Wizard: This witcher is neglecting his duties.

Chapter 191 The Assassins of the Defias Brotherhood

Azeroth, Westfall.

Wayne emerged from the spatial rift in the kobold mine, only to hear a few chattering, dog-like barks calling out from a short distance away:

"Invasion, our mines have been invaded by humans."

"Quick, someone come and take down this intruder!"

He cursed his bad luck inwardly, then drew his Statikk Shiv from his waist. Seeing the two figures still somewhat blurry in the distance, he didn't hesitate and unleashed a chain lightning bolt.

The shouting stopped abruptly.

After killing the kobold, Wayne quickly weighed the pros and cons. On a whim, he reached into his spatial bracelet, took out an invisibility cloak, put it on, and then ran towards another mine tunnel at top speed.

Sure enough, the kobolds moved rather slowly. It wasn't until he ran into another mine tunnel that some other kobolds rushed over with their mining picks. They looked at the charred corpse on the ground, which had been electrocuted, and roared in terror and anger.

Wayne let out a soft breath and, taking advantage of the kobolds' confusion, slipped out of the mine from another direction. If he hadn't wanted to keep these kobolds around to help him guard the mine, he would have killed them all by now.

After slipping out of the mine, Wayne didn't linger. Before entering the world of Azeroth, he already had a preliminary plan. Now he was going to visit Lawrence Farm, which he had seen two months ago, to ask the locals for information.

He rode on the magic flying carpet, flying swiftly in the direction he remembered from last time, and soon saw the outline of Lawrence Farm.

The last time I came here it was summer, and the flow of time in the Wizarding World and the Azeroth World was almost the same. Now, two months have passed, and from a distance, the fields of Lawrence Farm are covered with dense wheat and some other crops. Although they are not yet ripe, they still look very satisfying.

This is the sense of security that food brings to people.

To avoid disturbing the residents of Lawrence Farm, Wayne did not land directly on the farm. Instead, as before, he used the slope as cover and landed a few hundred meters away at the foot of a hillside.

When he straightened his clothes and entered the farm looking like an adventurer, he was surprised to find that, even though it was still daytime, there were no workers in the fields, and the farmhouse in the center of the farm was quite quiet. Occasionally, one could only hear the neighing of horses and the grunting of pigs in the pigpen.

This unusual phenomenon immediately alerted Wayne. He slowed his pace, cleared his mind of distractions, and sharpened his senses, carefully guarding against any possible accidents.

Sure enough, when he was about a hundred meters away from the farmhouse in the center, he suddenly heard the sound of shoes rubbing against the wild grass.

With his keen hearing as a Witcher, Wayne quickly deduced that two men with ill intentions were quietly approaching it from the left and right.

He maintained his pace toward the farmhouse, and out of the corner of his eye, he was surprised to find that there was no one or any other creature in the places where the sounds were coming from; it seemed as if nothing existed at all.

This surprised him quite a bit, but his hearing was definitely not lying. Although there were no traces, the menacing people on his left and right were still moving slowly, and the sound of their shoes rubbing against the weeds could still be heard slowly.

Seeing this, Wayne stopped and quickly turned around to observe carefully.

Fortunately, after he concentrated and observed carefully, he immediately noticed something amiss. Two people dressed in tight-fitting clothes and wearing red masks, holding daggers, were crouching about seven or eight meters away from him, cautiously advancing step by step.

Their outlines were faint, almost transparent, as if some force enveloped them, obscuring their forms.

Upon seeing the two men's distinctive attire and the daggers in their hands, Wayne immediately thought of the Defias Brotherhood, an organization that roamed the Stormwind Kingdom.

The current storyline seems to indicate that they betrayed Stormwind less than a few years ago, and are currently in a period of accumulating power and developing rapidly.

The last time I chatted with Mr. Lawrence at the farm, they discussed the Defias Brotherhood's rampage in the Western Wilderness.

However, these thoughts only flashed through Wayne's mind. After discovering the two Defias Brotherhood assassins who had entered stealth mode, he showed no mercy. In an instant, a fan-shaped Igni Flame sign shot out from his right hand, and with his left hand, he raised his adamantite arm guard and fired a crossbow bolt at the chest of the man on the left.

