Chapter 315: White Mist — The Bandits Blindly Charging into the White Mist

Jier and the four old Hunters were all at the doorway of the wooden cabin, quietly poking their heads out halfway to watch the situation outside. Inside the cabin, two young Hunters were comforting several panicked women who had suffered greatly at the hands of the bandits, urging them to put on the men's clothing found inside.

The wooden cabin was not safe, so they were only hiding for a moment; after the situation changed in a while, they would still have to leave the conspicuous cabin and retreat into the Forest. Therefore, these disheveled women had to wrap themselves in whatever clothing they could find and prepare to evacuate as soon as possible.

Jier saw a large number of bandits emerging from the Forest on the other side. The number was about the same as what the bandit who had been burned to death earlier had said, but Jier keenly discovered that the bandits were not one group, but were clearly divided into three factions.

The bandits in the middle were the fewest in number, but even with the naked eye, one could see that their equipment was good, and they were barely maintaining a formation while advancing. At the same time, they had sufficient Shields; the vast majority of these bandits had taken out wooden Shields, leaning against each other and advancing slowly.

The other two groups of bandits were much worse off; not only were most of them wearing only ordinary clothes with a layer of animal hide wrapped over them as body protection, but not many of them possessed Shields, as if they did not care much about protection in this regard.

Of course, their numbers were large; at least each of the other two groups was twice the size of the middle group of bandits.

This made them impossible to ignore.

He did not know how Knight Lanisha viewed those bandits, but clearly, they were a not-insignificant trouble.

Before encountering this group of Knights leading Hunters and the Magic Beast, Jier's plan had been to come alone while it was snowing, quietly use his combat advantage to eliminate some scattered bandits, and obtain the metal weapons in their hands to collect raw materials for forging his own new Iron Armor.

And after he was inexplicably chased by the Magic Beast, he changed his plan. He felt that compared to his own individual combat power, the mysterious and huge Magic Beast was more formidable; as long as he could lead the Magic Beast chasing him to where the bandits appeared, he would hide, and then he would only need to come out to clean up the situation. The Magic Beast would not need human property, so after the Magic Beast slaughtered everyone, he could easily pick up everything from the dead bandits.

But things did not go as he wished; after luckily obtaining all the valuable items from two groups of bandits, the third time he ran into the group led by Knight Lanisha, who were hunting the Magic Beast. He was directly recruited by them as combat power and taken along to hunt the Magic Beast.

Aside from feeling a bit regretful, Jier had no other thoughts. Although he was forced to join the Magic Beast hunting team and lost the opportunity to obtain all the spoils, Jier felt that this was also an opportunity.

An opportunity to climb upward.

This feudal society changed too little. If he worked honestly, he might be able to save enough money to buy a small piece of land, farm it for a few years, marry a local farmer's daughter, settle down in this different world, and start a family.

Or perhaps he would join a Merchant Guild, travel north and south to do business, save up a family fortune, and then find a place he liked to settle down.

But the situation above would take at least a dozen years.

He chose another method.

Perhaps the deal with Knight Kela could make him one of the upper-class people in this world's society and give him power he had not dared to imagine before, but this deal made Jier feel somewhat hollow and unsubstantial.

Could mysterious things obtained from adventures directly achieve goals beyond his expectations?

Jier—no, Zhao Ji—who had always believed in the principle that sand accumulates into a tower and water drops wear through stone, still believed that only things obtained through his own hard work were real and true.

Arduous battles, long journeys, difficult enemies, unfavorable situations. These things were the important processes that could truly change him and elevate himself.

Tightening his grip on the sword hilt at his waist, Jier felt that actually swinging a sword to defeat an enemy and gaining trust was more reliable than a piece of paper with an agreement.

And now, joining Knight Lanisha and her Hunter team was just a good opportunity.

He had long heard in the tavern that there was a deep grudge between Knight Lanisha and the Wolf Pack ravaging her northern territory.

