138 Siege of the Bandit Fortress: Conclusion

Those words made Cain freeze in his tracks as he recognized the voice of someone whom he really wanted to avoid at this moment. The voice reminded him of a certain wire-wielding lycan that made him move up his plan to abandon the former bandit village.

'Please, no. Anyone but him,' pleaded Bandit Leader Cain as he prayed to whatever deity that would listen to his prayers.

Sadly, it seems like they all ignored his pleas as he saw a familiar figure appear from around the corner, trailed by a few prisoners. Cain didn't even bother to stare at the captives currently bound by chains but instead focused solely on the man, er.... werewolf leading the group.

Upon fully recognizing the face of the figure he didn't want to see, Bandit Leader Cain clenched the hand holding the sword tightly before speaking through gritted teeth, "To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here, Lycan?"

Even though he asked this, Cain had already managed to piece everything together and link the attack on his stronghold base to the halfling lycan standing before him. Even then, he wanted to hear the words from Kirou's mouth directly.

Kirou took a glance at Cain's current stats before saying anything.

Enemy: Fortress Master Cain

Enemy Level: 29

Health: 45,800/97,500

State: Agitated (Heavily injured)

Attack: 255

Defense: 180

Skills: Reckless Charge, Power Strike, Whirlwind Slash, Paladin's Defense, Fury Aura

Upon confirming Cain's current stats, a strange smile formed on Kirou's face as he spoke up, "The pleasure is all mine, Leader Cain. I'm doing running an errand for a mutual acquaintance of ours. He's been in dour spirits since you've last met and he's asked me ever so kindly if I could escort you, along with the rest of these guys to meet him."

After Kirou said this, he took a step to the side, revealing a bunch of persons currently bound and suffering from various kinds of injuries.

It was only now that Bandit Leader Cain tore his eyes away from Kirou to look at the people that he had brought with him. As soon as Cain saw their faces, his face grew pale while his eyes dilated to the extreme.

The reason for this is that all those that he was currently staring at are his former partners running the bandit stronghold, and the ones responsible for putting Cain in his current state. He stared at their feeble appearances while a rush of complex emotions built up inside of him. On one hand, he was ecstatic that the traitors are currently in chains on the floor before him. While on the other, he was now worried that he had to face the bastard who did this to them alone with little chance of escape.

That said, these complex emotions came and went just as quickly as a single breath and Cain was now staring at Kirou with a solemn expression. Through all the clues placed before him, along with the strange smile still on Kirou's face and the words he spoke earlier, Cain would be a complete fool to not realize that the destruction of his bandit stronghold had something to do with his former bandit leader, Jackson.

With everything figured out up to that point, Cain now had a few choices before him. He could try to flee the stronghold and take his chances with the rain of arrows and possible explosions along the way, or he could stand his ground and fight the halfling lycan standing before him. The former option would likely have him run into a fit and able Jackson, something he REALLY didn't want to deal with right now. As for the latter.... he would have to fight Kirou.

While Cain wasn't a part of the initial squad that got decimated or the second squad that got ambushed en route as reinforcements, he had personally checked out both sites. Just from the remaining damage to the area, Cain could picture just how strong Kirou was. And this was before he found out that Kirou was a Weapon Master. That tidbit of information was the deciding factor for him to betray Jackson and his squad, ironically enough.

After a few seconds of thinking, Fortress Master Cain made his decision. With determination brimming in his eyes, Cain raised his sword and pointed it in Kirou's direction before speaking, "I'm afraid I won't be joining you in visiting our mutual acquaintance, Lycan. I advise you to get out of my way, as you won't be able to fight me with those captives of yours."

Upon hearing Cain's words, that strange smile on Kirou's face grew as he spoke, "A shame. It looks like we'll have to do this the hard way. While I am curious as to why both you and these men made the same choice when given that question, I've got a job to do and I like to see my jobs through thoroughly."

Following those words, Cain immediately activated his <Paladin's Defense> and <Fury Aura> skills before rushing towards Kirou. While it looked like he was targetting Kirou, his movements showed that he was aiming at the captives behind him.

Kirou noticed Cain's actions and saw that he wasn't the main target, which made him shake his head slightly. Once again, he pulled the same move as those that he's got in chains. And they too saw Cain's actions, which made a schadenfreude expression form on each of their faces.

Before Cain could register the meaning behind those expressions, he heard a voice in his ears, "Just like the rest, you've done something predictable and made my job much easier."

That was all Cain could register before experiencing something that he'll never forget for the rest of his life, which wasn't long since he wasn't destined to live beyond dusk of that day.

*******

Half an hour earlier.

Kirou had just got done dealing with the group of thieves that had noticed his drop into the stronghold. Upon slitting the throat of the last thief of the group, he did a quick check of the gear he utilized during the fight. Seeing that they were still in good condition, he nodded slightly before proceeding to search the corpses of the thief group for any useful items.

