Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 22. Overpowered.
“So weak,” Laien thought contemptuously as he thrust his spear forward, piercing through one of those desperate men who had gone silly from fear and started charging at him. “They are just like those guards of that Viscar in the crimson district… they are a level or two below the average strength their cultivation level represents, just like all the others we fought before,” he mused, feeling a bit surprised that the bandits of the infamous Anarchic Lands were so underwhelming.
“Oh?” he smirked a little when the three closest thugs chose to attack him at the same time from three different directions. He released a little of his spiritual energy and enhanced it with the power he could draw from his insights, then transformed it into a swirl of water and ice around himself. The three men collided with the twisting barrier and were blown to the ground. The water on their bodies quickly transformed into a layer of freezing ice, then the cold spread all the way to their bones and forced life out of them.
“Looks like Yin got to kill the leaders of this bunch.” The thought crossed Laien’s mind while watching Yin exchange a few quick blows with three strongest of the bandits; two men and one woman, all at the ninth mortal realm. As far as the standards of Anarchic Lands went, people like them were probably considered to be quite strong, alas; they failed to hold their own against Yin for even two breaths of time before their weapons broke or their limbs got cut off.
The disparity in strength between someone in the mortal realm and someone comparable to an elite martial master of the second rank was simply too huge. Adding the fact that Yin was extremely agile and fast, and even had a powerful movement art at his disposal, the result of this brief fight couldn’t have been any different.
“No point chasing the others down,” Laien assumed and headed back to the road first, soon to be joined by Yin who had gotten a bit further into the forest while chasing the three fleeing bosses of the group. Judging from the sounds, the two of them could tell that the battle on the other side was much more heated than theirs; thus, they picked up the tempo and hurried back. Although they enjoyed this manhunt, they would feel quite guilty if one of their guards got killed because of them.
---
“For Ishtar’s blood,” Greywolf growled quietly. He hadn’t expected that this group would have a martial master of the second rank, not to mention this strange black-cloaked man who was still on horseback and was ignoring the whole situation. Even the weakest of them, those three guards in the mortal realm, were staying together and guarding each other’s backs; dealing with this group would be many times harder than he had thought, especially given that half of the meat shields he had wanted to make use of were apparently being stalled by two kids.
Stalled… or so he thought until the terrified cries began sounding from the forest. He had found it strange that those two boys rushed in there alone and none of their guards were concerned, but he never imagined half of their forces would be scattered by two young boys!
“What should I do? Try attacking them? Or run now when my men are still unhurt?” he thought restlessly. He understood that there was no way for their current forces to beat this group, but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t just retreat without doing anything. An achievement like killing a group of traveling martial masters would undoubtedly have skyrocketed his influence and position in the Anarchic Lands, but a failure, and at that such a miserable one, would guarantee that not only he but also his brothers would end up in a huge peril!
“We are taking out those three, then we bait the rest to the main camp,” he ordered hurriedly and ran forward, followed by his thirty or so subordinates. There was still a way to salvage this situation; he wouldn’t give up so easily. Not when the new life he and his brothers had finally obtained was at stake.
By this time, after merely about a dozen breaths of time into the battle, the bandits controlled by the two major bosses over at the roadside were about to collapse. Each time Ruan swung his broadsword multiple bandits would be cleaved into pieces, every time Jin struck out with his greatsword similar casualties would occur. With every blow of Liza’s sword, one person would undoubtedly perish, while the weakest three of the group of guards would continue to resist any assaults with their refined teamwork and mutual trust on each other’s abilities. The task at hand wasn’t easy, but Greywolf was confident he could pull it off. Thus, after charging into the melee from the side, he suddenly sped up and caused a spear to appear in his left hand, with which he thrust forward.
“!” The shock of the man who met with the attack wasn’t small. He had too little time to put his guard up so he could only twist his body and attempt to get out of the way. Yet, he wasn’t fast enough. When the spear-point touched the leather armor at his stomach it was suddenly engulfed by rust-colored flames; the blade sliced through the material and through the flesh, whereas the flames burned the body and damaged the internal organs.
