Chapter 130: Battle In The Keep I

“Attack, kill every one of them!” ordered the bandit leader and came toward us with his men, and at the same time, arrows begin to rain again.

‘Fuck fuck fuck…’ I cursed madly.

Lancel, that bastard. I wish he was dead. Damn, the consequences. It is all happening because of him, and he ran away, leaving us here in the jaws of bandits.

Taking High-Mage with him, the only one who could guarantee our victory against the bandits.

Now, with him gone, there is a chance we all be wiped out, and it is all happening to find that bastard. The blood shaman intends to sacrifice us to track Lancel.

Even in escaping, he had brought death for us.

It took all but a second for the first volley of arrows to reach us.

Ting Ting Ting

Thankfully, we have enough mages to cover us with shield spells. Including Zela, whose water shields are moving across the battlefield and around me.

The arrows hit the shields and fell to the ground, not breaching even a single shield.

I felt relieved seeing that but didn’t grow confident.

I saw what happened to Lancel and while it is likely a special arrow that breached the shield; I don’t want to take chances. I am keeping an eye on arrows, as well as the bandits coming toward me.

The others got ready to face them. I felt a lot of buffing skills covering me, which gave me some confidence.

Though, I know we will not be the only ones using the buff skills. The bandits would be using theirs’s as well. It is not an advantage, as it was against the undead and in the dungeon.

“Jon, Captain Hiren; go and neutralize the archers,” I said to them, seeing the volleys of arrows.

With Lancel gone, I am the highest authority here. Baron Lockridge may be higher in the station, but I am the adviser. It could be argued on several grounds, but Baron Lockridge was in no state to do that.

They looked surprised by the order, but moved quickly, with Captain Hiren taking three more people with him. One is a rogue among three, while about two, I don’t have any information, since they are from Mirador Hold.

I would have very much liked to keep these people around me. It would have increased the chances of my survival, but with archers, the result would be me being dead.

They need to be dealt with first. They are what could kill us from a distance and keep our mages busy.

Our mages have attacked the bastards before stopping. It is a waste of mana, seeing as they are protected; those stone guards are not easy to breach. Even Zela’s spells will have a hard time doing that.

As the rogues moved toward two entrances of the battlements, some archers focused on them and so had one of the grey-orc lieutenants. He is a rogue, with a level estimated between twenty-five to twenty-nine.

He had moved to block Captain Hiren.

I quickly moved my gaze away and turned to bandits, who were about to reach us.

“Bandit’s leader and his lieutenant are the targets. Kill them and the victory will be ours!” I shouted for morale.

I may not know much about the battles, but I know how important the morale and the leadership are.

Our leader ran away and the second one is no state to lead and boost morale.

Everyone here is more powerful than me, but they are looking to me for support and leadership and to win and survive. I will give that to them, no matter how uncomfortable and dangerous it is.

The expressions of people changed hearing my voice, and they seem more ready, but it also attracted the eyes of the most dangerous man here.

Seeing those pale blue eyes, I shuddered, but I did not move my eyes away. Even when I wanted to do that desperately.

“I will kill you, you bastard!”

Shouted Baron Lockridge as his men finally let go of him; he moved toward the bandit with a speed that made the bandit’s leader turn his head and loosen the grin on him.

Baron Lockridge is not the only one who attacked the bandits, others charged behind him. Stone, Captain Julian, Captain Azalia, and two men of Baron Lockridge; I hope they will be enough to deal with the Bandit Leader and its lieutenants.

Soon, they reached the bandits and something surprising happened.

A dagger appeared in Baron Lockridge’s hand; he did not use the sword by his waist and instead use the dagger. The information I have said he is a warrior, not a rogue.

I could only see him attacking before I had to turn to face the grey orc, appearing in front of me.

It is a big orc with arms holding an enchanted long sword. If it hit me, it will be a game over for me.

“Die, little human,” he said with a grin, and swing his sword at me. It is fast, but not as fast as I had expected. With his power, he should have been able to attack much faster, but he is not doing that.

The bastard isn’t even using a skill; thinking me weakling and he is not wrong.

I look young and most people of my age did not have many levels, much less the combat skills I have.

Hun!

Seeing him underestimating me heavily, I decided to take a big risk. Usually, I do not like to take such risks, especially at the start of the battle, but here, things are different.

Everybody is higher level than me.

If I want to survive, then I will have to kill, and I don’t think I will get a better opportunity than this.

It will also boost morale.

So, I acted, or rather did not act; I just stayed on my spot, frozen in fear, seeing that. The grin on his face became a bringer.

I let his sword come closer to me and when there was just a distance of hand between us. I moved with the speed; I have never moved before.

I pushed Rapid Steps further than its limit.

It gave me such speed that I was able to avoid his sword by more than a palm distance.

I thought I would be able to avoid it by inches at most or even get cut by it, but I did not.

As I avoided his sword, I swung mine using Swift Blade and Weighted Strike. It moved so fast that I could barely track it, but I know where it is going.

