It was indeed a heartbreaking scene; almost all the dead were merchants and their guards, though perhaps a few thugs had died too.
But this was the first time I had seen corpses in this life or my previous one. I could feel my stomach churning, because many of the dead had either lost a leg or had their bellies split open.
I could not bear it anymore and lost my concentration, then my connection to Erebus. Once the connection broke, my vision returned to normal, and I began vomiting. It took me five to ten minutes to calm down.
When I calmed down, I realized that one of the points of light representing humans had disappeared; I immediately reestablished my connection to Erebus, and an even more sickening scene appeared before me. The bandits were raping the two women they had just captured, and I moved closer to hear what they were saying.
"Why did you kill that woman, you idiot? We could have sold her to the Ironborn for a good price once we were done playing with her."
"You're the real idiot. Do you have a death wish? Trading with the Ironborn? There's a reason those sea rats always talk about the iron price; they pay with iron, not gold. That bitch nearly gouged my eyes out; even if she's dead, her body is still warm and usable."
He laughed madly and walked toward another woman, tearing her clothes open while slowly driving the knife in his hand into her belly. I did not know what happened, but all my nausea and revulsion suddenly vanished.
All that remained was uncontrollable rage, but I did not lose myself in it; instead, my mind felt calmer and more still.
The only thing that went out of control was that the spell Primaferus (Primal Savagery) cast itself without my activating it, and strangely, it did not consume any mana either. It felt as though a thin membrane separated that rage from my mind.
I had a feeling that I should not let that rage tear through the membrane and affect me, that I had to try to control it. I began taking deep, steady breaths and channeled my mana into the membrane I felt inside me.
Slowly but surely, the rage began to subside, and the transformation resembling Primaferus (Primal Savagery) slowly returned to normal too.
These humanoid pieces of garbage-calling them garbage was an insult to garbage. At least garbage could be used as fertilizer, but even the earth would not accept these bastards.
These vile creatures gave me a better understanding of the medieval world I lived in. They made me face the reality of how dangerous and savage this world was once again, and I had to thank them, so I decided to repay them with the cruelty they loved most. I currently had 75 mana; if necessary, I would use it all in this battle and not let a single one of them escape.
When I was about 70 meters from their position, I reestablished my connection to Erebus and carefully scouted their weapons and positions. There were about ten minutes left before the spell Promodynes (Find Animal) ended.
Actually, I only needed to remember their positions; I just needed to find the ones with ranged weapons. Of the eleven thugs, five were loading valuables onto horses, four were scouts, and the other two, I thought, were probably the leaders, because those two bastards were defiling the poor women's bodies while everyone else was doing something else.
Only four had bows and arrows; some of them might have concealed weapons, such as throwing knives, but those would be ineffective at the distance from which I would begin my attack.
I had to kill those four scouts before the others realized what was happening, and to do that, I had to hit their heads so they would be eliminated silently. My three years of archery practice truly came in handy at this moment.
I had to get closer because I needed to hit their heads, so I moved within 40-50 meters and found a position behind some bushes. From this spot, all four sentries would be in my direct line of sight when I stood up.
They could not see me because the bushes blocked their view, and the calls of Bo and Erebus made the sounds of my movements impossible to detect amid all the cawing.
I was good at rapid archery, but because my hands were still small and I had not yet reached my physical peak, I could only hold two more arrows in my hand besides the one on my bow.
I braced myself, because in a moment, I would be killing people, even if they were criminals. I took a deep breath and cast Promodynes (Find Animal) again, because it would expire in about five minutes.
After one final deep breath, I drew my bow and, as I sprang up, fired three arrows at my targets in succession.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
The three arrows reached their targets almost simultaneously and instantly took three lives. I had just drawn three arrows from the quiver on the left side of my waist when I saw a bandit carrying valuables discover one of the dead scouts and shout.
"Ambush!!!"
Suddenly, they ducked behind trees and wagons, trying to determine where the attack had come from. Thanks to my super vision, a distance of 50 meters looked like five to ten meters to me.
So I could see another archer hiding behind a tree, trying to peer around it, but I did not seem to have a way to hit him. Just then, an idea came to me; I nocked an arrow, aimed at the side of the tree around which the archer was trying to look, and released it.
Whoosh.
The arrowhead skimmed swiftly past, cutting into the tree and sending large pieces of bark splintering and flying. Since the fragments were on the side where the archer was trying to look out, the little wooden splinters pierced the right side of his face.
The archer screamed in pain and stepped out of cover without realizing it. At that instant, I shot an arrow through his chest.
But while I was focused on the archer, the other bandits must have discovered my approximate position, and they attacked from both sides, trying to surround me. When I realized this, I began changing positions too.
