Chapter 90: Always Take Out the Rider First, Sounds Like Logic To Me! (2/2)

“Notte, aren’t you supposed to be guarding the entrance?” an old man who seemed like the village elder asked the visibly shaken guard.

“N-N-N-N-N-Not good!” The villager was quivering from head to toe, his beady black eyes showed uncontainable fear. “The mountain bandits are here!”

As if someone had pressed the mute button, the previously bustling villagers all fell deadly silent, leaving all the sound of the crackling firewood whispering through the air.

“How far are they from the village?” The village elder was the first to break the silence, asking the villager seriously.

“T-T-They’re not far!” The villager was scared to tears, voice cracking from fear, “They’ll be here any second!”

The news dropped like a nest of angry hornets, the villagers were hysteric, running around deciding whether they should find a place to hide or try to flee the village before the bandits came.

“Calm down! Calm down!” The old man tried to maintain order, “As long as we give them food, the bandits won’t take any lives!”

But it proved useless, the villagers still screaming and shouting over each other.

Just then, a loud bang boomed above the noise, even the earth seemed to be trembling.

Everyone froze, slowly looking towards the source of the sound. There sat two calm-faced teenagers.

One was slightly shorter, dawning a white robe and brown hair, he held a metal war hammer in the shape of a cross, the end of the cross was indented in a wok sized divot in the ground, that was the source of the loud noise.

“Thanks for the warm welcome.” The other, slightly taller, blue-haired boy stood up as well, sticking his tongue out to lick the crispbread crumbs on his lips and unsheathed the long sword on his back.

“As thanks, let us handle these bandits.” Jom looked at the still stunned villagers and gave them a small smile before walking to the village entrance with Terry.

The middle-aged hunter from before tried desperately to stop them, “Wait! These aren’t your average mountain bandits!”

“Don’t worry, we’re not your average kids either,” Jom replied, making sure to put emphasis on the word ‘kid’.

“He’s right. I’m telling you, we’re pretty strong.”

Terry broke into a smile too, as if to show off his strength, he tried to flex his biceps, but his twig-like arms had the complete opposite effect on the villagers…

The villagers had worry written all over their faces, but it was too late to stop them as the bandits had already reached their village entrance.

It was then that Jom finally got to properly see these so-called ‘mountain bandits’.

To put it briefly, they were bandits in patched-up clothes riding chocobos, but they were different from the starving villagers, these bandits obviously ate well and were much fitter and healthier. For weapons, the bandits chose the easy to wield long cavalry sword.

They were storming forward unrelentingly similar to cavalry on Earth, armies of foot soldiers could be completely overwhelmed by a team of well-trained cavalry, the mental stress of facing mounted enemies was debilitating, add onto that the power of a herd of chocobos, they were technically even stronger than the average medieval armored cavalry unit back on Earth.

But for Jom and Terry, they didn’t even pose a threat.

The reason was simple.

“Why are they only Level 5, that’s so bad.” Terry raised his long sword. “I could beat these guys with a hand tied behind my back!”

“Their chocobos are Level 8.” The Cleric Jom was making his pre-battle preparations behind him. “Aim for their heads.”

Thus, before the battle had even begun, the rushing mountain bandits looked at the two young boys trying to stop them and laughed at their feeble attempt, but some of them felt a chill run down their spine, warning them of what was to come…