Opportunities

Dale came back to the cell room a few minutes later and sat down, the group looked at him with serious faces, Luckas was fidgeting with Maria hairpin and Byrth was focusing on his injuries, everyone's nerves were at the limit.

Not far from there a group of about 50 soldiers was marching in the direction of the cave, about 15 of them were mounted on big mountain goats with gigantic horns.

-" Second Master, the trail leads to the cave ahead." One of the armored soldiers talked with a young man who was mounted in the biggest goat.

-" Keep moving, we need to rescue the villagers." The young man clenched his firsts. " In this area, four entire villages were abducted, if I fail to save them I will be disapointing father."

-" We need to be careful, it's very unlikely they're normal bandits, it could be a trap too" A young man next to him spoke.

-" The priority isn't the subjugation of the bandits but salving the highest number of villagers " The young man interjected, "So many people dying would be a disaster for the territory's reputation."

The young readied himself and continued in the direction of the cave. His troops searched around the area for hidden bandits or others entrances, they did find some abandoned camps.

-" Cyl, What do you think?" Jeffrey asked his trusted lieutenant.

-" Strange, they completely abandoned everything and holed themselves inside the cave." Cyl stopped for a moment and looked towards the north. "Maybe they are waiting for reinforcements?"

-" Will the Heigong take their chances? It looks rushed for them to enter the conflict now." Jeffrey was in a tense situation, not only he needed to take care of the security issue of the territory he also was in charge of the establishment of training camps for new recruits for the army.

If the villages kept being attacked most of the potential recruits would end up as hostages or dead, to him bringing an end to the constant raids was a must.

-" We should start the preparation of the siege." Jeffrey was resolute, while he knew that his troops weren't the best he was confident of subjugating the bandits, so he decided to right away.

Inside the cave, Dale was getting constant updates from his troops at the cave entrance, he looked tense.

-" Monark, we're going to the entrance of the cavern, we will use the narrow paths of the cave for fighting;" Dale got up and started to get ready for the battle. "We need everyone on the battle. Nicko and Jean will stay here and keep our guests entertained." Dale finished speaking and gazed towards the cells.

As Dale and the rest of the bandits headed to the battle Jothyr stood up.

-" Byrth, it's time." Jothyr started to walk towards the cell door. "Luckas how much time do you need?"

-" I'm a bit rusty but it shouldn't take too long." Luckas was confident that he could lockpick it, the only thing that made him nervous was that there were still guards in the room.

Luckas stood next to the gate and prepared, Jothyr was beside him, when Luckas nodded Jothyr made a signal for Ballam and Jonathan to make noise and attract the guards, Byrth concealed in the crowd behind Jothyr and Luckas.

When Ballam and Jonathan started fighting one of the guards walked over to the side of the cell.

-" Just because the chief is gone you fucks are getting wild?" The guard approached the two to see what was happening. Jonathan was hitting Ballam while Maria was trying to hold him, when the guard saw a piece of bread in the hands of Ballam he understood. " Hahahaha, those idiots fighting for food, Hey Nicko give me a few pieces of bread I want to see if I can make them fight more."

Nicko looked a bit annoyed but he delivered a piece of bread to Jean, he was quite bored, after all, guarding here was just too boring of a job, the cave only entrance was where the fight was happening, so if his group lost he would be dead for sure.

-" At least we have a form of entertainment." Jean divided the bread in small pieces and threw it in the cell, at first no one made a move, but soon the villages succumbed and started to collect the bread piece.

Luckas felt lucky that the guards were sadic, he was fidgeting the lock with the hairpin, some times the crows fighting behind him pushed him and disturbed him but he never let his focus go.

While Luckas was opening the lock, the Duke's force was battling the bandits, Jeffrey was trying hard to push his way into the deeper part of the cave, but the small pathway made it hard for their mounts to be useful, they could only advance on foot.

"Keep pushing, the wounded soldiers go to the back." Cyl was directing the battle in front, He talked to Jeffrey who was at his side. "Should we force the advance? Maybe they're buying time for some tricks?".

Jeffrey was tense, the rescue of the villagers needed haste, but at the same time he had too few troops to put them so easily in peril. "We should keep our pace, they will wear down faster than us."

Cyl approved of his decision, he was certain that even if the bandits decided to massacre the villagers that would take some time to accomplish and they could interfere before they all got killed.

On the other side, Dale was furiously sweeping his spear, there was way more cultivators in the army, most of them were novices body cultivators but the difference between the troop's quality was too great, half of his bandits were wounded already.

-" Monark, Let's go if we take care of the Marquis son his troop's morale will collapse." Dale was tense so he decided to take action. Monark who was fighting two soldiers quickly finished them.

Dale and Monark stormed the frontline and headed to Jeffrey, Cyl who was behind him flashed and jumped straight to Dale.

-" So you finally decided to show your face, huh?" The levelheaded Cyl was furious, when he joined the Duke army he was assigned to Dale group and Cyl was the only survivor of that division.

-" Oh Little Cyl was grown so much, you're even a Lieutenant now." Dale stopped Cyl slash and counter-attacked.

Cyl ducked the thrust of Dale's spear and performed two slashes toward Dale's legs, but Dale easily dodge his attacks.

-" Oh, You're actually a 4th Foundation Estableshiment now? The Marquis must have invested heavily on you." Dale was more serious now, while his cultivation was two minors stage higher the battlefield was too narrow for his spear. "But too bad that I'm pretty familiar with the White Deer Sword Art .

Cyl face was ugly he knew that he only could fight Dale because of his terrain advantage, and just behind him Jeffrey and Monark were fighting. Seeing Cyl taking his eyes off him Dale jumped towards him.

-" Why do you think that you can take your attention of me?" Dale spear flashed with a bright red color, Cyl tried to deflect the spear tip but Dale suddenly twisted his body and switched moves.

A Bright red tornado formed with dale as it center forcing Cyl to retreat, Cyl restored his balance and swung his sword forming a crescent white blade that flew towards Dale.

Seeing this Dale dodged to the left and thrust the spear again, there was a crowd behind him so he couldn't dodge. Cyl face darkened as he prepared to block the attack. The white aura appeared again on Cyl sword but this time he didn't throw it but slashed directly at the spear