Once they had made it inside the village, Corwyn began searching for a good place to engage the enemy. The horde of bandits was just a few dozen squares behind them. It wouldn't take them long to catch up to Corwyn's group.
They were currently running along the village's former main street. The last 100 years had definitely left their marks on the condition of the village. Most of the houses were in a run-down state, with couples of stones missing in the walls here and there. Sand filled any open space in the vicinity, and the streets were mostly covered by it as well. It truly was a saddening sight to behold.
None of that mattered in their current situation though. Corwyn was frantically looking for someplace to hide for the time being.
"We will take the next turnoff to the left and leave the main street in order to get out of their sight! Once we have walked around a few corners, we will lay low and prepare an ambush!"
"Roger!"
The group followed Corwyn's orders without question and ran into the side street pointed out by him. From there, they sneaked around the many former backstreets and alleyways, careful not to leave any tracks that could give away their location. Finally, they found an empty building large enough to fit all of them in there. Once everyone was inside, they made sure to make as little sound as possible while taking a breather at last.
Corwyn sat down next to a window facing the adjacent street and took a peek outside. As far as he could tell, no one else was wandering around the nearby area. Having confirmed that they were safe for the moment, he too let his body lean against the wall and relaxed a little. Teo sat next to him, and carefully probed in a low voice:
"Is anyone pursuing us?"
"Not for now. I don't believe we can hide here for long, however."
"Then what is your plan?"
"In a straight-up fight, our side will most likely lose. So we have to create a situation where we can either get our enemies to split up, or catch them off-guard. No matter which one we choose, it will be far from easy to find such an opportunity. I think our best option would be to surprise them and take as many of them out as possible before they can reorganize themselves. After that, we will be forced to engage them head-on, however, if we have roughly evened out our numbers by then, we should be able to emerge victoriously."
The other adventurers nodded in understanding. They immediately started to discuss the plan amongst themselves, and prepared their weapons and other supplies they carried with them.
Corwyn too used the time to make some preparations. He absorbed the nearby Arcor and formed multiple weapons out of it. Throwing daggers, backup swords, and some other small pieces he gifted to the people around him. When he looked at all those comrades of his, he felt his heart aching. Many of them would die in the upcoming battle, maybe even Teo or himself. There was no guarantee that they would win. And he had no idea yet how the main battle far away from them was progressing. Perhaps, they managed to win their battle in the abandoned village, just to be killed by the other forces of the Red Vipers who had annihilated the expedition party.
Corwyn slapped his palms against his cheeks. It wouldn't do him any good to worry about those things now. His number one priority at the present moment was to ensure that as many of them survived as possible. Concerning the rest of the expedition party, he had no other choice but to trust in Rogar and the other leaders that they would beat their opponents as well.
"All right then, is everyone ready?"
The answers came in silent nods of approval.
"Okay, then let's do this. We will split into two groups. Group 1 will circle around to the left, while group 2 will go to the right. Slowly and silently, we will search for the enemy forces, however, once you find them, don't engage them! Send a messenger to the other group first and wait out of their sight for the second group to enter a good position. The moment both groups are in position, one of them will lure the enemy into a small alleyway near the other group. Once we have achieved that goal, we trap them inside the alleyway where their superior numbers give them no advantages. Does everybody understand the strategy behind this?"
"Yes!"
"That might really be our best option..."
"I have no objections!"
One by one, Corwyn's comrades voiced their approval. Satisfied, he turned to Teo who was crouching next to him and whispered:
"Let's move out! You'll come with me and group 1. Group 2 will be led by Shigar. I'm counting on you, Teo!"
"Leave it to me!"
Teo seemed eager to start, as he was twitching with his hand holding his sword. Corwyn looked around in order to confirm that the other adventurers were ready as well, then slowly stood up and peeked out of the window. There was no one in sight yet, and he couldn't hear anything either. Step by step, Corwyn walked outside through the door, swords in his hands, and gestured the others to follow him. Once every one of them was out, they split into two groups as agreed earlier, and began to move in their respective directions.
Of course, they wouldn't move all at once. That would arouse too much attention. Every time they got near a turnoff or an open space, Corwyn and a few others would first scout ahead to check if there was any danger. They continued this game of cat and mouse for a good 20 minutes until finally, they heard steps nearby. People were walking in their direction.
"Quickly, hide in the nearby houses! And don't make a sound!"
Without further ado, every adventurer went into hiding. Corwyn himself took cover behind a nearby half-broken wall. Through a small hole in the stone, he could observe the street where they had stood just a few seconds ago.
"What are we going to do now?"
