“Annihilate them.”
As soon as Tang Do-hun's order was given, the five members of the Extermination Hall unleashed their hidden weapons all at once.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
As the hidden weapons flew like a swarm of bees with a murderous sound, the startled bandits raised their shields.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Thud!
“Aargh!”
A few bandits who were slow to react or too agitated to think clearly were struck in their exposed faces and upper bodies by the hidden weapons and fell backward. Most of the other hidden weapons lodged themselves in the bamboo shields. The bandit leader, his spirits lifted, shouted thunderously from behind his shield.
“See that! We can block all of their damn hidden weapons with our shields! Don't be afraid, charge! We just need to find the antidote! They have the antidote!”
“Hoorah!!”
Seeing a chance of victory, as if a path to survival had opened, the bandits charged down the mountainside with their bamboo shields held in front. The Tang Clan members retreated, putting the carriage to their backs, and drew their swords. The monk had vanished somewhere and was nowhere to be seen.
The bandits swarmed towards us as well. As I drew my long knife and stepped forward, Tang Hye-seo asked.
“Do you need help?”
Even though we were surrounded by bandits, Tang Hye-seo was not frightened at all and remained calm. I did not know the extent of her martial ability, but it seemed she was skilled enough not to bring shame to the sword she wore at her waist.
“It's fine. Stay back. I have to earn my keep.”
If I were to struggle against bandits of this level, I would not deserve to be paid three silver taels a day. Won Seo-gang seemed to think the same, as he drew his sword and said.
“Let's finish off the ones who get here first, one by one.”
“Let's do that.”
A dozen or so bandits came down the mountain path, pushing through the bushes haphazardly, without any formation. Without giving them a chance to form up, I rushed at the nearest one.
“Gah!”
As I swung the long knife over my head, the startled bandit quickly raised his shield. No matter that it was made of bamboo, it was impossible to cut through the shield in one blow. If my blade got stuck in the shield, I would have to fight with my bare hands.
Seeing the shield rise high, I turned my arm to the side, drawing a large semicircle and dropping the tip of my blade downward. Bending my knees and lowering my body, I slashed at the bandit's exposed legs below the shield.
“Aaargh!”
The shield lowered, and the man's upper body was exposed. Not missing the chance, I thrust my blade in. Blood splattered, and the bandit clutched his neck and collapsed.
These guys were not complete fools. When one of their comrades was killed in an instant, they hastily spread out to the sides to surround me. As I aimed for an opening on the one next to me, a sound cut through the air above my head.
Fwoosh!
I hastily retreated using my footwork, and a beat later an arrow struck the ground. The next arrow that flew in was also slow. I did not dodge it, but simply swung my long knife and knocked it away with ease.
“They're shooting arrows from the mountain!”
I shouted to inform the others and picked up the dead man's shield. Archery is difficult to master, and a proper bow is more expensive than most sabers or swords. Seeing as the arrows were not very fast despite their long shafts, it seemed they were using self-made bamboo bows.
Such crude bows might work on rabbits or deer, but they were no match for martial artists of any renown. Everyone either knocked the arrows away with their blades, dodged after hearing the sound, or snatched the bandits' shields to block them. Roughly guessing from the number of arrows being fired, there were about three or four archers.
They only hit the empty ground, shields, or their fellow bandits, but it was still quite annoying. A few members of the Extermination Hall bypassed the bushes and slipped onto the mountainside, and soon the sound of bows being fired disappeared. I threw the bamboo shield at the man in front of me and ran up the mountainside.
The men who had intended to surround me from both sides and stab me when I charged were caught off guard and hurriedly chased after me in a fluster. I stepped on a rock, turned, and jumped over their heads. Putting my full weight into my feet, I stomped on a shield, and the bandit beneath it was crushed.
From a crouching position, I swung my long knife to the right and cut one down, then bounced up to the left and rammed another shield with my shoulder. I knocked the bandit backward and struck his neck. When I turned around, covered in blood, two terrified bandits threw down their shields and fled up the mountain.
I wiped the blood from my face and looked around. Won Seo-gang was reducing the number of bandits in a more efficient way than I was.
He not only aimed for openings to inflict injuries and finish them off, but he also thrust his sword through the narrow gaps between the bamboo strips of the shields to stab them in the chest. Watching the skill of an experienced swordsman reminded me of what I had learned yesterday.
Thinking my long knife might break if I thrusted with it, I picked up an old, chipped broadsword that a dead bandit had been holding. I ran past the corpses toward the carriage. One of the men the driver was fighting sensed my presence and turned.
His eyes widened as he turned his shield. I did not stop and charged straight ahead. Not aiming for an opening, but concentrating the tip of the blade into a single point.
