"Ughh..."
Duke woke up still groggy from last night as a weird series of events led to Duke having two additional soldiers for the Bandit Subjugation.
After waking up, Duke washed his face with a pail of water the Village Elder left for him and headed out his door to be met with the scene of happy villagers gratefully accepting food from the Knights as they too smiled happily, enjoying the work of helping others out.
Duke immediately helped out as well as he was the one who ordered the Knights to hand free food to the Villagers, earning the respect and gratitude of Kath in the process.
That morning Duke was greeted by the village folk he became acquainted with, the last time he Duke came to Kath.
"Tankyu Mishta" Cindy, the little girl who Annie saved from the fire who was still too young to speak fluently came up to Duke and tucked on his shirt as she thanked him for receiving a small bowl of porridge.
And of course, Annie's mother too came to greet Duke.
It was a bittersweet meeting. She was incredibly grateful and respectful towards Duke, but as a mother who had just lost a child, she still couldn't fully hideaway her sadness.
But it was alright, Duke could somehow feel her healing, even if it was just a little bit.
That afternoon, after handing out the food, and after preparing their things Duke and the Knights finally set out towards the mountains where Waxer's Bandit group was said to be held up.
Up in the mountains inside the Bandit base, on top of a rocky hill where an abandoned fort stood tall, Waxer and the other bandits drank and cheered, it was another successful day for them as they greedily looked over the spoils of war the stole from a helpless caravan.
"Damn, the way that merchant cried out was pretty funny hahaha! KWEEEEACKK!" Stank maniacally laughed as he remembered the helpless merchant's cries.
["P-Please, spare me! No no, don't take those! Please! I'm just a small-time merchant, my daughter at home, she needs this! Wait! What-what are you doing? Stop! KWEEEEACKK!"]
"HAHAHA! He croaked like a damn frog! Craziest shit I ever saw!" Another Bandit chimed in on Stank's lacking display of empathy.
"Speaking of crazy shit, you think that fat noble's gonna show up again?" One Bandit asked.
"I knew somethin' was weird when I smelled tatoes... The Bloody Mountain my ass!" Another Bandit grumbled.
"Bah, those stupid Nobles are too high and mighty to attempt something like that again..." Waxer, the Bandit leader growled in his low and groggy voice which stopped the Bandit's blabbering and instead listen to him in silence.
"Once nobles get a taste of defeat they'd usually hide n' run. He's probably still at some corner right now, crying his ass out Kakaka!" Waxer confidently said as he mocked Duke. But before his head could laugh any second longer, the warning bells rang.
*Dung Dung Dung*
And chaos erupted
"What?! What's going on?!" Waxer shouted as he grabbed a running Bandit.
"Boss! It's the Knights! They've decided to besiege us!" The Bandit blurted out in fear.
"Besiege?!" Waxer ran towards the nearest window and looked outside only to see a fiercely disgruntled Duke watching the Bandit's every move.
There Duke stood, in front of a fort covered in moss and Bandit vandalism, with body parts of the dead gruesomely hung up on the walls, and dirty linen rags painted in blood or red berries maybe that depicted Waxer's particularly strong group of Bandits.
"Hrm?! Why are there only 20 of them?" Waxer wondered as he saw the small number of men Duke brought with him.
"They're gonna besiege us with lesser men? Do they think were jokes?! Let's hit them hard and fast boss" Stank angrily shouted, urging Waxer and the other Bandits to meet Duke out in the frontlines.
"No! That fat ass proved to be cunning before. Remember his little skit with the tatoes? It's probably a trap... We'll wait them out" Waxer wasn't as easily swayed by the prospect of an easy hunt as the other Bandits.
"And besides, we have arrows to deal with pesky mites like these"
Waxer ordered his men to fire arrows at Duke's little encampment. But luckily for Duke, he and Byran already predicted that they might shower them with arrows if they stayed long enough. This was why Duke and his Knights made everything they needed before entrenching in front of the enemy. From the wooden spikes and mini-fences to the shelter Duke and the 19 other Knights bunkered at, plus one Brandon.
They were even stocked with plenty of food to spare as Duke just sat down in front of the Bandits and ate a roasted Tato in front of them.
Waxer watched as his food supply dwindle, they had been caught at a misfortunate time as all the Gang had on them right now were the stolen goods they took from passing Caravans such as Silks and Spices, it was a pretty large haul too, sadly no substantial food was included.
A day and a half passed and Waxer knew they'd just be torturing themselves if they let attrition linger on.
"Attack"
He finally ordered.
*ZZzzz* "*Slam!* "W-Wha?!" Duke snored happily but was rudely awakened by a slap to the head, courtesy of Brandon.
"Milord! The arrows suddenly stopped midway! It might be they've started to attack!" Bran rudely awakened Duke without any care for social hierarchy. These past few days, getting stuck inside a crapped cabin made the two somewhat close.
"Ring the alarm!" Duke shouted, panicking in confusion as he had just awakened from his deep sleep.
Duke and the twenty men along with Brandon in the back as support, faced the 60 substantially armored Bandits.
Waxer's Bandits were much fiercer than average as they were fully armored and trained. It wouldn't be a joke to say these Bandits were almost on par with trained Mercenary Groups. This was another reason why the other Nobles left Duke to fight them at first.
It was to use him as cannon fodder. When Duke failed or gets captured after softening up the hardy Bandits, the Nobles thought it would make it easier to capture Waxer's infamous group.
Indeed Waxer's Bandits were a force not to be underestimated.
Even with Duke's best 20 Knights, they couldn't hold formation for long and we're already about to get encircled.
*Tsk* Duke regrettably clicked his tongue as he watched the skillfully trained Knights of Maine get beaten by Bandits due to their flimsy armor and rusted out swords. Duke couldn't help but admit that as a Lord, he had failed to provide good Armor and Weapons for his men. Even the Bandits had better gear than his men.
"Retreat! Fallback! They're too strong!" Duke shouted with regret and desperation... [As their Lord, I failed them again] Duke sighed to himself.
"""We've got em'!!!""" The Bandits happily roared.
"Chase after them! Don't let em' escape!" [Kekeke, when I'm done with you you'll be begging for a swift death] Stank happily licked his tongue as he thought of the ways he could torture the fat bastard who scared him last time.
[If those damned bastards didn't show up I could've had a bit of fun with those little Village girls!] Stank angrily thought while chasing after Duke.
Luckily for Duke, thanks to his Knights lacking heavy armor, and the training they undergo every day, they were much quicker than the Bandits who were undisciplined and disorganized.
[Fifteen, Sixteen, Eighteen, Twenty! Phew!...] Duke sighed as he counted all twenty got out alive.
Duke watched as the crazed Bandits chased them non-stop into a flat meadow surrounded by forest... And a victorious smile entered Duke's face.
[Just as planned... Today will be mine Victory!] Duke thought.
With fierce determination, Duke turned back while shouting:
"CHARGE BACK!!! Time for our counterattack!" As he skillfully hit the very first Bandit that came near him, sending the Bandit flying back.