Forest - Bandits

They were walking through the forest just as they had for the last 3 hours, currently Osirus stood at the back while Reinhardt was at the front with the rest in between.

"Whoosh."

Osirus suddenly felt a painful tingling sensation assault his brain, followed by a quiet whoosh rapidly approaching him.

Every cell in his body urged him to dodge, his muscles tensed as he reacted with the fastest speed he could, his body slightly bent back as an arrow whizzed past him, missing him by less than a centimetre before lodging into a tree to his left.

"Shit! We are under attack!", the others had already realised what was happening when they heard the arrow smash into the tree and Osirus's bent back, everyone immediately got into a close knit formation after seeing the enemy was an archer.

However, a figure began walking out of the thick foliage followed by about 5 others, however Osirus didn't see an archer so he made sure to keep his guard up.

"Tch, didn't think you would be able to dodge that."

The man at the front, a tall muscular man with a hideous scar spreading from his cheek to his ear, who was most likely the leader, spoke first, his words directed at Osirus, "Not that it matters though. Hand over everything you have and we will let you leave alive."

His next words were directed at everyone as his face spread into a grin that looked disgusting together with the scar.

Everyone's face grimaced, not because they were able to lose their spoils and equipment, but because they were in for a fight.

They weren't naïve enough to think they would actually be allowed to leave, after all wouldn't they just tell everyone that bandits were in this part of the forest which would not be beneficial for said bandits

Thus it was obvious they were only saying it so they would be more inclined to give them their equipment which would make it easier to kill them.

"Fuck off.", Reinhardt spoke first as he pulled the hammer off his back, its smooth silver colour reflecting in the sun. It was about 2 metres long with a cylindrical head that had a diameter of 20cm, it was a truly monstrous weapon.

However the Scarred Man wasn't deterred in the slightest, with a manic grin he replied, "Very well, I shall grant you the death you so badly want."

"Boom!", with a step, the Scarred Man fired off from the ground, shooting towards Reinhardt as he unsheathed a crimson sabre that only added to his ferocity.

His speed was slightly faster as he swung his sabre first, only for Reinhardt to react with similar speed, blocking the attack with the hammer's shaft. The two then entered a ferocious battle the others could only watch.

The whole time Osirus stood emotionless, patiently waiting for the archer to strike again, but it never happened, suddenly the 5 other bandits rushed Osirus, Simon, Annie and Elisa, each person faced a single bandit while Osirus faced 2, it seemed his display of reaction speed made them think he was the second strongest.

Luckily the 2 that faced him only had a combined strength slightly stronger than the other bandits, so he wasn't at too much of an advantage, although that wasn't to say he could relax.

Annie's twin daggers whizzed with impressive speed that made them hard to track, Simons longsword made beautiful arcs and thrust while Elisa fired off small fireballs with hair-singing heat.

After getting glimpses of the others' battle, he figured that the bandits average strength was about the 4th Level of {Body Cultivation} while the bandit leader was between the 6th and 7th Level and the 2 he was facing were strong 3rd Levels.

Although he could easily use his saved SP to reach Level 4, making the fight much easier, he decided to hold back, hoping to improve his combat skills using {Analytic Mind}'s impressive learning speed.

Osirus watched them rapidly approach, both wielding average swords, about the same length as his own, the first one quickly reached within striking distance and swung his sword towards his head, as he did, Osirus felt a sharp tingling feeling in his head.

"Shit!", Osirus instantly dropped to the floor dodging the sword as well as the arrow that landed just behind him.

Another sword came slashing down as he was forced to roll to the side, dodging its downward swing as it sunk into the soft mud, popping back up, he was forced to block a strike from the first attacker, however before he could start a counter attack, the second attacker swung his sword from the side.

Osirus jumped back to get out of the range of the attack, however as he did a painful tingling sensation assaulted his mind as he looked at the same spot as before, once again an arrow shot towards him, causing him to hurriedly jump to the side once again.

