The man dressed in black stood atop the carriage as he gazed in our direction. Faced with a grim situation, the leader of the bandits stood his ground chanting some words with a serious look in his eyes. I was in awe of the sudden development. Even with such a situation, the leader kept his cool while fighting such a monstrous opponent. The leader spoke
While the leader started was chanting the men around the leader were getting swiped left and right while trying to protect him. Some of the men started to rush towards his direction while dodging all the roots in between, most of them though got caught by the roots. The leader continued to chant unfazed by the scene.
<..Become a shield that may even defend against heaven’s fury..>
Of the possible 20, only 6 of the men were around the leader of which 2 came by avoiding the roots. All of them stood their ground forming a circle around the leader, protecting him from the roots using various magic spell and skillful usage of weapons. The leader raised his hands as magic seals started to emerge below him. The 6 men nodded in agreement as they took out a piece of parchment which summoned a platform below them.
<...Grant Protection to me and my allies from certain death...>
“Leader! Watch out!!” a man shouted when one of the roots slipped past him. The root shot fast and pierced the leader's chest just as the man cut it in between. The leader was able to stop it in between by grasping it but it injured him a bit. He pulled out the root and burned it using a fire spell. Reassured the men continued to fend off the onslaught from the roots.
Even though I thought that the old man was an edgy sadistic scum or something, the level of calmness and concentration he kept while fighting was someone way above his level, that, I could respect.
<...Let it not be our last breath I beseech you...*
Just then, Yukiyo started chanting some words as he slowly drew his hands upwards pointing his index finger towards the sky. The tip of the finger started to glow a deep red, his expression, a faint smile.
The leader had a serious look on his face and even an inexperienced person like me could sense the danger that was ahead of us even with the 6 people guarding us.
The leader quickly placing his palm on the ground and a huge magic circle appeared. But Yukiyo was already pointing his spell towards our direction. A serious look in his eyes, a faint smile on his lips, and like a hunter, he was patiently waiting for his spell to finish up as he looked down on the thugs before him. The leader then raised his hand as he shouted.
<7th rank Guardian class spell...>
*cough*
The leader spurted out some blood. The previous injuries seemed to have caused a backlash at the most critical moment. The others looked worried but the leader stood tall as he gave them the signal and together they shouted.
<<
A huge spell circle was formed on all sides of the thugs, but Yukiyo just waited while the crimson light grew brighter. Until suddenly a small spell circle appears in front of his fingers.
I was in awe of the giant spell circle before me but my thoughts were cut short by a sudden voice.
The voice was faint and sudden but it had an astoundingly strong presence.
Statues started to emerge from below the ground, they looked like knights clad in armour carrying a shield, but it was of no concern to the prince as he fired his shots. It happened too fast, the leader and 3 of the men were shot, I couldn’t even see how it happened, only the aftereffects. The statues continued to rise up quickly and covered the people on all sides, even top, and bottom. The area was dark but one of the uninjured men took out a crystal which gave off a blue colored light.
The bandits seem to be in a dire situation, the leader was severely injured and 3 of them were shot. And with the number of spells and fighting they had to do to protect the leader, they were in a really bad spot.
*boom!! baam!! boom!!*
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The Sounds of explosions continued on the wall, as Yukiyo shouted, “Hey!! What happened don’t tell me that’s all you got!!” And I thought the situation before was a bad spot.
The others were looking at the leader with a grave look, it seemed they were feeling hopeless, the leader coughed and spurted out some blood, he spoke in grim but proud tone, ”Boys, it’s been a pleasure working with you... *cough*...but today doesn't seem to be the best of days... *cough*”
The large thug said in a worried tone, “Boss dun talk... yer hurt.”
The explosion sounds were growing and some cracks appeared on the statues.
I didn’t know why, but even though they were so evil, I don't think I wanted to see them dying. I kinda felt like rooting for these guys.
The boss continued, “Well... *cough* looks like its time up for me boys. It’s just sad that I couldn’t save all of you, and I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. But it seems that even saving one of you will be near impossible now.”
The others started to act less agitated or scared, just to make their leader feel even a little bit reassured.
Another man said, “boss!! dun worry.. we were glad ta be of service of da 5th leader of the Grey Edge!!”
“Wait, hold on, How does that name make any sense?? I get the Edge part but Grey ??? They are all dressed in Black!” weird thoughts ran across my mind.