In an instant, the Defias Brotherhood assassin on the right was engulfed in flames, his entire body ablaze, rolling on the ground. Meanwhile, the Defias Brotherhood assassin on the left was struck in the sternum by Wayne's armor-piercing crossbow bolt. As if struck in the chest by an invisible fist, he instantly fell backward, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

Just as Wayne attacked the two Defias Brotherhood assassins, the door to the farmhouse in the center of the farm was pushed open, and three strong men wielding double axes rushed out.

They seemed to have noticed the scene outside the farmhouse long ago. After rushing out of the farmhouse, they immediately let out an angry roar at Wayne and then charged at him at a considerable speed.

After the three rushed out, two more members of the Defias Brotherhood, carrying two crossbows, also ran out of the farmhouse.

Wayne's expression remained unchanged as he faced the sudden appearance of the Defias Brotherhood members.

He first cast a Quen shield on himself, then drew his Statikk Shiv from his waist, quickly retreated a few steps, and delivered a final blow to the unfortunate man on the ground who was still howling and burning, plunging the sword into his chest.

Then he beckoned to the three burly men who rushed towards him.

Until they rushed up to him, less than ten meters away.

Wayne's figure suddenly vanished, instantly reappearing beside the two Defias crossbowmen at the farmhouse entrance, who were holding their crossbows level and ready to fire at any moment.

Before they could react, he swung his sword twice in an instant. One sword beheaded one of them, while the other severed the arms of the remaining crossbowman.

The screams of their companions instantly jolted the three burly men, who were holding double axes and staring blankly at the grass where the enemy had disappeared.

Inside the farmhouse, they saw Wayne, who looked like a teenager and was wearing a suit of sturdy armor. They thought they were facing a fledgling young warrior.

Unexpectedly, the opponent was a mage who could not only cast fire magic, but also cast spells without incantations, directly performing blink magic. In an instant, he killed four of their companions, leaving only three of them out of the seven.

A mage who can use spells so quickly is clearly someone they cannot deal with.

Faced with a huge gap in strength, and given that the Defias Brotherhood was not exactly an elite organization, one of the three burly men, with brown hair and a thick beard, immediately shouted with a grim expression:

"Stop fighting, my friend. We are from the Defias Brotherhood. There are many of us, and you can't afford to mess with us."

"Let us leave, and we won't bother you anymore. Otherwise, you won't be able to survive in the Western Wilderness."

Wayne listened to them finish speaking with a cold expression, then raised the Startick Blade in his hand without saying a word.

Just as the brown-haired man, his face contorted with rage, thought a fierce battle was inevitable and was beginning to have second thoughts, Wayne's figure vanished instantly and reappeared behind them.

A powerful slash was unleashed in an instant, severing half of one of the strong men's bodies. Then, a chain of lightning bolts shot out from the Startick Blade, directly shocking the remaining two strong men, causing them to tremble violently and let out painful and desperate howls. They then collapsed, their bodies emitting a burnt smell.

After Wayne stepped forward and delivered the two more blows, the entire farm fell into an eerie silence once more.

The real world is not a data-driven world with health bars like in games, nor does it have a hierarchy. Just like these seven members of the Defias Brotherhood, if they were hit in a vital spot by Wayne's blades, lightning, and magic, they would all die instantly.

In the real world, unless one is gifted with extraordinary abilities like a dragon, a demigod, or other super-being, all mortals are extremely fragile. No matter who it is, if they are stabbed in the heart or have their head cut off, they will die.

There is no classification like in games, such as elite level, boss level, leader level, etc.

After a quick inventory of the spoils, the result was rather meager. Wayne only managed to find less than ten gold coins and a few dozen silver coins on the seven men, and he also retrieved the armor-piercing crossbow bolt.

It wasn't that he cared about the money spent on the crossbows; it was just that the bolts that came with these crossbows were all crafted by master-level dwarven blacksmiths, and their power and precision were beyond the reach of ordinary blacksmiths.

After clearing out the spoils, Wayne searched the farmhouses but couldn't find the Lawrence family or their farm workers.

After observing the use of the kitchen, furniture, and bedrooms in the farmhouse, Wayne judged that these members of the Defias Brotherhood had probably been staying on the farm for two or three days.

However, with the help of his Witcher's senses, Wayne deduced something by observing the consumption of food and the use of utensils: there should be other people on the farm besides the seven Defias Brotherhood members.

Sure enough, a dozen minutes later, after carefully searching through some clues, he finally found the Lawrence family, along with some other workers, imprisoned in the basement of the hay warehouse.

