‘Well… Shit.’

Gulping slightly at the obvious disadvantage he was at, Feng decided to try his luck and called out to the bandits.

“Uhh.. I come in peace? I’m just looking for some directions back to Tyward!”

“Heh, sure thing kid. We’ll send you back to Tyward… in a casket that is!”

One of the lead bandits stopped and guffawed for a moment at Feng’s ridiculous attempt at diplomacy and his reply drew the raucous laughter of the others as they sped up their approach.

Seeing no way around it, Feng shrugged and breathed out deeply, his mind racing as he eyed the approaching crowd and carefully backed up towards the tree line, pulling out the large axe from his inventory as he did so. Grabbing the axe with both hands and holding it near to the ground, Feng spun two full circles to the amusement of the approaching bandits who jeered at him.

“Too heavy for you brat? Can’t even hold an axe without losing your balance?”

Only for their laughter to abruptly cease as Feng loosened his grip on the axe sending it whirling into the midst of the bandit group causing them to dive aside in fear getting sliced in the process and crashing into the rest…

The spinning axe finally stopped its advance as its iron head buried itself deeply into the neck of an unfortunate bandit near the middle of the pack who was unable to see it coming due to the other bandits in front, sending the body flying backwards due to the force of the axe…

*Critical Hit - Decapitation Triggered*

With a belated pop, the unnamed bandit’s head flew off and a geyser of blood soaked his fellow bandits as the body fell limply to the ground.

The standing bandits looked to Feng in fear and backed away cautiously, none of them wanting to be the first to engage him, while the remainder recovered themselves from the mess of tangled limbs as they crashed into each other dodging the flying axe.

Feng utilized the opportunity to retreat into the forest to prevent them from surrounding him easily before taunting the bandits.

“Seems like you guys are the ones who will be needing a casket! Who wants to be the second to claim their casket?”

Arousing the anger of the more hotheaded amongst them, four men of whom one was injured by the axe attack charged towards Feng while the rest advanced behind more cautiously with some of the older bandits surreptitiously backing away towards the rear of the group.

Doing a quick scan over the four charging bandits, Feng noted the lowest leveled wielding a simple iron blade at 37 as well as the injured bandit with a large club and positioned himself nearer to the lowest leveled man… and keeping that bandit between him and the others and readied himself.

Feng watched impassively as the bandits got closer and closer with each passing second, with the targeted bandit almost within striking distance and the young bandit’s blade rose in a two-handed chopping position closing in on his head…

*SWISSHHH*

Dodging the wild chop with ease, Feng burst into a flurry of motion as his hands snapped out only this time armed with the two knives with one burying itself deeply in the bandit’s throat while the other flew diagonally and sunk deep into the torso of another bandit approaching from the side.

His now empty hands flowed smoothly with the throwing hand snapping forward with a palm strike to the now dead bandit, sending the corpse flying into the other two approaching from behind while his other grabbed the iron blade the man was wielding.

Twisting to avoid the hatchet of the bandit hit by his thrown knife, Feng shifted his weight to his other foot and lashed out strongly with his leg, driving the knife embedded in the man’s armor through with a disgusting squelch.

Seeing the other two approaching as they sidestepped the corpse, Feng ripped the axe of the dying bandit’s grip and send it whirling at the two… Only to sweat-drop as the hatchet flew WAY above their heads due to his pumped up state.

“BWAAHHAHAHA! What were you trying to do kid? Kill us by making us die from lau-?”

*THUMP*

One of the bandits broke from their grim approach and paused to laugh at Feng’s epic failure… only to be suddenly cut off by a large branch falling off and braining him, sending him sprawling to the ground.

The other bandit stopped incredulously and looked upwards to see the hatchet had severed one of the tree limbs which had concussed his last remaining companion and cautiously backed away in fear, deciding to wait for the rest of the bandits to catch up for some numerical advantage.

‘… That would have been a lot cooler if it wasn’t due to sheer dumb luck…’

Feng’s face twitched as he affected confidence to cement the fear the bandits were feeling as their advance towards him slowed considerably. Seeing an opportunity, Feng took advantage of the situation and… turned around to flee into the woods.

“HE IS RUNNING AWAY! GET HIM!”

Stumped for a moment by the abrupt switch in Feng’s actions, the bandits collectively hesitated before one of the braver bandits yelled out and charged, seemingly forgetting the deaths of his fellows and falling back to a comfortable routine of chasing down weaker prey.

Feng grinned victoriously as he looked back and noted the bandits were following him but falling just out of sight. Ducking behind some trees, Feng jumped up and clambered up one of the oak trees while ensuring his body was fully hidden by its large trunk. Stealthily moving through the adjacent limbs of other trees, Feng doubled back and carefully observed from a distance as his confused pursuers reached his last location and saw no tracks or signs of him.

