Val took a moment to figure out his next move. He knew he needed to deal with these remaining three weaker bandits as quickly as he could, but he would not allow the pressure to force him into a dangerous position.
Val observed the trio who were defending each other's backs. They were clearly not that strong, all 3 seemed to only have Martial Talents, one had a spear, and the other two had swords. Val decided he would have to distract the two sword users, as he closed in on the spear user and killed him swiftly before he could reposition himself to attack.
With his plan decided, Val used [Port] and appeared in front of the bandit using a spear. He appeared right in front of him, Val was too close to the spear user for him to properly attack. As Val appeared he used [Ice Spear] from the side of the two bandits using swords, this caused them to have to dodge backward, creating space between them and the spear user. The trajectory of the [Ice Spear] was aimed so that it would hit both of the bandits if they did not dodge. Val proceeded to strike his rusty shortsword in a downward slash. The bandit used his spear to block the slash but this left him open to Val's follow-up attack. Val used [Stab] with his better-quality sword, piercing straight through the stomach of the bandit.
After the bandit had been stabbed, he looked down only to see a hole in his stomach, and then he dropped to the ground with blood flowing from his wound. He was not yet dead but was slowly dying and incapacitated. If he was not treated, he would most likely die soon from blood loss.
The other two bandits were shocked at the comrade's death but Val did not wait for them to regain their composure, this attack had only lasted a second, but that was long enough for Val to be able to use [Port] again, and that's exactly what he did. However, instead of retreating after a kill as he had done previously, he went for his next target. The backs of the two remaining weaker bandits were no longer being defended and Val wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.
Val used [Port], teleporting to one of their backs, and instantly used [Stab] again piercing right through the stomach and back of the bandit. The remaining bandit did not realize that his comrade had been attacked until it was too late, he had not been expecting Val to immediately attack again, as he had not done so after killing the rest of the bandits.
He only realized this when he saw his comrade and friend who was next to him spit out a mouthful of blood and drop to the ground. The last remaining weak bandit hurriedly turned around, only to see Val disappear.
Val had used [Port] to make distance, the bandit was in a state of panic and was madly swinging his sword around. Val did not think it would be a good idea to approach him right now, with his erratic behavior and attacks Val may be struck by a random attack that he could not predict.
The two D-Rank bandits had noticed that they only had one subordinate left, and he had gone crazy and was wildly swinging his sword around. They were in a tough spot, they had to defend themselves from the ranged attacks of the merchants but the merchants were also defending their advances with a few melee fighters. They also had to be on guard against surprise attacks from the little devil that could appear anywhere and at any time to reap their lives.
They realized that their best option now was to run. They could not win this fight anymore, and they could not rely on any help coming, they determined this based on the continuous sounds of fighting coming from the other battlefield.
They really wanted to avenge their comrades who had been killed in this battle, but they knew that, even though the merchants were slowing down, from exhaustion, the little devil would be joining the fray very soon, most likely after he deals with the last weak bandit.
The merchants had also deduced the same conclusion and suspected the bandits would attempt to flee soon, now that they were unlikely to win the fight. It was at this moment that Mr. Gregory spoke and gave orders to the merchants,
"Keep them occupied, once Val deals with the other bandit, we will work together to take out these two!"
The merchants all shouted in confirmation and to encourage themselves, they were exhausted after all, and were pushing themselves.
The two bandits were defending against the merchants whilst looking for the best route of retreat, they needed to either escape from the battlefield or regroup with the main fighting force.
They did not have much time and could foresee their own deaths if they did not flee immediately, however, Mr. Gregory was a very experienced man, and one of his greatest abilities was to read people. He could see their intentions, and formulated a plan, he quickly acted on his idea, quietly communicating with the other merchants his idea.
He planned to lighten the number of attacks on one of the D-Rank bandits and focus the attacks on the other. Creating an opportunity for one of them to escape. He decided this was the best course of action for them, the merchants were getting very close to completely depleting their mana, and would not be able to continue attacking soon.
