On the west road in the night, thirty kilometers away from Oakhaven, hidden away in the bushes and oak trees near the roadside, the infamous bandit boss of the Big Brotherhood in the Rear gang, Gayder, watched the faint light of the merchant caravan approaching from the distance road with gleaming eyes as half of his men were crouched low in the underbrush on both sides of the road just like him, their breaths shallow and their eyes gleaming with anticipation for the next plunder.
The infamous bandit gang members look just like your classic bandits, as they dress like typical barbarians with fur and leather clothes while they wear their gang's signature skirt or kilt for easy access to torment their prey with their secondary weapons…
The gang is mostly made up of deserters, criminals, and madmen with queer taste, and their boss, Gayder, a burly man with long, messy brown hair who wore only a short fur cape, a kilt, and a pair of boots with exposed toes, was a knight in the past before he got chased out from the Great Golden Empire's imperial knight order because of his unwanted sexual acts against his fellow comrades. Now he had become a bandit just to satisfy his twisted urge of domination against other men.
"A lot of big boys this time…" Gayder licked his lips as he spotted the escort caravan's guards—all male, all sturdy, and probably just temporarily hired mercenaries. Perfect for his tastes of manly tightness. Gayder's hand gripped his sword handle loosely as he couldn't help but rub it up and down in an obscene gesture with anticipation in his dark brown eyes.
The merchant caravan would have never expected that they were going to face quite a different type of assault from the bandits, the like of which they had never seen or ever wished to see before that was waiting for them with excitement in the road ahead…
When the caravan was finally rolled closer to the ambush point with three wagons laden with sacks of grain and barrels of ale that were guarded by a dozen men in leather armor who didn't know the calamity was about to befall them, Gayder immediately raised his sword as he stood up from the bushes, then he sliced it downward as he charged with a roar together with his men, who burst from the hiding spots, screaming their signature war cry. "Tight! Tight! Tight!"
The merchants froze in terror as the bandits suddenly swarmed out and surrounded the wagons while the guards scrambled for their weapons. Gayder charged straight for the biggest guard—a broad-shouldered man with a thick beard—and tackled him to the dirt after swatting aside the man's barely raised sword.
"Get off me, you sonova...!" The guard struggled under Gayder, but he just pinned him down easily with his unnatural strength and wrestling techniques he developed from many years of wrestling with men as he smiled kindly to the struggling guard.
"Don't worry," Gayder purred with a deep, hair-raising voice, his breath hot on the creeped-out man's face below him. "This won't be quick, nor will it be gentle. I promise it'll be a hole-opening experience for you..."
"What the fuck are you...?!" The guard's eyes widened in horror as Gayder's hands suddenly went to his belt buckle and ripped it off with a sharp tear as he felt his pants loosen while the guard also felt something hard in between their bodies.
"Ahhhh—?!?!" Now the terrified guard is screaming in fear as he finally knows what Gayder is trying to do to him while he struggles with all his might!
Around them, chaos erupted: merchants screamed, bandits laughed, and the air filled with the violence of metal meeting metal, fists meeting flesh, and the rip of fabric as the bandits overwhelmed the guards easily with their superior numbers while they avoided killing anyone and just beat up the caravan people so they could have "fun" with them…
Amidst the chaos, three bandits could be seen dragging a young merchant boy out from the wagon, while another two pinned a struggling guard face-down against the road, ready to rearrange his rear end. It's a terrifying violence that most men don't ever dream of happening to them, so they put up a lot of resistance, but that only makes the bandits more excited as they beat them up more until they are either too hurt to fight back or are too exhausted to do anything while their pants get removed…
"Do you know that you can take a lot in your ass…? Wonder how much I can put in you…" Gayder leaned close to his victim's ear from behind with a creepy whisper while he choked the guard with his arms wrapped around his neck on the ground. He chuckled darkly as the guard's resistance grew weaker with every second.
But just as Gayder reached for the guard's loose pants, a cold chill suddenly blew through the air, making the hairs on Gayder's neck stand up. He quickly looked up—and froze.
Above the treeline, a black silhouetted figure hovered in the night sky with its back turned against the crescent moon. Its form was indistinct, like humanoid smoke and mist; its eyes glowed with cold, blue wisps. It watched them all from above. Silent. Unmoving.
Gayder's men paused mid-assault, some still holding merchants down, others frozen with loot half-lifted. The eerie silence that followed the appearance of an unexpected uninvited guest was deafening.
"What in the fuck is that...?" One bandit whispered, his voice trembling, while Gayder snarled, releasing his prey, who was coughing violently on the ground trying to breathe, as the bandit boss stood up with a sword in his hand.
