Let's launch the secret attack! (part 3)

Maxim made his way between trees, wanting to leave Hilda and Lee alone. The two of them seemed reasonable enough to go to sleep soon, so he didn't want to interrupt their moment. Slithering forward, he made sure to avoid any traps there were in his way. After all, his scouting didn't end just yet. The night was young.

Stepping some more distance away from the two in small clearing, he took out a dagger he had fastened by his waist. It was old blade, about 30 cm long and 4 wide, it bore signs of years of usage. The handle was cracked in many spots and the leather surrounding it was already shabby. Still, it was his cherished blade, and Maxim never intended on changing it, until the day it will inevitably break.

He rose it a bit higher and shifted it in his hand. Truly, it was lightweight, yet sharp, as a single swipe cut the tree with little resistance. Still, this blade had yet to kill a person. As Savi, he had used it to butcher some animals from time to time, to cut leathers with Lorelei, and sometimes it even served him as a cutting tool for meat when he prepared meals in Mandy's inn. As Maxim, its history was unchanged. He hunted with it, skinned whatever he managed to bring down, and used it to roast meat over fire.

'Will I be able to kill him?' He wondered, thinking about the bandit leader they were to strike at in the morning. He was certain that he had the skills necessary to bring him down. He knew that Dullan might've been leader of bandits, but he was just a farmer underneath. He had little fighting skills. However, the problem wasn't defeating him. Problem was, Maxim didn't know if he could bring himself to finish the job.

Still, he was certain that he could at least subdue him. There were 2 reliable people with him (and 1 extra who he knew nothing about), and they seemed to be powerful. Hilda's ability to shift terrain was amazing, and while Lee's swordsmanship was something Maxim never saw before, it did seem to have quite a bit of technique behind its strikes. Yes, there was nothing to worry.

He sheathed the dagger and started moving back to where Donnie was sleeping. As he approached the spot, Maxim was truly surprised to see the man fast asleep. Oh well, good for him to be able to sleep. The man looked at his hands. He wanted to scout because he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep easily. Anger, sorrow, nerves - all the feelings welled up in his heart, and made it difficult to even rest, let alone sleep.

He fixed his legs underneath himself, sitting properly and leaning on a tree. For a long time, he looked straight into dancing flames, but he didn't fail to hear when Hilda and Youngwoo came back. They both were covered in sweat, and their steps were taken with visible exhaustion. Indeed, their breaths were heavy as they made their way into the spots they would be sleeping in. With visible difficulty, Youngwoo stared at Maxim, who asked:

"Have you been attacked?" He knew the answer, but didn't want to take away the secret from the two.

"No... just trained." Replied Youngwoo, taking in a few deep breaths.

"I see... training is important, but was that a reasonable thing to do?"

"Don't... haah... worry." Said Hilda between her breaths. "We'll be... rested by morning."

"Alright." Maxim shrugged. "I just don't want you to sleep too deep. We all need rest, but, you know, it'd be nice if we watched out for threats. We're in middle of enemy territory here."

Youngwoo nodded.

"I'll take the first turn." He said.

"No, that won't be necessary." Maxim hastened to reply. "I'll do the first turn."

"And then Donnie can take the first shift after you." Said Hilda. "He used to be a soldier, so I'm sure he's familiar with taking shifts. Besides, he's sleeping now, so he'll be the most rested."

"Okay." Maxim nodded lightly. "So, please go to sleep." He urged them both while standing up. "May we all be rested by the morning."

The two of them nodded silently, and as Maxim took his steps into the forest to scout around, they leaned back on their trees. Looking at each other for a long moment, Youngwoo was the first one to drift into sleep, feeling his muscles so tired that he wouldn't be able to life a finger anymore. After just some seconds, Hilda followed and closed her eyes.

A few hours later

Donnie felt something squeeze and shake his arm a little. His soldier's training immediately kicked in, and his body nigh-automatically took hold of whoever was touching him, and while his eyes were still closed, he quickly shifted his position. He opened his eyes, taking note of how he held Maxim down, face planted into the dirt and his hand up in the air, squirming under his strong technique. A hazy second passed, and Donnie released the hold, letting Maxim roll to his side.

"What the hell, man?" Donnie asked loudly.

"Hey, hey, quiet... shh." Maxim lifted finger to his mouth.

"...sorry."

"I'm waking you up so you can take your shift."

"Shift? Oh, I get it." He nodded lightly; he was familiar with standing on guard. "Okay, so you go and sleep. I got this." He added, shaking his head a little to remove any leftover sleepy haze.

"...alright." Maxim sat up and leaned on a tree. His feet were just next to the leftover embers of the campfire they had before, but he seemed too tired to care. "There's about four hours left until the sunrise. Please wake us up at that time."

