Chapter 311: Engagement! A Melee with the Bandits!

Jier stomped rapidly on the ground to approach the group of charging Bandits.

The Bandits had no formation and swarmed forward in a mess. They were not grouped together by the type of weapons or equipment they carried, but by their personal relationships. Those who were close, the ones they could safely entrust their backs to, were their companions, while they subconsciously stayed away from others they were unfamiliar with during the battle.

Because for a bunch of scum from different places, most of the time, their companions were more dangerous than the resisting "fat sheep." Especially when you had to spend an entire winter hiding in one place with these rough men who spoke nothing but crude language.

Jier set his target on the tall, thin Bandit Leader charging at the very front. Without a doubt, the opponent was no pushover; the two just exchanged a brief look, and the Bandit Leader on the other side confirmed that he was the primary target.

This caused him to block the front of his body with the large Mudu in his left hand, while the Single-handed Axe held in his right hand was raised high above his head.

In the blink of an eye, Jier set his Shield in front and slammed his entire body into the opponent's shield.

The two shields collided without any flair, and the result exceeded the expectations of the Bandits beside the Bandit Leader: their leader was sent flying back from the fierce impact.

Not only that, but being knocked backward so suddenly, the Bandit Leader also brought down four or five Bandits running behind him.

They all rolled together in a chaotic heap.

Jier himself was certainly not having an easy time; after rolling twice on the ground, he was just about to climb up when he suddenly lowered his body, letting a Bandit who had swung an axe over miss him.

His left arm ached faintly from the collision of the two shields, but his right hand was agile and intact. From Jier's perspective, seven or eight Bandits were swarming toward him all at once, wanting to hack him into mincemeat, but.

They were too slow.

His right hand delivered a swift, direct Thrust with his Long Sword, mangling the face of the Bandit who had swung the axe at him. It pierced at least half a palm's depth starting from the nose, and when he pulled the Long Sword out, he even twisted it at an angle to churn before withdrawing.

As for the two Bandits who lunged over with Daggers, Jier didn't even look at them, letting the opponents stab their sharp Daggers into his body, only to be blocked by his thick armor.

Jier mainly extended his Shield to block several hacking attacks from Long Swords and Cleavers.

Clang, clang, clang-clang.

The continuous attacks smashed the wooden decorations on the front of his Shield, but that was as far as it went; their attacks couldn't leave a single scratch on the metal body of the Shield beneath.

Retracting his thrusting Long Sword, Jier swayed his body and pressed close to a Bandit who was frantically stabbing at his waist with a Dagger. With a slight bump, he threw the Bandit—who thought he had caused damage—off balance, pushing him back several steps.

The Bandit was doomed, because the other Bandits following behind didn't care who he was or if he was one of their own; he was directly used by Jier as a human shield to take many attacks. The back of his entire torso was hacked until his Viscera spilled out.

Jier gave him a hard shove, causing him to block the attack path of two or three Bandits as he fell, and then, amidst the curses and roars of the surrounding Bandits, Jier used his Shield to clear a path and forcibly charged to the front of the Bandit Leader who had just stood up.

The man wanted to set a stance to trade a few blows with Jier, but his left arm seemed to be broken; the large Mudu still tightly jammed in his hand hung limply at his side, making the man open his mouth wide and curse out loud in his desperation.

Ignoring the many fierce Bandits behind him who wanted his life, Jier charged straight forward, used his Shield to parry a vicious axe swing from the Bandit Leader, and then his closely held Long Sword emerged from the bottom right of the Shield, like a Poisonous Snake darting out from the grass, and nailed the Bandit in the chest.

There was a large iron plate inside the leather armor on the opponent's chest, which emitted a sharp, ear-piercing sound upon colliding with Jier's thrusting Long Sword, but before the Bandit Leader could get excited, Jier's body leaned in and gave the opponent a shove, causing Jier and him to instantly swap positions.

None of the Bandits chasing behind Jier noticed this maneuver in the moment; they shouted wildly and unleashed their blades, hacking the back of their own Bandit Leader into a mess, and one axe even cleaved into the back of the Bandit Leader's neck, making even Jier feel a chill at the back of his own neck.

