Chapter 60 | Plan Up

There were six men huddled close to each other, walking through the forest in a loose formation. They were clearly bandits, easy to figure out from their rugged clothing.

Amidst them walked Abo. Abo was a member of the well-known Red Bandana Gang. They had two first-rates and several hundred members, which made them one of the major gangs in the bandittide. Though only a third-rate, he took pride in being a member of such an elite force.

“They say a master-rate is gonna show up soon. What do you guys think?” Abo asked.

“It’s a bunch’a bullshit. What would a master even do in this god-forsaken place?” One of his friends asked.

“How would I know? I’m just telling you what I’ve heard.”

“Then shut your filthy mouth and focus on the mission. The enemy base should be… In that direction.”

Abo followed the man’s finger and nodded. He gulped loudly.

“Then have you heard of the… Fire Demon?” He asked.

“What in the Moon is that title? Did an 8-year-old child come up with it?”

“Sounds cool to me.”

“Shut up, both of you.”

As the others bickered on, Abo shivered momentarily. He looked around the forest. It was still afternoon, but the canopy was blocking out a lot of the light, creating shadowy spots. He felt as if something was watching them.

Then, the rustle of leaves alerted him. He spun in place and looked toward the source of the sound.

A young man clad in gray robes was sliding toward him at breakneck speed.

“Ambu-Aaaah!” Abo was about to shout; however, the young man was too fast. Before he could even attempt to circulate his aura, the young man slammed right into Abo. He felt his ribs break as his lungs collapsed, releasing the last bit of air that remained in him.

Everything went dark…

“Holy shit! Was that a strike?” Tatsuya stepped out of the forest with raised brows. Theo had slammed right into the small group of bandits using Shifting Earth.

It was somewhat of an incident. He hadn’t intended on doing so, but it was already too late by the time he had noticed the bandits standing on his way, so he might as well have crashed into them.

And when he hit the first bandit, the man was launched forward, slamming into the other five and taking them down in one go. They were too shell-shocked and hurt to even react before Tatsuya finished them off.

“You are pretty good for a first-robe mage. What is that spell called?” The mercenary boss asked. Theo dusted his robes off and sighed.

“The one that makes me slide?”

“No, the one that made the bandits fly.”

“…”

Can no one here stay serious for a second? I miss Satou…

“Either way, good job,” Tatsuya praised. “That was the seventeenth group of bandits we took down. Do we keep going?”

“We should. We want to keep the battle far away from the outpost until The Eviscerator shows up.”

“But don’t you have t-”

“I can handle it,” Theo shook his head. For the plan to succeed, they needed to lure in The Eviscerator to the base. The first part of this had been accomplished when Theo had drip-fed the spies information about the potions.

For the next part, he needed the bandits to accrue a lot of casualties early on, and the base to seem like a weak spot. Half of the forces, including the knight companies that worked better when on their own, had left the base to hunt the bandits all around.

The six first-rates had been spread thin for maximum coverage. Whenever the enemy first-rates showed up, they would detect and engage them.

Theo was being accompanied by Tatsuya, as Satou was more adept at moving alone.

The two were right in the middle of the massive area where all the skirmishes took place. And if something major happened, several messengers would be dispatched to inform them, and they would also carry back their orders to the several other groups.

Theo and Tatsuya quickly got back to skirmishing, taking out several more groups. Every now and then, a scout would come along to inform them of the general situation.

Eventually, one of the scouts reported an interesting piece of information.

The Rose Family Knight Company had disappeared.

A deep frown settled on both their faces.

“That can’t be good…”

Satou spun like a cyclone, green aura whipping around him in violent spirals. Some mid-size bandit gang had taken it upon themselves to take down Satou. Unfortunately for them, their leader was only an overconfident fresh first-rate.

They were busy experiencing the consequences of their actions.

Seven attacks, each from a different second-rate, rained from every direction. As Satou was busy fending them off, two more came along and pulled their boss away. The man was a bald bandit, with blood spurting out of the two stumps where once his arms were.

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“Kill him! Rip his arms off!” He shouted, both terrified and furious.

Satou was as expressionless as always; he had a habit of not showing emotions while on the job. Though admittedly, he had been stretching the boundaries of a “job” quite a lot lately. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to live the slow life he had been hoping for any time soon.

“He won’t go down!”

“Too strong…”

“What do we do, boss?”

The bandits kept shouting at each other like Satou wasn’t there. He didn’t really care, as no amount of strategizing would allow them to beat him. Especially not the plans of a bunch of idiots like these.