Unknown Knight

Any stable state will have a critical point, just like water will freeze below zero degrees and boil above 100 degrees. Marcus is the critical point of these gangsters.

His state determined the behavior of other gangsters. Now that he was dead, those gangsters who were thinking of breaking the convoy to share the silver coins and enough food and supplies for half a year, their hearts were beating faster, their eyeballs were swollen and red, they were getting more and more excited and their morale was getting higher, but all of a sudden their hearts were tightening and trembling, their pupils were shrinking, their eyes were blank, their morale was completely lost and they felt like they were falling into an ice cave; they went from shouting and charging forward desperately to crying and howling and running backward in panic.

When Uni saw his brother die, he was also frightened and at a loss. However, when he recovered from his greed, he even wanted to snatch back the purse from Marcus. However, the crossbow arrow that was still trembling in Marcus' body made him hesitate, and it was this moment of hesitation that made him unable to escape. How could Bandak let go of the culprit in front of him? He quickly drew the string of the crossbow and shot an arrow with malice, hitting him in the throat and stopping his scream.

Seeing the thugs running away, Bandak shouted with his years of battlefield experience:

"Kill!"

Old John was the first to jump out of the carriage, and then he rushed out with a loud roar. After the others recovered from the impact and shock caused by the rapid reversal of the situation, they also burst out with courage and rushed out with a roar.

Axel also rushed out with the crowd. He was originally hesitating whether to go out and fight. After all, the first step in many things is difficult to take, let alone killing people. This is undoubtedly a huge test for him, a young man in the 21st century.

But the companions who passed him one by one seemed to create an invisible force field, pulling him forward. The roars of the crowd seemed to cast a spell of encouragement and strength on him, and like torches passing through hot oil, they instantly ignited him, igniting the bloodiness buried deep in his genes. These genes had been forged through five thousand years of vicissitudes, and contained so much fighting and struggle.

He only felt that his blood seemed to boil, veins bulged all over his body, his eyes were red and angry, and he involuntarily followed the crowd, roaring and rushing towards the nearest enemy.

Although the morale of the thugs had plummeted, everyone had more or less experienced a few street fights with knives and sticks, and had a psychological advantage over the caravan which was mainly composed of civilians. There were also some ruthless and fierce people among them, and the thug who was the first to respond to Marcus was one of them.

Although Marcus and Uni were dead now, there were still nearly 20 thugs in Dehrim City, far outnumbering the number of people in the caravan. Moreover, the people in the caravan had also broken out of the chariot formation they relied on. He felt that this was an opportunity, an opportunity for him to make a name for himself and take the opportunity to rise to the top.

So he stopped several people who were trying to escape from him in a stern voice, and called out to a few thugs with whom he had a good relationship, and organized a group of people to resist. When other brave people saw this, they also joined the resistance.

Although most of these thugs appeared strong on the outside but were weak on the inside, they were used to doing evil and had a sense of resentment in their hearts. In addition, some of the dead were relatives or friends of certain individuals, which further aroused the ferocity in the thugs' hearts. For a while, a stalemate broke out between the two sides, and the originally one-sided collapse showed a tendency to reverse.

Axel wiped away the blood that was about to flow into his eyes. It was the blood of a gangster who was stabbed to death by him from the back. Due to his lack of experience, he took a lot of effort to pull the iron spear out of the corpse. The blood splattered all over his face and body did not make him feel the nausea he imagined on TV. Instead, he felt a sense of accomplishment mixed with excitement.

This was his first time killing someone, and just as he stepped on the opponent's back and struggled to pull out the spear, it seemed as if an invisible force was transmitted from the spear tip to his heart, and then from his heart to his whole body, like excitement and even more like anticipation, making him want to immediately pick up the spear and rush to the next target.

At this moment, he seemed to have lost himself, at this moment, he seemed to have found himself again, at this moment, all he had eyes for was prey, at this moment, he was the god of death!

Coming towards him was a thug who was resisting.

"How dare you!"

