Oof

'hey Jason'

"whats up Boops?"

'i think they are going to press on'

Jason let out a grin and an evil villain laugh

"hehehe"

Jason grinned as the saw the bandits form up, with the intention to press on. They had only just past into the ouch stage and he could already see a considerable chunk of their forces had been depleted at least a few hundred had fallen into the pit before they were able to warn everyone about it or had been shot down by the green barrack members.

The space between the city and the rest of the bandits was still very far. Jason in the last 2 days had managed to fill the valley with as many traps as he could make. With the meager tools that he had. Well, it wasn't actually meager and he also had plenty of help from the green barrack members sometimes some people from the city of Muno came to help out.

From his place of advantage, he watched as the bandits tried to cross through the valley to the city under the merciless arrows of the green barrack members.

The valley slightly opened up to a wider field about 70 meters wide. Some of the bandits were able to get back on their horses, but most of them had to run after the leading group on foot.

Jason grinned and turned to the figures behind him.

"Alright, let's go"

Of course, Jason wasn't going to just let that super piece of flat ground go to waste. Every now and then, a bandit would place his foot on the wrong place and the ground underneath his foot collapsed, trapping his ankle in the ground.

The bandit looked around nervously to call out for help only to see, more and more of his comrades with their ankles stuck in the ground, even some horses got stuck in the tiny pits that were able to let a foot or horse hooves in but not let the person pull it back out.

The bandits noticed that the arrow shower was starting to lessen and finally stopped, it seems the archers that surrounded them had started to retreat now they could focus on getting their feet out of this hole thing that they were stuck in.

Most of the bandits started to relax as they tugged on their legs trying to get their feet unstuck.

One of the bandits who was the farthest back, though he heard something as he was digging out his foot. Sadly he couldn't pull out his foot from the ground. It seemed somebody had hardened it so now he needed to dig it out with his sword or hands.

The bandit looked up again. he swore he heard something, like a wild animal sound that he had heard plenty of times in the forest. The bandit went back to digging out his foot.

But he suddenly froze and cold sweat started to drip off of his back.

He heard it distinctively this time. It was a snarl, not a human one, it emitted hostility and the bandit didn't even want to look at who was behind him. That bandit was right because behind him was a group of wolves and shadowy figures. Well, there was one figure that didn't have a black cloak that covered his face. Instead, he stood with an iron chest plate and a sword in his hand.

His black hair was slightly moved by the wind and his brown eyes seemed to stare into the bandits. Jason brought his sword to his right side and went into the stance of the first form.

He then whispered to the people next to him.

"go"

Immediately they jumped out, the wolves jumping onto any unsuspecting bandits who were more focused on freeing themselves. Even those bandits who became aware of the attack and raised their swords couldn't do anything against the nimble wolves who jumped in and out of their attacks.

The small group advanced cleaning up any of the people who were still stuck in the ground. He noticed that the only people who were still stuck were the ones who had almost no gear except for a rusty sword or so. Most of the horses were able to free themselves after bucking up a few times but there was a horse that still had its hind leg stuck in the ground no matter how many times it jumped up or stamped the ground and as Jason got closer he noticed that the rider who had gotten off and had his sword and shield ready. He was much more prepared than the rest of them and judging from the fact that he wasn't running he probably knew that he wasn't going to be able to reach the main group that had already advanced without even paying attention to the people that got stuck.

Jason and the rest finished cleaning up and ran to where the horse and the last bandit stood. That bandit was one of the armoured ones who had horses and even a tower shield that was in his hands. The wolves surrounded him cautiously as they could instinctively know that he was different than the bandits from before. From the way he held the sword and shield, it seems he was trained, not just some thug that came from the streets.

Well, he probably was supposed to have a fair fight with him huh. Jason waved to the green barrack members who started to fire arrows at him. The bandit couldn't attack the green barrack members since he was already encircled by the wolves so he had to just try and block them with his shield.

Eventually one of the arrows hit him in the forehead and he collapsed. Jason saw the notifications come up

[you have defeated an elite bandit level 40]

After looting the body Jason stood up and motioned to everyone and they quickly started to run in pursuit of the main group of bandits that had huddled together as they had seen the fate of their comrades who had spread out and gotten slower.

That was exactly what Jason and the rest of the group wanted, they split into two and started to attack them with a barrage of arrows at a safe distance. The bandits got closer and closer together to get under the cover of those elite bandits that had shields that could block the arrows.

Jason had split off with a quarter of the green barrack members and 3 quarters of the wolves, while the other group had 3 quarters of the green barrack members he was in command with and 1 quarter of the wolves.

The two groups immediately went to the sides of the valley until they reached the part that started to get step and climb up to the cliffs. After that, they started to chase after the main group firing arrows and barking at them menacingly. The bandits definitely knew of their existence and they instinctually got closer.

The two groups on either side of the bandit group started to coordinate with barks, sometimes the group Jason was leading would slow down a bit, making the bandit group slightly steer left since they saw a bit of distance they would take.

Other times one group would speed up a bit or shoot a bit more arrows or bark a bit louder.

The two groups slowly but surly lead the bandit group into the middle of the field which was marked with a single tall stump that didn't look to suspicious until one looked closely to which you could see a carving on it that said

if you can see this, you're screwed

-Jay/Arch

and underneath it was a few claw marks which Jeffery left.

Jason waited until the passed the tree stump and then motioned to the wolves who responded with letting out a resounding howl. The single green barrack member at the top of the cliff heard it and grabbed an arrow that was sitting in next to the fireplace.

He quickly stuck the arrowhead into the fire, and it was quickly set on fire thanks to a coating of liquid on it.

The green barrack member walked over to the cliff and pulled his pow back and closed one eye. He held his breath and let the flaming arrow fly into the air. The green barrack member watched it with satisfaction and nodded to himself then went back to roasting himself a piece of chicken.

Back in the valley, Jason watched as the flaming arrow flew and landed in the dry grass in front of the tree stump. The dry grass caught on fire instantly and it spread like lightning.

Thanks to the buffer zone that Jason and the rest made the fire didn't spread to anywhere he didn't want it to go to. But currently, the flames had just boxed the entire group of bandits. The only path they could take was forward to the city.

Jason could hear Boops laugh and say

'heh, welcome to the heck stage'