Unknown Knight

It was almost evening when everyone rode back to Migayet Village. They replenished their supplies in the village and rested for a night. Early the next morning, everyone started to return according to the agreed route.

At noon, the group came to a reddish-brown desert. Afanti stopped everyone and said to Aix:

"My Lord, please go slowly. This area is a dangerous place. We should rest for a while and set out again at night.

This way, we can avoid the scorching sun at noon and the dangers in this area."

When Aix heard that there were risks ahead, he dismounted and came in front of Avanti to ask him for details.

After listening to Afanti's introduction, Aix realized that this area was the territory of desert bandits, and there were many gangs of desert bandits of different sizes active there.

These desert bandits have been active and wreaking havoc in this area for hundreds of years. Recently, they have been unified under the command of a desert bandit leader named Sharif, and have become increasingly powerful.

They are good at riding and shooting, and are familiar with the surrounding terrain. With this advantage, these desert bandits will not let go of any caravan in their sight and almost completely block the trade routes between the two cities of Amerad and Barieh.

Moreover, they were all ruthless and murderous. Any caravan that dared to resist was basically killed by them, leaving no one alive.

"You don't know, sir, that these terrifying desert bandits have killed so many people that the flowing blood has dyed the sand here red, so this desert is called the Red Blood Desert, and these desert bandits call themselves the 'Blood Sand Bandits'.

The caravans passing through here either team up with other caravans and pass through here when the number of people reaches hundreds, or they spend more time and take a longer detour to avoid here, or they pass through here secretly at night.

Since you are in a hurry to go back, you might as well sneak through here at night to minimize the risk."

After listening to Afanti's introduction and suggestions, Aix bent down and grabbed a handful of sand to look at it carefully. He couldn't help but laugh at the ignorance of the residents here. They said that blood dyed the desert red, but in fact it was just a desert containing iron oxide particles. There should be a large open-pit iron mine nearby.

But he still had to listen to Afanti's advice. Traveling at night was also a good way to avoid desert bandits.

Under the leadership of Afanti, everyone set up tents in an inconspicuous sand pit to eat and rest.

At night, a group of silent travelers walked in the red blood desert. They were Aix and his group.

They moved forward silently, trying to avoid making any sound. Not only were all the horse hooves wrapped in animal skins, but even the camel bells were taken off and wrapped tightly with linen.

However, a cunning rabbit has three burrows, and an eagle that looks down from a thousand miles away cannot escape. Ever since they entered Dukuba City, their news had reached the leader of the Blood Sand Bandits, Sharif.

As for robbery, Sharif would rather rob nobles from other places than robbing caravans where it is difficult to sell the stolen goods. Not only can he get a large ransom easily, but he can also avoid the hard work and risk of transporting the goods to the city to sell them.

So after receiving information from his spies that a small but generous leader was leading a team into the desert, Sherif listed Aix and his party as VIP clients to be given priority, and ordered his subordinates, both big and small, to pay special attention to the movements of Aix and his party.

When Sharif learned that Aix and his party appeared near Migayet Village, he dispatched five teams of desert bandits and a group of his own Blood Sand Guards to Migayet Village, vowing to provide Aix with VIP supreme service.

As a result, they were still a step too late. Aix and his party had left half a day ago. After robbing the village of Migayet of a large sum of money, the desert bandits followed Aix and his party, following the traces.

Sharif gave a death order that the fat sheep Aix and his group must be captured. The desert bandits did not dare to slack off and finally caught up with Aix and his group in the second half of the night.

If they were on the grassland or some harder ground, with the help of the sharp-eyed hero Bestur, they could even avoid being pursued by the desert bandits.

But this was a desert, and the soft sand made the pursuing horses make very little sound. It was not until they were more than a hundred meters away that Bestur noticed the pursuing desert bandits. At this point, it was impossible for them to get rid of them.

Fortunately, this distance was enough for everyone to prepare. Aix decided to let James, Veron, and Afanti go first. These three had low combat power and could not attack from a distance. The remaining Bestur, Niza, Aisu, Ran Ying, Zhenzhen, and himself were responsible for the rear.

The first to catch up with them was a small team of more than 20 people. Thinking they were fighting at home, the desert bandits did not hesitate and directly launched an attack on Aix and his party, but they did not expect to hit a wall.

Aix's side not only has advanced equipment, but also heroic-level combat power. Bestur's arrows never missed their target. He turned around and shot four or five arrows, and every arrow hit someone off their horse. Aix, Niza, Aisu, Ran Ying, and Zhenzhen also made some gains.

In just a few moments, most of the desert bandits were killed. They were so frightened that they no longer dared to chase too far ahead and could only lag far behind, blowing horns frequently to summon their accomplices to come.

When it was almost dawn, the enemy heard the news and rushed over. First, the enemy's trumpets were heard from the left and right sides, and then the sound of trumpets began to be faintly heard from the front.

In order to avoid being surrounded, Aix and his party had to change the direction of advance frequently, but the sound of horns ahead became more and more frequent, and it was obvious that the enemy was large in number and well prepared. It seemed that they would die if they continued to follow the planned route.

After Aix discussed with everyone, they all agreed that instead of continuing to move forward and finally running headfirst into the encirclement of the desert bandits, it would be better to do the opposite and charge towards the team of desert bandits behind them, which had only a dozen or so riders left.

The previous fight had already let everyone know the details of the enemy behind them. Everyone was confident that they could defeat them and then successfully break out of the encirclement.

Without further ado, everyone turned around and rushed towards the enemy behind them. The desert bandits behind them were stunned for a moment, and before they could react, most of them were shot dead by a wave of arrows. When the remaining six or seven riders saw that the situation was not good, they immediately turned around and fled.

Seeing that they had easily defeated the desert bandits, the big guys became more confident and immediately sped up their horses to chase after them, hoping to break out of the encirclement in one fell swoop.

After chasing for a while, Bestur shot down two more desert bandits with his superb archery skills. However, when they chased to a low sand slope, the remaining five desert bandits suddenly stopped on the slope and stopped running.

Everyone reined in their horses, their hearts sinking as they discovered thick smoke billowing from behind the sand slope. A moment later, no less than four or five hundred desert bandits on horseback emerged densely on the sand slope.