LORD WORLD: START

CHAPTER 12: BANDIT ATTACK

"10,000 bandit troops?" said Myro slightly in disbelief, after all, this number was too large considering that the border troops only numbered 40,000 people even though they were all elite troops that were far above the bandits in terms of ability and cooperation "No matter how great the bandits used the forest and mountains, as long as the Golden Guardian Kingdom sent an army of large numbers then they would all be able to be cleaned up without a problem, did the kingdom underestimate them so much that it decided to ignore the existence of these bandits? Although the bandits were now unable to threaten the kingdom, they might become a hidden danger that would destroy the kingdom someday".

King Aras IV did ignore Myro and was cold to him, but Myro knew very clearly that his father was a fearsome intelligent man, all his enemies often suffered great defeats. Therefore, he was sure that a person like King Aras IV would certainly not underestimate this 10,000-strong bandit army.

Hearing Myro's question, Charles smiled bitterly "The Prince has always been in the capital which makes you not yet aware of it, but the royal army assisted the surrounding nobles once tried to storm the entire mountain range and clear all the existing bandit headquarters. But when the attack was carried out, the result was empty! All the bandit bases found along the mountain range were empty, with no bandits left behind! Even if there were some bandit headquarters that still had its bandits, they were all just small bandit groups that numbered less than 1000 people".

"The purges were carried out for a month with no clear result, the kingdom and nobles who needed to finance food and supplies of about 20,000 soldiers decided to surrender and withdraw their troops. After all the cost of maintaining such a large army was not cheap at all, but they failed to clear most of the bandits so the kingdom decided to give up on the cleansing of the Atroph Province bandits".

Myro was shocked by the story "How could 10,000 people hide from the pursuit of soldiers? Although this mountain range was vast, it was easy to find 10,000 bandits hiding except-".

Suddenly Myro thought of a possibility that made him even more surprised.

Seeing that Myro already knew the reason, Charles smiled "The prince is indeed intelligent, it is impossible for the bandits to hide from the royal attack, unless they have enough time to escape like a week before the attack. The matter of the assault on the bandits in Atrof Province was a secret known only to the officials and nobles of the kingdom, the, this proves that the bandits in the mountains of Atrof Province are not just bandits but there are great powers of the Golden Guardian Kingdom that support them".

Myro let out a heavy sigh, these nobles and royal officials are indeed too complicated "How strong are the people who support these bandits to the point that the king has not taken any action of cleaning them up?".

Charles smiled mysteriously at Myro's question "Who knows? Perhaps the person behind the bandits was the Duke's class noble, the main general or even the prince and the chief minister, only the higher-ups of their level kingdoms where the king would not attack them without clear evidence".

Myro hesitated for a while before deciding to shut up, he had 1 more possible person which was what if the culprit behind the bandits was the king himself. But Charles was a Royal Knight, a loyalist to King Aras IV, and he was probably angry that Myro had accused the king of banditry.

Charles again seemed to understand what Myro was thinking, he said "Prince, I don't think King Aras IV was the one behind the bandits, because that's-".

Before Charles could finish his words, the faces of everyone in the group changed.

Kanson who was in the front row stared intently at the surrounding forest and said "Everything, form a formation to protect master!".

Everyone nodded with understanding, they moved without much noise or additional movement gathered around Myro, even Lokof this time agreed to Kanson's plan that prioritized Myro's security.

As they continued to stare around feeling cautious, dozens of arrows rushing from the forest shot towards them.

"The protector of the Earth!", cried a Knight who smashed his shield into the ground.

After the rain of arrows stopped, the figures of tens to hundreds of bandits rushed out from behind the forest.

Charles drew his sword while loudly shouting "The whole army is attacking! Don't let anyone get close to the prince!".

"Light!", cried the Knights after the earth shield collapsed, after all the earth shield just now was just a power artifact belonging to a Knight that could summon the earth shield for less than a minute..

Dozens of Knights fought against hundreds of bandits without hesitation. Seeing that Kanson was motionless and standing next to Myro, he only had the task of protecting Myro, so Lokof felt no need to worry about Myro's security.

After all a rank 7 Knight like Kanson was more than enough against all these bandits, therefore Lokof stepped forward and waved his 2 axes killing the bandits around without hesitation, each slash of his axe must have eliminated at least 1 life of the bandits.

At first the Knights were confident of being able to withstand the bandits' attacks without giving them a chance to get close to Myro, but they knew their arrogance was a big mistake.

Among the bandits, suddenly the figure of a man with rank 5 strength came face to face against Charles who stopped his movement.

After that, 2 rank 4 bandits also attacked Lokof which made him restrained as well.

Looking at the movements of the bandits holding Charles and Lokof, the 2 strongest fighters under Myro except for Kanson, Myro's face became gloomy "This bandit is a little abnormal, they act as if they know the power that we have - No, they were waiting for us to ambush here in the first place?".

Before Kanson answered Myro's guess, his flat face turned gloomy, he drew his sword which he had always hidden behind his sword cover and slashed towards the front.

"But!".

An arrow that rushed towards Myro was slashed by Kanson which thwarted the attack, but on the other side Kanson felt his hand slightly numb indicating just how powerful the arrow attack just now was.

Kanson gazed towards the forest with sharp eyes then muttered "There is a power of rank 7 bandits? It seemed that just as the prince thought, this bandit attack was not a coincidence but was already fully prepared! Prince, don't go all the way from me, as long as I'm not dead then I won't let anyone hurt you".

Suddenly a gloomy voice sounded from the forest "You seem to be confident in your strength, Knight! But let me give you 1 suggestion! Before you worry about your master's life, you better worry about your own!".