"Hey! What are you doing?!" The merchant whispered as he grabbed Dante by the wrist. "I knew you'd do something stupid. Sit down. You'll get us all killed." Dante could see the fear glowing in the merchant's eyes, deep, carnal, and primal terror.
The merchant was right. If Dante's plan succeeds, he would escape, but everyone else in the cage would get blamed for it, and many of them would suffer, might even be killed.
Dante smiled at the old merchant. "Don't worry, I'll get us all out." That, of course, was a lie. Dante only cared about his own survival, and he knew damn well that this merchant wouldn't help him get ransomed. Once those guys got ransomed out, Dante would be left alone, and those bandits would most likely sell him as a slave to the black market or try to recruit him.
If it were the second option, he would've stayed put. He doesn't mind working for the bandits until he recovers. He could always escape later, but if he were to be sold as a slave, it would be his end.
The choices were clear. It was either his life or the lives of everyone else in the cage, and Dante would always choose his.
The merchant gulped, looked at Dante's smile, and had to think a lot. Who was this young man? He could endure the pain of his skull getting cracked; he survived such a wound and was even confident that he could get out of this cage.
Dante might be a scion of the sword family, or one of the heralds of the noble clan… he might even be a deserted soldier with years of skill and experience. Trusting in him might not be so bad. He did look a bit young, though. Late teens, early twenties at best… so the deserted soldier might be a stretch. Hopefully he isn't just some new Blessed that's high on his newfound power, like the ones he hired.
After thinking about it a lot, the old merchant decided to pull back and let Dante do whatever he wanted. It was a gamble, but his merchant mind told him that this would save him the money and debts of the ransom.
Dante silently approached the lock, hidden within the shadows. The bandit standing guard was sitting by the campfire, warming his hands while yawning. He wasn't looking anywhere near the cage, which made it the perfect time for Dante to start.
The bandits aren't expecting the prisoners to escape, but instead are afraid of an attack from the outside, like monsters or even other people. Dante remembered the horror he saw at the river and quickly shook his head. He couldn't imagine how those bandits could even hope to handle such an… abominable alien creature.
Dante lifted his hand and looked at the dirt he had in his palm. This was his key to open the lock with. He grabbed the large padlock and pushed as much dirt as he could into the keyhole, keeping an eye on the bandit by the campfire. Then, it was time for magic again.
Using earth magic, he hardened the dirt and used it to pry the pins up and tried to open the lock. His meager one drop of mana would only allow him to control the dirt for a second or two, but he had practiced a lot in the past hours.
With a click, the padlock opened up. The moon faded behind the clouds as Dante broke into a grin, and the merchant paled as he saw his face. Dante's eyes glowed pale white as that nasty grin returned. ^This brat is going to go on a rampage.^
That light in Dante's eyes had confirmed one thing, and it was that Dante was a Blessed. Usually, when a Blessed uses an ability they aren't used to, their eyes glow faintly as the mana in their brain circulates rapidly. The Blessed's Rank won't matter, as they learn new skills at each rank, and their eyes glow when they are fresh to those abilities. For all that the merchant knows, Dante could be a mere Mundane who just awakened their powers, or a seasoned Blessed.
Dante stared back at him, and the old man went to calm the other prisoners and make sure none of them made a scene.
Dante slowly opened the rusty door and crawled out, quickly pushing it back, but he didn't lock it. This way, if those merchants wanted to escape, they were free to do so. He never intended to save them, but he wouldn't get in their way if they wanted to fight and run on their own. This is his thanks to them for patching his head.
The camp wasn't that large, only consisting of eight tents and a large campfire in the middle. The bandits seemed to have set it up a while ago when they waited for the merchant's caravan and were planning to leave tomorrow morning. Dante could tell that by looking at the horses' feed, which was filled to the brim.
He was right; he must escape tonight. He could just slip away into the forest now and get away, but… he can't leave without beating the living crap out of that bastard who cracked his skull open. He knew it was a stupid idea, but still couldn't let it go.
"He's going to pay for it." Dante crouched down and tried to move behind the massive stacks of wooden boxes full of goods that the bandits had stolen from the merchants. He only had two people to worry about: the guard sitting beside the campfire and the previous guard, his target, who shouldn't have fallen asleep yet. As long as he avoids alerting those two and doesn't make much noise, he'll get what he wants.