Sadly, the only useful things that he could find on the corpses were a few bottles of alcohol and some potions. Besides that, all that was left were weapons for each thief killed and some tools for constructing/repairing the fortress, none of which were decent in his eyes.

After being disappointed with his finds, Kirou was greeted by an update to his quest information.

Pick up the trail for Jackson's former allies- Complete

Track down these bandits back to their new base- Complete

Destroy the new bandit hideout- 87%/100%

Kill all the bandits in the hideout- 119/???

(Update) Capture/Kill all bandit leaders- 5/5

Capture/Kill Bandit Leader Cain- 0/1

When he saw the line with the updated bit of information, Kirou raised an eyebrow before tapping on the update to see if it would give him any details. Surprisingly, doing so did allow him to get some more information.

As soon as he finished reading the message, a whistle escaped from Kirou's lips. Personally, he didn't care about the lives of those bandit leaders, but this change in quest details gave him a valuable piece of information, or rather, confirmed a hunch of his.

'Looks like the system can change the quest midway if it judges that the player is either strong enough or triggers a hidden element. Hmm, I'll need to experiment with this bit of information at a later date if I have the time.'

Those were Kirou's thoughts as he started walking in a random direction of the stronghold. It didn't take him long, however, to run into one of his important question objectives. Before Kirou stood a group of bandits escorting their injured leader to safety.

Seeing this, Kirou couldn't stop a strange expression from forming on his face as the group took their time in recognizing him and pulled out their weapons. Before their boss could give the order to attack, Kirou spoke first, "Bandit leader..."

*******

Outside of the Bandit Stronghold, in the middle of a forest clearing.

The quartet was once again setting up another projectile attack. Just like the previous times, both clones were responsible for fully pulling back the pouch of the giant slingshot while both Ashura and Shadow Arachne got to work on the projectile itself.

Unlike the previous times, the quartet wasn't loading the current projectile with any explosives or chemicals. Instead, it was just going to be a simple sphere of earth reinforced by Shadow Arachne's webbing. That said, that didn't mean this projectile was going to be any less effective than the rest that hit the bandit fortress. This time, it meant that this projectile was going to do something besides transporting explosives.

After the projectile was properly built, reinforced, and rolled over to the pouch of the giant slingshot, one of the clones attached his own threads to the projectile. As soon as the clone's thread was securely attached to the projectile and its arms reinforced for the pull that it was about to experience, it nodded to the next clone. The second clone gave the first a nod before removing the hook on the slingshot pouch.

Following this, a clone, a spider, and a giant badger mole watched as projectile flew off into the direction of the bandit fortress, taking the second clone with it. The trio watched this for a few seconds, then started making their way to the bandit fortress itself. Their siege of the fortress was coming to its end and they had no plans on missing the finale.

*******

On the giant projectile a few hundred meters in the air.

The clone that attached itself to the projectile was now standing on top of it as it fell towards the fortress. This projectile was special, in that it no longer went about destroying the outer walls but targetted something specific within the fortress itself.

And for that reason, this projectile needed to be fired on a slightly altered course and required someone to make last-minute adjustments to its fall trajectory mid-flight. Originally, this was a job for a player, but such a dangerous stunt was instead being accomplished by a clone.

If there were any players nearby to see what was about to happen and knew that it was carried out by a clone, he or she might just go crazy over it. Not before making sure to record it for future reference, mind you.

As the projectile and the clone were getting closer to their intended target, the clone decided that it was time to make its move. With its wires still attached to the projectile, the clone allowed itself to lift off of the back of the projectile.

It only took a split second for the wires to go fully taut, following which the clone's body used the recoil of the wires to launch its body towards the projectile. If a person was able to observe the clone's body from up close, they would realize that there was a blackish aura gathered around the right foot of the clone that looked as if it was a stomp towards the projectile. They would also notice that just as the clone was about to make contact with the projectile, the black aura grew large enough to cover the foot of the clone, while the clone itself looked like it was about to kick the bucket.

Just as the projectile was about to make contact with its target, the clone's attack landed on the projectile, shattering it into hundreds of pieces, launching a scattered attack that killed or destroyed everything in its path. Besides this, the attack of the clone didn't stop at the projectile but continued through it, landing on the largest building within the fortress.

Those that were around to see the attack were shocked into stupidity before they met their swift deaths at the scattered shards of the projectile. The building that was struck started to crumble, but not before a small earthquake was felt in the area. It only took a few seconds for the building to completely fall into ruin from the attack.

Needless to say, as the one responsible for landing such a devastating attack on the building and just so happened to hit a weak point for the building with that attack, the clone turned into dust less than a fraction of a second after its attack landed.

With its disappearance, the clone accomplished its job of destroying the main building of this fortress; the barracks and armory. While those on the outside of the fortress couldn't see what was destroyed, those that were inside and nearby saw this cruel miracle before their deaths. These bandits died while in complete fear of the beings that attacked them.

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