Hun!

A few seconds passed after I had killed the bandit, and I was moving toward another when I suddenly stopped and swung my sword to the left.

There, from the darkness, an arrow came. It is fast and clearly has several skills; I didn’t sense it, till it appeared in front of me.

A skill to sense the projectile had been activated on the ground. It is a pretty useful skill that I wish I had.

Clang!

Finally, my sword met with the tip of an arrow with Swift Blade and Weighted Strike, deflecting the arrow away.

I had just deflected the arrow when another appeared in front of me and instead of using my rapier, which I couldn’t due to the speed and closeness of the arrow; I simply moved my neck to the right.

Sup!

I felt the sharp air in my ear as I was able to dodge the arrow by the centimeter distance.

As I did, I felt my wet back; it was too dangerous.

This was especially dangerous when I didn’t have my guards. All three of them went to the different bandit groups; I could have kept them with me, but their help was needed to deal with the other groups.

Though, it would be quite regretful if I died. When the guards would have saved me.

I had prepared myself to face another arrow when I saw a couple of blue arrows going in that direction and knew without turning that they were from Ignatius.

I looked there for several seconds before turning to the bandits, knowing the danger of the hidden archer resolved.

I moved toward the group of three bandits who were fighting with the lone soldier.

She is dealing with them with her sword and shields.

There were fewer injuries on her than one would expect when one is dealing with such several enemies at once.

As I had said, we had brought a small number due to the constraint of stealth, but all the numbers are good; each one with years of battle experience and at Lv. 20 and above.

I had just reached the bandits and was about to attack when the orc turned to me and grinned.

“Your head is worth a lot, adviser,” he said and came and attacked me. He is fast, and the sword is faster, and I could feel the weight behind his sword.

I attacked as well with Swift Blade and Weighted Strike.

Our weapons reached close, and its sword tried to evade it, but I didn’t let it happen.

Clang!

We clashed, and he parried it, flicking out of the way, before attacking me. He used the skill, a parry skill, and now his sword is coming at me, at a really fast speed.

My rapier won't be able to stop it; I did the only thing I could.

I retreated with Rapid Steps, and he seemed to have expected that as he followed me, coming closer than I liked.

The bastard was powerful, and he had come very close to killing me. If I didn’t have a recent level-up, which enhanced the power of the attributes and thus the skills, I would have died already.

I have to do something real quick, or I will find myself decapitated like I did to the bandit earlier.

Half a second later, I suddenly stopped at its surprise and his blade reached really close to my head, barely inches away, when I suddenly bent backward. Dodging the attack by the mere inches, surprising even the orc.

The only thing the attack had cut was my hair.

In my training, I have been pushing hard on the Gymnasts Grace. Jon called it my best skill and wish; he has something like that.

His sword passed over my head when I had kicked him in the leg as hard as I could with my current position.

He tried to dodge it, but he was too close to me, and I used the Rapid Legs to do that. It is a speed skill, but it had still increased the speed of my leg.

The kick was strong, but not enough to throw him back. Just enough to make him stumble, which is what I want.

It immediately released what I was trying to do and tried stabilizing himself to retreat fast.

Slice Pachack!

Unfortunately for him, my sword had already reached him and sliced through his hand, before decapitating him.

Piercing his chest would have been much faster and more efficient, seeing it is rapier I am using, but in the position, I couldn’t bring enough stabbing force and it is also wearing the protection.

So, I took the risk, and it was worth it.

The only thing that was not was the blood that came, I tried to avoid it, but a lot of it had come on me.

I looked around me for any enemy, only to see some bandits and soldiers looking at me with shock and surprise in their eyes.

Unlike soldiers, I fight like a mercenary and take a lot of risks. It was dangerous, but it helped me defeat the enemies stronger than me; like the two I had fought, both of them were at Lv. 20.

I shook, wiped away blood from my lips with my sleeve, and moved toward the bandit, not far away from me.

“I surrender!” said the bandit and threw away the weapon.

A lack of fear doesn’t mean there won’t be an emotion of self-preservation. Some had already started to feel it.

Already, over twenty had surrendered, and more were surrendering.

Why wouldn’t they, when Ignatius is simply butchering them? My sister seemed to have disappeared, and I did not see the leader she was fighting not long ago.

It seemed like she had gone after him.

Which is quite risky, but she is a spell blade, more than capable of protecting herself.

I moved toward the other bandit, and he saw me coming toward him. He also came at me, with rage in his eyes, which is his natural emotion, not the one created by the skill.

“Die!”

It roared and attacked; I simply ducked the attack before appearing in front of him.

Puch!

My sword pierced through his chest, killing him. He was much easier than others, higher level than me in combat class, but not yet Level 20, likely Lv. 18, 19.

I took out my sword from his chest and moved to the other bandits.

A few minutes passed, and a lot of bandits surrendered, but many were still fighting and were now trying to run away.

