#33: Bandits

Amber's P.O.V***

It was night, by night, I don't mean a bright moon in the sky filled with stars but a pitch black night with random screams of pain from almost every direction.

It was nothing new, We were in the forest that separated the Elf Lands, though the Elf Lands were bright and secure at night, the outskirts of the Lands and the forest was never safe. The Elves never bothered to check the actions going on in the forest and considered it as a strong line of defense or perhaps a filter to check the immigration or even thwart any kind of espionages, There was a high chance of being murdered in the forest after all. There are supposedly seven groups of different bandits living in this one forest. Which meant, chances of being robbed/ sold/tortured/kidnapped/killed was very high.

Fang used his mana to see whether there were any bandits up ahead, and so we were able to cross most of the forest in two hours, but it was still a long way from here to the Capital of Elves, According to Luan and Selena, it would take three to four hours of continuous walking to go there.

And then Fang immediately warned us, " There are 25 men approaching us, all of them with weapons!"

"Got it", Selena said and immediately took out her spear and it turns out it was a double edged spear. The blades were pretty sharp and laced with poison.

"Hmm", Luan just mumbled while he took out double swords and took the vanguard position.

" Not 25! There are more coming!", Fang said and from the bushy region ahead, there was a shadow approaching us.

"On my signal! Attack!", Luan said.

"Yes", We all agreed as we all took on our positions for a head on attack, I took out my dagger and even had a poison gas bomb ready.

"My, My, It appears as though you have been waiting for us..", A strange looking man appeared in front of us.

"We don't have time for chit chat.", Selena replied to the strange man.

"Nor do we, As I am sure you know, we are bandits.", he said and there were more than twenty men around him.

"Quite skilled for bandits, I presume.", Luan added.

"Why thank you! as by your presence of mind and you apparent skill.", He smiled as he said.

That was when I felt they were not just here to steal maybe something else..

"So?", Luan said.

"So, I suggest you hand over the Vampire princess over there to us and we will let you go on your way..", He said

"Vampire princess? Who?", Selena laughed.

"Don't fake it, I can see it is the blonde woman, though in disguise her face is quite a noteworthy one you see..", He said.

"No, She is not.", Selena said "And, I thought you guys were dangerous, looks like you are all just a bunch of cowards full of talk but no action.", She added

"Are you sure you should use that tone honey? Cause we are quite a many in number, we can put up a good fight... and not to boast but all my friends here are ex-generals of the dragon, elf and the Vampire Clans... My buddy, here, Gerard, is a close aide of the princess's squad, he seems to recognize her...", He said. And, yes, Gerard, who was caught embezzling funds was right there nodding in agreement.

"Yes, Let's begin. For I am sure, she is not", Luan said and lunged forward at the leader. And the leader jumped, taking out double swords.

"We can split the money if you want, I think you too are heading towards Rune Empire; for the same purpose... Give her and we share, 60-40. what do you say, pretty boy?", The bandit asked sparring against Luan.

"No thanks, we better keep all the money to ourselves.", Luan said

"Hmm.. if you say it like that.. I think I remember what the poster said, If killed and brought the head of the vampire, we get like.... 2,000,000,000 Klad... so its okay if you don't want to share or take the easy way, Let me just take her head!", He said and motioned all the other bandits to come at my throat.

The whole group of more than 40 bandits attacked us and I found them to be approaching me, I could count about 50 of them coming towards me, I fought off many by using many spells and even poisons, but it wasn't enough, It was hard to fight off different generals by just a single dagger and mediocre spells, Somehow, I felt a slight change in my power, and I tried a Gold-tier spell

(**** Different levels of spells--- Primary( Least powerful)... Elemental.. Student.. Red tier.. Blue tier.. Green tier.. Purple tier.. Bronze tier.. Silver tier.. Gold tier and God tier(Most Powerful).... there is even a more higher level than God tier, 'the primordial tier', though it can't be used in ways of spells, they act as fundamental chains linking our magic, to say it simply, the name giving ceremony done on my birthday, was a primordial one, in which neither party(doer and receiver) has control over it.

I had learnt all the spells, but could only perform until Bronze tier at most, I would soon collapse though, Almost every royal knight was skilled enough till Bronze tier, Everyone of my family could perform god-tier spells except for the triplets and twins as they were quite young, the only knew till Silver tier or Gold tier.

I was shocked as it was the first time I could perform such a spell and the mana circle was huge and complex, spreading all over, but before the spell could start, it collapsed, the magic ring fell and I could feel my internal organs hurting as I had used up all my mana just to form the ring, and now I couldn't move a muscle, It took me while, to get back my original speed, but the bandits never stopped, their attacks one after the other, fierce and fast kept coming at me, I had no option to stop and breathe but then, Fang came in between me and the bandits and used a God-tier spell, which even Nyxus doesn't use as it drains a lot of mana, There was a rain of ice cold arrows, rained down only upon the enemy and that was not all, whoever got struck with that arrow would soon die due to frostbite, no matter who they are, even if they are snow witches.

