Mercenaries and Adventurers

After Gere felled the disgusting hanging tree, he asked his men to collect the bones scattered on the ground when it fell.

"Put it on the carriage and burn it together when you get back!"

The young people were a little reluctant and thought it was unlucky, but they still managed to get it done.

The woods on the north side of this trade road are wider and denser. If it weren't for several large trees sticking to the ground rails, it would be possible for a carriage to enter slowly. But the young man who drove the carriage had only driven grain carriages in the village before, and he did not say how superb his driving skills were. Even if those young men patted their chests and assured that they had excellent skills, Keir did not easily win his trust. them.

"In this way, the twenty of you will be divided into half. No, leave fourteen here to guard the carriage. You and him, the two of you wearing leather armor, will also stay here to strengthen the guard. The remaining six people will enter with me. In the woods, crusade against the last bandit’s lair nearby.”

Everyone around was waiting and watching, and after thinking for a while, Kil made the above judgment and order.

From previous battles with bandits, it can be seen that the strength of these guys is actually the same. They rely more on sneak attacks and cruelty. If dozens or hundreds of people hadn't swarmed up, even if he had not yet undergone knight training, he would be able to fight for a long time. Defeat these guys in a roundabout way.

Therefore, his combat power is actually much higher than that. As for bringing six people with him, he is not mainly responsible for fighting, but for reconnaissance and as a helper. On the contrary, the carriage here has to wait outside the woods, so there is a lot of possibility that the bandits will sneak out of the woods and use this place as a weak point that can be penetrated.

But we can't give them a chance.

Faced with Kiel's order, young people who wanted to fight to prove themselves expressed their intention to enter the six quotas.

Keir casually named a few tall and strong ones.

He waved to the remaining people and said: "Everyone get in the carriage and stay alert. Pay attention to the surrounding situation and the people coming out of the woods. My horse is also staying here, but you don't need to worry about it. It will take care of itself." my own."

The two men nodded and led the people into the open carriage of the carriage.

Kiel took the surrendered bandits and six young people, and led them towards the depths of the woods. The mouth of the blood-licking grass was untied, and it nibbled on the surrounding tender grass and shrubs.

-

"Approximately how long will it take?"

Facing the knight's question, the surrendering bandit counted on his fingers: "Sir, we will be there soon, very soon. After all, in order to facilitate the attack on the caravans on the trade route, when the leader selected the place, he We didn’t pick a particularly far-off place as our base. We are different from other gangs. They may have more people and may have poisonous snakes, but their strength is still far behind us.”

At this moment, the group of them relied entirely on the luminous magic pendant on Kil's waist for lighting. The cold light of the magic shone on the surrounding trees, making the pale tree trunks and the shadows behind them look strange and inexplicable.

Except for Kil, the other young men held weapons in their hands and followed closely behind the young knight.

As Keir walked, he looked at his surroundings. He was not frightened by the seemingly frightening night scenes of the woods around him, nor by the reflective eyes under the taunting ferns.

The darker the surrounding environment, the more comfortable he felt.

If there were no other people around, he might still be able to sing a tune or whistle. Even if he is here to kill people and destroy the lair of bandits.

Keir noticed that logically speaking, the forest to the north of the trade road extended directly into the long mountain range on the north side. It should be full of virgin forests. However, he noticed that the ground he walked on before was not only devoid of the thick layer of humus leaves found in the original deciduous forest, but also had some small scratch marks on the surrounding tree trunks.

This seemingly abnormal scene is actually very normal, but what was originally normal became abnormal very quickly.

"Pause."

Keir suddenly stopped, causing the entire small team centered around him to stop.

"What's wrong, Lord Knight? Why do you need to stop?"

The surrendered bandit leaned against the trunk of a big tree and asked Keir who suddenly stopped.

Kil's right palm loosened and tightened, as if he was weighing something. Then, he suddenly exploded and pounced on the surrendered bandit with his back against the tree trunk.

And the bandit seemed to be prepared. He reached out and grabbed a vine that seemed to be hanging from the branch. With a pull and a squeeze, the whole person was suddenly carried upwards from the ground.

"Haha, this is a trap! Dead iron pot! Stay in the forest with your mud-legged people!"

The bandit laughed loudly, and with the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, the others were taken to the height of the big tree.

Kiel missed, but was not upset. He turned around and shouted to his young men: "Stay where you are, don't move!"

Then he exhaled loudly, kicked hard on the spot, and then jumped up and kicked his front legs.

The target was the trunk of the big tree that the bandit suddenly climbed up.

He used all his strength at this moment, and even his mask couldn't stop the blue light bursting from his eyes.

boom!

He kicked his feet straight onto the tree trunk. Kil's weight, all the weapons and equipment in his body, and his explosive impact turned into a huge momentum, kicking the trunk of the big tree violently.

Wherever Kiel's boots came into direct contact, there were concave impact marks the size of a washbasin. Large pieces of bark and the hard wood wrapped in the bark flew out from the impact point.