First, I fired an arrow at the leaders, exposing my position and drawing their attention to that spot, then immediately changed positions by running in a wide arc around them.
But I ordered all the crows and ravens to give piercing cries and fly near the bandits, so they could not hear my movements over all the birds.
Thanks to Promodynes (Find Animal), I could clearly see everyone's position. I circled wide around them while they began converging on my previous position.
Only seven remained, and I still had 65 mana, which meant I could cast six spells or twelve level-one spells. I began to smile slyly; they had no chance. While they thought they were surrounding me, I passed behind them from the left.
The pair I thought were the leaders did not follow me. They looked this way from behind the wagons, but instead of approaching the edge of the woods, they stayed on the road. Four people dying within seconds must have made them think there was more than one archer, or they were utter cowards.
"Sambrar (Fog)."
The place where all five bandits were beginning to gather was suddenly shrouded in fog. I could hear their cries of surprise and fear, and when I activated my thermal vision, I could also see them trying to find one another almost blindly.
I began creating a tegonden (Earth Clod) in each hand, but kept them rounded so that when I cast the spells, they would not pierce their bodies but instead send them flying backward on impact and crush their chests. Because I made them round, they looked like large cannonballs 30 centimeters in diameter.
I launched both spells, and they took only a second to reach their targets. One was struck squarely in the chest and the other in the back, but the result was the same. With the sound of shattering bones, they flew about ten to fifteen meters toward the wagons, and because of that acceleration, they struck several trees, their corpses becoming sacks of mangled flesh.
The three remaining in the fog did not see what had happened to their two friends and did not know what to expect or guard against. But the two beside the wagons watched clearly in horror as the bodies flew with large chunks of stone, struck trees, and became sacks of mangled flesh.
"Damn it, what the hell is happening here!"
"What threw them that far? We have to get out of here. Let's run while whatever the hell is in that fog is busy dealing with the others."
Both prepared to mount their horses, loading the stolen goods and getting ready to flee. Thanks to the two spells Thermal Vision Sense and Promodynes (Find Animal), I could track what was happening on the other side of the fog and even see what those two were doing 30 meters away. They were clearly about to escape.
Sorry, I can't just let you leave. We still have plenty of fun things to do. I ran toward them swiftly, and just as they were about to mount their horses and escape, I managed to get within 20 meters and cast a spell in an instant.
"udrādȳñes (Command Animal), horse, udrādȳñes (Command Animal), horse."
-Throw them off and run away.-
Just as I commanded, the horses suddenly went wild, trying to throw off their riders. It was like watching a rodeo, but I could not let it distract me, because through Thermal Vision Sense, I could tell that two other fellows had "spotted" me and were charging toward me.
When I turned around, I could see both of them running toward me with horrible smiles still on their faces.
These two idiots did not realize I had caused those deaths; they probably wanted to take me hostage. When they were about ten meters from me, they were running side by side, and I could not help seizing the opportunity.
"Perzys (Fireball)."
When I threw the fireball that formed in my hand, it exploded in the face of the man running on the left a second later. The small explosion made the man running beside him flinch, lose his balance, and fall to the ground.
As soon as I threw the fireball, I took my bow off my back, nocked an arrow, and shot it through the leg of the man on the ground. The man screamed in pain and cursed incessantly. As he continued screaming, I nocked another arrow and shot it through his shoulder.
I let this man suffer like this because I did not want to waste mana on the last man; I wanted to use all my remaining mana on those two leaders. So I had no mana to spare to kill the last man.
Both leaders who had fallen from their horses chose to run rather than fight. I had hoped they would stay and fight, but running would not change anything either, because Erebus was following them to kill them.
I crouched behind a bush, waiting for that man to emerge from the fog. When I saw him approaching its edge, I aimed at him, ready to shoot immediately, but he suddenly hid behind a tree and tried to look toward the screaming man. The last man seemed somewhat clever and did not run out of the fog like those two idiots.
-Bo, can you order your flock of crows to drive that man out from behind the tree?-
-Of course, Dad.-
She began cawing, and several crows and ravens flew toward the man. It was a little funny watching the crows and ravens swoop down and peck him, but he swung his sword and fists, killing several.
Then something happened that would make me never forget this man. It proved that you must never kill a crow or raven in front of a large flock of crows.
As the dead birds fell to the ground, 20-30 birds flew up from the trees and attacked the man. Yes, five to seven died in this attack, but they did not care.
Some tried to gouge out his eyes, while others tore at his ears and pecked anywhere they could reach. The man fell to the ground in agony, but the birds followed him and continued attacking until he stopped moving.
Crows and ravens held grudges, and they took revenge.