Leo's eyes popped open and his ears twitched, it seemed that his heightened senses had picked up something or someone. Val was still sleeping soundly, he seemed to be having an enjoyable sleep as he was laying there, eyes closed with a large smile across his face. Leo needed to wake him up so he tried meowing a few times, but Val was still in dreamland, eventually, Leo ran at the sleeping Val and headbutt him in the face. Val rolled back, stunned by the abrupt awakening. He looked at Leo and said,
"What the hell was that for?"
Leo looked at him and then shifted the direction he was facing until he was facing a direction outside of the camp. Leo let out a strong growl, it was a stronger and deeper growl than he had made before but still very cute in Val's eyes.
Val could not directly talk to Leo, but through their link, they could understand the intent and message trying to be communicated. Thus, Val was able to realize that there was danger, something or someone was approaching, most likely for a surprise attack.
Suddenly, Leo started looking around in all directions. Val could tell what this indicated, the enemy was probably surrounding the camp. Val knew this was a problematic situation, one that he had no experience in. He decided he needed to leave his tent and try and gather as much information as he could.
Val and Leo rush out of their tent, only to see Drake standing guard, vividly looking around, with slight apprehension plastered on his face. It seems that Becky, who was on night watch with him had gone to wake up the others. Suddenly, Mark and Margret rushed out of their tents and started looking around, scoping the enemy. As Mark was observing the situation he spoke up,
"What's the situation? What are we against? Do you know their numbers?"
Mark asked several questions back to back, without waiting for an answer. Drake responded, but with less confidence than usual,
"We are under attack, the enemy is moving to surround the camp, and the enemy is humans, most likely bandits. I don't know how many but there are a lot."
After hearing Drake's reply, everyone had a solemn look on their faces, this was going to be a difficult fight to win. They were heavily outnumbered, and this time their enemy was not some weak and mindless Goblins, but humans, who seemed to be well coordinated.
Everyone drew their weapons ready to engage in battle at any moment. As they were mentally preparing for the tough fight ahead, they heard a voice come from the center of the camp,
"Oh, we are under attack in the middle of the night by some filthy bandits."
It was Jamal, who had sensed the enemy and come out of his tent. He was in some expensive-looking white metal plate armor and had a huge broad sword laying across his shoulders, ready to slice the enemy in half. It seemed this time, he would be joining the fight.
Standing behind Jamal were Mr. Gregory and the other merchants with weapons in hand. They were not fighters, but they had awakened when they were 10 so they also had Talents and Skills. It seems like this fight was going to be intense and everyone would be involved.
Mark and the others understood this, so he asked Jamal a few questions,
"Jamal, do you know how many enemies we are facing? Do you know how powerful they are? And what is the plan for battle?"
Jamal replied immediately,
"There are 45 people surrounding us, and another 5 observing from a distance. Most of the ones surrounding us should be only F-Rank and E-Rank, with a couple of D-Rank and C-Rank mixed in. 4 of the observing people are B-Rank and the last one observing seems to be A-Rank."
After hearing Jamal's words, everyone understood the severity of the situation. This was going to be a very tough battle to win. Before anyone could respond, Jamal continued,
"The game plan is simple, Lightning Fang will fight with and protect Mr. Gregory and the merchants, I will go around and kill as many of the enemies as I can before the 5 leaders get involved, once they do I will have to focus fully on occupying them. I don't think they will be able to defeat me easily, the boss may be the same Rank as me but I have better equipment, more experience, better training, and have received better resources. As for little Val, I know you have been hiding your strength and Talent in fear that we may enslave you, I will assure you now that we do not do that. You can not afford to hold back and limit yourself by hiding your abilities, if you do you will probably die."
When he finished his speech, Val looked deeply at him, he genuinely trusted what the powerhouse said, which was rather unusual for Val. Val had also noticed that Jamal had referred to Mark and his party as Lightning Fang, Val guessed this was the name of the party, Val did not know why but he had never asked them if they had a name, though Val quickly realized this was not the time to be thinking about pointless things. Val simply responded,
"Okay, I will trust you."
Everyone else simply nodded and prepared themselves for the life-or-death battle that was about to begin.
As if on cue, a loud booming voice sounded from the darkness, behind the encirclement,
"Hand over all your property and we might let you live, deny my orders and you will all perish tonight."
No one answered the demanding voice for a few seconds, but suddenly, an equally booming and authoritative voice resounded,
"HAHAHA, dream on scumbag, it seems previous success has gotten to your head, and now you think yourself a King, you are attempting to rob the Blue Trident Trading Company, do you think we would just submit to you and hand over our stuff. Let's see what you do once your men are slaughtered."
It was Jamal who responded to the demands of the bandit boss. After that, the enemy started advancing toward the camp. Tensions in the group were at an all-time high. Val was thinking about his plan, he knew this was going to be a hard fight, he tried his best to think about the situation as rationally and logically as he could. He would go all out in an attempt to win, but if there was no chance for victory he needed to resolve himself to run, leaving the others to die. He had only known these people for little over a day and his own life was far more important than theirs. With that, he told Leo to head to the center of the camp and try and assist him and the others with his [Lazer Roar] skill when he could, and if the enemy got too close to him, he should use [Light Speed Dash] to create space, but he had to always be aware of his surroundings. Leo understood, meowing in confirmation.
The bandits had approached and were about to begin their attacks when Mr. Gregory activated a defensive magic item. The magic item created a barrier that protected the carriages, carts, and themselves. The magic barrier could stop magic skills but could not prevent others from entering inside the barrier. The barrier would stop the enemy from being able to bombard the group with long-range magic skills. The merchants with long-range skills began to use them to attack the enemy from within the magic barrier. The enemy attempted to retaliate but all their skills were stopped by the magic barrier. The melee-fighting merchants stood in front of the ranged merchants, prepared to defend them when the bandits entered the barrier. The merchants were covering the back and the sides where the number of enemies was the least. Lightning Fang was defending the front where most bandits were.
Margret began shooting out her magic skills. Mark, Becky, and Drake were waiting for the bandits to try and get close, if they could keep the bandits from entering the barrier, the bandits would be at a significant disadvantage.
As soon as the bandits began to get close to the barrier Mark, Becky, and Drake made a move, they attacked and fought with the bandits. They had cover fire from Margret, whereas the bandits could not utilize long-range attacks.
Val was observing the situation, he was trying to identify the place where he could damage the enemy the most. He had decided to go all out, not hiding his Ice or Spatial Talent. He activated his [Mana Eyes] in an attempt to identify the few D-Rank and C-Rank bandits. As he scanned the surroundings he noticed a few bandits with stronger and denser mana, identifying them as the C-Rank and D-rank bandits. There were 3 C-Rank and 6 D-Rank, 1 of the C-Rank and 2 D-Rank had circled around and were with the group of bandits engaging the merchants, the other 2 C-Rank and 4 D-Rank were at the front of the assault and would end up fighting with Lightning Fang.
That's what Val thought but he quickly noticed that Jamal, the powerhouse, was heading straight for the C-Rank and D-Rank bandits at the front of the assault. Val knew he would be able to make quick work of them, so he was now less worried about Lightning Fang and more concerned for the merchants.
Val decided that he should attempt to take out the C-Rank bandit facing the merchants. He did not think he would be able to defeat him in a head-on confrontation, however, with [Port] Val could hopefully assassinate him. The enemy had no way of knowing that Val had a Legendary tier Talent like Spatial Talent. Val began to move, heading towards the merchant group, as Val moved, he tried to mentally prepare himself to take another person's life. This would be his first time killing a human and he was unsure how he would react when it finally happened.