The trunk at the bottom of the big tree was shaken like this by Kiel's kick, and the upper trunk was shaking even more.

"Hey, ah, ah, ah, ah, how could it be possible? Hey, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, how could it be possible? ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, how could it happen?

During the shaking, the bandit, who had not yet regained his footing, slipped. He failed to step on the tree branch and the rope that fixed his body, and fell directly from a few meters above the big tree, spinning.

This guy was very unlucky. When he fell, he was hit hard by a branch growing between his legs.

With a crackling sound, the man fell miserably onto the thick leaf humus around the trunk.

But what is surprising is that the seemingly thick leaf litter is actually fake, and there is a hole underneath that is just big enough for one leg to fall down. And something was added to the bottom of the pit.

"Ah! My foot! Ahhhh! It hurts so much, hiss-"

While this guy was wailing there, Kil got up from his fall after being kicked violently and sneered: "How about it? Try your own trap for yourself, doesn't it feel good?"

The bandit didn't care about anything, and didn't care about the knight's ridicule. He stretched out his hand directly and begged for mercy: "I was wrong, I was wrong. I shouldn't be so mean. Please help get me out, please!"

Keir stood still, with his hands on his hips, looking at the other party's situation: "You're still pretending! You want to lure me over? Why didn't you tell me whether there are any traps between you and me that you are tasting now?"

"Ah? Ah! Yes, yes, there are traps, there are traps! Please, come and save me. Be careful that there are pits under the leaves for legs and feet, and there are - there are wooden spines inserted in them!"

Kil snorted coldly and said to the young subordinates who were standing still behind him: "How about it? Look around you. Is there only a clean road with no leaves at your feet? And everything around you looks normal. of leaf litter.”

The young people carefully squatted down and lifted up the fallen leaves on the ground around them, and then became furious, because very close to them, as long as they were covered by leaves, there were dark human-head-sized ones underneath. Deep pit.

This kind of deep pit is designed to trap people's legs and feet. Once they step into it, the whole person will fall down along the leg that was stepped in the air.

Needless to say, the bottom is definitely covered with spikes that can pierce the soles of the feet.

This is also the reason why Kiel jumped up immediately after the accident instead of running and sprinting.

There are traps all around the young people, and there is no way to get there. But one of the reasons why Keel felt something was wrong before was that he looked at the relative distance between the trunks of the big trees he passed and discovered that they were not walking in a straight line to the bandit's lair, but were wandering left and right between the trunks.

This doesn't look like a normal route to the lair. After all, although the roots of the big trees in the forest protrude from the ground and can easily trip people up, there is nothing that requires a special detour.

Lift your legs and step forward, approaching the nest in a straight line.

Coupled with the fact that he noticed a strange difference in the leaves along the ground route, it suddenly occurred to him that this was what was going on.

The bandit leader named Mountain Wolf specially created an area full of traps near his lair, specifically for his captured men to lure in enemies.

"Everyone, be careful, there may be enemies around!"

Kiel immediately shouted to remind his young men, but there was silence all around. It was not like Kiel imagined that four, five or six people suddenly came out.

The bandit who was trapped by his own trap was also stunned for a moment, but then he laughed at himself while shouting in pain: "Damn it, it turns out that everyone is dead and there is no manpower left."

Kil snorted a puff of air and laughed, laughing at himself for being too cautious. Although this is a trap area specially designed to attract people in depth, most of the members of the Mountain Wolf bandit gang died in the previous attacks. Even if there are still people left, it is impossible to arrange the small number of people in this place.

Logically speaking, after one of your own is captured, you should consider that the captured subordinate will lead the enemy into this special trap area. But there were too few manpower, and it was estimated that those people had either fled long ago, or were still trying to move various belongings in the lair.

Kil used his feet to push aside the thick leaves in front of him, revealing the pits that appeared on the ground.

"That's enough. You guys are really free. You dig so many holes, just like rabbits."

Soon, Kil came to the injured bandit, first grabbed the man's hair, and lifted his head and face to face him.

"Tell me, what else can you be useful for? So that I can ignore what you just did."

The bandit's face was twisted and sweating due to pain, and he forced a smile: "I'll take you to our lair. It's really not far away!"

Kil snorted: "Since it's not far away, then I can try to find it myself? Isn't it still the same?"

The bandit waved his hands vigorously: "No, no, no, there is more than one trap, but the lair hill is surrounded by traps. There is only one, no, two passages in and out that can be entered quickly."

Keir grabbed the man's hair with one hand, lifted it slightly, and gently slapped the robber's face with the other hand.

With just a few gentle slaps, one side of the other person's face swelled up.

"I can't trust you. You must know that the credibility and life of a surrenderer are weaker than the flame of an oil lamp. A gentle breath or a gust of cool breeze will not light up after it is extinguished."

"It can be bright, it can be bright! Spare my life, spare my life. Just when I was leading the way, I suddenly thought of the routine that our leader usually teaches to lead people into traps. Really, I followed it subconsciously That route has gone. After taking a few steps forward, I really regretted it! Really regretted it! But I was afraid that if I said it, you would kill me! I had to put away the words that came to my mouth and give it a try Try to see if you can escape through the escape route in the trap. But now, hey."

