บท 114: Journey to the Border Town

Yale started his travel towards the border town with the soldier party some minutes after the sparring.

As the captain had taken some liking to Yale since he discovered that he was at the expert stage in swordsmanship, the captain sparred with him every time they stopped the carriage.

The captain wouldn't be able to learn anything from sparring with Yale, but Yale was still better with the sword than all the other soldiers, so it was the best opponent to practice.

Of course, the others had better battle prowess because they supplied their lack of technique with raw power as they were in a higher Rank than Yale, but comparing pure swordsmanship, they were only at the apprentice stage, so Yale surpassed them easily.

Yale couldn't improve his swordsmanship at his current Rank, but he was trying to develop new skills that suited himself, so the sparring with the captain was something he needed as it was an excellent practical experience.

Yale felt that the captain's swordsmanship was incredible, but it still lost to Swordmad's by a huge margin. However, Swordmad wasn't there to train with him, so the captain was the best choice.

They didn't meet any problems in their first month of travel, having a Rank 4 with them, it would be strange if ordinary bandits dared to attack them.

However, that only applied to human bandits as there wasn't any Rank 4 human bandit in the area, someone that strong didn't need to be a bandit.

That didn't apply to half-beast bandits who were moved by their hatred of humans and delighted in killing them; stealing their belongings was secondary.

Before the end of the second month, the captain sighed.

"We really have bad luck."

The captain saw a group of bandits nearing them from far away with his Spiritual Sense, but there was no way to avoid them since the bandits knew the area better than them, and they were starting to surround them.

The group would meet with the bandits disregarding the path they would follow. Fleeing wasn't an option.

The captain led the group into a small corridor between two cliffs; he had detected fifty half-beast bandits, so choosing a narrow place that blocked left and right would prevent the half-beasts from using all their numeric superiority completely surrounding them.

The group stopped and waited for the bandits; since there was no way to avoid them, it was better to get ready for battle instead of being assaulted while moving.

The captain's Spiritual Sense was too strong, so they needed to wait a bit before the bandits appeared.

As the captain had detected, the bandits were fifty, and they were strong. Their leader was also at Rank 4, and there were twenty Rank 3 followers. The others were only at Rank 2, but that was enough to threaten Yale's life.

They were a famous bandit group formed by half-beasts who hated humans and had enormous bounties for their heads.

Initially, the information in the city reported sightings of that bandit group as they were in another area, and there wasn't any chance of clashing with them. The only reason why the bandit group was moving all its forces and changing its way to assault them was that someone betrayed them.

The drunk man who got fired after the incident with Yale had sold the information to a half-beast spy for a great amount of money. In fact, after getting fired, he had sold a lot of confidential information to bandit groups and not only the information about Yale's group.

Yale had secretly put Wyba in his Storage Space; he wouldn't risk putting her in danger. Everyone else thought that Yale had left her inside the carriage.

"Young master, this fight will be difficult. They have their best members here, and they also surpass us in number."

The captain was worried by Yale; all the enemies were far stronger than him, and being skilled with the sword wouldn't save him.

"Don't worry about me and focus on the battle."

Yale didn't fear for his life; in any case, the forbidden skill will activate saving his life, although he hoped to not need to reach that point.

Seeing that Yale was calm, the captain relaxed, thinking that Yale should have some trump card to survive in a desperate situation.

"Our prey seems to want to defend, but what can they do with their puny numbers?"

A tiger-faced man laughed, that was the Rank 4 in the other party, and by his looks, he wasn't of a very pure bloodline although the bloodline had a high level.

The other bandits also laughed. They didn't fear Yale's group. For them, that was hunting without any risks.

The captain didn't waste time and started his battle with the tiger-faced man, both of them knew that the other had enough strength to change the outcome of the fight, so both wanted to tie the other to avoid a massacre in their groups.

Thanks to the corridor structure, the great advantage in numbers from the bandits was diminished, but the bandits could rotate when someone was tired or harmed while Yale's group didn't have that luxury.

Or at least that was the thought of the soldiers, but when they started to get harmed and tired, a white light covered them, and they fully recovered.

That was Yale using Light Healing. For such wounds, Light Healing could be used in an area, and at some distance; it only needed direct contact for serious injuries. Of course, that was also because Yale got that skill level quite high, and he already had a lot of experience healing people.

The captain and the others were surprised as they never thought that a young man like Yale was an elemental healer and an experienced one capable of using Light Healing with such easiness.

That revelation plus their recovered energy boosted the soldiers' forces and started to gain the upper hand in the struggle, even if the others rotate their numbers were still limited, so their wounds were accumulating as they couldn't heal them.

The tiger-faced man was cursing the other party because the bandits didn't have a healer. They were an outlaw group who was still seen as trash by their own kingdom due to their acts, attacking a neighboring country when they weren't at war wasn't something the Anpaes Kingdom liked.

However, all these bandits had a lot of hatred towards humans and disregarded all to harm them; they would like a war against the Zuatania Republic.

Healers were even more scarce among half-beasts than among humans, due to their bloodline limitation to being able to learn healing skills, so the few healers wouldn't waste their time in such outlaw groups and instead would be recruited by powerful factions.

If any power in the Anpaes Kingdom discovered an outlaw group with a healer, the outlaw group would be destroyed very quickly. Healers were scarce resources, hiding them wasn't something weaker groups could do, the opinion of the healer didn't matter, all healers should serve a powerful group.

Yale saw that the battle between both fighters at the Expert Rank was reaching the climax, and he decided to help a bit the captain secretly.

When the tiger-faced half-beast was about to avoid a strong sword slash from the captain's sword, he felt his body unable to move. It lasted less than a second, only an instant, but that instant he was unable to move was enough to get hit by the captain's attack.

Yale had observed that the bandit always avoided just at the last moment and then attacked the captain, so he used that fact to stop him with Time Freeze just before the bandit dodged the incoming attack.

It was only an instant and left Yale exhausted, but that instant decided the battle as the bandits didn't have any healer, and the leader's wound was severe enough to threaten his life.

In the end, the bandits were all killed; after the leader's death, the captain killed all the other bandits; he didn't let anyone flee.

The captain didn't notice the true reason for that moment of delay from the tiger-faced man; he simply thought that he was unable to react to his attack.

At night, the group celebrated their victory, all of them were alive while all the opponents were dead.

They were extra happy because their opponent was a famous criminal group, they would obtain a great bounty after giving the heads of the bandits to the Zuatania Republic authorities.

The main reasons for their victory were the place where they battled which prevented them from being surrounded and beaten by the numbers and the constant healing Yale offered to them.

Yale alone without using the forbidden skill had zero chances of winning against such a group, but without his support, the others would have also ended up dying at the hands of the bandits.

The captain improved his impression of Yale even more but at the same time sighed because the last battle showed how even a weak healer at the Novice Rank could influence a fight, and he knew that there wasn't any healer that would want to work in such a dangerous place.

They didn't face any other trouble in their travel, killing a famous bandit group had scared others with evil intentions towards them. After all, they killed the strongest bandit group in the area.

After a long journey of three months, Yale reached the border town; he was almost in the Anpaes Kingdom.