Having received so many attacks, the Bandit Leader wanted to turn around to see which guys had done this on purpose, but after turning his body only a small angle, he twitched and fell to the ground, panting as he entered the countdown of his life.

As for Jier, while these Bandits who wanted his life were shocked and terrified, he used his Shield to shove two people aside, killed one Bandit, and charged out of the Bandits' encirclement.

"The boss has been killed!"

"Damn it! Is it that guy in the armor? Kill him!"

"No, it's not. Shiboermu and a few others killed the boss! It was Boermu's axe that did it; he almost cut the boss's neck off."

"￥%￥, avenge the boss!"

A dozen or so Bandit cronies who were clearly the Bandit Leader's subordinates had not kept up during the previous chaos, but most of them had seen how their leader died, and they immediately ignored everything else and charged to fight in a melee with Boermu and the other Bandits they usually hung out with.

The entire scene immediately became chaotic; many other Bandits didn't know who to help, so they had to ignore those bastards for now and continued to chase and attack Jier and the Hunters retreating into the Forest.

Jier fought while retreating, constantly using his Shield to block every attack aimed at his life. He was not to be trifled with either; while his Shield defense was airtight, the Long Sword kept close to the edge of the Shield also insidiously stabbed every Bandit who approached him.

The Bandits were basically only wearing cold-weather fur coats or clothing, and their defensive capability against the piercing of a Steel Long Sword was essentially equal to nothing.

With the enhancement of the Red-eye Mushroom, Jier was able to aim every Thrust at the vital points on the Bandits' bodies.

Within a short distance, five Bandits had already fallen to the ground, clutching their wounds and cursing in low voices. It didn't look like much, but after the Viscera inside the body were pierced and massive blood loss occurred, it was basically incurable in this frozen Forest.

But these uneducated Bandits didn't understand this; they only knew that they had been insidiously stabbed by that armored man, the wounds hurt deep inside, and fresh blood kept gushing out that they couldn't stop no matter what.

They could only retaliate by cursing.

The Hunters were also providing covering fire in the Forest as Jier retreated, and the continuous Arrows whizzing past him made Jier feel like he had thorns on his back. Although he knew the Hunters wouldn't hurt him, and they should be shooting very accurately.

But seeing the Bandits chasing him occasionally get hit and then painfully pull out the Arrows still made him feel uncomfortable. What if one of them had a blurred vision and mistook him for a Bandit and shot him?

The Bandits were even weaker than Jier had expected, likely because many of the Bandit Leader's cronies were currently fighting another group from their Bandit Group at the edge of the Forest.

With no one leading the charge, the other scattered Bandits lost their usual combat level.

Divided by the obstruction of the large trees in the Forest, and with the long-range shooting of the ten elite Hunters behind Jier, in just a moment, only two or three of these Bandits who had chased Jier into the Forest fled in a panic.

These two or three Bandits didn't even want their weapons anymore, directly using the injured or dead companions on the ground as shields to block the deadly Arrows that kept flying over.

Jier laughed out loud and followed them; a moment ago, he had been chased into the Forest, but a moment later, he was chasing others out of the Forest.

The speed at which the situation changed was beyond his imagination.

He strode like a Meteor to catch up with a Bandit who was using an injured companion to block the Arrows, and directly hacked down with his Long Sword, breaking the head of the Bandit—who had already been shot in the hands and feet by Arrows—and killing them.

Immediately after, he tackled another Bandit who had approached wanting to ambush him, using the weight brought by his armor to press the opponent down firmly.

This Bandit grabbed his Long Sword with his hand, but Jier didn't compete with the opponent in strength; he released the hilt with his right hand, directly took out the Steel Dagger from his waist, and stabbed it into the Bandit's stomach in one go.

The Bandit, with blood bubbling from his mouth, wanted to headbutt him or bite him, but Jier was wearing full-coverage armor, and not a single bit of his body was exposed, leaving the Bandit to despairingly bite at the hard cowhide.

Jier was almost laughing himself to death at this guy; he slammed the Shield in his left hand onto the Bandit's head, mainly because he discovered that relying on attacking the enemy's abdomen made it difficult to make the opponent lose their combat capability in a short time.