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I saw one orc coming in my direction and it was big and fat. It was my first time seeing the fat orc, but it was not what had surprised me, while surprised me was his speed.

Seeing it coming, I moved and appeared in front of it.

“Die, human!” shouted the orc and attacked me with its thick saber.

The attack was fast and, seeing the thick enchanted saber, I instantly abandoned my plan to counter and dodged the attack.

It was a wise decision, as suddenly the speed of the saber increased. If I had tried to counter, it; I would have been fucked.

He would have been able to evade my sword and come at me.

Sup!

I was barely able to dodge the attack by less than an inch.

‘Fuck, this bastard is strong,’ I thought, looking at it and also looking at me, before looking behind me.

It was clearly trying to escape before I stopped it.

It looked behind me for a moment before turning to me with a grin.

It didn’t give me a good feeling.

“You are that adviser; if I have you, it will make my escape much easier,” he said and attacked.

This time, the attack was even faster and stronger. The thing that is making it worse, there are three blades coming at me instead of one.

I don’t think two of them are fake; they are feeling dangerous to me.

So, I moved to dodge; I first took a step back, before moving left and taking steps back again.

Rip!

It was not enough; the saber on the left end hit my shoulder, right below the guard, giving me a deep cut, and with it came pain that instantly made my eyes water.

It was painful, more painful than the skill of Instructor David.

Still, all the training he did with the pain skill helped me keep my mind straight in the pain and I moved to dodge the attack, using it to channel all the speed I could from the Rapid Legs to dodge another attack.

I dodged it, barely by an inch, from my neck.

“You are good, but if this is all you have; then you better surrender. It will save you some painful memories and me time,” he said, and this time, it is my turn to grin.

“Not interested,” I said, and anger flashed in the fat orc's eyes.

“Pain it is,” said the orc angrily and attacked.

I saw the three blades coming and this time, there was a heat coming off them; I don’t think it was an enchantment.

It is a skill, and now it is attacking me with it.

Rip!

I moved to dodge the attack but wasn’t able to. His blade cut my stomach, giving me a lacerating cut, that is hot as well as painful.

It was unbearable, but I bore it and moved to dodge another attack, I dodged it and the one after that.

I failed to dodge the one who came after that, and he gave me another lacerating cut on my arm.

I really shouldn’t have come in front of it. The bastard was stronger than I had anticipated; stronger than any enemy I had faced today, and he could really kill me.

One part of me really wanted to surrender, but the other part was telling me, he was a bandit; I couldn’t trust what he had said.

Still, if I continue fighting it, I am going to lose. It is way too powerful and has a good collection of skills that are very hard to deal with.

Now, I really wish I hadn’t sent my guards away. I had hired them to protect me and instead of letting them do their job; I had sent them to kill the bandits.

It was really idiotic of me.

Though, I can’t say, I regret the choice. It was necessary. Our forces were stretched thin; we had to keep a sizable force at the valley for the monsters and also keep an appearance in front of bandits' spies.

There are very few powerful people we could send.

However, it would be quite regretful if I died at the bandits' hands, and seeing the injuries piling on my body, that is likely to happen.

Puch!

I was thinking that when I heard the faint sound and saw a blue thing coming out of the bandit's head.

His eyes widened in realization, and he fell down dead. Sniped by Ignatius, who is coming at me.

“Thanks. If not for you, the bastard would have me,” I said as I took out the bottle of potion. “This one was quite powerful, we didn’t have any information about it,” he said with a frown.

“I noticed that too,” I said seriously as I poured the potion over my injuries before drinking the potion, while Ignatius continued killing the bandits.

I moved a few seconds later.

Others are fighting. I couldn’t hide behind Ignatius just because I had faced someone powerful and barely survived.

A few more seconds passed when a sudden change occurred between the bandits.

The fear appeared in their eyes.

“I surrender, me too…”

The first bandit surrendered and the second one, and after that third, and soon, the whole bandits surrendered.

“The leader,” I said, and Ignatius nodded.

A minute and a half after that; Leila came through the trees; bringing the body of the bandit leader with her.

“What is the report on other raids?” I asked, after gathering all the surrendered and dead bandits.

“Eight were successful; the ninth one seemed to have gotten the wind. Their leadership had gone before our men attacked,” replied Leila and a smile couldn’t help, but appear on my face.

“It had gone better than we expected,” said Ignatius, and I nodded with a smile.

We had hoped to succeed in five and succeeded in eight. Eight and a half, considering only the leadership of the ninth groups had escaped.

Today, we have weeded out the powerful groups. From tomorrow, our forces will scour the forest openly to hunt the small groups.

…

The next day, I rode into the lauryl town, with dead and captured bandits amidst the crowd of cheers.

I don’t like to do this, but it is very important for the town. People need to know we are doing everything to keep them safe.

It builds confidence and creates good business sentiment.

Blade Warrior Lv. 18