Chapter 108 - Raiding the bandit camp (1/2)

”Are you crazy?” asked Roll shocked at the manner in which Shadow had taken down both the lookouts. Looking at the health bar, he could see that Shadow had also lost some health, but he doubted that the lookout actually hurt him and was sure that it was self-inflicted from the fall. He had already known of Balthazar's present state as perceived by Rudra and his question was from the sheer surprise of his tactics.

”It is faster this way and the commotion isn't small, the other might notice the guards missing and there are even patrols moving in the camp. If anyone comes close to the gate and finds the guards missing, it would be a prolonged tussle with these monsters,” said Shadow as he made his way towards the gate.

”Get into stealth and follow me,” said Shadow as he crept into the camp with Roll following him while the other were still fighting the four guards. Roll and Shadow quickly came to the first tent. Through the window flap they could see the bandits without their armor feasting on the carcass of a stag. This was the first time that Roll saw the bandits head and could finally see their race.

Roll was both a bit disgusted and frightened by the appearance of these monsters. At that time, Balthazar found that he had a few notifications. It was for the quest that he had received when he reported of the bandit lair to the encampment of the guards at the back of the Blackrock town. The number of bandits killed increased to two in the quest progress.

[Quingol Bandit] (Elite Monster)

Level 10;

HP: 4500/4500;

”These rat headed creatures. Are all the bandits same?” asked Roll.

”Yes, a race called Quingol. I sneaked in last time and got a decent harvest, but I have seen a lot of them in the camp. They also have harpoons and other tools lying on the floor by the river.” explained Shadow as he was moved around looking into other tents.

He noticed that most of the bandits were similar and had their armor removed inside the tents. It would be an easy thing to take them down, if they had enough assassins. The problem was that they had only two and unlike the goblins, the quingols kept quiet in their tents and either feasting or sleeping.

”I don't think there is an easy way to get through these bandits. We might need to kill through all of them,” said Roll as he had also observed the situation in various tents. While they were searching the tents, he had already asked the other to keep a safe distance from the gates and Slaine also perched himself on a watchtower and began to make a map of the camp and mark the paths of the patrols that he could see.

Balthazar continued to observe for a few more seconds before conceding. ”It might be as you told. I can't see another way either. The goblin fort seems quite simple compared to this,” he said looking at Roll. Unlike Roll, he knew that there was always away to use the camp's structure to their benefit in the game. That was considered the iron-clad rule of the game in his previous life and it just depended on the players ingenuity and their intelligence.

Even in situation when the players failed to exploit anything and fought like brutes, there were always things that they realized later which they could have used to reduce the difficulty by a bit. Even though, it wouldn't make the fight easy, it definitely would help reduce the difficulty. In hindsight, many could find the flaws of other, but it wasn't the same when they were actually in the fight.

Shadow had seriously looked for anything that could be used but failed to notice anything among the behaviour of the bandits that would help the team's raid. ”Damn, I can see a lot of harpoons by the lake, but sadly can't transport them from the midst of the camp,” said Shadow sending a few pictures of the area around the lake to Slaine.

”Found a warehouse here, the last time I came into the camp,” he sent a location to Slaine in chat. ”Good chance of getting goods from the warehouse. Found a crossbow in one of their tents. So, a warehouse is bound to have better equipment,” he told Slaine.

”You found crossbows in the tents? Are those the ones similar to the crossbows used by the bandit lookout? Does that mean that we can expect more of the bandits to be carrying crossbows? That would make our task a lot more difficult. How come you forgot to tell me that, I would have come with more players than call for reinforcements,” said Slaine.

”You better call them now,” said Shadow.

”Called for help as soon as I saw those frightening guns,” said Slaine as he continued to observe the pictures that were sent by Shadow and Roll.

A few seconds later, Slaine sent a message that surprised Balthazar and put a bit of hope in his mind. Slaine suggested using the mounted weapons against the bandits. They just needed to find a way towards the bandits without noticing them. He also sent Shadow co-ordinates for a place where a patrolling bandit would soon come close to the gate.

Shadow and Roll quickly made their way to the place mentioned by Slaine to ambush the patrolling bandit first. Shadow used cheap shot from the side stunning the bandit and then they both repeated strikes at its neck beheading it within five seconds.

”Let us get closer to the weapons and we can take clearer pictures and see if they can actually be rotated to face the bandits,” suggested Roll.

”It is not a bad idea, the last time, there were a good number of bandits at the very least twenty of them in the lake. Don't know whether they might be at this time of day or no, but it is a fair assumption that a few would be at the very least,” said Shadow. His words put another hurdle in their plan.

There were quite a few harpoon guns and other machines mounted by the lake and most of them were not manned and probably wouldn't be except for special situations. But, if someone from the lake saw them and attacked from behind, it would get a lot more difficult to use the mounted weapon and fight the bandits.