Chapter 795: The Fleeing Bandit Leader, Unable to Save More People

Although the Bandit Leader looked heroic as he knocked over the mounted Church Priest and subsequently roared to drive back the surrounding crowd, striding out from among the Armed Civilians, he was actually moving sideways, his head slightly turned to the right, using the corner of his right eye to constantly gauge the Knight who was running quickly toward him.

Seeing that damned Knight running over, his own feet subconsciously began to run as well.

There was a carriage blocking the road beside him; he took a quick glance and discovered that although the draft horse was average, it was sturdy and round-bellied, looking like it could carry him away from here.

Although this draft horse lacked a saddle and other riding equipment, the Bandit Leader could not care about much else at this moment; he swung his Great Axe in his right hand twice behind the horse's rump, severing the thick leather straps pulling the carriage.

But before he could flip onto the horse's back, a young man who had been severely wounded stood up from the cargo box of the carriage the horse had been pulling.

"Get off the horse and get lost now, and I'll pretend I didn't see you."

The Bandit Leader jerked his head around to look at the young man who had uttered such wild words.

This person had a severe injury on his left arm, barely having stanched the blood with torn clothing, but the gashed flesh was a mix of red and white, revealing wounds deep enough to see bone. As for the young man's shoulder and chest, the wounds where he had been slashed were merely plugged with rags, and his only intact right hand was empty; the clothes he wore were of a better material, but their original appearance had been ruined by cutting them to stanch his bleeding.

This young man had long hair that hung messily behind him, but his eyes were like churning flames, making it easy for anyone to see the intense emotions contained within. Yet, the young man's face was completely devoid of expression.

"Heh, any kind of dog dares to say such things; have you had too much to drink?"

The Bandit Leader ignored the man's wild words entirely, grabbed the mane of the draft horse with his left hand, and prepared to kick his legs to flee the scene.

Not far away, the Knight had already run to the spot where the Priest had landed and seemed to be checking on the Priest's condition; if he didn't leave now, it would only take the Knight ten seconds or so to rush over even without a horse, which was extremely dangerous.

But the next moment, before the agitated horse could start running, the young man behind the Bandit Leader turned, pulled his Long Sword from the corpse of a prone Bandit, stepped aside from the little boy who was pressing on the old Merchant's back to stop the bleeding, and stepped rapidly over the supplies in the carriage box, leaping up to pounce like a bird of prey from the air directly at the Bandit Leader's neck and back.

The Long Sword in his right hand was tucked against his right ribcage as it danced through the air, gathering force like a lethal bird's claw, ready to strike instantly once he reached the appropriate distance.

A sense of lethal threat came from behind; the Bandit Leader let out a strange cry, and the Great Axe held in his right hand instantly changed direction, then, from an angle that would likely injure himself, he shifted the axe behind him to hold it, using the broad face of the Great Axe to defend against this lethal attack.

"You're courting death—"

He shouted this, but in his heart, he hoped even more that the horse beneath him would run forward; as long as the horse started running and the distance increased slightly, the young man pouncing from behind would return empty-handed.

But at this instant, the little boy in the carriage box who had been pressing on the old Merchant's back wound to stop the bleeding suddenly let out a whistle.

"Whew—"

The whistle was blown very urgently and broke off halfway through, but the effect was unexpectedly extraordinary; the draft horse, which the Bandit Leader had flipped onto and was kicking violently, had already begun the motion of running, but upon hearing the boy's whistle, it stopped directly in its tracks.

This turn of events caught the Bandit Leader completely by surprise, but the next moment, the young man in the air, Weier, thrust his Long Sword toward the Bandit Leader.

Even though he saw the opponent use the axe to defend against his surprise sword strike, the teachers at the academy had taught him that once a sword is thrust, it must not be retracted.

Thus, he did not retract the sword in his hand, put the full strength of his right arm into it, and, borrowing the speed of his jump and descent, thrust it straight toward the opponent's vital back.

Clang—

Sparks flew, and the resilient Long Sword bent like a bow, but the other side of the collision did not fare well either.

The Great Axe, struck by the massive force, slammed into the Bandit Leader's back, turning the Bandit Leader's curses into a muffled groan as his entire body could not help but tumble forward.

Because the horse beneath him was a draft horse, it lacked a saddle and Stirrups; the Bandit Leader could not sit on the slippery horse's back at all and was knocked off after receiving the heavy blow.

