Determined Start

-Start of Part Two-

Kies had been asleep for fifteen years before he woke up. And since then, he has been traveling throughout the continent to search for the Stormcaller's fragments. Two more years had passed since the start of his journey after leaving the broken tower.

So far, he has gathered almost all the fragments. Only a few are left. Even after gathering and absorbing them all, he will be far from being as powerful as the Stormcaller, but it will be more than enough to fulfill the wish.

While traveling, Kies has learned of the destruction of Silverfield, and the dragon that was involved. He has also learned of the continuing conflict between the demons and the humans. Somehow, the humans have managed to convince the other races to band together again to wipe out the demons once and for all. The demons on the other hand have grown much more powerful than he had last seen them, which, of course, is years ago, and has taken over a good amount of territory from the other races with the aid of the undead.

Staying true to her promise, the White Witch has brought along her endless army of monsters to take on whatever the alliance throws at them and the demons. Every battle just adds to her army. Regardless of whether it is a victory or defeat for the White Witch, her forces will have suffered no significant blow while the same cannot be said for the opposing side.

Scared of losing any more soldiers, the alliance has chosen to play defensively and only attacked when they saw an opportunity to drive the demons back and delay their advance. Their goal is simple. They want to build up their forces until they have enough to take out the demons and the undead in one go. A lot of time is still required for that to happen, and luckily, this is exactly what Kies needs.

It will take him some time to track down the remaining fragments. After that, he will have to figure out a way to stop the war. As for why he wants to stop it instead of just taking one of the sides and wiping the other out... let's just say that he had his reasons. It was by no means easier than taking a side and fighting for them, but it had to be done.

It is currently summer and the sun is high up in the air. There isn't a cloud and the sky is empty with blue. It was great weather for traveling. Though it was a little on the hotter side, it didn't bother Kies since he didn't sweat at all. The road was so dry that Kies could hear the crunch of the dirt whenever he took a step. All around him, it was nothing but plains. There were no trees in sight and also no travelers either. He was the only one on this road.

Well, that was what he thought. But after some walking, he picked up on some other presences on either side of the road. The winds flew around, counting the number of people ahead, and returned to Kies, informing him that there are exactly fifteen people hiding in the tall grass a good distance from the road.

Were they bandits? He couldn't tell if they were armed or not but considering how they were staged on both sides of the road, the chances were decently high. "Not again..." The number of bandits has been increasing the past months and Kies really didn't know why. Weren't they supposed to be working on fighting the demons? Instead, they were out here robbing merchants and caravans which were just helping the demons. Some things just didn't make sense at all.

Kies continued down the road, acting like he didn't know that there were a bunch of people getting ready to jump anyone who passed by. Hopefully, they would leave him alone since he was only one person and it didn't look like he had anything valuable on him. But knowing them, they will probably attack him anyway since he was a very easy target.

Kies tilted his head down and walked down the road, waiting for the bandits to attack him, but to his surprise, they let him pass without any trouble. Or so that was what he thought... But their target wasn't him. Kies noticed something further down the road in front of him and as he got closer, he saw that it was a slow-moving carriage. Inside, he sensed two people which was confusing since it looked like a merchant's carriage. Normally, the entire thing would be packed with goods and there would be no space for anyone to sit inside. Weird... But a carriage like this is a prime target for the bandits.

As Kies passed by the carriage, the man in the front glanced at him from under his hat. He eyed Kies' suspiciously and his hand shifted over to the sword on his side. The man gave Kies a nervous greeting and Kies also greeted him back.

"What are you doing out here alone?" the man asked Kies. He stopped the horses and waited for an answer. He gripped his sword and got ready in case the answer Kies gave him was not with words but a weapon instead.

Kies replied non-threateningly, "I'm looking for opportunities in the next village or town." It was a lie, but it wasn't that uncommon for people to leave their own village to try and find work elsewhere. Most people went to Otane, but there were a couple that tried their luck on smaller places such as villages to see if there was anything they could get.

"I see. I wish you the best of luck on your trip then."

"I wish you the same. Be careful, there are a lot of bandits around this area," Kies gave the man a little warning. There were a bunch ahead and it wasn't really his problem but a little hint wouldn't hurt. It was his choice if he wanted to continue or not after hearing this.

"Bandits? Have you encountered them?"

"No. I just heard about them from other passing travelers."

"Ah. In that case, thank you for your warning."

The two of them nodded their heads at each other as goodbyes and continued on their opposite ways. It was a shame that the carriage was going to fall prey to the bandits but he had his own business to attend to. The last thing he wanted is to attract attention and cause his mission to be more difficult than it already is.

One of the fragments was in this area and Kies was trying to find it. For all he knew, it could be buried in the grass or maybe even in the dirt. He could sense the rough location of where it is but he couldn't pinpoint it unless he was directly on top of it. Kies felt the fragment calling out to him in this direction and was going to it.

After walking for a couple of minutes, Kies sent out a wave of wind to search the surrounding area for the fragment but discovered something unexpected. "What?" The winds were telling him to go back up the road where he came from. But that was a good sign. It meant that he was close to the fragment, very close in fact.

Kies turned around and walked a couple of steps before trying again and found that it was even further up the road. "..." What was going on? It should've been here. The last time he tried to sense it was right before he walked by the bandits. Unless...

The location of the fragment is where the bandits are. Oh boy... It looks like he will have to deal with them after all. Or maybe he can wait for them to leave after robbing the carriage. That sounded a lot less annoying.

Yeah, that sounded fine. Kies found a place in the grass and sat down. He sent some winds to scout ahead and saw that the carriage was in combat with the thieves. But for some odd reason, the two people inside were doing nothing while the driver was fighting off all of them. This battle isn't going to end well for the people in the carriage.

Kies continued sending the winds to report on the progress of the fight and saw that he was wrong. The driver was somehow managing to push the bandits back alone. Who in the world is that man? The more that Kies observed the fight, the more that it turned in favor of the lone fighter. It was astonishing to see one person push back fifteen or so bandits.

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