past the bandit's eyes and he subconsciously raised his knife, barely knocking Jaku's swing off course and saving himself from a much deeper cut in his chest.
Blood stained the bandits' outer garment from the surface-level injury. The bandit looked down at his chestplate and saw a small cut in the middle of the metal. If it weren't for this, he would have suffered a much deeper injury.
"You're…you're faster than me?! I'm one star realm above you!" the bandana bandit shouted in disbelief. "Who are you?!"
"You attacked us, and you don't know who you're fighting against? I know I'm lazy, but that's even lazier." Jaku put his sword on his shoulder and disappointedly shook his head.
The bandit's eyes widened as he finally remembered the rumors. There were talks about the famous fighters of the Reborn company, the people who defeated the Stone-Cold 6: the Dragonborns!
"You…you're the Dragonborn?"
"Uhum," Jaku nodded.
The bandana bandit gritted his teeth and gripped his knife tighter. "It doesn't matter who you are when there's ten of us!"
Five bandits thrusted their swords behind Jaku.
The Dragonborn's body erupted in a blue lightning, allowing his speed to reach even faster limits. From their perspective, he seemed to have disappeared from their sights, leaving the bandits to crash into one another.
Massaging their heads, the bandits looked up and searched for Jaku. They looked up and finally saw him on the other side of the restaurant.
The dark blue-scaled Dragonborn took out a freshly cooked chicken from the counter and pinched a small piece before eating it in one go.
The bandits were shocked at the audacity.
"Get back here!" the bandana bandit shouted, empowering his knife with a thunderous quality. His body almost turned into a blur as he lunged towards Jaku.
CLINK
At the moment of impact, the bandit remained still. Slowly, he raised his head and looked at the blade on his knife.
It had been shattered into a million pieces on the ground.
"How…"
Jaku didn't let the bandit recover and hit him in the head with the flat part of his blade, knocking him out cold.
Then, he disappeared into a blue lightning bolt again before reappearing right in front of the five bandits.
Flustered, they tried to overwhelm him with attacks from all different sides.
And for a brief moment, Jaku's body blurred into five different bodies, with each one hitting a bandit's knife and deflecting their flurry of blows.
Slowly, the bandits felt their knives chipping and cracking with each blow against Jaku's sword.
At this point, they slowly retreated and stopped attacking him. Yet, it was already too late. Their knives had shattered into useless metal scrap.
Before they could even react, they saw a blue blur before a blade slapped them in their heads, knocking them out cold instantly.
"Hahaha! Boom! This is fun!"
On the other side of the restaurant, Zion had been toying with his bandit targets.
The red-scaled Dragonborn had been weaving left and right as all four bandits thrusted their knives at him.
Despite the reckless action from the youngster, none of the blades were able to reach his scales. This was the perfect opportunity for him to practice the [Dempsey Roll] skill that Michael imparted onto him.
"Haa…haa…what the hell is up with this kid?!" the bandits' attacks became ever more sluggish as they felt exhaustion creeping up on them.
They had been at this for a full minute, yet they couldn't get a hit on Zion.
"Oops," Jaku said as he looked at the other side of the restaurant. "Bro Jaku's done with his practice. Time for me to finish this," he said.
As the exhausted bandit thrusted his knife at him, Zion ducked down and performed a swift uppercut to the wrist, disarming the man. And with a left-right one two combo, he disarmed the rest of the bandits around him, with their knives haphazardly flying off into the ceiling.
Befuddled, the bandits were left defenseless as Zion prepared his final move.
"[Spacebreaker Punch]!" he shouted as his dark violet gauntlets began to glow a purple light.
Space itself began to crack around his fists, propagating further as Zion gathered power around his gauntlets.
"I told him to not overdo it," Jaku muttered in a disappointed voice, watching from the sidelines. His body erupted in blue electricity again as he teleported himself to the innocent civilians that were about to be caught up in a massive explosion.
Zion didn't even seem to care as he finally unleashed the power of his punch, with all four bandits being caught up in the propagation of the cracks in space.
The Dragonborn's gauntlet hit the first bandit squarely in his stomach, launching him forward. And somehow, the three other bandits seemed to have been caught in the force, feeling as if a big boulder had hit them like a meteor.
They shot off into the walls, destroying the tables and chairs that were in the way. They then burst through the glass windows, skidding an extra 50 meters outside before stopping on the ground.