Zeke took a large swig of the beer and started talking.

“The first few days of the mission everything went normally. Except for the fact that we were nearly killed by a pack of wolves. It all started on the way back to Petra after collecting the blue tulips.”

Although Arden was surprised while listening to what happened, he listen carefully so as not to interrupt Zeke.

"While walking through the woods on the way back, we deviated a bit from the turn route. And we started hearing some voices. We went quietly towards the voices to examine."

—--------

As they walked through the trees, Zeke suddenly signaled the entire team to shut up. The team members suddenly stopped talking and started to listen. Directly in front of them came the voices of people talking.

“Let's check first, normally there shouldn't be a human around here,” Zeke whispered.

The team nodded and they slowly began to climb the hill in front of them.

After climbing the hill, they got behind a big tree and began to look for the source of the sound. They soon found it. A group of people was sitting around a fire. There were 7 people in total. But two of them had their hands tied. The face of the male prisoner was covered in blood.

“Haha the leader will be very happy. We're bringing him a slave and a new toy,” said the men sitting around the campfire with a smirk.

“The loot this time went really well.” ' he replied, his voice clear that he was the leader of the people sitting around.

“No one will touch the girl, or I will skin you first,”

The 4 people sitting around the campfire nodded.

"Set up the tents, we'll stay here for the night," he ordered.

Hearing these conversations, Matt and his team descended from the hill.

“Bandits,” said Zeke.

“What are we going to do?” Matt said.

From what he understood, it seemed that the captives would end up worse than death if they didn't do something about it.

"We can't just leave those two out there." said Ava.

“I feel, their Levels do not stand much higher than ours. It looks like we can beat it if we attack with an ambush.”

The team waited for Zeke to speak. Zeke was thoughtful.

“If we're going to attack, we should attack with everything we have, everybody okay with that? “He continued after the team nodded.

“Then we must attack late at night, if we can take down someone before the battle starts when they least expect it, we will be 4 to 4. Alistair, I'll shoot down the sentry with an arrow, and if one doesn't wake up, we'll sneak in and try to take down a few more, and if they wake up, you'll protect the Ava as we attack. When Matt finds opening, he will try to strike the finishing blow, and I will assist you with fire from behind.”

“I ask again, are you determined to do this? One of us may not survive this war, these are not packs of wolves."

“I will never forgive myself if we leave those two in the hands of these thugs,” Ava said.

Matt and Alistair also nodded in agreement.

"Okay, then you wait here, I'll watch their movements, and when they're asleep at night, we'll start the attack." After saying that, he started to climb the hill.

The remaining three began to sit and wait for the sun to set.

Matt was thoughtful. And he was staring at one point. Was he really ready to kill a person? After all, they weren't animals. But when he thought of the two captives, he thought he had to. If he were in their place, he wouldn't want someone to leave him for a reason like this. When his decision was final, he took out his sword to sharpen. It had to occupy his mind.

Time passed slowly. The sun had already set. The team was preparing for the battle ahead. They continued to sit without lighting a fire in the dark air. The cold was slowly working its way into his bones.

Matt didn't know how much time passed after dark. But when he saw Zeke coming down from the hill, he stood up.

“They're all asleep, one person is waiting on the lookout. If you're ready, let's start."

When the team nodded, everyone started climbing the hill. After they got to the top of the hill, they saw the bandit watching around by the fire.

Zeke nodded, then stretched the bow and took aim.

The arrow flew from the bow. It flew silently through the air and stabbed into the bandit's back. Zeke realized that as soon as the arrow was released from the bow, he could not shoot as he wanted.

“Aggh,” the Bandit cried.

“You know the plan, let's go!” Zeke shouted. There was no point in being quiet anymore.

Like wild hyenas, the four of them began to descend down the hill towards the bandits' tents. Matt involuntarily clenched his jaw.

Halfway up the hill, the bandits sleeping in the tent jumped out of the tent and drew their swords and knives.

“Zeke stopped and fired another arrow. His target was the leader of the bandits. But it didn't seem like it would be that easy to take it down. As soon as the bandit saw the arrow being thrown, he had bent down and dodged the arrow.

“Kill them!” the bandit leader shouted. He didn't need to know who they were, it was pretty clear that the attackers had murderous intent.

