Chapter 9.2: Bandit's Cove

The wolf, for all his help in finding the caverns under the sand, was of not real use at the moment. The group moved on in preparation of finishing their current mission. The sooner they could crush the bandits, the sooner they could finish their business and get back to leveling in anticipation of their final push on this server.

The underground corridor was dry, and smell heavily of sand and salt. In many ways it reminded Scott of the days he had spent swimming at the beach as a child. He would occasionally get a bit of water up his nose, and have to go dry out for a bit. It was that sort of scent.

It did not take long before they slipped into an area where they began to hear voices. While they hid behind a large stack of crates, Scott raised his finger to his lips. Rhea nodded and kept silent. Even Ero, currently residing within his mind, remained silent. Now was the crucial part. They had to check the nature of their opponents.

Between Scott and Rhea there would be a stark difference in power for the rest of the time that they remained on this server. Still, it would prove useful while they reached for the end. If Scott could not easily destroy these bandits, Rhea might be able to.

There were three bandits up ahead. One was horribly fat, while the other two just looked horrible. The smallest bandit was close enough that Rhea could see his harelip. Scott could only see that he was ugly and possibly needed a bath. The thing that all of them could see was the bright red names emblazoned above their heads. These bandits were all known murderers. That meant that this group of bandits was comprised of players. It would definitely complicate things.

Scott glanced to Rhea and she nodded. There was no way to know how many more bandits were in the caverns, but fortune favored the bold and the sexy. It was time to get this party started. Scott led the charge in order to test the waters. He chose to use one of his strongest spells just to see how effective it would be. The damage numbers should not be as massive as he was used to seeing, but if he used his strongest spells he should be able to carry on. He moved back away from the crates a little then found a position where he could still see the bandits well enough.

“Ar-Burst Rain!” called out Scott quietly as he unleashed his strongest fourth level attack spell. A bowling ball sized of ball of fire, lightning, and frost shot out of his palm then arced forward over the top of the crates. After a brief moment the sphere blew apart. Dozens of flaming, electrified, darts of ice rained down upon the clueless bandits. The closest one, the one with the harelip, took the most attacks directly.

“The hell!” screamed Harelip Pete, the bandit’s actual name, as several darts penetrated his body then exploded like magical hand grenades. Five damage numbers ranging from sixty-two to eighty-seven rose above his head in bright red. He fell to the ground and started to twitch, but he was not dead yet.

The fat bandit, El Guano, was hit three times for a total of over two hundred damage, while the furthest bandit Cincinnati Slim did something ridiculous. He was hit twice but then a ring on his hand began to glow with a bright light. Several bright green numbers flared above the heads of his party members and their health was restored by five hundred points! A soft glow settled about the men and after another second passed several much smaller green numbers rose up again.

Harelip Pete rose up from the floor; his status effects removed, and then called out. “Where is that bastard mage?”

“Right here.” called out Rhea before she rushed in and took the fight to the bandits directly. Scott had elected to try and offer her support since even his strongest direct attack had not one-shotted his foes. He held back and slipped around to the side of the battle while trying to find a proper way to deal damage.

“Get that elf-bitch!” snapped Cincinnati, before he drew out his sword.

El Guano and Harelip Pete ran toward her, and Rhea simply waited for their arrival. Then, when they had moved around the boxes and presented a clear and straight line of attack, she blurred forward and struck out at them with two clean and precise strikes that appeared to cleave straight through their bodies.

The numbers four hundred eighty and three hundred sixty rose up above them and they started to slide apart in a sickening display. However, two tiny green numbers flared above their heads. Their bodies slid back together in a disturbing display and they started to move again.

“Dammit!” snapped Rhea. “Angel’s Blessing of Eternal Renewal...”

“That’s right bitch. No matter how many times you kill us, we’ll just regenerate as long as this ring is on my finger!” called Cincinnati before he reared back to throw his blade at Rhea. He was greatly surprised when a boomerang raced out of the darkness and smacked him in the side of the head, and causing him to drop his blade.

“Scott!” called Rhea happily before she casually leapt back to avoid the attack of El Guano then slid to the side to avoid

Harelip Pete. Her blade flashed out and Harelip Pete’s head was neatly separated from his body. However, a mere second later his body and head shimmered and they reappeared intact once more.

“You damned... The hell? Seriously? Who uses a boomerang?” snarled Cincinnati, before he wheeled around to take a good look at his heavily armored attacker.

Scott flashed a feral grin at him then said, “So, you have a fancy ring...”

The bandit batted Scott’s next boomerang throw out of the air but that only left him open to the swift moving man’s real purpose. Scott ran in before the man could regain his blade and grappled with him directly.

Cincinnati spit at Scott and to the sorcerer’s surprise he lost twelve hit points, and a bit of his personal dignity! The sorcerer did his best to ignore the rage building inside and continued to struggle with the man. The bandit player was physically powerful and quite agile, Scott suspected that he had reincarnated a few times. However, in the end it did not matter.

Scott slipped his hip forward and whirled his body around with great force. Cincinnati went flying over Scott’s shoulder and slammed onto the ground. The sorcerer then dropped down atop him and held the man in place while he tightly gripped his wrist.

