“Know when a legend becomes a prophecy? When it gains believers.”

―Corinne, the Oneiromancer

The remote town of Argus, a frontier situated at the edge of the kingdom’s borders, far from the devastating war up north.

The town used to be just an outpost built there to keep out the feral monsters and a checkpoint for the elves from the forest. It started further developments after the discovery of a dungeon nearby, along with the further influx of travellers down here due to the war. Even so, the environment around the town was still full of nature untouched by civilisation.

Many of the travellers on the road, such as adventurers, minor peddlers, refugees and fugitives could all be seen migrating down south towards that place, hoping to seek new opportunities and fortune. Where in times of desperation, those people could still cling onto what little hope they had.

With all this movement on the road, it had also attracted various other more unsavory attentions from the outlaws plaguing the area. Scenes of rape, murder, slavery, robbery and death, all sorts of crimes could be seen happening on the way there.

To try prevent this misfortune, the caravans of travellers chose to travel together in huge bands instead, which was enough to deter most of the smaller bandit bands around the road most of the time. But unfortunately, this was not the case for one of the particular smaller band of the travelling caravan.

The caravans escorted by some of the adventurers, had arrived in the vicinity of a dense forest. Heavy footsteps of man and horses, wheels of wagons and carriages on the dirt road could be heard as they send out dusty clouds of air.

Among the nine wagons in the caravan, various sorts of provisions and equipments were being transported, accompanied by some trailing followers who looked tired and fearful. There were sixty people in total, some were just wanderers while some were merchants. And among them, roughly thirty were adventurers who had either happened to be the armed escorts protecting the cargos or just simply adventurers accompanied along with them on the same way. Some of them were riding on the carriages, some on horseback or just walking on foot.

Suddenly, when the caravan were crossing on a road through a thick forests on both sides, volleys of arrows had started raining down the unsuspecting caravan, ripping through canvas, killing almost all of the horses and taking lives.

There were screams of pain and yells of rage heard among the assaulted caravan, as the situation quickly break into chaos. The attack was immediately followed by a series of explosions at the front, blowing up gusts of hot wind and blocking their front path with the wreckage of carriages and dead horses.

A large number of bandits started charging out from the thick forest, mostly surrounding the caravan from both sides and the front. They appeared to be up to around fifty people, which seemed to be lesser than the people in the caravan initially, but they still outnumbered the adventurers and those who could actually put up a fight.

With their successful ambush with arrows and explosions, it had further decreased the amount of capable fighters alive. The prepared explosion also seemed to have killed the leader of the escorting adventurers, further throwing the place into chaos and confusion.

Some of people had tried to turn and flee to the back side of the road, but they were swiftly murdered by a group men appearing from behind on horseback. They were twenty highwayman that had joined the ambush by blocking the caravan’s final escape route, promising to chase down anyone trying for a quick escape. The highwaymen were either armed in longsword or had their crossbows held ready to fire, their outfit was a mixed of surcoat and chainmail that suggested that they may be cavalry soldiers before they had deserted the army, any emblems or trademarks for identifying their previous military allegiance were removed from sight.

This amount of coordination and tactic seemed to have betrayed their expectations in a typical group of unruly criminals, clearly suggesting that they were overwatched by a capable leader among them. The survivors of the besieged caravan started to crowd around the wagons at the center like herded sheeps, fending off the encroaching bandits desperately. It had eventually turn into a stalemate after the initial clashes, with the selfish bandits brandishing around their weapons threateningly and surrounding the caravan but unwilling to push forward into the Intimidating crowd of adventurers by putting their own lives at a stake even if they were clearly dominating the situation.

It was a tense standoff, between the bandits who had the advantages of horsemen and archers while the adventurers who were experienced fighters against monsters, and used to adapting to dangers. This dragged on for a few short moments, until a person surrounded by ten heavily armed bodyguards started walking out of the covers of the trees, standing at the edge facing towards the adventurers. He clearly appeared to be the leader of the bandits.

