The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich brought the cloak before they set off from Voryhrm, it was very light so it cost him 10 orbs. He thought that it might come in handy and it did.

"We have to deal with the errand boy sent to check up on Bodger." Aldrich said.

"Why don't we deal with him later? He won't find Bodger anyway meanwhile we can get to attacking the main camp I reckon we will be done in fifteen minutes or less." Nathan said.

"That makes sense, but what if he returns sooner than expected? Or what if he was alerted by the battle's commotion? I think he might run away and then we might never see him again."

"I guess the safest option is to kill him but a chase might cause a commotion and alert those in the camp," Hellen said.

"I will do it myself, we know which way he'll go right? Did he move out?" Aldrich asked Cole.

"Yeah, I think by now he might have already been on his way, he was going on foot but still he's a few minutes ahead of you."

"That's fine, I can catch up, I think," Aldrich took off his backpack, "but if I didn't we will go with the other approach then."

Saying that Aldrich jumped off from the top of the tree landing swiftly and immediately dashing out in full speed. The errand boy was also probably in a hurry so it was still not a sure thing.

But it was easy to know which way he will take since they already had a clear map of the area and Aldrich had memorized all of the important locations and routes.

Aldrich didn't hold back, he was running using his full speed, he felt the wind slapping against his skin and for a while it seemed that time had come to a standstill.

As the trees and animals fled at his sight and the clouds parted he saw his the back of his quarry at last. The man was also running, he was too focused and didn't notice Aldrich behind him.

While running Aldrich picked up a pebble, aimed and shot the poor fella in the back.

"Agh!"

The man fell to the ground as his own speed proved to be his greatest enemy, he crashed and went on to get wrecked for some distance, Aldrich even heard the sound of breaking bones.

Aldrich got closer and got a good look at him, it turns out that his limbs were twisted and his flesh was mangled badly, his face was ruined and especially his nose, it was gone.

Aldrich didn't mean to do this, to the point that he felt some sympathy for this bandit. Truthfully he just wanted to stop him and then kill him the old fashioned way…

"Uh… s-save….me…eh…"

Oh, so he was still alive? Aldrich hurriedly saved the man from his suffering, by stabbing him in the heart. After all he was not here to waste time it was good that he managed to finish the job this fast.

Aldrich turned around and returned the way he came, maneuvering through the woods expertly and avoiding any mud or pitfalls.

"You guys ready?" Aldrich asked when he got to the tree which the party was using to spy on the bandits.

"Altunan smite you!" Cole cursed, "you can't have already killed him right?"

"I did. Now, cut the crap and tell me what has the bandits been doing?" Aldrich asked.

"Nothing much just drinking and feasting, the Ravenfolk demi-human is sitting on the seat of honor with the bandit wearing the skull necklace."

Aldrich finally had a look at the demi-human, he was not too big, from this distance at least he wasn't bigger than two meters. He looked like a humanoid raven with the upper body of a man, his back supported two large wings and was covered in black feathers.

He had the head of a raven and with a beak for a mouth, his legs were clawed and he held a large broad-bladed spear. It was truly big and it looked heavy too, without the strength of a grade zero level three being it was impossible to wield it.

The strange thing was that it didn't let go of the spear even while eating which meant that it wasn't careless and might even not trust the bandits all that much.

When Aldrich noticed some of the bandits rushing around holding their pants he knew it was time.

"You guys go down there and hide by the walls when I throw the bomb that's when you guys rush in and try to make sure that every hit is a fatal blow.

The first few moments of this attack will decide the result if we mess up and lose the chance then we will all die, go."

The group took their positions and when Aldrich saw that he aimed at the bonfire in the center of the bandit's camp and hurled the bomb at it.

The bomb was not actually as light as it looked, it cut through the air and was about to hit it's target but it missed the center of the bonfire.

But that was fine, it was close enough.

*BOOOOM*

The bandits who were eating fell off their seats and were stunned, some of them whom sat too close to the bonfire bled from their ears and two of them caught on fire as they flailed on the ground.

There was a moment of confusion and panic as the bandits couldn't see because of the intense smoke and couldn't hear properly, those who could walk lost their footing as soon at they did so.

Suddenly one of the bandits who was struggling to stand was shot by an arrow in the neck, two others saw the same fate respectively one after the other.

In the cover of the smoke a bandit though that he saw a shadow pass by but he couldn't be sure, he walked over to check but before he could he felt a sharp pain and then saw eternal darkness.

A man wielding a saber dashed by but he didn't attack any of the fallen bandits instead he focused on those who still had some fight in them.

"Who! *cough* *cough* who is it! Cowards, show yourselves!"

On of them took out a musket and shot around randomly as he started yelling, he was far enough from the blast but his stomach was twisted and it hurt to the point of driving him to madness.

Frank jumped over and with a smooth movement he drew an X shaped wound on the man's chest.

"Agh! Eso! God damn you! You shot me!"

Turns out one of the bandits was injured by friendly fire and he was on the ground surrounded by a foul smell. Frank finished him off.

Another one had a bow and he was shooting wildly too, he couldn't focus at all his stomach was going crazy like he ate something not right, suddenly the man realized that he was out of arrows and in that moment a dagger stabbed him in the guts.

Nathan heard a strange noise after he killed that bandit and walked over to the source, under a wooden box he found a bandit that was too busy relieving himself that he didn't even care about what was happening.

"For fuck's sake." Nathan swore as he killed the uncaring man, even in his last moments that bandit had a blissful expression on his face. That sent shivers down Nathan's spine.

"…what the hell was that about? Is the outside world this scary?"

Nathan thought that he made the right decision to embark on this path and see what was outside of the lab, but it seemed that the real world was much darker than he thought.

Well, the goal was a learning experience so it was good that it surprised him.

*OINK*

Suddenly a speeding beast ran wildly in the clearing amidst the smoke it crushed three bandits in the chaos and destroyed the kitchen.

It was the great boar variant that went crazy when the bomb first exploded and caused much more damage to the bandits than it did to the party. After which it ran through the opening in the wall in the northwest.

"Ooh, so that's what broke it in the first place." Cole concluded as he stabbed the two cooks who almost found him in the kitchen not long ago.

All of a sudden strong winds blew all over the place, the smoke started to vanish revealing dozens of bodies littering the ground.

"LOWLIFE HUMANS! You dare ambush me?!"

The Ravenfolk spread his great wings and the winds blew away some of the smoke but before it could blow it all away an incredibly fast figure darted across the battlefield and attacked the Ravenfolk.

A sword and a spear clashed, but this was no normal clash it was one of extreme strength, the resulting sound was similar to the bomb's own explosion.