Mercenaries and Adventurers

"Scream, imagination."

The detective bandit, who only had a few circles of foot wrap wrapped around his lower body, racked his brains to think about the task that was forced on him. It was not his mission in the first place.

On the grass, two young refugees, whose hands and feet were tied up with strong ropes, originally thought that the beating just now was over, but when faced with the bandit who was mostly naked, they screamed again.

"Help! Don't come here! Don't come here!"

"Ahhh! Go ahead and mess with him, don't mess with me, please!"

Before he started investigating the robbers, he didn't expect that his appearance at this time had frightened the two young people on the ground.

That's right, anyone who was caught by the notorious bandits in such a frightening and tense night, and then saw the naked bandits muttering to themselves after being beaten, would scream in such helpless terror.

The corner of his mouth curled up. He didn't expect that the task of detecting the robbers could be completed so easily.

"Hehehehe." He deliberately pretended to have a weird expression, and laughed maliciously.

The two young refugees on the ground were even more frightened. They were tied up. Even so, they tried to move their bodies away from here. The investigating robber deliberately sneered and did not hit anyone directly. He turned the two young men over with his feet, and then raised his foot to step on one of them's buttocks.

The young man who was stepped on was so frightened that he wet his crotch.

As he was about to have a premonition that something bad was going to happen to him, he let out a series of screams that were even more pitiful than killing a pig.

Even if the bandit did nothing.

-

At the same time, a loud whistle came from the south of the clearing. The blood-licking grass hovering next to the carriage moved its long ears, then squeezed away the helpless young refugees around and ran to the south of the clearing.

On the bandit's side, after the two bandit cronies delegated the task to investigating the bandit, they immediately took the people and prepared to take action again.

As soon as the two groups separated, they heard the screams of two captured young refugees not far behind them.

The henchman of the bandit leader who wielded a machete scratched his scalp and said flatly to his companions: "Well, it seems that this guy is quite capable."

Another henchman of the bandit leader who wielded an ax also raised a similar question: "But how did he do it?"

After a moment of confusion, they immediately took advantage of the shrill screams coming from the darkness behind them and rushed out of the darkness with grins, attacking the piles of refugees illuminated by fires one after another.

In accordance with the order of the bandit leader, first the refugee defense line rushed out of the bandit team, still using the previous method, trying to catch another one from the crowd.

But this time, because of Priest Batal's instructions, as soon as the refugees in the front row saw the bandits rushing out to attack, they retreated slightly while throwing stones.

At the same time, the clatter of horse hooves sounded, and Priest Batal also hurried over on horseback.

"Back off!"

He roared, and stretched out the protective statue held tightly in his left hand towards the attacking bandit team.

A wave of air gradually brewed in front of the statue. Then a small wave of air spread out and blew directly towards the three bandits.

But the bandits are not stupid. They have been on guard against the priest's trick for a long time. When the horses ran toward them, the three men stopped attacking the refugees and slowly backed away cautiously.

When the three people saw the priest on the horse raising his arms, they immediately paid no attention to anything. The three people immediately rolled in three different directions to avoid it.

Rumble, rumble, a wave of divine power pushed forward, but it hit nothing and missed.

The place where the three of them were originally gathered was empty the next moment. The air wave only blew away a layer of soil on the ground, blowing up a stream of smoke with the smell of grass and earth.

If Keir were here right now, he would definitely say something about the law that smoke never hurts.

Sure enough, before Priest Batal could activate the protective statue in his hand to launch a new wave of attacks, the three bandits rolled and crawled back in the direction they came from.

The young refugees immediately applauded when they saw this, but before Priest Batal could even say a few humble words, screams and commotions came from the other side of the defense line facing the trade road.

When the priest turned around on his horse, he saw a scene that made him ashamed.

The bandits with crossbows on their shields were dragging two male and female refugees away from the entanglement and stone attacks of the refugee crowd while dragging them towards the darkness on the opposite side of the trade road.

The stones picked up by the young refugees were thrown at the bandit leader's cronies who were wearing simple leather armor, but it had no effect at all. If it were a bandit who was only wearing softer and thicker leather and animal skins, it could be said that hitting the opponent would hurt. However, facing the hard and thick leather armor, apart from the banging sound caused by the stone hitting him, there would be no harm at all.

If provoking the ferocious bandits is considered a victory, it is also a negative effect.

The henchman of the bandit leader who wielded the ax was originally more ferocious. When he was retreating, he was stoned by the young refugees, which immediately aroused his ferocity. He grabbed a self-defense dagger in his hand and pointed it towards him. Refugees who threw stones threw them back.

With a cry of pain, the young refugee, whose neck was pierced by a dagger, fell into the crowd.