The Human abdomen was a vital part of the body, but it was difficult to make someone lose their combat capability in a short time unless he pierced the opponent's heart; then, in just seven or eight seconds, the opponent would fall into a coma due to the brain losing blood supply from the heart, until death.

Jier continuously hammered the Bandit's skull with his Shield; after a few hits, the opponent fell into a coma and stopped resisting. He took a closer look and realized he had already used the Shield to hammer a fist-sized dent into the opponent's forehead; there was no way they could survive.

Picking up his weapon again, Jier looked at the current situation. He found that because this batch of scattered Bandits had been killed or driven back, the two groups of Bandits fighting over there had both stopped their weapons; although they were still separated by a bit of distance, they were all still pointing their weapons toward Jier's side.

"Who exactly are you people?"

"A new group, or are you related to the Monster making strange noises over there?"

"￥￥#! Why waste words with them? These people are clearly here to kill us. Everyone, stop fighting each other; kill these outsiders, and we can talk about the rest later!"

After speaking, the Bandit pointed his weapon at the Hunters hiding behind the tree trunks at the edge of the Forest behind Jier: "Ignore that guy in the armor for now, charge up and kill those archers, don't let them keep shooting at us! Charge!" He held a Long Sword in each hand and led the cronies of the dead Bandit Leader in a direct charge.

Originally, Jier was quite worried about the upcoming battle, but as he saw the other wave of Bandits not moving and just standing there watching, he set his mind at ease.

Very good, very good.

Jier fought the dual-wielding Bandit without hesitation. That man had originally intended to bypass Jier, but although Jier was wearing armor, his movements were powerful and his speed was lightning-fast; relying on the Shield in his hand, he pushed directly through the harassment of two Bandits and swung his sword at this one.

This Bandit, being able to lead the remaining men after the leader died, was naturally no amateur; he parried Jier's Heavy Cleave with one sword and thrust the other straight at Jier's chest.

With a slight turn of the Shield's angle, Jier blocked the opponent's retaliatory strike. Surrounded by enemies, he could not afford to get locked in a stalemate with this person; the Bandits had no rules against ganging up on an enemy. Once half the Bandits rushed toward the Forest, preventing the Hunters from providing him with ranged support, if he were to be entangled by one skilled fighter and then swarmed by three or four more Bandits, he would be in a difficult spot.

Thinking of this, he relied directly on the potent effects brought by the Red-eye Mushroom, forcibly ignoring the attacks from behind, and engaged in a rapid exchange of Long Swords; with a clatter of steel against steel, he sliced off half of the opponent's right hand along the blade, then used the Shield to clear space from the opponent's left-hand Long Sword, swung his sword-wielding right hand straight up, and struck the opponent's chin with the hilt of his Long Sword.

In an instant, the ferocity in the Bandit's eyes vanished, replaced by rolling whites and a small piece of tongue bitten off by teeth inside the mouth.

A good opportunity.

Jier dropped his left-hand Shield, opening up a large space for his swing, and followed with a Horizontal Slash that turned with his body.

Pfft! Clang! Clatter!

This sword horizontally sliced through the majority of the dual-wielding Bandit's neck, then continued its rotation behind him to knock away two blades that had been hacking at his back since just a moment ago.

The two blades spun and fell into the snow nearby; Jier first chopped off the arm of a Bandit behind him, then bypassed the armless Bandit and rushed forward, tackling another Bandit who had lost his weapon and was trying to flee.

Then he finished him off with one sword strike.

By the time Jier stood up quickly, the Bandit whose arm he had severed immediately knelt in the snow, begging for mercy.

Jier didn't even look, splitting the man's head with a single strike, then charged straight at the remaining six Bandits who were in close-quarters combat with the Hunters. Mercy? Did you ever show mercy to the small Caravans or migrating residents you robbed?

Ridiculous.

The Hunters were in close-quarters combat with the six Bandits who had rushed up wielding various weapons; several older, experienced Hunters retreated to the back, while a few young and strong Hunters held various short weapons, struggling to fight.

It wasn't that the young Hunters were inferior to the Bandits in physique or strength, but that their weapons and combat techniques were at a severe disadvantage.

