After they had walked about three hundred meters, a group of bandits jumped out in front of them.
They wore ragged clothes and carried swords and knives, while some had wooden clubs slung over their shoulders.
Their leader was a burly, one-eyed man with a vicious face, a patch over his left eye, and a large cleaver in his right hand.
At the sight of Odin and Ponzu, the one-eyed man grinned, exposing several missing teeth.
"If you want to pass, pay the toll!" he said.
His lackeys joined in.
"Pay the toll! Pay the toll!"
Ponzu froze for a moment and looked at Odin.
"This..."
Odin said nothing. He simply watched the bandits.
The one-eyed man walked over with his cleaver resting on his shoulder and stopped five meters in front of them. He looked Odin and Ponzu up and down.
"Just two of you?" he said. "You two actually dared to come here?"
He waved a hand.
"Get them!"
Over a dozen bandits charged at once.
Odin did not move.
Ponzu did.
The Glassy Giant-vein Dragonfly shot out of the cloth pouch at her waist.
It spread its wings in midair, revealing a wingspan of 2.2 meters, their edges shimmering with golden light.
The dragonfly beat its wings, moving too fast to follow.
It swept past the first bandit, its wing edge slicing through the blade in his hand.
The blade broke in two and fell to the ground.
The bandit froze.
The dragonfly had already flown in front of the second bandit.
It folded its wings, curled its entire body into a ball, and slammed into his chest.
The bandit flew backward, crashed into the dirt slope behind him, and passed out on the spot.
The dragonfly spread its wings again, traced an arc through the air,