The event started out pretty fun, as vampire's the troops were very attuned to killing large monsters in the region as they often used them to drink blood.
Hence when they were faced with predators that would generally be dangerous to civilians at around tier1 strength, the troops would chase them throughout the woods like they were some small bunny.
Max had cleverly demarcated them into 16 equal zones that created a circle around the bandit hideout, and while the troops hunted and worked on creating the demarcation line that Max asked them to, Max quietly scouted the bandit hideout.
The bandit scouts had noticed that the army was going about some exercises in the vicinity, but looking at the joy and the happiness of the soldiers as they chopped up wood and hunted animals the scouts believed it to be some routing sporting activity and did not think much of it.
On the other hand, Max's predatory eyes scanned their hideout and got an estimation of their strength as he figured out that there were 7 tier 3 bandits and a total of 40 tier 1 and 2 bandits inside the cave.
The strength of the bandits was a little lower than the strength of the army, and under the right circumstances this pitiful strength could be nullified easily so that casualties could be reduced to minimum.
Max had deliberately kept the event duration to a low 2 hours as by the end of the event all the troops were pretty much at their exhaustion limit having gone out on full cylinders in the last 2 hours.
The end result was definitely to Max's satisfaction as each unit had killed about 9-15 big monsters and everyone had completed their construction of the clearing as Max generously rewarded each Garrison with 10,000 gold coins and the winning Garrison under Anna the promised sum of 150K.
Morale was high within the troops after the task was over, but just when they thought that the fun and games were over Max came up with another event.
Bringing out a second circular, Max handed each captain another event circular but this time it was labelled as ' Surprise event '
The rules of the surprise event were simple, the captains were supposed to ask the crew to pour the blood of the defeated monsters into the clearing to create a small 3 inch wide stream of blood, and then take battle positions and hunt for escaping bandits.The captains were surprised by this weird order, but were quick to act on the Garrison Commander's instructions as their loyalty to Max had soared after the round of rewards.
Soon a circle of blood was created all around the bandit caves spanning a wide distance of 2km radius as Max cracked his head and finally got to work.
Jumping inside the clearing, Max began setting fire to the tree life inside as he spammed fireballs non-stop like nobody's business.
By the time the bandit scouts realised Max's intentions it was already too late, as before they retreated back into the caves to inform their leader about the trick of the army Max incinerated the scouts using a [ Fireblast ] attack.
The increase in power after the Agni-Astra upgrade was simply insane, the casual spells Max threw had strength akin to tier 3 attacks and Max could continuously spam them without expending any mana at all.
As the troops observer their leader set ablaze the forest and walk through the flames unfazed, they finally began to realise the sheer power he held as a warrior as their respect for him deepened.
Nicknames like ' Flaming masked demon ' , ' Flame God ' and ' Incinerator ' started to float amongst the men as everyone observed Max's never ending spree of spamming fire spells with mouths agape.
Finally, when Max felt like the fire was now self-sustaining, he clapped his hands together and used his spell [ Death Circle ] to send the bandits trapped inside to the next level of anxiety.
The big circle of blood exhausted way more mana than Max expected it to, as it depleted nearly a fourth of Max's mana bar to activate one skill. But in Max's eyes it was going to be worth it because he understood psychological warfare better than anyone.
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-5
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Max saw a constant stream of damage notifications and smiled, he could imagine the faces of the poor bandits trapped inside the caves thinking how the fuck were they losing HP points without anyone even attacking them?
Their perplexion over this matter would lead them to making poor judgement and decisions and play right into the hands of the military waiting outside.
Soon, the smoke from the fire began flooding the caves insides making it impossible for bandits to breathe as the first row of bandits began their escape attempt only to be faced with a unit ready for their fleeing attempt.
Each unit saw not more than 3-4 individual bandits trying to flee and after a short but intense fight were able to kill the bandits without much hassle.
While fights at most places were concluded easily, there were 4 units that were facing tier 3 opponents and struggling a little more than others.
One of them was Sebastian's unit, which was facing two tier 3 bandits at once, however, Max was not worried about Sebastian as he knew that his friend was more than capable of taking two bandits down even with his eyes closed.
Max instead headed towards the unit where the bandit leader had showed up alongside two other tier 3 subordinates making it the most difficult battle-spot of the day.
[ Summon Nether Beasts ]
Max summoned his beasts as he charged alongside them into battle as with his arrival the tides of the war that were against the unit captain changed fast.
The unit captain had fought bravely to stave off his 3 attackers until now and although injured he was still in fighting shape.
" Take it easy now captain, I'll handle it from here " Max said as he assured the captain that he did not need backup in this fight.
" I can still fight with you Garrison Commander " the captain insisted, however, Max just chuckled and said "For these small fries, nah no need"
The bandit leader was irritated at this comment and charged at Max while yelling " Impudent kid, I'll show you just who I am "
Max let him approach unrestricted as he held both his arms behind his back.
The bandit leader swung his axe with full strength, thinking it was going to be a guaranteed hit, however, Max dodged it like it was nothing, before placing his arm on the bandit leaders chest and saying " Boom "
[ Inferno ]
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/// A/N - This sponsored by patron Rvoll2010 via patreon, please thank him in the comments for this one ///