*Thougts*
~Sound effects~
+”Whispers”+
+++++
Chapter 25: Bandit extermination
Half an hour after they started they passed the bandits army, both of them were itching to slay all in a brutal way, but they restrained themselves because they thought about the well being of the captives and made a little detour as to not get spotted by the bandits.
Luckily the ground was grassy and so they didn`t produce a dust cloud. Along the way they also encountered some wolfs, which followed them, but both of them just kept running while ignoring them, and soon they gave up.
This was the bandits fault they dragged behind themselves, who although gagged screamed in agony because his skin was torn off due to the friction, leaving a trail of blood behind. The wolves noticed that and thought that it would be better for their wellbeing if they left those two persons alone. One of them who passed Neuron and Kyle got a glimpse on their faces and reported, while shivering, that those two had the eyes of predators which should be left alone.
One time it was tricky, they dashed through a camp of Minotaur`s that looked up at them and noticing that some humans just passed their camp they all rose up to follow them, because of that Neuron had to cancel the thread that held the bandit so that they could manage to outrun them. Of course they could have fought back, those monsters were only level 40 after all, but they had no time to spare, and they didn`t experience a great sense of loss leaving the bandit behind, that was half dead already, they just felt a little remorse because they couldn`t torture him further.
But looking back they saw, that the Minotaur’s didn`t kill him, they just surrounded him and one flung him on its back, while he trashed around screaming and crying.
And so they thought that he would have a terrible fate, they even dared to dream about him getting eaten alive.
After a short break to fill up their satiety and stamina they began once again to run towards their goal.
Now they stood again before a high cliff, in which a narrow valley was located, this valley looked like a gash made by a huge sword that was brought down at this spot by a god. It gave this impression because the cliffs on both sides of the valley were really smooth, no footholds or cracks at all.
“Hey neuron, that valley screams of ambush and traps, I bet further in there are many walls we can`t hope to bypass”
“True, so now let’s climb again”
“Again, I’m sick of climbing!”
But before they could proceed to climb they had to get some distance between themselves and the entrance as to not get spotted by scouts the bandits may have positioned.
Then finally they were over that cliff on a huge stony plateau, there Neuron approached the gash by himself with his stealth skill and used his Hawkeyes to scout for any bandit that would be up here keeping watch, but surprisingly to him he couldn’t find any. So he pointed Kyle to come over to him and look on some strange device.
The edge of the cliff was carved into a ramp, where boulders are placed that would fall down on their own, when the trap was triggered from inside the bandits fortress. Those stones were fastened in place by a net that on the other hand was fastened on Giant nails that were hammered into the stone. At the part that pointed towards the bandit’s fortress a rope led there that if cut would allow the boulders to fall down on whoever is walking down there on that time.
And on the other part the same construction was made. After Kyle explained the mechanism with which the trap was triggered to Neuron because with his trap triggering skill he knew exactly how it worked. Then Neuron went to modify the trigger so that it would help them on their mission. Then he jumped over to the other side to again modify the trap. When he was finished he went back to Kyle.
“So now let’s scout out their hideout”
“True, just a moment” Said neuron before he pulled out some gold coins and scattered them inside the valley beneath them.”
“Why did you throw down gold coins?”
“Remember what happened after we went down that mountain by ski, ah, that reminds me are you finished editing everything”
“No, I`ll tell you when I’m done, so you can be the first one to watch it. And back to topic what do you mean”
Now Neuron explained it to him
_______________________________________________________________
Inside the Willamar Mountain Range:
At night, they were attacked by wolves, they managed to kill all of them, but after seeing that their prey wasn`t so defenseless as they thought one of them turned tail and run. When Neuron noticed that a wolf was fleeing he shot an arrow at the fleeing one, but he was already far enough away, that the arrow still stuck inside him but it didn`t prevent him from escaping further.
“Damn, he got away”
“Let him, be, I said, let him be!” Kyle shouted after he saw Neuron dashing away, but of course Kyle followed him, after 10 min of running he saw Neuron bowing down and then coming towards him with a wide grin, while waiving the arrow around he just found”
“What are you doing with that?”