With a bang, the Bandit Leader's fat, sturdy body crushed a small box in front of the carriage; it was unclear what was inside, but it was quite sturdy, and as the Bandit Leader crushed it, he himself was also hit quite hard.

"Ugh, damn it, damn it, damn it! If you want to die, then come!"

Cursing, the Bandit Leader propped himself up with his left hand and climbed to his feet.

As for the young man Weier, he used the recoil of the attack while in mid-air to hang for a moment, then landed straight on the ground. No sooner had he landed in a half-crouch than he leaned down and thrust his sword beneath the horse, charging like a shadow straight at the Bandit Leader who had just climbed up.

However, the Bandit Leader swung his axe, forcing Weier to dodge. The weight of their weapons was not in the same league; it was fine when the opponent's axe was defending against his attack, but now that the opponent's axe was swinging, his Long Sword could not block it.

His weapon would be knocked out of his hand.

From the equipment and behavior of the opponent, Weier knew this person was likely a Bandit Leader; he had dealt with many bandits over the past few years and knew how to handle these people.

Weier dodged to the right, kicked off the ground diagonally with his legs to gain momentum, and swung his Long Sword like a rainbow, aiming for the opponent's empty left arm.

The Bandit Leader subconsciously wanted to raise his left arm to block, but the next moment he realized that the Shield he usually used had already been discarded by him just now.

But this young man moved fast, and the Long Sword in his hand was shockingly quick; the axe could not keep up with the opponent's offensive, so he had no choice but to let the studded Arm Guard on his left forearm block the sword.

Ping—shhh.

The Long Sword slashed across, knocking off an iron rivet on the studded Arm Guard, then sliced through the flesh beneath.

The tip of the sword was stained with blood again.

It was only a minor injury; the Bandit Leader didn't even grunt, and after stepping back, he kicked away the supply box he had just flattened, kicking various items from inside forcefully toward the young man.

Weier watched the incoming debris, retreating with his steps while swinging his Long Sword in front of him, knocking away the scattered items being kicked over.

But at this moment, the Bandit Leader did not entangle himself with this young man at all; he still remembered the Knight who could chase him down at any moment—that was the truly deadly one! As for the young man wielding the sword before him, although his Sword Technique was good and his reactions were fast, he was not lightly wounded; fighting him, did this person even have the stamina?

He could knock down thirty bandit subordinates empty-handed in one go; how many could this severely wounded, bleeding young man kill before his stamina ran out, even if the subordinates didn't fight back and let him kill them?

So, while retreating quickly with his body turned sideways, he asked: "What is your name? I will come back to settle this with you."

Weier inverted his Long Sword and stuck it into the soil beside him, then pressed his right hand against the wounds on his shoulder and chest: "I am Weier; my surname is not convenient to say."

"Weier? Hmm, ugh, I seem to have heard your name before."

Weier stared at the Bandit Leader retreating quickly into the distance, responding coldly: "There are many people with this name; it's not necessarily the one you're thinking of."

After speaking, he glanced toward the middle of the Refugee Team, where a swift black shadow was heading straight for the Bandit Leader.

He just watched, neither giving a warning nor going to pursue.

He saw that the opponent also reacted at the last moment to the incoming Crossbow bolt, subconsciously turning to use his left arm to block the front of his body, but that guy probably forgot he didn't have a Shield in his hand; the body's crisis reaction was far faster than the brain.

Just like that, the opponent comically used the air on his arm to block the incoming Crossbow bolt, and then the bolt passed through the opponent's air shield, piercing through his entire left arm and even injuring part of his side rib.

"Hmph, heh."

He chuckled, but immediately continued to press his hand against his wounds; the pain was unbearable, and with the enemy gone, he no longer needed to endure the pain, so he sat cross-legged on the ground and retied the cloth strips to stanch the bleeding.

"Damn it! It's that crossbowman on the carriage!"

The Bandit Leader didn't have time to pull out the Crossbow bolt that had pierced his arm, so he had to retreat quickly while the opponent was winding and reloading, and then, feeling that the opponent might aim again, he retreated while dodging left and right.

However, the crossbowman on top of the carriage in the distance did not continue to shoot; it was likely that the distance was too great and there was no possibility of a hit. It was also possible that after he had become wary, the crossbowman gave up.

Just as the Bandit Leader breathed a sigh of relief, a stone was suddenly thrown from a bush at his side.

