Finding Bandits

After hunting for another day Lanis had failed to see another wolf he concluded that they must have a cave nearby and they only came out at night.

The sun had just gone down and Lanis was deciding if he should go to sleep or try hunting through the night since that was his best bet to finding more wolves.

While Lanis was trying to decide this, he kept walking through the woods, until he heard voices coming from nearby.

Lanis could now see where these voices were coming from. There was a large campfire surrounded by a few tents while men sat around talking, joking and eating around the campfire. There were a lot of voices but Lanis could mostly pick up on one conversation.

"Why is it that we got sent to this shitty road. Half of the people on this road are even stronger than you captain, and yet the boss yells at us that we aren't bringing enough in it isn't fair."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH I AM TIRED OF HEARING YOU COMPLAINING"

"Sorry captain"

As Lanis is moving closer one of the men yelled at the other and all the voices stopped. He looked at the man who yelled and watched him. The man was very large and had a scar across his cheek. The man he had just yelled at was a scrawny man with a bow on his back.

Lanis continued listening and through their conversations he realized that these men were bandits and the man with the scar was the captain. He also learned they had a bigger base nearby with "The Boss" who was in charge of multiple groups like this.

As Lanis looked at the captain again he realized he couldn't see his mana core, while Lanis wanted to do something about the bandits he knew he couldn't do anything right now.

Lanis cursed in his heart as he ran away, he didn't feel like hunting tonight so he went to sleep thinking about what could be done about the bandits.

The next day Lanis was walking on the road hoping to find someone who could handle the bandits.

That was when he saw him, a man probably near Lanis' age holding a sword through someone else's chest. He was a tall handsome man with spiky black hair. He looked extremely fit like he had been running nonstop his entire life.

Even though the man had blood dripping from his face his dark blue eyes seemed like an abyss that Lanis was being sucked into. He looked at Lanis unblinking as if he was looking through him at something else entirely and yet his body seemed to radiate death, and for the first time in his life Lanis knew what true fear was.

A part of Lanis told him to run away as fast as he could and never look back, but he stopped himself as he noticed the man only had a rank 4 hollow core. He was far from the strongest person he had ever seen and he knew he stood a chance against him.

"H-HEY WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Lanis yelled at the man who was just standing there.

This seemed to snap the man out of something and he pulled the sword from the body in front of him as he mumbled something and looked at Lanis.

A second after Lanis had yelled at the man his body stopped telling him to run and the mysterious fear that this man created was instantly gone, now Lanis knew that he could beat the man in front of him.

"haa, Listen I really don't feel like fighting right now why don't you just run away like the others."

The man seemed nonchalant as he sighed and shook his head at Lanis.

"And let you get away with murder, I may not be able to take out your captain but I can definitely take care of you all by yourself."

"Hey man listen I think you have me confused I am just trying to find a town and take a nap in an actual bed."

Lanis didn't care about the bandits lies as he decided to just use dash and kill him quick.

"HEY SERIOUSLY STOP"

The man yelled but it was too late Lanis was already swinging his sword at the murderer.

The man used his sword to block it and thanks to his superior mana core he was stronger than Lanis so he didn't get pushed back. Lanis wasn't fazed as he switched to using only one hand on his sword and used the other to claw at the man's face.

Lanis's sharp nails barely missed the man's face as he bent backwards while pushing Lanis away from him.

"HEY SERIOUSLY YOU ARE MISUNDERSTANDING SOMETHING THAT GUY ATTACKED ME FIRST."

"Do you think I am an idiot; you don't have any wounds; you butchered a man that was weaker than you in cold blood now PAY THE CONSEQUENCES"

Lanis used a combination of leap and dash to do a powerful overhead swing at the man.

The man once again quickly dodged to the right but followed up with a quick dagger throw that the man blocked with his sword. Seeing an opening, Lanis switched to his spear for extra range and thrust it at the man.

Lanis could not overcome the difference in speed as the man simply dodged and shattered the shaft of the spear. Lanis backed away thinking about what he could do next.

"Fine I can't defeat you maybe I was mistaken, lets both just go our separate ways."

The bandit didn't say anything he simply nodded as they both turned in opposite directions and walked away.

'Sorry for tricking you but I can't let you go or your next victim will be on my hands'. Lanis thought as he dashed as quietly as he could towards the bandit aiming to decapitate him in one swing.

However, he tripped, and because of his high speed he flew through the air. But he was confused, dash had never failed like this. As he looked down he saw a perfectly formed cube of earth sticking up from the ground right in front of his foot, that wasn't there moments ago. When he turned his head, the bandit was already looking at him.

"You really didn't deserve this, sorry." As he said this the bandit raised his sword above his head.

Lanis was still in the air so he couldn't dodge, he went to pull a dagger from his waist and block, but the bandit swung his sword down, at a speed much faster than anything before.

Lanis didn't have time to think about much as the sword that Lanis couldn't even see cut off his head. He only had time for one more thought, 'I guess this must be one of those world traveling stories where the MC dies multiple times. I wonder what the next world will be like'

He had made one fatal flaw. Since he was reincarnated, he thought he was invincible since he was the main character. However, he was wrong, there was no more reincarnating, there were no more worlds, and he was most certainly not the main character.