Seeing this scene, Priest Batal immediately slapped the prairie horse on his crotch and rushed over as fast as he could to rescue the two young men who had been captured.

"Help me! Help me!"

The refugees who were dragged away kept making miserable screams, because although the two guys who were dragged away before did not know what happened after the bandits took them away, the series of terrifying screams still made everyone want to in this way.

"￥%, you are still barking! You still dare to scream!"

But the two robbers who were dragging him didn't like the captured refugee twisting and resisting, so they directly raised their feet and stepped down. After several consecutive kicks, the young refugee's struggle became less due to pain.

"Let me go!"

Priest Batal rode out of the crowd and rushed straight towards the three bandits on the trade road.

Because the bandits and the captured refugees were close together, it was difficult for Priest Batar to use the divine power of the amulet to attack the enemy. He was afraid that his own people would also be hit.

If they are church priests who often use protective statues to enforce laws in towns, then they may be able to use this ability accurately to subdue bandits. But Priest Batal has never used this thing much before. Every time he uses it now, it is the maximum power of a certain function of the protective statue.

Just like before, hitting the front of the person can easily blow the enemy away, or even break the enemy's hands and feet. If you are unlucky, it is possible to hit your head on the ground or wall and die directly. And when it hits the ground, it can even blow away a whole layer of the ground. It is a good hand at scraping the ground.

The priest himself knew that he could not master the use of this magical tool very well, so he just held the reins and the protective statue in his left hand, while the long metal staff in his right hand was raised early.

Facing the young priest who was pursuing him, the ferocious axe-wielding bandit smiled proudly. Apparently the leader's plan to draw the man away from the crowd and capture him alone had worked.

But at this moment, the bandit suddenly had a whim. He wanted to prove his bravery, and at the same time, he wanted to test how much the church's priests weighed, and whether it was worth the fuss they made to lure people out to deal with them.

After the team finished this task, they were about to leave this long and narrow trade road area with mountains to the north and south. In the southern province, which is gradually becoming chaotic, perhaps the team's old ways of doing things should be changed.

And he can also take a step forward from the close confidants of several leaders. I dare not say that he will replace the leader, but becoming the deputy leader of the team is worth fighting for, right?

Therefore, the bandit did not retreat further north, but stayed in place, holding an ax and shouting: "Haha!" and then rushed towards the priest on horseback.

"This idiot!"

The bandit leader who was lying on a slightly higher ground not far away cursed in a low voice, rolled his eyes, and waved to call over the investigating bandit who was squatting on the side: "Take the captured person to the forest immediately, and remember to talk to that person. The young priest kept his distance. I withdrew."

After explaining, the bandit leader threw the colorful animal skin covering his body onto his men, then turned over and jumped down the slope. Without looking at the situation in front, he turned around and ran towards the trap in the woods.

The bandit who took over his animal skin clothes did not even bother to put them on. He just hugged him and ran quickly in the direction where the refugees were captured, notifying his companions who were guarding the refugees to retreat as planned.

-

Faced with the oncoming brutal bandits, Priest Batal said that he was not afraid, but it was a lie. The other party's arrogant momentum made him lose the ability to think for a moment.

But then, with a little exposure to the world and support from his faith, he came back to his senses and realized again what he should be doing at this time.

On the right hand raised high, at the top of the long metal staff, the huge amber gem wrapped in a metal mesh bloomed with a halo of dim yellow light.

Faced with the ax blade slashing at his waist and abdomen, Priest Batal did not dodge and defend himself. He directly swung down the long staff in his hand, letting the amber gem on the head of the staff hit the bandit's body directly.

"Haha, die!"

The bandit smiled ferociously, and swung the horizontal ax straight past the priest's waist. He wanted to cut the church priest in half because he also took a fancy to the opponent's horse.

As a member who is about to become the commander and manager of the bandit team, how can he not have a horse to ride on? Not to mention anything else, only by riding a horse can he distinguish himself from other walking bandits, showing his noble status as a superior. Even their leader himself didn't have a horse to ride on.

But this guy's imagination lasted less than half a breath, and it came to an abrupt end when the ax hit the priest.

Phew—Clang!

After the heavy and sharp murder ax struck the priest's waist, it was not split into two as the bandit expected.

Not to mention being chopped into two halves, he even watched helplessly as the ax splashed with cyan light, not even cutting off a single thread on the priest's robe.

Then he was pushed and slid away by the cyan light.

"Huh?"

After a strange scream, the bandit was immediately hit by the priest's staff. In the dim yellow light, he raised his hand and touched his head, feeling a little confused.

The bandit was not injured. After all, the amber covered by the metal mesh was not a hard and heavy thing. As the head of a long staff, it does not rely on 'physical' strikes to deal with enemies.

