As the saying goes: once an army breaks, it collapses like a mountain.
The moment the bandit boss ordered retreat, the whole ragtag crew scattered, each man running faster than the last, terrified of being left behind and captured.
Leo saw the order and immediately swung back onto his horse. He shouted for everyone to pursue and cut them down.
The bandits, their will to fight completely gone, turned into beaten dogs. The three remaining sellswords and the farmers chased after them with high morale, each eager to drop a few more for the bounty.
After all, every bandit head was worth fifty silver stags.
Leo took the lead, swapping his weapon for a long polearm. Mounted on his warhorse, he looked like a young Lü Bu or a reincarnation of Xiang Yu. The long spear danced in his hands like a dragon rising from the sea.
In just a few breaths he had already put four bandits on the ground.
That earned him another 400 EXP. Combined with the 200 EXP from the bandit lieutenant earlier, he leveled up again.
Thrilled, Leo checked his system panel and discovered he had learned one of the Warrior class's signature skills—Charge.
[Charge]: Launch a powerful charge at an enemy, dealing damage and stunning them for 1 second. Damage scales with your Strength and charging speed (can be used while mounted).
He could use it on horseback?
The note in parentheses made Leo even more excited.
Without hesitation, he targeted a fleeing bandit in the distance and activated [Charge].
His swift white stallion let out a loud neigh and shot forward like an arrow, carrying Leo at incredible speed.
The target appeared right in front of him in an instant. Leo drove his spear into the man's shoulder and sent him flying. The bandit tumbled through the air, rolled several times, and hit the ground screaming in agony.
Leo's blood was pumping.
This was how a real man was meant to fight—charging on horseback!
The feeling was intoxicating.
But he quickly calmed himself and ordered everyone to stop the pursuit. The bandits had scattered in every direction, disappearing into the hills and woods. Chasing too deep risked walking into traps.
At his command, the three sellswords and the farmers stopped happily and began cleaning up the battlefield.
Varyn and the rear group finally arrived on horseback, only to find the fight already over.
"My lord! Forgive me for arriving late. Please punish me as you see fit!"
Varyn rode up to Leo with clear guilt on his face.
The truth was, Leo's slow pace over the last two days had made Varyn a little lazy too. He had started to believe they wouldn't run into any bandits at all, so he hadn't pushed the rear group hard.
In the end, not only had Lord Neo been attacked, but his support had arrived too late.
Seeing that Leo was unharmed, Varyn breathed a sigh of relief. He silently swore to himself that this would never happen again.
Griff and his buddies looked genuinely surprised.
They saw the carnage—eight farmers dead, two sellswords cut down brutally. Yet the young noble they had written off as all show and no substance was completely untouched. Word was he had personally killed five bandits.
That was unexpected.
What shocked Griff even more were the chainmail hauberks visible on the dead sellswords. He felt both envy and astonishment.
He knew the two dead men. There was no way they could have afforded armor like that. If they had owned it before, they would've been bragging about it in every tavern and inn.
Griff's eyes turned to Leo.
He understood immediately—the armor had come from their generous employer.
That only added to the resentment building in his chest.
He was clearly the strongest fighter among all these sellswords. So why had this damn noble favored those lesser men with good armor instead of him?
If he had been given that mail and kept close to the lord, he would have killed far more bandits.
He had already heard about the bounty—fifty silver stags for every bandit killed.
Fifty silver stags!
And those worthless sellswords and farmers had taken most of it. Greed burned in Griff's eyes and those of his crew.
After cleaning the battlefield, Leo received the full casualty report.
His side had lost two sellswords and eight farmers. The bandits had lost fourteen men.
Leo himself had killed five. The three sellswords had taken two or three each. The farmers had managed to bring down two together.
Leo pulled several gold coins from his waist pouch and handed them to Varyn to distribute the rewards. The men who were about to be paid cheered loudly.
Griff and his group watched with sour expressions.
Next came a simple funeral. The dead were buried nearby, their graves marked with stones and wood.
Leo stood before the graves and paid his respects in silence. He also asked about any living family the dead men had. Those with families would receive generous compensation through Varyn later.
The surviving men looked at Leo with even greater warmth and loyalty.
They had never met a noble like him before.
Most nobles looked down on lowborn men like them as nothing more than pigs and dogs. Even when their own people died in service, those lords rarely spared them a glance.
A dead dog wasn't worth a master's attention.
Leo was different. Not only did he keep his word and pay the promised bounties, he also remembered the men who died for him and prepared compensation for their families.
He even mourned them at their graves.
His actions gave these men something they had never received before—respect.
Their eyes shone with admiration and devotion when they looked at him.
Of course, a few sneered at the display, thinking it was all fake. That was Griff and his crew.
In their eyes all nobles were the same—crows of the same black feather.
Leo's kindness was just a cheap way to buy loyalty. After all, he was a foreign noble with no roots here. A few small favors and some decent acting could win him a group of fanatics. Why wouldn't he do it?
Besides, where did nobles get their gold dragons in the first place?
By squeezing and oppressing people like them, of course.
Griff believed he had already seen through this rotten world.
In this world, only the sword in your hand and the coins in your purse were real.
…
Once the funeral ended, the sky had already grown dark. They set up camp in a sheltered spot nearby.
Leo finally had time to interrogate the bandit he had knocked out with [Charge].
After some rough questioning, he got what he wanted—the exact location of the bandit hideout.
He then gathered all the sellswords and laid out his new plan.
He intended to press the advantage and wipe the entire gang out once and for all.
The bounty remained the same—fifty silver stags per bandit head.
However, anyone who captured a bandit alive would receive an extra ten silver stags. Leo would personally judge the captured outlaws according to tradition.