Serpent's Blade

A chorus of screams broke out as people started to charge out of the burning fields. Before anyone could take action, Mateo grabbed another firebomb and hurled it at the closest ruined house, setting it aflame.

The others were surprised by his action but followed suit without question. By the time they ran out over half of the buildings were now lit on fire. The group would have been shocked by the screams that originated from the houses they had just searched, if it were not for the enemies escaping from the remaining ones.

Except for Mateo, everyone felt a chill run down their spine. The party had been completely ignorant to the fact that they had not been alone.

Alicia charged at those who had revealed themselves from the village residences and cut several of them down in their panic. Kyle remained by the captured bandits, but now he was skeptical about their compliance.

Mateo fired Arrow Shower after Arrow Shower at the bandits that were fleeing from the hell that was the farm fields. Glenn was by his side repeatedly casting his own wide area lightning spells. Helen took this moment to cast several different curses upon those that had been inside the houses. While Noah was doing the opposite and buffing the party members.

Thankfully everyone had a wider variety of Arts and Spells at their disposal. Mateo felt his mana arrows become even more solid and destructive. Even though the situation looked favorable for the students, Mateo couldn’t help but grow concerned. The numbers were way more than what he had predicted.

Even after dozens of Bandits had fallen, more kept coming. Both he and Glenn would run out of mana if this kept up. Worse yet, Alicia was now being tied up by one of the covert Bandits.

What were they going up against? What kind of Bandit group had intermediate level combatants?

Besides the Covert Bandit Captain, there were still six more covert bandits alive. He glanced at Glenn, who frowned before nodding. Afterwards the mage stopped casting spells and started charging another spell.

The next ten seconds became tense as Mateo had to hold off the enraged bandits by himself while the covert bandits were being confronted by Alicia and Kyle. The captured bandits were barely conscious with multiple curses overlaid upon them.

“Chain Lightning!”

With a shout Glenn released a lightning strike that shot towards the bandits that were getting ever closer. At first the spell only hit the lead bandit, but from there it bounced and split off of him and hit the two nearest bandits.

Every time the spell hit someone, it split off and struck two more. By the time the mana in the spell was used up a third of the bandits were incapacitated. While the spell wasn’t that destructive, it carried a nasty paralysis effect.

Unfortunately, Glenn was now pretty much out of the picture. The most he could do was cast mana efficient single target Basic Spells. Mateo took the moment to release several arrows to kill the covert bandits that were targeting Noah and Helen.

While the two had a couple offensive spells and divine powers, they weren’t that lethal. The most they could do was keep themselves alive, especially with the barriers and curses added.

Mateo was about to go and support Alicia, but he saw something flying through the air towards him. Instead of raising his bow he unsheathed the dagger he started carrying ever since the forest incident.

With a great strain he knocked the flying object, an axe, off course. Mateo frowned as he felt the vibration from the clash run its course throughout his arm. That attack wasn’t a Weapon Art but a normal axe throw, this meant that the throw could have only been made by someone who learned a Body Strengthening Art.

There was a second bandit of the intermediate level.

Mateo quickly locked onto his target as he saw one of the bandits breakaway from the group and cover the distance between them in a couple of seconds. Mateo wasn’t standing still though as he fired several intercepting arrows, but all of them had been cut down.

In the bandits hands were two axes, much like the one he had knocked aside.

Mateo had enough of this and pulled out an arrow from his quiver. Instead of quickly firing it off he empowered the arrow with a Power Shot Weapon Art first. The moment he released the string the air seemed to quake.

The maniacal smile plastered on the charging bandits face vanished as he felt the threat of the arrow that came his way. The Bandit Captain hurled both of his axes at the arrow, but this time it wasn’t a normal throw like the first axe.

The two Axes spun at high velocity as it traveled through the air, forming two mini tornados. Before the arrow even clashed with the axes the bandit hurriedly pulled out two more axes and threw them too, forming four tornados in total.

The arrow clashed and broke through the first two, but the mana gathered upon the arrow had noticeably dimmed. Once it hit the second two axes the arrow shattered apart while the two axes were blown to the side.

Mateo frowned at this, the arrow had been a pretty pricy Mana Amplification Arrow. The effect of the arrow was to multiply the destructive capability of a Weapon Art. This particular Power Shot was infinitely close to the might of an Intermediate Weapon Art.

Thankfully, the foe didn’t look too happy either. The first two axes had been completely shattered while the second pair was covered in cracks. From what Mateo could see the Bandit Captain only had one more axe on his body, the pair to the first one he had thrown.

However, the situation was worse for Mateo and his companions. The group of bandits that had been hidden in the farm fields had now reached them. Alicia hadn’t been able to make any headway against the Covert Bandit Captain either, and now Mateo was tied down by the Axe Throwing Bandit Captain.

The enemy also knew that the situation had now turned in their favor. All of them had disgusting smiles on their faces as they surrounded the party. Before anyone could make a move though the sound of a horn pierced through.

All heads snapped to the south, from the main road a new variable made its appearance. The faces of Mateo and his party brightened as the Bandits went pale instead. The group was wearing armor bearing the emblem of the city of Defy.

The Knights charged over and surrounded the bandits that had been circling the party of students. The Axe Throwing Bandit Captain had his eyes focused solely upon the leader of this company of Knights.

“Knight Captain Anthony.”

“So it's the Serpent’s Blade’s ‘Bloody Tornado,’ huh. Where did you cowards get the bravery to do something like this? Are you that desperate to die?”

“Shut your mouth dog of the Vlark’s. The Serpent’s Blade will cut off the head of that damned Fenwick and torch the city of Defy. In these lands, we are the true rulers.”

“Hah, you dare call yourselves the true rulers? You're just a bunch of rats hiding in your little holes. Lord Fenwick Vlark will see that all of you are executed as the masses cheer for your demise.”

Although the Bandit Captain was putting up a brave front, he knew the situation was no longer under their control. Even worse, this ruined village could very well be his end. While the Bandits outnumbered the knights, most of the bandits couldn’t even use mana. The other side though had 50 Knights, all capable of using Weapon Arts. Even worse, their Captain level fighting force was now in the favor of the other side.

Before he could think of a way to turn the situation around, Knight Captain Anthony charged forth with his fifty knights. Anthony went directly for the “Bloody Tornado” and immediately had him on the ropes. With only one axe on hand he wasn’t a match for this Knight Captain.

While the opponent was focused upon this new ally, Mateo took this chance to bring an end to this fight. He raised his bow, and nearly a third of his mana flowed into the arrow he formed.

“Null Impact.”

His voice a quiet whisper, he released the string. The arrow was silent, not even the sound of the arrow piercing through the air was present. The Bandit Captain never saw it coming as the arrow pierced through his back. Surprisingly the arrow didn’t so much as pierce into his back as it passed through it.

As the arrow fully disappeared into his back the “Bloody Tornado” froze. His eyes went dim and all of his muscles suddenly went slack. His legs gave out as he collapsed to the ground.

Knight Captain Anthony stared wide-eyed as this deadly foe of his suddenly fell over in front of him. He waited a second, then another. It was only after he waited five seconds that some of the other bandits noticed the situation.

With his attention fully focused upon the body for these five seconds, Anthony knew that there were no signs of life left. With shaky eyes he moved his gaze from the corpse to the exhausted archer.