The boss started to smile. He spoke in a jovial tone, “I am very lucky *cough* to have you idiots as my comrades. Too bad Bob's not here to make fun of this situation” The others started to laugh.
“Leader, I know that you were a bad guy and all but I feel a little respect for you. To be able to have these group of men to follow you. You must have done something right. Fight on!!” I thought as I cheered for him.
“Well, boys... I’m out of mana and you guys seem to be the same... hah *cough cough*” The boss spoke while laughing as the explosions got louder and the statues behind him cracked a bit.
He continued, ”well I didn’t want to harm our precious commodity but *cough* seems like we need to do this. As far as I know, a small amount of the flesh of a snow dragon cactus can provide mana replenishment to the 500% and increase your abilities by 10 times for 5 minutes if consumed raw.”
Such words worried me and I didn’t like the idea.
“But Boss, the backlash is incredibly risky and if you consume too much you will die, and you may still die after eating it and we don’t know how much to consume.”
“Yeah, it’s a bad idea don’t eat me.” I thought as I understood that I’m an extremely powerful poisonous medicinal plant, more worried for myself rather than them now.
“Yes, and that’s why I’m gonna eat it *cough* alone. I'm the only one here who can stall his for even a few seconds and maybe I could even take him down. Just take the others and run away” and as he said that the leader took out a knife and cut off the top of my head revealing a transparent fleshy inside.
Always at the wrong timings.
Anyway, 25% of my hp was gone just like that. Then the man proceeded to eat a tiny part of the cap he cut off. He then placed the cap on the ground.
As much as I hated it, I understood the situation. And surprisingly it didn’t hurt as much as I had expected. Rather it felt like I had a hair cut or something.
The boss stood up as the wound on his chest started closing up, “All right men I wish you luc-“
Suddenly the rest of the men took the cap from the floor and each of them ate a little bit of the flesh.
“I'm gonna remember the day, 7 men dressed in black ate me.” And then and there I immediately regretted that joke.
The thug said in a jovial voice, “boss you really thought we would leave you alone. We still haven’t gotten a good punch on that guy for our comrades and for commander Hudson”
The boss started to shake and grew some tears at the corner of his eyes.
Somehow I felt a familiar feeling when the boss cried, was it the joy of someone having your back?
“You idiots!!!” The boss shouted, “I’ve never been happier to have you shitheads as my comrades!! Now Listen we have got 1 minute before the effects begin!!”
“Hey, Boss are you crying,” one of the men said as he poked fun at him to which the boss sharply replied, “You got a problem with that” while wiping his tears. He was smiling.
I stood at the floor while the others were devising a plan, I couldn’t hear one word of it.
The boss then shouted, “Let's meet again in Hell!!... Now let's go kick some Royal ass!!!” They clapped each other’s hands as they started walking, the boss picked me up.
The statues fell down and the Prince on top of the carriage looked a little surprise, But the same expression quickly changed to a smile, the Girl was crying holding the injured boy behind the carriage. The boss and the others were covered with blue colored energy with their veins popping out. Their faces were completely covered so one couldn’t make out who was what, But they seemed to be in their best form right now. Their injuries vanished and victory seemed to be in reach. The prince on the other hand just clapped his hands as he spoke, “Oh great, I thought you Bandits only cared about yourself and would run away. Looks like I was a little bit wrong.”
The large thug shouted, “shut yer’ trap.. we dun want yer pity.”
“Antonio!” The boss shouted in between stopping him and he continued, “Well, I can’t blame ya... Ok, Crimson whatever. We fight for real this time”
The boss took out two small daggers the size of eating knives and the rest also took out their weapons...all of them were small daggers, roughly the same size.
“Seriously-“ I thought but I was interrupted by a sound.
*swosh*
The daggers grew longer with different colors. They resembled fire, water, wind.. basically, they looked like elemental blades. The Fire one was glowing yellow hot, I didn't seem to have any flames but it was really bright and hot. The water blade was moving rapidly along the edge like a chainsaw. and various element's showed different characteristics.
“Okay if I survive and when I grow up and am able to move. I’m getting one of those elemental blades.”
The Prince, on the other hand, just stood there waiting. Then suddenly the boss put me in his pocket readying himself for the battle
, ”...eyyy I have every right to see what’s happening... this is not fair!!.. I can only hear things now... “
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