The fight in the chamber was brutal, vicious, and mercifully short. Gareth's men charged across the uneven stone floor in a desperate attempt to break through the encirclement, but they were fighting uphill against superior positioning and carefully planned crossfire.
Elena's crossbow took down the first man through the bottleneck, her bolt punching through his chest and dropping him before he'd taken three steps. Marcus and the village volunteers concentrated their fire on the group trying to flank left, their coordinated volley turning what should have been a tactical advance into a bloody massacre.
That left Ryo facing Gareth and about a dozen surviving bandits in the center of the chamber. The bandit leader was screaming orders that no one was listening to, his tactical control completely broken by the chaos of close combat.
"Kill the bastard!" Gareth bellowed, pointing his sword at Ryo. "Fucking kill him!"
Three men rushed Ryo simultaneously from different angles, their weapons moving in a coordinated pattern that should have overwhelmed any single defender. Instead, Ryo stepped between their attacks like he was dancing, his dual blades flowing through defensive positions that turned their strikes aside while opening killing opportunities.
[PERFECT COMBAT] - Level 4
[MULTI-OPPONENT ENGAGEMENT] - Level 3
[SWORD MASTERY] has increased to Level 5!
System evolution accelerating...
The first attacker died when Ryo's left-hand blade found the gap between his ribs while the man was overextended from a failed strike. The second lost his sword arm to a cut that severed tendons and arteries in one precise motion. The third managed to block Ryo's initial counterattack but couldn't stop the follow-up thrust that opened his throat.
"Jesus fucking Christ," one of the remaining bandits said, backing away from the spreading pool of blood. "He's not human."
"Then we kill him like we'd kill a demon," Gareth snarled, pulling a vial of something from his belt and draining it in one gulp.
Immediately, Gareth's body began to change. His muscles swelled, his eyes turned bloodshot, and his movements took on an unnatural speed and aggression. Whatever he'd just consumed was definitely not a standard combat enhancement.
[ALCHEMICAL ENHANCEMENT DETECTED]
[BERSERKER RAGE] - Level 6
Warning: Enemy capabilities significantly increased
New skill acquired: [SUPERNATURAL COMBAT ANALYSIS] - Level 1
"Alchemical enhancement," Elena called out from her position. "Military grade. He's going to be faster and stronger for the next few minutes, but it'll burn out his system when it wears off."
"Assuming he lives that long," Ryo replied, adjusting his grip on his weapons.
Gareth came at him like a rabid animal, his enhanced speed turning his sword into a blur of steel that should have been impossible to track, much less counter. But the system was feeding Ryo information faster than his conscious mind could process it, highlighting attack patterns and defensive opportunities in real time.
[ENHANCED REFLEXES] - Level 6
[PREDICTIVE COMBAT] - Level 4
[IMPOSSIBLE REACTION TIME] - Level 5
The enhanced Gareth was definitely faster than any normal human, but he was also more predictable. The alchemical rage made him aggressive to the point of recklessness, and Ryo found that he could bait attacks by presenting apparent openings that turned into deadly counters.
They fought across the chamber floor, their blades ringing against each other in a tempo that sounded like machine-gun fire. Gareth was landing hits that should have been crippling, but somehow Ryo was always moving just enough to turn lethal strikes into glancing blows.
[DAMAGE MITIGATION] - Level 3
[BATTLE ENDURANCE] has increased to Level 5!
"Stand still, you fucking coward!" Gareth screamed, his enhanced muscles bulging as he put everything behind a massive overhead strike.
Ryo sidestepped the attack and let Gareth's momentum carry him past, then drove both blades into the bandit leader's back at kidney level. The wounds should have dropped him immediately, but the alchemical enhancement was keeping him functional despite injuries that would have killed a normal person.
Gareth spun around, blood streaming from the puncture wounds, and grabbed Ryo by the throat with inhuman strength. "Got you now, you piece of shit."
