Marching. Ambush. Defense. Meal. Camp. Wake up.
And again, marching. Another ambush.
In just ten days, how come there’s so many ambushes? We had to face bandits almost every two days, engaging in battle.
“Ambush! Shield up!”
“Again?!”
There were even days we got attacked twice in one day! It was a blood-soaked journey beyond expectation.
On the bright side, most of these bandit fools were about as smart as slightly clever goblins…
“Cough…! These guys are surprisingly skilled!”
But occasionally, we came across some tough ones that were hard to underestimate, like former adventurers.
Maybe our party could handle them, but other parties would struggle against anyone but Bardu or Amina.
Compared to the scruffed up thugs dressed in ragged fur, these bandits were all decked out in metal armor.
Sure, it wasn’t like they were wrapped in full plate like knights; it was just cheap breastplates or chain mail, but still…that’s something.
To be frank, even iron-plate level adventurers slouched around in padded armor with leather on top.
Anyhow, they didn’t seem like the type that would resort to banditry in such a cold place—be it skill or gear.
“What types are these guys?!”
Amina, having narrowly avoided a bandit with a two-handed axe clad in chain mail, licked her lips and created distance as another bandit lunged with a spear.
“Hahaha! Look at that flailing!”
“…Isn’t it more like a dance?”
“What do you mean? It’s flailing, for sure!”
The axe-man and spear-guy laughed and jeered, pointing with their metallic gauntlets at Amina’s torso.
“…How low-grade. Such incomplete beings.”
Amina, clearly displeased, grimaced and spat on the ground.
She was maintaining a safe distance, moving without quite approaching or retreating, almost as if waiting for an opening while being defensive instead of charging in head-on.
True. If there was just one bandit like a low-tier adventurer, that might work, but this was an all-out situation, naturally requiring more caution.
Charging in recklessly could quickly turn the tide against us.
Well, to be honest, she kind of brought this on herself.
Amina, that girl, while her swordsmanship is decent, has been lazily mixing troll leather with a durable cloth instead of putting on proper metal armor.
It was fine against weaker foes, but facing two bandits of at least the same caliber would sting when it came to defense.
As for me…
KAAAAANG!
The sharp metallic clang came as the bandit’s blade slid harmlessly along the curve of my steel pauldrons.
“Just wait, and get ready.”
There’s no way a sword swung with just one hand could break steel armor, right?
Maybe if he was a knight, but for bandits? No way.
“Like this.”
I reached out with my gauntleted left hand and seized the blunted blade, yanking it hard while thrusting the longsword that was firmly gripped in my right hand.
“Ugh…!”
The bandit stumbled forward, unable to withstand my strength.
Raising his head reflexively to regain balance only revealed his exposed neck, right where I plunged the obsidian longsword deep in.
GARGH!
“What a fool! You should’ve dropped your sword here.”
The obsidian blade pierced through his vocal cords and exited through the back of his neck.
With my left arm, I swung up to slam him sideways as his head and body separated in a gruesome dance, tumbling adjacent.
“You wretched hag!”
Another bandit, enraged at his comrade’s death, charged at me with vengeance.
A burly man, sporting a beard like a bandit…oh wait, he is a bandit.
Truth be told, compared to the opponents I had faced before, he was more like a kid.
Or rather,
“I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere….”
This bearded bandit was wearing a hood instead of a helmet, revealing a strangely familiar face.
Where have I seen this guy?
“Oi, are you from Vespians?”
I tossed my one-handed sword at him, voicing the question that just popped into my head.
“Ghuh! What’s it to you?!”
The bearded bandit swung his mace, knocking my blade aside in anger.
Looks like I hit the nail on the head. Vespians it is.
Now understanding why I felt a sense of déjà vu for his face…and where all these bandits with such performance and gear were coming from.
“Now it clicks! You guys—no, you! You’re those adventurers who fled, aren’t you?!”
Indeed. These low-tier bandit fools were the very adventurers who chose to bail during the Abyss Priest subjugation.
Given they didn’t return to the city and turned into bandits, some of them…
“Fools who fell for some curse nonsense and betrayed their companions, right?”
They were traitors who attacked other adventurers and priests under the Abyss Priest’s bluff, turning what should’ve been a minor incident into outright disaster.
“After killing the Priest, returning to town would mean being burned at the stake. And running far away means starting from scratch…so it’s left to banditry, huh?”
I chuckled behind my visor, pulling back the obsidian longsword I held tightly.
“Typical. An idea that would come from dumb rocks.”
“Shut uuuuup!”
When cornered with a sharp point, people tend to resort to insults. Guess I struck a nerve, since the bearded bandit furiously raised his mace above his head.
Such a clumsy opening.
I inhaled the icy air deeply, loading my arm muscles back as far as they could go—like drawing a bow back tightly.
“I’m going to smash your arms and play with your remains!”
“Is banditry your true calling, you weirdos?”
His mace swung down like a wrecking ball. But before it struck, my carefully restrained, powerful slash was about to cleave through his lower half—
“Hiyah, to Hilde!”
KWAAAAANG!
With a sound like fireworks, his head was flattened as if caught in a vice.
It was Friede’s greatsword that had driven into the bandit’s skull from behind.
Since the blade was leveled without pointing the edge, the bandit’s head didn’t split in two but exploded.
“To Hilde! From where do you dare speak such words?!”
As if that first blow wasn’t enough, Friede continued to pummel the dead bearded bandit into the ground with her greatsword, seemingly intent on burying him.
Every word she uttered echoed with a resounding thud.
The bearded bandit, who had once towered over me, shrunk to nearly Friede’s height before finally being allowed to lie still on the ground.
“Hilde! I took him down! I did well, right?”
Wiping the remnants of splattered brains and bone fragments off, Friede smiled as if seeking praise.
