Bandits II

「Hmph, don’t underestimate me. I’ve long noticed you lurking around here ever since I was having a meal earlier. But still, you sure are still too green, for you’re still unable to contain that bloodlust of yours! You’re a hundred years too early to challenge me. Now, if you’ve realized the difference in our power, you better quickly step away from this place. Otherwise, it’ll too late regret it later once you’ve suffered from this, such and that.」

Tanaka was at his wits’ end by the abrupt turn of events. However, he let none of it show on his face. He hid his nervousness by carrying himself in a cool manner. He then tried to stall for time, by saying whatever suitable lines which came up to his mind. As a result, he managed to obtain his desired bits of precious time. It might only be for a short while, but he could still utilize every bit of that window of time to come up with a way to save himself, by racking his supposedly genius brain at full speed.

However, the three men didn’t seem to be intending to give him any time to think. By the time Tanaka began to spout out those lines, they were already on the move. The three swiftly took up positions to surround Tanaka as though to block his escape path.

「We got here just a moment ago.」

Said one of the men. At that very moment, the three moved and attacked Tanaka at the same time. 「I was trying my best to act strong here, so would it kill you to keep that fact to yourself?!」

Tanaka exclaimed in embarrassment. At the same time, he unsheathed his short sword and immediately took a defensive stance against the three’s sword attacks.

After living in this other world the way he had been up until now, Tanaka had more or less gotten used to the way of wielding the short sword. It could be said that his skill had reached a full-fledged level of this craft. However, the swordsmanship displayed by the three men was far beyond that of his. They weren’t quite at master level yet, but they could still pass to be called as powerhouses with their skills.The three men attacked Tanaka one after another with refined and efficient movements. Compared to theirs, Tanaka’s movement was as expected still too crude. He wasn’t their match at all… or so that was how things were supposed to be.

「Why… Why can’t we take him down?!」

The three had indeed overwhelmed Tanaka. It could be said that in these short instances of continuous exchanges of attack and defense, the three men had been overwhelming Tanaka with their waves of attack. In contrast to their refined techniques, Tanaka’s sword technique was very crude. Their attacks could easily break through his poor attempts of defense.

It wasn’t only his swordsmanship, the same went for Tanaka’s body movement. From the point of view of the three men, Tanaka’s movement couldn’t be called sophisticated by any means. It was the very epitome of a crude way of moving the body. As his attempt of defense utilizing his short sword was breached, Tanaka was sent off balance. He fell into a stance where no matter what kind of an expert one was, they wouldn’t have the ability to evade any coming attacks. That very moment, the three men attacked Tanaka almost simultaneously. For how many times had he shown such a large opening already? Their attacks were to land for sure this time, there wasn’t even a shred of doubt about it. However, they miraculously didn’t. Not to mention, Tanaka had somehow returned to his original stance before they even noticed it. The way all of those events transpired could only be called as an unrecognizable phenomenon. This phenomenon, however, had been happening for numerous times already in front of the three.

「What the heck was that?! What the hell is going on?!」

The three began to lose their composure. They were clearly way above him in terms of pure skills. They had created and utilized advantageous situations numerous times already. However, for some reasons they had never succeeded in taking him down. The situation always turned out like the way things transpired just a moment ago. Being unable to understand what was going on… Gradually, their fluster began to turn into fear.

Perhaps realizing what was going on, Tanaka who had been defending and evading their attacks for his life up until now, began to obtain some composure. 「Fufufu, what’s this? Are you getting flustered? I’d never have expected that the power of the bandits are actually only at the same level as that of babies.」

Tanaka casually expressed the thoughts that crossed his mind. As far as Tanaka was concerned, he had no intention of making fun of them in the slightest. He simply and honestly expressed what he thought, however, the three men didn’t seem to share the thought as they reacted to his words strongly.「Don’t lump us together with lowly bandits!」

「Don’t look down on us!」

「Die!」 The three men went into a frenzy and began to furiously launch attacks on Tanaka.

「Whoa! Come on, don’t get mad. Are you teens in puberty or something? … hmm?」

Tanaka suddenly realized something upon his own words. He quickly jumped backwards to create some distance from the three men.

「Haha. I’ve thought that there is something strange about this all. You’re all way too weak to be the bandits, after all. You must be some thugs from the town, am I right? When you heard that some bandits have appeared around this area, you must have been planning on taking advantage of the chaotic situation to get some good memories out of it. You better perish the idea, though. With merely that level of skills, you’ll only get yourself killed. You should just obediently register with the guild and start to earnestly hunt monsters.」

Yes, Tanaka had finally realized it. The three men in front of him were a group who had learned a bit of swordsmanship in the town and were up to some mischief there. So, as their elder, he had the duty to give them some warning for nursing such an idiotic idea. It could be said that this was an unusually proper action, considering that it came from Tanaka. However, Tanaka’s behavior only served to infuriate the three men even further instead.

「You bastard! How far are you going to look down on us before you get satisfied?!」 The three were coming at Tanaka as though their lives were depending on it. There was no longer a shadow of their sophisticated movements from earlier. They had gotten too infuriated that their attacks began to turn erratic. Their attacks were now composed with nothing but brute force. However, on the contrary, it yielded a result. Receiving furious attack from the three, Tanaka’s short sword finally unable to hold on and break to pieces from its base.

「Gyaaa! No wayyy!」

Staring at the broken short sword, Tanaka let out a scream. The three men didn’t miss the huge opening Tanaka had displayed.

They were convinced that this time for sure their sword attack would lay claim to Tanaka’s vitals. However, that very moment, their consciousness was abruptly cut off. All of a sudden, the three men had a hole on their abdomens before slowly crumbling down on the spot…