Having never witnessed the skills of a Knight before, he had no real sense of it, but this time, after truly witnessing the combat ability of a young Knight, he understood the respective strengths of both sides of the grudge between the Wolf Pack and the Knight.

This Knight was so powerful, yet she could not do anything about the ravaging Wolf Pack; thinking about it this way, there must be a lead wolf with the strength of a Magic Beast in that Wolf Pack.

Knight Lanisha, riding on her horse, circled the Magic Beast while looking at the hundreds of bandits rushing out of the Forest.

Counting slightly, the number of bandits was about one hundred and seventy or eighty, which was quite a lot. This made her feel some resentment toward Knight Kela, who commanded the Militia to clear out bandits every year.

It seemed Uncle Kela was not that powerful after all; the annual clearing operations cost a lot, especially the training and preparation actions of the Militia, which were all large expenditures of supplies. Although it was not her family's money, it still made Lanisha feel it was quite worthless.

After all, looking at it now, there were still so many bandits in Bingxun Pass. The losses caused by these bandits' robberies every year must be significant, and these losses would affect the tax revenue of the Kendall Baron.

The main source of her own income was the money and salary allocated to her by the Baron every year. She also had some support in hunting the Wolf Pack.

But she thought again, perhaps the Baron and Knight Kela had never regarded these bandits as enemies; perhaps they just used these bandits as actual combat targets to train batch after batch of Militia?

The more she thought about it, the more she felt this was possible, and she could not help but become annoyed. Did these two guys not worry that these rude bandits would get out of control?

Especially in this Forest deep in the mountains, these bandits had already gathered in scale; once these bandits united, was he not afraid they would attack Bingxun Pass?

Bingxun Pass was, after all, Knight Kela's territory.

The annoyed female Knight stopped attacking the Magic Beast; she rode her horse away from between the bandits and the Magic Beast, circled to the position behind the Magic Beast, and forcibly threw the ordinary weapons she had picked up, driving this Magic Beast hiding in the Mist toward the bandits.

Go! Eliminate those rude and stupid bandits; I don't want to dirty my own hands!

Knight Lanisha said silently in her heart.

Not long after the bandits walked out of the Forest, they saw the strange, huge White Mist approaching them; the Knight who had been circling the outer edge of the White Mist to attack did not know where she had run off to.

"It's coming! It's coming!" some bandits shouted excitedly.

The other bandits were the same; the vast majority of the bandits were basically scattered young hooligans from various Villages. They were attracted by the busy Shanglu of Bingxun Pass, followed some veteran bandits who went to various places to recruit, left their respective hometowns, and joined this dangerous and unscrupulous profession that was boasted to bring wealth.

They had basically never seen what the Magic Beast in stories looked like; after all, except for sparsely populated places like Kendall County in the border region, other areas of the Kingdom that widely accepted Empire immigrants had long ago used large numbers of Knights and large-scale armies to eliminate all Magic Beasts within the range of human life.

Nowadays, if you want to see a Magic Beast, you can only trek for a long time to the depths of the mountains that are not within the range of human survival to see these mysterious big guys from the stories.

Looking at the huge, inverted-bowl-shaped White Mist approaching slowly and silently, these young bandits from all over the Kingdom, with a little fear and even more excitement, drew their respective weapons, prepared to listen to the orders of the bosses of their respective teams, and see what this Magic Beast looked like.

The Old Bandit Leader in the middle of the bandit team and his son Xiao Kesilusi did not think so. They had fought another Magic Beast that regarded the Forest under their feet as its territory many years ago; although the battle at that time was not difficult, it still exceeded the imagination of many bandits.

Now facing this unknown Magic Beast, the aged Lao Kesilusi and his son cautiously ordered their men to disperse and took out their respective Shields, while the other hand held not melee weapons, but the throwing weapons they each carried.

He had seen it just now; that Knight, who was said to be a woman, was riding on a horse, picking up weapons dropped on the ground, and throwing them to attack the Magic Beast in the White Mist.

