How many bandits did Perseus and Jason eliminate? they didn't count. But it was at least 20 in total.
Perseus flicked his sword with his wrist making all of the blood that had accumulated on it fly into the grass. He then sheathed his sword with a satisfying click and looked around.
In the distance, you could see the guild wagon, with the single lantern hanging on it illuminating the surroundings.
The rest of the guild members were hiding in it, or at least that was what Perseus assumed.
In the forest, the silver wing guild members were merciless. They were kids, but their hatred for the bandits exceeded anything a normal human should feel. To the kids, the bandits were no longer anything human, just something that needed to be destroyed and cast away. After all, that's what happened to them.
Most of them were trained as rouges by Jack. Perseus had also taught them some beginner skills. They ran through the forest in the dark in groups of 3 just like how Perseus had divided them when they hunted goblins and the like.
If Perseus knew what was going to happen he would have tried his best to get these kids out of the conflict. After all, they were just kids (though technically he was younger than them) Perseus just didn't like it when kids fought.
Unfortunately, the silver wing members' hatred for the bandits and the resentment they had for bandits had reached a boiling point.
Bandit after bandit fell to the merciless blades of the silver wing guild members. Jack and his friends each holding their weapon of choice acted as the backup for any of the silver wing guild members who were in trouble.
The ambush by the bandits turned into a fight in the forest.
The bandits started to flee deeper into the forest and the silver wing guild members followed intending to wipe out every single one of them.
Boops who was watching everything from the map warned Jason
'Jason, if the silver wing guild members spread themselves out far enough the entire group will crumble and Jack won't be able to help them'
Jason asked quietly while he sat on the branches of a tree carefully eyeing a bandit that was nervously walking around holding his sword out as if it was a life light.
"how about Perseus"
Boops responded in a hushed and hurried voice
'he's near the guild wagon,'
Jason quickly made a decision
'tell Perseus to summon all of the members there, we'll try and hold our position there'
Boops asked in surprise
'Are you sure? it will into a defensive battle, i still can't get a grasp on how many bandits there are they are exceeding my range'
Jason replied
"and what? get picked off one by one? get Perseus to hurry up, or else some of us may fall in the process"
Boops sighed but obeyed and relayed the information to Perseus using since he was able to transport himself into the headspace of any of his subordinates.
Perseus listened to Boops and ran over to the wagon. He ran to the back and saw that it was completely empty except for some fishing gear.
He shook his head with regret, but looked up and took a deep breath
"silver wing guild members" he shouted out.
His voice seemed to reverberate through the forest and each guild member stopped and looked in the direction where Perseus's voice was coming from.
"to the wagon, now!"
Perseus finished his summons hoping that the guild members would hear it and pulled out his sword again. The bandits would hear it if the silver wing guild members heard it. It was moments like these that Perseus wished that he had player guild members besides his master. Using the in-game chat function would be so nice.
Perseus readied his hand, he knew that the people that would emerge out of the thicket in front of him were either bandits that heard his voice or guild members possibly under the chase of bandits.
He put his back to the side of the wagon as he waited.
A calm voice spoke beside him.
"you know why we got attacked?"
Perseus looked to see Jason grinning as he leaned against the wagon next to him. Perseus didn't know why, but Jason seemed a bit different from normal. He looked the same, but his eyes and smile instead of the perpetual childish grin that he had on. It was a serious face with cold eyes.
It matched Jason's face which resembled more of an ice-cold person than a bright and warm person and the aura of charisma that Jason was giving off would almost make him unrecognizable from normal almost as if there was a different personality that had taken over.
Perseus thought for a moment, then gave his head a small shake.
"We eliminated a bandit camp a few weeks ago, perhaps this is their comrade's revenge"
Jason responded in an emotionless voice while adjusting his leaning position on the wagon to a more comfortable one.
"that makes things more clear, looks like we will need to postpone our trip to the abandoned mine"
Something in Perseus shivered as Jason said those words, but the other part shouted with joy at how fricking cool it sounded.
The sound of a twig snapping caught both of the "brothers' attention. Perseus jumped a few feet in frount and held his sword out cautiously while Jason remained leaning on the wagon.
Jack and his friends emerged from the bushes gasping for air. Right behind them were the other 10 guild members. All of them were exhausted after running back to the wagon after they chased down as many bandits as they could.
Perseus quickly checked on each of them making sure none of them were hurt.
Jack said breathlessly
"master, hah hah we saw over 50 bandits with bows and a scary-looking man waiting for us a few hundred meters away from here, the bandits were about to fire at us, but the scary-looking man stopped them"
Perseus looked towards Jason who had finally gotten off of the wagon and was eyeing the forest carefully.
Jason said to Jack and the rest of the guild members in a cold voice
"get to the wagon, and stay down don't even think about butting your head in this fight"
Something in Jason's voice made them all lower their heads and quickly run into the wagon. Even the slightly rebellious friends of Jack followed Jason's words. They didn't know exactly why but there was a gravity to his words, much different from how he normally acted as the kind person who gave them food.
He gave off a serious aura that none of the people present except for maybe Perseus had encountered.
Once all of the kids were in the wagon and everything was checked over. Jason and Perseus looked into the forest.
And right on time, figures from the forest started to appear visible slowly walking closer and closer through the forest in a menacing way.
For the first time, Jason was able to take a good look at the enemy without worrying about his life.
The bandits looked different from the bandits Jason had fought before. They were more roguish looking instead of the shirtless screaming bandits Jason had seen at Muno.
Longbows and quivers were in most of their hands with a few exceptions being 3 large men with huge axes in their hands. Each of the bandits had a mask on. It was a black mask with purple wisps and strands drawn in like a vine intertwining itself onto a fence.
Jason analyzed them to find that most of the bandits were about level 30. Weak to his level but scarily strong to the guild members and maybe a bit of a pain to Perseus.
The person seemed to be the leader of the group of bandits, the one that had a half black and dark purple mask. He held two swords in his hand and Jason could see multiple daggers that were sheathed hanging on his waist and sides.
Jason expected a sudden charge, but the bandits all stopped at the thicket and began the surround the wagon and Jason with a 10-meter gap between them.
The leader walked up through the encirclement of the rest of the bandits.
It seemed that he was about to say something, but Jason stepped and spoke first.
"This is where I would be surprised as to why you're doing this right? well honestly I was kinda expecting you guys"
Jason ended it with a grin
and a chill went down the bandit's backs.
The leader stood up and started to talk.
Jason could hear his voice and resisted the urge to physically cringe at it. It felt damp and disgusting as if it was trying to make a hideous parody of a normal human's voice.
"you... how much do you know"