"Fuck. Fuck! Fuck!!" Mark allowed his emotions to get out "Why the hell company even wants me to hunt some random bandits? Or rather, why my manager wants that? And those basic wilderness survival skills are truly basic... remind me to buy a ranger slave should I have an opportunity... " He sighed calming himself down, "Ok, let's go back and try finding the fucking trail"
Spoiler: track fail As he walked back, Mark quickly realised, he had lost his trail - but thankfully, he knew more or less where was it. He made a quick adjucion to make it back. The travel in the darkness might not have been the most easy thing to do- ! Mark gasped as he walked into a person - crashed with them, truly, and two of them fell on the ground. As he blinked a several times, he realised that there were two more people in front of him... armed people.
Mark had no illusions about his wrestling skills and the first thing he attempted to do was to push himself up, using the spear as a lever, and get back on his feet, pointing the tip towards the armed strangers preventing them from closing distance. "Who the fuck are you!?" He asked as if he wasn't hunting for a group of armed people. (he'll ask that even if he'll fail to get back to his feet)
Mark got up quicker then the other man - who snarling threw himself at Mark. "I will gut you like a duck!" He exclaimed. Spoiler: combat high success But as he stopmed forward, Mark managed to put a spear between them, in threatening manner. The man simply did not notice it and walked straight at it impaling himself. He chocked, then fell on the ground, dead.
The time for diplomacy or deception was over and Mark lunged forward, aiming at the neck of the closest enemy before stepping back dodging a potential counterattack.
Spoiler: attack success Mark jumped forward, not bothering with spear as it was stuck in a body. Instead he grabbed ax and aimed at closest opponent - easily using surprise to strike. The ax smashed against bandit's neck. The opponent fell dead and only know the last of people Mark faced unsheathed sword.
Handaxe against the sword wasn't the best matchup and Mark paused, slowly retreating. "We don't have to fight, you know?" he said looking for a tree to cover one of his sides from an attack. His hope was that Hanna is somewhere around and will strike with her dagger sooner or later... The enemy wouldn't expect a hobbit-sized opponent.
Spoiler: combat fail fail As the clouds moved for a moment, he could get a better glimpse of his opponent. "Yeah, you can just surrender~" The woman said menacingly. It was easy for him to tell that it would be hard to talk her out of fighting... Suddenly she thrust her sword into bush- "Ahh!" Hana screamed as she fell on the ground. Spoiler: attack success The woman twisted and attacked Mark, but he managed to parry. The two slashed at each other for a few moments, before grabbing each other' hands with weapons and trying to out strengthen the other.
Rage. Rage was the only word that could describe Mark's state of mind. His fingers clenched around the female's wrist as he tried to push her on the ground, to land on top of her pinning the enemy to the ground.
Spoiler: combat success The two strugeled for a little while, flexing their bodies, trying to overpower each other. Finally the duo fell on the ground and rolled upon it. It was not due to skill, and while Mark managed to bring his opponent to the ground, he failed to pin her. She tried to kick him, but failed, missing his balls abd hitting his thight.
"I left my coin in my room, I'm afraid. The streets to the arena aren't the kinds you want to walk around just carrying all your winnings around, clearly." She tried not too go too into length in a detail, but obviously her other version must have had money that was valid here to be good for it. She just gave her best honest look to convince him that she would make good on it. She was already a paying customer here technically after all.
Spoiler: persuation Success The man nodded with understanding. "Ofcourse, lease follow me." He said as he took the keys and started going up... the two entered the elevator and traveled to eleventh floor. They walked through the corridor until they stopped in front of room 11 12. "Here we are." The man said as he entered the key into the lock and started unlocking the door.
The only thing that mattered to Mark now is ending this fight quickly to go help Hanna and he fought like a beast, thinking only about winning at any cost, he didn't even consider an option of capturing a female for selling. At some moment he opted for a headbutt straight to the woman's nose, hoping to knock her out in this way.
The two struggled far longer then Mark anticipated. He headbutted the woman, but it was to little effect. She retalietated with her own strike. The he struck her again, missing and hitting the tree. The two rolled on the ground, struggling with each other. The woman started choking Mark, then he pushed her to the ground. She groaned as her head bounced, her eyes rolled as she lost consciousness. It seemed she hit a stone when mark pushed her.
Mark grabbed the woman's sword and raised it, almost striking her down but managed to stop himself at the last moment. Then he didn't waste any time and rushed to the bushes where Hanna was hidden, fearing the worst. He did throw occasional glances at the fallen woman in case she'll come back to her senses and tried to keep himself aware of possible reinforcements in case the bandit group was larger than those 3
As Mark checked on Hana, he realised she was thankfully alive... but the wound to her lower chest looked rather nasty. "Stupid stick, uhh, why did it had to lie under leaf~ ah, that damn hurts!" Hana breathed heavily. holding her hand to her side, blood coloring her clothes. She winced. "Thanks" She looked at Mark gratefully. "Without that damn leather, i would be fucking dead. The sword slid of the leather..." She moaned.
"Don't even think about dying before I pop your cherry. It is an order, my dear slave. " Mark joked nervously before doing what he can to bondage the hobbit and stop the bleeding. Then he glanced over at the unconscious bandit girl one more time before picking up the phone to check the quest status. It should tell him if there are more bandits to worry about.
Hana moaned. "Your jokes are bad, so bad~ No more, you will kill me with your humour~" Hana moaned dramatically, chuckling lightly then hissed. "Oh, don't make me laugh~" The remnants's of princess robe were used as bandage. The bandit seemed to be still unconscious, as Mark lifted his phone. Spoiler: information Quest - Hunting Bandits! Sequel! You are hunting bandits! Because you failed the job the first time! Progress: 2/29 Reward: Defeat all of the bandits - 50 credits. Optional: ? Failure: Bandits will hunt you and your companion!
"Twenty fucking nine? We barely managed 2 and a half... " Mark shook his head "Can you walk? You have an unconscious slut to repay to and it would be nice to quickly process her for a credit. Speaking of which... Let's learn who she is." Mark returned to the recently defeated enemy, with her own sword in his hand (just in case she is playing unconscious), kneeled down and put a stamp on the girl's forehead and proceed to look into his phone, expecting a notification.
"Oh~" Hana moaned. "Told you not to make me laugh..." She hissed as she ried to move, only to collapse after a moment. "Nope... not moving around soon." She groaned. As he put a stamp on the woman he was informed that she was a T1 bandit with a name Juka.
