Breezy Rescue

Kies eliminates the rest of the so-called 'bandits' swiftly. They fought to the last man and didn't give up or even try to run away. They definitely weren't bandits. If they had been, they would've run once they saw that they had no chance to win against Kies.

The patches of grass in the surrounding area where the fight happened were stained red and the roads were moist from having taken in so much blood.

With a flick of his wrist, Kies made his sword disappear and he instead picked up a bloodstain from one of the fallen bandits and approached the three.

"Don't come any closer!" The driver suddenly gets up and the ropes restraining both his hands and feet fall to the ground. He then moves his hands from his back to his front, revealing a small knife.

"I was planning on cutting your ropes, but it looks like I don't need to." Kies saw that he no longer needed the sword and tossed it to the ground with a thud.

"State your business," the man tells Kies while holding the knife at him.

"Her," Kies points at the girl behind him who he had seen use magic. He didn't want to bother wasting time making needless conversation. He wanted to get to the point which was to retrieve this fragment and move on to the next.

"Why you!" The man charges at Kies with the knife.

"Wait!" The man stops. It was the girl who told him to stop. "He saved us and put his weapon away. He's not dangerous."

"My lady, did you see him take down those men!? He IS dangerous. In fact, very dangerous."

"But he's not doing the same to us is he?"

That is true. If Kies really wanted to, he could kill the three of them with no problem as well but he wasn't doing that since he didn't want to go around killing people when it isn't necessary. In the past, he was afraid of killing a human, but now he didn't care. Anything to complete his mission.

The man hesitated but he did lower his weapon and back down. He then glares dangerously at Kies and asks him. "What do you want with the lady? And before you say anything, I'll have you know that if you dare say anything vulgar, I'll kill you."

"Oh..." So that was why he suddenly got so angry. Kies should've been careful with his wording.

"I don't care if you saved us or about the fact that you killed them all without difficulty. I will kill you if you dare..." The man was continuing on with his rambling about how he would end Kies if he said anything inappropriate.

"You don't have to worry about that. I don't care about her, I care about what she has. That necklace, give it to me," Kies clarifies to them what he wants.

All three of them suddenly perk up again and the driver raises his weapon again. "So you're another of them!" He charges at Kies with the knife and the other two behind him also get up. Their ropes fall to the dirt as well. From the looks of things, they had been free the entire time and were just waiting for an opportunity to escape from the bandits.

Kies grabs the man's arms to stop him from plunging the knife into his stomach. The two of them struggle to gain control over the weapon. Kies is surprised by the man's strength. Even though he wasn't using the power of the winds to aid him, Kies was still decently stronger than most people. What made it even more impressive is that the man didn't even look that strong. His physique was normal. He wasn't covered from head to toe in muscles or anything. In fact, he looked quite frail but somehow he had the strength to push Kies back.

While Kies and the man tussled with each other, the two girls behind him began doing something. Kies noticed this but couldn't figure out what exactly they were up to. But he soon quickly found out when something slammed into the side of his head and sent him rolling off the road and into the thick grass. As Kies was getting up from the attack, the man took this opportunity to discard the knife and pick up a sword from one of the fallen bandits.

He then points it at Kies and says, "I advise you to give up and leave. That necklace is not worth your life. We have a mage on our side, you cannot hope to win."

Kies chuckled a little. A mage... A wind user at that. Instead of using his own magic to defeat the three, he chose to play along. Kies brushes the dirt off of his silver cloak and kicks a sword from the grass up and catches it with his hand. He didn't want to use the black sword because he didn't want to kill the three. He only wanted the fragment and that's it.

"So you can use magic... But it's only wind magic. What can you do besides pushing me around with it?" Kies asks them. While wind magic is lethal if used properly, the girl didn't look like she knew how to do anything other than shooting people away.

The girl, very obviously displeased by what Kies said, blasted Kies again with wind magic but this time Kies was ready and slashed his sword in front of him, dispersing the winds before it could reach him. The driver put his arm out in front of the girls and gestured for them to fall back. He then rushed at Kies with the sword and cut downward.

Kies nimbly twists his body to the side and the sword passes by just a centimeter from his face, brushing his cloak as it went by. Kies then countered and slashed horizontally at the man's chest. The man blocked it with his sword and the two of them pressed their swords against each other in a contest of strength. All the while this was happening, Kies kept an eye on the mage and saw that she was about to launch another attack at him.

He heard the winds woosh towards the side of his head again. Kies didn't understand what the girl was thinking. The same attack won't work twice on him. Just as the winds are about to slam into his head again, Kies loosened his grip on his sword and let the man win. Taken completely off-guard by Kies suddenly taking his sword away, the man fell forward. Kies grabbed the man by his collar and threw him into the incoming magic while he hops away to safety.

The winds hit the man and almost impaled him on his own sword as he fell face-first into the dirt. "Sirks!" The two girls hurriedly ran towards Kies and the driver. One of them tackles Kies to the ground while the other one helps up the driver. Kies tries to push the girl off him but couldn't since she was hugging his body too tightly and wouldn't let go.

How did these people have so much strength? Kies didn't understand this at all. Was it that he was just physically weak? He couldn't even get a girl who looked like she was in her teens off him. "Sirks! I have him pinned down!" the girl on top of Kies shouts at the other two.

Sirks? That name... "Oh." It was all coming together. No wonder he couldn't win a contest of strength against them. They were from Otane. Everyone there was ridiculously strong even if they didn't look anything like it.

"Iris, move away!" The girl jumps off Kies' body, just in time for him to see the sharp tip of a sword fly at his face. Kies rolls to his side just in time for the sword to hit the ground where his head was. Kies spun his body and kicked the man's legs, sweeping him off his feet while doing a backflip himself and landing back on his own feet.

Kies pulled out the man's sword which was planted in the dirt with his other hand. He was now wielding a sword in both hands. Definitely not a style he was used to but it shouldn't be that different from wielding a single sword. The only major difference is that he would be using two instead of one.

"Just hand the necklace over to me. I really don't want to have to kill you all," Kies tells the three. He didn't understand why they were fighting so hard to keep it. In the first, what use did it have to them? It wasn't like they could use the thing, nor is it pretty looking like a gem. It was just a plain stone whose only unique feature about it is that it is clear like the air.

"I refuse."

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