"B-Boss, T-There's someone injured on the road. W-what do we do? He looks badly injured."
"H---Help!!! Bandits attacked me, and left me injured. I don't have enough strength to reach the town. Please help me, I can pay you when we reach town."
"Boss! He needs help, let's help him. He's too pitiful."
"A-ah, yeah, let, us, help."
*Poke* *Poke* *Poke*
Don't poke me, I don't know morse code.
"...Please don't talk so stiffly. They might notice something."
Please, don't act like you can read my mind too. I can't help it. The injured person looks so fake that it's taking my all just to prevent insulting the guy.
There is also the fact that you can act really well. You went from an emotionless single word robot to a scared fainthearted lady. The contrast is too weird.
"Ahem, Ahem, Are you alright, stranger?"
"Please help me!"
"I'm not too sure. I do want to help you but it's a bit too risky taking in a stranger in the middle of our travels, even if they are injured."
"I'll reward you when we reach the next town, please help me!"
"Let's help him, boss."
It seems like their backstory for the injured isn't too well thought out. It's starting to repeat like a game NPC. If that's the case, they will attack once we come closer to him.
When we leave the wagons, the people on the side will jump towards the wagons and try to escape. If one stays with the wagon then they have successfully separated everyone, which makes it easier for them to attack us in pairs.
I'm guessing the injured one is the lowest ranking one of them, someone disposable. That means it won't matter if we capture him as hostage.
Risa being the scout has already relayed the information to hops and trina. However, those two can't send us a message discreetly enough for the ambushers not to notice, so the one who planned the counterattack is Risa.
She has already relayed the instructions to the other two but not to me. I'm not part of the current operation, I only need to sit here and guard myself. If I knew the plan, I would be looking all over the place expecting what would happen, so it would be best that I don't know what's going to happen, according to her.
"Ok, if we can get a reward out of it, I guess we can take the risk."
"Thank you, boss. I'll go ahead and help him."
"Ok, I'll prepare some space in the wagon for him."
Ok, that's the signal. This is her way of creating a natural way for me to disappear into the wagon. I can give the signal to the two at the other wagon and keep myself hidden inside at the same time.
The battle afterwards will be left to those three.
*Peek* *Stare* *Stare*
Alright, they see me. She already relayed the plan to them, so I only need to signal them that the plan is starting.
*Wave* *Wave* *Nod* *Nod*
They received the start signal. They will take care of the rest, my part is now done. I can just watch what they do.
This won't count as a review but let me see what you two new employee's can do.
-----------------------------------------------------3rd Person POV--------------------------------------------
"...That's the signal. You know what to do, Trina!"
"...You can count on me, Captain!"
At the sight of the signal that their boss gave them, the two fighters momentarily looked at each other then hopped down the wagon and sped up to their planned position.
The brawler headed straight towards the two people hiding in the bushes on the left while their captain ran towards the two trying to flank them.
Meanwhile, the assassin headed towards the 'injured' man to 'help' him.
"Ah, thank you, thank you! I'll be sure to reward you the moment we reach the town."
"Don't worry, we'll fix you up once we are back at the wagons."
The 'injured' man smiled ever so widely at the approaching ‘help’.
He quickly took a peek at the pairs at each side of the road.
Hidden in the bushes at each side of the road are a pair overlooking the situation. One person is looking at the wagons to see if they are doing anything suspicious while the other is looking at the 'injured' man, waiting for him to give the signal.
The one watching the 'injured' man has a hand on the person watching the wagon's shoulder, ready to react to any sudden situations.
Right now, the ones looking at the 'injured' man are excitedly watching as one of the people in the wagon slowly approaches the 'injured' man. The closer she gets, the more their smile widens.
However, at this moment, the pair on the left, the person looking at the wagon suddenly noticed one person charging at them at a very rapid speed.
The 'injured' man also noticed this. He figured that the 'prey' this time must have noticed their ambush. Thinking that there was no use pretending to be injured, he starts to attack the 'help' coming to him.
The assassin also noticed his change of expression, so she hurried to attack the bait.
Meanwhile, the two on the right of the wagon noticed that one of the people at the back was running away from the area. Thinking that she was trying to run away to call for help, they ran towards her to catch her.
The assassin saw everything happened according to her plan, so she rushed towards the bait and quickly knocked him out.
*Thud*
A single blow to the head with the pommel of her dagger swiftly knocked out the bait. After she was done with the bait, she quickly dashed back towards the carriage.