The robber said that he was crying, and he didn't know whether it was because of the tears and runny nose caused by anxiety, or because of the pain after the sole of his foot was pierced.

Kil didn't say anything. He loosened his grip, threw the person to the ground, and started to figure it out himself.

The robber cursed a certain bandit who created the escape route. The content was quite vicious, so I won’t write it down. Several nocturnal birds that had sat down on the tree at an unknown time were also squawking. It was unclear whether they were urging Keir to kill someone or were exchanging passionate words with the bandits.

"Well, let me give you another chance."

As soon as Kil finished speaking, the bandit's eyes lit up.

"But, your own life depends on you. Your legs are broken. Now take me to your lair. I'll break it and let you go in that lair. With your broken leg, you are alone in your lair. Stay here, or go out into the woods to make a living, it's your choice."

"Leave me in the forest? Alone?"

"Why, you don't want to? Then I will take you away now? You can play with the big birds on the tree by yourself. Listen, they seem to be the birds hanging on the tree just now, and they also brought their friends Come here. Hiss, I can’t wait for you to die and eat!”

The bandit raised his head and tried hard to identify the nocturnal birds gathered on the upper branches and leaves of the forest. He did not have the good eyesight of a knight, and he could see many things clearly at night, but he could tell several different birds just by their calls, waiting for their meal.

He was extremely scared, because what the knights and the young refugees didn't know was that these little devils were not waiting for dinner. As long as the murderous knights walked away for a distance, those smart bastards who smelled the smell of blood would They would see his helplessness and despair, flutter their wings, fall down, and gather together to peck and eat him alive.

He and his companions who died at the hands of the knights used to watch it as a boring entertainment program, watching how those guys who were deliberately scratched and bleeding and then hung in the trees were eaten by the birds. of.

Unexpectedly, today would be my turn.

He was a little envious of those bastards who died early at the hands of knights. At least they fought bravely before they died, instead of being mentally tortured like him.

"I, I agree. Please, please, Lord Knight, save me."

The bandit didn't hesitate and spoke.

Kil snorted boredly: "The guys who surrender are not hard-core after all."

After saying that, he put his hand deep into the pit, trying to pull out the pierced opponent's right leg. But before he exerted any force, the bandit started wailing: "Don't pull it out, don't pull it out, there's a barb! There's a barb!"

Kil immediately broke off the wooden spikes under the opponent's feet, and then lifted the opponent up.

Holding the man's clothes with one hand, Kil carried the bandit back to the place where his men stopped.

"Lord Knight, why are you still keeping this man? He just wanted to harm us!"

"And you still don't want to run away!"

Kil waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. In a remote forest, with the sole of his foot pierced like this, it's hard to say whether he can survive. He led us outside the lair, and I let him go. Whatever he does. "

After finishing speaking, Kil looked down at the bandit who was covered in cold sweat and trying to stop the bleeding on the sole of his foot and said: "Did you hear that? This should be close to your home base, right? I will count down to three hundred. If the next count reaches zero, If you haven't arrived yet, how about I break your limbs and hang you on a branch?"

The robber nodded vigorously while trembling, and said with chattering teeth: "No problem, no problem, use it, you won't need that much."

"Here we go, three hundred."

"Two hundred and ninety-nine."

"Two hundred and ninety-eight."

"Two hundred and ninety-seven. "

But after Gill read a few numbers, he stopped. Because he saw that everyone present, including the injured bandit, looked confused.

"What's wrong? You have such a strange expression?"

A young man said in shock: "How much is three hundred?"

Um?

Kil gasped suddenly.

To be honest, nothing that happened tonight shocked him as much as this one.

"Can anyone tell me what the combined value of one hundred and fifty plus one hundred and fifty is?"

Everyone shook their heads, expressing ignorance.

"Then what is fifteen plus fifteen, you should know by now, right?"

What shocked Kil even more happened. The young man under his command held a long sword and machete under his arm, and then started to count the number fifteen with his fingers. Then he muttered the number in his mouth, and continued to count up to fifteen. One's plus.

What particularly shocked him was that there were two other people who had miscalculated.

It's not that I made a mistake by adding numbers one by one on my fingers, but that the numbers in my mouth were out of sync with the movements of my hands, so the calculations were naturally wrong.

In the end, it was the injured bandit sitting on the ground who figured it out.

Although this person also used his hands, his speed was much faster and his calculations were correct. The robber changed his embarrassed look and said with a stern expression: "Fortunately, the coins on my hand often reach this number, otherwise I would really have made a mistake in my calculation."

Good guy, you're feeling proud, right?

But the bandit's pride could not be maintained for a few seconds, because the young man who miscalculated immediately gave the bandit a few big dicks to get him to correct himself.

After exhaling, Kil held his forehead and felt that settling hundreds of young refugees would be a huge disaster.