The orc is shocked by it, but he reacted quickly. He started to move back to dodge the attack, but I had expected it and did not stop when I appeared right in front of it.

It is the only thing it could; his sword is behind me and with its momentum, it will take time to attack me. Dodging is the only choice he has, but not the right one.

Hun!

It took less than a second for my sword to reach its neck when I felt the resistance.

He has a skill; it had created an invisible force field around his neck.

Such skills are very rare and extremely useful. If one worked on it well, they could do many things with them.

The force field had slowed down my sword but did not stop it. It tried to use that escape, but I am following him with every step.

The power of my two skills and enchantments. My sword cut through the forcefield, before finally touching its neck when the forcefield suddenly disappeared and my sword regained its speed and power.

Pachac!

As it did, it took all but an instant for me to sever his neck.

I could see a shock appearing in the eyes of some bandits and guards fighting beside me. The only one who isn’t shocked was Joseph. He barely glanced at me before continuing his battle with the two bandits.

In the two seconds, it took me to orc bandit; the battle had begun.

Bandits are fighting against the guards.

As I looked around, I received a shock of my own. Baron Lockridge was fighting against the bandit leader and their fight was so fast that I could not even see, all I could see is them flickering in positions.

The shocking thing is, Baron Lockridge, is fighting as a rogue and seemed equally strong as a bandit leader.

I had read about Baron Lockridge; his family had been serving House Ravenheart for over five hundred years. They are warriors, I have never heard about them producing such power rogue of such power.

One could never guess when it comes to the powerful noble houses.

It is highly likely that Baron Lockridge had been a member of House Ravenheart’s secret forces; it is the only reason he would hide his real class and show himself a warrior of average strength.

I only stared at the battle for a second, before my gaze is attracted by the first death among the guards.

It is an archer; the aura had directly pierced through his head.

Zela and mages are trying, but the archers have an advantage due to their positions and numbers, not to mention they have the aid of bandits from below, which made it hard to defend against them.

I was looking at guards when I saw an Orc coming toward me.

It was also a grey orc with a great sword coming toward me, with burning anger and grief in its eyes.

“You have killed Hoge. You will pay for it,” it said and attacked me and this one did not hold back at all. Seeing the power behind his attack, I become really scared.

I did not dare to engage against it directly and instead chose to dodge the attack.

Rip!

His sword tore my clothes and gave me a cut in the stomach before launching another attack.

Rip!

It also cut me a little deeper than the first one.

This is the power of the Gorlag bandit; I was able to kill the one before because that one had underestimated me, but this one come at me with full power, with skills and all.

These two strikes are enough to tell me the difference between us is large. Large like ten levels.

The only reason I was able to even dodge the attack before I have Rapid Steps is a powerful short-range movement skill.

Which is faster than the normal movement skills and also old Remus’s combat talent.

He had envious combat talent, learning anything very quickly, and had been praised to be born with the instinct of the warrior.

There is also some training I have done, even so, I am scared of my life. It is highly likely I will die.

He is Level 20, while I am Level 11 in combat class. This gap is vast, but I have to try it because there is no other choice.

“Dodging will not save you. You will die!” It said and swung his sword again while moving toward me. He is fast and his sword is faster.

All I could see was an afterimage.

So, I didn’t even try to and even stopped thinking about it altogether. I focused on my instincts and let them guide me.

Like in the dungeon, I could feel them and moved according to their direction.

Rip!

Once again, its sword hit me, but this time, it barely touched my skin. I am surprised, as I had been thoroughly prepared to lose an arm.

He also seemed surprised, but he did not let it stop him and attacked me immediately. Once again, I did not think, but reacted, and dodged the attack wholly, without letting it cut even a single string of fiber of my cloth.

Now it is angry.

“I will kill you!” it shouted and came at me and, like before, I let my instincts guide me.

It is not just instinct, but also my skills. The Rapid Steps and Sure Foot; I am pushing them beyond their limit. I am dodging the attacks at such angles that made it feel like Sure Foot had become an active skill.

I have really got lucky with this skill.

It kept attacking me, and I kept dodging. Half of the attacks, I have dodged perfectly, while the other half injured me in some way.

Still, it is hard to believe I am even dodging the attacks. Seeing the difference in skills between us.

I am alive now, but I won’t be forever. I needed to dodge his every attack, while he only needs to hit once, and that enchanted sword and I would be dead.

I wish someone could help. My guards would help me, but all of them are busy. I had sent Jon to deal with archers.

Stone is fighting against two of the bandit leaders’ lieutenants and Zela and is summoning shields all over the battlefield and above me while also dealing with shaman’s attacks.

As for normal guards, they are fighting and dying. Till now, four of them fell, including one mage.

Thankfully, they have taken double the number of bandits, and it all happened in less than a minute.

It hadn’t been even a minute since bandits attacked us for sacrifice and over ten people were dead.

I wonder how many more will die before it is over.

Whether I would be one of them.

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