While the thug who Zeke shot in the back continued to struggle on the ground to breathe, the remaining 3 thugs started cruising towards where Alistair and Ava were.

Alistair took a defensive position to take on the foremost bandits, with Matt right next to him.

The bandits were getting close. A bandit carrying a sword charged towards alistair. But Ava quickly responded with an icy arrow strike. The ice arrow had pierced the man's leg. The man staggered back from the blow. Matt rushed forward to take advantage of that opening. He had used [Adrenaline flow] and [Quick steps].

Everyone around him seemed to have slowed down. He swung his sword and struck a blow to the man's neck. The blood gushing from the man's throat landed on Matt. The man who had taken the blow fell on his back, trying to cover the wound in his throat with his hand, just then Matt saw a bandit appear beside him. This bandit had a dagger in his hand and thrust it into his heart. Matt backed away at the last moment, but the dagger slashed heavily through his ribs.

When Alistair saw Matt fighting one of them, he started to attack the other bandit at full speed.

Zeke, on the other hand, fired arrows at the bandit's leaders, not allowing them to get close to where Matt and Alistair were.

When Matt survived the sudden attack of the dagger-wielding bandit, all of the bandit's advantage was gone. The bandit was fast, but not as fast as Matt, after all, he was currently under the effect of the skills. Matt swung the sword at the man. The bandit stopped the sword with daggers. But as Matt expected this, he gave the man a quick kick, and the bandit fell on his back. Matt quickly stabbed the man with the sword to seize the opportunity. Matt and the bandit met eye to eye as the sword entered the man's chest.

The bandit seemed to be begging him to stop. Then all signs of life in the bandit's eyes disappeared. This shook Matt, and he froze in place.

“Matt, matt Now is not the time to frozen. We have to kill the Leader.” cried Alistair. Ava and Alistair had also killed the other bandit.

Zeke had succeeded in stabbing an arrow at the Bandit leader. But that didn't seem to affect him much. Matt shrugged and came to his senses when he realized the gravity of the situation. He couldn't froze right now, he had to finish this job first. Otherwise, he would endanger one of the team.

“Ava, use [Ice prison]!” Zeke shouted.

As soon as Ava heard Zeke, she used the skill on the bandit leader.

“What is that?” the Bandit leader shouted. His movements were greatly slowed down.

Matt dashed towards the Bandit leader before his [Adrenaline surge] ability expired. He quickly closed the distance between them. He made a swift attack towards the bandit leader. But the Bandit leader blocked this attack with the sword at the last moment. Meanwhile, Alistair and Ava were also within attack range. Before giving the Bandit leader time, Alistair began to slash sword strikes.

The bandit leader's level seemed pretty high. If he was a normal person, he would have already died under the attacks of 4 people.

Finaly Bandit leader had enough.“Aaarrrggg,” he shouted, swinging his sword with all his might.

Alistair wanted to defend it, but this blow knocked him to the ground.

Dou to this attack Bandit leader give opening , Zeke used this opening to shot an arrow into his chest. Matt, too, leapt at the Bandit leader and plunged his sword into his chest.

The bandit leader fell on his back with a sword in his chest with Matt's attack, and blood began to flow from his mouth. And he took his last breath.

Matt collapsed to the ground after the final blow.

He looked at the blood on his hands. He killed 3 people today.

“Matt, Matt, drink this quick.” When Ava saw Matt collapse to the ground and saw the scar on his chest, she immediately came to give him a healing potion.

Matt had no idea how deep the wound was. He hadn't paid attention to his wound due to the urgency of the battle, but judging from Ava's reactions, it looked pretty deep.

Matt nodded and began to drink the elixir that Ava had handed him.

The two captives, who were watching the whole thing with fear, seemed to be afraid to come near them.

Zeke went to them and cut the tie in their hands with a dagger. Seeing this situation, the two captivess hugged each other and started to cry.

The smile that appeared when they won the war with the wolves was not on anyone's face this time. The team members silently gathered around the burning fire. Potions began to heal wounds.

They forcibly set up tents and put their heads on the pillow to sleep. Matt heard a voice he never thought he would disgusted to hear.

The [Swordsman] class has been raised to level 10.

The [Swordsman] class has been raised to level 11.

The [Swordsman] class has been raised to level 12.

The skill [Deadly blow] has been gained.