Chapter 37: Bandit Chief

We carry the bandits’ bodies to the cave, then I gather them all together to plan how we’re going to capture the bandit boss.

“What are we going to do now master?” (Érica)

“What I want to do is capture the bad guy and make him submit to me.” (me)

“Master I don’t think this is a good idea.” (Diana)

“Why do you ten this?” (me)

“The head of this bandit group is known as the Storm Killer for a reason.” (Diana)

“Like a storm, it appears out of nowhere and wreaks havoc wherever it goes, and in the end, it disappears leaving a trail of bodies.” (Diana)

“Someone like that is dangerous to have around, master.” (Diana)

“You say that, but you’re not seeing something important Diana.” (me)

“You said yourself that he only kidnaps nobles, I imagine to take all that risk he must have some other reason than to sell them for money.” (me)

“The master means that he has a reason to target the nobles, Diana understands.” (Érica)

“And what motive is this master?” (Diana)

“I can only think that he hates nobles for some reason, do you know if he’s ever killed other than guards or adventurers who were protecting a noble?” (me)

“Not really, he just killed the noble guards, there’s no Guild record of any adventurer killed by him.” (Diana)

“Exactly, if he’s that good and hasn’t killed anyone who isn’t related to nobles, that means he’s not that bad.” (me)

“Even if he was bad it doesn’t change anything, the moment he becomes my slave he won’t be able to harm me or you.” (me)

“The master is right Diana, if the bandit chief becomes his slave he won’t be able to do anything against the master and if he is as lucky as I am he can be reborn with a heart cleansed of all darkness just like me.” (Érica)

“…” (Diana)

“I prefer to believe you were a special case, Érica you accumulated a lot of darkness within you and my power burned that darkness into power for you, I don’t know if that will happen to him.” (me)

“Back to the subject, let’s ambush him outside the cave.” (me)

“I agree master.” (Diana)

“Wouldn’t it be better to ambush him inside the cave, where his movements will be more restricted?” (Érica)

“…” (me)

Sigh…

“Érica that would be true if you disregard the lookout.” (Diana)

“What about the watchman? Haven’t we already killed him?” (Érica)

“And that’s the point, we killed him.” (me)

“Like you and the master said the watchman died, so when the bad guy comes back tomorrow he’ll see that he doesn’t have a watchman and will be suspicious or even run away.” (Diana)

“From the level of intelligence and caution he’s shown so far in your report, he’s likely to run away.” (me)

“And thinking about it the master decided to ambush him outside before he realizes that the watchman is gone, am I not sure master?” (Diana)

“Yes, I was just thinking about that.” (me)

“What I have to think about is how to ambush him without knowing the direction he’s going to come.” (me)

“The master is so smart, but I’m surprised you used your brain so much Diana after all this is a muscle you don’t exercise very often hahahahaha.” (Érica)

“Hey don’t be joking around during a mission, it seems you still have a habit of losing focus during missions, and I thought that during those days behaving meant that you had matured, it seems I was wrong.” (Diana)

“But you’re right I’m not as smart as you and the master, I just thought about it because of my experience as an adventurer, in the past I let a target escape in a similar situation.” (Diana)

“Calm down you two, we have to think of a plan now.” (me)

“The master is right, sorry.” (Érica)

“All right.” (Diana)

“If I’m not mistaken master, didn’t Vibora say their boss had gone to town to get information on their next target?” (Érica)

“Yes, why?” (me)

“The closest town to the Valley of Blood is the adventurous town of Valen we came from, if he went there we can at least predict the direction he should head back.” (Érica)

“This is an excellent idea, congratulations Érica.” (Diana)

“Thank you, Diana.” (Érica)

“That’s a really good idea Érica, but how are we going to know the direction the city is in?” (me)

“It’s already night master, we can use the moons to discover the direction of the city, and following Érica’s idea we can ambush him if he comes from that direction.” (Diana)

Hmmm…

“Very well let’s follow that plan, but if he comes from another direction we’ll attack right away, and remember not to kill him, just immobilize him.” (me)

“Yes Master.” (Érica)

“Alright master.” (Diana)

“The plan will be simpler this time, Ibuki will wait inside the cave, meanwhile you and I will hide in the trees to ambush him on the way.” (me)

“Diana wants you to hit his knee joints the moment he gets close enough to you or if he tries to escape.” (me)

“Yes Master.” (Diana)

“Érica, I want to know if you have a wall-type spell to stop him if he decides to run.” (me)

“I have a spell called “Wall of Fire” master, it should be enough to make him change direction, but I can only use one wall at a time.” (Érica)

“Alright, if possible try to direct him closer to me, I may be weaker than him but I have a good chance of tying him up with my web skills or using my paralyzing venom if necessary.” (me)

“I will do my best master.” (Érica)

“Now let’s go over some details and confirm the direction.” (me)

We go outside and check the position of the moon, then Diana points in the general direction that should be the city of Valen.

With that confirmed, we started to choose the best spots to hide.

Érica hides in a tall tree branch to get a better view of the terrain, Diana hides in a bush so that she can run better in the attack and I hide in the branches and foliage of a normal tree and ready to attack at any moment.

———-

We’ve been waiting a long time, Diana looks fine, but Érica is starting to get impatient, I’m fine, just a pain in my side still.

It’s the middle of the night when I hear the sound of a wolf howling and then silence, I immediately realize he’s arrived and wave to the girls to focus on their positions.

In a short time I see a figure approaching, the closer he got the more of his appearance I was able to see until I was able to see everything.

He had a thin body and wears loose clothes on the upper body and long long pants he wore a cape hood and could see a part of the mask, he has a thin short sword in the waist on the right side and two knives on the left waist, his shirt covers his arms and he is still wearing gloves, not even a part of his body is visible.

Looks like we hit the direction he was coming from, he’s coming towards us, I wait and see him pass the bush Diana is in and jump to the side almost the second Diana attacked, but he was still close to plus, Diana’s blow lands on his knee but he doesn’t scream.

I can see the blood running down his leg and I see him turning to run in the opposite direction of Diana when suddenly a wall of fire two meters high and four meters wide appears in front of him lighting up the dark forest surprising him and making room for Diana throw a kick that he defends but throws it towards me.

The moment he tries to maneuver himself in the air to regain his balance to land on the ground I use my three-line skills [ Line production: 8 ], [ Sticky line production: 9 ], and [ Line control: 10 ] to send lines from all of my ten fingers and control them to tie and hold it.

By the time he realizes what’s happening it’s too late to dodge so he tries to slash with his knives but with my current level of control he only managed to slash two before the other eight held him firmly before he landed on the ground tied up, no wasting time I jump on him and bite his neck and use my paralyzing venom on him ten or twelve times to make sure before I stop.

Ding!

<[ His skill leveled up [ Weak Paralyzing Poison Secretion: 6> 7 ] ]>

With that he’s captured, I turn to Erica and Diana waving them closer, and say.

“Mission accomplished, let’s go to the cave to meet Ibuki and take the final step with this bandit boss.” (me)

“Yes Master.” (Érica)

“Let’s go master.” (Diana)

And with that, I carried the bandit chief like a princess to his cave along with my group and we met in the first room with Ibuki.