After a few minutes of waiting, Merlin noticed that the two mercenaries had finally left the building, neither of which had a happy expression on their face.
"Alright, if you're ready, lead the way." Merlin spoke with a soft voice, trying to come off as friendly as he could, but it seemed the two mercenaries were still cautious of him.
Nevertheless, the two mercenaries led him to the eastern part of town, and from what Merlin could see, this side of town was the main area where nobles would set up their estate. As opposed to the western side which consisted mostly of markets, and the southern side which was a residential and occupational area for commoners.
The group of three wandered through the streets, walking past the various noble households, it seemed there were a few snobbish nobles out and about as they were occasionally given glares and looks of disgust. It wasn't long before the group came across a nice looking inn, featuring a large cutout of a light-pink rabbit instead of a traditional sign.
Entering the inn, the group was greeted with cautious glares from the inn's inhabitants, as well as a curious gaze from the reception desk. The mercenaries looked rough, almost like bandits, so it was only natural for people to be frightened by their appearance.
Merlin walked past the two mercenaries and approached the man at the reception desk. "Excuse me, we're looking for the envoy of Macedonia's oracle. I believe he's staying at this inn."
Before the receptionist could ask their purpose in coming to see their client, Merlin pulled out the quest form and showed it to him, quelling any suspicion that may have arisen.
"Very well, I'll inform him of your presence. Excuse me." The receptionist nodded and quickly scampered up the flight of stairs, only to return a few moments later. "He'll be right with you. Please, take a seat."
The three mercenaries took a seat on the empty sofa they were directed to, and an odd sight occurred for everyone within the lobby. The two muscular men covered in scars were visibly trying to lean as far away from the young man they arrived with as they could.
Eventually a nicely dressed man came down the staircase while carrying a bag of luggage. He spotted Merlin and his companions and rushed over to them. The man suddenly spoke up, and it felt like he was in a hurry. "I take it you lot are the mercenaries they sent over?"
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Merlin noticed the name floating about the envoy's head, it read as "Savvas Politas". The name was unfamiliar to him, meaning it wasn't anybody particularly important, at least not to him in the past. One of the mercenaries gave him a positive response, and Merlin pulled out the quest form to show Savvas.
"Alright alright, I'll get my horses. Meet me out front." The envoy spoke quickly and then dashed out of the building, leaving the group a little dumbfounded.
"Well, he's in a hurry, huh?" Merlin's retort was ultimately ignored by his companions, which left him a little sad.
The group made their way out of the building, where they were met with the envoy driving around an open wagon pulled by two brown horses with thick shimmering coats. Savvas parked the wagon in front of the inn and told everyone to get on quickly. Once everyone was comfortable, the horses set off once more. The horses eventually exited through the eastern gate, and the surroundings quickly changed from large noble estates to wide plains, with a large paved road splitting the grasslands in two.
"I'm glad you came when you did. I was just about to risk it and leave on my own." Savvas spoke up, explaining that he was pretty close to freely throwing himself at the highway bandits, although he didn't explain why.
"Why are you in such a hurry to leave?" One of the mercenaries asked, it seemed he was genuinely curious, the other mercenary started paying attention to the conversation too.
The envoy gave a small chuckle before explaining, he was sure that his reasoning would be seen as stupid by the masses. "Well, before leaving on my mission, I was given an audience with the oracle."
"I was told that I must leave town by the early morning of the fifth day since arrival, any later than that and I may have an unfortunate encounter with a malicious spirit." He explained, now staring up at the sky, the sun was now clearly visible over the horizon. "Today was the fifth day, so I had to leave immediately, the oracle's prophesies always come true."
Upon hearing the words "malicious spirit", both the mercenaries snapped their heads towards Merlin. All he could do in response was shake his head, it didn't seem the envoy had caught onto this behaviour yet, so he had that little bit of solace for the moment.
