Chapter 111: An Unexpected Departure (2/2)

“You dare!” Dioh mustered the angriest face he could manage but was swiftly overpowered by the booming voice of George.

“SHUT UP!”

He deftly confiscated all the weapons he could find on Dioh; a short blade and another hunting bow. Without any care for his brother’s feelings, he tossed the weapons at the Third Chief’s feet and tried once more to negotiate: “I promise he’ll avoid you from now on…”

“There’s no need for that!” bellowed the Third Chief with his eyes bulged and his face as red as blood.

“This brat has tried to kill me several times now and yet you protected him each and every time. So I take it you want him to live? In that case, pay for his life with your village!”

“Is there no room for discussion?”

“I’ve said my piece, if I take it back now, how do you expect me to survive in this field!”

With that, he demonstrated his unyielding stance. Like the man said, after being shot at by Dioh multiple times, if he couldn’t even take care of the brat, how did you expect him to live this down?

“Is there truly no way to settle this peacefully?” George persisted with his pleading but the Third Chief wouldn’t have any of that. The gauntlet had been thrown down and there was no way he would withdraw it now. Not to mention the fact that they seemed to be on equal footing in terms of strength; at least that was how the Third Chief saw it.

From George’s deliberate display of weakness, the Third Chief had determined the personality of this hunter. Despite his impressive strength, he was the type to sacrifice his own interests for the majority. It was this personality that gave the Third Chief the audacity to dole out such harsh terms without any regard for George’s will; especially with the powerful backing he had.

With his boss, Dawson backing him up, the Third Chief wasn’t the least bit worried that George would dare to attack him for real. Killing those small fries was merely a minor issue that could easily be settled with money. However, if George were to kill him, a chief of the Wolf’s Fang, that would start a blood feud between the village and them.

“Sigh…” Having failed to persuade the Third Chief twice, it seemed like he had no choice but to choose between those binary options…and yet just as I thought he would do so, he struck out. In the space of that sigh, he did something that stunned everyone into silence.

Knowing that he couldn’t change the chief’s mind, there was only one option left to him since he didn’t want to sacrifice his little brother…he went all out.

As that sigh left his mouth, his short blade flashed out. With a ruthless swing of his arms, he sliced the man apart from his waist up to his neck. A second later, blood gushed out from that horrific gash, threatening to suffocate the hunter in a bloodrain. However, George was more than ready for this; his Fighter’s Aura activated long before the crimson droplets could touch him and instantly expelled the fluid.

So quick…I barely had time to register that flash of steel before the chief died a horrible death.

“Third Chief!”

This sudden turn of events left everyone staring at the hunter in disbelief including me. Up until now, George had been extremely accommodating, going so far as to isolate us in order not to cause trouble for the village. I had assumed that he was terrified of the bandit troupe, yet when driven into a corner, he killed the Third Chief with a single swing of his blade…this disparity was truly frightening.

However, my shock was nothing compared to the bandits whose morale seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. The shock from seeing what was in their minds, an impossibility, was nothing to scoff at after all. Even after his cold lifeless body collapsed to the floor, the bandits were still too stunned to process the sudden change…that disparity was just too much.

Now that their leader was dead, the bandits naturally fled back to wherever they crawled out from. At the side, I gave Ancarin a look that said “why does it feel like we had turned into a bunch of side characters?”

From the time that fellow came looking for trouble, we had gone through a round of fighting, followed by negotiation, followed by another round of fighting, after which we negotiated once more, and then he got murdered…if that sounded confusing, you aren’t alone in thinking that.

“Big..Bro?” Ignoring the fleeing bandits, Dioh turned to his brother with a shocked look on his face as if he couldn’t believe that his brother had such an unyielding side to him.

“Mhm.” He grunted in response to his questioning look before turning to face the three of us, or should I say me. He stared emotionlessly at me for a good while before he said in an understandingly impolite tone: “Why all this happened is no longer important, there’s also no way for us to chase down those fleeing bandits now, so news of me killing Doran will definitely reach the ears of Dawson. At that time, I hope that you’ll…help us defend the village.”

“Sure…no problem…” I nodded to show my complete support for his suggestion that definitely wasn’t any way motivated by his terrifying countenance…

Next came the task of tallying up the casualties. The bandits were roughly as strong as the hunters since their longer weapons gave them a slight edge. However, thanks to their three-star shirking his responsibility and leaving us to fight Doran, the hunters ended up scoring a decisive victory over the bandits who didn’t have a three-star aiding them.

In actuality, melee combat could be summed up as a battle of morale. Once one was able to suppress the other with their morale, the end result would be a crushing victory for one side.

Take for example our recent battle, the hunters suffered 9 deaths with 7 others being severely injured and 31 others being slightly injured. As for the bandits, they lost 11 wolves and suffered 36 deaths with 12 of their members being left behind due to their injuries.

Naturally, there was no need to guess what happened to these bast*rds. Leaving them here would just be a waste of food and medicine so the hunters threw them into the wilderness to fend for themselves.

With that settled, next came the question of how to deal with the bandits’ counterattack…but before that, there’s something I had to do…

I don’t know why but…I have a tummy ache right now…