章節 7: 07Bandit Lair
A chill ran through their spines as they felt a presence behind them. Damn! When did he arrive behind us? Both screamed inwardly. He even had that huge, ridiculous grin on his face.
But that didn't stop them from attacking Arthur. If they froze that easily, wouldn't it be a joke? Their lives had never been easy, and each second they lived on the line of life and death.
They could feel no pressure from his presence. That discovery calmed their nerves down, and they deduced that the kid had no battle experience. They exchanged looks with each other and attacked him.
The dagger user was a strength-based enhancer, so when he attacked, Arthur had a hard time to parry the attacks.
The Archer bandit immediately jumped to another tree, creating a distance from Arthur, and quickly released the arrows. A blue-colored mist came from him when he released the arrows.
The blue-colored aura attribute mainly focused on perception.
Arthur felt pressure facing the two experts' attacks, so he didn't dare to dilly dally. He skillfully dodged the three arrows that were darting towards his chest. He bent down and threw a kick at the assassin.
The assassin bandit was on high-alert and dodged the incoming kick, but there was a huge conflict going on inside his mind. When Arthur blocked his attack, he was using the full strength, but Arthur didn't even use his aura.
What did that mean?
His boss's warning came to his mind. He had once said, "If someone can block your attack without using their aura, that would mean he is at least a third transformation enhancer, and in that case, I can only give one piece of advice, 'Escape!'"
It scared him shitless and felt his legs weakening in the fear. In his mind there was only the word ringing continuously, 'escape'. He didn't dare to warn his comrade. He panicked, worrying that Arthur would find out his plan.
But could he really escape from the third transformation of enhancer? He was practically playing with them now.
'How could I know until I try? It's better than dying with regrets.' He was determined to escape as soon as he found a loophole.
In reality, Arthur was not a level-three enhancer. The reason he had superhuman strength was unknown to even Arthur himself.
When Arthur dodged the three arrows, he realized the archer was more dangerous than the assassin and he had to deal with him first. Arthur dashed towards the Archer who was taking another arrow from the quiver.
Arthur didn't let the archer take the arrows out from the quiver with a slash of his obsidian-steel sword. The Archer froze in fear when he saw the sword dashing towards him and squeezed his eyes shut. He had already accepted his death, realizing that he couldn't dodge the attack.
The perception attribute would boost the five senses and intelligence. However, he couldn't find any escape from Arthur's sword, even after running the many simulations.
At the last moment, when the sword was about to cut his neck, Arthur changed the destination, cutting off his both hands. While the dreams made him incapable of killing, he slowly developed ruthless behavior. If he couldn't kill them, he would make them incapable of fighting. They should regret the idea of attacking him.
Archer screamed in fright and pain when he saw the fountain of blood spilling out of his shoulders and lost consciousness.
'This is my chance!' When the assassin saw Arthur was attacking the archer, he escaped. Arthur narrowed his eyes and smirked at the escaping assassin. If he wanted to catch him, he could have done using the lightning but didn't opt to. He wanted to find the location of the bandit's lair.
So far everything was in his calculations.
"Shall I warn uncle Layman? No...that will be too late. Anyway, if things go south, I will just use my lightning power to escape from them."
After dealing with the Archer, Arthur followed the Assassin.
A while later, a strange silhouette appeared near the Archer, shook its head, and then disappeared. After the silhouette left, a bloody hole could be seen in the Archer's throat.
———
"I am finally safe," said the assassin in relief, but suddenly his countenance changed from relief to ugly, "Did I really escape from the third transformation enhancer with my strength?"
"Too late to think about that." The hilt of a sword hit the nape of his neck, drifting him into a deep sleep. After knocking out the Assassin, Arthur dragged him to the dark and peered at the surroundings.
He dropped his vigilance after sensing no one in the surroundings and looked at the cave in front of him. Arthur suddenly felt something was amiss, 'How can the bandits find such a good place when they were following us? Unless it's one of their branches? Is meeting them such a coincidence? No matter what, I will find it once I enter the cave.'
Arthur's first guess was correct. It was a bandit lair, and it was an outpost where they usually caged the villagers before selling them in the slave market.
Previously, he deduced many possibilities of what two bandits were doing there. After some thoughts and reasoning, he concluded that they were following them for a long time and sent the scouts to find their strengths, or there was a bandit lair nearby and a campfire attracted them.
