Sequela (2)

Two months later. Somewhere in the endless Anser Plain.

Three black carriages with an insignia of an “eagle around thorns” engraved on both sides were moving slowly against the wind. The sun was in its highest as it was midday. Billowing clouds were obscuring the sky and even deterring the sunlight from pouring down the earth. Blustery was the wind that was blowing all over the grass throughout.

Angele was sitting in the leading carriage looking outside the window. It was as though he was thinking of something. He used the plants and insects he had collected to slowly boost his attributes, but the sequela from his last injury brought him inconvenience. Though his body was strengthening according to the data, his limbs sprained several times during recent practices. The doctor informed him that he had osteoporosis after check-up and would take about a month for him to recover.

Angele, who was wearing a black hunting suit, sat by the window of the carriage. He was learning to distinguish different sounds from the outside and catch the crucial information from the noises through the chip’s assistance. He foresaw many possible bandit attacks, which helped their caravan to tread upon a safer path.

They encountered several bandit groups, both big and small, but most of them were cleared by the baron. Larger bandit groups were all avoided because of the warnings given by Angele.

About five or six encounters with the bandits went terribly bad. In one of these encounters, one of Angele’s brothers took an arrow to his neck and died right away. That was the worst experience they had. During that fight, the bandits were robbing a noble convoy. They had mounted archers, and they were quite agile and proficient in executing the orders of their leader. Angele also took an arrow to himself as he witnessed the knights of the noble convoy being slain in an onslaught of countless arrows.

The knights had attempted to charge forward, but many of them died from the shower of arrows. Several guards in the noble convoy burst out their potential in the final exchange, successfully driving away the bandits. Angele’s caravan could’ve been wiped off the face of the earth if they were the ones targeted by those bandits.

On the way, Angele’s caravan passed by many remnants of battlefields that were full of corpses. He could imagine just how intense the fights were. The baron also saw the corpse of someone he once knew, a grand knight from the capital city. The people in their caravan had become very scared after seeing those gruesome scenes, but after about ten days, they finally calmed down,

Angele finally grasped the gist on how strong he actually was in this world. In the best fight he had, Angele slew 28 bandits with his bow and arrows and his sword all by himself. It was an impressive feat, but he still couldn’t deal with mounted archers. He killed about 15 bandits in the fight that also had mounted archers in their ranks. He kept doing damage to them until he took an arrow to his right arm. The mounted bandits were very fast and agile as they kept on dodging the arrows upon the horses, making Angele use all of his arrows. Angele wouldn’t have secured so many kills without the help of the chip.

They had also been attacked by soldiers masquerading as bandits. The leader of those soldiers was a knight, and he shot multiple arrows that took out eight guards in the baron’s caravan. He, however, was still slain with the coordinated attacks of the baron and Angele.

‘Knights in this world are like the generals in ancient China. Just one of them can deal with hundreds of regular soldiers, though they still need good equipments. Without it, they are weak and they cannot deal with great numbers of ranged weapons.’ Angele thought as he had now a better idea of knight-level warriors.

‘Well, basically, knights are strong people with better fighting skills. However, I am still not the best.’ Angele concluded, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to contribute to anything in a real war.

‘Check my body condition,’ Angele ordered.

‘Checking… completed. Angele Rio: Strength 2.7. Agility 3.0. Stamina 1.2.’ Zero reported.

‘Damn sequela... My attributes are almost halved by it. I am not recovering so well,’ Angele thought.

“Some people are fighting up ahead, stop the carriages!” After about half an hour, Angele suddenly stood up and yelled. He detected another situation up ahead just by his hearing.

“Mounted bandits?” Baron looked over and asked.

“Probably, but it’s just a small group.” Angele nodded.

“I’ll go take a look.” The baron scrunched his eyebrows and said. He put on the silver chain armors on the side and grabbed his black greatsword. The baron opened the door and jumped off the carriage after it slowed down.

