A leaders folly

Cyril held his mitten hands tight around the shaft of his spear, commanding his troops to move forward. The villagers were putting up a hell of a fight, but the forces coming up against them just were not up to par.

When he saw the enemy pop into existence, he tensed. A line of shields greeted them, held by muscular farmers, herders, and potters. The flash of steel was visible between the shields, scimitars, and deadly spears poking overhead.

Cyril scoffed, it was but a foolish attempt at holding on. The bandits in front of him were licking their lips and twirling their own swords around, ready to be unleashed like a wolf among the herd.

He held his spear up high and roared. The bandits followed his action, and held their scimitars up, then charged forward.

The battlefield remained the same as before, an open valley dipping down in the center where both of the forces would meet. At least, that's what Cyril had planned.

The villagers seemed too busy quaking in their boots to move forward, and stood with their backs against the wall. He let a grin overtake his face and howled, echoed by his men as they charged forward.

Cyril had no time for the fancies of ranged weaponry, and equipped his men with scimitars and daggers. A quick victory was a good one, and the villagers would crumple under the pressure of the men he personally trained.

They quickly reached the bottom of the valley, stepping over onto the incline that marked the villager side. A volley of arrows shot forth from behind the shield wall.

Cyril could only look on in horror as the entire volley drew closer, realizing too late that they were all aimed at him. The arrows shredded what little armour he had, pushing him to the ground as the rest nailed him to his fate.

Dustin watched on and chuckled.

"Commander down. Keep focus, pick your targets."

The villagers cut their rejoicing down and loaded more arrows, taking advantage of the confusion that spread out across the bandits. The leader had died so quickly, causing them to falter. It took a moment for the mix of anger and fear to kick in, bringing them closer.

Rather than crush their hopes and dreams with a couple of well placed ice petals, he wanted his shield wall to gain some experience. The villagers had barely even attacked a living target in melee combat before, let alone kill one.

He couldn't baby his platoon so much that when the time came for them to fight, they were useless.

The two lines crashed furiously as the bandits threw themselves at the shield wall. The line of spears punctured skulls, torso and limbs as they did so, retreating immediately after. Some of the spears wavered, but found the resolve to strike under the bandit's curses and screams.

"Push!"

The shield wall gave a 'hup!' in unison, and pushed their shields forward, meeting the bandits head on. Shields collided with bodies, pushing them backwards and breaking the momentum of the bandits behind them.

"Slice!"

Keeping the shields up and in front of them, the shield wall rippled like a wave, and scimitars came flying out, slicing horizontally at anything in front of them. Even those with nothing to hit followed Dustin's order. Many of the villagers closed their eyes as they struck, a kink in the otherwise well oiled machine.

He almost felt a tear come on as his orders were beautifully executed, following the screams of bandits being sliced.

"Reset!"

The shields locked back into place, scimitars pulled back. The bill hooks and spears appeared overhead again, like a scorpion tail ready to strike.

The first line of bandits had been utterly decimated, unable to deal even a scratch to the villagers. Those behind them were jumping over the corpses of their comrades to get to the shields.

Dustin let the villagers repeat his commands and jumped in himself with the quarterstaff. He appeared as just a blur, his staff crushing the bandits skulls with a sickening 'crack', sending them flying backwards.

The action repeated whenever a section of the shield wall seemed to be getting overwhelmed. It gave the villagers the confidence boost they needed, and soon the bandits were fleeing.

A volley of arrows ended the escape attempt quickly, as well as the crack of lightning and boom of thunder that fried them for good measure.

With his record maintained, Dustin took what little loot he could from the bandits. Each wave carried only a few sets of armour and shields, which was his main target. The scimitars, daggers, and whatever other weapons the bandits brought to fight with were ignored.

His platoon was still standing 45 strong, and the bandits he faced up against remained as tactless as they had previously. He waited with them silently until the timer in the corner of his vision ticked down to zero. His third battle, which would mark another upgrade provided he won, was starting.

The valley remained quiet, unnerving Dustin as he stood in the absence of the bandit's usual revelry. They maintained a line of swords and shields, facing down upon him. Neither side seemed to move forward, provoking Dustin into making the first move. The enemy commander wasn't visible, or was pretending to be a regular bandit, perhaps having seen Dustin's previous maneuver.

He stepped forth, ahead of his troops, and calmly walked into the middle of the valley.

The bandits stood opposite him, fearfully hefting the curved swords in their hands. He pushed further up the valley and stopped, just outside the range of their bows. A floating ball of purple light gently bobbed forward, vibrating wildly until a flash of light burst forth.

One of the bandits fell to its knees, eyes rolled backwards and bleeding from the nose. The rest of the bandits recoiled in fear, but maintained position as the leader at the back barked orders, revealing himself. Bows were drawn, and arrows flew out from behind the front line, aiming at the purple ball of light.

Lei-Lei easily dodged the projectiles due to her small size, and begun to charge again. The line of Killen shivered as another bandit fell, steaming from the head.

The leader roared, and the bandits took two steps forward. Dustin smirked, taking his own steps backwards, and keeping Lei-Lei close enough for him to easily recall should she actually be in danger. He begun to charge his own Storm Bolt, and as the bandits came into range, he released it, watching the bright chain travel, zapping the souls right out of three bandits, and nearly killing the next two in line.

He immediately jumped backwards as arrows struck the ground before him with a dull thud. The action repeated until the bandits charged, abandoned their attempts at formation. Eleven of them had already fallen, without dealing a single injury in return.

Dustin's jacked up mana bar was easily able to maintain a constant stream of Storm Bolts now. The achievement he acquired from the Ant Colony dungeon, granting him the 'Ally of Lightning' buff effect permanently, increased his mana regeneration by 15%. His wisdom was already breaching 30, which in combination with 'Ally of Lightning', gave him enough mana regeneration to pump out Storm Bolts.

