"Come to Papa," Leo beckoned with the tip of his frozen sword.
The three bandits didn’t need a second invitation.
The two Level 6 low lives were actually twins with identical ugly faces and bad yellow teeth roared in unison.
Meanwhile, the Level 8 bandit with his rusted battleaxe, spat on the ground and charged following closely behind them.
"Get him!" the Level 8 bandit screamed, "Cut off his legs! I will chop his hands!"
They rushed him all at once, grinning ear to ear.
But Leo wasn’t scared, it was time to test out his boots. He simply activated the passive enchantments on his boots.
[Wind-Chaser Boots: Passive Speed +10]
He heard Avia notify.
[Agility: 38 (+3) (+10)]
The first twin swung a spiked club at Leo’s head. With all the talks of enjoying his body, they were going for the kill from the get go.
Leo side-stepped it with a bored expression, the spikes whistling past his ear. He didn’t even raise his sword to parry. Instead, he reached out with his free hand and slapped the back of the bandit’s helmet.
CLANG!
The sound rang out like a church bell. The bandit stumbled forward, his momentum carrying him past Leo.
"Too slow," Leo taunted as he dodged the second twin, "My grandmother would have swung harder than that, and she has been dead for ten years."
The second twin thrust a spear at Leo’s gut. But Leo was quick to twirl, and the spear shaft sliding harmlessly against his Wyvern-Leather Armour he paid so much money for. As he spun, he didn’t stab the man. He swept his leg out, hooking the bandit’s ankle.
The second twin hit the dirt face-first with a wet thud.
"And you," Leo sighed, looking down at the prone man, "Watch your step. Or you might slide back into your mama’s pussy."
The Level 8 bandit growled, swinging his heavy axe in a wide, horizontal cleave meant to cut Leo in half.
"Die, you slippery little shit!"
Leo split his legs and crouched, the axe blade passing inches above his hair. He popped back up instantly, right behind the bandit.
"You missed me!" He slapped the flat of his Frost-Edge Longsword against the man’s cheek.
SMACK!
"Is that an axe swing or are you trying to butter toast?" Leo mocked, dancing back out of range before the leader could grab him, "Put some hip into it!" Leo smacked his ass, taunting him.
"You swing like a virgin trying to find the hole in the dark!"
The bandits were furious. They were being toyed with by a boy who was treating a life-or-death battle like a dance class.
"Circle him!" the Level 8 bandit screamed at the other two, wiping frost from his cheek, "Box him in! Don’t let him move!"
The three of them spread out, forming a triangle around Leo. They advanced slowly this time, wary of his speed.
"Where will you run now, pretty boy?" the leader sneered, raising his axe high, "Nowhere to run."
Leo looked at the three of them closing in. He wasn’t worried. He grinned, reaching into his pouch with his left hand.
"Dinner time," Leo announced, as soon as they were in reach.
"What?" the leader frowned.
Leo pulled his hand out. He wasn’t holding a dagger. He was holding a handful of fine, red powder.
It was Ryana’s Special Hellfire Pepper Blend that he saved after rubbing it on his steak.
"Peekaboo!!" Leo shouted.
He threw the powder in a wide arc, right into their faces. And the effect was instantaneous and devastating.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
"MY EYES! MY EYES ARE BURNING!!!"
"WHAT DID YOU DO???"
"AAAHH! AAAHH! AAAHH!"
The three bandits dropped their weapons, clawing at their faces.
The pepper got into their eyes, their noses, their mouths, and it was like inhaling liquid fire.
Snot and tears streamed down their ugly faces instantly. They stumbled around blindly, swinging at the air, coughing and sneezing violently.
"Bless you! My ugly dear children!" Leo laughed, "This lord will not abandon you."
He stepped forward and kicked the Level 8 bandit in the groin.
"MAMAAAA! I LOVE YOU!" The man made a high-pitched squeak and collapsed on the ground, face flat.
While Leo was busy bullying the lower-level trash, the main battle raged just twenty feet away.
It was a chaotic swirl of violence. The four exhausted Temple Guardians were fighting for their lives against the high-level elites.
A Level 11 Bandit, wielding dual poisoned shivs, saw an opening. The Level 26 Temple Guardian was busy locking blades with the the two Level 19 bandits.
The bandit quietly slipped behind the Guardian, his eyes fixed on the exposed gap in the Guardian’s armour near the kidney.
He crouched, preparing to lunge and end the man’s life.
At that exact moment, Leo was busy dodging a blind, flailing haymaker from one of the pepper-sprayed twins.
"Whoa there!" Leo exclaimed.
He performed a dramatic, unnecessary backflip to put distance between him and the sneezing bandits. And that actually felt good. It was totally unnecessary, but made him feel cool.
But just as he landed on his feet, he stumbled slightly on a loose rock. To regain his balance, he swung his Frost-Edge Longsword backward in a wide, reckless, flailing arc.
He wasn’t aiming at anything. He was just trying not to fall over. But!
SNICK!
He felt the blade caught something. He felt resistance. And as he pulled his sword forward, the resistance began to falter.
He turned around, confused, "Did I hit a tree?"
No he hadn’t hit a tree.
The Level 11 bandit, who had been mid-lunge towards the Guardian, was standing there, frozen. His eyes were bulging out of his head. His daggers dropped from his hands.
A thin line of blue frost appeared across his throat.
The bandit tried to breathe, but only a gurgling, wet sound came out. The frost magic from the sword flash-froze the wound instantly, sealing the scream in his throat.
He clutched his frozen neck, his face turning blue, then purple. He swayed for a second, looking at Leo with pure betrayal and anguish, before collapsing backward into the mud, stone dead.
[Quest Progress Made]
[Level 11 Bandit Dead]
** ** ** ** **