137 Siege of the Bandit Fortress: Middle

As Kirou fell over the cliff, there was a distinct lack of an expression on his face. Unlike the fear and apprehension of a weak-willed person or the excitement that would be present on the face of a thrill-seeker, Kirou's facial expression was one of indifference. It was as if he wasn't actively falling to his death, but was instead dealing with a mundane task.

While the members of the bandit stronghold still had their attention focused on the siege attacks, Kirou's figure was getting closer to the base's interior. Conversely, this also meant that he was that much closer to the ground without anything to cushion his fall, nor could he deploy something as attention-grabbing as a parachute behind enemy lines.

Instead, the moment Kirou was close enough to the ground, roughly twenty meters or so, he deployed his wires to a nearby structure and used them to alter his trajectory.

Instead of going splat on the floor and dying like a dog, Kirou's body was sent towards the shadow of a nearby building. Just as Kirou's feet touched down, his body immediately sank into the building's shadow, vanishing from the area.

A few moments after Kirou's body vanished, some bandits came over to his general area. These bandits had their weapons out as they surveyed the area with vigilance.

One of the older-looking bandits spoke up, "Are you sure that you saw someone land in this area?"

"Positive, sir. Although it was only for a moment, I did see someone land in this general area," said another bandit, a young man wielding a crossbow.

The older bandit took a moment to gather his words before speaking up, "Scatter and search the area. Find any signs that prove that someone snuck into the stronghold. I refuse to believe that someone was capable of falling from that height without leaving any clues."

"YES, SIR!" shouted the rest of the bandit team as they started searching the area in groups of twos and threes.

As the groups were leaving, the older bandit spoke up in a loud enough voice for them to hear.

"I don't care what kind of condition this intruder is in, you better find him. If he's alive, find him and kill him. And if he's dead, make sure to bring back the corpse."

There was a vicious glint in the older bandit's eyes as he said this and the rest of the squad could feel the killing intent behind the older bandit's words.

Sadly for this older bandit, this was the last order he would give his squad. The moment the rest of the squad was out of sight and the older bandit started searching on his own, he felt a monstrous killing intent lock onto his body.

Before he could even try and regain control of his body, he heard someone's voice in his ears, "You can go on ahead. I'll be sure to send the rest of your squad after you in the afterlife."

Following those words, without even seeing the figure of the person who spoke, the older bandit suddenly found that he could no longer feel anything from the neck down. It took him a second to notice that his head was no longer connected to the rest of his body and just as his head fell to the ground, he saw that the rest of his body was reduced to pieces.

The last thought that this bandit thought had before death claimed him was, 'What kind of person did we antagonize?'

After reducing the older bandit to bloody pieces, Kirou was now walking out of the shadow of a nearby building. Unlike when he first jumped off of the cliff in his human form, he was now in his werewolf form.

His black fur stood out during the day but for some reason, it blended into the darkness of the shadows so well that he had no reason to use either of his stealth skills so long as he kept his eyes closed.

Kirou glanced at the bloody chunks for a moment before surveying the area. Just as he told the older bandit, Kirou was going to send the rest of the squad to the afterlife. Having decided on his next target, Kirou's body vanished as he stepped into another shadow.

For now, he had to make this quick if he wants to keep to his schedule.

*******

At the main entrance to the bandit stronghold, the fight was growing intense. Although the large projectiles that would rock the entire stronghold and destroy the walls had a large lag time, the constant explosions around the stronghold's various weak points made the defensive side of the siege battle lose ground with each explosion.

At first, these explosions started out in areas where the stronghold had little defenses, but they eventually started going off in the middle of areas filled with defenders. The bandits were getting paranoid, thinking that there were traitors amongst their ranks. Otherwise, the explosions going off in the middle of their formations made no sense.

This thought was especially prevalent in the leaders of the bandit stronghold, especially in the mind of one Bandit Leader Cain. While defending and retaliating against the siege attacks from outside the base, Cain was constantly on the lookout for anyone that looked or acted suspiciously in the slightest. In fact, since the explosions have started going off amongst the bandits, Cain has already cut down five or so persons that he's deemed suspicious.

Sadly for these bandits, they'll never know that the reason behind these explosions had nothing to do with traitors but was instead a result of the large projectiles that have struck their stronghold a few times.

*******

Somewhere in the forest, a few hundred meters away from the bandit stronghold, a group of four was currently rushing to a pre-arranged clearing. In this clearing, two tall pillars were sitting in the center connected by what looks like a mess of spider webs. If a random player were to pass by the area and see this, they would be surprised since the pillars and the spider webs together look like a giant makeshift slingshot.