A pair of weathered leather boots on his feet aided his attempts at dodging, having finally purchased them from the store, granting an impressive 18% movement speed increase.

The bandits were unable to land a single hit on him, and they soon found themselves within range of Dustin's own ranged units. The bandits held up shields fearfully and made the last ditch effort to sprint up the hill.

Only fifteen bandits remained, bloodied and tired as they slashed at the stalwart shields. Dustin let his platoon clear the rest of the stragglers, slicing them across the chest. Some of them managed to put up a fight, parrying the blows or ducking out of the way, but they were facing down more than one villager at a time, and sooner or later a scimitar or billhook found its way through their guard, running them through.

Bandit blood covered part of the shield wall, and flowed freely down the valley, leaving the smell of iron in the air. Dustin took the couple of shields laying around and had the villagers strip the armour. His wall was now fourteen strong across, with twelve villagers placed in between holding spears between the gaps.

The remaining villagers stood behind, wielding mostly bows. The platoon returned to its station, and the village chief came bearing more gifts.

Surprisingly, the number of Killen he commanded did not change, but the arena to fight in did. The bandits were 'growing furious', and were launching attacks against the village gate. Dustin was to take his force and join the defense. Immediately after the chief turned to leave, the sounds of fighting started to drift over. Clashing swords, the 'twang' of bows, and battle shouts filled the air.

The closed off area lost one of its walls, revealing the rest of the village where he had entered originally. A group of armed Killen stood before the gate, holding the large doors barely open enough for Dustin to peak outside.

The wave style fighting he had been subjected to seemed to continue, only now the bandits were coming up to the gate, and the villagers were going out to greet them head on.

Battles started with both forces in range of firing at each other, provoking an immediate reaction from either side. The counter for Dustin's engagement was ticking down fast. He began to wonder just how many waves he needed until the dungeon was completed. The absence of any kind of boss was unusual, but not unheard of.

Dungeons took many different forms. In his previous time, Dustin had even competed in a kind of racing dungeon, where pioneers had to create vehicles to race against the dungeons inhabitants.

It was certainly an odd, if not refreshing, experience. The dungeon Dustin was in was simply taking up a lot of time. It would need to give him a substantial boost in level, or a great reward, to match the time it took to complete.

His thoughts were interrupted by the abrupt change in scenery. He had no time to think before his platoon was placed onto the field, immediately facing down against a similar formation.

"Archers, fire!"

He wasted no time in preparing a Storm Bolt and summoning Lei-Lei to accompany him, releasing it on his archers second volley. The lightning jolted the front line, and momentarily blinded the enemy archers from firing, giving some relief to his villagers who had been getting hammered.

"Archers, take up spears!"

When the two front lines clashed, Dustin called out to his ranged units, and abandoned his spell-casting. He took to circling around the front line, picking off archers with his enhanced speed. The metal staff flung bandits into their comrades, disrupting the volley of arrows. He threw knives at the others, anything to stop them from firing.

He had commanded his own archers to stop firing as he dismantled the bandits backline. The threat of friendly fire was too great, especially when his villagers were not trained in using bows. It was better to bulk the front line whilst he dealt with outside interference.

He had little trouble annihilating the bandit archers, leaping into the midst of the brawl happening between the two front lines shortly after. His villagers were holding steady, but unable to deal any significant blows against higher skilled opponents. The spears were doing work by stacking up little injuries on the bandits where they could, and they would likely win without his intervention, though at the cost of a few lives.

With a perfect record to maintain, Dustin summoned a Shadow Dagger in each of his hands, forgoing the metal staff. The bandits were tightly packed together, and using the daggers to weave in and out would give him better chances to strike at their vitals.

The ethereal blades sliced at open necks, wrists, ankles, whatever part of the bandits he could reach. Part of their frontline was forced to wrap back around, defending from his back attack. The villagers were relieved as they followed suit, wrapping around until the bandits were fully surrounded.

His blades reaped the battlefield, claiming whatever resistance remained. His villagers were breathing ragged breaths, having survived their first proper fight. A couple of them had met the sharp end of a scimitar, coming out a little worse for wear, but still breathing. Dustin flashed them a smile and cleaned up the loot, completing his shield wall in record time.

They were all equipped with some form of armour now, and he managed to acquire another crossbow. He returned to the village victorious, awaiting his next wave, and found a surprise awaiting him as he watched the next wave head out.

Behind the bandits facing down the village gate was a figure, taller than the rest, hands nervously picking at the leather straps on their armour.

A human, working for the bandits. Dustin watched as their mouth moved, commanding the bandits to move forward. The fight started dramatically as bandits shield-charged the villagers, pushing them over. Pitchforks fell to the ground, and the bandits skewered the fallen Killen with their blades.

Straight after the initial shield charge, other bandits followed up by walking between the gaps, firing bows at a short range. Villagers fell to the side as arrows penetrated them with ease.

The man won a flawless victory and looked up at Dustin before they disappeared. He could see the yellowed teeth, a few of them missing, as his mouth spread into a crooked grin. It gave Dustin a bad feeling, which settled in his stomach, even as the man was teleported away.

Whilst he had survived, Dustin couldn't help but feel conflicted about it. If the man had died, there would be no chance for Dustin to go up against him.

But since he had won, was Dustin going to have to kill him?

The troubled look on his face alarmed his platoon as they formed up beside him, now standing outside the gate. He twirled the staff in his hands and looked beyond the bandits, where the vague outlines of tents and smoke shimmered on the horizon.

"Archers. Fire!"