*Jump* *Jump*
She jumped towards the top of the wagon and pulled out a bow and arrow.
*Stab* *Stab*
She first fired two arrows towards the thighs of the two bandits chasing her captain, immobilising them and practically taking them out of the fight.
As those two are done, she is now done with her part of the fight. Her role now is to oversee the situation and keep watch of the surroundings for any unexpected guest that might show up.
Towards the left of the wagon, before the assassin took out the bait, the two bandits hidden in the bush were shocked at the brawler charging towards them.
They figured that the plan is now gone. They could only defeat the merchants here or run away before they get caught, before they could decide though, the brawler already closed the distance and has already thrown a punch.
"Shit! They're onto us. Quickly signal everyone to start the plan. We need to take care of them!"
"You do it, I'll deal with our aggressive guest here! Raaah!"
Holding a giant wooden club, he swung it towards the charging brawler.
*Swish*
However, instead of the expected impact, the bandit felt the wooden club slide sideways along with him. Along with the wooden club, he is now heading towards the ground but before he could slam to the ground his vision is suddenly blocked by a shiny metal gauntlet.
*Whack*
"That's on down. Let's finish this quickly, otherwise it would mess up our schedule."
"Wha-? You!!"
Overcome by anger, the other bandit swung his sabre towards the brawler.
The brawler smiled as she caught the side of the blade as she parried it to the side, the same way she did to the wooden club. As the weapon was swung with the full force of the attacker, with his entire weight behind the swing, his body followed the way his weapon was parried.
With the opponent caught off balance, the brawler slammed a straight right towards the open face of the bandit, sending him flying back and knocking him out.
"Oh, Risa is done with the bait and the two on the other side of the path. She is as quick as ever. She is keeping watch, so I better get the rope to tie up all of the bandits. The bandit should be coming back soon with the flanking bandits."
Back when the plan started, Delfina Hops, the captain of the combatants of the merchant group ran towards the back of the wagon to catch the two flanking bandits.
*Swish* *Swish* *Stab* *Stab*
"Risa should have taken care of the other two on the right. Trina should be engaging the enemy on the other side. They are good subordinates. However, I won't let them take the spot of the strongest in our team! They should be finishing up when I meet up with those two bandits trying to flank us. You two better watch carefully at how your captain handles business!! Hahahahaha!!!"
Along with that laugh, the rabbitkin suddenly sped up and dashed towards the two bandits.
"Hey, Is that?"
"Did something happen?"
"The others must have started already. This one must be escaping to call for help."
"Well, this is what we are here for! Don't let her escape!"
"Hey!! Stop running!!"
*Hop* *Hop* *Hop* *Hop*
Seeing the two bandits raising their weapons and shouting at her, The captain charged towards them faster. She hopped left and right fully using the suspension built into her armour that her co-founder made for her.
She was hopping without stopping bouncing this way and that. She didn't stop even when she reached close to the two bandits, she instead hopped faster and faster and before the two bandits could react, she kicked the bandit's head and bounced towards the other bandit's head.
"This is done. They shouldn't be dead, right? Turtle boss would get angry if we killed them, after all."
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*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
"Turtle boss, it's done. The bandits are all taken out."
"Is that so? How are they? Do they have any coins with them?"
"They have some but not much."
Well, I don't have much expectation for bandits in this region to have a lot of money. I guess I should be happy that they have some coins at all.
"No one died, right?"
"Yeah, they should be alive."
"Should be? Don't tell me they are near death? That would cause us problems."
"They'll be fine. They would survive. Don't worry about it."
"I'll believe you for now. Give them some first aid and load them up. We'll sell them for their bounty at the next stop."
"They seem weak though. I don't think they have any bounties."
"Even if they don't have any, we can still earn a few coins from handing them in to the guards. Every little bit counts."
"Ok, turtle boss. Trina, do some simple first aid. Risa, keep watch while we load up the bandits."
"Yes, captain!" x2
Whew, thank goodness the bandits are still alive. It would be a problem if we earned a name for ourselves as bandit killers.
It might deter some bandits in these relatively peaceful herbivore territories but once we get to the more aggressive carnivore territories, the title of bandit killer is only a challenge to them.
I don't know if we could handle that kind of reputation with our current number of defenders. However, these two new employees are quite good. Risa is quick, and Trina is very skillful. They are a good addition to our merchant group.
The safety of our merchant group is very secure for our current route. I'm glad I decided to hire the two of them, even though we had to dip into our savings a bit.
