"What is the level 3's information Ritotorous?" I ask him.

"Well, I don't know if you will like what you see." He responds but still shows me what I want.

- Elite Crazed Bandit Chieftain

Level 3

HP: 40/40

Defense: 4 -

I whistle upon seeing the stats of the chieftain. "That defense could be an issue. Is it just a chest piece?"

"No, he has armor on his arms, legs, torso, and shoulders. The only thing not covered is his head. So unless people can hit his head, they will unlikely do much damage to him."

I relay all of this information to Shadow, Vranjaya, and Draemish. "What do you think our plan of attack should be for this encampment?"

"We should stick with what we have done for the other bandit encampments and see if we can at least whittle down the numbers so we aren't outnumbered." Draemish offers.

"There isss much agreement on thisss ssstrategy." Vranjaya.

"So you would have my scouts be the bait again. This is the third time today." Shadow complains.

"And this will be the last time today." I offer, "We have been gone for a while, and we need to get back to the settlement to settle the rewards we have gotten."

Getting a scowl from Shadow, he relents. "If this is the last time, then I don't have a problem with us being the bait. At least this time, we have trees, so we should be able to use that to get more kills before we need to retreat."

"That's the spirit." I smile at him. "The faster we can get this done, the sooner we can get back and rest."

Gathering the scouts, they make their way around to the entrance of the encampment. I have Ritotorous on scouting duty to see if there is anything special that we need to take note of during the attack.

I hear screaming from inside. From what Rititorous tells me, they were able to kill the guards at the entrance. I have the rest of my people circle so they can help if required.

By the time we have gotten around, the scouts are already running towards us. On their tails are six bandits; two of them are the level 2 elites. One of the ordinary bandits is heavily injured. One of the two elites has an arrow going through his chest piece, while the other has an arrow remnant sticking out of his right arm.

"Mages," I call, just loud enough for only our groups can hear them. "Cast onto the enemy. Warriors prepare for combat."

With those commands, the warriors step in front of everyone and form up with their shields.

With the barrage of bolts, three hit the bandits through the trees. Two of the bandits fall to the ground. One with scorch marks on his chest. While the other doesn't get up. The bandits are still a decent distance away; we can release one more barrage of bolts, but I hold them back, not wanting them to waste their mana with more bandits still inside.

This is the perfect time to cast one of my new spells. So, right before the warriors, I cast Nature's Grasp. The scouts run past, seeing the spell light on the ground. Once they pass the warriors, they turn around, panting and firing arrows at the oncoming bandits.

With the first barrage of arrows, two more bandits fall to the ground, with another arrow sticking to the left arm of one of the elite bandits.

They close in fast and step into the area of effect. After the step, I can see that the last ordinary bandit is taking damage. There isn't any pain on the other two's faces, and they keep coming towards us.

After the second step, the ordinary bandit drops face-first into the area. The two elite bandits start to lose the protection of their leather leggings and wince in pain.

On the third step, they arrive in front of the warriors. One of the elite's leather leggings holds out while he is in front of them. The second elite's leather leggings have holes with lacerations on his flesh.

Four out of 7 warriors are in striking range and swing at them. They all hit their targets and dealt enough damage to incapacitate the first bandit's arms. The last bandit of this group is right now on the ground, having his left arm severed and right leg severely wounded. I can see he is finished.

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With both of his arms incapacitated, the bandit misses as he flails his right arm at the warriors before him. The warriors swing again. Now, there are three warriors on this one bandit, and they can cleanly take him down.

After killing all the bandits in this group, we returned from my bramble patch and took stock of our situation. Ritotorous, being helpful as a scout, informs me that there are only two more ordinary level 1 bandits, seven more elite bandits, and the chieftain. However, after the attack, they are more prepared and have eyes on higher platforms looking toward the forest.

Groaning that this would be harder than we thought, I informed the commanders what we should expect. Before we move on, Shadow offers a suggestion. "Why don't you cast your brambles spell before the camp entrance? If Ritotorous hasn't seen a secondary exit, we can slowly have the bandits walk through them, and hopefully, it can make things easier for our warriors."

Draemish looks at Shadow and nods. "I agree with the Shifter. We should do as he says and lure them out with arrows and spells."

With everyone's agreement, we walk the rest of the way to the front while keeping the encampment at a distance. Since we were almost there, it didn't take long to go the rest of the way. Once there, there are two more guards at the entrance. They are the last two level 1 bandits of the encampment. Stepping forward, I cast my spell before them while still hidden in the trees.