“Ethane!” the two others could only cry out in their hearts when they saw their friend being heavily wounded. The strongest out of them, Dinne, who was at the middle stages of the ninth mortal realm disregarded his current opponent and turned his back to him. As a result, he took a blow to his shoulder, which thankfully ended up with nothing but a slight cut; the regular bandits weren’t nearly strong enough to cut through his skin. Because of this accurate assessment of his, he managed to get in the way of the follow-up strike of the martial master who attacked them and just barely blocked his sword before it could take Ethane’s life.
Yet, their peril was far from over. Although Ruan was pretty close, a portion of the man who came with that martial master went to block him; and by the looks of it they were fairly skilled and displayed proper teamwork. It would take Ruan a good while before he could kill them all, while the remaining half of the man’s subordinates was already joining the assault on the three of them.
“It got quiet?” Greywolf noticed how the already low amount of ruckus in the forest died down. “It can’t be, already?” he asked himself, then clicked his tongue and called out to his men. “Capture them alive!” Himself, he focused on suppressing the strongest of the three; the man at the ninth mortal realm who was proving to have an airtight defense. To his discontent, he probably wouldn’t be able to take him down within just a few exchanges.
However, tying him up was enough. His subordinates averaged at the early eighth mortal realm and had been taught how to work together with him for quite some time. Taking down one very heavily wounded, barely conscious guy and another man at the eighth mortal realm was a simplicity in itself for them.
“Damn it!” Rishe struck out with his sword in a very reckless manner against the first opponent who closed onto him, and with a bit of luck managed to thrust the blade through the man’s chest. He pulled the sword to the side and shredded the man’s chest, killing him instantly. Yet, this little victory wasn’t nearly enough to turn the tables. He was immediately assaulted by three more people, two of whom had had enough time to circle around him. The wounded Ethane was similarly being attacked and given the kind of contention he was in, there was pretty much nothing he could to do defend himself for more than one the shortest period of time.
“Out of my way!” Ruan roared, a dark green Qi covering his broadsword as he swept with it at the bunch of bandits who were obstructing his way. The closest one in front of him didn’t have enough time to back off and failed to get out of the way; when the huge blade touched his body he instantly transformed into a splash of gore, blow away into smithereens by the force of the spreading Qi.
The erupting wave crashed into six more bandits, directly killing two of them and heavily wounding and blowing the rest away, sending them smashing into the backs of their comrades who were attacking the three guards.
That brief interruption was enough to momentarily relieve the pressure off of Rishe and partially Dinne, but the heavily wounded Ethane was less lucky. His hand and shoulder got slashed by two blows of his opponents while his weapon got knocked out of his hand. The very next instant a powerful swing of a club came right flying right at his temple… and connected, knocking him unconscious.
“Tch,” Greywolf frowned when the man he was fighting managed to deflect the follow-up thrust he did with his sword after attacking with the spear. He had intended to disable him the moment he would be distracted by his friend falling, but the man proved to be more cool-headed than he thought. To make matters worse, this marital master of the second rank killed quite a few of his subordinates; he would soon force his way through and then it would all be too late.
“Enough, go!” he shouted, sweeping with his spear with all his strength and forcing the man before him to take a few steps back despite successfully guarding himself against the attack.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Stop them!” Dinne shouted desperately, seeing how this bunch was taking away Ethane. He was glad they didn’t just kill him, but he couldn’t be sure if being abducted wouldn’t end up being worse than death for him. He wanted to turn around and yell at that black-cloaked bastard from the Cail family who from the very beginning until now was only watching and doing nothing, but he didn’t want to lose the leader of those bandits from his sight.
“They are retreating here too?” Laien mused mid-air, having just jumped out of the side road bushes. At first he was a bit disappointed that the fight was already over, but he very quickly noticed that something was wrong; what came to him first was the atmosphere and the next split-second, he noticed one of those three guards from his old days in the Valius family being carried away by one of the bandits.
“Bastards!” he shouted, releasing spiritual energy and converging dozens of ice spikes while still flying mid-air. He sent them all at the forefront of the fleeing group hoping to slow them down, but the effectiveness of his spells wasn’t that high when the distance was already over one hundred meters and with many trees in the way.