"I-Is that... a... a... a GHOST!!" Shrieked one of the bandits near the ale wagon, dropping his looted barrel of ale. His cry finally shattered the unnatural stillness, and panic rippled through the Big Brotherhood in the Rear. Every bandit scrambled, tripping over things, running away in all directions, their secondary weapons shrinking up like little caterpillars.
The hovering silhouette didn't move, though, its blue wsip eyes fixed on Gayder with unnerving intensity as the bearded guard seized his chance to scramble away from the queer bandit boss on his elbows, face pale with terror and relief that his ass is not going to be messed with.
Gayder snarled as he saw his men escaping like roaches. "Stand your ground, you cowards! It's just some weak undead!"
Some bandits actually stop and turn back to see their boss, who is bravely standing his ground against a ghost after they hear his voice. They wonder if that's really so…
The bandit boss then snatched a dagger from his belt and hurled it skyward to prove a point, but the blade just passed cleanly through the smoky figure, clattering harmlessly into the trees beyond…
The place fell into awkward silence as the ghost didn't even flinch from such a physical attack. Its glowing gaze remained locked on Gayder, cold and inhumane.
Then, it screamed loudly as a sound wave ripped through the caravan and the forest, a hoarse, haunting sound that gripped tight on their souls and caused Gayder to fall on his ass with a scared face, and then the bandit boss hurriedly scrambled to his feet before he ran away with his dignity lost as the ghostly silhouette descended toward the caravan with its form twisted and spread out like ink in the water.
Seeing their boss instantly proven wrong and running away like a bitch, the remaining bandits didn't need any more convincing, as fear overrode greed and lust, causing them to abandon all else and resume scrambling over each other to flee into the woods; curses mingled with terrified whimpers from their mouths.
Within moments, the road was empty, no one staying—not even the merchants and guards, who vanished into the forest just as fast as the bandit gang. Only the ghost now remained, hovering silently above the caravan wreckage of the overturned wagon and scattered crates and barrels leaking ale.
One of the merchants pants roughly as he and the bearded guard who has escaped into the forest stop to catch their breath under an oak tree, their trembling fingers fumbling with their loose trousers.
"Holy shit," the guard breathed, looking back to where they ran from with a pale face. "What... what is that thing?"
"Whatever it is, it saved our asses, literally," said a merchant clutching his trousers in humiliation. He couldn't imagine what horrible things might have happened to him if that ghost hadn't appeared and scared off the queer bandits.
"I'll never come back to Kruger ever again…!" The guard spat as he swore that even if it killed him, he was definitely not going to come here…!
"Same…" The merchant muttered in agreement.
÷×÷×÷
The next morning, Zarba's carriage and his black knights on the skeleton horses were moving through the less traveled road away from Oakhaven when Xin, who was lazily lying on Zarba's lap inside the carriage with her eyes closed, suddenly opened her eyes as she quickly got up with her hand grabbing hold of Zarba's forearm.
"Stop the carriage," she said, her voice serious. "We have a lot of people currently heading towards us."
"Alright." Zarba said as he commanded his summons to stop as the skeletal horses froze mid-stride while the carriage slid along the road before it stopped. Outside, the forest was still filled with birdsong and rustling leaves, which showed no sign of trouble from Xin's warning.
Zarba didn't doubt her, though, as she was the one that kept an eye out through a magic spell that would detect people in their surroundings so Zarba could dismiss his skeleton horses before anyone could see them.
Zarba turned to watch her as Xin closed her eyes and cast a spell before a small magic circle materialized in the air as it hovered in front of her.
"They're coming from the other side of the road ahead of us," she whispered as the magic circle began displaying a live feed of a group of bandits walking in the road with various items in their hands or on their backs. "Ninety-six men. Probably a kilometer away from our position."
"Is that the Big Brotherhood gang?" Zarba said with a disbelieving expression on his face. He has tried to avoid running into them on the main road, but somehow they are the ones who are coming to him instead.
'Is this a fucking canon event or something…!' Zarba complains in his mind while Xin's fingers gesture around the magic circle as she operates the clairvoyant spell like a camera around the group of bandits.
"Hmm, they seem terrified," she murmured as she observed their state. "Probably running from something that scared them silly…"
"Tsk, whatever." Zarba clicked his tongue in annoyance as he stood up from his seat. "Let them come; we'll make short work out of them!"
'The previous drakes and now this…' Zarba starts to suspect that the SSS' quests might be difficult to avoid…