The bandit attack begin about 30 minutes after Asta noticed them. A single one of them walked out onto the road, a single dagger in his hand as he made his way towards the cart.
Asta sensed him coming closer despite his eyes being closed, the ki from him itself was filled with greed that seemed to scream the words "Give me Everything!!"
Step step step... Shing!
The bandit takes out the dagger from the scabbard, pointing it at old Lady's neck silently as his cowardly face slowly turned into a sadistic one when he raised the knife.
"Sleep tight."
Asta heard him say the words and bring the knife straight for the Old women's neck. Yet as the blade fell, a even faster attack arrived first.
Wooshh!
Like a blur of light, Asta moved first. His hand moving like a blade itself, shining in a white translucent glow when the finger hit the bandit in his left eye straight on.
"KIUAHK!!!" The bandit screamed in agony, his hands instinctively letting go of the dagger to reach for his eye Asta clutched it mid-air, grasping and spinning it before using it to stab him in the neck.
They both glared into one-another's eyes. The bandit's face was full of disbelief, of horror and fear. Meanwhile Asta maintained an unamused look, his focus not even on the guy he already considered unredeemable trash of society.
"Y-Y-YOU BAST– *cough *"
"Keep those words to yourself, I have no need for whatever you are thinking."
With a swift kick to gut, Asta launches the guy to a nearby bush. The other bandits finally start reacting, each of them immediately jumping out and bursting into a sprint towards Asta while flailing around their weapons in a lousy style.
The first arriver was a scarred man with a cleaver, his attack a diagonal slash which Asta side-stepped with ease. Then came one from behind, a women in barbarian clothes swinging around a boar skull as a flail.
The women swings with her full strength, aiming straight at Asta's head. But Asta had already sensed the attack ages ago, so he bends his body sideways and slides a little to the side.
The skull hits the first attacker in the chest, breaking his ribs before rebounding upwards from the impact. Asta used the rebound as a gap in defenses, immediately swiping the women's legs and then retaliates with elbow to throat, knocking her unconscious in a single attack.
The sight caused the other bandits to halt, each one of them immediately erupting in anger and showering Asta with insults.
"You Monster!!! How dare you hurt Luze!!"
"Coward!! Who even attacks a women in the face!"
"You will pay for that!!!"
... Asta didn't bother answering, only lifting his hood as the moonlight fell on his face to reveal his horns to the bandits.
"Are you bastards done yet?... Sigh Honestly I was a fool to expect proper words from jerks like you." Asta said to the bandits, his eyes showering flames of bloodlust towards everyone of the bandits which he reached out for the cleaver on the ground.
The bandits watched as Asta taunted them, making a gesture of "Come at me" With his hand as took a deep breath. The experienced ones who felt shivers from the extreme bloodlust immediately retreated, however the newbie idiots instead charged in a group attack.
"STOP!! He is Dange–"
The warning was too late. The newbies had already launched their attacks at Asta who didn't appear to be moving in their vision. However as their weapons reached him– he vanished like a morning fog, fading into the air.
Clang-Clang-Clang
The sound of metal hitting metal echoes as the weapons struck each other. The bandits gasp in panic after having being fooled by Asta's Afterimage. They were terrified, their weapons stuck in a tangled up mess as footsteps came from beside them from every direction.
"Zettan."
Gathering about half of his mana in his arm, Asta strikes at lighting speed after gathering a absurd amount of his mana into a single attack like he learned from Ichika in the land of sun.
The outburst of high speed mana and ki erupt like a explosion of dust of blades. The bandits didn't even have a moment to react before they were overwhelmed by a explosion of mana that destroyed each of their weapons. The bandits themselves were hit only with residual force and scraps of the weapons.
It was Asta's first time attempting zettan after his revival here, resulting in a lot of recoil on his body. However the result he achieved was super effective but at the same time not very satisfactory.
"20 people down.. Five more to go." Asta says as he endures the pain from overexerting his body. A Devil's body may be strong physically but a overload on untrained nerves still hurt like being electrocuted by Luck's enthusiastic lightning.
About 70% of Asta's mana reserves were empty, making him very limited in terms of options. However since none of his enemies are mages, there is no mana he could steal even if he used anti-magic.... Or that's what he thought.
Suddenly Asta's danger senses screamed, telling him to dodge as a burst of murderous intent came his way from the side.
Instantly he ducks, barely dodging as a katar flew above his head and hits a nearby tree, splitting it to splinters.
The attacker was a veiled person covered head to toe in black clothes that blended with the dark, his eyes were locked onto Asta while a grimoire floats behind him/her. (note:- Asta isn't sure)
Like a shadow the person blurs towards Asta, swinging and stabbing the katar madly while maintaining a advantage of reach and speed. He was easy to read with ki but the speed he was moving made it harder to dodge every strike.
"I jinxed it, didn't I? Just when I thought all of you scum had gathered... Another one just had to pop up."