“Disperse!” a command came from Greywolf and his subordinates split into two groups. The man himself provided support for those who couldn’t make it in time and deflected the few of the ice spikes that were about to connect, then yelled again. “Together!” And the men obeyed, joining back into one group and rushing deeper into the forest.
The effectiveness of the command and the swift reactions of the men shocked Laien; this bunch was incomparable to the mob they used to face before. To make matters worse, the one who had shouted the orders a second before made a throwing motion and sent a bunch of stones flying at Ruan, who was quickly catching up to them.
His eyes opening wide at the sight, Ruan immediately halted and raised his broadsword to protect his head and upper body. The dozen of fiery-red stones lit up with a bright light, then exploded with fire. The flames spread out along with the blast and sent Ruan flying; he stuck one of the trees in his way, his back ripping off a large portion of bark from the trunk. The broadsword fell from his hand and got stuck in the ground, whereas he himself rolled and stumbled all the way back to the road.
“Ruan?!” Laien yelled in a questioning tone, not sure if he should go over to heal him or if she should pursue those bandits. It was also just around then when Yin also leaped out of the bushes, joining their group by the road.
“Horses!” Ruan said in a sore voice, enhancing it with his Qi so everyone would hear him. “Get on the horses and chase them!” he repeated, already standing up and running up to his own mount.
“Why?” Laien asked as briefly as he could. He wasn’t that fast, but Ruan and Yin were; wouldn’t it be better for them to chase those bandits on foot? Especially if they were going through the forest?
“They’ve got horses,” Yin explained as he jumped into the saddle. “There was neighing after the explosion,” he added while Laien was mounting his black War Horse, then urged his mount forward and went ahead with Ruan, Dinne and Rishe.
Without asking any more question, Laien followed after the three. Jin and Liza joined him a few seconds later, having had cut their way through the bunch of thugs amongst which they had previously been fighting. The black-cloaked man also followed, but it was pretty unlikely that he was going to do anything else but that; follow and watch.
They soon rode into another hidden road and continued to pursue the two dozen of fleeing horsemen. Yet, the leader of the bandits once again tossed some fire element spirit stones, forcing Ruan and Yin to make their horses jump sideways into the forest to avoid being tossed away by the explosion. Also, it was one thing for Ruan to withstand the fire and it would similarly be nothing serious for Yin’s purebred War Horse, but Ruan’s cross-breed would have gotten his legs hurt and that would be very much problematic.
The fiery stones exploded and when Ruan and Yin got back to the road, they ended up being behind Laien who skillfully made his way all the way to the front and left the rest of their group behind.
“Good, he might be able to suppress the smaller explosions with his magic,” Ruan thought gladly, but when he caught sight of those bandits again his face fell. They had used this brief time-frame to split into four groups and go into the forests, each of them fleeing in a different direction! “This kind of command… and that rust-colored flame. That aren’t bandits, is their leader a deserter from the Iron Fort?” he wondered, cursing himself for not forcing the boys to stop with this reckless manhunt before they got themselves in this goddamn situation.
“Laien, this way!” Yin called out and turned to the right, diving into the forest. Laien didn’t hesitate for a second and followed instantly, thus lost no distance in comparison to Ruan and the rest of them who were incapable of making the decision so quickly.
“He saw him? What kind of eyesight does this kid have?” Greywolf groaned inwardly. He had stolen quite a few spirit stones from the Iron Fort, but he didn’t have enough to ensure those guys would be blown up. He had a little more than sixty remaining and with a pained heart, prepared to throw some of them in the way of the boys if they began catching up.
This time however it wasn’t so simple for the boys, Ruan and the others to gain some distance on them. They lost most of their fighting strength after splitting up, but the six of them were riding extremely fast and agile mix-breed of horses from the Anarchic Lands. As far as short-distance races went this breed was far superior to any other in a terrain like the uneven forests they were in. He had fully expected to have some space for comfort, but surprisingly those two boys were keeping up with them; just barely so, but still.
As for that martial master of the second rank, he was actually slowly catching up despite them going at full speed and being familiar with the area and the various hidden roads!