Perhaps they could do the same.

Engaging in close-quarters combat with the Magic Beast whose entire body was hidden in the huge White Mist might not be a good idea.

Those two ambitious idiots might not have noticed this point yet. His son also saw it and seemed to have the intention of going over to point it out, but was grabbed by Lao Kesilusi: "Let them probe first. You go to the front and hold the line; don't let everyone be scared."

Xiao Kesilusi twitched the corners of his mouth, nodded, and went forward. With his addition, the bandits in front all gathered toward him.

The Magic Beast's White Mist first made contact with the group on the left of the three bandit groups; those excited bandits, in twos and threes, waved their weapons and howled as they rushed into the White Mist in a disorderly fashion. Some more cautious bandits avoided the front of the White Mist and, along the edge of the White Mist, took it for granted that they had surrounded the Magic Beast in the White Mist.

Did they perhaps think this would be useful?

Some fast-running bandits saw the female Knight standing behind the Magic Beast's White Mist; they were eager to approach the Knight, but Lanisha pulled on her warhorse, stood on the snow that appeared solid from the Magic Beast crawling over it, and watched the large number of bandits surrounding the Magic Beast's White Mist without moving.

She was even too lazy to draw the weapon at her waist.

The bandits excitedly rushed into the White Mist one after another, but as they rushed in, the terrible bandits who had been shouting foul and messy things just like that suddenly lost their traces as if they had fallen into a deep ravine.

No, entering that White Mist would naturally cause one to lose sight; it was normal for people outside not to be able to see inside. But why did those filthy curses also disappear along with their entry into the White Mist?

The leader of this large group of bandits felt something was wrong; although he saw the White Mist hiding the Magic Beast stop and not move, he did not hear a single bit of fighting sound. Perhaps the guys inside were fighting?

"You, go over and see if the guys who went in have passed through the White Mist to the back. Go quickly!" the Bandit Leader ordered a confidant beside him.

"Okay, Boss!" This bandit rode his horse around the White Mist and arrived at the back; besides seeing the female Knight standing on her horse not far away, he did not see anyone pass through the White Mist and come out, and here, too, one could neither hear nor see what the inside of the White Mist looked like.

It was as if the companions who had charged into the White Mist had simply vanished.

He shivered, frightened by his own terrifying thoughts; at this, he spat two mouthfuls of thick phlegm fiercely toward the White Mist: "Pah! Pah! Damn bastards."

Then, he rode his horse past the other side of the White Mist, and just at this moment, a roar from a Magic Beast came from within the White Mist: "Squeak!"

The sound revealed excitement and exhilaration; one could feel its happiness at this moment just by hearing the sound.

Not far away, Lanisha placed her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist, subconsciously wanting to draw it, but she forcibly restrained herself.

"The time has not yet come."

She said this to herself.

The Bandit who had gone to scout rode his horse back; in this short moment, at least twenty or more fierce Bandits had blindly charged into the White Mist, and there was absolutely no movement.

It was as if, in this snowy winter, someone had splashed a bucket of freezing cold water on them, chilling them through from head to toe.

The Bandits before the White Mist dared not charge in again; they patrolled ten meters away from the motionless White Mist, sincerely hoping that those who had charged in could come out, even if it were just one person.

But until two other groups of Bandits approached, not a single one of the Bandits who had charged in walked out of the mysterious White Mist.

The Bandit riding the horse stumbled through reporting what he had seen to his leader, but this bad news made the leader, who in his eyes was always wise and martial, knit his brows tightly.

Lao Kesilusi and the leader of another group of Bandits rode over, each bringing a few men.

"What is going on?"

"How is it?"

The two asked respectively. The seemingly bold Bandit Leader did not hear the difference in the questions, and with pursed lips, he squeezed out a difficult answer: "The brave guys who charged in haven't come out yet. But don't worry, they even dare to surround and kill bears, so they will definitely be fine."

