Underground of Solas Department Store.
"Where is Dylan and his men? It has been hours since they've been gone, they should already be back."
"Tsssk that idiot. He is probably enjoying himself at the brothel. Tell him to report to me as soon as he comes back. Anything else?"
"Ok Boss, the servants of the Solas Family are here to collect their share of the deal. What should we do?"
"Give them what we agreed on. Tell them to put new requests for wolf furs. It is time to increase our hunting grounds. Hehehe"
-“Those new adventurers are such a great source of wealth.”
The important figures of the Red Bandits were all sitting around a table. On the side of the room, were dancers doing their performances. Although the dancers were all young and attractive, the bandits focused their attention on their leader. After all, making money was more important. As long as they had money, they could hire beauties from anywhere.
"If we already discussed everything, let's eat brothers. Tomorrow, we'll have a lot of work to do," said the Red Bandit Leader while clapping his hands. A few seconds later, servants came in carrying plates of food around the table.
But Suddenly,
"Boom!"
A young man dressed in red violently opened the door and rushed into the room.
"Alert! Alert!! We are under attack! The militia is here!"
"What? Why will the militia come to the Solas Department Store in the middle of the night? Is it possible that they know? How did they discover our hideout?"
....
Outside, on the main street, a large number of militiamen was gathered, completely surrounding the Solas Department Store. Many players were actually on the streets and were wondering if there was an event quest going to be triggered but nothing happened. Instead, the militia formed a Perimeter of Security and strictly prohibited anyone from approaching the Store.
The commander went straight to the entrance and loudly knocked at the door.
"Sir, we are here for a surprise inspection. Will you please open the door?"
A few seconds later, a servant opened the door and answered in a quiet and apologetic voice, "Good evening Commander, it is a bit late for an inspection. My master went back to his house. As much as I want to let you enter, I cannot let you in without his permission..."
But before he could finish his sentence, a shadow appeared behind him and hit him on his neck making the servant lose consciousness. It was a militia rogue. Contrary to popular belief, the militia was not composed solely of warriors and paladins, all the classes could actually be found but in different proportion.
The commander nodded at the rogue then raised his hand. It was the signal to begin the assault. Quickly, the militiamen went through the entrance in an orderly manner and soon the clashing of swords resonated through the building.
Li Wei followed his team and quickly went inside. The scene in front of his eyes was really messy. Corpses were lying everywhere, and many fights were happening everywhere in the main hall. Even if the Red Bandits were caught off guard, they were used to fighting and quickly reacted. They quickly held their ground; it was after all their territory.
Many Red Bandits first immediately surrendered, but the militia was not taking any prisoners. In this situation, they could not afford to spare some men to look after these prisoners and could only finish them off. When seeing that, the rest of the Red Bandits firmly held their weapons and fought back for their lives.
The commander was nowhere to be seen. “From the look of things, he must have proceeded further into the shop,” said Li Wei to himself.
Li Wei was observing the scene while sticking to his team but quickly, they received the command to engage the fight. Red Bandits were appearing out of nowhere and were sneak attacking the militiamen.
Having received the order, Li Wei Became excited. It was a good opportunity to get a lot of exp. When he saw the messy fight, he immediately wanted to deal finishing blows to the Red Bandits, but he held that feeling inside and stayed with his team.
But now, he directly drew out his needles and threw them at the injured Red Bandits. He did not attack the newly arrived one but instead, dealt the finishing blow to the one engaged in fights. He received a few stares from the militiamen who were fighting the Red Bandits, but they did not say anything. Li Wei was puzzled. Did they mind it if he kills steal some Red Bandits? After all, the militiamen did not depend on exp to level up. From Li Wei's perspective, it would be a waste to lose all these juicy exp.
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His 10 needles took down 10 Red Bandits and brought him a bunch of exp; all the Red Bandits here were at least level 7 and were all class holders. Having nothing else to throw, Li Wei drew out his sword and engaged a Red Bandit warrior.
The latter grinned. Seeing Li Wei, who was young compared to the other militiamen, he judged that his opponent was just some random rookie that he could quickly finish off. But against all expectations, the young man easily dodged his sword and bashed his shield forward.
Li Wei focused, in such as messy fight, he could not afford any mistakes; he could easily get surrounded and focused by the other Red Bandits in the surroundings. He dodged the incoming sword by jumping to the right and used his imitation of [Bash] to strike the Red Bandit's head.
Li Wei successfully landed his attack and quickly followed up with a [Cleave]. A militiaman next to him also charged at the Red Bandit, completely overwhelming him. But before his HP bar could hit 0, a series of blue lights appeared, "+20","+21"... Several Red Bandits appeared from behind a shelf as reinforcement.
"Crap! Mages and rangers, focus the priests!"
Li Wei tried to charge at the priests, but the Red Bandits were not stupid. Their warriors and paladins formed a wall, preventing anyone from reaching the priests. Li Wei and the militia, violently charged forward, hacking their weapons at the Red Bandits. In front of the Li Wei was a level 7 Paladin. The latter was forced to stay behind his shield as Li Wei continuously slashed his sword down. Unfortunately, despite all his efforts, Li Wei could not break his defense.
The space was very limited, he could not attack from the side as there were other militiamen and Red Bandits present. Mages and Rangers continuously fired at the back lines but with the cooldowns, the priests could just heal up or drink potions safely at the back. With priests on both sides, the situation was in a deadlock, but that did not last for long.
"We are here to help! Charge!"
Another team of militiamen arrived to help Li Wei's team. They had already defeated their own opponents as they were the first to charge in. And so, the balance was quickly broken. With more mages and warriors, the militia was gradually able to take down the Red Bandits.
