15 - Night Assault - Part 2

Val was making his way over to where the merchants were, observing the situation. The merchants were standing their ground against the bandits fairly well, however, that was mostly due to the magic barrier. The merchants had a larger variety of skills they could utilize, which was to be expected, they were very wealthy and would have had many opportunities to obtain a variety of skill orbs.

Val wanted to take the C-Rank and D-Rank bandits by surprise and was confident in his initial attack being a success but was not sure how things would play out after he took down the first bandit. He knew he had to pick his opportunity perfectly, he would need to wait for an opportunity to strike, where the bandits would not have time to counterattack.

Val decided to move around unnoticed for now, waiting for his opportune time to strike. He moved to hide behind a tree which was about 10 meters from where the battle was taking place. He was waiting for the C-Rank bandit to engage in the battle. The C-Rank and D-Rank bandits were currently observing the situation, they clearly had not expected the magic barrier, which was a major nuisance and created a huge disadvantage for them.

A few of the bandits had already been taken down, and it seems that the C-Rank and D-Rank bandits knew they would have to enter the fray, less risk their squad being slowly decimated. The 3 of them began to move closer to the barrier, and the 2 D-Rank bandits drew their weapons. One of them had a large pole arm with an axe blade and a spike on the end and the other a sword. They both seemed to have a Martial Talent, it was possible they also had a Magic Talent, but it was unlikely. If they had awoken both Martial and Magic Talents they would most likely have become adventurers and earned a better, safer, and law-abiding income. The C-Ranker who was a few steps behind did not have a weapon in hand, he most likely had a Magic Talent and did not use a weapon, similar to Margret.

As the trio got closer to the barrier, Val decided this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. As soon as the trio entered the barrier, he would strike.

The trio entered the barrier ready to engage in battle with the merchants, and the merchant immediately noticed them, labeling them as the leaders of this team. The trio slowly walked closer to the merchants, the stress and slight fear could be clearly seen on the merchant's faces, as they all had frowns and sweat dripping down from their foreheads As the two groups, the merchants and the trio, stared at each other, time seemed to stop. The merchants did not move and the bandits had stopped, they were gauging the strength of the opponents.

Suddenly the trio all smiled at the same time, they knew the merchants were weaker than them. The 2 D-Rank bandits began to move forward again, straight for the merchants, however after just a few seconds, and before they could reach the merchant group, they felt like something was off. They suddenly saw the merchants smile, and fear swelled up in their hearts. They then heard a thump from behind them, and the fear only grew. They turned around, and what they saw shocked them to the core, the same for all the surrounding bandits, of which only 9 remained. 5 had been killed prior by the merchants, who had bombarded them with long-range skills, from within the safety of the barrier.

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-A few seconds ago-

Val noticed that both groups had stopped, the merchants were clearly afraid and the bandit trio was gauging the strength of the merchant group. Val was just waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Suddenly the 2 D-Rank bandits began to rush towards the merchant group, creating enough distance from the C-Rank bandit, that they would not be able to counterattack him.

Val used [Port] and appeared behind the C-Rank bandit and immediately attacked, aiming to kill, he wanted to swiftly deal with the strongest bandit in the area. Val slashes both his sword sideways, aimed at the achilles tendon of the bandit, cleanly slicing both of them. The bandit immediately fell forward with blood spraying all over Val. Val would have liked to have slashed the neck of the bandit, but sadly he could not reach it.

Once the C-Rank bandit was laying on the ground, Val used [stab] with his new good sword and stabbed right through the back of the skull of the bandit. It all happened within a second, and the bandit was in such shock that he did not make a sound. However, the sound of the body hitting the ground was heard by everyone, both the merchants and other bandits in the area. The C-Rank bandit was killed instantly, and there was visible fear on the faces of the two D-Rank bandits. Val looked like a little demon with blood splattered across his face and all over his clothes.

Val noticed everyone looking at him in shock, but he did not care, he had completed his goal and now needed to get to safety before anyone breaks out of their shock and counter attacks him. Thus he used [port] and returned to where he had been hiding previously.

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-Back to present-

The 2 D-Rank bandits turned around with feelings of foreboding and fear welling up. As they turned around they witnessed their friend, who they had known for many years stabbed through the back of his skull, killing him instantly.

They were shocked, they could not believe it. He was more talented and more powerful than them, and yet he was killed so easily. They looked at the person that had committed this atrocity, and that only created further shock and surprise. What they saw could only be described as a little demon, it was the size of a young child, with pointy ears, silver hair stained red with blood, and two short swords in hand, dripping the blood of their comrade.

As they were breaking out of their shocked state they saw the little demon vanish into thin air. They could not believe it, since the start of the battle they had been repeatedly shocked and surprised. They did not know where the demon had gone but they feared he would randomly appear behind them at any time. All the bandits were now extremely cautious, they had just witnessed the most powerful person in their group be assassinated, and from the sounds of battle coming from the other side of the camp, they could tell the main battle between the main groups was ongoing and intense.

As the bandits were rapidly looking around, observing the surroundings, trying to find a hint at where the little demon was hiding, the merchants decided they would not give the bandits time to think, and find Val. Mr. Gregory had seen the whole thing, he saw Val appear behind the C-Rank bandit, kill him, and then disappear, it was not hard for him to come to the conclusion and inform everyone that,

"Little Val has a Spatial Talent, and from the looks of it, a fairly high-ranking one at that. Let's continue bombarding them with long-range skills, melee fighters try to defend against the two D-Rankers, we need to stall and defend, creating time and space for Val to pick them off one by one."

Mr. Gregory shared his plan with the other merchants in a hushed voice, loud enough for the merchants to hear but not the bandits.

The merchants listened and nodded intently when Mr. Gregory finished his speech. They began their assault again, firing ranged skills at the remaining bandits. The bandits were struggling to dodge and block the merchant's attacks, they were too distracted by the threat of Val. They knew he could appear and disappear but they had not worked out, that it was due to a Spatial Talent and Skill.

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Val noticed that the merchants were firing skills at a rapid pace, attacking all the bandits in an attempt to distract them and provide Val with opportunities to kill them one by one, without having a direct confrontation with them. Val noticed that the 2 D-Rank bandits were preoccupied with 3 melee merchants, along with ranged attacks being fired at them regularly. They were also very wary of Val's surprise attack, keeping their senses occupied. This caused them to not have the opportunity to counterattack and take out the merchants.

Val thought about his options and decided, the safest option for him would be to take out the weaker bandits, that held little threat to him. This would open up more opportunities for the merchants to attack the two D-Rank bandits with long-ranged skills.

With Val deciding on his plan of action, he surveyed the battlefield, locating weak, isolated bandits, and began his assault.

He used [Port] to suddenly appear behind them and then would use [Stab], aiming for their heart, because of his short stature, due to being only 10 years old, he was unable to reach the heads of any of the bandits.

Val continued this for a couple of minutes, he had become like a little assassin, swiftly killing 4 of the weaker bandits, leaving only 3 weaker bandits, and the two D-Rank bandits alive.

Val was forced to pause his assault as the three weaker bandits moved and all stood back to back with each other. Val could no longer appear behind them to assassinate them. He would have to think of a new plan to take out the remaining 3 weaker bandits before taking out the two D-Rank bandits, and he would have to do it quickly. The merchants who had been consistently using skills and fighting were clearly slowing down. They had used too much mana, and they were not used to fighting.