77 Chapter 76 - Apprentice(Part 4)

"Kill them all!" Came a malicious cry from the left of our group. 

As the bandits began to spring out from behind the bushes, I flung a handful of poison needles to my left, before drawing out my blades. They surrounded us quickly, with some of them hanging back with...human meat shields. 

They had four people tied to wooden shields, and they held them in front of themselves. They were stripped bare and were beaten all over, and had clearly been abused in every way imaginable. Three girls and a guy, they looked about our age or a bit older, and all of their eyes were devoid of life. There were ten bandits around us, and eight more behind, with two each of those hiding behind their meat shields. 

The ten that were circling us then began firing, a couple of them had crossbows while the rest used Elemental Magic. 

AZ quickly raised a thick wall of ice all around us and the carriage with a yawn, keeping out the wave of attacks.