If it was the latter, then their purpose of making the large campfire was a success. The only difference was that Layman wasn't with Arthur. Arthur's eyes turned red when he recalled the bandits' actions that his father told him.
Robbing, killing, violating, turning innocent villagers into slaves, and whatnot. He wanted to cut them into pieces, but even though he knew they were bad guys; he wasn't able to kill them. His inner conscience told him that killing was bad. Something within him, similar to the person's voice in his nightmare, told him he mustn't kill.
'Is it because I was born in a merchant family?'
Arthur shook his head in confusion and looked at the cave and the narrow entrance. Two bandits were standing in front of the cave guarding, looking weary. Arthur smirked and threw a rock near them.
"What's the sound?" The guards were alerted, and one of them quickly made his way towards the bush. The bush shook left and right, and after a few seconds, all the movements ceased. For outsiders, it looked like a couple making out in a random bush.
However, other guards didn't have the same thoughts; instead had an awful premonition. Another one of them raised his sword and entered the bush. History repeated. The bush shook for a few seconds and after some time, Arthur walked out of the bush, dusting off his hands.
"How well will it be if all bandits are as simple-minded as these two?" Arthur smiled and entered the cave. Unlike the narrow entrance, the cave path was broad enough for at least ten people to move side by side.
There were wooden torches stuck to either side of the wall, lighting the pathway. When Arthur walked inside, he saw prisons caging many helpless women and children.
When they saw someone coming, they trembled in fear, but a trace of hope glimmered in their eyes after realizing he was not one of those bandits. Looking at Arthur's disposition, people would think he was an innocent boy who wouldn't even know how to harm an ant.
But they couldn't be more mistaken if they thought so, looking at his kind disposition. He was ruthless for the bad and kindest for the good. His only demerit was he couldn't kill, or rather, he wouldn't kill.
The would-be slaves were excited and begged Arthur to save them. Initially, they despaired because Arthur looked like a child and he looked weak. How could a child save them from those vicious bandits' hands?
But when Arthur smiled at them, all their previous anxiousness swept away. His smile was just like the sunlight in the moon years, warm and assuring.
Arthur was nervous that the bandits would alert if they made the sound, so he signaled them to not make a single sound. They excitedly nodded and shut their mouth, refraining themselves from making a single sound.
When Arthur walked inside, he also saw many beautiful girls mixed among the slaves and couldn't help but think.
'Hero saving the damsel in distress! But how many?'
———
Although he had succeeded to shut them up, he was one step late, and it alarmed the bandits who were near the prison. Five bandits came together and saw a boy with the sword in his hand.
Bandits raised their guard when they were some liquid dripping from the sword. Although wood torches lightning the pathway, they could cover only so much distance and the light couldn't spread all over the cave.
When they saw the sword in that condition, they took the liquid as the blood of their comrades, unsheathing the swords from their waists. Arthur also saw the five bandits coming towards him and stepped into the light from the darkness, then found the group of bandits with a grim expression looking at his sword.
Arthur enlightened that they thought he killed the bandits and explained, "Don't worry. It's just blood. But I've never killed someone at most cutting the limbs. Come and let me cut your limbs."
Five bandits didn't talk and instead attacked after surrounding him. They couldn't find whether the other party was an enhancer unless he used the aura. It was one of the perks of being an enhancer, unlike the manipulator, who could be easily found out.
Arthur sighed in relief when he saw there were no enhancers among them and knocked them out using only a little lightning power. While he could finish them without the lightning help, that would take time and other bandits would alert learning his arrival.
Arthur then moved forward after dragging the unconscious bandits into the dark. He didn't want to alert the enemy because of some silly mistakes.
On his way, Arthur had met many bandits, but most of them were normal people and only little amongst them had awakened their aura. Amongst the awakened, all of them were at an early or intermediate first-enhancer stage. He dealt with them easily until he met the bandit boss who was at the peak first enhancer stage.
Arthur's stealth had long failed, and except for the lightning, he used every skill at his disposal. He also spilled a lot of blood. He didn't want to injure them, but they forced him as they scurried towards him after saying the flashy dialogs.
'Kill him!'
'Little bastard, I will kill you.'
'Skin him alive!'
'Cut his limbs and feed it to the dogs!'
However, even under the barrage of attacks, Arthur somehow managed to refrain from killing anyone.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票