This was very sudden, and the Bandit Leader did not react, getting hit in the head by the stone.

However, he was wearing a Soldier's Helmet with iron plates on his head; although the attack was sudden, it had little effect.

"Who? Who is messing with you? Come out!"

The Bandit Leader roared in panic, turning his head to look at the top of the carriage in the distance while his gaze swept over the nearby bushes that could hide a person.

Soon, he noticed movement behind a lush raspberry bush not far away. The Bandit Leader quickly picked up the Stone that had just hit his head, endured the pain in his left arm, and threw the Stone over.

With a crack, the bush shook, and then a sharp "Meow!" scream came from behind it. A furry, slender limb stood up, straight and tall. The tip of the limb even curved toward him, as if it were 'looking' over to observe.

Knowing he had provoked the other party, the Bandit Leader panted heavily. He did not carelessly approach the strange thing, but instead kept moving his feet, actively distancing himself from it.

His Bandit Group had been continuously hunted and chased by the local Knight Lord for the past few years, so they could only operate in the depths of the nearby mountains and forests. At that time, he had realized just how many dangerous and mysterious Monsters were hiding in the primitive mountains and forests for Humans.

Sure enough, after one furry, slender limb stood up behind the bush, two more furry limbs stood up diagonally amidst the intermittent sounds of beasts. Looking at it now, it appeared very eerie and strange.

"A Monster? Or a Magic Beast? Damn it, it was probably attracted by the smell of blood. Go away, get lost! Go harm those Refugees on the Shanglu; there are many Humans there, they are all your food! Get lost, go eat them!"

The Bandit Leader did not dare to turn his back on the strange thing behind the bush, so he kept moving his feet quickly, walking backward.

Another beastly cry sounded, and then two new furry limbs extended from behind the bush.

At this moment, in the Bandit Leader's line of sight, this strange thing behind the bush was definitely some kind of new Monster he had never seen before. He had no intention of fighting an unknown Monster at this time, even if this Monster had run into his territory to act up.

Just like that, step by step, the Bandit Leader broke into the Shulin. Relying on the marks left on the tree trunks during his daily routines, he ran quickly toward the Temporary Yingdi here. The other retreating Bandits had probably already returned to the Temporary Yingdi with the spoils of this battle.

They had really struck it rich this time. Although they had suffered a loss against that Knight at noon, hadn't they made up for it and gained an advantage not long after this afternoon?

Although the Refugee Team was indeed very poor, the Bandit Leader felt that the newly acquired glowing food must be valuable; it was worth it even if some Bandits were killed or injured. After all, as long as the group did not scatter and there was a lair, they could continuously recruit Bandits or ruffians who came to seek refuge, and even some starving Refugees or deserters could continuously be turned into new Bandits.

As long as he had money in his pocket, or rather, as long as he could lead people to make money.

Behind the previous bush, Yongqi Maomao breathed a sigh of relief. Only after it secretly saw the fat Human escape into the Shulin through the gaps in the raspberry branches and leaves did it wave its hands at its companions behind it, who were holding their tails high: "Meow meow meow."

Only then did everyone lower their five tails that had been held high, rubbing their tails that had become stiff after being tensed up. Not sure if the tails were unhappy, several of the Mao Maos' tails kept gently lashing at their owners.

It seemed they were complaining about the bold behavior of the Mao Maos in pushing them out to pose as Monsters and Magic Beasts when facing danger.

Behind the small bush, there were actually eight Mao Maos gathered. Everyone muttered a few words, feeling that throwing a Stone at that fat Human was enough to satisfy the powerful Human. Without a clearly stated reward, everyone had already done enough.

Besides, they had also knocked down two Bandits earlier!

Although the main reason the Mao Maos took action was that those two Bandits looked easy to bully and possessed metal weapons.

After a few meows, the Mao Maos lowered their bodies, kept their tails against the ground, and secretly returned to the messy Refugee Team.

Jier looked at the corpses and the wounded all over the ground with a cold face. Because the Refugees at the back of the team ran fast enough after discovering the Bandits, the losses among those who fled were not high. Those Bandits did not pay attention to other supplies abandoned by the people, but strangely took away the barrels and boxes of Blessed Grain that the people had spontaneously saved.

However, these were not important. What really made Jier unhappy was that all the brave people who resisted the Bandits had now turned into pale, cold corpses. Even the dozen or so brave young believers that Bata'er Jiaoshi had brought in an emergency were hacked by the Bandits into broken, unrecognizable corpses, regardless of gender.

