Chapter 17

"Grrrr!!!!!"

"We are approaching the enemies!! Get ready for combat!!"

The deep and loud command of Chad pierces through the deafthening war cries of the enemy from behind. The bandits follow us from the back as soon as they know that we are going to the north.

"We have to penetrate their defence and escape before the enemy from our back catch up to us!!"

"Yes!!"

Everyone is trying to grip tigtly to the ray of hope, which they found in the midst of despair. They have no thought to let go of it no matter what.

"Hey, but isn't it strange?"

As he heard that, Winfielde turned his head toward me with an impatient expression wearing on the face.

"What is?"

"Even if they are on foot. The enemy's charging pace is way too slow. Both at the camp and now. Their war cries get louder and louder, but we haven't even seen a single shadow of the enemy."

"!?"

Glasse's expression becomes tense as he hears that.

"It is true. But we have no time to worry about that kind of thing. We are already in the enemy territory. Getting out of here is the most important thing we can afford to worry about right now."

"Hey, stop with the chatters. The enemies are already here!"

We can already see the enemies in front of us not too far away. They are about 15 of them closing our escape route.

Behind us is 30 and in front of us is 15. If we get sandwitched by them, we will have no chance to survive.

"Mr.Ranpo"

Before we engage, Holden calls out my name while wearing a shy expression.

"I will protect you no matter what happens as a thank to saving the horses."

"!?"

Even his friends are surprised by his words. Holden, who never speaks a word to another person, said that to me with a genuine innocent smile.

"I am counting on you,"

"Yes!"

He nods excitedly like a happy kid.

"They are coming!! Fight!!!!"

The enemies also charge as they see the horses dashing toward them.

"They are all injured. We can gain victory!!"

Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank.

As the battle starts, the quiet night becomes filled with the thunderous sounds of the clashing of the iron weapons.

The enemies jump from all the sides and attack simultaneously like a bunch of zombies.

"Agh!!"

"They are coming from all sides!!"

With the yell, Chad swings his longsword from left and right while riding the horse.

"<Magic arrow>"

Whoosh. Whoosh.

Glasse chants and 4 arrows brighting in green light appear out of thin air. They then fly toward the enemy with tremendous speed and pierce their heads.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

"Argggg!!!! My hand!!"

Holden, with his axe, swinging violently on our left side, cutting the enemies one after another.

Garry is not outdone by his friends either.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

He thrusts his spear aggressively to the enemies's heads as if he is taking his anger and frustration out on them.

Blood is spattering all over the place and paints the emerald green grass field with the scarlet colour. The smell of blood has replaced the pleasant frangance of the flowers.

We are one-sidedly overwhelming the enemy. The enemy force made of the injured people does not have a way to stop the tremendous strength of the veteran warriors combined with the unstoppable force of the horses.

"Attack their horses first!!!"

One of the bandits who has been observing the battle from the back line shouts.

"Agh!!"

As they heard the command, the attacks of the bandits started to target the horses.

"Don't let them attack the horses!!!"

Yes, we can't afford to lose the horses. We are gaining this much advantage because of the horses. Being on the horses makes it hard for the attacks of the enemies to reach us. Most of their weapons are swords, which are at the disadvantage when facing against the calvary. In other words, the bandits are totally helpless against us.

"This is an easy win,"

"As long as we can protect the horses, we are okay,"

Winfielde says without taking his eyes off the gruelsome battlefield, which is taking place in front of him.

"That guy looks like the commander of the bandits. If we kill him, we will win the battle and escape from here safely!!"

Chad yells as he points his finger toward the bandits who cammanded the bandits to attack the horses.

"Yes, charge toward him!!"

Glasse shouts as we turn the direction of our calvary unit toward him.

"Stop them!!!!!!"

The bandit commander shouts desperately as his life depends on it.

However, the sluggish movements of the injured bandits could not become a match for the horses.

"What the fuck are you guys doing!!!! Hurry up and stop them!!!!"

