Chapter 96 096: Preparations

A kilometer away from Red salvation a small military camp had been erected, there were perhaps fifty soldiers and perhaps twenty to thirty deputies. And then there was a whole score of Aspirants, Cole could not even count how many of them they were. It seems dealing with the bandits in this town had become serious enough that the government of Verdant Viloria had decided to get involved. He noticed that there was a bulletin board raised up with a couple of other bounties placed on it.

He drew closer to it, coming down from Morgan so as not to take much space. There were a few eyes on him, but it was mainly due to the mount he had rode in on. The rest of his body was covered, except of course for the tail that he always forgot was a part of his body. He walked up to the bounty board and received a system notification that told him his still active bounty had been updated, then he picked three more to round up the number…. Since his target was here, he would finish everything here once and for all.

[Bounty 07/10(Updated) <Gold> The Mining Town Of Red Salvation Is Now Under The Harsh Grip Of The Most Notorious Bandit In The Wild West The Sanguine Lotus. Go up against His forces and wrest control of the town back/Condition: This Bounty Can Be Completed With A Party Or Team/ Rewards: 2,000 Gold, 12,000 Exp, +80,000 Exp To Largest Contributor, +100 Gold Per Bandit Killed, +500K Gold for the Person to Slay or Capture Izanagi Surugi of The Blood lotus Gang]

[Bounty 08/10<Silver> The right had man of the Sanguine Lotus River Jones, has been sighted in the Mining Town of Red Salvation. He can be identified by a scar over his right eye and is accompanied by Black Mountain Ogre. Slay or capture him. / Rewards: 5000 Exp, 1500 Gold]

[Bounty 09/10<Silver> The Mayor of Red Salvation Has Been Captured and Locked in the Basement of the Town's Church's Bell tower. Rescue him and return him safely to his family outside the town. / Condition: The Mayor Must Survive/ Rewards:  5000 Exp, 1000 Gold, Cold Silver Spawning Crystal]

[Bounty 10/10<Bronze> Mauricio is an enchanter with a death attribute. He needs ten personal effects taken off the corpses of bandits within the town in order to make enchanted items. / Condition: The Personal effects must be from a dead person… they don't necessarily have to be a bandit. / Rewards: 2000 Exp, 200 Gold]

Yeah this was going to be one of the most serious fights that Cole would have ever been in. in a manner of speaking it reminded him of his experience back in the first floor and the amount of shit he had to go through in order to get off it. Which is to say there was about to be a lot of exciting close calls with death.

He turned to the right and noticed a small tent had been erected where people could register in a cradle to make sure they didn't die and lose their effects. Cole noticed that it was only he aspirants that were going in and out of it. he had heard that once a universe has been fully integrated then they would no longer be to utilize the cradle facilities… if you die that was it, which probably explained the forlorn look on the faces of the locals.

He quickly got himself registered, and then left, getting onto Morgan's back as he made his way towards the right. This time he noticed that some of the soldiers had set up a command tent and at the side was a small bazar were aspirants and locals were busy selling wares and supplies that people would be sure to need in the fight that was to come…. Cole was in need of a few things that could go boom.

"Special Bullets! Special Bullets! Get your special bullets here!"

Cole moved in that direction and noticed that laid out across a table were multiple cases of different caliber bullets. Each and every single one of them had different colored tips and at the base of the cases were descriptions of what they could do. Cole liked the idea of shooting special bullets from his rifle so he got three cases. 1 case of 12 exploding fire bullets, 1 case of 12 poison bullets, and 1 case of 12 ice bullets. All together they cost him 600 gold…. Which frankly to Cole seemed more like he had been cheated. But he had the money so it did not really move him.

Then he got a box of 24 fuse lit grenades, completing everything he need as he moved to the front, standing beside quite a few others who were on top of a hill overlooking the entrance to Red salvation were a couple of bandits were milling around, waiting leisurely as if it wasn't a literal army of aspirants that were about to attack them.

Cole pretty much understood what was going on here, no one could really make a move… and that was because they were waiting for the other side to make a move. Unfortunately for both sides, Cole was never one to stand on ceremony as he raised his rifle before anyone could tell him anything and aimed.

[Eagle Sight] [Double Tap] [Spiral Shot]

Two bandits went down almost immediately as the shot rang out across the entire valley. The aspirants and locals besides Cole turned to him as if he had lost his mind, one of them, some officer walked up to him and grabbed a hold of his coat and screamed at him.

"What did you Do!" unfortunately for the officer he had placed himself in the direct line of fire of the bandits that quickly retaliated by shooting back at Cole. The officer had his head blown open as his blood and brain matter stained Cole's mask. He smiled, watching as the rest of the people on the hill ran backwards, getting out of sight of the irate and very annoyed bandits.

Cole now understood something, it seems they have been throwing shots at each other, but no one had killed anybody for either camp. It was a balance that had been struck, however the longer they waited not exactly sure about how to attack or when to attack, the bandits could be getting up god knows what, and frankly speaking Cole was not that patient. He had faced off against an army before and won, and he was not trying to be arrogant but Cole knew he could do it again.

[Spectral Rover]

His from blurred in the eye of everyone as he appeared right in front of the entrance of the town, right in the middle of six bandits who had their bandits previously pointed in his direction. He smiled at all of them as he said.

"Well hello guys! Honestly fighting from all the way up there is quite boring, so I'm here to introduce you to a friend of mine." They all turned their guns at him, but he held his cool as he looked at the shadows at their feet. He turned and placed his hand on the hilt of his blade, and gave them all a small smile… of course they couldn't see it on account of the mask over his face.

"This is Black Malakai….. And this is how he says hello."

[Wrath Drive]

As if the world had shifted into a shade of grey and white, Cole used [Shadow Dance] to pop up behind a bandit, stabbing his word through the back of his skull and out his mouth, spraying blood in the face of his partner. As Cole held the body up with his blade, which was saying something as the bandit was still taller than his five foot frame.

Bullets pelted the body of the bandit as Cole pulled out Blue Obsidian and fired off three shots from behind the body of the bandit, hitting one of the bandit in the mouth, another in the eye, sending them both down as the third got shot in the throat just above his collarbone. He crashed to the ground making wheezing sounds as he died painfully, leaving two others.

[Double Jump]

Cole went into the air, his form casting a shadow above the remaining two bandits. He used [Shadow Dance] to pop up from the shadow, slashing his sword upwards as he used [Black Cut] to divide the both of them in half. Ending the fight as he flicked the blood of his blade and received the system notification for the six individual kills…. They gave him 22k exp in total, making them somewhat low leveled.

He looked up at the town and the hundreds of guns pointed in his direction, he chuckled and then he disappeared just as creams began to go around the town over the chaos he had just caused. Cole on the other hand peered out from where he was hiding completely unseen by anybody…

"Guess it's time to go hunting,"