As Dante reached the backmost tent where his target should be, he couldn't help but feel his hands shaking. His mind told him to forget about revenge and get away, but his heart told him that he couldn't let it slip; he would make that bastard pay. It wasn't pride, arrogance, or revenge, but something else entirely that he had forgotten, now only leaving emotions behind.
Looking inside the tent, it seemed that the bastard had just fallen asleep. There was another person there, but they too were asleep and were none the wiser as Dante silently made his way inside and picked up the man's club. It was the same one the bastard used to hit him before. It still had blood on it, and he didn't even bother to clean it properly.
Dante smiled, lifted up the club, and looked at the snorting bastard. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a concussion for a concussion. It is only fair, don't you think?" It was now that he held the man's life in his hands that he finally understood why his hands were shaking earlier, and what the voice was crying in the back of his head that he should just run away. He wasn't against getting revenge or even cracking this man's skull open; what he was against was killing. All souls are sacred, and they shall not perish before their fated time.
Looking at the man's soul, Dante decided to aim a bit lower and avoid directly smacking the man's forehead. If he lives, he lives; if he dies, that's his fate.
Then, with both hands, using all of his strength at once, he swung the club down right at the man's nose, cracking his face open with a loud bang. The other bandit in the tent immediately woke up, but before he could move an inch, Dante grabbed him by the neck and started choking him.
"Easy, buddy… go back to sleep." Then he punched him in the face several times until he knocked him out. It only took five punches, but it worked in the end. Two bandits are down out of at least twenty.
Dante threw a glance at the two bodies, and both of their glowing orbs were still there, fading, but definitely not gone. Those two were still alive, barely, but still not corpses. That made him feel a bit better; he got his revenge, and they could still survive if they were lucky.
Looking at the glowing orbs outside, Dante could see one of them moving. He knew that he didn't have much time left, so he had to quickly get out of the tent and escape. That one orb was rushing toward the tent, so they clearly heard him knock those two out.
"What is going on here? What was that noise?" A bandit walked into the tent and looked inside. It was dark, so it was hard to see clearly. He took one step forward and was quickly pulled aside by Dante, who held him in a tight chokehold, trying to knock him out as well.
After the bandit struggled in his arms for a few seconds, he eventually passed out, and Dante took a deep breath. The bandits were finding out that something was off, and he'd be swarmed by them in seconds. He could already hear them moving inside their tents and see their orbs wiggle, so he had to move, and quickly.
It was also at this moment that he realized that he could see those orbs through the wooden boxes outside and the tent's fabric, but didn't have much time to ponder why.
It was dark outside, and the only light source was the campfire, so he could easily use the shadows and darkness to hide and move. With a quick glance around the tent, he found the bandits' weapons, and among them were a sword, a set of armor, and a slingshot. There was also a disassembled handgun that looked as if it had exploded, and all of its parts were marred with dried blood and soot.
He had hoped to find a dagger or a smaller shortsword, but the slingshot looks like the only useful thing here. He picked it up and then aimed outside the tent at the horses outside the camp, and with a single shot, hit one of them in the rear.
The spooked horse kicked, and so the other horses panicked as well, quickly drawing the bandits' attention away from the tent. They rushed across the camp and tried to calm the horses down while looking for the source of the disturbance. They still hadn't found their comrades, and now they were thinking it might be some wild animal. Hopefully not a horrifying Abomination.
Dante didn't know what those bandits were thinking about, and didn't care to know. What mattered to him now was using this distraction that he created to escape into the forest. They'll probably stay in the camp for a while trying to figure out what happened and heal their injured, so that will allow him to get far away and hide.
Dante took the chance to crawl out of the tent and jumped behind the carriages that the bandits stole from the merchants, but as he tried to find a way to escape, he found himself face to face with a man, a young fellow with a disheveled face who was filling a bucket of water for the horses.
He should've checked using those white orbs before jumping out.
The bandit was about to scream, but Dante was faster and punched him right in the jaw, knocking him out cold.
"Damn it, I wasted it."
Dante growled. He had just recovered the droplet of mana he used to pick the lock open, and he had just used it to knock this guy out. Mana can't just be used to cast spells; it can also be used directly in offence.
There are two ways to use it. The first is that the moment a hit connects, the caster could release a wave of his mana into the opponent's body, which damages them. This can make a punch feel like the hit of a mace. The bandit Dante had just knocked out probably has more than a broken jaw. The second way is to use that mana to jolt the muscles and force them to accelerate faster, resulting in a stronger hit. Those are the basics of physical enchantment.
