Chapter 182: Gruesome

‘If this goes on, we all will get killed,’ I defended against the arrow of Blackwell. which put a small dent in my sword.

The damage would have been even greater. If there hadn’t been, Damage Reduction on my sword.

There are a couple of small dents that have already appeared on my sword, all from the fucking arrows of Blackwell.

Which had killed many of my men, including two of my lieutenants.

This task wasn’t supposed to be this difficult, especially when we were able to pull up such a huge number. I had thought we would simply swarm the enemy’s army and our target before killing them, but it is we who are getting killed.

I looked at Leryn beside me, and she looked at me. The half-elf had the same question as I have.

‘Why the support, hadn’t arrived yet?’

Only Leryn, Herman, and I knew about the extra support. When the masked man told me about it. I had got offended and still am, for him to not believe in our abilities.

Now, I want the support to come as soon as possible.

Though I would be the one who will kill the Blackwell and get that bow.

It said the bow will return after its user died.

That didn’t change my mind about getting it. I have contacted a few people, and they have given me a few things. They say they might be able to hold the bow back.

The reward they offered me in exchange for it is so huge that I could live my whole life in luxury.

Most importantly, they are willing to provide me with safe heaven and they are powerful enough to do it.

I am not the only one who has eyes for the bow. Leryn and Herman both want it. Herman especially, since he is an archer.

If anyone can get the bow, then it would be me and I will kill anything that came my way.

Blackwell, Herman, Leryn, and anyone else.

Puch!

I was just thinking that when an ice dagger materialized out of nowhere above me and stuck in the eyes of the assassin.

“Fuck!” I cursed and stepped aside to avoid the falling body.

If Blackwell, the half-orc colonel, and that old man weren’t enough, this human bitch had also started to make things difficult, and of the four of them, she was the most difficult to guard against.

Information had been provided about her by the masked man, but it was vastly underestimated her strength. She is far stronger than what her information had said, especially with that sword.

Her sword moves in different directions and spells came out from another.

I had gone for her, but came back to Blackwell a minute later. It is frustrating to fight against her.

When attacking, the frost shields would appear in front and when I destroyed them, I would find a barrage of ice spears coming at me, with her appearing behind me with that icy sword.

I want that sword.

Unlike the artifact of Blackwell. It didn’t come with any risks. I could sell to anyone I want.

It is why many people want it. Especially Lyria. She had the highest mages in her group.

I suspect she is a mage too, despite her denying, not being one.

Hun!

I defended against another arrow of Blackwell when I noticed something that alarmed me.

“Jerra, retreat!” I shouted, and he acted immediately.

For a moment, relief flooded into my eyes, before once again they widened in alarm and turned to horror, as the old man cut my strongest lieutenant into two.

“Bastard!” I cursed at the old man but didn’t go at him.

I wish that bastard Karguk had been here. I hated the bastard to death and celebrated when he was killed, but he had been here. We wouldn’t have been in such a condition.

Even the masked man had said, with Karguk. This would have been much simple.

The bastard had the Red Skill. The madding rage he brought out with that skill, the skill was terrifying.

I had fought against him, and despite having five times less numbers. The bastard had decimated half of my men.

Now, I only hope; the support came in time. I don’t want to leave without getting my hands on that artifact.

….

Puch!

I ducked the saber attack at the last moment before piercing my sword into the chest of the bandit.

She died immediately, with shock in her eyes.

As I killed her, I moved immediately and dodged the attack of the bandit from behind. It had nearly touched me.

About an hour has passed since I had started fighting and I had killed eleven bandits till now. More in the second half of the hour, as I changed my fighting style.

I had let go of all my reservations and begin to use every skill, I had to its limit and found my speed getting faster and my attacks stronger.

Though, one skill that is helping me most is the Gymnasts Grace. It is an amazing skill. Without the freedom to maneuver, the way I want; I wouldn’t have been able to kill so many bandits.

It is not easy, and I have to push myself hard. Harder than I had pushed myself in the practice.

I dodged another attack from the bandit before attacking him. I planned to finish him off before another join.

That would be difficult.

Killing the bandits is not easy, given the difference in strength between us. So, I study them; their skills and test them, by giving them a few openings before making my move.

It is a wise strategy. If I go directly for the kill, I will be killed. Becoming part of the bodies I had been stepping on.

The bandits are getting killed fast, and their bodies have littered the ground.

The number of bodies has increased so much that I am standing on them to fight. The dead bodies covered nearly all the surface of the hill, that it had been minutes since I stepped on real ground.

It is horrifying, and I want to run away, but that is not an option. I will have to fight till the battle ends.

There is a chance of it happening, sooner rather than later, seeing how fast the bandits are getting killed.

The forces of Blackwell are too well trained compared to the bandits who are fractured.

These groups hate each other and have no coordination.

It is why they are getting killed by an experienced and disciplined army of the Blackwell. It is drowning their morale, which is the most important thing for an army, as important as the levels and sometimes even more important than it.

I could feel the plummeting morale of bandits.

It was high when they had first attacked, but slowly it begins to lose steam and now, I even saw many bandits running away from the battle.