Lao Kesilusi ate his thin strips of dried meat with disdain, though in his heart he felt that with the mud-like Bandits under this guy's command, it was likely very doubtful they would come out.

The other Bandit Leader frowned and said: "We can't just stay in a stalemate like this. Think of a way, old man, you must have a way, why not say it?"

Squinting his eyes, Lao Kesilusi swallowed the meat paste in his mouth: "Cut down a tree and have the little ones hold it as they charge in; no matter what is inside, it will be knocked over by the tree trunk. Or, light a fire? That should be able to try and disperse this eerie White Mist."

These two plans made the two Bandit Leaders' brows relax, and they hurriedly arranged for men to prepare: "Then aren't your men going to do something? Just watch like this?"

Lao Kesilusi pointed to the position behind the White Mist: "My men say that the female Knight is right behind the White Mist; I will take my men to meet her."

When he said this, he was very serious; after all, he was not young, and in his long career as a Bandit, the few painful failures he had suffered were all because he had angered people who could not be provoked, most of whom were Knights who had defeated him.

Therefore, although he was nervous inside, according to what his son said, the opponent was a young female Knight; perhaps her strength was not as high as the level of those Knights he had encountered before?

At the very least, he had to contain the opponent and figure out what her intentions were.

Regardless of this side, he led all his men in a wide arc around the White Mist and arrived behind it.

Sure enough, just as his men had said, not far away stood a Knight riding a warhorse.

The opponent's warhorse was tall and large, half a head taller than the horses they rode, and it was covered in thick metal horse armor; the Knight herself was wearing thick Steel Armor, which protected her whole body firmly, making it impossible to distinguish whether she was male or female by her appearance.

It was fortunate that the opponent's warhorse did not have a Knight's polearm, nor the deadly Knight's special bow that spread death.

When Lao Kesilusi was still a young man, he was extremely arrogant and had made quite a name for himself; at that time, he led a group of at least a thousand Bandits and occupied a remote town area, but he hadn't been arrogant for two years before he ran into a small squad of Knights who, looking back now, were just passing through. His men robbed that squad; of course, that batch of his men did not all return alive, and only one guy was deliberately let back to report the news.

As a result, one day later, a Knight riding a warhorse charged into the town he occupied and slaughtered all of his thousand-plus Bandits.

One person, one horse, and two Knight's special bows.

When the opponent saw his subordinate leaders, he used the metal Arrow he carried to shoot them dead through the wooden houses. Then, braving the rain of arrows from his archer squad, he rode his horse up with a clatter, casually letting the horse trample the archers his men had spent so long training, and then picked up the arrows carried by the archers; just like that, circling the town, he spent an entire day and night shooting all of his thousand-plus men to death in various parts of the town.

He was so scared he nearly went stupid at the time, hiding in a water well for at least five days until the townspeople, unable to bear the stench of the corpses, cleaned up the dead Bandits themselves. Only then did he sneak out and run away without daring to meet a single person.

Knights are all Monsters.

He was absolutely certain of this.

Although he always heard about Knights somewhere or other subjugating real Monsters and Magic Beasts that harassed villages and towns, after that incident, he always believed that Knights were Monsters with human faces.

Perhaps they became so powerful because they ate many Monsters or civilians?

Was the body covered by the Steel Armor opposite him truly Human, or was it entirely a strange existence attached inside the armor?

Lao Kesilusi gripped the Jiansheng of his horse tightly, had his Refining Qi men prepare for battle at any time, then told his son not to follow, and with a few trusted aides, slowly approached the motionless Knight.

"May I ask your name?" Lao Kesilusi looked at the holes in the Knight's Helmet opposite him, trying to see the opponent's eyes. He didn't know if the eyes under the opponent's Helmet were still in the shape of human eyes; this was the closest he had ever been to those Knights, and perhaps he could see through this if there was an eyeball the size of half a face inside?

Or perhaps there were no eyes at all inside, only messy, snapping sharp teeth, just like the deadly worm Monsters one occasionally encountered in mountain streams and rivers?