He looked at his fist. "Another minute or two to recover that droplet of mana…" The headache of his mana running dry started to hit him, but now that he wasn't starving, he could endure it just fine. But the pain did make him angrier; he should've already been in the forest if not for this bandit showing up in his way.
Those wheels were fashioned from tractor back wheels and were somewhat armored; even the carriage itself was a rusty shipping container.
"There is someone behind the carriages! I just saw Liam get taken down!" A woman screamed in the back, holding a warbow in her hand and glaring right toward where Dante was.
Dante, who quickly got down and hid behind the carriage, growled in pain, then glared right back at her from beneath the carriage and pulled the slingshot back with an angry grin. "Shitty aim, should've trained more."
Then, with a single shot, he hit her right in the mouth, breaking several of her teeth and lodging the stone in her throat, dropping her down on the spot as she struggled to breathe and cough the stone out. Even Dante himself was surprised at how well he could aim with the slingshot. Was it a weapon that he had trained with in the past? Or is it just that… all kids played with them to hunt birds.
Most likely it was the latter, since the first didn't make much sense when bows were a thing.
The moment she dropped down and started screaming in pain, all of the bandits finally realized that they were being attacked by something. Everyone picked up their weapon in rage and rushed toward the carriage, but found no one behind it, just drops of blood on the grass and the broken shaft of an arrow.
They were five people down already, and that was terrifying. Something had hunted five of them down, and they couldn't even find it. One of them quietly mumbled, "This isn't that an abomination, right?"
Then another bandit shouted at him. "Bastard! Those things don't come near this area! It's something else."
Then, out of nowhere, one of them screamed as he fell to his knees and was quickly dragged beneath one of the carriages in what looked like a horror show. The bandits were terrified. They heard the man scream, then something crunched several times, and then it was just silence.
After a few seconds had passed, one finally gathered the courage to go and look underneath the carriage, and what he saw was terrifying. Their friend was barely alive, twitching, had his skull cracked open with a stone, and his achilles tendons cut.
After a few seconds had passed, one finally gathered the courage to go and look underneath the carriage, and what he saw was terrifying. Their friend was barely alive, twitching, had his skull cracked open with a stone, and the tendons on his legs were cut.
They were six people down, but as they were terrified, they heard something in the back: a loud crunch. The archer woman, who was screaming on the ground, was now silent, with a lot of blood coming out of her skull.
They took their eyes from her for just a second, and she was taken down.
"Show yourself! What are you?!" One of the bandits screamed his lungs out as some of his men rushed to check on the archer woman, but as they walked past him, one of them dropped down, screaming in agony, and blood splashed out of his foot.
As the other bandits looked at the ground, they found the throwing knives of the guy who was dragged under the carriage had been planted in the ground like a spike trap, hidden by the tall grass. The guy didn't see them, so he stepped on them.
By the time they counted the throwing knives and found out that just half of what the guy carried were used, the guy screaming on the ground got his eye plucked out by a stone and fell unconscious from the pain.
Due to the arrow in his shoulder, Dante's aim was getting worse. He had aimed at the mouth but missed.
Seven people down, and fear started creeping into their souls. Some were already thinking of abandoning everything here and running away. It was as if they were facing an abomination, which could very well be the case.
"The shot came from that carriage over there! We must be dealing with a human, not an abomination; go kill them! Look beneath the carriage and check the grass before you step on it! He has more knives." One of the bandits shouted, and Dante could tell that the man was the calmest of them all, so he had to go down.
As all the bandits rushed to circle the carriage and find whoever was attacking them, the calm man watched from afar to make sure no one slipped out of the carriage or into the shadows, but as he was looking forward, two arms grabbed him from behind, choking him.
As all the bandits rushed to circle the carriage and find whoever was attacking them, the calm man watched from afar to make sure no one slipped out of the carriage or into the shadows, but as he was looking forward, two arms grabbed him from behind, choking him.
"No god would save you from me tonight; pray as much as you like," Dante whispered into the man's ear as he clenched his arms and sent him to sleep. As the man's body dropped down, the other bandits stared back in horror and only saw Dante's shadow fading into the darkness.
Eight were down, and still, not a single one of the bandits knew what the attacker looked like.
"What was that!" One screamed, and another man rushed toward the fallen man. "Captain! Captain!" As he tried to shake him awake, a stone flew out of the shadows and hit him in the face, sending him rolling on the ground.
