16. Siege the stronghold

A few hours prior,

Lucius and his group were still inside the carriage as it traveled along, but compared with the ride before, this one was obviously more uncomfortable.

The mountainous back roads were nowhere near as well-maintained as the frequently traveled main roads.

The group didn't talk much as they prepared for the upcoming battle ahead, and it didn't take long before they arrived at their destination.

Only a short distance away, a rather small wooden fort could be seen hiding amongst the forest.

Due to the fact that they had been traveling all day, by the time the group arrived at the fortress, it was already getting dark.

As Lucius looked at this fortress, his red eyes narrowed.

Although he didn't think highly of the bandits, they were still greatly outnumbered.

Third-class fighters were far above regular humans, but they hadn't reached the point where they could face a whole army and come out unscathed.

But Lucius was only cautious, not fearful.

It was already dark, and most importantly, they weren't here to fight but to sneak in and massacre all the remaining bandits.

Lucius even had a helper who perfectly fit the job description.

As a master assassin, such things shouldn't be too difficult for someone as capable as Camilla.

Lucius turned towards Camilla as his red eyes looked into hers with full confidence.

"Camilla, if the next plan is to succeed, you will have to play an essential part. I trust you, so I won't need to explain too much. I'll leave everything up to you."

As Camilla heard this, she gave a light bow.

"I won't disappoint the young leader's trust."

After saying this, Camilla's body flickered as she dashed towards the wooden fortress.

Lucius could only see a faint shadow scaling the walls as she disappeared into the night.

The group watched the fortress attentively for several minutes, but there was still no sound.

But Lucius wasn't worried. That's how it should be.

As a skilled assassin, there was no way the bandits would be alerted to Camilla's presence this quickly. Right now, she should be busy silently harvesting lives.

Several more minutes passed as Lucius's red eyes watched the eerily silent bandit stronghold when suddenly, several loud cries erupted as a fire began to ignite all over the bandit stronghold.

The chaos could only mean one thing.

Camilla had been discovered.

But even with this result, Lucius wasn't disappointed. He had long been expecting this.

No matter how talented an assassin she was, she was only one person. With the strength of a third-class fighter, it was easy for her to kill many bandits, but to take on all of them was completely unrealistic.

The bandits would have to be utterly incompetent for them to all die at her hand.

But now that Camilla had been discovered, it was time for Lucius and his group to fulfill their part of the plan.

When Lucius had told Camilla to infiltrate the fortress and start killing bandits, the first thing he had asked her to do was kill all the bandits guarding the entrance and leave it so they could enter at any time.

Lucius got up and called Alice to his side as he took them straight through the main gates of the bandit's fortress.

What Lucius and the others saw as they stepped inside could only be described as utter chaos.

Bonfires were raging everywhere as the huts and buildings were being burnt to the ground.

Captured women and children had been freed and were running around everywhere, only adding to the chaos.

Some of the bolder women directly picked up swords and hacked a few unaware bandits to death!

Lucius could see Camilla encircled by a large group of bandits.

All he saw was a shadowy ghost flickering amongst the crowd as desperate cries rang out one after another.

Although it was clear that this storm of bandits could eventually exhaust Camilla to death, she didn't appear to be looking too bad. On the other hand, it was the bandits who seemed to be panicking.

Seeing this sight, Lucius knew what he had to do.

He called out to Alice, giving her the signal, and with just a light touch, several different buffs landed on his body.

Lucius felt the familiar warm sensation run through his body as his strength quickly grew.

Lucius didn't linger around to admire this feeling and, without hesitation, charged straight for the group of bandits.

The bandits were so occupied trying to contain Camilla and deal with the chaos all around them that most of them didn't even notice Lucius approaching them. For the ones that did, they noticed it all too late.

With a free, uncontested attack from behind, Lucius was like a wolf in a sheep pen. It was utter carnage.

The bandits were low on morale, unprepared, and unorganized. There wasn't any proper resistance.

This wasn't like the tough battle he faced earlier today; it was an utter slaughter!

The combination of Lucius destroying their back line and Camilla tearing them apart from the front left the bandits completely helpless.

Soon, several bandits realized just how hopeless their situation was. Now defeat wasn't just a possibility; it was inevitable.

The more clever ones gave up instantly and desperately tried to flee.

But after the number of bandits had been thinned down to just a handful, Camilla could easily spot the ones who wanted to run.

All the fleeing bandits could see was a flash of shadows before their necks were cleanly sliced through.

Within just a few minutes, the battle was completely over, leaving only a pile of bodies and two blood-stained figures behind.

If you took a random passerby and showed them the scene, and told them Camilla and Lucius were the good guys responsible for the scenario, they probably wouldn't believe it even if you beat them to death.