“Ugh, I will need to waste most of my spirit stones,” Greywolf grumbled. He predicted he would arrive where he wanted in about two hours. He could have made it a few minutes less, but he would make his group go slightly longer way to give the other three time to alarm his brothers. When those pursuers of his got straight into their main encampment they would be surrounded and killed. He had seen how strong this group was and even if those boys were as strong as marital masters of the first rank, they would have no chance after finding themselves in the tiger’s den.
To be completely honest, however… he was only hoping that Blackwolf would have already returned from his escapade. His elite team would be very useful if they wanted to limit the number of casualties; his two brothers would surely be quite angry if they lost many of their men because of his screw-up.
---
“Oi, finally! What took you so long?” one of the men keeping the guard at the camp’s outskirts called out lazily. “Did you at least get anything nice?” he asked, waving his flagon of alcohol at the three dozen approaching men, amongst whom were many of his good friends.
“We did, you lazy bum,” the man to the right of the person who appeared like a leader of their band spoke cheekily. “Did you keep the camp in a good state with the others? We’ve brought some good spoils; that village proved to be richer than it seemed,” the man said and laughed merrily. He loved this kind of life; they were strong so they took what they wanted and no one was there to tell them what was ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. The Anarchic Lands operated purely on the law of the jungle; here no one would be able to effectively pursue them for their ‘crimes’.
“Blackwolf,” a man with a calm, collected expression on his face walked out of the house in the middle of the camp. “You made sure you weren’t followed I trust?” he asked habitually; it had become a kind of tradition for them and their men to ask this question to their returning comrades. Although the Anarchic Lands were secure, it was still better to stay hidden than to flaunt your location to everyone else. Forget the headhunters; the fights between local powers were what killed most people in those lands, not the encounters with their prey.
“You think I’d let someone follow us?” Blackwolf replied with a question and snorted dismissively. “The job this time around was a clean one, none escaped so there weren’t any pursuers to begin with. More importantly, what for the blood’s sake is going on in the area? We didn’t see any rats on our way here, it’s damned strange,” he inquired, meanwhile gesturing his men to scatter and take care of their own businesses, what they happily did.
“The thing is,” Whitewolf began saying and clicked his tongue. “It looks like some idiots hired a group of martial masters and went on some kind of an adventure to kill bandits,” he said grudgingly and shook his head. “Greywolf took his guys and gathered all the people he could find, so the matter should be soon taken care of. We both know he is the best around when it comes to tactics and commanding his subordinates, some random group of mercenaries wouldn’t be able to stand up to him,” he spoke in support, though deep inside his heart he couldn’t shake off this slightly anxious feeling.
“I hope he didn’t lose too many men,” Blackwolf said and shook his head. “It’s not easy to kill a bunch of martial masters no matter how superior your numbers are. When they recognize they are being killed one by one, they will grow desperate and begin launching desperate attacks. It’s easy to lose many good men in this way,” he explained, sighing secretly. He was speaking from experience; he had once been unlucky enough to attack a village where three marital masters of the first rank were staying. In order to kill them, he had sacrificed ten of his best men; this loss pained him up to this day.
“The thing is, this idiot finally broke through to the Realm of Heroes just the last week,” Whitewolf said with a laugh. “He grew completely overconfident since then. I swear if he screws something up and the news of us being here get to the Iron Fort…” he groaned and revealed an ugly look on his face. The three of them had collaborated with one of the major local leaders and betrayed the Iron Knights; they were supposed to become that woman’s direct subordinates in exchange, but those incompetent bandits failed to wipe out their unit and got themselves killed. Thus everything went down the drain and the deal was called off; they were forced to work their way up from the ground-level.
“Oh?” the two men turned to look when they heard the sounds of horses rushing over. “Is he back?” they wondered, but when they saw the looks on the faces of the riders they realized something was very much wrong.
“Those guys were strong than expected! Leader captured one of them and is baiting them to this place!” one of the riders called out while rushing into the camp, having spotted the remaining two leaders of their group in the middle of the open grounds.
“He did screw up.” Blackwolf’s forehead furrowed. “Get your asses back here! All the rest of you too! Get ready for battle!” he ordered decisively, his shout soon followed by six hundred people emerging from their tents and houses.