Chuck wasn’t sure if whoever he suspected hiding in the trees could hear his translator but they should get the gist of it. He didn’t want to shut his truck off in case he needed a quick escape. He was considering what to do when three figures came out of the forest by the fallen tree. Chuck was expecting goblins and orcs for bandits but what he got were some ragged wolf and dog beast people. They wore worn and patched leather armor and their weapons didn’t look much better. The two dogs had bows and the wolf had a rusty looking sword. “What have we here? Some kind of magical carriage? I’m sure it’ll fetch a nice price. Now step out slowly, we wouldn’t want to damage the merchandise.” The wolf said with an evil grin. Chuck figured he must be the boss. There was sure to be more of them hiding in the trees, so he had to be careful.
The distance was a little too far for the shotgun so he grabbed the rifle. It had a scope and unlike the shotgun, was a semiautomatic. Chuck opened the door and got out, but stayed behind it. He put the rifle through the open window and took aim. Torj and Kyt had demonstrated how dangerous beast people could be, so he wasn’t taking any chances. He had learned from the alchemy guild that there were no firearms in this world. The closest they had were magical cannons which were fairly large and of course didn’t use gunpowder or conventional shells. Since that was the case, they wouldn’t know what was being pointed at them and he had the element of surprise. The wolf was about to say something else when Chuck shot him between the eyes. The wolf fell over backwards in a spray of blood and his friends froze with open mouths. Chuck took the opportunity to shoot another through the head. By that time, the remaining one came to his senses and dived back into the trees.
Chuck saw motion to his left and two more bandits jumped out from the trees. It was two more wolf beast people, one with a sword and one with a bow. He ducked down behind the door as an arrow punched into the door with a thud. Swearing, Chuck dropped the rifle and grabbed the shotgun. He was nearly out of regular shells so had it loaded with slugs. They were about 20 feet from him and must have been sneaking up while their boss kept him busy. He stepped backward, trying to keep the door between him and the attackers. The sword wielder was advancing rapidly and when he came around the door, Chuck unloaded into his chest. The leather armor was no protection against the slug, which tore a hole in his gut. Another arrow came toward him but Chuck had crouched down after firing, so it went over his head. The sword wielder was knocked backward but was still standing, grasping his wound. Chuck finished him off with a slug to the face and then quickly pivoted to the bow wielder.
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Whether it was the loud gun shots or his buddy being killed, the archer decided the odds were not in his favor and turned to run. Chuck fired a shot into his fleeing back, which knocked him to the ground. He was down, but not out and Chuck knew there was at least one more bandit out there. He reloaded while carefully watching the trees. Chuck slowly approached the wounded bandit, who was feebly trying to crawl away and coughing out blood. He kicked the bandit over and put the gun to his face. “How many of you are there?” Chuck asked the dying bandit. “What are you?” The bandit replied weakly. “You picked a fight with the wrong otherworlder. Now answer the question.” Chuck said, but the bandit coughed up some more blood and died. Chuck clicked his tongue in annoyance and scanned the trees.
Chuck retrieved his rifle and slung it over his back. Cautiously he went to the fallen tree and entered the forest where he had last seen the dog archer. He knew if he didn’t take care of the archer, he was likely to get shot in the back while he was trying to move the tree. His trail wasn’t hard to find as it looked like he had been running in a panic. Chuck followed the broken branches and disturbed underbrush to the edge of a clearing. At the other side of the clearing was a rundown wooden shack. Outside the door of the shack, the archer was arguing with another wolf beast person and pointing back toward the ambush site. Chuck unslung his rifle and took aim at the wolf. It looked like they were done arguing and the wolf took out his sword and motioned for the archer to go with him back to the fallen tree. They were walking right toward Chuck so it was an easy shot. He shot the wolf in the head like their leader. The archer didn’t know where the shot had come from and was whipping his head around in a panic when Chuck finished him off as well.
He waited in silence for several minutes to see if anyone else would come out of the shack. When he didn’t hear or see anything, he let out a deep breath. His hands didn’t seem to be shaking quite as much as last time. He hoped he wasn’t getting used to bloodshed. Chuck thought it was strange that he didn’t feel anything after killing all the bandits. Maybe it was because they were trying to kill him or because they all looked like ferocious monsters, but he was just glad it was over. Now it was time for cleanup and he needed to get the fallen tree out of the way. It seemed his work was never done.