The grasslands were suddenly cut off by a sparsely forested area, causing the previously open ride to feel rather claustrophobic. Merlin opened his inventory and took out his sling alongside a handful of ammunition, if there was anywhere they'd be attacked, it was obviously in a location where the attackers had some form of cover.
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And as expected, the sounds of horses treading on soft soil and dried plant matter echoed throughout the forest, although Merlin wasn't yet able to see them, he knew what was about to come. He started swinging the sling around, waiting for someone to appear.
Once the forest started opening up again, various figures escaped from the treeline. There were six highway bandits, each riding a horse. A metal ball flung out, pinging one of the bandit's horses in the eye causing it to fall to the ground, throwing its rider off.
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"I'll deal with these guys, you two make sure the envoy doesn't get hurt." Merlin yelled out as he reloaded his sling once more.
The highway bandits started drawing in closer to the wagon with their blades drawn. Merlin knocked another horse to the ground with his sling, leaving four more bandits to deal with immediately while the other two recover.
Merlin threw his sling and ammo into his inventory. Two of the bandits began running ahead of the cart in an attempt to scare the horses into running off the road. While the other two began closing the distance to the sides of the wagon. He pulled his beginner rags out of his inventory and began balling them up tight while chanting.
「Skill ⟪Ignite⟫ Activated.」
Suddenly the ball of rags caught alight, the flames began rapidly spreading, threatening to lick at Merlin's hands. He threw the ball of fire at one of the bandits, causing the horse to freak out and run off the road, leaving three bandits to deal with.
He stood up in the wagon, causing his body to wobble, it took him a few moments but he grew confident with standing on a moving platform. He drew his gladius and prepared himself, but as he was going to pounce on the bandit, the wagon underneath him jerked to the side, throwing him off the vehicle.
He hit the tiled road and began tumbling, slowing down until reaching an eventual stop. Ignoring the pain from the fall, he looked around to see that the wagon stopped as the horses had wrapped themselves around a tree.
It seemed like the two mercenaries were holding their own, but weren't making any ground, so it'd be up to him to finish the bandits off. Merlin stumbled to his feet and sheathed his gladius, he opened his inventory and pulled out his cleaver, the Bovine Butcher.
The bandit Merlin was about to attack had turned to face him, but it seemed he was startled by the sudden appearance of a large rusty cleaver-looking blade. Merlin began chanting as he ran towards the bandit, who began charging at him in return.
「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack will do an extra 30% damage, and has a 10% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」
A successful jingle appeared as he performed a wide cleave, severing both of the horse's front legs on contact. The horse collapsed, sending its rider face first like many of the other bandits.
Before the highway bandit could stand, Merlin was already standing above him, performing a downward strike on the bandit's skull before a finishing blow by plunging the blade into his heart.
「Highway Bandits remaining: 5」
It didn't look like any loot had dropped from the bandit, so he turned his attention back towards the wagon. He began running up from behind the bandit currently attacking one of his mercenary companions, and as he did so he was given a faint notification telling him that the 20 second cooldown on ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ had ended.
Merlin began chanting as he jumped into the air, performing a downward swing on the bandit.
「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack will do an extra 30% damage, and has a 10% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」
The blade sliced through the bandit's shoulder like it was made of butter. The mercenary who was standing on the opposite side to Merlin had been covered in the blood splatter, but he didn't seem to be bothered by it. Rather he seemed to be too busy worried about something else to notice, namely the evil-looking grin currently plastered on Merlin's face that sent shivers down his spine.
Merlin performed a horizontal cleave, rupturing the man's side and forcibly dragging him off of the horse, where he was promptly finished with several more strikes.
「Highway Bandits remaining: 4」
Merlin turned to face the last of the bandits, the rest hadn't recovered or made their way over to the cart yet, leaving the one bandit alone. The remaining bandit seemed terrified, now noticing that his teammates were all gone. Merlin began walking towards the bandit, stepping over the now stationary cart to do so.