"Useless Gun!!"
Adrien cursed and threw his gun at his attacker. It hit his face hard, drew blood, and stopped him for a moment. That was enough time for Vera to line up her shot and pull the trigger.
As the man fell, another shoved past the corpse and fired relentlessly at the duo. By then, Adrien had pulled out a new gun and started firing.
As the gunfight broke out, the bandits gave up on a frontal assault and hurried to take cover, but the duo managed to drop a few of them.
Bullets whizzed past their heads, and the world seemed to slow down for Adrien, as he showed incredible accuracy by killing a few with miraculous and remarkable head shots.
Although Vera was no slouch, compared to Adrien, she was lagging a bit. Then her eyes widened as she saw a bandit pull out what seemed to be a stick hand grenade.
Vera quickly aimed and pulled the trigger, but to her horror, the gun jammed."Adrien, the grenade!!!", she screamed in panic.
"I know," Adrien spoke calmly.
For a moment, Vera forgot to breathe as her heart came to a stop, while the bandit cocked his hand back to throw the 'potato smasher' grenade, whose fuse was already lit, but a well-timed shot courtesy of Adrien adorned his head with a bloody hole.
The bandit collapsed, and a couple of seconds later, the grenade exploded, and a couple of extra bandits died from it.
"Vera, focus on the one in front while I take care of those who got behind us."
"What!!!", Vera exclaimed in shock as she turned, seeing the enemy creeping up from behind them.
"Focus." Adrien chided her as he engaged the enemy with a kukri in his right hand and a pistol on his left.
The one in the front lunged at him, screaming incomprehensibly with a mace held high in his hand. Adrien stepped to the side, raised his pistol and shot the man's face at point-blank range.
"Jakov!!! NO!!!! You bastard," one of them screamed and aimed a familiar two-shot rifle and fired at Adrien, missing both shots.
Adrien dashed and pressed his pistol against the bandit's forehead, and pulled the trigger, killing him.
Next, he threw his pistol towards one of the bandits, making him duck, but before that bandit could re-aim his pistol, Adrien was already upon him.
Hitting the elbow with the but of the kukri, he forced the bandit's hand to fold, and he caught the gun with his left hand, using the momentum to put it against the bandit's chin. He pulled the trigger, claiming another victim.
With his newly reacquired gun, Adrien shot the remaining three bandits, killing each of them with a headshot.
~ding~
Adrien heard the chime, followed quickly by a whistle and heavy panting. Instinctively, he dropped his centre of gravity and spun, sweeping his kukri in a lethal arc.
The blade bit the flesh of a large, snarling canine creature near its throat.
Creature stumbled from injury, but it quickly turned and lunged at Adrien, who attacked its frothing mouth with his kukri.
The creature bit the kukri, shattering the blade, but Adrien was ready. He aimed the gun at the creature's eye and pulled the trigger.
The canine let out a sharp whine as it staggered, but its attack was far from over, as it turned and opened its mouth wide, but Adrien was ready.
Adrien pulled out a previously looted estoc and stabbed the roof of the canine's mouth before shooting into its mouth a couple of times, and the canine collapsed on the ground dead.
Adrien idly noted that the creature he slained was named as 'Obsidian Hound', a level five dog, whose fur looked like jet black obsidian, but he did not have time to admire the creature as a large pained gasp came to his ears.
The boss, whom they had spotted initially, had pushed Vera down on the ground and was strangling her, while she futilely struggled.
Adrien moved like lightning as he picked up the fallen mace, but before he could attack the boss, multiple loud gunshots echoed in the area.
Bang
Bang
The boss collapsed on Vera, who gasped, trying to breathe, and the weight of the corpse was lying on top of her.
Adrien quickly pulled the corpse away before helping Vera to sit up.
*cough*
*cough*
"Vera, Vera, are you okay?"
"Never," choked out Vera in a hoarse voice, "Never involve me with these kinds of things."
