Bao observed how his two companions lured away most of the bandits. Only the one with a knife stuck in his shoulder and the one who seemed to be their commander stayed behind with the hostages.

Still hidden behind the small farmhouse, he trembled at the thought of having to kill human mobs for the first time.

"It's just a game Bao, keep it together." He whispered to himself.

The blank drawn sword clattered with the vibration of the trembling hands holding it, but luckily the sound was drowned by the loud voice of the enemy commander, who had just started to give a speech.

"Now then, you lot," the leader screamed at the tied up captives while going up and down in front of them. "If you don't want to end up like your relatives who are paving the street with their guts, over there, then you better follow every word I'm saying and don't even think of trying anything funny. You'll stay put here until two empty carriages arrive in which you'll enter one by one in an orderly manner, do you understand?!"

Sweat drops ran down from Bao's front to his neck and chest. This was not the time to hesitate otherwise the risk, the two took, would have been in vain, he thought. The sword started to slip in his sweaty hands, just for him to tighten the grip around the leather hilt. He peeked around the corner one more time, to make sure that no reinforcements had arrived and to his luck, nothing had changed. The two carts the leader, who was still talking, mentioned had still to arrive; only the injured bandit moved and stood now at the other corner of the house, with a bandaged shoulder.

Bao took a deep breath before rushing out of his cover whilst making as few sounds as possible and activating his backstab skill. Despite that, the bandit turned around at the sound of his sword clanging against the wall, but it was already too late. The sword pierced right through the rib cage splitting bones, organs and various muscles and nerves. Gasping for air, which created a whistling sound through the hole in his chest, the bandit went down.

A disgusting feeling. A disgusting feeling, Bao's hands would never forget until rosepetals will be put on his box.

But there was no time to rest. Only a few more steps ahead stood the leader, already prepared to fight against him.

"And who might you be?"

"What do you care, you're going to die anyway!" Bao was shocked by the words he chose, was it again the influence of the skill system? Like those invisible hands when using scuffle or other skills?

"Hohoo, you don't look like someone who would threaten people, given your stature." Their swordpoints started to touch each other as his adversary came closer.

A sudden swing from the leader interrupted their short discussion taking Bao by surprise, who barely avoided decapitation by ducking underneath it. He took the opportunity to counter with an upwards slash while standing up. The bandit evaded it stepping back and immediately responded to the attack with a kick to Bao's knee, who lost balance and fell on his back. All the breath was pressed out of his lungs upon landing.

"Now say your goodbyes, unknown, wannabe hero." The leader stood over him with the sword in both hands ready to finish him off.

"Not yet!" Bao threw a stone in the leader's direction and took the chance to stand back up, into his fighting stance.

"You have guts I'll give you that!" Blood was running down from the bandit's temple.

This time Bao took the initiative and let his sword fall down from above his head as if using a hammer. Against his expectations, the leader did not block but instead came one step closer, into the hand to hand combat zone and thrust with the knob handle right in the stomach area. Bao staggered back a few steps from the momentum of the push and therefore couldn't parry the incoming stab through his unprotected shoulder.

"Aaaagh! Fuck, that hurts like hell!" The display showed 10/20 Hp but from the burning pain he felt, Bao would have estimated more like five HP left.

His breath became slow and heavy and the bandit in front of him started to shift into a blurry image. Bao knew that he had one last try at best before loosing control over his body. In a desperate attempt to turn the tables he cast his just bought sword into the direction of the strange shape and used the distraction to close the distance between them. The bandit, who was busy avoiding the incoming sword did notice too late that Bao had almost reached him. With the scuffle skill activated, Bao threw himself on the enemy and they both landed on the ground. A stinging pain, like thousand needles, came from Bao's waist, the bandit's sword had pierced right through it. He screamed as a distraction to the pain and started hammering into the leader's face with his bare fists. Punch after punch, after punch, like a wild dog he didn't stop even when his own hands started to bleed from the impacts.

"One... cough... last word... unknown guy... cough... I might die... cough... but you'll come with me." A gruesome bloody smile showed on his face before closing his eyes.

Bao did immediatly find out what he meant by that. Everything started to turn and became even fuzzier. He took a look at the tip of the sword that had pierced him, it was coated in a strange purple-looking substance.

"Shit... I think I might have broken my promise to Elincia." He smiled faintly. "Someone please someone of you," -he cut the ropes of the first hostage he could find by palpating with his hands- "Please free the others, arm yourself and help my two friend down the road ... please."

He couldn't hear the answer because he fell right into that persons arms.