Chapter 47 | Use The Sense

“Call back The Bo– Urgh…”

Satou slit the throat of the bandit as Theo grabbed another’s head and used Crackle Shot. Their backs were to each other as the night breeze carried stalks of grass and the stench of blood. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they dashed at the same time, Theo taking another third-rate down with a flash vaporize as Satou simply cracked another’s neck.

Then they turned right around and dashed, passing by each other. Satou affirmed his viciousness with a nod.

Once they had entered the outpost, Theo realized how the bandits had treated the knights they had killed.

Initially, he had the feeling that these bandits were people too, and that they were only on the opposing sides of the same conflict.

But being profit-oriented and digging out the skulls of their enemies and pissing inside them were two different things.

The only doubts he had left in his head about taking these people down had been erased completely. As a modern person, it was still weird to be outright killing people, but what the bandits were doing was outright unacceptable.

“Kyaaa!” Kai screeched in terror as one of his stray swings hit a bandit square in the head. The man’s head immediately exploded into smithereens, splattering the young knight-aspirant with a slurry of brain juices and blood. Whatever bandits were intending to attack him turned around with terrified expressions on their faces and decided to engage the knights instead.

Aiden was different in that his attacks were very minute and clean. Theo couldn’t help but wonder how this guy had learned this type of swordsmanship. It was too clean and effective to be self-studied.

Then again, maybe he was underestimating the guy.

Every swing of his sword travelled in arcs, slit the bandits’ throats, and took away their mobility. He ducked and weaved as if he was dancing in the middle of the night.

The knights were also a sight to behold. Their well-trained demeanor allowed them to communicate and cooperate with minimal words. Whenever an attack was made, it blocked the escape paths of many bandits. They were like an array of coordinated swords, airing out the insides of the bandits with clean holes.

Theo took a deep breath as his mind showed him the trajectories of the three attacks heading his way. Two horizontal swings from behind and one thrust from the front. Technically, wherever he escaped, he would be on the path of one of the attacks.

What the bandits hadn’t realized was, however, that only the thrust would be enough to truly hurt Theo.

The Supreme Main Character dodged as one of the horizontal thrusts collided with his back muscles. It dug maybe half a centimeter into his flesh before getting stopped. The bandit realized this and immediately went for a slice to deepen the wound, and hopefully tag Theo’s spine.

Unfortunately for him, Theo had already guessed his course of action and stepped forward. The blade lost its bite on his back as Theo slammed his head square against the bandit in front. It didn’t have much strength behind it, but the bandit stumbled back as if he had been hit with an iron mace. His eyes momentarily rolled into his head, and that was the only opportunity Theo needed.

He grabbed a pouch of alcohol one of the bandits had been enjoying just before from the floor, turned it into a spiral in front of his hand, then brought it in front of the bandit’s face.

Tsss

The bandit released a bloodcurdling screech as he fell to the ground. The hyper-heated gaseous alcohol burnt off his face, traveled in through his nostrils, and his mouth. His trachea quickly swelled from the heat and got clogged.

This was the end for him.

But Theo didn’t stop. He couldn’t. His gruesome spells aside, he had no other method of attacking. Sure, he could have put four points into strength and brute-forced his way through these idiots, smashing heads left and right. However, that would be a waste of points.

Not to mention, one positive side of his fighting style was that it absolutely terrified the shit out of the other enemies. The two bandits who were initially chasing him around threw aside their weapons and started running away like cockroaches.

Still, Theo wouldn’t allow them to run away. Handling these third-rates was as simple as running at them and blasting them with his flamethrower. Give him a couple of seconds, and they would lose their ability to move completely.

The engagement was over very quickly. Theo’s intel was exact. 62 people, 2 second-rates. With the overwhelming elite forces on their side, taking back the outpost had been as simple as taking candy from a baby. After all, Satou could take on these people all by himself, provided that they didn’t just escape right away.

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Now, however, they faced another problem. The main forces of these bandits wouldn’t be as easy to handle. And by the fact that the bandit leader could kill Lieutenant Gerard, it was easy to say he was a top-tier first-rate. Theo wasn’t sure if Satou could take him on in a one-on-one, much less in a battle where they were outnumbered.

Which boiled things down to a single problem.

“Where the hell are the bandits, and how many people do they have?” Theo asked. Aiden and Kai were busy mumbling something about some Emma, biting their nails. So the only person who responded was Satou.

“I would say… About twenty people. But none of them should be below second-rate.”

“What?” Theo raised a brow. “How do you know that?”

“From the composition of the people they left behind, the fact that they could clean out the rest of the knights, and how much time they took doing so,” Satou explained. As always, his experience shone through his words.

“That’s crazy… Twenty-second rates?” Theo repeated in worry. Assuming that they were heading for the village, there was nothing that could stop them. And their forces weren’t strong enough to face such a foe. Nothing less than an extra first-rate would be enough. “Though…”

Suddenly, a piece of memory resurfaced in Theo’s mind. Way back when the Bandittide was first being heard of, Satou had told him the village would be protected from bandits whenever they came near. And when Theo asked about it jokingly, Satou had told him this phenomenon had nothing to do with him.

Back then, he had thought he was simply trying to keep his anonymity, but what if that wasn’t the case?

“Hey, remember when we talked about how the village was being protected?” Theo asked. “Were you serious when you said that you weren’t the one doing that?”

“Hm? Yeah. Why?”