"Oi, got it. Sleep tight." Nodded Donnie.

Maxim closed his eyes and fell asleep nearly instantly. Truly, it seemed that he was quite tired from his shift. Donnie quickly ensured that Issar's overseer couldn't be burned by the still hot wood, and stood upright. He quickly noticed how the two moons lit up the interior of forest nicely. Indeed, it almost looked like some of those night on Earth when the Moon was in full, and the sky was clear, except here there were two smaller moons. Oh well, whatever. Donnie turned around to check on Dragon Witch, and he suddenly froze.

Dragon Witch and Youngwoo were sleeping. And here was where things stopped being fine by Donnie. They slept together. They both leaned on one tree, and woman had tilted her head, resting it on Lee's shoulder lightly while he had his hand over hers. No, there was so much wrong with that. She said that they hunted together, but why would they sleep together like that? Donnie felt a vein bulge on his head. Ieva would me mad. Very mad, actually. And knowing that, he himself felt some anger.

He gritted his teeth for a moment, but kept his fury inside. There was no reason to explode, not yet. He'd keep a diligent watch of Youngwoo, and if he did a single false move, he'd slice his head off with his magic. Yes, that'd be his way of going about things. But for now, he had a shift to take.

Donnie took his steps out of the safe spot, and carefully walked around. First thing he needed to do was pinpoint the exact location of all traps in vicinity. However, it seemed that Maxim had already did that. He failed to notice it at first, but after discovering his fourth trap he noticed that every one of them had two small twigs made in X shape on the ground. Walking around the perimeter which he decided to scout (a little over 50 metres in all sides), he checked location after location.

After about an hour, he had checked the entire location diligently. Feeling a little surprised with lack of any activity in the forest (he expected at least some bandit scouts, but there was nothing. Actually, when he listened for some time, there wasn't any wildlife going about in the area, either. Oh well, better for them.), he couldn't help but wonder about the situation. Had the bandits hunted all the wildlife to prevent them from triggering traps? Was that even possible in the first place? Oh well, he didn't have to worry about that.

After ensuring that the perimeter was clear, Donnie proceeded to train a bit. He did some push-ups, sit-ups, practiced sneaking around, and did some other exercises. The time flew quickly, for him at least.

In the morning

Youngwoo felt something poke him in his belly. Feeling Hilda's head on his shoulder, he shifted a bit and opened his eyes. He immediately saw Maxim kneeling by the both of them.

"Lee, wake up." He said, and shook the woman by her shoulder a little. "Hilda, wake up. It's time."

Youngwoo yawned a little. Suddenly, he felt Hilda rise her head. 'Wait, were we sleeping like this?' He looked at her, and noticing his own hand over hers, he shifted his position a little, separating himself from her. He didn't mind it, actually, but he could imagine the stare Donnie would give him. From the very beginning, that man said that he was here to protect her, and Youngwoo didn't need to start off with a negative relationship with him.

Looking around, he couldn't see Donnie anywhere. Has he set off somewhere? Seeing his look, Maxim said:

"Donnie is scouting around. Do not worry. The sun will rise in about 15 minutes."

He nodded, and stretched a little. Feeling that his muscles were somewhat rested, Youngwoo got up. He looked at Hilda, who still had half-closed eyes; it seemed that she didn't want to get up just yet. Still, she was forcing herself awake, shaking her head a little. She looked up at the two.

"Is it time already?"

"Yes." Nodded Maxim. "Donnie will return soon, and we will set off then."

Without anything more said between them three, Hilda and Youngwoo finished waking up entirely. Soon enough, they saw the man dressed in camo jacket and pants arrive at their camp. Not wanting to weigh themselves down, the four of them decided to only take the necessities for fight. Hilda took her staff and fixed it to her side with a belt (so as not to hold it directly due to aura poisoning). Meanwhile Youngwoo took out a bracelet.

"Donnie. How do you fight?"

"Magic. But I ain't bad in brawl."

"Then, you can have it." He handed the item to him. "For this fight, feel free to use it."

"Hmm? Oi, that's a neat thing." Nodded Donnie, inspecting the bracelet. "A nasty debuff on it, but a few buffs would fix that. Thanks, Lee."

"Use it well." He replied, checking his sword.

After a few more seconds they set off. With much less luggage to carry around, they moved incomparably faster than before, now only limited by Maxim's speed of inspecting terrain (which was pretty fast anyway). It took them about 30 minutes to reach side of bandit's camp.

The camp was laid out in an irregular manner between trees, but one could instantly see a small hut built in a clearing; the place where bandit leader would reside in. All around the place, hundreds of tents were spread out, and a few people were walking about their business. Treeline made Youngwoo's group yet to be seen clearly, so they took a minute to think.

