After some time, the party had tied up all the bandits near the edge of the camp. They didn't want to go far into since the stronger bandits existed within.
Emile asked a vital question.
"Do you guys have many health and mana potions?" Emile asked as he checked his inventory. The potions were within the corner neatly organized for easy access.
A unanimous agreement ran through the party as they all had the supplies to last long fights.
The party didn't want to loot the bandits as soon as they caught them since they wanted to wait until the end. After the first captures in the camp, they understood that the bandits needed to be unconscious or else they could scream and get the other bandits' attention.
They didn't take this scenario into consideration when they first tied the bandits. The bandits yelled out causing a group of 11 to come out. Fighting this group required a lot more effort from the party as they had to heal at opportune times.
Flower Queen had to create earth walls to separate bandits so that they had an easier time without struggling to fight lots of them at once. These bandits could break through the walls with a slash of their scimitars.
Flower Queen never stopped casting. She repaired the walls each time they grew close to breaking.
They defeated the bandits by using this strategy.
The party walked forward into the inner core of the camp. They put their guards up as they walked in tight groups so they wouldn't be picked off by the other bandits.
The party discovered the first group of level 18's. There were seven bandits in this group. The previous bandits they encountered were level 16 or 17.
These bandits were five levels higher than Emile and six to seven levels above the party. Hazane and Serena were level 17, so they wouldn't experience too much trouble when facing these bandits.
Severn was as strong as a level 17 after the system strengthened him. He couldn't improve on his own and needed the system to upgrade him through different contributions.
Severn's job as Emile's knight wasn't used often since Emile never faced a difficulty that he couldn't deal with by himself. Severn tagged along in their adventures with little attention. (1)
The bandits weren't ordinary bandits. They weren't a group of strong mismatched people. They had a sense of unity and worked together to combine their attacks.
Emile used his sword to charge forward and attacked the closest bandit. Severn couldn't stay lax and had to act since two other bandits attacked Emile. He knew Emile's level of strength and understood that this challenge was something even he couldn't do unless he spammed all his skills at once.
Severn used his fist to get the one bandits attention. Emile and Severn had a close bond with each other, so they had a decent amount of coordination.
One would dodge back and the other followed suit. They matched their tempo of attacking. The other party members dealt with the other bandits. They sent Hazane to attack the bandits and have him stall for as long as he could.
The others would spam different spells onto the enemies to deal as much damage as they could. They had to control how much damage they dealt since they didn't want to kill the bandits accidentally.
These battles lasted long periods of time since these bandits never seemed to give up. Only when near death would they feel the urge to run away.
Veronica observed the bandits and memorized that people would run away whenever they were near death.
She was gradually learning emotions and the art of fighting. The other party members tied up their bandits after some hard work of fighting and healing.
Emile and Severn, the duo, had problems with the two bandits since the bandit's coordination was almost as good as them. The party helped them out. The entire fight took around 15 minutes. They tied all the bandits up also including their mouth, so they wouldn't scream for help. The party drank health and mana potions to restore themselves to full health.
They headed deeper as they defeated each bandit group that appeared in front. The party didn't know how close they were to the bandit leader or how strong he was.
At the heart of the camp, a singular bandit opens his eyes from a long nap and noticed the eerie silent atmosphere throughout the camp. He could small murmurs appear from the east side of the home he lived in.
The bandit got up from the king-sized red bed and donned on his armor. He used his knife to shave his face. He prepared for either war with something or someone; or some scolding for his bandits. He put on some black gloves to protect his hands.
A woman lay in the red bed half-naked. Sleeping after a harsh night.
The bandit took out his sword from a black sheath with small tigers painted onto it. He walked out of his tent and noticed a group of people huddled together and were walking towards him. Their eyes darted around and noticed the lone bandit.
The bandit recognized no one in the group and charged forward with a sword in hand. He felt anger since his crew couldn't do anything to stop these people from entering. One member of the group charged towards him and attacked him.
The bandit and the man clashed swords.
The bandit smirked as he overwhelmed with the person with his sheer strength. Before he could get satisfied by blocking the sword, another person charged forward and punch him in the gut. His armor protected him from most of the damage, but the force was enough to allow the first person to retreat to a safe location.
