Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Bandits (II)

After finishing the four bandits and keeping the corpses, so they couldn't be discovered, Eldi advanced cautiously. The problem was to go through the resting place of the huge dead rat without being sighted, as two slaves were skinning it.

He couldn't pass through without being seen, and he didn't want to attack them either. The high human decided to wait in order to recover his mana, and then use a Sleepyhead's Shield again. After that, he approached the rat, while a couple of surprised slaves saw as the newcomer killed the bandit who was watching them.

They just looked at him, saying nothing, nervous, afraid that the uninvited guest could kill them too. His face and hair were covered with something like a ski mask, with only his green eyes visible, the green that Lidia had chosen to hide the golden color of his father's eyes. There were obvious recent blood stains on his clothes, and he was holding a two-handed axe.

He put his finger on his lips as a silence warning, and both slaves nodded. Their other option was to raise the alarm, which they assumed would surely result in their deaths. Also, they didn't want to risk their lives for their oppressors. Secretly, they expected that man to slay them all, and, perhaps, free them. At least, he hadn't tried to kill them, which would have been the easiest way.

"In the tunnel straight ahead and to the left, they will be sleeping, nine at most. The other prisoners are behind them. If anyone is awake, it may be in the right. These are the bosses' rooms. The other four are making rounds. They came two minutes ago. They'll return in about ten. There are four more from where you've come... I guess you already know it... About twenty are out, they can come back at any time," one of them informed him quietly, while her partner was looking at her, undecided.

"Do not step on the red leaves, they're traps," warned the slave when the man was already walking away, finally making a decision

Eldi nodded, thanking the information, and taking the body back to the entrance, keeping it in the inventory when the slaves could no longer see him. After that, he returned, before the attentive and expectant gaze of the man and the woman. They wanted to follow him, but they didn't dare, so they soon lost sight of him. Without knowing very well what to do, they kept skinning the rat

After advancing about a hundred meters, the tunnel led to a wider space where it was difficult to hide. He had confidence in confronting the bandits even if they discovered him, but he couldn't be absolutely certain that there were no exceptionally strong one. Or that the captives would be safe if they started fighting.

So, knowing that they would pass by again, he created a new Sleepyhead's Shield and hid behind it, taking a potion to recover the mana faster. Even so, it was slow, because that place had a somewhat low concentration of mana, due to being a low level forest. Casting two shields, he had consumed more than a third of his reserve, so he had to be careful.

When another two bandits appeared after a few minutes of waiting, he repeated the operation, investing his mana reserves in another Shield to silence the fight. He used Abyss to make them fall and be immobilized, and several Shred to finish them off, being the corpses that he collected the only witnesses of that confrontation.

There were only two left, but they would probably suspect that something was happening if their partners didn't show up, so he decided to move on. First, he undressed and dressed again through the inventory, removing the blood stains, after which he changed the color of the armor to the gray closest to the surrounding rock he had available, hoping that his new camouflage could help him.

He looked out from the tunnel. Two figures came out of another tunnel and were walking along the wall. They didn't look in his direction, so he didn't think they had seen him. Nonetheless, Sharpening Senses was active.

"Damn it, we still have one more hour on guard duty. And the boss hasn't still came back. Surely, they have captured new girls and are having fun while we are locked up here."

"You bet! I wanna drink. But if he returns and catches us drinking, he'll behead us."

The only important thing he got out of the conversation is that, for the moment, they didn't suspect anything. It was when their footsteps sounded different, that he looked out again. Apparently they had entered another tunnel.

"Another trap proven for Idontknowhowmanytimes. God, what a bore!"

"Luckily, that there isn't much time left..."

But what wasn't much time left was his life. When they discovered that there was something weird that they couldn't identify, it was too late. Their screams couldn't be heard from outside the Shield, and their level and skills couldn't be compared with those of the intruder. One of them tried to escape, but the panic had clouded his judgment, so he forgot about the trap they had just reviewed, being crushed by a huge log that swung on the ropes that held it.

He advanced through the tunnel on the right trying not to make noise. There were some areas separated somewhat primitively, forming rooms. He checked them one by one, but only found a chained figure in one of them. He went to her once he had made sure there was no one else.

She was a mix between human and cat, chained to the wall. Her level was 25, and she had been an adventurer before being captured by the bandits, in the attack on a caravan she was guarding. He saw the man approaching, but barely moved. Her eyes looked dead, as if nothing mattered anymore.

Her body had some scars and a lot of bruises. And, although attractive, at that moment Eldi didn't notice the half-naked body, but clenched his fists and teeth tightly, trying not to get carried away by his anger. It was obvious what that humanoid cat had suffered.

"Hi, I've come to get you out of here," Eldi whispered.

She turned slowly, as if she were too tired, and a pair of tears sprouted from her dull eyes.

"Kill me. Please kill me, I don't want to live anymore," she sobbed.