Chapter 63 – Village rumble.

Two men dressed in shabby clothes were walking through the night. The visibility was bad but the two just couldn’t hold it in anymore, nature was calling. After drinking deluded alcohol for most of the day, the two needed to empty themselves.

Their buddies were still being loud while having fun. They had hit it off big this time around, they had managed to take over a caravan filled with riches. They had suffered a small setback but after taking out a certain mage, the defenses of their prey crumbled.

They were staying in this village for the time being. Soon they would need to move but before that, they needed to go through all the loot.

This was a group of bandits that roamed the lands. They preyed on wandering merchants or adventurers. They would find certain ambush locations and stay there, waiting for the right time to strike.

Information traveled slowly in this world, before anyone sent a subjugation force after them they would be long gone. If they found a good hiding place they could even lay low for a few weeks until the coast was clear.

They had been doing this for years, sometimes they lost some people but they could always pick up new recruits. They just needed to dangle rewards in front of poor commoners like farmers and old adventurers. Some of them would take the bait and join their bandit group. After someone became a member there was no escape, murder and pillaging was now part of their lives.

These two were part of that group. Both of them were just farmers that were shoved towards this path because of a bad harvest. After years there was no more humanity left in them, it was kill or be killed.

“Why does the boss always keep the girls for himself, he could toss us a bone once in a while!”

One of the bandits said while pulling down his pants behind a tree.

“You should be quiet, remember what happened to old George? The boss chopped it right off!”

The other man was by another tree also taking care of his business. Normally one of them would be looking around if no enemies were around. But this was an uncultured and untrained bunch of ruffians, they didn’t really care about proper procedures. Even less when they were drunk.

“Yeah, yeah I remember. The Boss really likes to play with them though, wish he didn’t break them so easily. Remember that redhead? Don’t think she even lasted through the night and she had the greatest pair of…”

The man stopped with his monologue and looked down.

“Huh!?”

He was flabbergasted by the thing he was seeing. A sharp metallic blade was sticking out from his chest. Before he could scream out a hand covered his mouth and the blade was shoved in further. His vision blurred, his hands and legs felt heavy and he couldn’t help but close his eyes.

The other man whistled to himself as he wasn’t finished with his deed either.

“The redhead?”

He asked but didn’t hear the other man reply, only the howling of wind and trees rustling.

“Hey, are you there? Stop bullshiting around!”

The man finished up and pulled his pants up. The two didn’t go far away from the village and didn’t bring a torch. The bandit moved his hands to the side where he had a dagger but before he could pull it out something connected with the back of his head.

There was a muffled explosion, the bandit’s head exploded like an overripe tomato. Behind him stood a silver-haired elf, in his hand a heavy rapier. This was Roland’s old weapon that didn’t see much use.

The explosion was controlled, silent but quite messy. Logon was smart enough to quickly duck behind one of the trees to not get the man’s brain all over his clothes.

“That takes care of two of them… should we wait for more to arrive?”

Logon stepped out from the shadows while looking down at the two bodies. Golgrim and Aredhel were here as well but the one that had stabbed the first person was Roland.

He was wearing goggles, these were enchanted with a simple night vision spell. The two moon elves were beings of the night so they had something similar as a racial trait. The same was with their half-orc friend.

“Don’t think we can take that gamble, it could be hours before any of them decide to come here. Everyone might be sober by that time…”

Roland commented while the group gathered. Golgrim used those large arms of his to grab the bodies of the two bandits and toss them further into the forest.

Their group had arrived here half a day ago. They hid in the nearby forest, luckily the bandits were preoccupied with their pillaging to notice them camping out and watching them from afar.

The village was a small one, there were only about ten houses and there wasn’t even a wall surrounding it. The people living here were mostly farming families along with some hunters. Only weak monsters came around this place so this was probably enough for protection.

There was also nothing here that would incite robbers or bandits to attack. The farmers had almost no money and mostly ate what they cultivated themselves.

They were quite unfortunate that day. The remnants of the caravan that made it past the forced landslide had escaped here. The bandits pursued and ended up in this place. From what Logon and Roland counted there were between fifteen to twenty enemies here. They had quickly dispatched two of them which brought down the number.

Roland had deliberated if he should help the villagers or just ignore it. The only reason for helping these people would be his conscience and maybe the loot that could be taken after the victory. They took their time in inspecting the village from afar, the enemies didn’t look that powerful and there weren’t any tier 3 class holders around. He would have had to give up on the plan if even one person like that was here. After some deliberation, his conscience got the better of him and the decision to intervene was made.

“Everyone remember the plan?”

The three nodded but the question was mostly targeted at Golgrim who looked ready to massacre some bandits.

“Remember, only charge in after you see the signal.”

Logon looked to Golgrim who in turn lowered his head in disappointment.

“Take care you two.”

Aredhel would also be staying here as she wasn’t much of a fighter herself. She gave both Logon and Roland a little boost with some basic buffing spells that raised their agility and endurance.

“Don’t worry Lady Aredhel, we will return victorious!”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Logon declared while Roland watched from the side but his gaze was mostly on the village. There were still a couple of bandits wandering around but most of them were dozing off.

“Glad that these idiots have zero awareness…”

Logon nodded at Roland’s words while the two sneaked away.

“Remember we only have ten minutes before the spell effect wears off, I’ll take care of the east side.”

Logon nodded at Roland’s words as their bodies blended into the shadows. Roland had activated the same spell scroll that he used against the thieves he encountered back in Edelgard.

With quiet steps and a cloak of shadow the two approached the occupied village. This place was further away from civilization, things like street lamps didn’t exist. The only light was the one inside of the buildings, which allowed these two to easily sneak up on their unsuspecting targets.

…………………….

“Hey! Why are those two idiots not back yet? Did they fall asleep outside?”

A rough-looking bandit with a bushy unkempt beard asked.

“Heh, maybe they are having some fun with each other?”