Chapter 26: Blackridge Bandits

Jerry rode down the dirt path towards the Blackridge Bandit’s hideout on a borrowed horse. Jerry carried his rifle, pistol, a makeshift bag with some rations in it,a knife, and his armor. Jerry planned on not only exterminating them, but doing some casual looting whilst he was there. The bag was about the size of a drawstring bag that he wore on his back. It was made of a random bag and rope he could find lying around the street. This did cause the bag to be in a very poor condition, but it was only temporary.

Jerry soon arrived at the location. Jerry looked around to find the location to be surprisingly not a ridge. Instead, it was a small cave that was a couple hundred meters away from the dirt path Jerry took. He had disembarked his horse and readied his rifle as he headed off the road, into the forest and approached the cave, treading slowly and taking slow deep breaths. He soon stood near the edge of the forest with a direct line of sight outside the cave.

Outside the cave stood two guards wearing metal armor and held spears in their hands. The armor they wore were mix-matched suggesting that they scavenged their gear from somewhere. But, it didn’t matter. An inch of metal can’t stop Jerry’s bullets.

Jerry took the time on how he could tackle the situation. He could go loud, running into the cave guns blazing or he could go sneaky beaky like. Jerry thought for a moment before checking the chamber of his rifle. He then let go of the charging hammer and changing positions. He moved to an angle from where the guards lined up, making them easy pickings for Jerry.

Jerry steadied his breath and pulled the trigger, dropping both of the guards quickly. Jerry moved in quickly, gun drawn as he entered the cave. He triggered a pulse scan, causing the orange lines to emit from his watch, searching every crevasse of the cave.

Hostiles Detected: 28

Steel Armor Class: D

Steel Swords x 18

Spears x 6

Bows x 4

Red outlines appeared on Jerry’s visor each of them getting up looking towards the entrance grabbing their weapons. They moved cautiously down the cave’s tunnels while Jerry walked down. Just then, a circle appeared on the top left of his visor, presumably a map that the pulse scan created. Jerry stood at where three paths intersected and led outside. The hallways very dark, save for the light that peered into the cave system from outside.

The red outlines inched closer and closer, causing Jerry to have to make a move. Luckily, the odds were in Jerry’s favor since the paths leading to Jerry’s position were a long, thin corridor. Jerry pointed his gun down the corridor, where 5 outlines were and pulled the trigger. What followed was a long, uninterrupted line of fire until a click was heard, signaling that the gun was empty. Jerry took a magazine from his vest with his index and middle finger and took it out of it’s slot. He then wrapped the current magazine with his palm, pinkie and ring finger and released the magazine with his thumb, freeing the magazine from his slot.

He put the new magazine in, slapping it for added measure and placed the old magazine in the open slot, face up. The red outlines then ran down the hall now, sprinting towards Jerry like a raging bull. Jerry could do something smart like shooting back, but he wanted to have some fun. Jerry ran down the hall where the 5 bandits he shot came down, deeper into the cave.

Jerry sprinted down the hall and found himself at a fork path and where the map cut off. Looking around, he found that the path split left, right, and center, each with different noises coming from each. Listening closely, he could hear a plead for help with screaming, chatting, and the sound of wood cracking constantly. Each path was brightly illuminated with what seemed to be floating light orbs. Jerry decided to walk towards the cry for help as it seemed of most important value of this time. Jerry knew that the other bandits were coming, the problem now was when since the red outlines had just worn off.

Jerry walked down the left side path, each step bringing him closer to the cry for help. He was soon face to face with a wooden door, crudely built together. Jerry placed his ear on the wall to listen in on what was happening.

“Well then, pretty? Wanna sacrifice yourself and play hero? Let your other friends go even?” A sadistic voice said followed by a laugh

“Sarah! Don’t listen to him! We’re a team!” Cried a male voice.

“We can endure this together! The Adventurer’s Guild will send help and they’ll come busting through that door any moment now!”

A laugh could be heard from the sadistic voice.

“Help? You’re really grasping at straws here girl! But first, I’ll break you” The sadistic voice said.