"Hoo, hoo."

Jier panted heavily, his left hand gripping the hilt of the sword at his waist tightly. The Hunting Sword seemed to sense its master's intent, and at this moment, it was vibrating incessantly, wanting to jump out of the Sword Sheath to kill the enemy.

Slap, a palm rested on Jier's shoulder armor. The spikes on the shoulder armor triggered a surge of Divine Power protection from the palm of the other person.

"Warrior Jier, don't fall for their trap again. I asked those wounded and captured Bandits; several nearby villages have been occupied by several gangs of Bandits. Their total number is staggering; we have no possibility of wiping them out."

Bata'er Jiaoshi's body was covered in dirt, all from when he was thrown off his horse and dragged on the ground.

The Priest did not care about the Divine Power protection on his hand, looked at Jier and said: "I know what you are thinking, spend a few days to completely wipe out those Bandits, right?"

Jier raised his eyebrows: "Can't I? Even if those Bandits haunt me after they die, I'll take it. I shouldn't have been soft-hearted before, %￥."

"I am going to treat the wounded immediately, let me tell you a few words first." The Priest whispered: "The Church's blessing ability has a limit. The blessing ability of 'Blessed Grain' can only allow me to produce enough food for less than a thousand people a day at most. Although we were attacked by Bandits just now, the actual number of dead people is less than thirty, and we still have a team of nearly seven hundred people."

"What do you mean?" Jier asked.

"I just asked around and found that in the villages occupied by the Bandits, there are actually more suffering people than the number of Bandits. These people are controlled by those Bandits to clear land and grow crops. Do you understand? Even if we take down one Bandit lair, our team size will approach the limit of our team's capacity. But there are three consecutive villages nearby controlled by Bandits, understand?"

Jier understood. He lowered his head and crushed the wild grass under his feet with his boots: "We can't feed that many people, right? What if everyone saves a bit from their mouths? For example, only eating two-thirds of what they used to?"

"They are not you. If their stomachs are not full, they cannot walk fast or far. Although they can still move forward, the speed of the team will become even slower under the current circumstances. You might understand that the movement speed of a team is not determined by the fastest part of the team, but by the slowest. If everyone is not full, they can only spend more time on the road looking for edible food, which will delay time. In reality, this brings more danger to everyone in the team."

Jier's eyes rolled: "Then, can we settle down directly in the villages we take down? Forget it, pretend I didn't say that."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized that since these nearby villages were all occupied by Bandits, they were naturally not suitable for the Refugees to settle down here. These nearby villages were all close to the Shanglu they were currently standing on. Although there was not a single person on the Shanglu at this moment, Jier knew that the Bandits in the Southern Province who had no one to restrain them were currently the main users of the Shanglu, besides armed Caravans.

The Shanglu that facilitated the movement of Caravans naturally also facilitated the large-scale movement of Bandits.

If he arranged for people to settle here, it would probably be very safe for an initial period of time, since the Bandits in the area of several nearby villages had been cleared, creating a vacuum of Bandit power. But after a long time, other larger Bandit groups in other places would naturally gather around to occupy the territory or attack the free villages that had not yet fallen.

Villages on the side of the Shanglu were naturally not very safe.

"Then if we defeat the Bandits and save the people controlled by the Bandits, can we not take them with us? Let those people find their own way out?"

Jier asked tentatively, but as soon as the words were out, he laughed at himself, knowing he had asked a stupid question.

Sure enough, Bata'er Jiaoshi didn't say anything, but punched Jier in the chest: "You command everyone, I have to go treat the wounded." After saying this, the Priest walked toward the gathering place of the wounded, where wails could be heard everywhere.

Although the Priest's previous fighting had no effect on those cunning Bandits, which made the people in the team very disappointed, his efforts were seen by everyone, and no one blamed the Priest.

At that time, other believers who did not dare to fight also shamefully helped the Priest treat the wounded. These people did not dare to look at the corpses of the brave ones placed to the side. It was as if the corpses of their companions, who were alive not long ago, were too glaring.

"It's all my fault, sigh, I fell for those Bandits' scheme."

Jier crushed the wild grass under his feet completely. Although no one came to criticize him at this moment, he knew that many people around were probably thinking the same thing.

"Damn it."

He cursed in a low voice.

"Truly damn it."