Emile stepped forward and kept calm as if nothing would happen. The bandits maintained the same pace suspecting nothing.
The spells darted through the sky. He needed to figure out a way to dodge all the attacks without blocking them. Blocking the attacks ruined the purpose of an ambush.
The first spell that appeared in front of him was a wind blast from Scarlet Sunset.
Emile couldn't avoid the wind attack, so he unsheathed his sword at a swift speed and used it to deflect the wind blast towards the bandits. He took damage from this risky move.
The other spells trailed behind the first. The spell that hit them shocked the bandits. Emile reacted quickly.
Emile leaped up into the sky with the with a small amount of force. He didn't have the time to charge his jump for the maximum height.
His jump wasn't enough to clear all the spells, so he had to take drastic measures.
Emile cast a fireball on his ascent since it was the skill that took the least amount of time to cast. He launched it toward the ground, so it would create a mini explosion. He wanted to use the force of the explosion to give him extra height.
It was a crazy idea... that worked. The explosion pushed him up by three-quarters of a meter.
Skills zoomed underneath him missing his feet by a centimeter. The bandits took the brunt of everything.
Emile fell on his feet with grace as he moved his sword towards the tricky bandit's neck.
Emile rested his blade on the neck. Checkmate.
Serena felt amazed by the turn of events. When Scarlet Sunset informed her that they should attack as soon as they saw Emile, she felt doubt. All of their attacks were more than enough to kill someone at level 13. She listened to the instructions.
She felt worried about the man. Her heart tightened when she saw the first spell hit his blade, but the next few displays of skill and quick reactions shocked her to the core.
The other two were in similar conditions. Speechless.
The party tied up the bandits ignoring all the cursing they received from them.
Emile dusted himself off and walked away without another word. He didn't think his actions would leave a lasting impression on the new group.
Two hours pass by with them repeating the same actions. Emile noticed that the bandits were on guard since they noticed a lot fewer bandits throughout the camp. They felt uneasy.
Emile couldn't continue luring them out of the camp without attracting lots of attention. The previous group took him five minutes of bickering before they agreed to go with him.
The party felt confused when they first saw the clone appear. Flower Queen appeared to deliver her set of bandits and within a few minutes, another group of bandits arrived with Flower Queen once again. Emile had to explain why there were two. The party understood after he mentioned body cloning.
"We need to make a big move soon. Getting these small groups of bandits to come out of the camp is becoming increasingly more difficult. I think we should attack the main boss of the bandits and try defeating him," Emile messaged the party.
"He's level 19. Do you know how strong that is? He's also surrounded by a good amount of bandits we couldn't capture," Time Walker said.
"I don't know how many more bandits we can get out of the camp if we keep stalling. Plus, they'll notice that there are fewer bandits than before. Right now is the best chance we have," Emile persuaded.
"I still don't think it's a good idea," Time Walker said. He was chill when talking about normal matters. Most of the time, he wouldn't comment at all and watch them converse. Severn would do the same
FBS Fulcron spoke.
"Dude, I know that the chances of losing are high, but if we don't try, we'll get nowhere. We'll only back out when it's impossible for us to win. Emile has hope, the Scarlet Sunset has hope, Nimble Rod has hope. So why don't you have hope in all of us?"
Time Walker hesitated for a moment.
"All right. I'll believe in you guys and me."
After running away multiple times from different fights, Time Walker learned that they should avoid all options that could cause risks. He would vehemently oppose the side if there was an overwhelming risk. He concluded that challenging someone much higher level than them was akin to suicide, but he had fate in the party that believed in success.
The party walked out of the valley. They informed the group of three about their crazy idea. One of the members wanted to stay behind and not take the risk. The party didn't stop them since it was understandable for them to feel scared. The only ones left were Serena and Hazane from their group of three.
"Our first goal is to eliminate the weaker bandits on the outside. Just remember; each bandit is powerful. They might be weak amongst their other members, but they pack a serious punch," Emile gave a fair warning to everyone. He was about to walk away when he remembered something.
"Also, Serena can you heal people?" Emile asked. He noticed that her class said Nature Priest which should be a healer.
"Y-Yes. I can group heal and I can do individual heals. I haven't learned how to cure different poisons or other effects like confusion, nausea, etc." it surprised Serena that Emile knew she was a healer without even seeing her use her healing skills.
"We'll rely on your support, please," Emile said with a warm smile. He tried to make her feel a sense of comfort and importance, so he could gain her as a knight. Lily didn't feel the sense of jealousy she first felt when he acknowledged her. They were merely acquaintances with no other relationships.
The party walked into the camp through an inconspicuous entrance. Emile took off the rag on his mouth since it made him feel uncomfortable.
Even though they weren't many bandits, the bandits spotted the party and got ready to fight.
Emile, Nimble Rod, and FBS Fulcron charged ahead to attack the five bandits.
Emile couldn't become the only tank since he would die within a few hits. He needed the others to come in and take one or two hits, so he could heal up using potions.
The bandits slashed their scimitars at Emile who used his sword to block them. He took damage since the bandits were higher leveled than him and his strength stat couldn't overcome the bandit.
Emile struck back with a swift slash. The bandit went blow for blow. Another bandit charged up to his side.
FBS Fulcron summoned fire from his mouth and created a type of flamethrower that blocked the bandit from charging close to Emile. The bandit charged towards FBS Fulcron who spewed the fire in their face.
The other bandit came from the opposite side of Emile where Nimble Rod stood. Nimble Rod used his rod to intercept the attacks. Serena had to focus on healing Nimble Rod since he took the most damage when blocking the attacks.
The other party members focused on the other two bandits. They launched their spells at the bandits like there was no tomorrow. These bandits grew weaker and weaker. Emile took damage and needed to retreat so that he could drink a health potion. FBS Fulcron and Nimble Rod stalled for as long as they could as he drank the potion.
Emile charged forward once again and attacked the bandit. He wanted to weaken the bandit as much as he could so that Serena could bind them with the wood.
After a few minutes of attacking and healing, they bound the three bandits using the wood from Serena. There were now two bandits left over. The other party members had trouble since the bandits stayed back and dodged the spells.
Hazane tried getting close, but he'd come close to dying if he stayed near the two bandits for too long. Being level 17 allowed him to survive a lot of their assaults. Emile couldn't fight two bandits at the same time.
Emile and the rest of the party members helped Hazane fight against the two bandits. The wood also bound those bandits after a minute of fighting. Scarlet Sunset went around and tied them with rope so that Serena didn't have to strain too much mana to maintain the wood.