Yavneck hated to say it, but- "We need to leave." And why did he hate to say those words so much? Well, it is simply because he knew no one is gonna listen to him and the way everyone ignored his words is proof of that, "That isn't a normal wound, that's from a [Bolt] shot." He explained again, carefully this time, "And we've seen two of these so far." both were done on hanging and immobile people, making them easy targets but the way their heads got hit with nothing else having signs of enduring [Bolt] shots meant that the mage they are dealing with is a pretty good sharpshooter, "Galavan."
The man in question turned back, "Yavneck, my men are getting killed by some- some heathen who thinks he can trap us!" The bandit leader said the word 'trap' as if it was the most offensive thing that could ever come out of his mouth, "He's killing them while immobile! How could he?" Yavneck resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the muscle head.
"You know that whoever this mage is, he is rather powerful, right?" He asked rhetorically, "Usually, things like these are reserved, not just thrown around willy nilly."
"Exactly!" Galavan turned away from his decapitated man and started sniffing, "They should be reserved to fight powerful enemies!" And that enemy just so happened to be Galavan, Yavneck noted silently. "Come on! We need to get moving before he thinks he can get away with using more of his spells and draining his mana, I have a lot of men and I don't think he even has enough mana to kill all of them. He's gonna run out of it sooner or later!"
With a reluctant nod, Yavneck followed after the leader, and they walked until they heard muffled voices that got Galavan to perk up and Yavneck to raise his eyebrows in suspicion. He let Galavan walk to where those sounds came from and stayed behind the massive man by a few feet, making sure to look at his back all the while.
When the two of them reached the source of the sounds, Yavneck's suspicion only grew and he instilled a bit of his will into his necklace, preparing to cast a [Shield] instantly should the need arise.
"Hey, you two okay?" Galavan asked as he neared the two tied up bandits, sidestepping all the corpses on the ground all the while. Unlike him, though, Yavneck opted to start observing the corpses, again, whoever did this must've had amazing aim with his wand, it was as if it was done by an expert marksman. Yavneck hummed once he saw a corpse that had a head bashed in yet had no signs of any lingering damage from [Bolt].
He kicked the corpse so that it faced the other way and glared at the bandits Galavan is freeing, they glared back and Yavneck decided that using his brain might be more useful than threatening them- he mock sliced his neck with a finger, then pointed at the outside forest, then at the corpses, then finally at Galavan. It was a simple message, 'Kill,' - 'The one who's in the forest,' - 'And the one who killed these guys,' - 'with Galavan.'
Galavan looked confused and Yavneck frowned, his message was easy enough, wasn't it? Whether or not the two bandits even understood his message was out of the question because upon getting his gagged removed, the first one immediately said, "We need to kill that fucker Galavan." And their leader simply nodded in acknowledgment as he freed the other one out of his gag, the first one spoke again, "He's a smartass that thinks we're some group of ragtag shitheads that he can just trick whenever he wants!"
"Damn right." Replies Galavan. "He thinks he's so smart," He further adds, "Well, we're gonna make sure that his head pops so that he finally stops thinking!"
Yavneck resisted the temptation to take a step back and get away from the muscle headed idiots talking in front of him, they obviously weren't talking about Yavneck himself but rather, the mage who's been attacking them. That doesn't exactly stop Yavneck from making parallel connections with what he's doing, though. "I think he may run out of spells soon." He decided to say, breaking the ice and making Galavan angry, the leader stared at him and Yavneck forced himself to fight the glare, "This one," He kicked the corpse of the fallen bastard, "Doesn't have damage from a spell but had his head caved in by a hammer instead."
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Galavan's eyes narrowed, "Really now?" He faced his two men who nodded calmly, "I see," Standing up, Galavan dusted his pants and walked away from the two captives, he patted Yavneck by the shoulder as he passed him by, "Yavneck, you should go ahead and free them, I think I need to chase this bastard while he's still weak." Right. Of course, that's the reason.
Yavneck somehow forced his mouth to grin, "Sure,"
Galavan returned the gesture, his lips curling outwards to showcase a full set of canines, "Good."
As Galavan turned his eyes to the dark forest ahead of him, Yavneck got to work, he wanted to finish it as fast as he could and the best way to do that is to take out his dagger and just cut the strings loose, his skill, [Intuitive Learning] had been useful as he cut the ropes one by one, and as he worked, he can feel the skill feeding him temporary information about where to cut and how to do it properly and efficiently. Yavneck knew that if he did this repeatedly enough times, the skill would permanently give him the knowledge but since he didn't have a use for a skill that cuts ropes, he decided he didn't need to bother and simply let the skill burn that knowledge away.
By the time he was done, Galavan was 12 feet away from him and the bandit he just freed. Singular. Because the bastard that he set free first decided to run to their leader instead of helping him.
"We hadn't got to see the opportunity to see his face boss," Yavneck managed to catch an important piece of information as he caught up with the two bandits. Curious as for why exactly the bastard hadn't seen their enemy's face, Yavneck decided to strain his ears and listen in to the grating voice of the bandit, "He had this mask on his face, covering half of it. Ya know?"
Galavan nodded, his eyes never leaving the branching canopies above them, Yavneck wondered why for a brief moment until the bandit spoke again, "He set up some traps for us especially, too, so we never got to see anything more than a glimpse of his glistening vest."
So the mage can set traps, not that surprising, anyone can do that with a simple [Trap Making] skill at level two, hell, Javneck himself is growing that skill. But also- "Glistening vest?"
The bandit nodded, his face scrunching up to an ugly expression as if he was straining to remember a bad memory, "Yeah, it was like his clothes were glowing white-" The man stopped talking once Galavan placed his large palm on the man's chest, he stared up at their leader, confused, "Boss?"
"Careful," Galavan's voice edged on wary, "Someone's watching us." Yavneck immediately went on guard as his eyes darted around the greenery to spot anything amiss- shining clothes, he remembered the detail that the bandit said just now, and when he spotted something glistening in the darkness, he was about to speak but it seems that the guy right next to him had been following his gaze because he suddenly spoke.
"Found the bastard, boss." his deep voice growled out and he took a long stride forward that- "Ack-" blood gushed out of the dumbass' neck and his widened eyes can do nothing but stare as a yellow [Bolt] variant came out of the darkness and struck the other bandit in the stomach, rupturing it and causing him to fall down with a painful yell.
Two. Their enemy took out two of them in the blink of an eye.
"Hoh. He's good." Galavan's voice gained a dangerous edge to it and that was all Yavneck needed to know to prepare his necklace to cast a shield spell. "Come out!" Galavan's words of challenged were responded to by a [Bolt] that the man blocked with his black greatsword, "I see," with a nod, the 7 foot tall man used both his hands to grab the hilt of his sword and with a heave, he lifted the weapon and swung at the direction of their enemy.
Two trees fell as the God of Fighting's blessing to Galavan came to life, [Sword Aura] may be the most common thing that the God gives to his followers but that doesn't mean that it is by far weak, if anything, the utility and power of the spell is a devastation to behold.
With his weapon flaring to life, Galavan took a step forward, a grin taking over his face, "If you don't wanna come out, then I'll just force you out myself!"
Yavneck ignored the way the ground beneath him went still as Galavan bent his legs in preparation for his jump, opting to instead continue observing the surrounding area in front of him in a wary bid to watch out for their enemy, the glistening can barely be seen now, and he did not know just what kind of effect is causing such a thing but-
His [Shield] popped up in front of him and consumed the [Bolt] that had shot out from his right, he tried not to get scared at the sight of his barrier flickering on and off as he looked around, then he finally spotted him- "There." he pointed and Galavan jumped.