The second they all collapsed dead, the leader was shocked and tried to runaway, he ran and tried to signal someone, but before he could, Luan caught up and killed him, The bandits were all no more, funny how I was panicking for a second when I am surrounded by the top tier fighters each skilled in their own way, Though Selena was complaining she didn't get enough kills to satisfy her she agreed when Luan said we had to move.

Fang was too tired to do any more spells, Luan and Selena were tired too, so we set up a camp at a nearby cave, and went to sleep, I offered to watch.. I wasn't sleepy. no... more like I didn't want to sleep, the fear of the nightmare recurring kept me from sleeping. Though I felt sleepy and tired from all the walking, I was far too afraid to close my eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want to have a rest?", Luan asked.

"Nope, I am not tired.", I said

"Well, I don't trust you so, I will stay up with you..", He said and sat beside me

"Yes yes.", I said as we both stared at the fire in centre. The fire calmed down my nerves a bit. There was too much going on in this one month. It had been only one month since I turned 118, and this... I can't help but think, that it was my fault for trying to escape my fate, if I had just stayed calm and accepted father, mother and.. Leo, maybe none of this would have happened.

Luan and Selena could have gotten together, Fang wouldn't be in this state, and I wouldn't have to have these nightmares...

"What are you thinking about?", Luan asked

"Nothing", I said.

"If its nothing, then why are you clenching your fist hard enough to bleed?", he asked showing me my hand, which as he mentioned was bleeding due to my sharp nails digging in my skin, funny how I didn't notice it.

"Wait a second.", I said and took a flask of blood from my supplies and drank it. The cut soon disappeared.

"So.. Tell me what you were brainstorming about, we both could discuss as a way to pass the time.", Luan said.

"Yea.. Its about what Fang said this morning..", I said.

" The demons part or the people not acting same?", He asked

"Both I guess... Apparently my father performed an ancient ritual and summoned the demons, the grim reaper, and from then everyone seems to have been acting weird.", I said

"Oh Great... So.. Is the demon behind us too now?", he asked.

"I don't know, but he apparently said, that killing me would bring everything back to normal, the way things were", I said.

"Oh..", he said.

"Yea..", I said and we remained silent.

"I am not going to trade you for the spies.", He said suddenly.

"What?", I asked, I heard him clearly but I did not understand why he would say that.

"I won't use you as a leverage, I will save my spies and keep you away from your father.", He said.

"Why would you?", I asked. Because there was no reason as to why he should keep me alive and with him...

"I.. I don't think you deserve death, I mean.. I don't know how to say it... but, I don't want to see you dead..", He said

"Wow, I never expected that I would hear a werewolf say that to me, a vampire..", I said laughing.

"Yea, I never thought I would say it too.", He said smiling.

"But it has to happen", I said.

"What has to?", He asked.

"My death...", I said holding both my hands together.

"Why?", He asked.

"Ariel.. or whatever, can only harm the mirror world creature through me, because the only explanation to why she waited on a chance factor of me, turning 118, escaping and finding her. I could've done something else, but she bet on the chances of me doing so.. and won...

I somehow feel like a puppet, a puppet whose owner is asleep, like... I have strings that control me, now loose, but not gone... I maybe a weak vampire, but I can fight, and... when I was under her control, I could feel my magic and martial prowess increase by a million times, like I was invincible...

Rather than let me be alive and cause death in the mirror world, I would just prefer it that I die and then, all things will be back to normal.", I said.

"Hmm, We can't give up..", He said and tried to say something that would contradict what I just said, But he couldn't find anything.

"It's okay, I just want to meet Jade and Leo, then I am fine with whatever...", I said

"About that... I have to tell you something about Leo...", Luan said.

"What?", I asked, slightly worried..

"I.. actually... Leo.. um..", Luan mumbled a lot

"What?", I asked again

"Nothing! I will take a nap then, lets begin at sunrise again.", He said, he got up and went towards the wall of the cave, leaned over it and slept.

Strange. What did he want to say? I thought about it for quite a while, when I noticed, a faint sound of a water, I got curious, and almost followed it when I remembered that I had to stand guard, I turned away from the sound and sat the cave entrance, staring into the pitch black of the sky, I held my dagger in one hand and my other hand just trailed over trying to connect stars to form an image, but as there were only five, a pentagon formed... pentagon huh..... a sharp ringing sound filled my head and I had some weird memories flash in my mind and they disappeared within a second, I looked up to see the pentagon and now, saw only four stars.... was I hallucinating? Is it the side-effects of attempting a gold tier spell? could be....