He was a fully grown adult who neither looked particularly young nor all that old, his features were stern and handsome looking. His light brown hair was well groomed along with his cleanly shaven face, gave off a neatly appearance that contradicted with what was expected of the unruly bandits. He was not too tall according to their world’s standards, as his height was just a quarter slightly below two meters. He wore a gambeson lightly plated in armour, along with leather gloves and boots. He also had a leather belt along with a strap across his shoulder. Which his appearance as a whole gave him an impression of solemnity and discipline.

“LISTEN UP! There is no need for further deaths, just surrender the cargo behind and I assure that all of you can leave here with even your weapons and equipments....We do not need to fight another battle.”

He spoke in a calm tone that was loud enough to be heard by the people across the forest without the need to shout, not something anyone can easily reproduce. His voice was mature and serene, without the smallest hint of fear or worry. His deep blue eyes looked cold and impenetrable, his inscrutable countenance give little away of what he was thinking, the presence he alluded would draw anyone’s attention, either by pressure or probably christma.

His natural commanding presence gave away that he was likely some officer of a military background and it was quite unthinkable that someone of his character would stoop to banditry. Although, what people would expect for bandits was that they would normally be made up of petty thieves and thugs but during times of strife and conflict, deserters of war were the most common instead.

“As if I will believe a dishonourable bunch of scums like you! We will not surrender! Not in a country fighting a losing war! And especially not in a country infested by monsters and bandits!”

An female adventurer shouted out. She seemed to represent as the substitute leader, she sounds enraged at the death of her previous leader and comrades. Despite that, adventurers also have their own form of pride and principles. Even if it was still better to have kept their lives intact, but at such dire times, leaving behind all the cargo was as good as telling the people to go starve and die in the slums, both to the client and the reputation of those adventurer's job career. They have accepted the job and so abandoning their client’s merchandise to some lowly bandits just to stay alive disparages that, and they would not get paid too.

“Is that so.....That’s too bad.”

Whether it was intended to not, the bandit leader replied in a voice that sounded slightly disappointed. He calmly drew out his own long sword from the scabbard, a type of sword that seems more like a short edged glaive with intricate designs, and pointed it towards them. And shouted in a powerful and authoritative voice.

“The band of Bloody Harriers! Execute the plan and Attack!”

After hearing their leader’s voice, as if they had rehearsed it beforehand, the bandits immediately started moving back away from the assembled adventurers and unexpectedly, some members among the caravan drew out something akin to a smoke bomb and threw it on the ground, causing green and black smoke to cover the whole area around the center surrounding the wagons.

Some of the faster adventurers tried to fire a few pot shots at the bandit leader. But the man continue to calmly stood there, observing the battle, Ignoring the arrows flying towards him and missing. As if he knew that the arrows would not hit him.

The horsemen behind them began to charge forward like a ram, splitting forward at both sides of the wagon, kicking and slashing at anyone inside the smoked area until they got out from the front. Afterwards, the archers continued to rain death upon enemies with more volley of arrows, most of the victims were unable to dodge it due to the smoke. And when the firing arrows finally ended, the bandits then finally began their charge to the wagons again.

The battle abruptly ended, when all the remaining resisting adventurers eventually collapsed on the ground, feeling hazy, paralyzed and unable to move.

—

After the raid had ended, Restler felt a slight sense of disappointment at the aftermath of the scene. It was partly due to the adventurer’s decision, and partly due to the amount of deaths that have incurred afterwards.

In this battle, he had lost around twenty five men out of the total of a hundred people he had brought with him. He also had five traitors planted within caravan whom had all survived the fight. They were supposed to use the the paralyzing bombs before the battle started, along with the antidotes his band carried to helped them resist it. While the final battle along with the explosion had caused three of the wagons to be an unusable wreck, most of the loot survived.

Even so there were still around twenty survivors from the caravan and among them, only fifteen out of the thirty adventurers were killed, an amount even lesser than the dead bandits.

