Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better! - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: A Bit More Walk to Reach the Capital
“Are you sure that is the target?” among the bushes and the trees within a certain wood near a big city, multiple people conceal themselves efficiently, so much that if normal people or even weaker level mages or martial artist were to try and search for them in this area, they won’t even have a single idea of where they are located.

“That is for sure boss, I heard that ‘that’ thing will pass through this path…” the one being asked replied with absolute certainty in his tone as he points towards the crude makeshift path that seems to be something out of place given how grand the main road to the nearby city is.

“Then that’s great, this thing is our chance to getting rich, remember not to kill or even damage the package, I heard that we will get even greater rewards if we do that” one of the people concealing themselves, who seems to be the boss of this group, said as a glint of greed flashes through his eyes, possessing extreme confidence that no matter what passes through this small path towards the capital of the kingdom, he and his group can easily block and take this important package away.

“Boss…” before the one who sent the information to their boss can even speak again, another one, also hiding in the trees, informs, alarming the leader of this group as this guy only speaks whenever there’s someone in the proximity near them.

“Alright boys, prepare for battle, this will be our path to enjoying women and alcohol as much as we want” the leader said with a hint of excitement on his face, just the fact alone that he will be able to indulge himself on the softness of high-quality women after this mission something that motivates him all the more to do this task properly.

Hearing his command, the people hiding on the trees starts getting extremely silent to the point that not even their leader can detect them and know their position had they not talked about it before they set this ambush, each and every single one of them prepared to the extreme as they set their gaze on the pathway that their target will tread.

Not even a few moments passes since they assumed their position and there is already something that piques their attention, this something making them smile as they saw a large caravan that seems to carry some really expensive if not important things, given that there are a lot of armed guards surrounding each and every trailer of the caravan as if they could not let go of anyone of them.

‘Three guards per trailer, ten trailers in total, two on each group are martial artists, and the remaining one is a mage’ after observing it for a while, one of the people hiding on the trees, most probably something of an analyst or a scout among them, communicated through hand signals, this way allowing each and every one of them to easily prepare even more without alarming their targets.

‘Back me up the moment I jump in on them, dispatch the mages first, we can easily deal with the martial artists without the pesky range attacks from the mage’ after confirming this information for himself, the leader of the group signaled towards his men, all of them nodding in unison as they patiently wait for their leader to jump on the caravan himself, their confident gaze showing just how used they are to this sort of things already, as well as how much experience they have about such things.

After taking a deep breath to prepare himself attacking this group of people, the leader of the hiding group smiles as he jumps out from the trees, his movements so swift that he immediately managed to decapitate a group guarding one of the trailers, taking over the attention of this travelling caravan, not by anything else but by fear of him.

“Alright, alright ladies and gentlemen, no need to look at me like that, you all know the drill already, right?” trying to buy some more time for his men to get into position, the leader of this group starts attracting even more attention of the people on the caravan by talking loudly while ostentatiously standing right on top of the trailer he had taken over, causing the people to look at him, some with wariness, some with anger and some with fear and terror.

After seeing that his people already got into the best position they can, the leader of this group of what seems to be bandits smiles maliciously as he lifts his daggers right up to his neck, showing a slitting motion and running one of his daggers right along the air just in front of his neck.

“Kill them boys!!” he said as the malicious smile remains on his face, his shout alarming the entirety of the guards with the priority to protect the trailers brought along by the caravan, their reaction already being too late though as no one among all of the mages present were able to survive the decapitating strike that the bandits launched against them.

“HAHAHAH!! Now it’s martial artists to martial artists!! Brothers, attack them!!”

“Kekeke!!! Kuaahahahaha!!! Don’t let any of the bastards we can’t sell escape!! Kill them all!!! Hiahahahaha!!!”

“HAHAHA money, money, money!! Don’t be shy and come to this daddy!!!”

As the people saw the mages being immediately disabled by this group of seemingly experienced bandits, the morale of the group guarding the caravan drops into an all time low, forcing them to passively defend themselves in fear as the group of bandits push them back more and more, eventually finding themselves either backed to the caravan they are protecting or pushed out of the group as they stray farther and farther away.

While the first group of people mentioned are still able to fend off for themselves given that they only need to guard specific areas since they still have some allies around, the latter group mentioned were easily killed the moment they got out of their guarding formation, causing the forces of the caravan to thin out even more than they already do.

“HAHAHA!!! Is that all you got!?? How very disappointing!!!” jumping in on the ‘fun’, the leader of the group of experienced bandits starts laughing amusedly as he fights, or rather, bullies one of the guards, this one a female seemingly of a middle-years of age, someone not too attractive if considering the bandit leader’s standards especially since he already got into quite a lot of high-quality brothels, which also becomes his addiction that causes him to do a job like this.

“N-no!! s-spare me!! I can do anything you want!!!” the guard lady said as she kneels in front of the leader and begs for her life, hoping that this guy is someone that he expects her to be, a guess that is proven to be true but not entirely as she expected it to be.

“You’re too ugly, woman, I won’t even take a second look at you if I saw you in a brothel” the leader of the bandit group said before swinging his dagger and instantly taking the head of the guard.

With cacophony of malicious and even murderous laughter paired with the sound of screaming in fear and begging for mercy, the group protecting the caravan easily got subjugated by the bandit group, the leader of said group already humming a happy tune as he moves towards the front of the caravan, where who seems to be the leader of this caravan is, said leader already shaking in terror as he is forced to kneel with a sword hanging just above his nape, seemingly ready to take his mortal life the moment anyone in this group deems it so.

“G-good sir, w-what do you want with me?” seeing the one who first appears to attack them, the owner of the caravan asked with a nervous voice as he even avoids eye contact with the man, who seems to do killing for a living given how normal it seems for him to slash the throat of everybody who comes across him, this character of this bandit leader causing the owner of the caravan to become so wary of offending him.

“KAHAHAHAH!! Good sir huh… hey fatty, just drop the pleasantries will you? It disgust me quite a bit…” the leader of the group said as he prepares to swing his dagger towards this person, but he got stopped as he heard someone coming from the depth of the woods, alerting not only him but also his scouts, given that despite their particularly strong senses, they didn’t even notice this person until the very last second when he is already nearby.

“Man, just a few more walk and I’m reaching the capital already huh… that’s really great, I can finally sleep on a proper bed again” as he comes out of the thick trees covering the path, the bandits, along with the remaining people of the caravan, saw a young man with an emperor-like bearing walking with what seems to be a map in his hands, his face of someone completely carefree and unfettered as if even this scene doesn’t really bother him much.