Instead of trying to break the grip, Ryo drove his knee into Gareth's wounded side, then used the man's own hold on his throat as leverage to drive his head forward in a vicious headbutt that shattered Gareth's nose and probably gave him a concussion.
[GRAPPLING] - Level 3
[CLOSE QUARTERS COMBAT] - Level 4
[IMPROVISED WEAPONS] - Level 2
Gareth's grip loosened, and Ryo broke free by slashing across the man's forearms with both blades. The cuts went deep enough to sever tendons, and suddenly the bandit leader found himself unable to maintain a proper grip on his sword.
"Yield," Ryo said, his weapons positioned for killing strikes. "It's over, Gareth. Your men are dead, your operation is finished, and you're bleeding out. Surrender and answer my questions, and I'll make sure your death is quick."
Gareth looked around the chamber, taking in the bodies of his followers and the crossbows still trained on him. The alchemical enhancement was starting to wear off, and the pain from his injuries was beginning to break through the chemical rage.
"What do you want to know?" he asked, slumping against the chamber wall.
"Who hired you?" Elena said, moving closer but keeping her crossbow ready. "We know you're working for a lord, but which one?"
"Lord Blackshire," Gareth said without hesitation. "Ramond Blackshire. He's been planning to annex this region for years, but he needed an excuse to move in with military force."
"So he hired you to destabilize the area," Ryo said. "Create enough chaos and lawlessness that the other lords would support his intervention."
"That was the plan," Gareth agreed. "I was supposed to make life so miserable for the villages that they'd welcome Blackshire's protection, even if it meant giving up their independence."
Elena and Marcus exchanged glances. Lord Blackshire was known to be ambitious and ruthless, but this level of calculated manipulation was worse than they'd expected.
"What changed?" Marcus asked. "Why did he escalate to hiring professional mercenaries?"
"Because you two fucked up his timeline," Gareth said, looking at Ryo and Elena. "Blackshire expected his plan to take months, maybe a year. But when word got out that some mysterious fighter had appeared in Millhaven and was successfully fighting back against bandit raids, he decided he needed to move faster."
"So he sent you more men and better equipment," Ryo said.
"And orders to kill you specifically," Gareth confirmed. "Blackshire doesn't want a folk hero inspiring other villages to resist. Bad for business."
[INFORMATION EXTRACTION] - Level 2
[POLITICAL ANALYSIS] - Level 1
New skill acquired: [STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE] - Level 1
"How many other operations does Blackshire have running?" Elena asked.
"At least three that I know about," Gareth said. "Similar to mine, but targeting different areas. He's trying to create a pattern of instability across the entire region."
"And if we kill you, he'll just send someone else to finish the job," Ryo said.
"Probably. Though killing thirty of his mercenaries is going to make it a lot more expensive for him to try again."
Ryo considered their options. Gareth was right—eliminating his operation would slow down Blackshire's plans, but it wouldn't stop them entirely. They needed a more permanent solution.
"Gareth," he said finally, "how would you like to fuck over the lord who's been using you as expendable cannon fodder?"
The bandit leader looked up with interest. "What did you have in mind?"
"You're going to write a confession," Elena said, apparently catching on to Ryo's plan. "Full details of Blackshire's operation, names of his other agents, everything you know about his plans for the region."
"And in exchange?"
"We let you live," Ryo said. "You get a head start before we turn the confession over to the other lords. Blackshire's going to have bigger problems than chasing down one failed bandit leader."
Gareth thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Give me something to write with. I've got a lot to say about Lord Ramond fucking Blackshire."
[ENEMY CONVERSION] - Level 1
[POLITICAL WARFARE] - Level 1
Achievement unlocked: Turning the Tables
Major quest milestone reached
As Elena found writing materials and Gareth began his confession, Ryo realized they'd done more than just win a fight. They'd uncovered a conspiracy that could destabilize the entire region, and now they had the information needed to stop it.
But first, they had to make sure Lord Blackshire never got another chance to send assassins after the people of Millhaven.