Despite his overwhelming advantage, he still needed at least two bandits to match up to an adventurer, and by prediction, he might need to lose more than half the band he had brought just to kill all the adventurers if they were to fight directly till the end, which was already an impressive rate as compared to usual. As a lot of the adventurers here appeared to be veterans, it would be a pretty tough fight even if the bandits just simply tried to overwhelm them with their superior numbers. Even for experienced soldiers, they still could not match the veteran adventurer’s individual combat experience, teamwork and adaptability for different situations.

Fighting a bunch of people who were used to fighting dangerous monsters did not sound appealing to him at all, he would prefer a much safer way with less confrontation when dealing with them. That was why he tried to avoid it by offering the adventurers a chance to retreat, even to the point of allowing them to keep their weapons just prove his promise but it still turned sour in the end.

Walking down the small forested hill to survey the aftermath of the battlefield, he saw that the the bandits had started scattering around to loot the corpses and wagons. One of his subordinates was moving beside him, while giving a casualty report of the raid.

“Sir, how do we deal with the captives?”

The man asked while pointing at the gathered surviving captives. The female substitute leader could be seen among them, clearly defiant even when she was tied up and stripped of her weapons. As expected of adventurers.

“I don't care, you bunch can just do whatever you want with them.”

He had no interest in caring with what these unscrupulous bunch of men desired to do with the captives, so long as they were willing to follow his orders.

“Hahaha, thanks boss!”

“N-no, you cowards! You can't do this to us!”

The survived female leader of the defeated adventurers shouted, she was shouting demands at him even till now. But eventually she started to lose all pretense and started pleading him desperately when she slowly realise her despair and helplessness.

“I have warned you already. Since you have made your choice, now you have to face the consequences.”

The bandit leader said coldly, his face voided of emotions. Ignoring the despairing cries from the pathetic captives. He ordered some of his men to quickly picked up the pace of their work on collecting the cargos from the broken wagons and had the rest of his highwayman escort the other wagons through another path back to their base camp.

Once he was certain that they were safe from being noticed by travelers, he led the rest of the bandits on the way back to their hideout, through the dense forest and up a slope hill, towards a sheltered area behind a plateau. He scowled slightly when trekking on the way there, he still remembered that adventurer’s speech. He disliked fighting an unnecessary battle when there was no one to benefit from it, just like that war.

It reminded him, of when he was left in charge of a company of soldiers. At that time, he was left with two choices, stay and continue to resist for the country till the end, or leave behind the war instead.

Turning to look back at the sullen and weary faces of his soldiers at that time, he immediately chose the latter, ordering them to abandon their post and retreat from the battle. He led the soldiers down south, his band started swelling on way there. As more and more groups of deserters joined them.

After absorbing and collecting various groups of people, shoddy or not. He now commanded roughly over two hundred and fifty people, the size of around two companies now. While it sounded pretty big for a band of bandits, it was still not big enough to form an army of coherent force. As essentially, a true army actually numbered over several thousand soldiers. Unless his soldiers were actually elite spartans, and if they were so, the country would not be losing the war in the first place. Even with a hundred of his rowdy subordinates, they still had difficulty performing a successful raid. His gang was still not the greatest yet but it was still the best he got.

If he could, he will try to take down the other groups of bandits around here to gain a stable foothold on the south. As it stands, his little band of misfits should still be enough for him to dominate the area around here, even though they had just arrived recently. The rumours of his efficiency and success in raids were starting to attract more and more of the bandits and deserters to join his crew, and he might eventually gather a sizable force to start a mercenary army of his own. Even if the war was over, he needed to build up his influence quickly.

Why was he currently in such a rush to build up his power?

It was actually mainly due to his current profession. Because of it, he was able to foresee that another great war was coming. Even without it, he was still sharp enough to know it, but now he can feel it in his bones. He wanted to built an army just to be ready for it when that happens, especially more so when his country had lost the war once already. He will not see it happen again, not when he could help it. He will just make use of whatever he had for now, even if the army happened to be bandit deserters or some ragtag criminals, beggars cannot be choosers after all.