“Angele, some Rudin nobles are being surrounded by the bandits. Let’s take another route.” The baron yelled outside after a while. Angele was about to reply, but he heard something again and the expression on his face changed.

“No, too late. Some of them are coming for us. Our carriages are much slower than their horses, prepare for battle!” Angele yelled and put on his leather armor quickly. He also put his bow on his back and grabbed his silver crossguard sword before jumping off the carriage.

Up ahead their caravan, sounds of battle resounded as two groups were fighting on the grassland, which were the noises Angele heard.

“HA~!” A team of mounted bandits were screaming and traveling towards them. They had their bright blades raised up in the air.

“Get ready to fight!” Captain Mark yelled as he drew his sword. After some noises that were made by the unsheathing of swords from the scabbards, all the guards had drawn their swords and prepared for the incoming fight. Angele held his longbow in his hand, completely focused on the situation. He had used up his white-feather arrows, so he was now using some random wooden arrows picked up from various battlefields. Though the wooden arrows dealt less damage, he had still collected plenty of them. In such a situation they were currently in, quantity was far better than quality in regards to its practicality. Angele had the best archery skills in the caravan, so the guards handed all their quivers to him.

Angele grabbed a wooden arrow and nocked it onto his bow. The baron who wore his own chain armor stood in front of Angele. He had all bases covered just to block any ranged attacks that would threaten his son.

BAM!

A mounted bandit took the arrow with his body and fell right off his horse. As Angele kept releasing arrows one by one, about ten bandits who were on their way to the carriages died. Only two survived and they began to retreat.

The baron looked at the noble convoy that had just been attacked. He saw the silver rose insignia on their carriages.

“That’s a silver insignia, so they must be some high class noble in Rudin Empire. At least at the rank of a duke. The rose insignia… They are of royal blood, so we can probably receive help when we arrive to Marua if we can save them,” the baron said.

“Help? What help? There are so many nobles of royal blood in this empire. I heard the royal court of Rudin Empire are split into four main factions and there are about ten sub-factions governed by each main faction. Who knows which one they belong to…?” Angele said, wholly showing that he wasn’t impressed.

“But we should take chances. After all, they at least have a silver insignia,” the baron said with a deep voice.

“The members of Rudin’s royal court have good relationship with the Andes Alliance. Those ones are most likely intending to join some relatives there since many high-class Rudin nobles had connections with the Andes nobles through bonds of matrimony.

“Also, there aren’t too many mounted bandits and it looked like they were just some vanguards of a larger group,” the baron continued.

“If you say so, let’s finish them off. We could use some of their equipments and we are also running out of weapon oils anyway.” Angele scrunched his eyebrows and said.

The carriages drew closer, making Angele get a clearer view on the nobles that were being attacked. Beside a small black carriage were two heavy armored knights who wielded heavy swords trying to protect a handsome young man behind them. The two were clad in silver plate armor, all at knight level. Their sword skills were dazzling, but it wasn’t too effective in actual combat. The two were sweating heavily, seemingly unable to hold on any longer. The man being protected had fear etched all over his face. He was wearing luxurious clothes, looking as though he was a child from a high class noble family.

About twenty mounted bandits were attacking the convoy in groups. There were 7 or 8 dead bandits lying on the ground, probably killed by the two knights. Angele once again scrunched his eyebrows again and grabbed the wooden arrows. Three bandits up ahead were pinned down by down. Three bandits were pinned down by him alone. Captain Mark rushed in with the baron while screaming, easily killing five of them.

Chaos ensued. The bandits didn’t expect this situation. One of the knight-level leaders from the bandit group attacked the baron once, but got blocked by him instead. Angele took this opportunity to shoot an arrow to the bandit leader in his right chest. It resulted in the man turning around and trying to run after being scared completely.

The baron yelled and attacked him with his greatsword. The bandit leader’s head was decapitated and it dropped to the grassland after. The rest of the bandits saw this scene and they started to retreat.