"!?"

Slash....

Those were the last words of the commander he could shout before his head got seperated and sent flying in the air by the slash of Chad's sword.

"Hahaha, that was easy!"

Garry yells excitedly.

"We win!!!!"

"Don't let your guard down just yet. We can celebrate after we safely escape from here!!"

"Run before the enemies gain their composure back!"

With the happy yells, we gallops with the speed of the wind as the ray of hope has become brighter and brighter.

"Haha, that sure was an easy win. Did you see how I stabbed their ugly faces with my spear!!"

As we leave the enemies behind, Garry yells again while laughing wholeheartedly.

"Their numbers are great but their leader must be a fucking brain-dead idiot who gathers the injured people in one place."

Garry is in high spirit as he managed to compensate for his mistake with his unrivalled spear skills in battle.

"It is all thanks to Glasse who found the weakness for us."

Chad says.

"Haha, it is true."

"Was he always this talkactive?"

I ask Holden.

"Well, he was not but I think he is happy now that we managed to escape from the enemy's grasp."

"Let's get out of here quickly"

"!?"

"Wait!!!!!!!!!!"

Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash.

My shout was too late when we notice that the ray of hope we have been grasping this whole time was the fake one the bandits have intentionally created for us. There was never a hope to begin with. We have been running in the palm of the enemy from the very start.

The 4 legs of the horse Chad and Glasse is riding were cut off suddenly. Following them, our horse as well as Holden's and Garry's also get their legs got cut off while we are riding them.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

What happened? Just what the heck happened?

"Mr.Ranpo!! Are you okay?"

Holden's concerned voice echoes in my head and makes me regain my consiousness.

"What just happened?"

I ask as I can't recall anything with my dizzy head.

"The legs of our horses were cut off and we clashed each other. Are you okay? Can you stand up?"

Holden says as he supports me to stand up.

"You are injured!"

Holden's left hand is broken and blood are dripping onto the ground.

"I'm okay. This much is nothing. Moreover, our horses are...."

He says with a frustrated voice with tears in the eyes while gripping his broken hand.

"Aghh!! Fuck!!"

Winfielde whines as he sits beside me while pressing his forehead with the right hand. Blood are gushing out from the gaps of the fingers. He seems to have injured his head. Chad and the others who managed to win the battle unscratched also got injured lighty because of the crash. Blood stains and dust are all over their clothes and the horses are lying on the ground with the blood flowing out of the cut like a waterfall.

Compared to them, I am as good as before. No big injuries on the body other than a little scratch on my knees caused by the fall. May be I fell down onto the fat body of Winfielde since I sat behind him on the horse.

But how did we crash?

As I wake up, the dizziness of my head start to disppear.

Ahh.... I remember now. I noticed a trap in front of us and tried to warn but couldn't make it in time because of the fast pace we were travelling.

"Trap! It was a trap!"

"We found it!!!"

Glasse yells and points his finger to a thin rope which is being stretched tightly on the knee level of us and blocking our route. It is totally soaked with the blood of the horses.

"This is so fucking hard. No wonder the horses were cut clean. After all, we were galloping with such speed."

Garry touches the rope as if he is playing guitar and said.

"When did they place such a trap? Did they already antipicate us to go to the north? otherwise, they wouldn't have time to place a trap like this!!"

Winfielde says with the face full of worry and fear.

"Hehehe, that is soooooooooo true."

Along with the sudden mocking voice, a person comes out of the grasses.

"!?"

"You!!"

"Surround them!!"

About 20 bandits appear from under the grasses and surround us.

"How did they already catch up to us? We didn't hear a thing."

"Fuck what do we do!!?"

"20 now? Just how many bandits are there?"

Garry says as he grips his spear tightly and prepares to engage.

"Glasse, do you have any idea to get out of this situation?"

"I-I.."

When we were startled by the surprise ambush, the bandits captain did not waste a second and shouts the deadly command.

"Kill them other than that merchant over there!!!!!!".