-No! I Refuse!

Kalbert the merchant shouted, his face red with unwillingness as he firmly stood his ground not moving an inch, Avian stood facing him with a passive expression as he continued to explain.

-Sir Kalbert I understand how valuable your wares are and that you don’t want to lose them, but consider this, if we lose this fight all the wares you currently have including your life will be forfeit, instead of clinging onto wares you may possibly not even be able to keep together with your life, how about just sacrificing half of it to win the fight and survive? Surely even you understand how dire the situation is, as a merchant you too must understand that you can’t spend wealth if you can’t live?

Avian’s persuasive argument instantly made the Kalbert cower as he understood what Avian was saying and deep down knew that he was right, but even then one could not underestimate the connection a merchant had with his coin, even when threatened under a blade a lot of merchants still chose to give In to their greed only truly successful merchants knew how to decisively cut their losses when it was obvious what would happen, whether Kalbert was a merchant like that had yet to be shown as he still persisted albeit hesitantly.

-But…but, as merceneries it is your duty to protect us! We didn’t hire you so you would use up our wares! Dealing with these bandits shouldn’t be a problem if you really are professionals!

Seeing him like this Avian momentarily thought about what to say, luckily there was someone else present who was just as persuasive as Avrid stepped in putting the situation into a more intimidating route with his build.

-I am sorry sir Kalbert, but I am not confident that we can actually win this fight, the enemy here are the gray wolves lead by Bennet who is a rank 2 [Warrior], you must understand what this could mean don’t you?

-…

Kalbert immediately shut up the moment Avrid made reality to clear to him, he didn’t say anything for the moment, but he looked at his caskets of strong spirits that we was peddling before looking away and waving to Avian as a sign of acceptance.

Avian smiled at that watching the Kalbert leave his carriage before he turned back to Avrid who looked relieved as he wasn’t optimistic about this actually working considering how greedy and short sighted merchants could be when it came to money.

He was even ready to resort to violence if he had to, but luckily he didn’t need to as Avian had very decent speaking skills and most important high charisma, at that point Avrid only needed to deal the tipping blow to make Kalbert submit which is why really this was all Avian’s work and not him.

-Is this really going to work?

Avrid asked, watching as Avian was already hard at work pouring the strong spirits into a fist sized jar before sealing it with a plug and attaching a piece of cloth on it that was also dipped in the strong spirits.

Avian looked at the item with quite a bit of satisfaction, the spirits were strong as well making even Avian feel a bit dizzy even though he had a high constitution.

-It doesn’t matter whether it works or not, what we need in this fight is an edge towards victory, how we achieve it is not important, now bring some of your men here and tell them to help me prepare the items.

-(sigh) very well here is hoping we can do this quickly.

Avrid replied, going out as he called for a few of his men to help out Avian, all the while the battle stilled continued, 10 minutes had passed since Avian came up with this idea, but the battle was slow and more of a battle of attrition rather than a battle to the death as everyone knew that they weren’t the main actors in this fight, but rather the 2 rank 2 fighters, if either of them got involved it was a sure deal for the opposing side to get crushed before the other rank 2 fighter joined in which at that point no one could do much about as it wasn’t a fight anyone could participate in.

-What is Avrid doing?

Bennet wondered, watching the battle unfolding as he waited patiently for his chance to come, the entire time he had been observing his real opponent Avrid while also noticing the newcomer who had suddenly joined the battle, his appearance caused some real havoc at the beginning so much so that Bennet was tempted to stop waiting and go teach him a lesson for killing his useless men, but then he suddenly stopped coming right beside the person who he was most wary of then suddenly disappearing as he walked into a carriage with Avrid in tow.

Bennet didn’t like it, he didn’t like it at all, having plentiful of life experience Bennet could feel something was up, but he just couldn’t put his finger on it, he felt that he should act before something unexpected may occur, but if he did Bennet knew that he would be at the disadvantage, once the real fight began Bennet knew that all bets were off this is why he couldn’t risk acting now until he saw Avrid’s hand.

Bennet pondered waiting as he continued to watch the field, his bandits weren’t anything special in fact they were somewhat inferior to the mercenaries, but because they were at home ground and had laid an ambush they were somewhat able to even the playing field, right now in fact Bennet witnessed how while slowly the Bandits were quickly starting to wear down the mercenaries, he felt his chance slowly starting to arise, but suddenly he noticed how the mercenaries and guards started to step back as they fought, Avrid who was commanding the battle suddenly barked out some kind of orders.