Jerry examined at the door to find that the door didn’t have a lock and would flung open freely. He could hear the sound of metal clanking down the hall now, so he had to move quick. Jerry cocked his gun before he kicked the door causing it to fling open violently and cause a audible crash as the door hit the stone wall.

“FBI! OPEN UP!” Jerry shouted as he kicked the door.

The sadistic voice could be seen belonging to a skinny man dropping his voice, staring at Jerry in awe. Jerry quickly shot the man once in the chest, hopeful that the bullet didn’t over penetrate and hit anyone else. The man stood up and looked at his chest as it turned red from his blood gushing out.

“W-What?!” The man said, backing up from the bizarre situation he was in.

Jerry walked forward towards the man before placing his hands on his shoulder and throwing him down onto the floor face first and executing him by pulling the trigger in the back of his head.

Jerry turned around to face the adventurer’s who were terrified at the scene. Their faces were full of fear but it was understandable. It was like being held captive by a dragon only to have that dragon be eaten by another dragon who now stared at you in the eye, emotionless.

“Everyone okay? Sarah? You?” Jerry asked. He used the name he heard to try to get the group of adventurer’s to calm down but seemed to be of little use. The group of adventurer’s stared at Jerry with fear.

“T-Thank you, Sir!” A man said. Jerry turned to look at the voice to find a short blond haired man, chained to the wall by shackles fixed to the wall.

“See, this guy has some manners” Jerry said sarcastically. Jerry could hear the men even closer now. It would be a matter of seconds before they were at the door. The room was fairly small. The adventurers chained to the wall and even then it was fairly cramped. He had to make sure that the adventurer’s weren’t hurt since it was a moral obligation but at the same time, he had to clear the Bandits.

“I’ll be right back” Jerry said before he walked towards the door. Jerry stepped out the room and pointed his gun down the hall. He used a pulse scanner and watched as his heartrate went up as the orange line emitted from his watch.

Hostiles Detected: 10

Armor Class: D

Steel Swords x 10

Jerry pulled the trigger and let the bullets fly down the corridor to find that only three people dropped. They must’ve absorbed all the shots that Jerry put down range but didn’t complain as he reloaded the magazine. As he finished reloading, a blade came out of nowhere in a overhead strike. Jerry dodged it by jumping back into the room with the adventurers but now on his back. As the Bandits entered the door way, Jerry fired into them with short bursts, dropping two as they came in. This brought the Bandit count to five but he couldn't be too sure.

Jerry cautiously got up, keeping his gun trained on the door.

“Give up, Bandits!” Jerry shouted.

“Throw down your weapon, and we’ll let you live!” A bandit shouted back.

“I don’t intend on dying here today, Bandit! Can you say the same for yourself!”

“Ha! There’s five of us, and one of you!”

“I took five of you out before! What makes you say I can’t do it again?”

There was silence at that moment.

Jerry used this opportunity and pulled out his pistol, training it on the door. He put his rifle down and with his left hand, searched the sadistic man for a key of some sort. He found it in the shape of an old rusted key that the body only had. He went towards the blond haired man and opened one of his locks before handing him the key. At this moment, a Bandit appeared at the door which Jerry quickly dispatched with a shot to the chest causing him to impact the floor as he fell.

Jerry nodded at the man before picking his rifle up again, and walking slowly towards the door.

The sounds of rattling locks and shackles hitting the wall could be heard as the blond haired man moved quickly to free his friends. As the chains were being unlocked, another Bandit peeked the door and Jerry shot him with a bullet into the face before pushing out to wipe the rest up. He made quick work of them as he peeked to find the last two bandits in shock of Jerry’s reckless push. All three of them dropped like a sack of potatoes when Jerry had finished.

Jerry looked at the adventurers who had just been released rubbing their wrists.

“Everyone okay?” Jerry asked.

“Yea” The blond haired man said as he looked at the corpses.

“Don’t ask questions” Jerry said as he reloaded his guns.

Jerry started to check the corpses for anything he could sell or use. Cash, jewels, rings, or keys by checking their pockets, giving them pat downs and examining the weapons as the adventurer’s stared at him.