"Any plans?" Asked Youngwoo as they hid behind a group of trees.

"If we can charge ahead and reach the hut within 2 minutes, we can get Dulan easily." Said Maxim.

"But if we take our time and take out the guards first, we won't be risking our lives with the retreat." Noted Donnie. "I know we gotta get him quickly, but if we don't think about our safety we're as good as dead."

"Then you can get their attention." Replied Maxim. "And I'll charge in quietly in the meantime."

"No way." Riposted Youngwoo. "You'll die before you reach the hut. I'm sure there are some guards right next to the hut."

"..." Maxim looked at him for a moment.

"If we can reach the hut in less than a minute, they won't even know what hit them." Said Hilda.

"Less than a minute?" Asked Maxim. "We'd need to sprint all the way."

"Hmm... Unless Hilda used Earth Dragon Ascension." Said Youngwoo, reminding himself of the Dragon Witch zombie in banshee raid. "If you could use it to shoot us forward, we could reach the hut in a few seconds. The problem would be landing."

"Let's just stick to the original, 'kay?" Asked Donnie. "Let's assume we want to charge in. Could Dragon Witch secure a way out?"

"Any idea on how?" She asked.

"I mean, if we had something like a moat separating us from them, that'd be good, I guess."

"Moat...?" Hilda put a hand on her chin for a moment. "Yes... I believe I can make one with this scepter." She put a hand on the magic tool.

After brainstorming for a bit more, they finally decided on a plan. After taking a second to take out their equipment, Hilda stood out first.

"Earth Dragon Ascension." She gathered all the mana she had, and in an instant, she formed a path to the hut, creating a moat 3 metres deep on each side. No, actually, it didn't reach all the way. Her ability only had a reach of 30 metres at full power. This was less than a fifth of the way there.

'Dammit...' Thought Youngwoo as he charged forward with Maxim. 'That scepter's magic power penalty sure hit hard.' Still, neither him nor Maxim said a thing. The plan was set in motion, after all, and there was no way to back off from it now.

They moved past a number of tents, before they were blocked by some bandits. Noticing how most of them were still half asleep, Youngwoo didn't even unsheathe his sword, instead deciding to bash with his shoulder. Maxim jumped over a few people while still going on his way. They had went halfway to their target before the bandits really understood what is going on.

Hilda and Donnie made a quick retreat back into forest. They were meant to serve as a distraction, so Hilda wasted no time, and cast IDTS to pierce all the tents she could reach with the skill. She then cast IDB to draw bandits' attention to them.

It seemed that the plan worked easily. Youngwoo and Maxim were just barely slowed down by the bandits, as nearly all of them focused on the distraction. Those few who realized who was running through the camp started bellowing their comrades, but everyone was too slow.

103 seconds into the plan, and Youngwoo had bashed into the door to hut. Making their way inside, him and Maxim took a fighting stance, but were surprised to see Dulan already waiting for them.

He was a very tall (taller than Youngwoo), muscular man, bearing multiple scars on his bare chest. His short hair was of dark brown color, and his bright eyes smiled at them. He was different from what Youngwoo imagined. He honestly imagined a sturdy, but somewhat weak older farmer, but what was in front of him was a man in peak of his life. Truly, this was the reason Dulan was the leader of bandits.

"There you are, lord Savi." He said, unsheathing his sword. "I was wondering if you'd show up."

"Dulan, there's no need to fight." Said Maxim.

Youngwoo closed the door quickly and barricaded it.

"We can talk things out." Continued Issar's overseer.

"Talk is for weak. Action is for strong!" Dulan quickly dashed and slashed in a wide arc.

"Pagma's Sword Dance, Link." Youngwoo moved between the two and slashed quickly at Dulan's sword. "Flower." He spun the blade, cutting Dulan's other hand lightly.

"Gah!" The man jumped back, letting go of his sword. He took hold of his hand.

"Please." Said Maxim. "Just surrender, and we will treat you properly."

"Properly?! Just how you treated my family?!" Dulan charged forward.

"Pinnacle Dragon." Youngwoo linked two sword dances, and bashed at Maxim with his shoulder, taking him out of harm's way.

"There's no need for us to fight! Why do you let our ancestor's mistakes define you?"

Dulan didn't respond. Instead, he swung his fist at Maxim with all his might. Youngwoo started carrying out footwork of Revolve, but suddenly, the fist changed its target and pummeled down onto his neck. With the hit reverberating in his skull, he was **** down to his knees. He suddenly spit forward some blood, as poison filled his bloodstream.

Dulan wasted no time. While Youngwoo was on his knees, he grabbed his sword and slashed.

[You have died.]

[You have been killed by Dulan Moll.]
[There are 5 skills possible for selection.]

The raid was a failure. This time, that is.