As Abel and the others advanced across the plain, they came upon the captives the bandits had taken.
All of them were tied together in a ring with ropes, making the situation instantly clear.
Roughly twenty bandits remained.
“Who the hell are you people?!”
One of the bandits shouted.
Lit by the campfire, he appeared to be a rugged man in his thirties.
He raised a sword, dressed in armor like a warrior.
Abel studied him closely but concluded he probably wasn’t the leader.
Gatu shouted at the top of his lungs.
The force in his voice was overwhelming. Even Abel, despite having heard it many times, was startled anew.
“Highwand Knight Order! We’re here to wipe you out!”
“There are hostages, you bastards! You want them dead?!”
“Better they settle it here than be turned into slaves and worked to death in the non-human lands! And if you do decide to kill them, you better be ready. Because we won’t make it quick. We’ll kill you slowly, piece by piece!”
The sheer intensity of his voice went beyond intimidation. It was terrifying.
A moment of silence followed.
Sensing the opportunity, Gatu shouted again.
“Release the hostages! Swear never to come near Highwand again, and we’ll let you go!”
Abel didn’t miss what happened next: the warrior-looking man subtly spoke with a robed man hiding behind him.
That one was the leader. Most likely a mage.
A brief exchange.
The warrior nodded and gave a signal.
The rope binding the hostages was cut.
Terrified, the captives began running toward them. They were about fifteen in number.
“Run that way. Just keep running,”
Gatu instructed.
Abel counted the number of enemies.
Eighteen.
“Well then…”
The standoff continued.
Gatu’s voice was laced with anger.
“I only make promises with humans. Did I ever agree to anything with you bastards that are the same as magical beasts?”
Gatu let out a vulgar laugh.
The bandits radiated a crude, murderous intent.
They suddenly spread out to the sides, trying to surround them.
Abel’s group had trained for exactly this kind of situation.
They would all shift to either the enemy’s right or left flank and crush that side in one swift motion.
Speed was everything.
Ise was the first to strike the bandits’ left flank.
A bandit raised a large shield.
But her greatsword swung through as if the shield didn’t exist.
The sturdy shield crumpled, and unable to withstand the blow, the bandit was knocked onto his back.
With a second swing of the greatsword, his helmet and his head inside it were cleaved in two.
That alone was proof of how devastating Ise’s strikes were.
Walt wielded his daggers.
He deflected a two-handed sword with one, and with his other arm, punched the enemy hard.
Abel focused on the enemy mage.
He probed for the flow of mana and continued reading the opponent’s next move.
This ability to detect magic was something Abel constantly trained.
His sharp sensitivity picked up on the telltale signs of an impending Ice Spear.
Abel instantly visualized Fourth Rank Fire Magic: Flame Wall.
The enemy mage fired two ice spears in quick succession.
Abel invoked the magic by name.
A wall of fire, three mel wide and two mel high, suddenly rose up.
The spears of ice plunged into the flames and evaporated.
Then, using Fourth Rank Weather Magic “Tempest Gale”, he unleashed a fierce wind, sweeping the remaining flames toward the bandits.
The enemy leader hastily tried to counteract it.
He conjured a wall of water.
But it only protected the five nearest to him, including himself.
The remaining ten or more were engulfed in the raging heat and flames, screaming in agony.
Without missing a beat, Gatu charged in.
An axe in his right hand. A double-edged sword on his left.
While running, he leapt, coiling his body like a spring and hurled the axe midair.
His target was the enemy leader.
The spinning axe flew straight—
And struck the leader square in the abdomen.
The robed man collapsed.
Gatu boldly charged at the remaining enemies.
He pulled out a blade resembling a kunai from his breast pocket and threw it, just as before.
It struck the thigh of a warrior-like enemy. A short scream followed.
It created a fatal opening.
Gatu didn’t miss it. His thrust pierced the man’s throat.
Abel didn’t take his eyes off the mage who was the leader.
He might not be dead yet.
As expected, he sensed a stirring of mana.
—What’s he planning?
A stone spear. There were signs of mana activation in the ground.
Abel used the spell “Earth and Stone Transformation” to interfere with the enemy’s magic.
Their mana clashed, preventing the stone spear from forming and stopping the spell from activating.
In interference magic, the one who pours in more mana wins.
Abel caught a glimpse of the mage’s face, partially hidden by his robe.
His lips trembled, contorting in shock.
Gatu’s flying kick exploded into the face hidden by the robe.
The man fell dramatically and stopped moving.
Realizing they couldn’t win, the remaining bandits suddenly turned and fled.
They scattered in all directions.
But they wouldn’t be allowed to escape.
Abel summoned a fireball and hurled it at their retreating backs.
Walt rushed in with incredible speed, delivering kicks and finishing off the fallen with a stab.
And so, likely, they had taken down every last one.
It was dark, so there might have been someone who got away…
Holding her bloodied greatsword, Ise spoke.
“Quiet.”
Ise and Walt both strained their ears.
After a moment, they nodded.
“No sounds from the enemy. It’s over.”
The axe was still lodged in the abdomen of the groaning, writhing leader.