While musing on his thoughts, their group took around half the day traversing in the woods to finally arrived at their destination. The camp for their base of operations was situated close to a cave nearby. It still appear to be in some form of construction, as some wooden buildings could be found half constructed around there. Some to be used as barracks, and the others to be used as storehouse and armory. Several of the clothed tents and animal hided shacks were temporary erected nearby around the place too. Something he had planned along to set up this place into a wooden fort in the future.

When they entered inside the camp, he headed towards one of the bigger wooden houses found there, it was supposed to be the cabin for all the other important members in his band to meet at.

“Ah, the hallowed Harbinger of Hegrus, now the leader of the honourless and hostile Harriers!”

A mangy but strong looking man covered in a loosed cowl could be seen at the side of the room. The man sat in the corner of the wooden building, and he was grinning in a delirious expression along with a mischievous glint in his eye while being dressed in ragged clothes.

"It actually got a nice sound to it."

The scruffy man had started talking sarcastically when Restler had entered the empty room with just a wooden table at the center.

“Said by hilariously hefty hellion.”

At the other side of the room, Varick grunted dryly in reply instead. He happens to be one of the people who was with Restler during the raid, and the group of highwaymen he led had already returned back to camp with the cargo earlier than the arrival of Restler's bunch.

“Hahaha, Varick Vulf, The Voracious Viper! I didn’t know you could still tease people, still the same vitriolic vagabond as ever, eh?”

The same ragged man whose stout body betrayed his true condition immediately commented in a mocking reply.

"At least I am not like one of those poetic skalds who always harps about honouring their heroes.” Varick was graveling darkly in return now, scowling at the the jesting man.

“You should know that I am not as refined in composing poetry and songs! I can’t be a skald, I am just some lowly rowdy savage who stabs and steal things, and sometimes I just sasses and sally others on the way too!” He enthusiastically retorted.

“Argh, you annoying arse, stop being an awkward embarrassment and start being useful already!”

Feeling irritated, Varick answered in an even lower voice, his annoyed expression was starting to get even more dangerous now.

“Well it is a pretty sad day when I am actually your best hope at getting things done, which can also happen to be the greatest joke of all!” The raggedy man started laughing loudly condescendingly in a dramatic way.

“Restler, can I just strangle this guy already?” Varick was now seething with anger as he quickly demanded the leader's permission.

“No, not yet, he is still necessary for us in scouting the dungeon, and he is also somehow too ludicrous to die easily anyway.” Restler replied with an indifferent voice, while he was unconcerned about their bickering till now.

As he stood in front of the wooden table with his arms crossed, he looked on with half opened eyes, looking as if his thoughts was elsewhere. When he had finally decided that it was time to intervene between them before someone get hurt. But the hellion had managed to provoke Varick before he could stop them.

“Now, now Varick, why so serious? You are a valiant person, or used to be, so there is no need to resort to violence yet! Especially not to a vagrant such as mys―.”

A knife was thrown as it flew straight through the side of the dirty man's face and stuck into the wooden wall beside him.

“Shut your vile trap you freakish bastard!” Feeling agitated, Varick was shouting already.

Restler closed his eyes, how meaningless....

“You can stop now Varick, I still have another task I need the hellion to do yet.”

Still seemingly unhurried, Restler tried to sternly order the highwayman to stand down, before the man gets too emotional around here, it was not good form to dirty the meeting tent all over with blood, especially when it might give the people outside the wrong impression about it. Restler reprimanded the hellion before things gets too out of hand, and proceeded to get the order of things done. Under the cover of the shadows, the ragged man was still carried with him a smug grin but this time, his eyes seemed to be calmer now.

“Jesgle, stop fooling around now. There was something else I need you to do before you go down to the dungeon again. You are to accompany Rorg on his incursion in sweeping up the greenskin tribes in the western part of the forest.”

"Hehehe, sure thing boss! Everyone here seem to be so grim and serious lately, one cannot get much fun out of life this way! Instead, you should get them to laugh and get into trouble a little more you know!"

