Daniel's eyes widened with sheer horror as his back felt a chilling sensation, making him shiver involuntarily.
His mind raced as he faced death, hastily activating a protective artefact, the ring in his right hand, by infusing it with mana.
Boom!
The force of Aur's strike sent Daniel hurtling through the wall, the structure collapsing around him as he was propelled outside.
"Oh?" Aur raised an eyebrow, his expression tinged with amusement. "He was able to partially nullify my punch?"
In the blink of an eye, Aur vanished from his original position, as if he had been a mere illusion all along.
Daniel's condition was dire, with fractured leg bones, shattered vertebrae, and a disfigured head. Despite his injuries, he summoned the last shreds of his willpower and magic to support himself as he stumbled away.
"Whut tpe o monster is hat dfreak!" (What type of a monster is that freak?)
Daniel mumbled incoherently, his speech impaired by his disfigured skull. Glancing back in terror, he saw a small shadow converging toward him with relentless determination.
In his moment of despair, the shadow loomed larger in an instant, revealing a fist hurtling directly toward his face.
Boom!
With no hint of mercy, the man's head caved in under the brutal force of Aur's punch, his body thrashing like a fish out of water before collapsing to the ground.
Yet, Aur didn't immediately destroy the corpse. Casting a glance backward, he noted that the man had managed to flee around ten kilometres in his injured state, displaying a remarkable will to survive.
"But unfortunately, he lacked the intelligence to thrive in these circumstances..." Aur mused with a sigh. It was nothing short of idiocy for this rogue wizard, with only the strength of a peak wizard apprentice, to attempt an attack on the village.
"Wait, for what reason did he even dare to cause trouble?" Aur frowned. He had considered various possibilities as to why these men came to the village; however, the possibilities were countless, and there was not enough information. Since he was a rogue wizard, even the detailed information Aur had was after the man entered the village.
Aur didn't take the artefact, which was the ring in the man's hand, as it would have to be handed to the village.
"What I could take is…" a smirk appeared on Aur's face as his crimson eyes shone again, extending his hand forward.
Whoosh!
The air was torn as a small palm-sized hand with a black aura extended from his arms, emitting a cunning aura.
It directly entered the body of the man.
"Tier one: Thieving Hand."
Aur closed his eyes and focused on the black palm that directly materialised outside the man's mental space.
"Wish me luck," Aur said, supplying almost his entire mana reserve to the spell. It emptied out in moments, sucking his entire stored mana instantly.
The black hand, which was outside the man's mental space, slowly emitted a sucking force, forcing the spell from the mental to come outside.
There were multiple spells Aur wanted to choose from. He aimed to pick the one with the strongest presence. Unfortunately, he didn't have full control of the hand yet, which caused it to pick a random spell and disperse into thin air.
Aur looked at his mental space, which had been drained by just a single use of the spell, and couldn't help but sigh bitterly.
If he hadn't reached the peak of Wizard apprentice, he might not really be capable of using this spell any longer. And the hand might have dispersed mid-way. These complicated spells were way too draining in mana.
Still, the spell Aur casted was imperfect because he couldn't completely control the hand yet. It wasn't because he hadn't comprehended the technique yet, but simply because he didn't have blue mana yet. The colorless mana could only act as a substitute, which is why the spell was chosen randomly.
Aur quickly caught the spell, which shone in a grey light, looking like a complicated maze rather than some kind of pattern.
He took the spell directly, touching his forehead.
Instantly, the spell seemed to be sucked into his head and reached his mental space.
Just like the other spells floating, rotating around his vital spell—Wizard's hand—the spell settled down and started to float alongside the others, as good as new.
Aur looked at the man with a frown on his face. He could feel the faint fluctuation of mana surrounding him.
"As expected, his mental space exploded while I just took one spell."
Aur felt that this was a real pity; however, he couldn't cry about it. Just the spell was pretty decent for him.
But now he needed to figure out what kind of spell this was first.
"Did you kill him, Aur?" George asked curiously, looking in front of Aur.
Aur turned to George and simply replied with a "yes."
George looked at the ring, which was still on the man's finger, and nodded his head. "Good."
The other four quickly caught up to Aur and George while taking heavy breaths.
"Captain…" John was shocked to see a corpse on the ground, with the skull caved into the neck and blood splattered, with organs still visible from the aftershock of a collision, making it a grotesque sight.
The expressions of the four changed slightly as they looked at the brutal scene in front of them, taking in a breath of cold air.
Aur shook his head with a disappointed expression, but he didn't speak back.
"We will return," Aur commanded, walking away.
"Huh, what about the corpse of the rogue wizard!?" John exclaimed in shock.
"Senior brother George will take care of it," Aur replied casually.
"Yes, you guys can go. I will give you the contribution points according to your merits and the items collected from him," George said expressionlessly.
The four looked at the corpse, their mouths watering with greed, but they didn't make a move, eventually returning back to Aur.