As soon as the quartet entered the clearing, they immediately got to work. Two of them immediately got to work in pulling back the pouch area along the designated path until elastic-type webbing was fully stretched and the pouch was held in place by a hook, of sorts.

Following this, the third member of the group created a sphere made of earth with holes of the same size all around it. The third member then stood to the side and watched as the first two members stuff the earthen sphere full of materials of various kinds.

The fourth member of the group would occasionally spit some sticky webbing inside the earthen sphere to keep the various materials in place, along with binding them to each other.

After the earthen sphere was filled to the brim, the fourth member once again spits sticky webbing on it. This time, however, the sticky webbing covered the exterior of the earthen sphere completely, sealing the contents inside.

At this point, the third member steps up and creates an earthen barrier to fully cover the now sticky web covered sphere, giving it a similar appearance as the original earthen sphere, except that this one is a few layers larger and has fewer holes on the surface.

Following this, the quartet then moves this newly created sphere to the pouch area of the giant slingshot, where the fourth member covers it in another layer of webbing. This time, the webbing is of the normal variety whose only job was to reinforce the sphere.

With everything now in place, one of the first two members goes behind the pouch of the slingshot and prepares to move the hook holding it in place. As for the other, he pours a liquid on the sphere and ignites it, turning the web-covered sphere into a flaming projectile.

Following this, that member moves out of the way and gives the person at the hook a signal, prompting them to remove the hook. This results in the pouch grabbing the flaming projectile, moving it along the created path, and sending it flying in a certain direction.

Sadly, due to the pouch's contact with the flaming projectile, the webbing used to create the pouch and bands of the giant slingshot were ignited, causing them to burn out completely until the flames died out on the earthen pillars.

The quartet watched this happen but did not react as they already started packing up their gear and moving to the next area. Their movements were so quick that if another person saw it, they would have realized that this group already knew that this would happen.

Naturally, the group that just operated and left the now disabled giant slingshot was none other than Kirou's clones (two) and his pets, Shadow Arachne and Asura.

*******

Stronghold Bandit Leader Cain's current expression was one of extreme anger. In fact, it was to the point where he's barely retaining the required sanity to differentiate between friend and foe. Then again, the phrase, "there is no honor amongst thieves" could be best used to describe his current relationship with the rest of the bandits and bandit leaders in the stronghold.

First, his base was assaulted by an unknown party using what appears to be siege weapons set up in multiple places. Then there are the explosions going off all over the place. And then there is the rain of arrows that sporadically falls to prevent anyone from leaving the base to investigate.

Even worse was the fact that he now had to contend with traitors in his camp. Regardless of whether or not these traitors and the siege assault team are connected, just the fact that they chose now of all times to make their presence known is what irks him to no end. So far, he has had to cut down no less than a dozen men who've tried to stab him in the back while he's defending himself from the external threats.

A few bandit leaders were amongst the lot that tried to backstab him but they immediately fled when they noticed that he wasn't an easy mark. That being said, Cain was currently suffering from a lot of injuries caused by these bandit leaders and it doesn't help that he still had to defend himself from the rain of arrows.

Before Cain could even take a moment to curse his luck, another flaming projectile landed on the outer wall of the stronghold. This time, however, the damage wasn't as pronounced as the previous projectiles.

That said, Cain didn't have the time to pay attention to this as he was currently on the receiving end of a large carapace shield. His body flew for a bit before slamming into the wall of a nearby building.

Just as the previous flaming projectile was about to land on the stronghold's outer wall, Cain was preparing for the expected shockwave, only to sense a hint of danger from behind. As soon as he turned around, his eyes registered a hulking minotaur covered in carapace armor was already standing before him with its shield aimed directly at his head.

The timing of the attack lined up perfectly with the projectile hitting the stronghold's outer wall, making it a hit that Cain had no way to defend himself from.

<Fatal>

[-1250]

<Critical>

[-750]

Although those two damage figures rose above Cain's head in quick succession, the man himself paid no attention to them. Instead, his eyes were now locked on the figure of the carapace armored minotaur that slammed him into the building.

As he rose to his feet, Cain made sure that his sword was in-hand as he stared at the strange minotaur before him. Just as he was ready to rush forward and deal with that strange creature, a voice entered his ears.

"Stronghold Bandit Leader Cain, I'm going to have to kindly ask you to come with me quietly, else I'll have to rough you up a bit."