I do have some memories of when I woke up for the first time in this body, it's quite a beautiful night when I am awake -- the stars are in a full-blown view, and I am stunned when I see two moons chasing one another, a blueish one looks like holding hands with an orange one.
Then I remembered, that my "old-self" had some kind of sickness of the mind?? I can't remember what kind -- I am afraid that I have relapsed and started hallucinating stuff. The confusion starts seeping when I realize that I am inside the body of a child, and then some dark silhouette emerges from the lake. Or is it the ocean? And it's all blurry from that point in time until I wake up again on the side of the river.
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The forest on the hills of Mountain Asth, is one of the most dangerous places to travel, not because of its terrains or flora and fauna, but because it's filled with bands and cliques of bandits and tribesmen of savage Gobbos. They filled the crevices of the hills and caves on the mountain. As Mountain Asth is the tallest mountain on the mountain range that borders the human kingdom and other races, the mountain pass becomes a hub for the transport of forbidden goods between the border.
On one of the clearings of the forest, the Romian Slaver’s caravan is to take a rest in the night, a few carriages filled with illegal goods, and two carriages filled with slaves that headed to a hidden port on the northeast of Bridgetown Valkast. The caravan is guarded by 25 mercenary bandits, hired from the surrounding clans, they are experts on guiding and guarding “travelers” through this forest and mountain pass from other bandits.
Between the shouting of the caravan’s bodyguard and the plucking of the lute from the strange bard, not far from there, about 700 meters from the caravan, a group of adventurers hidden between the trees, whispering with each other,
Ready for an ambush.
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“ Any new linked-message?” a knight, with full-body armor, a shield, and a sword asked. He tried to fix the saddle on his beetle-horse.
An elf lady, after murmuring to the wind, answered, “Yeah, the other group already finished their ambush, four other caravans only have goods, and the other two have some slaves, companied by some necromancer.”
“Shit, do you think this one got some necromancer too?”
“Hey hey Ysuf, it’s no problem, I could handle some nekries, but the real pain in the ass would be if this is the Romian slaver, they will kill themselves with datura poison before we could get any info about the new black market.” the elf lady eyes closed while wiping her staff head.
“Mira, you cocky horse, you're not going on the front stupid, if you’re killed, we can’t get new info from the others, did you hit your head and forget that you’re the only mage with a linked-message spell here?”
“You’re the stupid one. friends, look at our stupid vice-captain here.” Mira the elf lady grumbled.
“Both of you knocked it off, I can’t concentrate,” a guy with bows and arrows stated, he tried to listen in to the distance, he could hear Compe the bard playing his lute. It’s quite an impossible feat, to hear the lute sound from their distance.
“From Compe’s lute plucking, there’s about twenty-seven guards, two high-leveled individuals, and many commoners,” Maripan the hunter, told the others.
Deafening sounds were suddenly heard from the Caravan’s direction
“Wait… we should move now.” he checked his bow for the last time and unsheathed his dagger.
Ysuf hopped into his beetle-horse, he looked at his group for a while, there were five people under his care now, and he knew that his people were all capable Adventurers. For twelve years he had done this, quest after quest for all these years, but the jittery feelings he had before a fight never gone from his heart. He closed his eyes for a second while holding his necklace, and then he prayed, silently.
He opened his eyes, “You all ready?” he asked his friends.
“Let’s kill some bad people tonight.”
Everyone smirked, a glint of madness in their eyes, and the Bladefish Adventurers rode into the night.
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“Don’t come closer you hobo cunt!” a shout from one of the bandit bodyguards, he seems annoyed and angry when a stranger comes from a distance while spewing some bullshit.
“What entertainment? You want to get killed now do you??” the other bandit growled to the bard
“Now.. now… just listen for a sec, I could sing some good songs for you my friends… or maybe you all want some drink, I have a bottle here,” Compe smirked and started playing his lute, he was surrounded by seven bandits, at least no one unsheathed their swords, yet.
“Sire and lady, do you know a song called The Bandit King?” Compe started humming for a while, he activated his skill [Calming Strum] silently while laughing, and the subtle effect worked miraculously for a while, and then he started singing.
Sons of a whore and a Beggar prick
Let me tell the story of a Bandit King
A savage beast from the slums just like a tick
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Massacre the masses, an evil in the making
He cast a double-spell,
[Surround Sound] [Bat’s Chorus] (Let Me Hear Where You Are)
While singing and playing his lute, he could see all the people in the caravan; seven bandits near him, a low level fortunately, eight posted in front of the driver’s carriage, low to mid? He guessed, five bandits at the back of the caravans. There are a lot of people near the bonfire, seven with weapons, two guys probably the leader of the group, highly skilled. The others are probably commoners or slaves. wait, one woman wears a collar, and there’s a child, chained into a cage behind a carriage.
Compe grimaced, and he started plucking his lute differently. A sweat dripping on his back, he plays the coded strums and plucks to give the pieces of information to Maripan, the sounds traveled far, and he hoped Maripan could hear the code.
Life and wealth snatched by his peers
Meaningless drinks, drugs, and fortune gambled
Backstabbing friends huddled for him
The Lonely Path of the Bandit King
The bard bowed, waiting for the claps and the cheers from the bandit, he knew that it would never come. The seven bandits were confused after hearing the song, “what the fuck with that song?” said one of the bandits. Compe could see someone approaching from the bonfire, a burly man with a Warhammer in his hand.