Teo asked him while crouching next to him. He was also looking through another hole. Corwyn whispered to him and the other two squatting down behind them.
"First and foremost, we have to confirm how many people are coming. If they are one big force, lying low and waiting for them to pass by would be our best choice. Should that be the case, we will tail them once they are out of reach and then pincer them together with group 2. But if they are only a small group as well, we will ambush them and then retreat quickly to a different location."
The other three were astounded at Corwyn's tactical analysis. Who would have thought that this young man who had done nothing but smithing before in his life had such a deep understanding of strategy? It was a surprise even to Corwyn himself. All he had done was to think about what the best solution would be. He hadn't followed any military tactics or understanding. It seemed to be enough to impress other people though.
While they thought about such things, the steps were coming closer and closer. Everyone immediately tensed up again. It was about 10 seconds later when the first bandits came into sight. From the looks of it, they were searching for Corwyn's group, as they were looking around carefully while walking. Fortunately, they didn't seem to have noticed them. One by one, the bandits were going around the corner and entering the street the expedition members had just come from. There were about 12 of them.
Corwyn's group amounted to 15 people, so they should have the advantage in a fight. However, it was very likely that other groups of bandits were walking around nearby. Dragging out the battle could become dangerous for them, so they ought to finish their enemies as quickly as possible. Letting reinforcements arrive would be the worst possible outcome.
Corwyn turned around and raised his left hand slightly, the right one holding the grip of his sword. The other three understood that they were about to make their move. One of them silently crawled over to the right corner of the wall, and raised his hand the same way as Corwyn. This was obviously a signal to their comrades hiding in the nearby houses to get ready. Teo and the other adventurer at Corwyn's side took throwing knives out of their pockets and moved into the right position for a sneak attack.
Those knives were given to them by Corwyn earlier. A few of the remaining members of their group received some as well. In case they got the opportunity to ambush their foes, Corwyn wanted to take out as many of them as possible before the battle even started.
Once they received the sign that everyone was ready, Corwyn moved his arm downwards. Teo and the other two moved out of hiding abruptly and threw their throwing knives towards the bandits walking at the back of the group. Two knives hit, one even into the neck of a rogue, instantly bringing him down. The other injured person screamed in pain, and the rest of the group instantly spun around alerted. What they saw was three adventurers standing next to a broken down wall, hastily running away. Their faces immediately became red with anger, and they started to pursue the three.
This was exactly what Corwyn wanted though. Now that the attention of the enemy was entirely focused on these three, they forgot the simple fact that other attackers might be hiding somewhere nearby as well. That was the biggest problem of criminals, they thought too highly of themselves and let the blood rush to their heads way too quickly.
As planned out beforehand, the moment the bandits turned around and ran towards Corwyn's direction, the other members of group 1 jumped out of hiding as well and threw their knives. Just like this, another three bandits were instantly taken down, a few others injured.
The expressions of the Red Vipers turned from anger to surprise, but it was too late for them to regret their actions now. After the knives had been thrown successfully, the adventurers drew their weapons and moved towards their foes, eager to kill them. The rogues tried to flee, but Teo and the other two swiftly turned around and blocked their means of escape. Corwyn too stood up and drew his second sword as he shouted:
"Go! Kill them quickly!"
He didn't need to tell them twice. All the members of group 1 stormed towards the remaining bandits. Corwyn knocked a buckler aside, giving Teo the opportunity to slash its wielder. The others also managed good teamwork to overwhelm their opponents. It didn't even take a minute until the fight was over. On the ground lay the corpses of 12 bandits, their blood covering the sandy street. Out of Corwyn's group, no one had died, only minor injuries had been dealt to some of them. They had no time to tend to them at the moment, unfortunately. Not all that far away, they could hear footsteps approaching rapidly. Reinforcements from the Red Vipers were on their way.
"Let's get moving! We will try to shake them off and then regroup with group 2. They have lost a significant chunk of their forces, so we should have evened out our difference in strength by quite a bit. We can't let them catch us now!"
Group 1 didn't dawdle and got moving. Once again, they started to run through the many side streets. Sadly, it was very unlikely that they could hide again. The village was only so big, and since they were running and not sneaking at the moment, the enemy wouldn't lose track of them so easily. Their best course of action in the current situation was to regroup and then turn the tables on the enemy. Before they had gone into hiding earlier, one of the members was sent away to tell their position to group 2. They should be on their way towards them as well.
They were about to pass through another alleyway, when suddenly a large shadow appeared in front of them. Corwyn looked up in order to discern what was standing in their way, and his face turned ashen.