CH 54

Bandit Hunt

“How did it come to this!!”

I could not help but shout.

“Silence! We’re going after the next magic attack! Draw your swords!!”

The Adventurer who was in charge of the unit unsheathed his sword.

Yes, unit. Not a party.

On my journey from the Fia Kingdom to Holia, I was forced to stop at Mazebell, the town just beyond the border.

This was because I was pulled into an emergency guild quest.

We were to hunt some bandits and destroy their base.

‘Why don’t you just hire some party?’ I couldn’t help but wonder as a traveling solo Adventurer.

However, they did not know how many there were, but that there were more than a hundred. And so it was a different matter.

Normally, this would have been a job for the Knights Order.

But Holia was a religious state that revolved around the church. And so most of their fighting force that dealt with outside enemies were the militia. So they did not have many soldiers during times of peace.

And now the bandit forces were expanding. Finally, a parish leader, who was the equivalent of a lord here, sent out requests to the Mercenary Guild and Adventurers Guild. And they were able to gather two hundred men in all. This was an operation launched with the combined power of the guild, and no excuses about ‘prosthetic legs’ would work.

Still… At this point, it wasn’t so much a hunting quest…but a full on war!

Also, ‘base’ seemed like an understatement. Because that building on the mountain was a full-on fortress!

But any objections I had were erased by the sounds of magic artillery exploding over the battlefield and signaling the start of the battle.

As wind magic blocked the rain of arrows, fire, earth and other kinds of magic attacks smashed against the gate, blasting it away without leaving a trace.

Wind and dust spread through the air, but the wind magic that defended us from the arrows pushed it away, allowing us to see again.

“Unit one! Charge!”

At this order, the mercenaries charged forward. War was their trade, and they were impressively coordinated.

The magic attacks ensured that there was chaos within the fortress as they charged in.

“Unit two! Follow!”

And now the main unit of Adventurers entered. As expected from Adventurers, they all moved independently.

However, the battle had already started inside, and the enemy’s counter attack was weak and confused. And so the arrival of the Adventurers succeeded in pushing the bandits back towards the second gate.

I had been assigned to the third unit. Part of it was because of my leg. But I was put in this…unit of leftover mercenaries and Adventurers. According to the plan, we would be sent out next. I was nervous. My hands were sweaty and I could feel my heart pounding.

“Third unit. Let’s go!”

Finally, the order came from the Adventurer who was leading us. And so while trading places with the wounded from the first two units, we made our way up the mountain and to the second gate.

I had been given a shield, and so I raised it while running. Because of my leg, I was positioned in front of the sorcerers.

The sorcerers unleashed fireballs which hit the gate, and I heard the wood creak loudly.

“Just a little more. We can make it! Everyone, move forward!”

We followed the order and advanced to the gate.

I was just traveling, that’s all. I didn’t come here to help protect the peace.

I’m no hero. Just a passerby. Traveler A. That’s all, but…

“How did it come to this!!”

I could not help but shout.

“Silence! We’re going after the next magic attack! Draw your swords!!”

The Adventurer who was in charge of the unit unsheathed his sword.

“…Earth Javelin!”

The sorcerer behind me finished chanting, and earth javelins, which were more like artillery shells, smashed through the gate.

“Charge!!”

A wind suddenly blew at my back, and the number of flying arrows decreased. It was the Follow Wind spell! They were doing a good job.

It was chaos inside. Someone like me would not stand a chance in there. And so I stopped once, threw away the shield, and walked towards an area that was less packed with enemies.

If an enemy attacked, I put my prosthetic leg behind me for support and dealt with them.

“Shh!”

The bandit raised both arms and attacked, leaving him wide open, and so I cut off both his arms. I might as well have been fighting goblins.

“Attack him at the same time!”

Two and then three bandits rushed towards me. I really wished they wouldn’t do that.

Clang.

I swung the prosthetic leg to the side behind me while sliding diagonally back so that the second and third’s routes connected. Then I parried from below, and then cut down, slashing through the second one’s shoulder. As the third looked stunned, I pierced his throat.

Then I quickly withdrew my blade, and blood sprayed from the neck. In the now empty space in front of me the…which one was it now? Well, never mind. The next bandit rushed forward. I parried his downward attack from the center and cut open his throat.

There was blood everywhere now.

In the blink of an eye, there were four dead bodies there. As I stepped over them carefully, I noticed that the bandits around me had frozen.

Up ahead, in a corner of the battlefield, everything had gone still for a moment, and so the sorcerers took advantage of it.

Boom.

A great ball of fire landed into a group of bandits.

“Now! Move!”

“ARRGHHH!”

And then everyone around me charged into the fray.

However, I could not participate with this leg.

While we were not a proper army, the enemy were not trained soldiers either. And so their battle line began to crumble, which affected the rest of the battle.

And then I saw that the wounded of unit one and two were falling back.

There were many priests in Holia that could use light magic. It was a religious state, after all. And so they swiftly treated the wounded in the back, and those who were healed returned to the fight.

While the enemy were trying to hold the fort, we had superiority in numbers, and our fighters could return even after being wounded. And so the gap between the two sides only widened. No priest would side with bandits.

The tide of battle kept moving, their defenses were shattered, and more of our men flowed through.

That being said, I was not a professional when it came to battling in such large groups. And so I stayed out of the fray and kept to attacking and bandits that wandered away from the battlefield.

Eventually, the clashing at the entrance ended, and they continued their suppression of the rest of the fortress. The wooden blockades were blown away by the sorcerers, and flames rose all over the place. So this was the air in a battlefield.

Shortly after, I could hear shouts of triumph coming from the top of the fortress. Apparently, we had won.

Well, I could now say that I fought in a battle, yes?

That was the first thing I thought when I realized it.

In just one day, I had killed six or seven men. I had never fought so many in one day, but I didn’t feel repulsed by it. I suppose this was a kind of group psychology. In a way, that was scary.

If anything, I felt more upset the first time I had to carve up the corpse of an orc. They looked very similar to humans, after all.

Now that such a large-scale group of bandits had been defeated, the town of Mazebell was quite festive. The people must have suffered a lot. That alone made me feel better.

“Stop looking so serious and drink up!”

The tavern was filled with great passion as people were drunk on their victory.

I was sitting at a table with people from my unit, and we were emptying our cups.

“Still, that was amazing. You walked through the battle like you were strolling in a park.”

“That was the only thing I could do.”

I said as I took a sip.

“You’re too modest! That’s right! I’ll give you a nickname. Since you walk around the battlefield like that… How about about, Day Walker?”

Buhaa!

I spat out my ale. What am I, a vampire now!?

“That’s the last thing I want to be called!!”

“Cheers to Ajifu the Day Walker!”

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

“Stop it!!!”

I have to leave this town at once. That’s what I desperately thought.