The mercenaries and guards raised their shields and started to form a defensive line all the while the bandits saw this as a sign of weakness as they recklessly stepped forward wanting to chase after them.

It looked as if they were winning, but Bennet knew better, recognizing this formation he immediately wanted to shout and tell these idiots to fall back, but just as he was about to shout, Avrid had already pulled the trigger.

-This is enough stay still! Everyone throw it NOW!

And with those words dozens of flaming clay jars flew into the air, the bandits not expecting this looked dumbfounded as the quickly tried to dodge those unknown objects, but even then it was useless because just as they dodged the clay jars from hitting them the jars immediately broke with a splash upon hitting the ground the flames erupting into a wide plume as the earth burned and smoke started to appear.

The bandits were instantly thrown into chaos as some of the jars had hit them directly dousing them in strong spirits before being ignited by the flame causing them to become human torchers while a few others were splashed from the residue hitting their bodies which caught on fire trying their hardest to put it out as they screamed.

But as he observed the battlefield Bennet saw how only 10 to 15 percent of his bandits were actually hit by the flames, most of his bandits were completely fine which shouldn’t have been a problem as they still fight and continue to charge forward.

Unfortunately, this is not human mentality worked, as soon as those bandits saw those flames and how their fellow comrades were being turned into human sized torches or getting caught on fire, it undoubtedly surprised them while also making them hesitate as they didn’t want to get burned, it was at this moment that someone should have barked out an order and woken up everyone, but since Bennet was the only leader in their group and they only followed his orders the bandits didn’t know what to do as they had never encountered something like this before.

Bennet recognizing this and immediately shouted to charge at them and take them down, the bandits still shaken woke up from their fear and listened to Bennet their leader, but then Avrid again ordered.

-Second volley go!

As the bandits charged forward again, Avrid fired another volley of flaming clay jars, the same thing happened like it did before, but with a few bandits being able to make it to the defensive line this time, but at that moment Avrid saw the perfect time to strike and quickly made another order.

-Now retaliate! Kill these bandits while they are confused!

Using the fact that not everyone was able to get to the defensive line, Avrid brilliantly ordered his men strike while the bandits were scattered.

Bennet watched in horror as his men were being slaughtered by being ganged up upon, his nails digging into his palm as he saw the end of the battle as the blood flowed from his men’s bodies and morale started to crumble, if the smell of charred flesh wasn’t enough to shake them then the image of their comrades being behead in mass surely did the job as everyone recognized that the battle was coming to a close.

Bennet immediately drew his great sword and charged into the fight, his eyes glazed with rage as he instantly slew a mercenary in half as he chased one of the bandits.

-AVRID!

Bennet shouted, looking at Avrid as he looked back at him.

-Bennet.

Avrid mumbled, drawing his sword and shield as he got ready for combat.

Avian too watched Bennet the bandit leader as he charged through the burning battlefield swinging his great sword dismembering mercenaries left and right as he charged through, truly no one could stop him a rank 2 [Warrior] other then another rank 2 individual.

The bandits who had their morale shattered immediately felt uplifted the moment they saw their leader step into the field and make a bloodbath out of their enemies, even though they still didn’t recover entirely everyone stood back up and continued to fight avoid the area their boss was fighting as did the mercenaries.

Only now did the battlefield seem more bloody as everyone fought with all they had.

Avian not wanting to stick around any longer but still having some plans in his hand quickly slipped away before Bennet arrived and just as he stepped away Bennet burst through the defensive line causing dozens of men to launch backward as he now stood face to face with Avrid.

There were no words between these two, simply locking gazes they took their stances before Bennet raised his great sword and stepped forward.

-ARVID!

Arvid holding his black shield took a defensive posture and blocked the strike!

-Guh!…I see you’ve gotten stronger Bennet.

-SHUT UP AND DIE!

Bennet replied which after Avrid deflect the great sword continuing their battle as the earth beneath their feet launched away with every step they took.

Avian watched all of this happen with great interest as he stepped away a good distance, usually now he wouldn’t have any other choice but to wait and see, but then again Avian wasn’t someone who blindly put his faith into others especially when it came to his life, knowing that this clash would happen he still had a few cards up his sleeve.

(Whistle)

Avian whistled, momentarily causing birds resting on the trees to rise up as they flew up.

==============================================================

Up to 40 more chapters on https://kakemonoko.wordpress.com/