POV Change: Lug Bedivere, the bandit leader (equivalent of B rank adventurer power).

I feel my tent being opened, and a man steps inside. I already pulled out my sword.

"I hope you have a good reason for waking me up" (Lug)

The stupid job made us run all the way to this village, than trail the villagers. We were patiently waiting for them to get to sleep until making our move. And all of that without any rest or sleep. I was so tired last night that I for the first time didn't even have a taste of those villager girls. Thought Lug to himself in an obviously bad mood.

"Y-yes boss, w-we have an emergency" (bandit)

Said the sweating and out of breath bandit, after running to give the report.

"Speak, what emergency" (Lug)

"B-boss, we started losing scouts one by one, we aren't sure how many of them are missing right now, but some haven't returned for more than two hours already. We thought that it was some smart monster.

And n-now b-boss, we are under attack of animals. And it's not only wolves that we heard yesterday, a lot of different kind of animals just attacked us simultaneously from two sides."

"What? Idiots, you can't take care of couple of animals? And what's that nonsense about the monster, there isn't any monsters in this forest, monsters only live in places, where they can feed on creatures with mana, what would a monster do in this forest?" I already have gotten up and yell at him while dressing up.

"But boss, they are too many of them and i-it i-i-is like the f-f-forest itself wants us dead."

"Stop saying stupid things. Can't you idiots even take a piss without me? Why did I get this stupid bunch of idiots with this stupid mission" (Lug)

Moving out of the tent, what greeted him was a blinding sun. Squeezing his eyes and shielding them with a hand, he noticed the ruckus and panick from both his subordinates and the villagers. That idiot that woke him up lead the way to the right side of their group, where he could see the animals and his subordinates fighting.

Any of his C rank thugs, should be able to take a dozen of those animals alone, and although C rank weren't the majority of their bandit group, their numbers weren't lacking too. D ranks shouldn't have problem fighting with their numbers too, but he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Boars, wolves, tigers, bears were attacking from all sides, encircling them. Lug cursed under his breath, he never heard of something like this happening. And the worst thing was they were forced to thin they numbers and disperse through the whole area as to protect those stupid villagers.

"Axel, what's the situation" Lug called out one of his trusted man, and the only one other than him, who was B rank in their bandit group.

Axel was shouting orders, when he noticed his commander, he said without hiding his annoyance "Hey boss, when I just send for you there were only attacks from two sides, but in five minutes they started attacking from all the sides, surrounding us. I just split our forces to fight them at other places too. But boss, we are no heroes, we aren't here to protect those villagers, but to capture and sell them later, as I see it, why don't we pull back a bit, letting those animals attack villagers, than while they will be distracted by their meal we will attack from behind and kill them all at one go."

Lug frowned when he heard the suggestion. Of course he was no hero himself, but his orders were clear, to bring as many villagers as he could, and he would better sacrifice some of his own man, than villagers.

Only the weakest of his men would die anyway, and there were no problem recruiting more of those useless trash. But if he let the animals attack those villagers, they would lose too much of them until they were able to clean them all out.

There was one more thing that was making him uneasy. Not only those animals attacked with big numbers at the same time, and they should already be fighting his men more than ten minutes, but there were too few dead from both sides. Now that he looked closer, he noticed, that animals while fighting were protecting each other. As soon as in one part of the battle some of their own were in danger, others would push to that side to help, than retreat a bit, than fight again. It looked more like they were stalling, diverting their attention and distracting them than trying to kill them.

He was the commander of this group not only because he was a B rank, of course that helped too, but he was appointed to this mission because of his observation skills and tactical thinking. So he immediately managed to notice this unusual behavior.

What was going on in this cursed forest. As he thought to that point, he suddenly noticed, that in the left flank of their group, the villagers were panicking more than the others, they were frantically trying to flee from that part to the other sides, pushing each other.

Those villagers were now in a crescent moon like shape. And the center that was exposed now was were his tent was supposed to be. Did their left flank completely collapsed, was there really some kind of a monster that was attacking them?

He heard of some strong monsters, that were as smart as humans and had the ability to control other animals, but what could such a monster do in this place? That kind of strong monsters should be only in Great Forest.

"Axel, I will take 10 C ranks and check other flank, you stay here and command the forces, hold your ground and don't let any of the animals slip through your defense. I will first take care of the monster that you lot are so scared of, then we will kill those animal one by one until none of them is left." (Lug)

Without waiting for his command's acknowledgment, he took some of the bandits and made his way back to his tent. What he saw there made him dumbstruck.

There was a black skeleton, with untied black robe, his front part visible. The skeleton had swords sticking through his ribs, he was taking them one by one and giving to their prisoners.

Those were the villagers, that decided to fight against them. Lug made sure yesterday, that they learned their lesson and wouldn't try to fight against him second time, but right now, they had even more hope and determination than before, when they were fighting with that stupid righteous bearman.

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POV Change: Anubis Myrddin (Merlin)

'~Hey, what did you tell them that they are so enthusiastic and ready to fight?~' (Anubis)

'~Technically I told only the truth. I said that you were summoned by the corrupter and you are here to protect them, but corrupter can't help them himself right now and they will need to fight to if they want to escape.

It looks like they have a great faith in that Merlyn brat, they are ready to even trust an undead just because it was sent by their hero.

Don't relax yet, the fight is only beginning. I just gave you distraction, so you can fight them in small groups, it will increase your chances. Right now I'm surpassing the bandits will and making them dizzy so they won't give any deathly blows to the animals. I don't have the right to force the animals to sacrifice themselves for you. Once there will be too much of them wounded, I will let them retreat.~' (Spirit)

It's already more than I could ask for, I don't know what would I do without the Spirit. I wouldn't even know that they were enslaved.

The villagers watch me with hope, but there is still a hint of fear in their eyes. It's only natural for a living to feel animosity towards undead, because my desire keeps growing stronger and stronger every second I'm near the villagers. But it's still at the level that I can control myself. They all receive the weapons I picked up from the scouts, and at the time I gave the last sword I tilt my head to the side and see a group of tough looking red armored bandits looking at me with a disbelief shown in their faces.

The one on the head of their group catches my attention because his gear is better crafted than anyone else's and he is obviously the leader of their little group.

'~Be careful, it's the bandit leader, and one of the B ranks in their group. I already told the villagers to go free and arm the others while the main bandit main force is still distracted, so this group is all yours~' (Spirit)

I unsheathe my own sword and take it in both hands, keeping the second one in the sheathe, and ready myself for my first real fight.

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