There were a total of 32 bandits who were standing before the carriage, blocking it. Among them 25 were regular people and the rest of the 7 were all knight apprentices.
But among the 7 knight apprentices, one man stood out quite a bit. That was because he was giving off an aura that was very close to that of an official knight.
From this, Weiss judged that this man was currently at the peak of the apprentice knight realm and he just needed to condense his core in order to become a proper knight.
So even though he was not a match for any official knights, even the weakest ones, he was still almost invincible against anyone who had not created a life core. So the confident look on the face of this man was not surprising.
"Hehehe, mister. Your carriage looks quite big and fancy. As for the horse there, it is also looking to be healthy and well fed. So don't you think this kind of awesome horse does not belong to pull a carriage but to carry a strong man like me in bettle ?"
He asked this question while tapping the large Cutlass like sword on his shoulder. He also had a nasty smirk on his face that would intimidate any regular person.
But obviously Weiss and Karl both were not regular people and the threating smile of the bandit leader was like a spring breeze to them. So they did not react to his intimidation at all.
But this was not taken as problematic by the bandit leader. He just thought that two people on the carriage were frozen in fear and that was why they were not responding.
This was even seen as a good thing by him. People who reacted to fear by freezing up were much easier to handle than the ones who tried to fight back.
So his smile became even more sinister and he continued speaking.
"So mister, let me tell you that we are the bandit group "Ravenous Wolves". Hahaha, you must have heard of us. Even though we have a reputation for being too cruel, that is actually not true. We are only cruel to people who does not listen to us.
So if you obediently allow us to tie you two up and hand us over everything you have in the carriage, then we might not harm you at all. A perfectly intact slave sales for more money right ? Hahaha."
While the bandit leader was giving his intimidating speech, Karl whispered to Weiss's ears -
"Mistress Weiss, should I kill them all ?"
Hearing this question, Weiss sighed and replied back.
"And why will you do something so wasteful ? These bandits looks to have some fame. So they must have a sizable amount of tresure in their hideout. In that case, instead of killing all of them, we should just kill a few while forcing the others to bring us to their hideout."
Hearing this Karl nodded his head. Actually because of his Bloody Slaughter secret art, whenever he had fought previously, the only thing that dominated his mind was to kill his enemies.
So even though taking captives should be a very common thing to do, Karl had almost never done something like that.
But now, with Weiss guiding him, he was just about to release his aura and kill a few of the bandits but Weiss stopped him. Then she told him to leave the bandits to her.
Actually Weiss trying to find a way to have a fight with a group of people. Even though a knight needed to practice their secret art in solitude, for a knight to truly be strong and battle ready, they could not just stay inside the house and practice. They needed to have real fights every now and then.
After Karl joining her, Weiss had managed to have a few practice matches with him but all those battles were one on one fights.
But Weiss also wanted to experience a fight involving a group of people as there would definitely come a time when she would need to do that. So this bandit group was a perfect opponent for her practice.
...
As the bandit leader was continuing his intimidation tactics, Weiss jumped down from the carriage and took her sword out. Immediately after that, the bandit leader stopped talking and his eyes became fierce.
Even though this man was talking too much, his realm as a peak apprentice knight was not false. He had also spend a majority of his life in various battlefields, so he was also very experienced in fighting.
Because of that, as soon as he saw Weiss taking out her sword, he immediately understood that the opponent before him was not a pushover. So he also got rid of any underestimation that he had in his heart and got ready for a battle.
The name of the bandit leader was Conrad and he was an orphan from a very young age. He had grown up in a mercenary company and had naturally joined it when he came of age.
But later on, in a conflict between two nobles, his mercenary company got wiped out. Conrad was able to somehow save his life by running away.
After this, instead of going back to the battlefield and earning money that way, Conrad decided to take an easy way out. He became a bandit.
The mercenary company that he was a part of had a knight's secret art and Conrad had taken it with him when he had ran away. So he used this secret art as a bait to recruit more members and soon his bandit group become quite powerful.
So that was why, even though he was worried about the person before him, he was still confident in winning as a group. For that reason, he ordered all the other member of his group to also charge with him and to overwhelm their enemy with sheer numbers.
...
This was a good strategy and it would be useful for weaker people to triumph over stronger enemies. But when the gap between strength was too much, no amount of numbers was going to be of use.
As the men came charging at Weiss, she observed them keenly started dodging all their attacks by a hair's breadth. She did not attack them back and just focused on dodging for the time being.
As Karl watched this, a fantastical scene appeared before his eyes. His mistress moved in such a way that that she looked like a phantom and all the men attacking her failed to even touch the tip of her hair.
After sparring with her for a few times, Karl had known that his mistress's specialised attributes were agility and perception. And now she showed him what someone with insanely high agility was capable of doing.
After Weiss had continued dodging for some time, she noticed that the attacks of her enemies had started to become dull. It looked like they were getting fatigued and frustrated for not being able to hit her even once.
Now with this dullness, the value of these men as her training partners had gone down. So Weiss decided to end this practice session now.
With this in mind, for the first time since the start of the battle, she attacked back. Immediately blood danced in the air as heads started flying everywhere.
All the moves that Weiss made were cold and calculated to reap the life of a man with each strikes. She cut off the heads and pierced the hearts in perfect accuracy.
After she had started fighting back, the battle did not last for even 2 minutes and 29 of the 32 people were already dead. Weiss had spared the life of three people so that they could act as her guide to the bandit hideout.