It was a reaction that left me speechless.
The sight of a human body compressing into almost dwarf status made even someone like me, who has taken out heaps of trash, lose their appetite.
But still…she did help me out, so I guess I should at least say thanks…?
“Umm…yeah, thanks.”
I forced a slightly reluctant response of gratitude.
“Hehe!”
Friede, grinning, nodded and leaped at another bandit like a hawk.
Perhaps due to her skills surpassing many adventurers, she was exuding confidence while Bardu and Amina struggled against their disadvantage in numbers.
“Hilde! If you’re free, come help over here!”
While I momentarily focused on Friede, Amina, locked in a fierce battle against two bandits, shouted for help.
Unlike our party, who had someone holding their own, her party consisted of three pretty boys, all average iron plate level—in other words, not much use in a fight like this.
I knew it! I figured she’d end up like this someday!
Gathering party members not based on strength but rather for their looks; of course, she wouldn’t cope well against stronger opponents.
“I’ll be there in a sec, so hold on tight!”
I shook the blood off my longsword before launching myself toward her.
She wasn’t my favorite person or anything, but letting her die was out of the question.
◆◆
COUGH!
The last bandit collapsed, chainmail splattered with crimson blood like a puppet with its strings cut.
“We won!”
The hired hands cheered, raising their arms in triumph.
Once the adventurers confirmed that no foes were left, we sheathed our weapons and took a moment to ease our weary bodies.
“First, gather the dead and injured!”
Rug, our team’s leader, instructed his hired hands to express their joy later and focus on the situation at hand.
We won, but that didn’t mean we came out unscathed.
If they had been mere pushovers, maybe, but battling low-tier adventurer-level bandits ensured we suffered injuries in this conflict.
A few of the hired guards lay sprawled as corpses or half-dead, and one ill-fated porters was gurgling with an arrow lodged in his throat.
With arms lowered, the hired hands hurried around collecting the bodies and tending to the injuries of the wounded comrades.
The healing was limited to pouring potions and bandaging wounds; for minor injuries, that might suffice, but the seriously wounded seemed to have slim chances of survival.
Meanwhile, the adventurers slumped down, tending to their own wounds. Only I, Friede, and Amy were unharmed.
The party of Bardu and Amina, as well as Kikel, all had arrows embedded in them.
“Caw-caw! It’s just a mosquito bite! Just wrap it up!”
Kikel, nonchalantly pulling the arrows from his tail like they were nothing, chuckled as if it didn’t bother him at all.
“Just sit still for a moment. Don’t fidget.”
Given the situation, it seemed challenging for Kikel to wrap the bandaged wounds himself; Amy was pouring potions on his tail and wrapping it up.
“Hmm. This greave looks pretty good. Here, take this, Jane.”
“Thanks, Bardu.”
Having already finished healing, Bardu was in the midst of stripping usable gear from the slain bandits with Jane.
As he retrieved a greave from a severed leg, it looked bizarrely akin to gifting Valentine’s chocolate to a loved one.
“…Hey, are you feeling okay? You almost lost a leg.”
Runnam, Ben, and Hamill gathered and sighed as they tended to their wounds. Kikel was considerably worse for wear than even Jane.
“I kept my legs, so I’m fine.”
“You idiot, is that what’s important right now? You almost lost a leg!”
“What’s more important than that?”
“That’s true.”
“Ugh, you lunatics…”
They seemed quite chummy, given they shared a bed with Amina, but I didn’t want to eavesdrop on such a conversation.
“Thanks for earlier, Hilde.”
As I was cleaning my longsword, Amina approached me with her elbow bandaged to offer her thanks.
“Thanks? It’s just common sense to help out in danger.”
“Still, it really was dangerous.”
That’s probably true. A spear just grazed my left arm, meaning I would have fought with one arm if not for my help; even if we won by luck, I surely would have lost at least one arm, right?
“Ugh… I feel like my senses are all dulled.”
Amina lit up a magic cigarette and let out a long sigh as she came closer.
Oh boy, cigarette smoke. This girl’s returning my favor with a vengeance.
In a world without the concept of secondhand smoke, Amina puffed out smoke as if it were normal.
I knew that voicing a complaint would only make me seem overly sensitive, so I didn’t say anything and merely fanned the smoke away in silence.
“I thought this would be an easy job, but look where we are now. Should’ve just gone to a dungeon instead.”
Amina seemed intent on bemoaning her fate. Was she trying to bond over shared experiences between fellow swordmasters?
It was a strangely affectionate demeanor. She used to be quite competitive with me, returning every remark without fail, making conversation quite tiring.
Could it be because I saved her life?
“Sometimes things turn out like this. Lately, that’s how it’s been for me too. Honestly, I’ve faced near-death experiences more times than I can count.”
I shrugged lightly and agreed.
Sure, this may have been her first job gone south, but recently, mine had all been a chore of disasters…what should I call that? Providing comfort while sharing misfortune, perhaps.
“Maybe this is a good chance for you, Amina, to finally get a pair of pauldrons? A breastplate might be too much, but something like pauldrons wouldn’t be too heavy.”
“Well… maybe I really should—”
KWAJIK.
Suddenly the voice cut off.
And with it, a sickening sound followed.
I reflexively stepped back and whipped around to look at Amina.
No, she was just Amina until a moment ago…
“Graah…!”
The headless, twitching body stumbled about.
And one more person.
“What’s up? Just average enemies? This doesn’t seem right…”
Someone with red hair held up Amina’s head by the neck, dangling it like a trophy.
“This one looks stronger… then are they the right ones?”
THUD!
Right behind her. Amina’s body, flopping like a rag doll, fell helplessly sideways as the red-haired warrior, discarding Amina’s head like garbage, drew a spear from her back and charged at me like a beast.
