Up ahead, there was an attractive-looking human woman, clutching at her bloodied leg, screaming in pain, sitting in the middle of the road. Her dress had originally been beige, but now it was covered in brown dust, and blood, and whatever fancy accessories it may have had in the past, had all been torn away.
I count twenty, including the woman, Edmund said.
I count twenty-three. There are two underground, and one hidden inside that fake tree on the right, Sylver said, as Edmund clicked his tongue.
I thought that was just a very old tree Who do you want? Edmund asked as he stretched out his small legs.
[Human Lesser Noble Lesser Scribe 32]
[HP: 271 22%]
[MP: 70 60%]
[Stamina: 4 3%]
[Corpse Inferior]
[Soul Lesser]
How easy is it to fake a status? Sylver asked.
Pretty easy, Edmund said, as he stood up on his seat, lightly jumped, and landed on the roof of the carriage.
Alright You get the 4 guys in the trees, the 3 n behind us, and theres a group of 5 ahead of us. Try not to kill anyone, but if you do, dont worry about it, Sylver said.
Shout if you need help, Edmund said, as he nodded at Sylver, and disappeared.
There wasnt a bright flash of light, no bang, no intense wave of air, the only proof Edmund had used his magic was an ever-so-faint crackling. The hole in the clouds above probably gave it away, but people tended to not look up.
The faint sound Edmunds flight had made had also been masked by the noise of the wheels, as they ca to a complete halt.
Sylver jumped down from his seat and did that little, half walk, half run, people normally did when they were trying to cover an awkward distance as quickly as possible.
Please, they-they- the woman tripped over her words and took a mont to take a shaky breath, as Sylver got close enough to hear her.
Before she could continue, the tip of Sylvers boot reached the bottom part of her chin.
He could have easily kicked her hard enough to send her head flying, but because he wanted these bandits alive, his kick rely knocked her out. He very likely loosened her teeth in the process, but in Sylvers defense, he didnt give a shit whether these bandits had teeth.
The already silent empty road sohow managed to beco even more silent, as Sylver pulled his foot back, and clasped his hands behind his back.
I know youre out there. Next ti you use pigs' blood, dilute it a little. And maybe have the bait wear sothing that will absorb the blood. People will have a harder ti spotting the color difference, Sylver said towards the empty road and surrounding forest.
Sylver waited for a mont, then another, but everyone remained where they were. As bad of an actor as the girl was, the others were pretty good at masking their presence.
Surrender is still an option, Sylver said, a bit louder, as he took a step towards the unconscious girl.
Three, Sylver said, as he placed his boot onto the girls small head.
Two, Sylver said as the girls skull made a creaking sound as Sylver applied pressure with his boot.
One, Sylver said, as he began to place his full weight onto his foot, and heard a very violent intake of breath behind him, followed by a half gasp.
Sylver lifted his foot off the girls head and turned around.
A man with a dark brown beard was on the ground, pinned down by five shades, with a sixth that was strangling him with a thick leather belt.
[Human Hunter Lesser Warrior 71]
[HP: 14,880 82%]
[MP: 0 100%]
[Stamina: 22,510 71%]
[Corpse Normal]
[Soul Petty]
Sylver cocked his head at what he read.
I thought you would be stronger
The man continued to struggle, but with Sylver this close to the shades, he didnt have a chance.
Sylver took a small step backward and watched as a glowing arrow whizzed right in front of his face, followed by 4 more arrows, that also missed him by roughly a centiter. Sylver turned towards the source of the arrows and squinted.
A volley of arrows appeared out of thin air, and the few that would have hit Sylver were instead flicked away by his robe.
[Human Farr Lesser Hunter Crow Archer 51]
[HP: 9,950 98%]
[MP: 400 60%]
[Stamina: 6,733 54%]
[Corpse Petty]
[Soul Petty]
Just as the woman was about to ready another arrow, a dark club collided with the back of her head and knocked her unconscious. The shade that had hit her caught her before she fell off the tree branch.
With his hands still behind his back, Sylver lifted his foot and stomped it on the ground. There was a muffled yelp, followed by a muffled thump, followed by two unconscious bodies being pulled out of the loose dirt ground.