He would die if left alone, so Abel cast a healing spell on him.
They would take him back alive, extract information, and put him on trial.
Upon examining the bandit leader, they found his right wrist missing.
It seemed to have been gone for some time.
Gatu pointed it out.
“In the Kingdom, there’s a law that says criminals have their arms cut off.”
“So he was already a criminal?”
“Most likely. Could’ve lost it in battle too, though.”
“I guess lost limbs can’t be regenerated after all?”
“Maybe with a Tenth Rank healer, and even then just barely. Healers of that caliber are incredibly rare, so they usually stay hidden to avoid attracting trouble. They’d never heal a criminal. Not even Abel could manage it.”
“Absolutely impossible. I tried it about six months ago on a servant who’d lost a leg in battle…didn’t work.”
“I see…”
Due to the fire magic, the plain had started smoldering, so Abel thoroughly extinguished it with water magic.
A forest fire would be disastrous.
They severed the heads of the bandits’ corpses.
There was a reason for it.
If corpses are left in areas with high mana density, they can transform into “walking dead”.
The only thing the “walking dead” retain is their hunger.
They attack humans and livestock alike, driven solely by the urge to devour.
However, if the head is severed, they won’t transform into a “walking dead”.
But even then, in rare cases, they can still transform into a “headless ghoul”.
Cremation was the only way to prevent that. But even then, there was still a chance they would mutate into a “skeleton warrior” made of nothing but bones.
That said, such mutations only occur in regions or forests with extremely dense mana.
This time, the reason for taking the heads was simply to bring back proof of their accomplishment.
Abel thought it was just like the samurai of the Warring States period.
Even in another world, people were still people.
When the situation was the same, the actions taken were often the same too.
To prevent the leader from using magic, they decided to cut out his tongue.
It would be meaningless against someone with the rare ability to cast spells purely by image. But most mages, even if they can shorten their incantations, still have to say the name of the spell to activate it.
Even for Abel, the only spell he could cast without any chant at all was healing magic.
Incidentally, it’s said that with long-term training, magic can still be activated with indistinct groaning even after the tongue is severed.
But almost no one can use magic immediately after having their tongue cut out.
It was a method of mage restraint built on long years of experience.
Gatu forced the man’s mouth open with a wooden stick, grabbed his tongue with tongs, and yanked it out.
In the next instant, Ise cut it off with a dagger.
Abel quickly sealed the wound with healing magic.
The emaciated man in his forties began to cry.
“If you’re gonna cry, then maybe don’t go kidnapping people! How many have you killed, huh?!”
Gatu punched him with a massive fist like a boulder.
The man’s nose was crushed.
“When scum like you starts sniveling, it just makes me wanna kill you even more.”
He gave him another kick.
The interrogation would be conducted in writing.
That would be done back at the castle.
Abel gathered the severed heads.
He cut slits into their cheeks and threaded sturdy grass through them to form loops.
Then he tied those to a stick, balanced them like a scale, and slung them over his shoulder.
It was the only way to carry so many heavy heads without trouble…
Of course, it wasn’t possible to bring them all back, so he prioritized the ones who appeared to be wanted criminals with good equipment.
There were ten in total.
In winter, they could take the heads as they were, but in summer, they would rot. So sometimes they were salted or boiled, and only the bones were brought back.
Alternatively, a mage might produce ice to keep them cool during transport.
That kind of special treatment was reserved for high-value targets, like a general’s head.
Kicking the sobbing mage along, they returned to the spot where the horses were tied.
Since there was no longer any need to stay hidden, Abel released Light.
At that, the villagers rescued from the dark plains began to show themselves.
“Sir Knight! Thank you so much!”
Young men and women rushed over in joy.
Among them was a girl who looked to be about twelve or thirteen.
They were people taken from two nearby villages.
When they returned to their villages, sorrow awaited them.
They would have to see their relatives and neighbors murdered…
Abel couldn’t bear to look at their grieving faces.
If someone killed Ayla or Walter, he’d be the same.
Driven by rage, the survivors gathered with weapons in hand, trying to kill the mage leader who had been taken alive.
Gatu stepped in to stop them.
“Please hold back. I swear he’ll pay for what he’s done. If you really can’t take it, fine…give him one punch. But don’t kill him…”
As a result, the mage’s face was so badly beaten that it looked like a poorly made clay figure. You could hardly tell where his eyes or nose had been. His nose was completely crushed.
Most of his teeth were broken as well.
There was no pity for him.
He had deliberately attacked others, and now he was facing rightful revenge.
Abel felt a bit heavy-hearted.
He sensed the clear aftershocks of a massive conflict.
The imperial army passing through the Haiwand territory, soldiers returning with lost limbs…
And the strangely frequent bandit activity.
Something deeply ominous seemed to be steadily building.
Fortunately, he now had a teacher called Ise.
Being with Ise never felt like a burden.
In fact, at times, he even felt a strange sense of comfort.
“Then, Lady Ise, let us return to the castle.”
For just a moment, Abel thought he saw something like a faint smile appear on her beautiful lips.
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