Their weapons were all for close-range defense when hunting animals; they were fine for dealing with animals, but facing Bandits, their weapons were at a major disadvantage in length and weight. Fortunately, the few old Hunters in the back weren't idle; after retreating a few steps, they immediately used bows and arrows to pierce the legs of two Bandits.

This made the Bandits wary, forcing them to fight the young Hunters while simultaneously guarding against being shot in the head by those old ghosts.

The Hunters were also at a significant disadvantage in close-quarters combat technique; their archery skills could leave Jier behind by a dozen lengths, but they were not as capable in melee. Facing the Bandits' ferocious fighting style, they could only rely on constant retreating to dodge fatal attacks.

Jier arrived, immediately pounced on a Bandit, tackled him to the ground, and then barely managed to Lock the Bandit's arm.

"Quick, kill this guy," Jier shouted to the young Hunter beside him.

The Hunter froze for a moment, then hurriedly thrust his lengthened hunting knife into the chest of the Bandit on the ground. But he didn't dare to use force, because Jier was right underneath the Bandit, and he was afraid that if he used force, he would pierce through the Bandit and injure Jier below.

Jier was truly speechless: "Hey, brother, I'm wearing armor; even if you hacked at me with that thing, I wouldn't be injured. Quick, do it again."

The Bandit restrained by Jier struggled desperately, kicking his legs incessantly toward the nearby Hunter, while his arms were also struggling to shake free, but they were firmly held by Jier.

The Hunter seemed to have been insulted; he let out a shout and kept thrusting the hunting knife downward—pfft, pfft, pfft—inflicting several large wounds on the Bandit.

But Jier was speechless: "The heart! Brother, the heart! Or the neck would work too!"

After much persuasion, the Hunter finally realized he should strike a vital spot, and the hunting knife immediately pierced the Bandit's heart, but perhaps due to the peculiar shape of the hunting knife, the blade actually got stuck in the Bandit's chest.

Jier pushed away the convulsing, dying Bandit and climbed up. Seeing this Hunter still struggling with the stuck hunting knife, he patted his Helmet speechlessly: "Forget about your weapon for now, grab the gear in the Bandit's hands and hurry to support the others."

After saying this, Jier didn't care anymore and charged directly toward a Hunter who had already been knocked down.

This Hunter had been knocked down simply because there were two Bandits attacking him. One of these two Bandits had already killed a brave young Hunter and had come to support his accomplice.

Jier glanced at the Hunter lying on the ground without breath; his skull had been smashed open by an axe, his eyes were wide open, his mouth half-agape, not knowing what he wanted to say at the last moment.

Jier barely made it in time; he used his Shield to directly knock away the Bandit holding the axe, then swept away the other Bandit with his sword, only then officially joining this fight.

"Thank you, is Bapusi dead?" This Hunter scrambled up, the Short Sword in his hand trembling incessantly. Jier wasn't sure if this Hunter was trembling from fear or because he had barely managed to forcibly block the opponent's axe with this Short Sword.

Seeing that the web of this man's hand holding the sword had split and was bleeding, Jier felt it was likely the latter.

"He's dead. Leave these two to me, you go support the others." Jier raised his Shield and charged straight at the two Bandits, saying.

Seeing Jier charge up, this Hunter had originally wanted to rush up too, but seeing Jier steadily withstand the Bandit's axe and then parry the other Bandit's sneak attack with his sword, looking quite at ease, this Hunter switched the Short Sword to his left hand and rushed to another place that needed support.

The entire situation changed immediately following Jier's entry; the Hunters tried their best to use two people to fight one Bandit, while the old Hunters also forcibly approached the battlefield, threatening the engaged Bandits from a distance of only three or four meters.

One old Hunter had originally wanted to come over to help Jier, but Jier wasn't afraid of these two Bandits; he was more afraid that the old man, facing the constantly shifting positions of Jier and the two Bandits, might accidentally shoot him. His armor could slightly withstand the hacking of the Bandits' blades, and his Shield could steadily block the offensive of the Bandits' axes, but it could not withstand a shot from the old Hunter's bow.

If only it were iron armor.