This continued on for a while, he would exchange blows with the first 2 before suddenly dodging an arrow, placing him on the backfoot as he was attacked by the 2 swordsmen.

On another part of the battle field, Annie was panting, her face red as she blocked, dodged and attacked the bandit, she had a long gash along her left arm, luckily it wasn't too deep and didn't affect her combat ability, her opponent on the other hand was in a much worse state.

10s of wounds littered his body, although none of them were fatal, the pure amount caused blood to continuously trickle to the floor, furthermore whenever he tried to get away, Annie would follow him like a shadow, relentlessly hunting him down.

Simon also had the advantage against his opponent, his sword moving with impressive speed and smoothness, making it hard to block and parry as it would just as easily flow in another direction and reveal blood.

Elisa on the other hand was struggling, although her combat power could be frightening, even being able to damage the Warrior Moss Trogg, that was only under the right conditions, conditions that she didn't have right now.

She didn't have time to gather her Mana and fire a powerful fireball that would one-shot the opponent before her, instead she could only hurriedly condense weak fireballs that would barely burn his clothes before dissipating, furthermore her Mana was rapidly plummeting.

Luckily she had quite large reserves allowing her to last at least a couple more minutes.

Reinhardt and the Scarred Man were currently in a stalemate, although the Scarred Man's speed was slightly faster and they had about equal strength, Reinhardt was able to use the hammer to cover his disadvantage, its shocking weight caused considerable issue for the Scarred Man.

However using such a heavy weapon also came with a severe weakness, his stamina was being quickly drained every time he struck, his muscles had already begun to sore, nonetheless he wouldn't let up as he continually exerted his full strength, causing the ground to rumble with each collision.

On the other side of the battlefield, Osirus was still constantly dodging, parrying and blocking, unable to strike back, his {Threat Detection} continuously warned him of any danger, it had already saved his life more than once as the arrows were always fired at the worst time possible, with the extra second or two he had to react to it because of this Passive Skill being a life-saver.

The opponents were already used to an arrow shooting at Osirus whenever they entered a stalemate, so as soon as they blocked each other's strike, they were already preparing for the dodge, attempting to try and strike him as he was mid roll or jump.

Osirus felt a similar sensation as the 2 swords collided, however, instead of dodging the arrow again, he decided it was time to take the initiative.

{Body Cultivation:Lv.3~Lv.4(0/40SP}

Taking the 2 swordsmen by surprise, Osirus didn't dodge, but instead took a step forward, pushing with more strength than he had ever before. The sudden change in situation meant the swordsmen didn't have time to get stable footing, causing him to fall onto his back.

Using the extra room, Osirus stepped forward, dodging the incoming arrow and simultaneously closing in on the fallen bandit.

'{Quick Slice}'

With his improved strength and the sudden increase in speed from {Quick Slice}, neither bandit had time to react before Osirus's sword flashed with a green light, beheading and instantly killing the fallen bandit.

However he didn't stop, the other bandit froze, shocked at how quickly the situation had changed.

'{Quick Slice}'

Another head rolled to the floor, shock, fear and disbelief in its eyes.

{User Killed 2x 1st Stage Humans - 16SP Gained}

Within the thick forest, a figure stood on one of the hundreds of criss-crossing branches, looking through the dense foliage he was able to see the shocking scene of Osirus killing the 2 bandits in moments.

His trembling hands held a nocked arrow that refused to leave, however in that moment, that same person who had killed 2 of his comrades turned his head, his emotionless eyes scanned past his own, momentarily plunging his soul into panic.

Into that moment of fear, the arrow was accidently released.

Osirus looked into the dense foliage, searching, the whole time he had been trying to figure out the archers location, he roughly knew where he was, but as he saw another arrow fly towards him before sticking into the ground next to him, he finally pinpointed the archers exact location.

Stepping off the soft ground, it slightly sunk in as he shot off into the forest, his speed reaching 15 m/s in an instant.