Axel, who was possessed by the god of death, could not help but roar. This classic Hollywood saying boosted his morale. He even felt that the roar was like thunder. He seemed to hear faint rumbling thunder in his ears, and even the earth seemed to be shaking slightly because of the roar. The gangsters on the opposite side were so frightened that they showed fear on their faces and almost turned around and left.

"Fuck, could it be that my cheat code has finally been activated? I've awakened? A roar is so terrifying!" Axe couldn't help but feel confused.

Hey-hey, no, that's not right, the thugs on the opposite side are not looking at him, but looking behind him with fear! This made Axe's heart tremble, and he woke up, and turned his head to look back, only to see dozens of riders in the distance rolling over with great force. There was no awakening, let alone death possession. The rumbling thunder and shaking earth came from this.

These must be the reinforcements from Biglen Village, because Aix saw that some of them were holding scythes for cutting wheat and pitchforks for weeding, and Jamila was among them.

There were a dozen or so riders who were different. They wore leather armor or chain mail, and their weapons were blunt instruments like iron spikes and wooden hammers. They rode strong horses, leaving the villagers on pack horses far behind. Moreover, these people whipped their horses desperately to rush here, with the energy of a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, or like gold diggers discovering gold. They were full of excitement, as if those thugs in the city of Deherim were shining gold coins in their eyes.

"Whoosh-"

Bandak, whose CD was full, finally shot the crossbow again. The gangster who led the resistance was also taken away by this wave. The critical stalemate between the two sides was broken again. The gangsters were completely frightened when they saw the dead leader and the surging cavalry. They stopped resisting and fled in all directions.

The caravan's morale was boosted when they saw the reinforcements coming, and they all shouted to fight. Seeing this, the veteran Bandak shouted at the fleeing thugs:

"Put down your weapons and those who surrender will not be killed!"

Some of the frightened people were so frightened that they knelt down and surrendered, while some who tried to escape were quickly knocked unconscious and captured by the arriving cavalry with blunt weapons in their hands. The battle was soon over.

"Tsk, human traffickers."

Seeing Axe looking at these strangers with confusion, Bandak came over and explained to Axe.

The human traffickers he mentioned have an official name in this era, "bounty hunters", a group of people who mainly make a living by taking bounty missions.

However, there are not so many bounty missions issued by noble lords in various places. But the world is difficult, and there are more and more bounty hunters who need living people. Therefore, these people are more often engaged in privateering and human trafficking. Refugees, deserters, people who are alone in the wild, and even weak caravans are their targets. Some bounty hunter gangs are no different from robbers, so people generally have a bad impression of them, especially the traveling merchants.

After Bandak finished speaking, he ordered everyone to gather together and escorted the captured thugs to the convoy for custody. Then everyone surrounded the convoy with weapons and looked at the bounty hunters vigilantly.

When the villagers of Biglen Village and Yamila arrived, the bounty hunters had already cleaned up the battlefield. Axe even saw that they did not even spare the rags on the dead bodies. Seven or eight dead gangsters were stripped clean by them. In addition, they also captured seven people, which was a considerable gain.

With her face flushed and covered with tears, Yamila jumped off the packhorse and threw herself into old John's arms with great joy. The person she turned her head to look at was not Aix, who had been sticking to her for the past few days, nor her distant cousin Harvey, but a blond young man leading a white horse.

This was a handsome man with a resolute face. He came to Old John, touched his chest and performed a standard aristocratic etiquette:

"Hello, Uncle John. I am Ailen from the Kingdom of Nord. It is my honor to serve you!"

Then he walked up to Old John and took his hand naturally, and started chatting with him cordially. His actions were as smooth as flowing water, without any awkwardness or forcedness of a first meeting. His every word and action could only be described as very coquettish and elegant, which made Yamila's cheeks, who was lying in Old John's arms, even more flushed, and her eyes were shining with bright stars, which were bigger and brighter than the stars she looked at Aix.

Aix's heart was immediately filled with alarm bells, as if he was facing a great enemy, and he kept praying silently: noble man, backer, good father-in-law, blonde beauty, first love, child with a good name, no, no, please don't leave me...