“It’s the arrow I just shot at that wolf, somehow I knew where it is, maybe because my connection level leveled up to intermediate, or because this is the first time a prey of mine got away…., but it seems I can tell the location of anything with which I connect for the time the connection is active, or I don`t forget about the connected item.”
“~Whistle~ well ain`t that nice, so no thief will ever be able to snatch your purse”
_______________________________________________________________
“Ah, you are throwing cold coins so that you know when the bandits come back? Nice thought of, so now let’s keep going I want to scout the place before crashing the party”
Now they were crawling towards the edge of the cliff so that they won`t be seen by the bandits walking around below, but what they saw they wouldn`t have thought of in their dreams.
The hideout to which the narrow valley led was actually a, yeah a valley, but this was only a valley in definition, it was surrounded by high cliffs, that were a staggering height of 30m that looked manmade, because nothing in nature could be so smooth and regular, even inside this game those laws applied, theoretically anyway.
Inside that cliff near the entrance from the narrow valley a town was located, well it once was a town, and now only ruins remained which the bandits are using to live in.
And where the narrow valley connected with the bigger one, they could make out a crudely made defensive wall, which was still really easy to defend because of the narrow path that led to it. But the most shocking part was, that the city wasn`t the only place inside. There were even crop fields, enough, that the city could be autarkic surviving a siege for years, and it surely could in its glorious days, from which only the ruins could tell, because of course the bandits didn`t bother to grow anything, they lived from pillaging and extorting money.
“Hey Kyle don`t those ruins seem familiar to you?”
“What, have you forgotten that I can´t see as good as you? I can only see ruins, nothing more, and nothing less, where are we searching for the leader?”
“Obviously inside the biggest building, that is also the least decayed, why?” asked neuron
“I know were leaders tend to live, I wanted to know where it is, I can`t see it as good as you, so I wanted to hear your opinion, ~Tsss~”
“Then tell me that, and not make such a question anyone can misinterpret!”
“Shut it, you will alert the bandits” he whispered
And like this their bitching went on, interrupted by a meal of course. And because they had nothing to do, Neuron began working on his tailoring skill, and enhancing the arrows he got from the villagers. Kyle wasn`t as lucky as Neuron, because the only profession he had was forging, and that obviously produced too much noise so he was left to level his class skills, which soon annoyed him, and thus he went back to cook, of course he used his mana fueled furnace to cook the dishes, because any other thing would make smoke.
Then finally Neuron went towards him and told him, that his coins are moving”
“You sure that it isn`t only one bandit?”
“Then all of them would be in one place, but they are moving apart from each other.”
“Phew finally, I nearly died of boredom”
“But you seemed quite content stuffing your face in-between your training sessions.”
“Come on, we should look for a way down” Kyle said ignoring what Neuron said
“There it is, right over the place where the leader is probably living”
“Good, so now, as soon as the sun sets we will break in.”
“No, prior, we use the shadow that the sun is making on that cliff to go down, but we have to be fast so that no one will see us.”
“Why the hurry Neuron?”
“I don`t want the bandits to get in party mood”
“I understand”
Said and done they were now behind the building they pictured as the quarter of their leader.
“Hey, Kyle did you notice, that all those ruins look kind of Greek”
“Nope, you always forget, that I don`t have night vision, and so you assume…..” but Neuron interrupted his nagging
“Shht, one is coming”
And soon a grumbling man in really shiny full body armor and a cape that was totally misplaced, appeared heading inside the house.
*What Terrible fashion sense* judged Neuron
“Now, let’s go, whispered Kyle who wasn’t armed, so that he wouldn`t make any noise. And Neuron followed behind him.
Inside they jumped the leader from behind, and bound and gagged him, because it all happened so fast and he didn`t expect it to happen the leader couldn`t even respond, He mumbled something that sounded like: “you damn spineless bastards, fight me man against man”, but of course the gag prevented him from using the art of pronunciation. But somehow Kyle could understand him
“Don`t worry, we will give you a chance to fight us”
“Hey Kyle what was that?”
“I feel dissatisfied, he must be the final boss of our quest, and if we kill him here and now, it just doesn`t feel right, I want to kill him flashily before his subordinates. Or at least while fighting”
“Good, so let’s question him for now”
“Roger”
“But I`m going to do it!, I have the way to make every NPC speak”
“How so?”
