“Damn it! Don’t let those guys have her all to themselves! She’s mine!”
“Charge down there! Catch that woman!”
At that moment, the bandits responsible for sentry duty on the surrounding rocks and wooden watchtowers of Craggy Hill also witnessed the scene.
Under the combined effect of the presence-amplifying Stealth and her terrifying Charisma, they lost their minds even from over a hundred meters away. They simply could not tolerate their comrades in the courtyard getting to her first.
The sentry bandits screamed as they cast aside their bows and crossbows. Toby was trampled into the mud by his red-eyed, shoving comrades during the very first wave of the charge; the sound of his bones snapping was instantly drowned out by their frenzied roars.
Some of the bandits leaped directly from wooden platforms several meters high, and though they landed with limping gaits, their eyes remained bloodshot as they surged toward Sophie in the center of the courtyard.
Meanwhile, those who had previously been prostrate behind Sophie no longer remained subservient. Fearing that she would be snatched away by their rivals, they too rose and lunged forward.
Sophie’s expression remained composed. She watched the mob flooding into the courtyard, and the Oil-paper Umbrella in her hand spun elegantly in her palm.
Since they were all here, they might as well stay forever.
Two hulking bandits charged at her side by side. Sophie raised her left hand, her five fingers slightly spread. In the void invisible to ordinary eyes, five ethereal blue mana threads shot out from her fingertips, instantly wrapping around their necks and wrists.
Puppetry.
With a gentle hook of her finger, the mana threads suddenly tightened. The arm of the bandit on the right seemed to lose all autonomy; both his hands, clutching an iron axe, swung out in an uncontrolled horizontal sweep, shearing off half of his companion's head. Before an expression of horror could even form on his face, the thread wrapped around his own neck tightened violently under the pull of Sophie’s fingers.
Crack.
Amidst the crisp sound of snapping bone, the two corpses collapsed into a pool of blood, one on top of the other.
“Let me give you a thorough ‘inspection’!”
A burly man covered in slabs of muscle had somehow maneuvered to her flank. Roaring, he raised a heavy, double-edged greataxe high and swung it down toward the top of Sophie’s head.
【Log: You have cast Forced Disarm (Reversed) on the target.】
Sophie tilted her head, a playful smile playing on her lips as she lightly tapped the falling axe blade with her Oil-paper Umbrella.
A faint light flickered. In an instant, the iron axe—powerful enough to cleave a bull’s head in two—vanished into thin air, replaced by a bar of slippery soap emitting a cheap, alkaline scent.
The burly man’s massive body pitched forward due to momentum, his hands gripping the bar of soap tightly. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as his brain short-circuited amidst the sheer contrast and absurdity of the situation.
Before he could recover from the mystery of the soap’s origin, the tip of Sophie’s Oil-paper Umbrella silently pierced through his right eye socket, drawing out a mixture of red and white fluid.
“Watch out for her umbrella!”
The bandits in the rear cried out in alarm. A small but highly agile thief, covered by his companions, leaped into the air. His dual daggers shimmered with the green, venomous glint of poison as he aimed straight for Sophie’s exposed nape.
“These daggers are coated in paralytic poison and aphrodisiacs!” the thief laughed sinisterly.
Without even turning her head, Sophie leaned to the side to dodge. At the moment he drew near, she took a deep breath, parted her crimson lips slightly, and blew a puff of cold air with a faint, sweet fragrance toward him.
“Hah—”
【Log: You have cast Hiss-en-Dazs (Special) on the target.】
In a flash, the cold breath washed over the thief’s face, freezing his movements. Unable to adjust his posture mid-flight, he actually ended up cutting himself with his own daggers.
The thief’s entire body spasmed violently as he lost his balance in mid-air, crashing heavily onto the stone steps. Sophie didn’t even spare him a glance; with a backhanded thrust of her umbrella tip, she pinned him dead to the wooden floor.
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