Perhaps due to the appearance of a new prey, but they quickly started to lose interest in their current one. A few of them looked around impatiently.

"What the h.e.l.l, why do I keep missing?" One of the businessmen suddenly pointed at a guard beside him and ordered, "You there! Quickly grab that guy and stop him from running about. We will keep missing at this rate."

"Huh... M-me?"

"Yes, you! Stop standing there for a fool, and go."

The guard instantly showed a face of dissatisfaction. Need he say more on the gunmans.h.i.+p of these rich people? If he were to grab the mercenary, who knew if the bullet would end up in the mercenary or him?

The rest of the guards looked at him sympathetically.

"What are you dilly-dallying about? Quickly go now!" The other rich merchants shouted once again.

The guard could not object and so ran over and caught the mercenary who was starting to lose consciousness. He locked the mercenary’s arms and held him as a human s.h.i.+eld in front of him.

The rich merchants excitedly whipped out their guns and aimed at the target.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A round of shots was fired but the mercenary and the guard were both still standing, completely unharmed. A large tree next to them had its bark, unfortunately, ripped right off.

The few rich merchants were starting to become unhappy with the results. One of them shook his head and climbed down from the guard’s back.

He went forward and stuck the gun against the mercenary’s temple, prepared to end the life of their human toy.

Seeing this, the other guards let out a sigh of relief.

At that very moment, the supposedly unconscious mercenary suddenly opened his eyes and snarled viciously. The rich merchant was startled and in his panic, loosened his grip on his gun.

The mercenary then raised both his legs and gave him a hard kick.

The rich merchant flew at the impact of the kick as the rest watched in astonishment. His overweight body rolled several times on the ground, almost hitting a rock in the field.

"S-Sir!"

The guards went pale and immediately surrounded him

The guard in charge of restraining the mercenary was stunned for a moment. He panicked and quickly countered by punching the mercenary.

The mercenary fell to the ground as his tired body wouldn’t stop trembling. Nevertheless, he still tried to get up while laughing, "What a bunch of fools."

The merchant that was kicked, stood up with the help of some guards. He stared at the mercenary with rage, "You... You son of a b.i.t.c.h..."

The other few rich merchants mockingly pointed at him and laughed.

"Hahahahaha, you’re so useless! You let a lowly hoodlum kick you."

"I must tell the rest about this later."

The merchant that was kicked almost fainted with rage. He turned back to stare at his companions and then at the mercenary. He looked as though he was about to eat him up.

"Pick him up." He took a deep breath while suppressing his anger, "I want to teach him a lesson."

As the guard was about to move, a voice was suddenly heard from above their heads, stopping him in his tracks.

"Oh really?"

From the darkness of the trees, emerged a figure that slowly descended from the sky before eventually landing on the seething merchant.

Benjamin rubbed his neck as he stood on top of the balding scalp of the rich merchant – whilst being half supported by steam. He expressionlessly spoke, "Why don't you rethink that ‘lesson’?"

It was as though time stopped.

The guards’ eyes widened, and their jaw dropped at the sight of Benjamin. The rest of the merchants were stunned speechless and merely gawked. The entire woods went silent as though suddenly muted.

"Who... who are you?"

The merchant whose head was stepped on obviously saw red. However, Benjamin came on so strong that he did not immediately act up, but instead asked a question.

"Who am I?" Benjamin stroked his chin, and happily replied, "I am a hunter and you are all my prey."

"You..." The merchant was about to say something when Benjamin gave him a strong stomp. With the help of the water steam, he flew back to the sky.

At the same moment, a large icicle, similar to the thorn that the hired mage used earlier, erupted from below the merchant’s feet, impaling him clean through the chest.

He was dead before he could even let out a scream.

Immediately, everyone’s face changed.

"Mu-murderer—!"

The rest of the merchants saw the turn of the events and pressed the guards carrying them to turn back and run. However, they didn’t get very far before they b.u.mped into something and fell to the ground.

Benjamin laughed coldly.

Trying to escape?

If he was going to start fighting, how could he not prepare fully? He took his time to strike earlier because he was acc.u.mulating water steam; now, the controlled water steam had formed a huge steam dome, trapping everyone in it.

More importantly, he manipulated the internal structure of the water molecules to strengthen the water steam so that sound would not escape. In other words, no matter how much they screamed, n.o.body could hear them from the outside.

With this "soundproof barrier", Benjamin would not need to hold back.

"You may come out now."

The mercenaries that previously lay in ambush, charged forward and begin to slaughter the frightened guards.

The ground became warm as the air became thick with the scent of blood.

"Do-don’t kill me... I have a lot of money, I can give to you!"

A merchant begged as Benjamin stabbed at him repeatedly.

"Wait... Y-you’re a mage, right?" One of the merchants fell to his knees, and clenched his fists together, "You’re a mage, why do you help those lowly mercenaries? If you spare me, you will obtain unimaginably rewards."

Benjamin looked at him with disgust, "Oh really? Weren’t you guys the one treated me as a mercenary, and forced me into these woods?"

The merchant was confused and immediately stammered, "You... You were here from the beginning?"

Benjamin smiled and nodded.

The merchant was in despair and shook his head. He murmured in disbelief, "It can’t be... How could, how could there be a mage? Didn’t they say all the prey would be regular humans... Did they lie to us…?"

"Whether or not they lied to you, I wouldn’t know." Benjamin raised his arm, "However, you can ask them yourself when I send you all to h.e.l.l."

Like a flash of lightning, an ice arrow went straight through the mercenary’s chest.

With a powerless moan, the merchant’s body fell to the ground.