“No matter what you do, you bastard... I’m coming back from this and killing your boomerang throwing ass.” snapped Cincinnati.

Scott laughed darkly then began to cast his weakest spell ice spell. “Freeze!”

The power of synchronicity was a wonderful thing. He had learned long ago that his spells held special utility when used in specific ways. Freeze worked as a cone of effect spell, but if you gripped something or used the spell underwater it put all of the power into a single area. Underwater it created a block or boulder of ice. When he gripped one of his opponents it froze limbs.

Cincinnati screamed and struggled to get free as agonizing pain lanced through his body. Scott tormented the poor murderous bastard by continually casting his weakest spell until his wrist froze through completely. Even his higher level and innate resistance to magic could not stop Scott from slowly freezing him. There was a chance that using his higher level spells could have just cost him more mana for similar effect, so why waste the resources? Slow and steady freezes the rabbit to death, after all.

Scott raised his free hand and one of his boomerangs raced toward him. He caught it then laughed; “Boomerangs are wonderful, you just don’t know!” before he slammed it down and broke the man’s hand cleanly off at the wrist. A bright red eighty-seven flared above his head.

The thing that Scott had hoped for happened the instant that the hand came free. The ring on the bandit’s finger stopped glowing then the gemstone cracked down the center and turned grey. The healing effect ended immediately.

“Fuck you!” screamed Cincinnati.

“Sorry, you’re not my type.” quipped Scott before he set about punching the man in the back of the head repeatedly. Why waste mana when he could just pummel the man. The damage numbers that flew up ranged from the teens to the late twenties, but it did not matter. Scott was in a superior position and the man he fought wore no head gear. It took about twenty hard punches to finish the man off.

“You done, yet?” asked Rhea cheerfully. She had killed her opponents in two swift strikes once the regenerative effect ended. Meanwhile Scott had taken quite a bit longer.

“Yep!” called out the sorcerer before he rolled off of the dead man’s body. “Looks like the ring broke, though.”

“You wanted it, huh?” asked Rhea with a smile as she casually looted the bodies of the fallen.

“Who wouldn’t? Get out of death free card as long as it lasts? Sign me up!” said Scott.

Rhea laughed then nodded while she pulled a few Fayth out of the fat bandit player’s hip pouch. “It doubles death penalties for a day and only lasts ten minutes.”

“I’d still take it.... Just glad my idea worked. If his hand had just hopped back on, I would have been annoyed.” said Scott.

While they worked at stripping the player corpses of everything they had, the battle report appeared.

[Battle Report]

You have defeated three known murderers during a government sponsored bandit subjugation mission! Your intimacy with the kingdom of Eizen has grown.

+ 18350 EXP

+ 2237 Fayth

+ 30 Ability Points

Item(s) Acquired:

N/A

[--]

“Sweet, but what’s with the lack of items?” asked Scott. He remembered getting a lot of stuff during the time he fought Karsh.

“We killed players. Normally they only drop one or two items and the rest are locked. We can take whatever we find on these guys since they’re flagged as murderers. It only shows up on the report if it is something special and you already picked it up.” said Rhea.

“So, the stuff I got from Karsh... was mostly just a reminder of what I had already picked up?” asked Scott.

“Probably.... Let’s finish looting these guys and keep going. Someone might have heard all of this.” said Rhea.

Scott nodded. That was a good idea. He continued to strip Cincinnati down to his birthday suit while looking for fun things to sell back in town. As he did so, he sent a thought to Ero to see why she was being so quiet, but she did not answer. He began to feel a little concerned about that after a while, and called out to her more insistently inside his mind.

Ero finally answered. “Hmm? What is it, Scott?”

“You were so quiet... Are you alright?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh... I was just... well, you know.” said Ero.

“No... What?” asked Scott.

Ero’s embarrassment was sensed with great ease. “I um... realized that the battle had turned without you needing me so I decided to relive what we did together the other night.”

“So, while I was punching a guy in the back of his head till he died, you were having a little special fairy time all to yourself?” asked Scott.

“Mmmm. It was fairy fun... It can get a little boring in here at times since you rarely need me to help you.” she said softly.

“Ero... Would you like to fight directly more often?” he asked her.

“Yes! Can I Scott? Can I?” she asked with a great deal of excitement.

“Of course! I’d love to fight beside you more often. We can save the inner fairy guardian stuff for like boss monsters or something in case we need it.” said Scott.

“I could kiss you!” exclaimed Ero excitedly.

“I dunno. Have you eaten all your vegetables lately?” asked Scott in a goofy manner while he pulled off Cincinnati’s boots. He turned them upside down and shook them soundly. Several Fayth fell out.

“I don’t like those fairy much...” said Ero cutely.

“Big, strong, sexy fairies eat their carrots.” said Scott lightly, before he tossed the former bandit’s boots into a pile then continued on with the looting.

“Yeah we do!” said Ero enthusiastically.

Scott nearly fell over as the implication set in. “Oh Ero...”

A soft little giggle was her only response. Suddenly, eating her vegetables sounded like something interesting

***