“Now for the last piece,” the Bard throws a bottle filled with strong liquor into the air, he grips and twists the neck of his lute, and all the strings snap. A clicking sound could be heard from the lute, the body of a small rapier revealed when he pulled the lute neck from the lute’s body with his left hand and he gripped the soundhole with his right hand vertically.
[Choir of The Blind and The Deaf]
Compe changed his stance into a guard stance while he covered his eyes with his Lute-Shield, the bottle revibrated and exploded violently. a screeching sound and burning bright light spreads from the bottle explosions, All the seven bandits and the burly slaver are blinded and deafened while some of the bottle shards hit their faces. A cacophony of screams and swearing could be heard from them, while the other groups of bandits startled and started panicking.
The Bard-Fencer's ears still ringing from the explosion, he gritted his teeth while covering his face from the bottle shards. Compe’s cloak fluttered while he dashed, the rapier in his left hand stabbed the heart of one of the bandits in front of him. He pulled the rapier and side-stepped while slashing deeply at the neck of the bandit on his left then he changed into an ice-pick grip to stab the side of the brain of the last bandit on his outer left.
“Arrrghhhh, MY EYES,” the Burly slaver face covered by the bottle glass, one of his eyes bleeds, punctured by a huge shard. He tried to open his eyes but everything still looked white.
“Archers, shoot that guy!!” shouted Lanky, three bandit archers near the bonfire, ran to the side of the camp, and started raining arrows at the bard.
Four Bandits left on the right side from Compe, they were still incapacitated from the explosion. He dashed to the other four bandits, In his peripheral view, he saw arrows shooted into him from the bandits near the bonfire, [Bard’s Sword Art: Irregular Tempo] he deflected some of the arrows with his lute-Shield, and swerved between the bandits near him while slashing and stabbing three of the bandits. He grabbed the last bandits near him and used the bandit’s body as a shield for the oncoming arrows.
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The sound of horse's hooves galloping could be heard from the front side of the caravan. The eight bandits posted there swiveled their heads after looking at the explosion, panicked, all of them tried to unsheathed their weapons and shields.
Two satisfying thunks could be heard from the penetrated arrows on the heads of the bandits, Maripan already nocked again his arrow while riding the horse, and he let the arrow fly once again, unfortunately, the arrow was deflected by one of the bandit's shields.
“ Maripan, Mira, Jorn, go help Compe! Others on me!” Ysuf shouted. He rides his beetle-horse at the front, and Maripan’s group swerves to the left to break from their formation. On the left and right side of Ysuf, two men with Long Shield and a Lance, sprints faster with their horses, ready to crush the bandits.
“CHAARGE!” Ysuf commanded his guild team, and two bandits instantly died from being impaled by the lances, when Ysuf’s beetle-horse charged the rest of the bandits, the bandits were thrown far away by the horn to the side.
The lanky slaver was confused by the sudden attack on his caravan, he pulled Avira the loyal slave to his side then he commanded the bandits that were posted at the back to surround him from the attack, and all the remaining bandits near the bonfire to split between the front and the side of the caravan, he shouted to the slaves to go inside into their cages on the carriages.
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“This is the last time I’ll be a decoy- ah fuck!” Compe still using the dead body of the bandit for a shield, yet his thigh was still grazed by the arrow. At last, he saw his teammates come to his rescue. Maripan, Mira, and Jorn jumped from their horses, Jorn brandished his gigantic Shield and moved to the front of Compe, he activated his skill [Wall of the Titans] while Mira and Maripan stayed behind Jorn.
The burly Slaver regained his hearing and partial vision, he saw that the bard got a reinforcement, he knew that these guys were high-leveled adventurers from their equipment, so he ran back to the camp near the bonfire to regroup with the Lanky Slaver.
“Need help friend?” asks Jorn to his hobo-looking friend while guarding him from the arrows. Jorn gigantic shield looks like a wall after his skill is used, but Jorn can’t move anywhere while the skill is activated.
“What takes you guys so long? Can’t you see I almost died here?!? Do you have a bandage??”
“Here, I know a weak guy like you must need it,” Maripan said jokingly, he threw the bandage to Compe then he tried to shoot the bandit archers while Mira cast [Strenghtening Sand] to Jorn’s gigantic shield.
Jorn tsked to Mira, “I don’t need your spell, my shield is already strong,”
“What kind of stupid are you? Can your skill shield us from magic? huh?” Mira told Jorn while smacking his head with her staff. Suddenly the shield was licked by a fireball spell, one of the bandits knew low-level magic.
“See? Told ya,” Mira said smugly.
“Even without your magic, my shield could hold that tiny fire! Ggrhrh-”
“Mira love, can’t you just throw holy fire-storms spells or whatnot at them and be done with it? I want to get back and take a bath,” Compe sighed while bandaging his thigh.
“And kill all the slaves? you guys are rot-brained, I’ll move to another guild after all of this is done, stupid shits” Mira holds her head, then chants long-range spells for a while.
[Aspect of the Sand: Seeker’s Cards]
Mira’s staff pummeled into the ground, sands from below her swirling into her hands, ten cards from the sands formed and levitated on her palm, she grabbed the card and threw it to the sky. The three archers and two additional bandits saw the cards coming at them, they tried to cut or deflect them with their swords and shields, but the cards just turned back into the sands just before they could hit it, and the sand changed again into the cards, penetrating their heads. The rest of the sand cards, homing into the four bandits near the bonfire, killed them instantly. But the one sand card left, only slit the neck of the burly slaver, bleeding nearly to death.