I brought out the sword path inherent in the saber art to its fullest and unleashed the thrusting form with all my might. The tip of the broadsword split the bamboo of the shield and went in. It was thrilling enough to make my hair stand on end, but it stopped after penetrating about a hand's breadth.
The blade was too wide, and the shield was sturdier than I thought. The bandit, who had inadvertently blocked the attack, saw the broadsword stuck in his shield and his eyes glinted.
“Die, you bastard!”
The bandit swung his blade down over the shield. I lowered my stance to avoid the blade and gripped the broadsword with both hands. Putting my weight into it, I pushed forward, and only then did the bamboo break, allowing the blade to slide in deep.
The tip of the blade tore through the bandit's flesh and bone, drawing a painful scream. As the bandit fell, the driver quickly finished him off and gave me a grateful nod. I drew my long knife and nodded back.
Won Seo-gang, who had been impassively slaughtering the bandits, narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue. I thought he would scold me to get my act together, but he just shook his head. We were outnumbered, but it was not a disadvantageous situation.
The bandits' martial ability was crude beyond comparison. I had heard there were masters in the mountains, but you could only hope to see one in the large mountain fortresses belonging to the Green Forest. These nameless bandits from a rural village were worse than the wannabes in the back alleys.
If these guys were regular soldiers in a dense formation, holding shields that covered their entire bodies and spears, and had surrounded the front and back of the mountain path, the result would have been completely different.
Preparing shields to block the hidden weapons was a good idea, but since they could not use them properly, it only restricted their own movements, and they could not even use their blades effectively.
“This son of a bitch!”
A large bandit screamed and threw his shield away. I used my footwork to dodge as he swung his broadsword desperately. His swings, meant to overpower with sheer force, were as ferocious as a beast's, but the large movements left many openings.
Using a secret art from the Nameless Saber Technique, I deflected his strike along its grain, causing the large man to lose his balance and stagger. I moved in and slashed a long cut across his chest.
Sploosh!
Blood gushed from the wound, which was split so wide the bone was visible. Coppery drops of blood rained down, trickling through my hair. I stepped back and surveyed the area.
There was not a single bandit left around me. Won Seo-gang moved gracefully among the bandits like a wolf. The two drivers were also swinging their broadswords diligently, cutting off the bandits' limbs and splitting their skulls.
Tang Hye-seo and her subordinate also took down the attacking bandits one by one with their swords. Their martial ability was not amazing, but they seemed capable enough to protect themselves. It was clear now that they had not hired Won Seo-gang and me simply for protection.
The situation with the members of the Extermination Hall was even more one-sided. As if to prove that the Tang Clan had more than just poison and hidden weapons, they skillfully wielded their swords, throwing hidden weapons in between. In less than half an hour, the bodies of bandits piled up around them.
When even their leader fell with an injury to his leg, the remaining bandits lost their will to fight and began to flee, scrambling over each other. They were all struck in the back and the back of their heads by hidden weapons and collapsed.
Among those who had ambushed us, three or four scrambled up the mountainside, scared out of their wits. I did not bother to chase them. I had killed enough, and if they were really poisoned, their lives were already forfeit anyway.
The sickening smell of blood was overwhelming. Flies were already buzzing over the dozens of corpses, severed heads, and limbs scattered on the mountain path and slope. A faint shadow flickered on the ground.
I tilted my head back and looked up. A blue sky, white clouds. Under the intense summer sun, a flock of crows had gathered, circling overhead, waiting for their turn.
I wiped the blood from my long knife on a dead man's clothes and sheathed it. My face, soaked in blood and sweat, felt itchy. A bead of sweat trickled down from my eyebrow.
I squinted and walked to the carriage. I took a towel from my bundle and wiped my hands. The old cotton cloth was quickly stained red.
I took out a few more and wiped my face and hair as well. As I took out my bamboo water canteen and was gulping down water, Won Seo-gang approached.
“If you have a spare towel, give me one.”
I handed him a few and went back to drinking water. The injured bandit leader was dragged before Tang Do-hun and interrogated. It was too far to hear, but it was not hard to guess what was being said.
Won Seo-gang sat on the edge of the carriage, drinking water and surveying the scene of the massacre.
“Seeing as they even prepared bamboo shields, these guys were really determined.”
“It seems the one they call a traitor poisoned the bandits.”
The moment the leader mentioned an antidote, I had a rough idea of what was going on. Bandits rarely risk their lives to ambush travelers. To make them charge recklessly like madmen, there had to be something that would make them lose their minds.
Either an enormous sum of money or their very lives at stake. Won Seo-gang nodded.
“Isn't killing with a borrowed knife a common thing? Since he's skilled in poison arts, he just used poison. It seems the young woman Tang knows something, doesn't she?”