There were two outcomes that Mr. Gregory could foresee, first was that the bandit would escape to safety, either completely fleeing or regrouping with their main force or Val would attack as soon as he focused on running away. Mr. Gregory had noticed that Val had not attacked the lone bandit, as he had gone slightly crazy, swinging his sword around in a frenzy, he had become far too unpredictable, and attacking him would be an unjustified risk, as in his frenzied state, he was no longer a threat to them.
As the attacks lessened on the D-Rank bandit with a polearm, he realized that this was the time for him to flee. He did not like the fact, that he would have to abandon his friend and comrade but in the end, he did not care about him more than he cared about himself. His only option for survival was now, he swiftly turned around and began running but he did not get far before he regretted his decision.
He only took 5 steps before he felt a sharp object pierce his stomach from behind. He had no idea what happened but knew that the little demon must have gotten him. He fell face first into the ground, the world turned dark and he slowly faded into darkness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------A few seconds before-
Val was observing two situations, and he did not know what to do. He did not see anything he could take advantage of. In one place was a lone, weak bandit who had gone crazy in fear and was randomly and widely swinging his sword around, and the other place had two bandits stronger than him, defending well against an onslaught of attacks, whilst still keeping their guard up against him and potential surprise attacks.
As Val was observing the situation he noticed that the merchants had shifted the focus of all their attacks onto just one of the bandits. Val saw the moment of realization on the bandit's face. He could see that the bandit believed this was his chance to run. Val watched as he turned and began to flee and a small smile appeared on his face.
In that instant Val used [Port] and disappeared, reappearing directly behind the fleeing bandit, and immediately used [Stab], plunging his short sword straight through the bandit's stomach.
The bandit dropped to the ground dead. Val turned around a stared at the last D-Rank bandit, the smile had never left Val's face. Val was experiencing a plethora of new feelings and emotions, that he could not explain.
The remaining bandit saw Val standing over his friend who had just sacrificed him, in an attempt to escape and save himself, and was feeling contrasting emotions himself. The remaining bandit knew he would die here. There was no longer any chance of survival, but he wanted to at least take this little demon down with him.
The bandit rushed at Val, completely ignoring his defense and the numerous skills aimed at him, and went to swing his sword down. Unfortunately for him as he got within a 1-meter radius of Val a sharp ice spike appeared from the ground. With the help of the momentum, caused by the bandit rushing toward Val, and with the bandit ignoring his own defense, the [Ice Spike] pierced straight through his throat.
Everyone breathed a breath of air and turned their attention to the wild bandit who had gone mad from fear. Val was the first to speak,
"How are we going to deal with him, do you guys have enough mana to bombard him with ranged skills?"
The merchants turned to their leader, Mr. Gregory to respond, as he was the leader and would make the decision, though from their faces it was clear that they were utterly exhausted. Mr. Gregory responded,
"hmmm, we should capture him alive, I don't know how the other battle is going, but keeping someone alive to gain information about the whereabouts of their base could be quite rewarding for us."
All the merchants understood Mr. Gregory's words, however, Val looked at him confused.
Mr. Gregory noticed this and continued,
"We can use him to find the hideout of the bandits, which will probably have a lot of wealth that they had pillaged from other merchants, adventurers, and villages."
As realization dawned on Val, he nodded in agreement. He wanted more wealth, so this sounded very good to him.
They decided on a plan to incapacitate the remaining bandit without killing him. They would use the little mana they had in an attempt to knock him out or exhaust him, if that did not work, they would at least distract him so that Val had an opening to do so.
Fortunately, the last remaining bandit was not in his right mind and was not focusing on defense, so he was hit by multiple skills and dropped to the ground unconscious. They had used skills that would have been very unlikely to have killed him. They quickly tied him up and then moved to scope out the other battlefield, what they saw, however, surprised them.