LORD WORLD: START

CHAPTER 20: GIVING UP

"Lokof, what about your injuries?", asked Myro who walked over to Lokof worriedly. Although they managed to kill the enemy leader who was rank 7, Myro was not at all happy but worried about the condition of his subordinates.

Lokof was currently sitting on the ground, a huge slash wound on his body was being treated and bandaged by Anrateon.

Looking at Myro who was walking over, Lokof who was slightly sweating from enduring the pain on his wound smiled as best as he could "Not a big deal, sir! You don't have to worry, I'm strong enough, a wound like this hasn't been able to kill me".

Myro did not listen to Lokof's confident nonsense but rather he looked at Anrateon as if trying to ascertain how Lokof's condition.

Sensing Myro's gaze, Anrateon who had just finished putting on the bandage smiled kindly "The wound is indeed quite big, but what Lokof said earlier was that his life was not threatened! I have to admit, he really has a strong body. At least if it wasn't for the difference in rank as well as just relying on the body, Lokof was above me. Even so, your previous actions were too rash, don't you think what happens if the enemy's slash attack is stronger than the attack earlier? You must be dead".

Lokof said while still smiling "Then do you think you can kill the bandit leader unharmed except with my help? Do not forget, the bandit leader was still a rank 7 soldier, in terms of speed and strength he was above you. Therefore, I need to take a risk so that you can kill him, right?".

Anrateon fell silent at Lokof's words because everything he said was true, without Lokof's risky actions just now then he would not have been able to successfully kill the bandit leader just now without the slightest casualty.

Seeing Anrateon who had become silent, Myro patted Lokof's shoulder gently so that he would not be in pain "Good work, Lokof! Even if you're not the one who killed the enemy leader, I need to admit that you've done enough for this success. But, no more stupid acts like this next, you have to tell us your plan first before you're going to do something risky again, do you understand?".

Lokof smiled shyly as a result of Myro's warning, he held his head "I understand, sir".

Myro nodded, he began to notice the surrounding situation where most of Myro's troops felt in a favorable position rather than the enemy forces.

Especially since the bandit leader was killed, they were now not thinking of winning again since the death of their leader but rather how to escape from here alive.

Knowing that the fight will end as the enemy troops lose their fighting spirit, Myro stepped forward "The fight has ended surrender or die, make your choice! As long as you surrender and then lower your weapons, I will let you live. But whoever refuses, you will be as lucky as your leader".

The bandits on the enemy side started to stop fighting the Myro troops, they stared at each other in confusion as their leader was dead, so they did not know what the best move they needed to make next.

Hearing the man's words, the other bandit leaders began to lower their weapons. However their leader was killed, the rank 5 bandits were the strongest people under their leader, for that reason his decision to give up made all the high-ranking bandits realize that they were losing.

When everyone decided to surrender, Myro said "Anrateon, capture and secure all their weapons! As I said, there is no great grudge between us. They were planning to kill me because of their master's orders, now their leader connected to their master is dead so that it can be considered them and their master is out of touch. Therefore, as long as they completely give up, let them stay alive. Moreover, they have great potential to become new members of your bandit group that will continue to grow, do you have the confidence to lead them and gain their loyalty?".

Anrateon said firmly "Don't worry, sir! Although it takes some time before they can be loyal, but at least I have the confidence to change their loyalty and make them loyal soldiers to you".

"Then I hand them over to you, whether it be killing them or giving them a reward, all decisions are in your hands because what I need is not many soldiers but those who are faithful", said Myro patting Anrateon's shoulder showing he believed her "Charles, follow me along with the rest of the Knights, we'll start putting out the fire before it gets worse. Lokof, you stay here resting".

"Well", replied everyone who followed Myro's decision.

Everyone rushed to put out the fire by taking water from a nearby stream of water. Although their movements were less effective as they could not carry much water at once, their actions accelerated the extinguishing of the flames which stopped the flames from continuing to burn the forest.

In addition, Anrateon had calculated the strength of the fire from the start so that the fire was extinguished without causing too great an impact.

When all the fires were extinguished, Myro took his troops and prisoners to the open field where they had built the former resting camp.

Myro immediately gathers the injured Lokof and refuses to rest, Anrateon, Charles and Kanson in the main tent to discuss their problems next.

"We managed to clear 1 of the 4 largest bandit camps in Atrof Province, a great achievement! Even so, there is another bandit group waiting for us! Not to mention the roughly 500 bandit troops we attacked, most of them managed to escape under the protection of the fire burning the forest" Myro said staring at everyone "For the first and most important matter, Anrateon, are you sure that you are capable of building a high-level bandit group on par with the Blood Sword group? I'll give you at most a month".

Anrateon thought for a while before replying "As master said, there are many enemy bandits fleeing during their base fire whereas we focus on killing their leader, so most of them are fleeing. While the ones caught, the number is less than 250 people, even we failed to catch half of them".

"Despite that, the escaping bandits were little bandits who were not so influential even if they were captured. While the core strength, we managed to capture all the higher-ups of the bandit group from rank 3 to rank 5. For that reason, as long as I managed to make these higher-ups loyal, I was sure to form a high-level bandit group".