Jesgle expressed himself gaudily. Everytime he spoke, it sounded sarcastic to others.

"The men can celebrate as much as they want about the raid during the feast tonight, and let's just hope that their revelry had not cause them to be too drunk in getting work done tomorrow. For now, we still got things to do."

Restler simply stated casually. He then signaled for one of the person standing in the room with his hand. Another person who had kept quiet all this time and stood in the corner moved forward. He was a big orc with a scar across his cheek, a huge battle axe hanging behind his back. He was only wearing an animal hide around his waist covering the area around his groin.

“I hope you can pull your own weight, noisy little man, I will not be able to save you when the battle starts.”

Rorg, who had been watching their theatrics in silence till now, moved forward to talk with Jesgle. The orc promptly greeted him, and appeared to be in a rush to leave the building with the man so he can attend to his own business.

“What a joke, even the orc is more cultured than you are, hellion.” Varick gave a last snip at the vagrant before he left the tent.

“Hahaha, I think pigs are gotta fly soon when a gloomy person like you starts making jokes like these. It might not be so bad after all!” The hellion immediately answered with a laughing smile, he stood up and turned with his arm spread out dramatically as he left the room with the orc. Leaving the others behind in the wooden building.

After they left, silence had returned to the room once more. With only him and Varick inside standing in silent attention now.

As expected, things can be so predictable and pointless at times....

Turning back to the table with a map on top, Restler continued to promptly revise his plans for the cave once more. He intended to use it as a path of retreat should things turned awry or at least to prevent any trouble coming from the other side. He was pretty sure the cave was linked to the dungeon near the town, while the scouts had not found the exit to the town yet.

There had already been reports of adventurers being sighted inside there, hinting at the clear possibilities of civilisation close by, and if there was another way to access the town, it will surely made it easier for his band to smuggle and sell away the loots. But his current main focus on the dungeon was mainly about searching for another alternate hideout to use, should the need arise to stash away the loots or make an escape there.

Now he just needed his men to stalk out some of the adventurers, or simply capture them and force the information of the possible routes out of them. He rather not do that though, he had lost enough men today already. He could also get someone to travel in the town to gather information, or posed as other adventurers in the dungeons to do it. But all those require tact, something a lot of his men lacked with.

“Varick."

Restler called out after musing his thoughts for awhile.

"I need you to accompany Zelink into the town, the occultist and sorcerer also wanted to come along on the trip there too. They are smart enough to keep out of trouble but watch over them just in case. ”

“Understood”

After Varick's brief reply, the man then turned to leave the room after giving Restler a proper salute. When the bandit leader was now alone in the cabin, he began to plan for various other matters on hand, there were also some greenskin tribes around Restler’s base. Those goblins, orcs and ogres, are prospering at other’s misery, though Restler's band were no different either.

But it was enough for one of such group to be around, and it was also better to put those resources acquired from them to good use too, be it stolen or not. Or what Restler had believed, at least. Besides, he currently had a willing orc berserker to assist him in dealing with the problem too.

Restler needed to quickly make his preparations. Ignorance was truly a bliss, since he knew what was coming, now he just had to react. When he learnt something others would not know, a man just simply cannot stand down, he had to make a different decision that he knows others would not do. He needs to turn this situation into an opportunity.

He was not omniscient nor was he a diviner, he was just someone who was like a scout or a forecaster. Unlike the people who gains insight from the future, he was just slightly better and more capable at looking out for the signs and indications forewarning something that others normally could not. Like how the plants and animals sensed prepare for the changing seasons, like how the fishes sensed the tides changing like no other. He could sense it, he could feel it and so he knew and so he prepares.

In legends, some people started out with humble origins at times, while some suddenly raised to the occasion in the face of trials, but not matter what, it was how a legend begins…...most of the time. So would he be the herald of prosperity or the herald of destruction? He cared not, he will accept his fate to be a herald nonetheless, he knew and thus he reacts, even if he became an undead on the way, even if he had to darken his soul on the way. It was still the best expression he could use anyway.