Watching as them split up to hunt for him, Feng smirked and initiated the second part of his plan

*Approximately forty minutes later*

*Tsssh*

*Ding*

New Skill Obtained: Assassination

(Passive Skill)

+10% Critical hit rate when attacking from stealth

+50% Critical hit damage when attacking from stealth

+3 Perception

+2 Dexterity

Quietly dropping the dead bandit on the floor, Feng removed his hand covering the victim’s mouth and wiped off the bloody knife as blood continued to stream out from the man’s slit neck and pool around his corpse.

Feng paused only to quickly filch the bandit’s money pouch and weapon, a long machete before vanishing back into the canopy leaving behind his sixth stealth kill for the searching bandits to discover.

‘They really don’t learn to look up, do they? Stealth skills are definitely not my forte, but exploiting human psychology and unconscious habits is an old familiar game…’

Feng slowly and systematically picked off the bandits even as they wizened up and started to group together by literally dropping in on them and tossing the dead bandits’ weapons he had appropriated to quickly silence the pairs or trios, managing to slay another ten more bandits as they begun to retreat back to their camp.

By the time they exited the forest, only six bandits remained and was outright fleeing, sprinting with all they have back to the camp.

Emboldened by his success, Feng decided to throw caution to the winds and chase them seeing that they were running away in fear and managed to down three more with a flurry of weapons retrieved from the dead bandits. However, the group and Feng slowed to an abrupt stop as the camp’s wooden gates burst open and revealed a massive form surrounded by another group of bandits.

The massive figure struck an intimidating figure with his giant wolf skull helmet baring its fangs revealing a scarred and ugly face, connected to a hulking bare chest. His ripped sinewy arms were covered only by some scraps of wolf fur and easily held up a massive claymore and large tower shield that most would struggle to lift with both hands. Thick black wolf fur covered his groin and legs ending in massive black furred boots.

Black Forest Bandit Chief

Type: Human (Elite)

Level: ~50

Attacks/Weapons: Heavy Steel Claymore, Sturdy Tower Shield

Traits: Strong, *Skill Level Too Low*

Stats: *Skill Level Too Low*

Weak Spots: Eyes, Groin, Heart, Neck, *Skill Level Too Low*

Description: A hulking brute which can barely be classified as human towering above average men at 2.4 meters; this is the leader of Black Forest Bandits. You do not want to cross him…

In the time Feng took to observe and read the information on the now-identified Bandit Chief, the giant man has already crossed the remaining distance to the three remaining bandits with two steps… and swung his giant claymore once, chopping through the three men’s leather-armored torsos with ease, leaving their severed bodies to fall limply on the ground.

“Useless fools! If you don’t want to end up like them, kill him.”

The large man scoffed and ordered as he turned back and gestured at his remaining men to eliminate Feng only for them to hesitate as they were unsure if going after Feng was a death sentence…

‘There’s no way I can afford to take on a whole group of bandits with the boss lurking around like that… I need to find a way to take out the boss first without interference; he should be easily defeated as compared to the [Giant Comodon Lizard] considering his lower level and my better equipment and stats now.’

Capitalizing on the fear written on the bandits’ faces, Feng knew he could not sustain a long-drawn out fight with another group of bandits especially with the chief ready to step in to finish him off and so issued a challenge instead.

“HA! Too weak to fight me yourself? Maybe your large size is just for show and all that is underneath is a quivering pile of blubber!”

Seeing the giant man turn around sharply at Feng’s taunt, a confident smirk widened across Feng’s face as he saw the incensed expression on the bandit chief’s face as he roared.

“YOU DARE? I’LL SMASH YOU INTO PULP! ALL OF YOU STAY BACK, HE’S MINE!”

However, Feng’s smirk was quickly wiped away as the bandit chief raised up his claymore and slammed it into the ground… sending a rippling wave distorting the air and SPLITTING the ground apart as it raced towards Feng.

‘No way… that’s not possible.’

Feng’s mind blanked for a second, seeing the unbelievable oncoming attack and only his combat instincts tingling set his muscles tensing and throwing him out of the path of the dangerous attack…

*CRUNCH*

Only to be faced with the sight of the massive bulk of the man bull-rushing him with the tower shield catching Feng bodily with a bone-crushing blow and tossing him back meters across the empty ground…

“HA HA HA! Little man talk big but so weak!”

Rolling to a stop, Feng was thoroughly disabused of any notions of any easy fight as he used the reprieve of the giant laughing at him to recover himself and gulp down the last of health potions, thanking God for the lack of any broken bones. Though his entire body felt like one giant bruise and his health took a huge hit of more than four hundred health points nearly a full third of his health…