15 Monster

Connor looked through the tent's flaps, he counted 24 people out there, considering there were only 7 guards who were actually stationed in the garrison before escorting them, they posed no threat against the raiders. The smell of blood and death was rampant in the air. Connor saw that two of the guards was kneeling in front of a raider while the other raiders stood behind him, one of the guards was holding his arm, his left arm was slashed with a sword, while the other one was… fine, he had just dropped and surrendered out of fear. The uninjured guard was unarmed, he had thrown his sword away in an effort to get the raiders to spare his life while the raider had longswords in each of his hands, it seemed like he was a dual sword wielder. He turned around and ordered one of the raiders behind him, then the latter threw a shortsword to the guard who was on his knees.

"Duel me you pitiful soldier wannabe, if you win, you can go, alive." the barbarian said towards one of the guards.

"Alexei, why do you want to duel this poor guy? Just slay him and loot them." a huge man walked between the crowd behind Alexei, everyone shut their mouths and made way for him to pass.

"Boss!" Alexei turned around and bowed.

"It's just that I hate seeing people like him." he pointed at the guard. "They wear the kingdom's armour and use its weapons. Boast to villagers and low-class citizens that they are the honourable soldiers and vanguard of the kingdom against outside threats while they are nothing more than a flea, without any skill. All they know is how to harass people." Alexei said.

The man who appeared to be the boss of this raider gang laughed out loud, all other raiders in the surroundings came to watch the so-called duel.

"Fine, you can have your fun. Please do entertain your comrades." the boss said to Alexei.

"Ple-pp-please spare me." the guard put his hands up and begged, he was stuttering as if he was crying.

"Tsk. What kind of a 'vanguard of the kingdom' you are? You either fight to get a chance to live or I cut your head right here, right now." Alexei snorted.

Afraid of being decapitated the guard shuddered before he slowly reached out to the sword that was thrown over near him by one of the raiders. He grabbed the sword and stood up, his legs were trembling. He was barely able to take a sword stance.

"Ready?" Alexei asked.

The guard was still trembling, he wasn't sure if he could win. The person in front of him was clearly someone with battle experience while all he had done was to spar against other guards back in the garrison. He hesitantly nodded.

Alexei took his stance, slightly bent his chest towards his legs and dashed towards the guard, and struck with one of his swords.

CLINK.

The sword was blocked by the guard, he was so happy! Even though the other party probably had more experience than him he was able to block the first strike, now it was time to counter-attack.

Or so he thought.

Alexei flicked his left wrist. The longsword in his left hand suddenly stabbed the man's side. The guards face darkened in an instant, reflexively he took a step back and held his wound. He had already forgotten that he had blocked one of the swords. It took Alexei just a second before the other sword had finally cut through flesh. A bloody head fell to the ground.

In a mere few seconds, the duel was already over. Alexei turned to the injured guard and asked.

"Would you like to try your chance too or…" before gazing on his wound, he continued. "I see that you are injured." Alexei said, before sheathing his sword that was on his left hand. "Well, it would be unfair if I fought against an injured man with my full strength, I'll only use one of my swords." he justified his actions.

….

Connor had been watching the whole scene unfold, luckily for him and Miles, all the raiders were busy watching their comrade getting rid of the guards. No one bothered searching the tents. He checked all the raiders he had seen one by one.

'They don't seem to carry any bows, too bad for them.' he smiled. All the raiders had melee weapons, some of them carried swords, some of them carried maces and a few of them had two-handed battleaxes, they were huge.

'They pose no threat to us, time to have some fun with these duels.' Connor thought.

Connor turned towards Miles and explained his plan, Miles was surprised. A moment later, however, he had a similar smile Connor had shown some time ago. A very mischevious one.

….

Connor walked outside from the tent and looked towards the raiders.

"I WOULD LIKE A DUEL!" he shouted. He was looking straight at Alexei.

This quickly grabbed the attention of the raiders who were gathered in the area to watch the duels. Some of them reached their swords and maces immediately but were dejected after seeing where the voice had come from. It was a teenager who was barely 20 years old, his body was very slim, although he had some muscles it was nowhere near theirs. For everyone, it was obvious he was overestimating himself. Some of the raiders started to laugh.

"I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!" Alexei replied. Some of the raiders were surprised. Alexei had accepted a challenge that wasn't even worth speaking of. Some also felt bad for the kid. Instead of running away, he had come out to challenge Alexei? A few raiders shook their heads.