Like Axe, his distant cousin Harvey was also worried about gains and losses. He was even worse. He stared at Aileyen, who was chatting happily with Old John, with red eyes. He was breathing heavily, as if he had a deep hatred for him. When Axe passed by him, he heard him muttering:

"Tsk, damn Nord pirates!"

After cleaning up the battlefield, the results of the first battle of the rookie Aix soon came out: the caravan captured 8 people and more than 20 silver coins, mainly the bag of money on Marcus. The others had almost no copper coins. The bounty hunter also captured 7 people, and the rest were some knives, iron spears, and some torn linen clothes.

A big man with a face full of flesh and a beard walked up to Aileyen and shouted:

"Boss Airen, didn't this girl say that all the spoils belong to us?"

The atmosphere changed immediately after these words were spoken, and the caravan, which was already on guard, became nervous.

It turned out that Yamila, who went to Biglen Village for help, happened to meet Aileyen and his group who were resting in Biglen Village. Under the introduction of the village chief Evan, Yamila promised that all the spoils would belong to the bounty hunters, and also said that there would be a generous reward. This made the girl who was caught in the middle embarrassed. She didn't know what to do and could only look helplessly at the bounty hunter leader Aileyen.

How could Airen, who prided himself on being noble, bear to embarrass a beautiful woman? Looking at his subordinate who was ruining the mood, he couldn't help but frowned, but still maintained his demeanor and said:

"Call me Sir, you fool. Didn't you see that Mr. John's men were covered in blood? Is this what you should say when you are pursuing justice? Please take back what you just said."

The bearded man rolled his eyes after the big talk, then he turned to Old John with an apologetic look and said:

"Please forgive my subordinates' recklessness. After all, we all fought bravely. How about we each take what we get?"

Old John was of course happy to see this result. He was worried that these profit-seeking bounty hunters would ask for their spoils. He even planned to give them all his spoils to appease them. After all, it was good enough that these human traffickers did not take advantage of their misfortune. Now he was relieved of a worry and said hurriedly:

"Dear Mr. Aileyen, I am so sorry. You are truly a gentleman with a sense of justice."

Hearing Old John's respectful title, Aileyen seemed to be extremely satisfied. He unconsciously stood a little taller. After taking a look at Yamila, who was as shy as a flower in Old John's arms, he still pretended to be humble and said:

"You are too kind. My father taught me since I was a child that a noble should be just. I am just following his instructions."

The words seemed to be spoken in a plain and ordinary way, but they seemed to accidentally reveal his noble origin, which made Aix, who was standing beside him, curse "hypocrisy" in his heart.

When they heard that the leader of the bounty hunters was a noble, the tense atmosphere in the caravan suddenly eased. After all, the noble lords who were high above would not bother to compete with the lowly people for such petty profits.

After hearing his identity, Old John felt guilty because of his own status. He suddenly remembered that there was also Aix in his team who had the same status as him, so he hurriedly introduced him to Airen:

"Please forgive my negligence, Mr. Aileyen, this is Mr. Aix, Mr. Aix, this is Mr. Aileyen."

Hearing the respectful address that Old John gave to Aix, Aileyen took a closer look at Aix. In his eyes, no one else in the caravan was worthy of his attention except Old John and his daughter. However, as a quasi-noble, he knew that the gap in status these days was specific to all aspects, including the address.

After seeing the other party's unique appearance and height which was slightly taller than his own, Airen, who considered himself to be extremely intelligent and a promising young man with noble blood, immediately made his own subjective judgment and determined that the other party was a noble of equal status to himself, or even a noble of higher status than himself. After all, he was just a second son with noble blood but no fiefdom, not a true noble.

Thinking of this, Ailen, who had been traveling around the world for several years, performed a standard aristocratic chest-touching salute to Aix out of courtesy. Seeing the other person saluting, Aix, feeling guilty, also pretended to return the salute.

In this way, the two "noble persons" in everyone's eyes met for the first time. It was ironic that one of them was in name only and the other was just for show.