Bandits

Timir looked at the morning sun with a thoughtful look on his face. His black hair danced in the cool morning breeze as he glanced back towards the comrades who had yet to wake up after last night's festivities. They had struck gold, it was natural to celebrate. He looked forward at the pile of ashes that was their latest victims, they had made a good pyre, their corpses lit up the night well and the warmth made the celebration quite enjoyable. But yesterday's pyre now brought trouble for Timir.

He had as usual woken up early to watch the sun rise above the trees. This forest was always accommodating to Timir, its proximity to the Plains of Warring Frost made it a dangerous place. A good place for Timir and his crew, it was the best path to and from the Plains thus the best path to find to find warriors wary of their stay in the Plains to rob or the occasional exiled demonbeast. A good hunt that was always rewarding, just like yesterday's.

But sadly for Timir he woke up to find something he wasn't to keen on. The morning breeze had blew some of the ashes away revealing a treasure. It was a greenish semi-transparent crystal. Timir knew what it was the second he saw it. An Assimilation Crystal, something that was desired by all low-level mages and even physical skills warriors. The Assimilation crystal made it easier to control mana and fuse it with your body, which was an essential for anyone who want to live in this world, it affected one's skills and Constitution. Unless you are a magical creature who are born with incredible mana control and your entire Constitution is made of materialized mana, you would have to diligently train your Constitution until you reach the peak of knight stage and can start forming a mana core. Few people can reach peak of knight stage without the secret training methods of the various sects and clans and even few can do so before turning 30. The younger one is per breakthrough the greater the potential of reaching the higher stages. An Assimilation Crystal was the best way to help someone cheat the first problem of practicing mana manipulation to a good level to actually use it mid battle, which is the best indicator of power for those of knight stage and below.

Timir thought things made sense now, that brat from yesterday must have been a promising prodigy of some clan or sect who had gone to the Plains to get some real experience. She cost him 3 men, an incredible feat for someone her age, that made cutting her head off more enjoyable for Timir. But now he had to leave, he didn't want to risk being found by pissed off sects or clans. The powers were protective of their prodigies, it wouldn't be strange if they are already aware of the brat's death and are coming this way right now. Timir didn't want them to find them here so he decisively turned around and sent a kick to one of his sleeping men and with a thunderous voice yelled.

"WAKE UP AND PACK UP! IT'S TIME TO GET MOVING."

The over 30 men immediately stood up with some grumbling here and there but no one wanted to disobey their leader's order.

Timir called to him 13 people who had a good brain in their skull and shared his thoughts with them and everyone unanimously agreed to leave the forest for a month or two. They held a meeting while everyone else was busy packing and decided their next course of action. It wouldn't do to travel with their entire group of 37 so they will travel in groups of around 6, each group with at least one person who can help with communication between the different groups. They won't be going to the same place but they would be in the same area once they leave the forest. How long they stay out of the forest will depend on how things progress, if things seem quiet they'll wait for around a week before meeting up at the outskirts of the forest to discuss their next course of action. If the pursuers have a good constitution they will most likely reach the area by this afternoon while they would take around 2 days to leave the forest and go to a nearby town or village thus they didn't want to waste time.

With the plans in order everyone quickly ate and went on their way with their respective group. Timir's group had six people and they would be at the back of all the groups. In case they were found his group had the best ability to deal with things and it would be easier to keep an eye on the others from the back. He had two mages with him, an archer, a thief and two swordsmen.

They traveled to the south east with 3 of the other 5 groups barely visible from where they were, they couldn't see the other two. They were going at a steady pace when around mid afternoon when Sil, one of the mages, received a message from one of the groups. "Fol's group found what they think is most likely a low-level demon, they're thinking about killing it for materials."

"A low-level demon so close to the Plains? Are they sure? Which race is it?" Timir asked suspicious.

"Let me check... They not sure, it ran away when it saw them. Seems like some of them decided to chase it."

"Those impulsive idiots! Check up on them after 10 minutes, we can't waste time."

Sil nodded and kept moving forward. After around 3 or so minutes Sil spoke again but with a grave expression "They've lost 2 people."

Timir froze when he had that "What do you mean lost?"

"Of the three that went looking for the demon, two disappeared. The other one doesn't know what happened to them."

"Get all the groups to converge at Fol's location. Tell him to stay still and not try to look for the demon. Aelar, where are they?"

When the archer pointed to a direction, Timir immediately started running and was followed by everyone else after Sil had delivered the message to the other groups.

When Timir reached Fol's location he only saw 2 people instead of three, Fol wasn't there.

"Where is he?"

"He went looking for the others. He left us to wait for everyone else."

"Tsk..." Fol was never known for his intelligence but his loyalty was unquestioned. He wouldn't wait while his comrades had disappeared, he would just look for them without much thought. His apprehension towards thinking would be fatal one day but Timir didn't want today to be that day. But he had to wait for all the groups to arrive before doing anything. But that idea was interrupted by a scream that echoed through the forest. It didn't take much thought for Timir to figure out it was Fol. "Aelar, keep a track of me."

"Got it!" answered Aelar as Timir ran in the direction of the screams which had now disappeared. He came across a small clearing, there weren't any sounds of fighting. There was only the body of a former comrade lying on a pool of blood as the afternoon sun cast shadows on the scene.

Timir ground his teeth and shoved down his emotions before turning back and running to the other groups. Something strange was happening and he'd prefer to be with the others to deal with this.

Reaching the group he told them what he had seen. They wouldn't leave anymore, not until they know what happened to their comrades and if it is the demon, they'd simply kill it. They started searching as a group around the location where Fol's body was but they didn't find anything not even the bodies of the other two, they wanted to continue but the sun eventually set and even in a big group they didn't want to risk searching in the darkness.

Thus they set up camp and decided to search tomorrow morning.