Walking in another world – Chapter 242 – Bandit subjugation – Part seven

The situation has entered a stalemate.

The bandits aren’t charging in unprepared like they were before, and are attacking with more organized movements.

They’re going around to attack the knights from different angles, and the knights have to change their formation to defend themselves. This means the knights are positioned almost in a complete circle, and each knight is fending off more than one bandit.

Still, the knights’ defense doesn’t break, and they stand firm while looking for an opening.

Hikari is focused on supporting them, quickly throwing knives when it looks like they’re in trouble. I’m doing the same, but we still don’t manage to create an opening.

“Master, I’m going in front!”

I guess Hikari also understands that, because she says that before jumping out.

I don’t even have time to stop her, as she runs through the knights and leaps at a bandit from a blind spot.

Both the bandit and the knights are completely taken by surprise. She takes one down, then another, and jumps to the side to transition to another attack.

A hatchet is buried deep in the ground where Hikari just was. When I see that, my body moves before I even realize it.

When Hikari dodged, she landed in a poor position, because she’s pretty far from the knights.

She’s at risk of getting surrounded, and I see bandits that look like they’re moving in to do just that.

It looks like some of the knights have realized it too, and are moving in, but another unexpected thing happens.

Suddenly, there’s a scream.

I turn to look, and see bandits slowly falling. Behind them are bandits with weapons dripping blood.

When I look one in the eyes, a chill runs down my spine. If there’s such a thing as intuition, that’s what I’m feeling right now.

There’s a strange light in their eyes, as the bandits that attacked and killed the other bandits from behind charge forward.

I block an attack, and it’s so heavy that I grit my teeth.

He’s a lot stronger than that other bandit I fought. Each attack has a lot of weight behind it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see knights being blown back by attacks, even though they were blocking them just fine a moment ago. Looking around, I see some knights are also managing to cross swords with the bandits.

And yet, half of the knights look like they’re being overpowered.

I unleash a Swordslash to try to push through, and the bandit’s weapon is flung away, because he can’t handle an attack aided by a skill.

I try to use this opening to throw a knife to keep another bandit in check, but he actually catches it and throws it back.

I manage to quickly dodge it, but he then takes advantage of that to cut at me.

I have to block his sword with one knee on the ground, and push back.

Now that this bandit is close to me, I see he has bloodshot eyes, and seems to be mumbling something.

Suddenly I think to use People Appraisal, and what I see is…

Name – (Ricardo ) / Job – (Criminal slave) / Level – (40) / Race – (Human) / Condition – (Crazed Lv1)

His level is lower than the knights’, but the weight I’m feeling makes me think he has a skill to make him stronger.

Two things stick out to me. I didn’t think to cast People Appraisal on a bandit, but now that I have, it shows me he’s a criminal slave.

And then there’s the status condition, crazed.

I cast People Appraisal on other bandits, and they’re all criminal slaves. The difference is that not all of them have that status condition.

The pressure in my hands is suddenly gone, and I almost fall forward. Hikari attacked the bandit from the side, and he jumped away.

“Are you all right, master?”

“Yes, thanks.”

So they’re not just stronger, they’re faster too?

“Retreat and regroup!”

Richard’s voice echoes throughout the battlefield, and the battle line that had become stretched is being corrected.

But the bandits don’t just sit and let that happen. They jump at people and try to stop them from getting away. Still, they are split between the ones with the crazed status condition and the ones without it.

I throw a knife at one with the condition, and then a Fire Arrow. The knife is supposed to hit him, and I cast magic in a way that it goes up just in front of him.

As a result, I manage to pry that bandit away from the knight.

“T-thanks…”

We regroup, and Sete puts one knee on the ground as he composes his breathing.

“Drink this.”

I hand full potions to the knights that look spent.

“So you can attack with magic too.”

“…”

“…Thanks for your support. But what are you going to do now?”

Is he asking if Hikari and I are going to keep fighting?

I look at the bandits slowly approaching, and think. If we run, the result is obvious. There’s fewer bandits now, but they’ve actually become a bigger threat.

I’m sure none of the knights will complain if we retreat.

“…I’ll fight.”

I can feel Hikari looking at me with a concerned expression, but we have to do something about them.

I put away the chipped sword, and take out the mithril sword.

I wasn’t infusing it with magic energy, but it’s still strange for that sturdy sword to get damaged like that.

There are eighteen bandits left, and six have the crazed status condition.

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