章 19: Chapter 19

While the battle continued, Gerald and the commander of the bandits were facing off. Gerald glanced at his subordinates and found them having the worst of the fight. They were keeping themselves alive, but some of them seemed to be wounded already. Each Warrior was at least holding off two bandits. If the bandits had known how to fight any better, the melee could have gone much worse for Gerald's men. Fortunately, the brigands weren't the best of combatants.

Gerald eyed his opponent warily. The bandit was too calm for comfort. He circled Gerald slowly with a steady sword.

Gerald struck first. He stepped forward and delivered a slash to test the waters.

The bandit easily deflected it then responded with a strike of his own, giving Gerald a not-so-welcome surprise. The bandit commander was a Warrior which wasn't much of a shock to Gerald. But what he realized when he blocked the bandit's strike was what shocked him. It was too strong. His wrist's ached from the bandit's unexpected slash.

"You have an attribute?!" Gerald asked, his eyes unbelieving. It was impossible for a bandit. Any commoner could get their hands on a Warrior manual if they saved enough gold. Attribute manuals, on the other hand, were impossible to get with just money. Royals, nobles, and very powerful families had hereditary attribute manuals, like the Tellus family's lightning and Earth manuals. A special family like Uncle Rudolf's had a dark attribute manual, and even that was considered peculiar. Most noble families had only one attribute manual.

The bandit didn't answer Gerald's question. He leapt forward and delivered two slashes for Gerald to block. Gerald received the two slashes begrudgingly. His opponent was an Earth Warrior with fire attribute. An attribute known for its offensive power. "You've mastered an attribute. That means you have the manual here?" Gerald's eyes sharpened as he asked. Gaining another manual for the family was nothing short of a great achievement. He still couldn't believe that a bandit might have one, no matter what his past was.

This time the bandit chuckled. "My chief has been begging me for that manual since I joined him. You think I'd leave it lying around for him to take? You'll never find it, no matter how hard you search. "

Gerald gritted his teeth. It was true. Something that valuable would never be lying around. He quickly regained his focus and held his sword tight.

'Only one way to handle a fire attribute Warrior.'

Gerald leapt forward and slashed. The first slash was followed by second one, and the second by a third. A flurry of attacks quickly descended on the bandit who struggled to block and didn't have space to parry. He wasn't the only one with an attribute. Gerald's was lightning. Speed was his forte.

Gerald didn't stop attacking for a moment. He'd delivered over ten strikes in a few moments and he continued. His enemy was a destructive swordsman with an attribute made for attack. He couldn't give him room to breathe. As long as the bandit never attacked, his attribute was as good as his shit. Useless.

The bandit sensed Gerald's intention and frowned, then he stepped to the side with a feint and softly blocked one of Gerald's strikes, locking swords with him for a moment.

Gerald snorted as his sword stilled into a clinch with his opponent's. The bandit was trying to counter attack. Gerald wouldn't let him. He stepped slightly to the side then forward, delivering a fist to the bandits chin. The fist hardly grazed the bandits face, but it was enough to disorient him. His sword pulled back from the clinch but stayed in Gerald's way.

Gerald followed with a kick to the man's gut. This one struck squarely and painfully. The bandit stepped back with a groan then lifted his sword again, infuriated. He moved forward with intent, striking from above with his sword. Gerald moved and parried calmly. Then he countered with two quick thrusts. The bandit stepped back, narrowly escaping the tip of Gerald's sword but losing his attacking advantage.

Gerald pressed his advantage with another flurry of attacks that the bandit struggled to stop. One strike slipped by the latter's defense like a bolt of lightning and slashed his chest. He winced in pain and stumbled back as Gerald stepped forward and sharpened his attacks.

Gerald finally sensed weakness in his opponent and decided to deliver the final strike. He stepped forward, feinting a high sweep. The bandit raised his sword to block it but received nothing. Gerald had crouched down and was delivering his real sweep from below.

The bandit's face turned ugly as he realized that it was too late to step back and he yelled in pain as the sword slashed through his knees. His pain was turned into anger and he tried to strike down with his sword onto Gerald's head, but Gerald rolled to the side as if he had anticipated it.

The bandit soon lost all semblance of balance and limped as he moved. Gerald got to his feet and didn't give the bandit any hope. He leapt forward, thrusting with his sword. The bandit parried, but Gerald followed with two quick slashes. One slash was narrowly blocked, but the other struck the bandit's neck squarely from the side and drew blood.

Gerald stopped his attacks and watched the bleeding bandit. "If you tell me where it is, I might just let you live."

The bandit had knelt down and dropped his sword, holding his bleeding neck. He spat on Gerald's feet. "I'm a dead man. You think I have ten men's worth of blood in me? Or do you take me for a fool? I've left the manual for those who deserve it, and you'll never get your mushy noble hands on it."

Gerald stepped forward and snorted. "These mushy noble hands defeated you in fair combat." Then he stepped forward and slashed twice more, decapitating the bandit.

He'd heard about what he was supposed to do now, but it was still his first battle. Triumphantly raising the enemy commander's head wasn't something that would come naturally to him, not yet anyway. He grabbed the bandit's head by its hair then stepped back into the ranks of his men. Some of the bandits had already noticed that their commander was dead and were disheartened.

Gerald saw a Warrior next to him besieged by three bandits and struggling. He moved to his side and handed him the head. "Show it to them," he told his subordinate. Then he fended off the attacks of the three bandits himself.

The Warrior who accepted the head quickly climbed back onto the platform and raised it with a victorious shout. Some of the bandits had already dropped their weapons and ran when they saw him climbing up with the head. Others were still in shock. None of them would successfully escape, though. There were cavalry outside the camp, sweeping the surroundings. And even if they made it through the cavalry, they'd probably end up in Uncle Rudolf's net.

Gerald quickly found himself fighting one bandit instead of three. He quickly dispatched the vile soul and moved on to the next. The elite corps took heart and moved forward, crushing the remaining resistance steadily. Soon, all the bandits were running and all the Warriors were chasing.

It didn't take long for the battle to come to an end. The regiment's captain brought his troops into the camp as the elite corps finished off any remnants inside. Gerald summoned the captain for the cleanup.

"Have the men search every inch of the camp," Gerald said. "I want every copper in here. The bandits might have hidden or buried their gold. Dig and find it. Also, if any of the men find a manual here, I'll reward them." He said that but he didn't hold much hope for finding the manual. He'd given this command in case the bandit had been lying out of his teeth.

Gerald's troops split themselves in two. One half searched the camp and the other kept watch outside. The elite corps was resting after a hard fought battle, and Gerald was sitting with them. "You've done well today," he said. Nine of his Warriors were seriously wounded and several others had cuts or bruises. But they were Warriors. All thirty of them would live after this. Healing was never an issue for Warriors unless they were mortally wounded. The severely injured ones were bandaged and no longer bled. It was better than he'd expected. "You will all be rewarded once we're back."

After Gerald spoke, he lay down on his back amidst the tents. He'd refused to rest in the cabin and had chosen to rest amongst his men. They had fought well.

Now he just had to wait until the camp was cleaned up then burned down. He'd thought about leaving the camp for Gasper's crew, but it would bring too much suspicion from the other crews. No lord would leave a bandit camp standing after conquering it.

He sighed. His men had one whole day to suck every coin and valuable out of the camp. Then the next day before dusk, they'd meet Robard's forces west of the forest.