One of the mages had a shattered nose, while the other was bleeding from his left ear.
The rest of the bandits were handled similarly.
They tried their best, and a couple even worked together, but the thing is, countering an army of exceptionally well-crafted shades is hard when you know what shades are, and what theyre weak to, and downright impossible if youve never seen one.
Sylver mostly remained where he was, as bandit after bandit was knocked out, and carried over to the carriage.
Whats Ed doing? Sylver asked, as Spring split himself into two, and went to check up on the pyromancer.
Hes fighting 3 n, and coaching them on how best to attack him, Spring said, without the note of disbelief such a statent would normally deserve.
Sylver just nodded at Spring.
Once all the unconscious bandits were loaded onto the roof of the carriage, Sylver jumped up into the seat and willed the undead horses to continue.
It didnt take long for the sound of tal hitting tal to reach Sylvers ears.
Exactly as Spring had said, Edmund was simultaneously keeping 3 grown n at bay. One was ard with a battle ax, another had a curved saber, and a third wielded a makeshift mace.
But they werent fighting against Edmund, not really.
The bandit wielding the ax was battling a floating tal ax, the sword wielder was battling a floating tal sword, and the man with the makeshift mace was battling an identical floating makeshift mace.
All 3 tal weapons were perfect copies of the real weapons they were facing.
Sylver jumped off the carriage as it ca to halt and quietly had the shades move the unconscious bodies laying behind Edmund onto the roof.
No! Edmund shouted, spin it, spin it! he barked, as the sword-wielding bandit continued ignoring him, and for the tenth ti tried to move Edmunds floating sword out of the way using brute force.
To no ones surprise, save for the sword-wielding bandit, it didnt work.
Edmund was holding an empty sword hilt behind his back, while his other hand was pointed towards the three floating weapons. The movent he made with his fingers was smooth, and continuous as if he was a conductor commanding an orchestra to play a slow song.
Watch your step! Edmund barked, as the battle-ax wielder tripped over his own feet, and nearly fell over.
Instead of taking advantage of the mistake, Edmunds floating tal ax waited for the man to regain his footing before it continued with its onslaught.
Dont make that face, Edmund said under his breath.
I cant help it, Sylver whispered back.
Look at them! Edmund said a bit louder than he intended.
Sylver did as his friend suggested, and took another look at the three n fighting against floating tallic replicas of their weapons.
I prefer not to have this argunt with you, Sylver said, as he continued making that face.
Look at their eyes! Edmund shouted, as the mace wielder narrowly dodged a direct hit to the head.
Adrenalin in high doses tends to do that, yes, Sylver said, as Edmund continued toying with these poor n.
But, in Edmunds defense, underneath utter terror, there was a hint of excitent in their dilated eyes.
To Sylver, this sort of action was akin to playing with your food. It was prolonging the suffering of a hunted animal, it was needless, pointless, and in so cases, offensive.
But Edmund didnt see it that way.
If you asked him, he would describe what he was doing as giving them a warriors death.
In Sylvers opinion, if he were in the shoes of these n, he would prefer to be killed by himself, rather than Edmund.
Because when Sylver wanted soone dead, he killed them. A knife through the throat, the brain, the heart, the goal was to end the opponent's life as quickly as possible.
Edmund on the other hand would make people fight until they reached their peak, and only then would he kill them. Normally that sort of action would be best described as torture, or dishonorable, but the interesting thing was that Edmund had an eye for this sort of thing.
The way he explained it was that he could tell when soones heart wasnt in it.
If you didnt fight back with everything you had, he would just kill you, and with the speeds Edmunds magic could reach, more often than not the person wouldnt even realize they died.
In Sylvers opinion, those people got off easy.
Its the ones who fought back that he felt sorry for.
Because Edmund did sothing to them.
Not using magic, or so sort of secret sword technique, Edmund infected people with his enthusiasm for battle. It was nothing more than pure undiluted charisma, the kind thats impossible to put into words, people just lost their minds whenever they fought against him.