The ninth bandit was taken out, and this was the point where those in the cage started to stare at Dante like some kind of demon. The old merchant couldn't believe his eyes. He had guessed that Dante could fight, but never expected to see him hunting those bandits like this.
"Special forces? Government assassin? No, maybe the scion of some powerful Blessed family…" The Merchant mumbled in shock as he couldn't help but smile. Fortune and misfortune always come together; this incident might be the turning point of his entire career.
This wounded brat that was brought to them at death's door could very well be the miracle that would save. It kinda made sense: if some noble clan or knightly family had spent the money and resources to wipe someone's memories instead of just killing them, that would mean they were extremely important, and that killing them outright is a waste.
"Behind that carriage! Catch him!" They could tell where Dante was shooting from by the trajectory of the stone, which wasn't that hard. But the question here was whether they could catch him before he changed position.
To catch Dante, the bandit who shouted was already running toward the carriage with his sword drawn, and he wasn't alone; another bandit followed him but went to the other side of the carriage so they could pincer the attacker and stop him.
This time, they caught up with Dante. But when the first bandit looked, he almost shat himself. What he saw was a human face covered with blood, looking like that of a rabid ghoul. Some of the blood was from Dante's head wound, but most was actually from the bandit that he had cut earlier.
That moment of shock made him hesitate to swing his sword for a second, and that was all Dante needed to dodge the swing and grab the man by the beard. Then, mercilessly, he repeatedly smacked his head on the carriage, knocking him out cold.
The other one saw him and shouted, swinging his dagger and stabbing Dante on the shoulder. Growling in pain, Dante rapidly turned around, gave the man a deathly glare, and swung a kick with all of his might, infused it with his mana, and gave him the most painful low blow that he could, causing his precious ones to explode.
The bandit's eyes rolled back as he fell face-first into the mud, unable to even growl.
With that man taken care of, Dante had just dealt with eleven bandits, but he was already badly wounded, with both of his shoulders severely injured. He could barely lift his arms, let alone throw a proper punch.
The arrowhead was still in his shoulder, and he didn't want to pull the knife out either, since he would just bleed to death. He had to deal with the remaining bandits with those things still rubbing against his bones, which didn't feel great.
Before running away to hide again, he gave the man he just kicked another kick, this time to the face, and knocked him out in a single hit. Then, before the other bandits could reach them, he forced himself to grab onto the carriage's door and climb above it.
The bandits quickly looked around, but they couldn't find him, just their two comrades bleeding on the ground.
Eleven people were down, and as Dante counted the rest from above the carriage, he counted ten. It seems that he didn't see the archer woman before when he counted the bandits' glowing orbs.
He silently looked at them from above and was thinking of a way to deal with them, trying to ignore his wailing shoulders and burning skull. He couldn't run away now and had to deal with all of the bandits if he wanted to survive.
It wasn't easy anymore. He was injured, and those remaining bandits were either too smart or scared to separate. They now moved as a group, which worked in their favor and made it nearly impossible for Dante to single them out.
His heart was racing, his entire body burned in pain, and he was already getting lightheaded from the bleeding and head injury. Every fiber in his being told him to run away, but it was already too late. He couldn't get too far before they caught him. And even if he did, he would just bleed to death alone in the woods.
Dante knew that his only way of survival was to deal with those bandits and then have the merchants treat his wounds. Otherwise, he'll either bleed to death alone in the forest, be killed by the bandits, or be eaten by beasts.
"NO!!!!!!!!! MONSTER!" At that moment, one of the women in the cage screamed at the top of her lungs, and so did the other prisoners. The bandits immediately jolted back and looked toward them.
"The monster got to the merchants! Hurry and kill it!" One of the bandits shouted, and they all immediately started running toward the cage.
From above the carriage, Dante could clearly see that there was no monster around the cage, which meant one thing. This was a distraction.
"At least let me catch my breath for a bit." He took a deep breath and then jumped down from the carriage, falling right on the last two bandits who were running at the back of the group, and knocked them out instantly.
The final clash started at that very moment. The bandits stopped running and immediately looked back as they heard two of their comrades' cries as they were stomped to the ground, and what they saw made them all pale as if they saw the Grim Reaper.
Dante was standing on the bodies, covered in blood and with a large, annoyed grin on his face. One of the bandits shouted a curse and glared at Dante, "You foul demon!"
This random guy that they captured at the river had turned out to be more trouble than any of them expected. He had just folded half of them. He had even dared to show his face right now. It didn't take the remaining eight bandits a second to charge at him with their weapons drawn.