Priest Batal and the axe-wielding bandit ran away as soon as possible. The two fought for a while and then separated. Priest Batal touched his abdomen nervously, and after finding no damage, he breathed a sigh of relief, regained his composure and rushed towards the darkness ahead.

And the dim yellow light emitted by the amber gem on the head of his metal staff seemed to have faded slightly after the fight?

It's indeed a bit bleaker.

Because of the dim yellow halo on the amber, part of it was lingering on the head of the axe-wielding bandit when they fought just now.

As soon as the dim yellow light touched the bandit's body, it immediately spread and gradually enveloped the entire bandit's body from top to bottom. And while the halo is diluted, the entire bandit's body also becomes bright, and the whole person emits a faint diluted bright yellow light from top to bottom.

The robber was a little confused. He was not injured?

But what happened next completely freaked him out.

He inadvertently looked up at the timid refugees in the open space to the south, and then he discovered to his horror, when did those timid and incompetent guys become so flexible and fast?

The bodies were crowded and swaying back and forth, as if they were dancing in a group, swaying back and forth quickly. Even the weapons in those people's hands were constantly being raised and put down quickly, raised and put down again.

Before the bandit could figure out what was going on, he saw the flames from some scattered firewood on the ground not far away. They flickered on and off as the flames rose and fell, faster than the blink of an eye on the stars in the sky.

It seemed that everything around him was wrong.

He was a little scared because he heard the strange, high-pitched screams coming from the refugees opposite who were originally 'harmless' to him, as if their throats had been kissed by the devil.

"What's going on? Ooooh, ah! What's going on?"

He panicked and waved the ax in his hand randomly.

But the whirring sound and air waves produced when swinging the ax in the past were gone. He was still feeling strange that the rabbits digging in the ground not far away were all wearing smiles that frightened and weirded him out. The scathing utters sharp jeers and short unintelligible words.

"What's going on? What's going on? Huh? Huh? Huh? You guys! If you laugh again, if you laugh again I will kill you! Ouch!"

He was shouting in random panic, but he didn't know that in the eyes of other people on the battlefield at this moment, the really weird person was himself!

-

Ever since this guy was struck by Priest Batal with his staff, not only had a bright yellow light that resembled a mark quickly enveloped his body, but his movements had also become sluggish.

The refugees just saw the guy moving slowly on the spot, and the expressions on his face slowly changed as if on purpose.

A slow grunt came from his mouth, and even his wide, frightened eyes looked ridiculous.

Everyone pointed at this man's change. Although most of the refugees who were farmers had little knowledge, they also guessed that this man's strange change should be caused by Priest Batal.

After all, this guy became like this after being hit with the long stick in the priest's hand. It must have been the priest's hand.

Everyone speculated and nervously discussed what happened to this person.

Some people say that this guy was fooled by a stick from a priest, so he is so slow and stupid at this moment, and can't even speak clearly.

Some people think that it must be the magic in the story that caused this guy's change.

Some people directly felt that this person was trapped by the priest, so they should go up and kill this hateful guy at this time.

After all, this man had cut off the hands of a refugee just a moment ago. They finally managed to get the injured person to the center of the crowd. They used a priest's method to tie the injured person's arm with a rope to prevent the injured person from bleeding to death.

If it weren't for the fact that Priest Batal said that he could take back the injured man's arm and reattach it, everyone would have been so frightened.

However, due to the strange appearance of the brutal bandit, everyone still did not dare to step out of the invisible wall, so they rushed out of the crowd and killed the guy.

Even if the other party 'swings' the ax in his hand at this moment, it has lost all the terror and power it had before, and his movements are so slow that even an old man or an old lady can't.

Everyone still didn't dare to come forward.

Bloody Fangster sighed on the carriage, raised and put down the crossbow in his hand, and finally did not try to shoot the glowing bandit on the opposite side of the trade road not far away.

With a little knowledge, he guessed what happened to the robber.

The man was slowed by the weapon in the priest's hand.

Looking at that situation, before the light all over his body dissipated, all the perceptions of that person were several times slower than that of a normal person.

He guessed that at this time, even a child could go up and use a dagger to kill the brutal bandit that dozens of refugees could not defeat before.

But the problem is that none of the young refugees around the carriage dared to step out of the crowd.

The crowd gave them the courage and will to stand up and resist the bandits with their bodies, but also firmly restricted their steps to others.

Perhaps, Bloodfangster thought, perhaps it was more than just footsteps. Standing together with others not only provided the bottom line of courage and will, but also firmly fixed the upper limit of courage and will.

The timid people dare to stand up and fight in this moment of crisis, but they also drag the footsteps and bodies of the truly brave people into the crowd.