There is a flash of green light, and the bandits are on guard. Once the spell is in place, I cast an arcane shot at one of them. I shot off his right leg with the one spell, causing him to fall forward into the bramble spell, where his face and throat get lacerated by the sharp brambles.

Not long after, the other bandit shouts in alarm and runs inside. With a sigh, I look back at the forest towards my troops. I make my way back before anyone else from the camp shows up.

It doesn't take long for the bandit to return with five more level 2 bandits in tow. Seeing that I am gone, the bandit points towards the forest, and they start to run towards it.

After the second step into the brambles, the ordinary bandit stops. This causes the rest of the bandits to run into him. The weight of the rest pushes him forward, and he takes another step with his legs eviscerated. With that final step, his legs get caught, and he falls.

With the fall of that one bandit, four elite bandits jump over while one elite trips and falls into the brambles. The fallen elite reaches down with both hands, shredding the armor and getting deep cuts. He was able to stop himself from completely falling in but still received more cuts on his face as a result.

As they advance, there is one more step before leaving the patch. When they exit, most bandits have cuts along their legs, and one doesn't have any cuts. The hunters launch a volley of arrows at the bandits. Two hit the bandit in the rear in the arm and leg, causing it to stumble backward into the bramble patch and fall. He receives more lacerations around his body as a result.

The rest of the bandits make their way to the tree line when a barrage of arcane shots comes out of the trees toward them. After the barrage hits the group, there is a shower of blood as one of the bandit's head explodes, while the others have scorch marks on their torso or legs. Only one elite was left out of the group of six that came out of the encampment.

The warriors charged out to meet him. They take turns swinging at the bandit. One slashes at his torso, another at his right leg, a third is at the left leg, and by the time the fourth person is going to strike, he has fallen to the ground and isn't getting back up.

I sent Ritotorous to scout one more time. He arrives back shortly after. "There are only two more elites and the chieftain left. He seems very mad at us for killing his fellows. From what I can see, he won't be coming out of the encampment. We need to go in and fight him inside."

Grumbling about completing this sooner rather than later, I bring everyone to the entrance and cancel my spell. With the way clear for us, we continue into the camp.

Once we see the bandits clearly, I can see that the chieftain has been expecting us. Once we get out of range for our arrows and magic, I have everyone form up. The chieftain, seeing this, brings his two followers and starts to run toward us.

The scouts and mages fire off their respective ranged attacks. This is the last shot for several of the mages. Several shots connect, and one of the elites gets knocked down with an arrow striking him right in the jaw. It knocks his head backward and causes him to fall flat, not get up. The chieftain also receives a shot to the face, but it is an arcane shot. It burns his hair and causes him to stumble, but not enough for him to fall.

The only one still charging at full speed for us is the last of the elites. The hunters shoot one more volley of arrows at him. Three arrows punch into his arm. This causes him to drop his weapon and spin due to the force of impact. Having lost his weapon, comically, he finds himself falling on his blade after his spin.

I hear from Draemish snicker. "And that is why you need always to have a good grip on your blade. I don't want to be pulling something out of one of your stomachs. Or worse." This invokes a round of chuckles from those who can hear.

Seeing that his two followers have also fallen, the chieftain becomes enraged. He dashes forward at a speed that isn't humanly possible and hacks with his weapon towards a warrior. Looking who he is attacking, I see it is Draemish, and she expertly brushes the attack off to the side.

"I didn't realize I would get such a good sparing partner." She says, "Now watch closely as I deal with this raging beast."

Usually, we have been silent on the battlefield as no one knows anyone yet. With Draemish taking the initiative to make this joke and use it as a training exercise, I hope this will help bring people closer.

If it doesn't, there will be some good stories about what happened. I turn to Shadow, "You might as well have the rest of the scouting squad go around and find what they can in the encampment. I hope this exercise doesn't take too long. We need to get this done and then go back to the settlement.

He nods while giving a curious glance at Draemish. "Are you sure you will just let her take this guy on his own?"

"It is better than us trying to beat him with numbers only for people to die. Why not make it something people can learn from?" I shrug in response.

He heads out, and within thirty minutes of hearing about the different ways to parry and dodge attacks, Draemish finally wears out the chieftain. There are cuts along his arms and legs. There is a deep gash on the side of his chest.

Seeing the chieftain as having spent his usefulness. Draemish finally ends the exercise by cutting off his head.