Eight to one, it was an extremely unfair fight, especially with how injured Dante was. Even in a one-on-one, he would lose in his current condition. So why did he come out of hiding?
Of course, it was because he wasn't alone anymore. All of the men imprisoned in the cage had come out the moment he stomped the two bandits, and they were ready to fight as well.
It was fifteen against eight now. And before the bandits could realize the men in the cage had escaped, one of them, the old merchant, had swung a vase at the last bandit's head and sent him straight out to meet God.
As they heard the vase shatter, the bandits turned around in panic. "They escaped?!" But that was a mistake, as Dante took the chance and kicked one of them in the ankle, dropped him down, and then stomped his throat.
At his current state, Dante can't afford to hold back if he wants to live. He was going all out; good luck to everyone else.
Only six bandits are left, and they quickly split into two groups. Three jumped at Dante, and three turned to deal with the escaping men. It was now three against one for Dante, and he knew that he was at a big disadvantage if those three worked together.
To his luck and prior effort, one thing still worked in his favor. Those three bandits were still terrified of him to the bones, and he could clearly see their hands trembling as they pointed their swords at him and quickly glanced at their friend struggling to breathe on the ground with a shattered throat.
Taking advantage of their fear, Dante charged headfirst at one with a smile, and the bandit gasped for a second as he lifted his sword. Dante let the bandit swing his sword, but at the same time, threw a kick at his wrist, disarming him in the blink of an eye before tackling him down with a headbutt to the chest.
But before Dante could finish the bandit, the other two grabbed and pulled him back, trying to pin him down. With his injured shoulders, Dante couldn't resist their strength. If he don't act quickly, he'd be at their mercy in a second or two. They were both physically stronger than he was, which would make wrestling them hard in his current condition.
To his luck, those bandits were asleep just a few minutes ago, and none of them wore armor. So he just reached down with his hand, grabbed one of them between the legs, and crushed what was there into smithereens.
As the one bandit screamed and fell to his knees, the other let go of Dante and jumped back in fear, trying to get away before Dante grabbed him as well. Dante didn't waste this chance and jumped at the bandit he dropped down first, and finished him off with a solid kick to the face.
The one uninjured bandit was suddenly hit with an arrow to the neck and fell down right before Dante turned around to fight him, and what Dante saw was a tall, fully armored man in shining plate armor standing right there. The knight's zweihander was fully raised up in a wrath stance, ready to cleave anyone in half.
The only thing that Dante could think of was that one of the bandits had managed to wear their armor, and he felt quite pissed about it. He must take this one down before he attacks him, so he got moving immediately, and to his luck, his one droplet of mana had just regenerated.
Dante rushed at the armored knight, and the knight swung a sword at him without a moment of hesitation. Dante saw that and quickly tilted his body to the side, letting the sword hit the knife stuck on his back and get deflected away; at the same time, his other fist was flying toward the knight's helmet, aiming at where the jaw should be.
The knight, rightfully thinking that a punch from an unarmored, scrawny young man wouldn't harm him, didn't even bother dodging and decided to take the chance to tackle Dante and tie him down. But that was a mistake. Dante's mana-charged punch hit as hard as a mace, and when the punch hit the knight, it dropped him to the ground, knocking him out.
As the knight fell to the ground, Dante was immediately punched by another knight, kicked in the back by a third one, and finally tackled to the ground by the fourth one like they were playing football.
"STOP! STOP! Sir knight! He isn't one of the bandits!" The old merchant came in screaming, and the knights all glared at him. "What do you mean? He just knocked Alex down…"
The old merchant quickly grabbed the knight holding Dante down and tried to pull him back. "He is the one who freed us and was fighting the bandits. Look at him; he is injured all over, and his skull is cracked open. I bet he wasn't thinking straight in the heat of the battle."
His hands slipped off the polished armor, and he gasped for air. "You're all knights; can any of you move with such injuries, let alone think straight? Show the kid some mercy!"
Of course, the scrawny merchant couldn't move the knight an inch, but his words did. The knight looked at Dante's unconscious body and was quickly surprised. A cracked skull, an arrow to the shoulder, a knife stab to the other shoulder, a lot of blood loss, and clear signs of exhaustion and malnourishment.
The knight got off Dante's back and shouted at the others. "Healer! Come check on him. Everyone else, tie the bandits down and see if any of them are still alive." He then smiled beneath his helmet. "Are you telling me he alone did all of this? He might be even crazier than Alex."