“Everyone would confess to a demon” he said, while a threatening grin appeared on his face and his eyes changed to those of a hawk, while he loosened the gag.
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When the leader noticed those eyes he let out a cry, which was interrupted by Kyle’s hand.
“No, no, don`t go and alert your comrades, you don`t want to spoil our fun, don`t you?” Neuron said with an intimidating tone.
*Oh Neuron, you aren`t a good actor, didn`t anyone tell you that?*
But it worked, because the Leader was convinced he was a Demon, and it was common knowledge, that demons are crazy.
“I don`t know anything, I was only told to unite the bandits roaming around here and to cause some mayhem, then the army would attack us and we shall defeat it, if that isn`t possible, we had to make a stalemate, he said that just a week would suffice to conclude his business, that was all he told me really!”
“He?” asked Neuron
“I don`t know who he is, but he promised me some land and riches if I succeed! That’s all really, I don’t even know his name, he just sent me some letters, so please let me go” he cried while fearing for his live, till Neuron began to speak
“That won`t do, we will give you a fair fight and even that is already too much for scum like you, but remember, while my friend fights you, you can`t try to escape.
But if you do, I will find you anywhere on this world, and then you won`t die for a long time even if you beg for it, I was never known to fulfill wishes, understand?”
“Yes, yes, I understand” whispered the bandit and nodded like crazy
“Ready Kyle?”
“Yeah, let’s unleash the dogs of hell”
“You sure that you aren`t crazy?”
“At least not as crazy as you”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I was never known to fulfill wishes, understand?” He said while imitating Neurons words
“Yeah, ähm hearing it they sound really, ähm, oh well they worked look at him, that looser, he even pissed himself, you sure you want to have a fair fight with him?”
“Üaks, not anymore!!! Hey Neuron, how is it possible, that he pissed himself?”
“What do you mean?”
“I never heard that you can urinate, or take a dump inside this game”
“Maybe it doesn`t apply for players, anyway Lucky for you” Neuron answered with a broad grin
“What do you mean?”
“If you had to shit out everything that you ate during our travel you would have spent most of the time hiding behind bushes, Oh, yeah, there weren`t even any bushes there, so you are really lucky!”
“Really funny!” {[999aak}], “so what now, we have all the information we can get, but out there is still a army of bandits, we can`t hope to defeat them all”
“How about making some uproar? So that all of them would try to escape, and then let it rain boulders?”
“How will we make an uproar?” asked Kyle
“Maybe setting the whole place on fire”
“Then what about the captives?”
“Then you suggest something, I’m out of ideas”
“How about showing his dead body to his comrades” suggested Kyle
“Hey, you know, he is still here and listening to all of our words”
“Yeah, right, so anyw…”
But their discussion was interrupted because both of them received a system message
* Sadism +1
“Boah, even talking about someone’s death before him gives you an increase in sadism, but anyway back to topic” said Kyle
“I don`t think it will work, you remember they disintegrate after death”
“Hmm, so Neuron you know what, we will just test it out”
“Good, so let’s jump the next bandit we come across”
Said and done they had now another bandit inside the room where they also kept the leader and the poor souls could only listen to the cruel fate that awaited them.
“And now?”
“Well let’s do it like Teppesch and impale him on a spear, maybe then he won`t disintegrate” answered Neuron
After hearing that they began to weep, but they were completely ignored
“Isn`t that too barbaric?”
“Well I think not”
“So Neuron since you had the idea you impale him”
“äh, well, this isn’t exactly…”
“You chickening out?”
“No, no, I`ll do it, but do you happen to have a spear?”
“No, and lets drop it, it is to barbaric”
“Phew”
“Hey Neuron did you just make a relieved sound?
“No, no, I would have done it, I swear, and it was the bandits who sounded relieved”
“The bandits are gagged, come on I can tell your lying”
“Got me, despite it being me who proposed it, I couldn`t do it” he said while averting his eyes
But Neuron was right, they were relieved
“Be proud of it, that means you are still human”
“Good to hear, so what now?”
“Well what about beheading him while grapping the head?”
“Sounds as good as any other thing we could try”
“Good, so let’s try it out, since it was my idea I’m going to behead him, you grab him by his hair”
“Why me?”
