"Hey, boys," EeDeChi waved a hand by her nose, frowning at the mix of blood and the faint smell of roasted meat wafting through the forest.
"I heard the fighting from a distance. Tsk, tsk, what a bloody and violent scene. Why isn't the blood green?"
The bandits exchanged confused looks, wondering what to make of this person who had suddenly ridden in and started spouting such bizarre comments.
EeDeChi flicked her gray cloak aside, revealing a silver-white metal badge that glinted in the dappled sunlight.
"A mithril-level adventurer, huh? No wonder she dares to come here to die alone." The bandits shared knowing glances and burst into laughter.
They had lost count of the adventurers they had killed, and they always targeted high-level adventurers. After all, higher-level adventurers had better gear, and the loot from their corpses was more valuable.
Of course, they would never go after Orichalcum or Adamantite-level adventurers, as a team of such adventurers was nearly equivalent to a small army. But a mithril-level adventurer coming across them was essentially a suicide mission!
"Run! Adventurer! They're not ordinary bandits! Go to town and find the knights!" Aaron shouted anxiously at the nonchalant EeDeChi, hoping to warn her to leave and get help.
The knights upheld order and honor and had always looked down on the freewheeling adventurers. Yet, seeing a mere mithril-level adventurer come alone to rescue them made him both grateful and more anxious.
But EeDeChi showed no sign of leaving; in fact, she even took a few steps forward towards the bandits.
Aaron's heart was heavy with bitterness. Logically, being an adventurer is a high-risk profession, but judging by this girl's intelligence, he couldn't understand how she had survived this long and managed to reach mithril level.
A one-eyed archer among the bandits, wearing a copper eye patch, drew his longbow. He notched a steel arrow and aimed it at EeDeChi.
He grinned at the other bandits and said, "I'm going to shoot her right eye. Do you think I can hit it?"
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Aaron knew this one-eyed archer, nicknamed "Sir One-Eye," was terrifyingly accurate with his bow. He was once the commander of the longbow unit in the Baharuth Empire, but when Emperor Jircniv purged the nobility, Sir One-Eye's family was exterminated.
During that bloody night of power struggles, he lost his position and an eye, ultimately having to join the "Black Scorpion" bandit group because of his exceptional archery skills.
His greatest pleasure was killing Baharuth Empire's knights, nobles, and officials. During the recent battle, two of Aaron's companions had been shot through the eye holes of their helmets, killing them instantly.
Damn! This girl was done for! Aaron couldn't bear to watch what was about to happen to EeDeChi.
"Sir One-Eye" sneered as he released the taut bowstring. With a whoosh, the steel arrow flew through the air, piercing straight for EeDeChi's eye.
However, the swift arrow inexplicably deflected upon hitting EeDeChi's eye, as if a straw had struck a marble statue. It bounced away lightly and fell to the ground.
EeDeChi blinked and bent down to pick up the arrow, examining it closely. The once sharp, slender steel arrowhead was now bent to one side, as if someone had hammered it askew.
Holding the bent arrow, EeDeChi addressed the stunned "Sir One-Eye" with a tone of old-fashioned wisdom, "Young man, you've got this all wrong. The right side of a person facing you is actually your left side. If you want to shoot my right eye, you should aim to your left, not at my left eye."
It was almost unbelievable! The bandits and Aaron around her stared with their mouths agape, hardly able to believe their eyes.
The bandits had expected EeDeChi to fall to the ground, an arrow embedded in her eye socket. Aaron thought EeDeChi might dodge or deflect the arrow with her sword, but EeDeChi did nothing; she simply stood calmly in the clearing, while the arrow had bounced off her eye.
The bandits were thrown into a panic, and the enemies who had been surrounding Aaron scattered to focus on EeDeChi.
A voice with a hint of age rang out among the bandits, "Don't panic, it's just Low-tier Physical Immunity. This little girl has some skills; no wonder she's a mithril-level adventurer at such a young age."
The speaker was Pilar Yaput, the top Magic Caster of the "Black Scorpion" bandit group—a genius Magic Caster skilled in 4th Tier magic. With a bit more mastery over higher-tier magic, he could enter the rare "hero" domain among humans.
He had once been a teacher at the Baharuth Empire's Mage Academy but was expelled by the Empire's chief mage, Fluder Paradyne, for attempting to master dark magic.
Afterward, Pilar sought greater power and the thrill of destruction and carnage, founding the "Black Scorpion" bandit group with a band of outlaws.
Pilar was the core figure of the "Black Scorpion" bandit group. With such a powerful Magic Caster leading and strategizing, the "Black Scorpion" bandits not only repeatedly escaped the Baharuth Empire's knights but also grew stronger.
Hearing that Pilar was preparing to act, the panicked bandits began to calm down.
In their past battles, no matter how troublesome the enemy, when faced with their top Magic Caster—Pilar Yaput—there was only one outcome: death.