I couldn’t blame them; why would they fight, when their leaders are dead?

There are tens of bandit groups who have taken part in the battle and many of them have died.

Ignatius and others are killing them, one by one. They seemed to be no match for them, despite their numbers.

Though the bandits are powerful, the people Ignatius has brought are not weak either. Colonel Greenman, four captains, and twelve lieutenants were all very experienced and leading them deftly.

Aside from them, there are many other people who are over Lv. 20 and most of them are around Ignatius.

At first, the bandits had an edge with their greater numbers of powerhouses, but they are getting killed steadily.

That some of them have started fighting defensively.

Clang!

I defended with my sword and nearly threw it away; the handle of my sword seemed to have heated up so much that I felt my hand burning, but I held on.

Is not burning, but I am feeling the pain. It is the skill of ugly blond hair bandit, I am fighting.

It is the second pain skill I felt here. This one is even more powerful than the last one.

Others may have it, but didn’t get to use it on me, as I had focused on dodging instead of countering.

“You should run away, you know. We will win the battle and when that happens, you will be executed or something worse might happen to you,” I said to the bandit.

“I will never run away. It’s you who should fear for your life because I am going to kill you,” it said with a grin, and attacked me again.

“You said those words five minutes ago, but aside from three minor injuries, you were not able to do anything,” I taunted, making him even angrier.

“You are too amateur to get a rise out of me, little boy,” he said and intensified his attacks with the different combinations of skills.

He has quite a good combination of skills.

One is even an illusion-type attack, which is hard to defend against. Those three injuries I have got from him, given to him by that attack.

Once again, his blade disappeared in the mid attack, and I let my instincts guide me and move left. As always, I had been right, as I felt the wind pass my shoulder before the blade materialized.

It is a rare skill to have, even at Level 20.

I don’t know if this person in front of me is Level 20. If he is not, then he is definitely close, at least Level 18 or Level 19.

Ting!

A minute passed, and his sword hit the armor I was wearing. It had happened many times.

If I hadn’t been wearing it, I would have been dead already.

“The armor set will look quite good on me,” said the bandit, looking at my armor greedily. He is not the first to look at my armor with greed. Many bandits wanted it.

It had been hidden under my clothes, but as they got torn by the attacks. It had become visible, attracting even more bandits at me.

A few seconds passed; it attacked again, which I had dodged when a sudden change occurred.

It was unlike anything; he had done till now.

Hun!

He became fast, faster than he had been in our fight in the past few minutes. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but get alarmed and moved to retreat, but to my shock, I realized I couldn’t retreat.

He had a Restrictive Skill that was stopping me from retreating. It may be ‘Stop Retreat,’ or any other skill, which is another rare skill.

Earlier, I had doubts about him being a Level 20, but now, I do not. The bastard had been hiding his power and now he had revealed it.

I have to do something fast. If I didn’t, I will get killed, but there isn’t anything I could do.

The only thing that could have helped me survive would have been retreating, which I couldn’t do it.

My thoughts moved fast, but I didn’t see any option, other than the craziest one, which is running toward him. It will not help me survive, but it will give me mutual destruction, which is much better than dying alone.

The moment I made the decision, I moved, harnessing every bit of power I could from Rapid Legs.

I moved so fast that I felt the pain in my legs, but I didn’t care and swung my sword, activated Quick Blade, Weighted Strike, and even Consecutive Strikes, for the little enhancement it will give me.

The activation of four skills at full power begins to make my head hurt, but I don’t care.

If I am going to die, I will take him with me.

He seemed to understand what I was doing and continued with his attack, but as we come closer, a hesitation begins to appear on his face.

Hun!

When there were less than two meters between us. He did something surprising.

He stopped his attack and retreated.

I had not expected it, because despite going for mutual destruction. He could have been able to stop me, kill me before I kill him.

With his abilities, he would have been able to achieve that, but it seemed like he didn’t have enough confidence in his abilities to go with it.

Seeing his retreat, I wanted to stop too when I saw his sword becoming visible and without hesitation jumped at him, with everything I have.

It surprised him, but quickly his expression relaxed, and a smile appeared as he attacked me.

There is a smile on my face too, as his sword is moving fast as I had expected. The way I had expected.

Soon, I reached closer to it, and it moved to cut me in half; that’s when I took my right leg forward.

It is very hard for a normal person to do; even for me, it would have been near impossible to do it. If not for Gymnasts Grace, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

Some credit also goes to yoga, I do it every day. It helped me become flexible in performing these maneuvers.

Gymnasts Grace, give me grace. It does not make my body flexible or give me stamina.

He understood what I was doing and tried to raise his sword, which brightened the smile on my face further.

Instantly, the leg moved faster with Rapid Leg and stepped on his sword.

Immediately, I felt like my leg was burning, but I bore it and pressed my leg against it.

I leveraged my foot on his sword with balance given me by Gymnasts Grace and brought my rapier down with Quick Blade and Weighted Strike.

Pachak!

It came down fast, and in an instant, reached for his head. The enchantments on my rapier flared, and it started to cut through his head in the most gruesome way.

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