“What?” Jerry asked.

“Shouldn’t you leave the dead alone?” An adventurer asked. He had black hair, wore a cape, and had glasses.

“I’m tight on cash. Besides, not like they deserve any respect” Jerry said as he checked the corpses.

The group stared at Jerry silently, not knowing what to do.

Jerry sighed before he looked at the group.

“You can either A, go on your journey to the Imperial Kingdom, or B, Help me loot these bandits” Jerry said.

“We don’t want to help you loot, but we don’t have a way back. No rations, no nothing” The blond haired man said.

“What do you mean? It’s all around you. You just gotta look” Jerry said as he signaled to the corpses and the tunnel.

“I’m not giving you food. This is MY food for a reason” Jerry said as he continued to loot.

Jerry then finished with the batch of corpses. So far, he had one key, 10 purses, and a helmet.

“Oh, you guys might wanna stick with me. It’s quite confusing here. But, you guys’ll have to help me loot a bit. Just chests and holding rations if you will” Jerry said.

The group nodded to Jerry as he walked down the path towards the fork path.

Jerry knew that these guys had more loot. Problem was, where was it? Jerry then stood where the fork path split and started to walk down the center path. As he came to the door he got his gun ready and opened it, he was greeted with a overhead strike. Jerry used the gun to deflect the blow by brining the gun up and angled it to the left. As the sword was safely disposed of, Jerry used the but of the gun to strike the attacker in the face, causing him to recoil back before being killed by Jerry with two shots in the chest and one in the head.

Jerry looked around the room to find an assortment of rations ranging from stew, bread, dried beef and more. Jerry looked at the adventurers who seemed to be in a trance.

“You guys sure you’re okay?” Jerry asked.

“It’s been a week since we had any decent food. Let us eat please?” A feminine voice asked. Jerry looked at the voice to find a girl with pink hair clasping her hands together, begging Jerry.

“You do you. Save some for the trip. I’ll be waiting at the fork path or in the last path. One of the two” Jerry said as he left the area. Jerry quickly arrived at the fork path and went down the final third path towards the now silent room.

Jerry pushed the door open to find most of it empty, save for a few chest and a group of 8 men with a well built man in the center.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” The built man said.

“A scared rabbit I see!” A man said.

Jerry simply raised his gun and magazine dumped them all. However, there were two that remained and panicked since he was expecting all of them to die.

Jerry dropped his gun which was suspended from straps on his shoulder and drew his pistol out and fired blindly into them injuring one.

The last man came at Jerry who drew his knife now. The bandit let out a lunge which Jerry stepped out the way of allowing Jerry to get a cut in the bandit’s lower torso. Jerry picked his rifle up and ran around the room while he dropped it’s magazine before inserting a new one. While doing this, Jerry was able to get a loaded gun.

The bandits noticed this and lunged at Jerry at once but was quickly put down as Jerry shot them. Jerry then noticed that his heartrate was off the charts as he slouched over, taking large deep breaths. He soon recovered and picked up his magazine as he looked around for something valuable. He looked around chests that had some locked, some not, and corpses, looking for something. He finished up his looting with the built man and found a key made of metal. He tried it with all the chests and found one that it did click to.

As he opened it, he found a bulging sack of cloth which contained a large amount of clinking as he rattled it around. Jerry placed that in his bag before rummaging through it more, finding various gems, jewels, and assortment of things. After he finished, he decided to take an inventory of what he got.

Overall, he had a bulging sack of cloth with coin with smaller bags of coin, two rings, a helmet, a gold necklace, a small diamond, and a small red and blue gem. Jerry thought it was a good haul as he left to meet the adventurer’s group.

He soon arrived to the sight of them filling their mouths with bread,dried meat, and some sweets.

“Jeez, like rabid animals” Jerry said sarcastically.

“Hey, you try eating shitty meals for a week” The pink haired adventurer said.

“Can’t argue there. Anyway, you guys ready?”

“Yes Sir” The blond haired man said with a salute.

Jerry sighed and walked down to the exit.

“Follow me” He said as he massaged the back of his neck.