399 Vermin

"BANDITS!!"

Alex suddenly stood up and ran to the door of the carriage he was on. The mistress in red was already out and had a small sword on her hands.

The caravan was currently going through a large jungle that was not part of the southern forest. Thus, there weren't strong beasts here. However, that also made it the prime spot for bandits to attack.

He looked around and saw a commotion in the front; People had already started fighting. He could hear clashes of swords and spears from the front. He decided to go help them.

"Stop!" the woman in red stopped him.

Alex got a little agitated this time. Not even letting him help the people in such a time irked him the wrong way. "What?" he asked annoyed.

"Stay back here and protect the back. The front is likely just a distraction. The ones who will do the looting will come from the back," the woman said.

Just as she said that Alex could hear rustles from the tree side next to him. 'Oh, so she is not stopping me,' he thought. He was surprised.

5 people appeared on his side. The woman had already left to the other side to fight the ones that would come from the other side.

He looked at the men, a little scared, and saw that 3 of them held sabers, one of them had a bow and arrow and the final one had a spear with him.

Alex got a little worried. However, he soon realized that the bandits didn't have a very high cultivation base. 3 of them were in the Meridian tempering realm, and 2 of them were in the organ tempering realm.

This was going to be an easy fight. He took out one of the common swords and got ready to fight.

The current bandits were not very strong and couldn't harm him at all, especially with the True armor he was wearing. Thus he decided to use this opportunity as a test to see if his month-long self-training in the sword really helped him in any way.

He was still using the concealing technique, so the bandits couldn't see his cultivation base at all. Thus, they thought he was very weak.

The man with the bow shot an arrow towards him. Alex simply blocked the arrow with his sword and moved forward to attack the closest bandit that was using a saber.

He lifted the sword just a tiny amount, trying not to use excessive movements that could give openings for the bandits to attack. He immediately struck down which the bandit blocked.

Alex then slid his sword along the blade of the opponent's saber until he hit the hilt, and then twisted the sword until it was knocked out of that man's hands. The saber flew far back towards the forest.

'That's one saber dow— '

The man suddenly brought out a sword from his storage bag and attacked. Another man attacked at the same time, and Alex had to block with his sword.

He then twisted his sword again to knock them back and parried the spear attack that nearly hit his chest.

'I need to be careful. They're going for the kill,' he thought. He decided to get a little more serious.

Another arrow flew at him. He could dodge it, but there were Ying Wu and her mother behind him, so he needed to protect them.

He hit the arrow away and attacked again. He consciously made no use of any techniques and just attacked with his sword.

The bandits did soon resort to using different techniques, but from what he could see, these small-time bandits couldn't use strong skills. What they did use posed no problems to Alex.

He quickly struck down the first bandit with the flat side of his sword. He then fought the guy with the spear and incapacitated him as well.

The other two bandits tried, but they too failed against him; they just weren't strong enough. For the guy with the bow and arrow, it wasn't even a fight.

All the bandits were down on the ground unable to move.

"That wasn't so bad, but I need a stronger opponent to really see how far I've come along," he thought.

The bandits lay on the ground, grunting in pain. The commotion at the front had ended and it seemed the bandits had run away.

"What are you doing?" a voice spoke behind him. Alex was a little surprised and made some distance, but then he saw that it was only Ying Wu.

"Oh, you scared me. I thought there was somebody strong behind me and I couldn't sense them," he said. Alex hadn't dealt with a mortal ever in the game and didn't realize how sneaky they could be.

Ying Wu looked at the bandits and asked, "these are the bandits right? Didn't you defeat them?"

"Of course I did, just look at them," he said pointing at the bandits on the ground.

"Why are you outside!?" the woman in red suddenly came to their side and practically shrieked.

"I-I'm sorry. I'll go back in," Ying Wu said and left.

The woman then looked at Alex and the bandits and then asked, "You haven't dealt with them yet?"

"Huh? Yes, i—"

The woman immediately swung her sword, scaring Alex. However, he was not the target of the attack. A white light escaped from her sword and cut the bandits that were on the ground.

Right in front of Alex's eyes, all 5 bandits were killed just like that.

Alex's heart skipped a beat and he fought the urge to vomit. these people, that were possible real people in a real-world, died just like that.

He had clearly taken care of the bandits but the woman went a step further and killed them.

"Why are you soft with the bandits? They're bandits! One of them left alive is a hundred innocent dead in the future. They are the vermin of the empire. If you find them, kill them."