The raiders' boss was watching the whole situation, he had an amusing smile on his face. It was obvious that he was having fun. He waved his hands and told raiders to let him come and face Alexei.

Connor walked over to where Alexei was, standing a few meters away from him. He was grinning all the time. As Alexei was in front of him, he made sure he was not close to any other raider, there were at least 20 meters between them. Connor took his tri-blade out and started waving it towards Alexei, as if he was changing between stances and showing off his skills. This action resulted in sounds of laughter reverberating throughout the camp.

Alexei laughed before shrugging. This kid was overestimating himself too much. He unsheathed his other sword. He was dual wielding once again, he started waving his swords in a peculiar manner. For people who were versed in swordsmanship, what he was doing was quite obvious. He was constantly switching between many swordsmanship stances like a professional. This had also caught the attention of their boss.

'Your skills are nowhere near my swordsmanship. Observe the difference between your skills and mine.' Alexei said to himself as he continued waving his swords.

Connor was so happy that he wanted to cry, he was waiting for this moment.

He coughed to clear his throat before he moved. Shortly after a loud bang was heard.

"..."

"..."

A few seconds later, Alexei fell to the ground, blood was flowing out from his body.

<You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points.>

Connor dismissed the notification immediately, he knew what he had done anyway. Everyone was shocked. Before they could recover, lots of loud bangs were heard, every raider was falling down one by one. The ones who were still standing couldn't even move their legs. They were so scared that they couldn't move at all.

Connor looked towards the tent he and Miles were located, in front of the tent Miles was aiming and shooting at every raider he could see.

<Your subordinate has successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 5 reputation points.>

<Your subordinate has successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 5 reputation points.>

….

Connor smirked, he actually wanted to test this for a while. Although there was a huge reduction in the amount of reputation points he was getting, he was still able to earn them even though he wasn't the one killing the enemy. He started to go through raiders one by one, after yelling Miles to stop.

'Would not want to ruin my free reputation points. More the merrier.' Connor said to himself while shooting one of the raiders who had just turned around and was attempting to run. He also hated the naming scheme of Warzone. Why was XP called Reputation Points? He constantly had to correct himself from saying experience points to reputation points. After shooting a few more raiders who were running he was out of ammo. Only three raiders were remaining, the boss and two of his closest henchman. They were at the very back of the crowd in the beginning. Seeing Connor suddenly stopped shooting, they assumed he was… out of mana. Connor was mistaken for a mage once again.

Connor quickly thought about opening his inventory, he had to get a magazine to reload.

<You are currently in combat, inventory has been disabled.>

Connor frowned. Most of the games had this feature, he didn't even bother to check before. He had given Miles two extra magazines but he did not even think about himself, for him it was just extra weight. As he was blaming himself, he saw the remaining three raiders running towards him. He turned towards Miles and yelled.

"Miles, knee!"

Several gunshots were heard once again. The men who were running towards Connor suddenly fell onto their knees. It felt as if their stamina has been drained out of their legs completely. One of them attempted to move his legs but he quickly fell as he was trying to stand up.

After ensuring they weren't able to get up or move at all, Connor gave a mischevious smile and walked towards Miles. Checking his surroundings several times to ensure there was no one else left.

"Did you use the extra mags?" Connor asked.

"I did commander, got 5 bullets left on my last one." Miles replied.

"Alright, hand me the gun real quick."

Miles gave his pistol to Connor.

After receiving the pistol Connor walked towards the downed raiders and stood in front of them.

"Monster!"

"Stop, let us live, please!"

"I'll give you all the gold coins I have, let me go!" the men, including their leader who were on their knees in front of Connor. Were begging for their lives. Under their knees a pool of blood was formed, flowing down from their thighs. A few seconds later gunshots echoed through the camp.

*bang* *bang* *bang*

<You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points.>

<You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points.>

<You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points.>

It was over. The night was coming to an end.

'It was a very rewarding night.' Connor thought.

….

Elicia was horrified. She wanted to rush in to save Connor and Miles as soon as the guards had failed to deal with the raiders, as she was about to go in she saw Connor coming out with a smile on his face, intrigued, she held back.

'Strong.'

'Very strong.'

'Too strong.'

She thought about the same thing in many different ways.