“Cause it was my idea, your idea was, what was it again?” Kyle said tauntingly towards Neuron
“Forget it, I`ll do it”
And again both of them received, while both bandits could only wait for their fate to come, with eyes filled with fear and terror.
* Sadism +1
Neuron grabbed the bandit by his hair and held him up, the bandit tried to get free but it was in vain, because Kyle brought his sword down on the bandit’s throat, cleanly beheading him with one strike.
“Gross, I’m holding a severed head!”
“It doesn`t disintegrate, got any system messages Neuron?” Asked Kyle after the body of the bandit disappeared, and although the Leader of the bandits tried to get free and cried, both of them didn`t give him any attention.
“Yeah, I got one, show system message to Kyle!”
* Because you are holding the severed head of your enemy it has now become a trophy.
It won`t disappear till you decide so
“Nice, so who is going to behead the leader?”
“I want to do it!”
“But I also want to” said Kyle
“You had his lackey”
“That was only a test, so no count”
“I see, so how about rock paper scissor, two out of three wins”
“Right”
* Sadism +1
“Man this sadism stat sure is easy to get, isn’t it?”
“True, true, while torturing that other guy I got a ton of those, anyway let’s begin”
Simultaneously:
ROCK! PAPER! SCISSOR!
Kyle: “Yes”
ROCK! PAPER! SCISSOR!
“Tie”
ROCK! PAPER! SCISSOR!
Neuron: “My win!”
ROCK! PAPER! SCISSOR!
Kyle: “I win, now to behead him!” he said, while rubbing his hands
After the bloody part was done Neuron threw the head of the bandit leader towards an edge of the room, “So, and now how are we going to scare those bandits?”
“Easy, just jump on this building and wave the head around, bandits are all scum, if they realize their leader is dead they all will be headless”
“This really wasn`t a funny joke” said Neuron shivering
“Really?, I deemed it funny”
“I don`t get your sense of humor”
“That happens to most of the people I tell jokes to”
“So now back to topic, what shall I do once up there”
“Just tell lies, tell them they are surrounded, or that some assassin killed him, and you heard him say that soon a army will come and kill everyone here, use your fantasy, and while you do that, I`m going to locate the villagers and free and or protect them.”
“Good, but shall I cause mayhem before or after you located them”
“Before, and now hurry!”
“On it”
Now on the roof of the main building Neuron was shouting “ATTENTION; OUR LEADER WAS KILLED BY AN ASSASIN!; I HEARD HIM SAYING WHILE KILLING OUR LEADER, THAT SOON WE WILL BE RAIDED BY AN ARMY!”
Then one shouted, “How shall we know that it wasn`t you that killed him!?”
“If I did that I wouldn`t stand up here alerting you all, anyway, I’m out of here, if you believe me or not is your problem!!!!”
And after he said that Neuron vanished from the roof not before tossing the head down, so that they could check if it really was their leader What he shouted was given along between the bandits, till one sounded the alarm bell and everyone dashed outside and tried to escape. Some idiot also set the whole place on fire.
Now it was an eerie situation, all bandits were pushing against each other to get through the Entrance and the whole scene was illuminated by the fire that burned behind them.
Then there was a figure staying on the wall, looking downwards the valley, but no one even noticed it staying there. If one had he would have nightmares for the rest of his live, because it made a motion and a crumbling sound could be heard coming from both cliff sides, then it began to laugh insanely, while the sound of boulders crashing on the ground coupled with screams of fear, terror and pain coming from the bandits that were squashed beneath them could be heard.
And all the while the figure was being illuminated by the fire that consumed the bandit’s hideout.
+“Hey Kyle, have you found the captives?”+
+“Yeah, I found them inside a cellar and freed them; they are now heading towards the fields to seek shelter.”+
+“Good, you ready to kill some more bandits?”+
+“Of course!”+
And the night of slaughter began, some bandits managed to escape, but it was to doubt, if those were the lucky ones, because they had nightmares about what happened. Because of those nightmares many became crazy, some even jumped in the arms of death out of their own volition.
End Chapter 25
Do you like how i`ve dealt with the bandits? :twisted:
If you give me some information how you want some of them to be killed, i could add an extra chapter with all descriptions :twisted: