Affinity: Chaos Chapter 550 - The Bandit’s Hideout

"Here," Void said abruptly, stopping the group in their tracks.
Ellis looked around, he still hadn't been able to sense any aura of people being here.
"Are you sure?" He couldn't help but ask.
Grey squatted, placing his hand on the ground, trying to use the earth element to sense if anyone was here through the vibrations he got from the ground.
"They're here," He answered before Void could.
Ellis turned to look at Grey, and before he could ask any more questions, Grey added, "And they're not the only things here. Powerful magical beasts are lurking around. There's a large array here that's hiding their track, this must've been done by the bandits, but they unknowingly made this place a great hunting ground for this beast,"
"Actually, the beast is theirs as well," Ellis said.
"Oh, guess they plan on using it to sense if people are nearby, cause it's coming our way," Grey said before standing upright, he looked towards his right.
Within a few seconds, the ground started shaking, and they could feel something large was moving quickly through the ground.
'How powerful?' Grey asked Void secretly.
'Not that strong, early Mid stage Rank Five magical beast,' Void replied quickly.
"The beast isn't too powerful, we should deal with it quickly before the bandits escape. They should've already been alerted of our presence since the beast is coming towards us," Grey replied.
Rumble!
The ground continued shaking vigorously before a giant centipede burst out of the ground.
After coming out the centipede screeched loudly, with a sticky substance coming out of its mouth towards where Grey and Ellis were standing.
The duo dodged to the side, not daring to allow it to touch them. The thing wasn't toxic or anything, it just looked irritating.
After moving to the side, Grey got a proper look at the beast. The centipede was over twelve meters long, with two long antennae in front of its face that was over a meter long, and a pair of large pincers below the antennae that stuck out from its mouth. A seat was strapped on top of its head, and a figure covered by a cloak could be seen on top of it, seemingly riding the centipede.
Grey moved quickly, vanishing from his previous location.
The person riding the centipede was only in the Third stage of the Overlord Plane, something he could handle easily with his current strength.
Over the past three months since he was attacked by that young man, his strength had grown significantly. It's already at a stage where he felt if he went back to fight against Lucan, he would have at least a sixty-five percent chance of winning. Not just that, but his physical strength was already almost at the Peak of the Origin Plane.
He appeared in front of the figure riding the centipede, and before the person could bring out a device to communicate with the other bandits, he suddenly paused, before looking down.
On his chest, a large fist-size hole could be seen there, the spot where his heart was located is currently empty. Grey was standing in front of him, an indifferent look on his face.
Blood started dripping from the side of the bandit's mouth, he tried talking, but he was unfortunately unable to. He let go of the reins he used in holding the centipede, before falling to the ground.
Grey stood at the top of the centipede, looking around.
Ellis soon appeared close to him, "Well, that was quick. I've always known you're stronger than what your cultivation level tells, but isn't this a tad too scary?"
Grey smiled with a shake of the head, not replying to Ellis' question, "What now?"
"Well, since you've effortlessly killed that guy, why don't we take this thing on a ride back. This way, it would not only bring us there, but the bandits would let their guard down thinking it's the person that came out," Ellis suggested.
Grey nodded, before grabbing the reins, since they were going to ride it, he should be the one to, since technically, Ellis could fly.
….
Six hundred meters away from where Ellis and Grey took hold of the centipede. Deep in the canyons.
Large spaces had been carved out inside the canyon walls by the bandits. The place was large enough for over a thousand people to stay inside.
The bandits could be seen partying after making a windfall from their latest robbery. Drinks were all over the place, with half-naked ladies as well.
A middle-aged man with a snake tattoo above his right eye could be seen sitting on the main seat in the hall while the others were seated across the tables in the hall.
"Drink my brothers," He said while gobbling the wine in his silver chalice down his throat, with some coming out from the side of his mouth, dripping on his clothes.
The crowd cheered before doing the same, all drinking in pleasure.
While they were drinking.
Rumble!
The ground soon started vibrating.
"Looks like it was nothing serious, Ezkel is back already," One of the people in the hall laughed out loud as he heard the rumbling sound caused by the centipede.
A hole soon appeared and the centipede came into view. But the man with a snake tattoo soon realized something was wrong when he sensed the aura of two people, instead of one.
"Who are you, and how dare you intrude into our private grounds?" He yelled angrily while standing up from his seat.
He stamped his foot on the ground, causing the entire place to shake.
"You're the leader?" Ellis asked with a serious voice.
Grey was left a little shocked because Ellis just made his voice sound like that of a guy, this was the first time he was hearing him speak like this.
'Guess this is how he speaks when taking things seriously,' He thought while looking around.
Since the leader of the bandits was in the Sage Plane, it meant he and Void had to deal with the others. Of course, he couldn't deal with those in the Late stages of the Overlord Plane yet, but luckily, Void could. The only problem here was that there were at least two hundred people here, that was if he even removed the half-naked ladies.
'How the hell are we going to deal with this many people?' He couldn't help but complain slightly.
Thinking that Ellis' family members sent him here, he felt a tinge of pity for him.
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