Asta weaves through the attacks, dodging them with battle efficiency and reflexes of almost 4 years of his combat experience. The countless spars he had done with luck were not a game just anyone could play.
Not one attack hit Asta, however none of his hit either. It was a battle of endurance and stamina but then a arror cut through the air and grazed his arm by a cm.
"Tch."
The other bandits began using ranged attacks, creating a unpredictable rhythm of arrows and katar attacks that kept pelting Asta until he had to focus everything on dodging while minimizing injuries.
'If only I could grab that bastard. Even if just for a second, a single second.' Asta thought in his head, his movements getting increasingly unstable as his stamina slowly began to reach its limits.
That's when it appeared– the system panel.
[Trait: Battle fanatic activated]
The urgency had activated Asta's trait, heightening his focus to the limits. The world began to slow down in his vision, giving him a clear view of the enemy's movements as well as those of arrows.
'I see it now. The way he moves by shifting his balance in wierd ways. It's not speed magic but rather just acceleration.'
The clothed bandit was much slower to Asta, the arrows were even slower than before since none of the bandits had any experience in using them.
What Asta needed right now was a opening, a single mistake on his enemies side that would lead to a lethal strike.
"I have to take risk! A last gamble!" Asta says weakly before making a throwing stance with the dagger in his hand.
The mage saw the attack coming, a smirk forming on covered mouth as he lets out a chuckle.
"Idiot! You let your guard done!!"
The mage moved faster than ever, unleashing the highest of his acceleration as he slide towards the dagger, dodging past it as he prepares to slit open Asta's stomach with a single attack.
He saw the Asta's palm coming to grab him, but he wasn't going to grabbed a hand much slower than him. He didn't even make distance, rather he spun his body to maximize his strength at a spot just out of his enemy's reach.
However, that was cause of his demise.
Pop! Crack!
The sound of a bone being broken followed by a sudden pull on the bandit's wrist, the speedster failed to comprehend as he was thrown off balance and thrown to floor with overwhelming brute strength.
BAAAMM!!
The ground caves in from the impact. A cloud of dust raising soon after as dirt was scattered everywhere in sight.
The mage had lost in a instant, lost because his wrist was grabbed by Asta just when he thought he had won.
Going back a second in time, if one focuses in slow motion, they could see a different purplish coating on Asta's palm compared to his normal white or anti-magic's black.
When Asta had noticed the weird the speedster mage was moving in, he thought of the word "balance", a balance that swordsman are also trained in to not fall from strikes or gravity mid battle.
Gravity, as far as Asta knew was a force that pulled thing down but the ways Dante had gravity magic give Asta a delusion that it was involved in moving something instead.
The moment he realised that Gravity was a force that pulled things closer instead of moving them, his understanding of the gravity mana grew as evident by message on the panel that popped up, the message which encouraged him to take the gamble.
[Magic Attribute: Gravity(0% -> 2%) ]
"Phew.." Asta take a deep breath while the purplish coating on his hand faded away from lacking control, "I am idiot, I really am a idiot."
The battle was far from satisfactory, giving asta more of a overview of his lack of skills and over-reliance on his body than needed. It was the same with Lucius and Dante, in both battles he attacked by relying on instinct, brute force but not planning and logic.
He had now realised that no matter how. Powerful he becomes, unless he can use his head in battle instead of just going with flow, he will always lose to those with greater strength or those who are more cunning than him.
Fwoosh!
"I forgot you bastard were still here. Thanks for reminding me." Asta said to the bandits after he caught a arrow mid-air.
What followed was clean decapitation of the five elite bandit whose ki was so filthy with the feeling of bloodshed that just reading it gave Asta more than enough reason to kill them.
Luckily for The newbies. They hadn't shed any blood including the barbarian girl so Asta didn't kill them but those who reeked of even a single innocent were instantly killed by him in their unconscious state.
All that's left was to sleep through the night. Luckily the old lady was still sleeping soundly with cotton stuffed in her ears so when Asta kicked three of newbies to do some of the bidding as a punishment.
"You better drag those allies of yours away before morning, I will kill anybody I see when I wake up. " He lied to them, he had no plan to kill those who haven't shed any blood. However just to be sure, he gave them a warning: "you scums better quit being bandits or the next I catch you...you are dead."
His tone was very sarcastic and unconvincing but the fear of death was wonderful tool to convince anybody who valued their lives. The bandits didn't even reply, only nodding in haste before they began moving the dead and unconscious away from the spot.
There was nothing on them that will be of use to Asta, nothing except the acceleration mage's grimoire and katar which he took before drifting to sleep on a sack of potatoes.
-meanwhile at the monk mountains-
Various mages of different knight squads arrive on their brooms to witness the destroyed half collapsed mountain. They were sent to investigate the incident and it gonna be a load of trouble after they hear the testimony of the lone witness.