After all the girls recovered from the tor- training, the group decided to have lunch. Unfortunately, on their way to the tavern, they were met with the same pest Ian met the previous day. And they brought backup.
"Boss! That's the boy over there!" the apparently not leader exclaimed to the boss, who merely gave Ian an unimpressive look.
"You are done in by this wimp. Huh, you lot are pathetic. If not for the fact you brought me to see these three beauties, I would have kicked you out of the gang," Ian wanted to shake his head. To think he will meet a stereotypical bad guy in this world.
Kell seemed to be gritting his teeth, trying to calm himself. Oh well, their funeral. Because no matter how strong they are, he doubts they could match with Kell, someone who could beat up a gangster when he was still in primary school.
"Let's not waste time talking. If you don't want to get hurt, then give us the girls," the boss told them.
Kell walked towards them, a smile on his face. "What is it brat-" Kell's punch silenced the thug, sending him flying.
The other thugs looked at Kell in shock, before it was replaced with anger. "Get him!" they yelled, attacking him at the same time.
As the thugs charged at Kell, Ian took a seat before looking at the fight with interest. "Shouldn't we help him?" Ana asked clear worry in her voice.
"No, let him let out some steam," Ian said as another thug was sent flying and landed on their boss.
"He needed to release all of that anger and the thugs are so kind to be the ones to allow Kell to beat them up,"
-x-
"Hhmm, beating up a bunch of thugs really makes someone hungry," Kell exclaimed, eating the 3rd bowl of stew he ordered.
Ian could not disagree. However, instead of being hungry, he felt calmer. To put trash like those in their place is fulfilling for him.
"Do you think the guards will do anything to them?" Kell asked. This is a valid question, as they did not do anything to them when he trashed them before.
"I am not sure but they will definitely try not to do anything to us, anytime soon with how badly you beat them up," Ian replied.
-x-
"Urgh," the thugs groaned, bruises on their bodies from the trashing they got.
"We need to beat them up or the name of the Bronze Bull Gang will be tarnished," the boss exclaimed, though he later groaned, his nose crooked from the punch Kell gave him.
"Boss, please don't make us fight them again. I don't want to get beaten up even more," one of the thugs pleaded to the boss.
"Don't worry, I will find a way for us to kill them. Then we will have those beauties with them," the boss told his underling, laughing before he wheezed, the pain in his chest returned.
-x-
"Alright, I think an hour's break will do for now. Then we will continue with our training," Kell told them, as they found themselves inside the Adventure Guild building.
"We are here for?" Lisa asked, unsure of the reason they resting at the guild's building instead of anywhere else.
"Oh, Ian wanted to ask how to get your girls to rank up to D-rank like both of us. Hopefully, the receptionist will give him a straight answer," Kell answered, at the same time as Ian returned with a... for anyone who did not know him, they might though he is cross at everything but for Kell, that is just his happy face.
"Good news, I presume," Kell asked Ian, who nodded.
"The receptionist told us that as long as the girls completed 3 high-tier E-rank missions by themselves, they could take a low-tier D-rank mission. Only after that, they can get their rank up," Ian told them.
"Do you think we can handle a high-tier E-rank mission by ourselves?" Fiona asked the two trainers.
"I will say, 50/50, depending on whether you get ambushed or not, and how many opponents you are facing. Considering a high-tier E-rank goblin subjugation usually has around 5 to 15 goblins, I think you can handle it.
As for the D-rank, nope for now. You need to train yourself more before you can handle a hobgoblin by yourself. But that is where the training comes in, we are going to make sure by the end of this week, all of you can kill a hobgoblin by yourself," the smile on the two faces sends shivers down the girls' spine.
Alas, it is too late to change party, especially with the fact Fiona had been banged by one of the trainers.
-x-
"Come on, try harder!" Kell yelled at the two, both Ana and Lisa panted heavily as sweet dripped from their forehead.
They wanted to complain but by the time they actually did, Kell had increased the intensity of their training, so, they would not do something stupid like that again.
"Block!" Kell ordered before swinging the practice sword at Ana, who braced herself. It still did not help her from being sent flying, though it was much better compared to the previous attempt.
"You need to put your weight into it! If a hob swung at you and you could not dodge, you can only block! But don't just block, try to deflect the attack as well, make the goblin hit the edge of your shield instead of dead center.
You don't want to become their practice dummy now, do you?!" Ana accepted the criticism as she knew she would learn from it.
Still, why didn't he explain to her about deflecting the attack earlier?!
"Now Lisa, you don't have much on defense. Considering you are one of our ranged combatants, it makes sense but you are the all-rounder of our group, so you are expected to join in the front line as well as a harasser.
So, you need to weave around attacks instead of blocking. So, I am going to attack and I want you to dodge 10 attacks. If you get hit once, then I add 10 more attacks, ready, go,"
Kell appeared right in front of her and hit her on her side. As Lisa groaned in pain, she realized it would not be easy.
-x-
"Come on Fiona, I want you to at least hit me," Ian told her, watching as the Arcane Shot she fired dissipated against his Shield.
"That's 10, now it's my turn," Ian consecutively blasted her with 10 Arcane Shot, all hitting her almost at the same time and sending her flying.
"Come on, get up," he ordered the fallen mage, who struggled to stand.
-x-
"Remember, we still have a week of training so you better improve or get beaten to a pulp,"