The people imprisoned in the dimly lit basement, upon seeing Wayne covered in blood, first let out a terrified scream, followed by curses and pleas for mercy.

Fortunately, before Wayne could explain, the rancher's daughter, Julie, who had a large bust, recognized him.

The farm girl, having been locked in the basement for several days, was somewhat dirty, her hair disheveled, and her face covered in grime. However, upon recognizing Wayne, she happily approached and said:

"Mr. Wayne, did you come to rescue us?"

Upon hearing this, Wayne looked at Julie, gave her a gentle smile, and nodded, saying:

"I was just passing by your farm and was thinking of stopping in for a quick meal when I unexpectedly ran into that group of Defias Brotherhood members."

He pulled a small knife from his waist, cut the ropes binding Julie, and then looked at the others in the cellar and said:

"Don't worry, everyone, I've killed all the bandits on the farm. You're safe now."

………………

Half an hour later, Mr. Lawrence, along with several workers, began clearing away the bodies of the Defias Brotherhood, while Mrs. Lawrence, somewhat shaken, went back to her room to rest.

Wayne sat in Lawrence's living room. Julie made him a cup of tea, fried some eggs, and placed them in front of him before saying, still shaken, "..."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Wayne."

"If you hadn't saved us, we don't know what would have happened to us."

Wayne picked up the hot milk and took a sip. It tasted pretty good, even richer than the milk in the Wizarding World.

He put down his cup, then asked Julie with some confusion:

"Is the Defias Brotherhood so brazen now? Your farm should be somewhat well-known in the Westfall, right? They've openly kidnapped all of you. Don't you have any soldiers protecting you?"

Upon hearing this, Julie sat down to Wayne's right. Having just taken a shower, a faint scent of soap wafted from the farm girl.

Through the gap in the neckline of her top, one could easily see her wheat-colored but quite full breasts.

Her expression was mostly sorrowful; one hand was resting on the table, the other clenched into a fist, and she said with some resentment:

"These bandits are getting more and more arrogant. Last month, the guards at Sentinel Ridge organized a raid, but they were defeated by the Defias Brotherhood."

"Now their guards can only defend themselves at Sentinel Ridge, while the Defias Brotherhood's power is growing stronger."

"All the thugs, ruffians, and bandits in the entire Stormwind Kingdom have joined this organization. They have also taken over Moonbrook and Deadmines, driving all the townspeople away."

"Now, there has been no response to the plea for help sent to Stormwind. It seems that the entire Westfall has been taken over by this bandit group."

"Even our farm has been threatened by them, and now they've even sent people to imprison us, forcing my father to bring us into their organization."

Listening to Julie's incessant and hateful words, Wayne sighed for them.

In his memory, the mastermind behind the Defias Brotherhood should be Onyxia, the black dragon princess who was lurking in Stormwind. At this time, she was doing very well in the noble circles of Stormwind and was a very powerful countess. Many guards and nobles had already pledged allegiance to her.

It was she who helped the Defias Brotherhood grow rapidly and even prevented Stormwind's army from besieging them. The death of the Stormwind Queen was also orchestrated by this princess.

The people of Westfall are waiting for reinforcements from Stormwind, but they don't know how long they'll have to wait.

Perhaps, many inhabitants of the western wilderness will not live to see the reinforcements they long for.

The Defias Brotherhood, this organization of thieves, still existed within humanity decades later.

While Julie was still telling Wayne about the Defias Brotherhood's misdeeds, Mr. Lawrence, his forehead covered in sweat, walked in.

He first expressed his gratitude to Wayne again, then sat down in the chair opposite Wayne with a troubled expression, sighed, and said:

"Sigh, the wheat we planted won't be ready for another half month. I never expected that the Defias Brotherhood bandits would have their eyes on this grain so soon."

"I've heard that the Defias Brotherhood is much larger than I thought. They've taken over many mines, Moonbrook, and now they're eyeing our farms. It seems they're really planning to put down roots here."

"These bandits are completely unreasonable, and the guards can't defeat them. We don't know what to do now!"

Listening to Mr. Lawrence's troubles, Wayne downed his milk in one gulp, and after thinking for a moment, kindly offered some advice:

"Mr. Lawrence, perhaps you should go and hide in Stormwind for a while."

"Although I rescued you this time, I also killed members of the Defias Brotherhood. They might send people back to take revenge on you after I leave."

(End of this chapter)