Snake 18, Year 8693 of the Grand Wulin Era, Hou Mingzhou

So, a few days before, while eating with Ted and Kellan, we'd explained our mission, they'd offered to tag along, and Kellan had come up with a plan that would help us capture as many of the bandits as we could alive. Without them, we might have had to do some killing or maiming, as it's a lot less dangerous and easier to kill someone with about the same strength as you than to incapacitate them and capture them. If we caught them crossing certain lines, though, I didn't think anyone who did would make it back to the Sect alive. I didn't want to kill, but even then, I knew that some people were disgusting and evil enough that they shouldn't be allowed to live.

We'd gotten fairly close to Falling Cheese Town a couple days ago, with the help of Ted and Kellan's Mana Sea cultivations. The plan began here. We'd been observing the bandits and the townspeople, and had seen some things that made us mad, like extortion, but Kellan had held us back from charging in and beating bandit ass, because it was more important to gather information right now unless somebody was in real danger. During that time, i'd noticed Alex keeping logs of every shitty thing we saw the bandits do in a ratty-looking journal, and I'd been paying a lot of attention to the bandit patrols, while Avarius, Ted and Kellan had gone into town to gather information under the guise of shopping. They didn't find out much, other than there were about 70 bandits total, and that there were 5 bandits at the peak of Mist Sea other than their boss, "Black Iron Fist" Regulus Septimus. From what we could tell, they seemed to be styled after the military of the Sol Magna Empire, especially in terms of discipline and the way they ran the town.

There were 3 patrols a day, and one at night, where the bandits would search the area a couple miles around Falling Cheese Town for any sign of outsiders or threats, then return to town. There were also guards posted at every entrance into the town, and atop the walls. We'd decided to capture a patrol to learn more.

"So , which patrol should we go after?" I asked, when everyone was back at our campsite. Alex looked up, seeming a bit tired from making medicine and a few alchemical bombs that we had figured we'd need.

"We should go with the night patrol. You said they have 9 people compared to the day patrol's 5, but they're all still around the 7th stage of Mist Sea , and it'll be a bit easier to set an ambush in the dark. Also, i figure it'll be easier to interrogate them if it's harder to tell that we're just 5 people, 3 of whom are kids. We should be able to knock them out, bring them here, and interrogate them before anyone realizes they got captured." He said. My usually excitable, dorky. and easygoing best friend was pretty serious and cold right now, and I wasn't sure if the contrast was uncomfortable or interesting.

"I like that. Anyone got a problem with that? Any thoughts? How do we keep them from blabbing and the higher-ups from getting suspicious?"

"Well, Alexander's an alchemist, right? Does he have anything that causes temporary amnesia? If he doesn't , I know a hypnosis technique I found on some idiot who tried to kill me for my scales a while back that will erase the memory of our interrogation, but it'll put me out of commission for a day or two after hypnotizing that many people."Ted replied.

"Ehh, no. People usually use those to erase mental trauma or to otherwise forget things that they don't want to remember, so I know how to make them, but I don't have any on me. Let's seal their Dantians so they can't use mana instead,Avarius knows how to do that, and I've got some of those weird nut things that Dad made that are strong enough to keep someone at peak Mana Sea imprisoned, so that should help when we get around to the raid." Alex said, seeming a bit apologetic.

"No problem here. " Ted said, shrugging his thin shoulders

"This is gonna be fun, I think." Avarius grinned. I was surprised to find myself agreeing with that shiny silver geek, but there's some proverb about a broken clock or something.

"Sounds good to me." Kellan said, smirking.

"It's official, then. Let's do this thing." I said. I smacked my chest with a fist and barely restrained myself from hooting like an excited chimpanzee. Look, I didn't like killing, but a fight, even with lives on the line, was something I enjoyed.

***

We'd picked a location we knew the bandits would go to, on the edge of the area they patrolled, and waited..They were using Divine Sense scanning heavily due to the lack of light, so they spotted our pit trap almost immediately when they reached us, and started laughing. The laughs turned into a chorus of cursing when they approached it to wreck it, and some vines snaked out from nearby trees, courtesy of Alex and Avarius, to snag them into the air by their feet and wrap them in a sound-dampening cocoon. Kellan used a weird palm move that i thought relied relied on vibrations , tapping on each cocoon to shake their heads hard enough to make their brains gently knock into their skulls, knocking them out. We quickly took them back to camp, and had Ted and Kellan stick with me while the other two guarded the prisoners. I picked one of the cocoons, and unwrapped the top enough so that the woman within could speak,and woke her up with a gentle infusion of mana to the head.

She began to struggle,and looked like she was about to yell for help, so I decided to play the villain.

"Scream and you die, bandit scum. My friends and I have some things we want to know." I paused, and Ted and Kellan flared their auras, putting pressure on the poor woman.Her face went white, and she glared at us, but I guess she wanted to live, because she closed her mouth, and then opened it again.

"Ugh, just my luck. I guess if you came here and ambushed us this easily, you're strong enough to take out the boss, so there's no harm in telling you what you want to know. I guess you're here to take us out or capture us, and since you seem to be a kid, you're probably at least peak Mist Sea and from a sect?Can I get reduced jail time or something if I cooperate?" Seemed like she was pretty smart, if she could figure that much out from what had just happened.

Ted cracked his knuckles, which was much more intimidating than it really should be, and I replied, smirking." That depends on your crimes and how good your information is."

"Here's what I know. The boss is about to break into Mana Sea, and the 5 lieutenants aren't far behind. We've been holding back from doing anything more than a little extortion to wait for that, especially because the boss is afraid of the Myriad Existences Sect that oversees this area. He was trying to keep low-key and not get noticed, but I guess we already screwed that up, since you're here and all.We have 10 people at 8th stage Mist Sea, 20 at the seventh, and everyone else is about 6th stage. About 5 new recuits are at the 4th.About 2/3 of us are Warriors, with the remaining 3rd being mostly Mages, though the boss and one of our Lieutenants are Warmages.

"Anything else?" I asked, while Kellan cracked his neck loudly.

"Well, I can tell you a bit about our defenses. We have a 6th stage Mist Sea on every street corner, and a 7th stage for every 3 6th stagers. The 8th stagers and the remaining 7th stagers are split between guarding the walls,patrolling, guarding our barracks , and out looking for resources. The boss and all but two of our lieutenants are currently in closed door cultivation, trying to break through to Mana Sea." She really wanted that reduced sentence, I figured. There was some stuff that didn't add up, like the reasons for not acting like actual bandits, but I figured there was enough truth in it to be useful.

"Thanks, we'll be checking your story with your squad mates.Avarius, would you do the honors?"

I stood aside. Avarius, using a spell pattern, wove something out of mana that looked suspiciously like a lock, and pressed it against her waist. It sunk in, and I felt all but a thin trickle of her mana, not even enough to equal a First Layer Mist Sea cultivator, vanish. Kellan then gently knocked her out with his weird vibrating palm move, and I went to wake up the next guy. I hoped they would all play along as nicely as this lady had, I really didn't want blood on my hands yet.