A wind spell, a fireball, a mud ball, and time ball were cast by the four people near the back of the group. He got hit by three of them and managed to avoid the time ball.
Another person charged towards the bandit. That person was Hazane. Hazane could now help the first two attackers of the group who were Emile and Severn and fight in the front lines. Beforehand, he had to deal with bandits by himself without the help of the other melee attackers.
Emile identified the person before he charged forward to attack the man. He shared this information with the party.
Normal Bandit (Inheritance) (King Ranked Human)
Level: 19
Class: Legendary Bandit (Novice)
Hp: 200,000/200,000
Mp: 0/0
Strength:??? (not viewable)
Agility:??? (not viewable)
Vitality:??? (not viewable)
Intelligence:??? (not viewable)
Spirit:??? (not viewable)
Luck:??? (not viewable)
Atk: 620-810
MAtk: 0
Skills:
The system showed the stats differently than from a normal boss. Emile assumed that since it was human, it would have a different way of showing stats. He also noticed the "King Ranked Human" category attached to the name. It was a normal bandit who had a lot of luck.
The attack stat of the bandit was the highest Emile had seen. It made sense for the bandit to overwhelm him completely in the first strike.
When the strength gap between two people is big enough, skill alone can't leap across it. The party had never faced a strong human. The Great Wizard of Control they encountered earlier that month wasn't human due to modifications to his body. This was the first true human NPC they fought.
The party maintained a formation. Severn, Emile, Hazane, and Nimble Rod stayed at the front of the party dealing out damage whenever they could. Flower Queen, Time Walker, Scarlet Sunset, and Serena stayed at the back and launched many spells. Veronica stayed still and watched without batting an eye.
The bandit didn't seem to have any skill which caught Emile's attention and the party. It was weird for a King Ranked Human which should be the same category as the King Ranked Monster to not have any skills.
The party didn't know that the bandit had ways to hide his skills. It was a unique skill for having his class. The party wouldn't know what type of skill they would get hit by or when it would appear.
The party continued dealing damage to the boss. Sometimes the attacks from the bandit would be near lethal causing one of the party members to retreat towards the back and get healed up.
The person would rejoin the fight after Serena healed him or they drank a health potion. During the moments with three people attacking, the danger level increased since they got attacked at a higher frequency.
The bandit couldn't make any ground on the four individuals blocking his path. He called his allies to beat the party by using numbers. He didn't think about the eerie silence when he first woke up which caused him to get prepared for a fight. The bandit hoped that his fellow bandits would pull through and fight with him. He was incorrect.
Not one bandit answered his cry for help. The bandit continued fighting and changing his ways of fighting.
The party was struggling throughout the fight since the bandit was a new entity they knew nothing about. He would gently increase his attack speed or changing his attack patterns to confuse and throw the party into disarray.
It was a smart human AI fighting them instead of monsters with no brains. The party needed to take a few seconds before they adapted to his attacking pattern or speed.
The bandit realized that these people were figuring out how to counter his different sword skills. He grew nervous. The party was struggling through the fight, but they weren't easy pickings for the bandit which caused him to feel nervous.
The bandit called for its allies once again, but like the previous time, no one answered his cry for help.
A sense of despair emerged inside the bandit as he realized that he was all alone. All his friends, allies, etc were all gone. He didn't know that the bandits heard his cry for help, but their legs and arms were tied up, so they couldn't come and help.
The party learned more about his attacking patterns and how he changed them so that they could adapt to his moves. They were dealing a lot of damage over an interval.
While this fighting took place, another fight took place inside the bandit's mind.
The bandit's mind moved closer to the limit of sanity and bordered insanity as he shifted closer to losing.
Discovering that everyone he knew disappeared into nothingness after a single nap was the first devastation to his mind. The unforgivable act of losing to people was another.
And the final nail in the coffin was that he couldn't get a successful strike onto the party members without it being blocked by three members causing endless frustration. Finally, the bandit snapped.
A light smirk appeared on the bandit's face as he slowly raised his sword to the air showing unwavering courage as the party bombarded him with attacks.
"O, great lord of the bandits, I, the one who follows your path, descended into an unfortunate corner by these hero syndrome fools. My friends, family, and people are all dead! These heathens have ruined everything! I beseech you to grant me your powers to allow me to conquer anyone in our way!"