Li Wei was being very passive. He did not want to put himself into too much danger, only holding his ground. But when he saw the other team arriving, he started taking some risks. He just could not let go of all these exp.
Mana Bolts flew across the hall, as soon as a nearby Red Bandit was hit by those, Li Wei would dash and deal the finishing blow. Eventually,
[System prompt: Congratulations player Seven. You leveled up. You have obtained a stat point]
Li Wei smiled, he was now level 7, he directly added his stat point to Strength and continued to fight.
As the Red Bandits saw the situation turn sour, they started to retreat, going back to the secret path they came from. When Li Wei and the militiamen tried to chase them, dark circular objects were thrown towards them and a few moments later, a thick white smoke leaked out of these objects.
The militiamen were blinded but continued to advance in the general location but then, "Boom! Crash!" Li Wei was following his team but suddenly, a loud sound came from his side; a shelf had fallen onto the militiamen. The Red Bandits were using the shelves of Department store to slow them down. They were quite heavy and severely injured the unfortunate militiamen upon falling.
In this situation, the militia captains had no choice but to call back their troops. Advancing like that was too dangerous; many took advantage of this short break to drink some potions and so did Li Wei.
The militiamen were quick-witted and well trained, they got back into formation and started moving. Li Wei's team would go through the main hall into back shop. As for the other team, they would leave some members here to guard this secret path and wait for the smoke to dissipate while the rest of the members would go help other teams at the other entrances.
...
At the back shop, more fights were happening left and right. The fights were even more ferocious; the commander was there, fighting a large muscular man with a scar on his face. It was the Red Bandit leader.
Both sides were warriors but compared to most warriors, the Red Bandit leader was holding 2 long swords. He was very fast and was continuously slashing at the Commander with the two swords. Even though not much damage was done, he was so fast that the Commander had no choice but to defend with his shield.
While Li Wei's team directly engaged combat, Li Wei himself did not. Instead, he went into a corner of the room to observe the fight of the two strongest men. It was an opportunity to learn different fighting styles and his eyes glimmered when he saw the Red Bandit Leader.
Li Wei stood in a safe corner and observed the surroundings. Fights were happening everywhere. Many captains were engaged into battle. Mana Bolts and arrows were flying all over the place and priest were constantly healing their teammates.
But the only thing interesting in Li Wei's eyes was the fight between the Commander and the Red Bandit Leader. Just from one look, one could tell it was a battle of Dexterity against Strength. The Red Bandit Leader was constantly attacking, always moving around the commander, slowing chipping his HP away.
But the commander was holding his ground, only able to attack once for every 5 attacks of the Red Bandit Leader. But these attacks, when they landed, dealt a large amount of damage and forced the Red Bandit Leader back.
Despite the mess in the hall, nobody dared to approach these two. There was like an invisible barrier, that deterred anyone from approaching. Only priests were casting heals from a distance on their respective side.
Li Wei calmly observed the Red Bandit Leader's movement and engraved them into his mind. It was a style that inspired him. Being so aggressive that he did not need a shield, constantly moving and dodging the strikes. It was like a special class between Warrior and Rogue.
The Red Bandit Leader was in constant motion, striking on the left, then spinning to strike on the right, thrusting, stabbing... It was like a dance, a violent dance. His movements were not especially graceful, but each of his moves had a sort of harmony.
But that did not last for long, minutes later, the balance was finally broken.
"Crash, thomp thomp thomp!"
A door was flung wild open and a team of militiamen charged in from another entrance. They had finally made it to the back shop. They were all covered with bruises. At this point, everyone had suffered some injuries, but they were all suppressing them and charged at the enemy.
Seeing that the situation was getting worse, the Red Bandits reacted. They became even more violent, not caring about their lives anymore.
Li Wei was about to attack the Red Bandits to finish them off but at this moment, he noticed a faint shadow quickly approaching the Commander.
The Commander was completely focusing on the Red Bandit Leader; he needed to keep track of all his movements if he wanted to be able to parry all the strikes. But suddenly, he felt something behind his back, a very dreadful feeling.
He quickly pushed the Red Bandit Leader away and turned around to see what was causing that feeling and then he saw it. A faint shadow appeared before his eyes, and was shortly followed by a dagger aiming at his throat, it was the level 10 skill, [Cut throat]. But being experienced, the Commander instinctively raised his shield and mitigated the damage of the ability.
Unfortunately, it was too late, the balance was broken and the Red Bandit Leader took advantage of the situation and stabbed the commander from behind.
The faint shadow was the other level 10 Red Bandit. He was a rogue and considered as the vice-leader. Even though he was annoyed when his [Cut throat] was blocked, he quickly teamed up with the Red Bandit Leader to suppress the Commander.
The Commander was pushed back, he kept taking damage. The heals were no longer enough to sustain his HP bar.
"Finish him off,” shouted the level 10 rogue.
As the commander's health was nearly depleted. The Red Bandit Leader raised his sword and used [Cleave]. The Commander saw this and could not help but sigh. He was a very upright man, ready to die for a cause but who would not fear death? But there was just nothing he could do.
The other level 10 militiamen were all engaged in fights and could not assist the Commander. A few moments ago, they were being suppressed with the number of Red Bandits but now that the other militia teams were arriving, the situation was finally getting better. But they did not expect that the Red Bandits would sneak attack the commander in such a way. Even if they rushed to help him, they would be too late.
However, at that moment, another shadow dashed from the corner of the room, unnoticed by all.