"Sorry, next time I will be better."Adrien immediately apologised as Vera slowly stood up.
"I need some water."
"Yeah, I spotted a well, let's see if it works."
Adrien helped Vera towards a well and drew some water from it using a bucket that had seen better days.
"I hope this is safe to drink."
Vera sniffed and tasted it, and found the water chilly but surprisingly refreshing.
"I think this is safe to drink."
The duo had their fill of water before Adrien spoke, "Before looting them, let us check the warehouse."
Vera agreed, and the duo opened the door. They were shocked that instead of a warehouse, it was a basement entrance.
"Vera, I think we should loot the corpses and anything outside to rearm before venturing down.
"I agree."
Half an hour later, the duo, properly armed and holding a pair of torches, slowly descended a dilapidated set of stairs.
"Adrien, keep an eye out for any traps."
Adrien gave a cautious nod as they reached the bottom of the stairs and found rows of hay bales stacked on top of each other on one side and on the other, large barrels.
As they ventured forth to the next room, the air went a bit stale and musty, and then they chanced upon a large corridor with jail cells on either side.
These jail cells were not empty.
At a glance, the duo could spot people of various ages, genders, and races, but all of them looked impoverished and malnourished, with hopeless eyes.
Some of them clearly looked injured, while some lay motionless, surrounded by dampness and darkness.
"Hello."
Adrien's voice echoed in the area, but none of them stirred.
"We dealt with the bandits on the topside."
A strange and awkward silence descended, as one of them spoke with trembling voice, "Liar, get lost, and stop playing such cruel jokes."
"We are not; we can free you," Vera spoke up as the stirring and restlessness increased.
"Is that so? Then why don't you open these cells?"
Adrien took out a set of keys, which he had acquired after Vera killed the level 6 Boss, and tossed them towards the nearest cell.
One of its occupants quickly scrambled to pick up the keys, opened the cell and stepped out.
It was like the dam collapsing, and every captive suddenly jumped up with hope surging within them.
As the cells opened one by one, people stepped out, some with their faces full of laughter, while others broke down in tears, and the duo behind their release waited patiently for them.
An aged man limped towards them and nearly prostrated in front of them if not for Adrien's timely intervention.
"Thank you, benefactor. We do not know how to thank you."
"Please, there is no need for that, we are travellers stranded in a foreign land, accidentally stumbled upon the bandit hideout and upon capturing it, we found you all."
"So what will you do now?"
Adrien's words seemed to falter the old man, who then began to speak in a sombre tone, "We were pioneers of frontier villages which were captured by the Snow Wolves bandits. When they raided our villages, I doubt there is anything left of the village or our old life."
"I see," Vera spoke with a frown, "then is there any place you all can go, or do you plan to occupy this place?"
"Absolutely not, we will burn this place down, along with those illicit liquor and drugs, and then travel to the Frontier Town, the Baroness will surely help us."
A young adult's voice came from behind.
The old man's eyes lit up as he spoke, "Yes, and the Steam Crawler, these bandits have a Steam Crawler, it will be easier to move all of us."
"Excellent," Adrien spoke up, "Unfortunately, we do not know this area at all too well, and so we would need your help. Also, how far is this town?"
"It should be a bit over two hundred, and with the Steam Crawler, we can easily make it, after all those bastards used to carry slaves, drugs and other things using that."
"Good, good, though seeing the weather, we need to prepare for the journey, especially since some of you are injured as well."
"Don't you worry about that benefactor," the old man spoke with a wide toothless smile, "We will be ready before you even know it."
"Also, are the bandit corpses still lying around?"
"Yes," Vera answered, unsurely.
"Then we will give them a proper cremation, after all, we cannot have them terrorise the area as an undead."
The way he said the word 'proper', along with the unholy look in his eyes, sent a chill down the duo's spine.
'The bandits should be glad and grateful to us for not letting them get captured alive.'