Tang Hye-seo was examining the bodies of the dead bandits with her subordinate. She pulled their chins to check their tongues, took out a needle from her bosom and pricked them here and there, then came over to the carriage.
“Were the bandits really poisoned?”
“It's Soul-Slicing Acid.”
“Is it a poison so deadly that they'd risk their lives like that to attack?”
She told me the name of the poison so easily, I had a feeling, and as expected, Tang Hye-seo spoke freely.
“Once poisoned, they die within a quarter of an hour, bleeding from all seven orifices.”
“These guys don't seem to have been poisoned just a quarter of an hour ago?”
“They must have taken a neutralizer. If you take it once a day, you can stop the poison's onset. But once the effect wears off, they'll eventually be consumed by the poison.”
I could see how the Tang Clan traitor on the run had used the bandits. He must have caught one of them, fed him Soul-Slicing Acid, and let him die spewing blood from his seven orifices. Then he would have poisoned all the bandits and given them a neutralizer that would last for a few days.
Then he would have told them that the people coming after him had the antidote before leaving. Having seen their comrade die a gruesome death, the bandits would have had no other choice.
“So, is there an antidote?”
“There is.”
Tang Hye-seo nodded, then frowned at the sight of my blood-stained towel. My heart skipped a beat.
“I was covered in their blood. Don't tell me I'm poisoned too?”
“It's fine as long as you did not drink a large amount of their blood. There's residual poison in an infected person's blood, but it's been diluted by the neutralizer, so just getting it on your hands or face won't matter.”
Slightly relieved, I glanced to the side and saw Won Seo-gang's indifferent expression.
“You knew?”
“Isn't it obvious? Whether it's a man or a beast, if its blood turns to poison, it cannot even walk around properly.”
Now that the bloody mess of killing was over, the horses tied to the carriage pawed at the dirt ground and snorted, as if urging us to leave quickly. The drivers were busy searching the pockets of the dead bandits.
From experience, you will not find a single coin on a bandit even if you strip them down to their underwear. Even if they had gold hidden under their balls, I did not want to touch a poisoned corpse. While Tang Do-hun was interrogating the bandit leader, the monk who had disappeared came down from the mountain.
To anyone, it looked like he had hidden out of fear when the battle started and was just now sneaking back, but a master of his caliber could not possibly be such a coward. He did not seem ashamed or concerned about what the group thought of him either.
Where in the world had he been, and what was he doing? As I was watching him intently, Won Seo-gang spoke.
“Looks like he went to the mountain fortress.”
“Why there? Don't tell me he went to raid it?”
“Who knows. He never says a word. This has happened once before. Thanks to him, the rest of us had a hard time. Now do you see? Why I'm reluctant to travel with just that damned monk.”
As if he had heard all he needed to, the head of the bandit leader, who was begging for his life, fell.
“Just move the bodies blocking the road. We're getting off this mountain as fast as possible.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Tang Clan members put on leather gloves and moved the corpses into the bushes. Tang Do-hun walked over to us. Seeing that Tang Hye-seo was safe, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Are you alright? No injuries?”
“Yes. I'm fine.”
“The bandits were poisoned with Soul-Slicing Acid.”
“It seems so. They reacted to the testing needle.”
Tang Do-hun seemed to have something more to say, but he closed his mouth and turned his eyes to me and Won Seo-gang.
“Since everyone seems alright, let's move out immediately. You there, that's enough, let's get going.”
At Tang Do-hun's urging, the drivers finally stepped away from the corpses. They loaded usable sabers, swords, and broken blades onto the roof of the carriage and climbed into the driver's seat. Once everyone was on the carriage, it set off immediately.
As the creaking carriage moved away along the dusty mountain path, the crows descended upon the corpses. We passed through the thicket and left the valley. Fresh air filled with the scent of grass washed over us.
It was quite refreshing, but whenever the wind died down, the coppery smell of blood from my body was overpowering. The blood-soaked parts of my clothes had dried, making them stiff. These could not be washed clean.
I was glad I had packed a few extra sets of clothes, just in case. By the time we came out of the mountains, it was evening, with the sun setting in the west. In the distance, a small village and an inn came into view.
“Looks like we'll be staying there for the night.”
At Won Seo-gang's words, I stared at the inn and slowly nodded. I needed to wash my blood-covered body, change my clothes, and replenish my strength. They were insignificant bandits, but killing people was no small labor.
Once my overstimulated nerves calmed down, fatigue and muscle aches would set in. A few of us would probably have nightmares tonight. To resume the pursuit properly tomorrow, we needed rest and maintenance.
Tang Do-hun must have had the same thought, as the carriage headed straight for the inn.