It didnt matter who they were, what they did, or what they stood to gain or lose by defeating him, people just lost their fucking minds, and couldnt think of anything other than beating him.
If a person had that inside of them, Edmund would bring it out.
Truth be told, it was a power almost as deadly as Edmunds other abilities.
The three n were so focused on Edmunds floating weapons, that they didnt notice that one of them tripped for a final ti, and with a giant smile on his face, lost consciousness, as Edmunds tallic mace hit the man on the back of the head.
Sylver looked around, and while he was waiting, sent his shades out to find a good spot.
The ax wielder was the next to go.
He roared with so much oomph in his voice as he attacked Edmunds ax for the final ti, that it would have made Sylver flinch if he hadnt been ready for it.
Sylver mostly remained where he was, and waited for the battle to conclude.
He wasnt in a rush, he enjoyed watching the way Edmund manipulated his mana.
Even in the Ibis, there were less than a handful of mages that ca anywhere near close to Edmunds level of skill. So of it was due to natural talent, sure, but Edmund wasnt the sort of man who was satisfied with rely being better than everyone else, he wanted to be the best there ever was.
And to his credit, he was pretty fucking close.
In terms of combat ability, there were maybe 4 people in all of Eira that ca anywhere near him, in a one-on-one fight, Edmund never lost.
The fight with the swordsman ended in an extrely classic spinning of the blades, that resulted in the mans sword being whisked out of his hand. Thankfully for him, by the ti his eyes inford his brain that his hand was empty, the hilt of Edmunds sword had already struck him in the back of the head.
The three floating tallic weapons floated towards Edmund and rged into a single bubble of liquid tal. The warm-to-the-touch blob ford itself into a thick blade, and as Edmund reached out towards it with his hilt, it solidified into a sword.
Sylver stayed quiet as Edmund mumbled out a quick prayer for the three fallen warriors. He walked over to the swordsman and very gently used his fingers to break off the tip of the mans sword. The shard of tal lted in Eds hands, as if it was quicksilver, and was then inserted into Edmunds sword.
It only now occurs to Couldnt we have just had the dark elves co with us? Edmund asked as Sylver shook his head.
Ive never used this waystone before, Sylver explained, as Edmunds eyes widened slightly.
Ah So this is one of those. Were not going to end up in the demon realm, or sothing, right? Edmund asked as Sylver shook his head again, albeit a bit less confidently.
I an considering Im not exactly an expert when it cos to teleportation, the chance is very small, but I wouldnt say its impossible We should be fine, Sylver said, and now it was Edmunds turn to make a face.
This is the waystone you made when you failed to transfer skills and perks from one man to another, right? Edmund asked.
I wouldnt say failed, but yes, Sylver said.
How likely is this to kill us? Edmund asked.
Us? Considering Im already dead, and you cant die, very unlikely. But if youre asking about these guys Sylver made a so so gesture with his hand.
Edmunds beliefs were mostly centered around fights, and people who could fight, his opinions regarding already defeated opponents were
Very convenient for certain people like the type that needed corpses to grow stronger. Sort of how a vulture might follow a pack of wild dogs.
***
After a few minutes of traveling into the forest, they found an empty clearing that was good enough for what Sylver was about to do.
The unconscious bandits were laid out in a neat circle around Sylver and Edmund, all twenty-three of them, with their heads pointed towards the middle of the circle. What Sylver couldnt store in his [Bound Bones] had been burned into nothing by Edmund.
In terms of complexity, using a waystone was simple enough that most magically gifted children could do it. There wasnt much skill involved in the process.
Sadly, the waystone Sylver had made was only sort of a waystone, despite what the item description might say.
He channeled his mana into the small rock trapped within his internal ribcages shoulder blade, and imdiately felt a response from the magical tool. It felt thin, and slimy like Sylver was trying to catch a long slug, but the harder he squeezed, the more the slug slipped away.
Sylver gave up on maintaining complete control over it, and instead directed the slippery effect to where he wanted it to go.
Without any warning Sylver, Edmund, and the 23 unconscious bandits, all glowed bright blue for a half second and then disappeared.
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