The Encampment

Draco was now back in his own vehicle, and he was traveling with Saalim Khalid's forces as they left the city of Sabha.

After they had left the city gates Draco could only see endless sand dunes for miles. 

Earlier, Saalim had said that his scouts had found what he believed to be the bandits' hideout. 

The large convoy of over a dozen vehicles was traveling through the desert at a steady pace, evidently heading for this hideout. 

Draco had briefed his men on what was to happen, and he told them to stay behind Saalim's forces and try their best to stay alive. 

He didn't know how many powered soldiers they would be facing, but he knew that they would lose their lives in just a moment if they were careless. 

The convoy continued their journey for nearly an hour, before they suddenly stopped after they had reached a certain point in the desert.

Looking in the distance over the horizon, Draco spotted several streams of smoke in the sky.

Draco guessed that the enemy's camp was not more than a mile away, but he couldn't see what it looked like over the sand dunes blocking his vision. 

Saalim's forces began to exit their vehicles, and they formed up in front of the convoy.

Getting out of his own vehicle, Draco approached Saalim with his soldiers in tow behind him. 

Saalim was issuing out orders to his troops, and they began to march towards the source of the smoke. 

Draco and his soldiers stuck by Saalim's side, and he stood ready to act in case of the inevitable. 

"The soldier's will be moving in first to secure the area and draw the enemy's attention." the man said in his Arabic accent. 

He continued, "Once they are in position we will flank the enemy encampment and decimate their forces." 

Draco nodded his head, for this was the gist of the plan he had heard earlier. 

A few minutes later the bandit's base came into view, but calling it a 'base' was a little generous.

The place consisted of a score of ramshackle tents, and in the center of the base stood a tent that was larger than the rest.

Draco imagined that this composition would allow the desert bandits to quickly disassemble their base and move to a new location. 

He also saw that there were dozens of men, women, and children here. When Saalim's forces came into view the place busted into a frenzy, and everyone began to run around like headless chickens.

Draco was unaware that there would be women and children present, but it made sense when he thought about it. 

These men made a living off of banditry, but they also had families waiting for them back at home. 

Draco didn't know how to feel about it, and seeing as how the soldiers were crossing into range, he knew he was about to witness a war crime. 

The soldiers began to fire into the encampment, shredding into tents and gunning down their inhabitants indiscriminately. 

As Draco followed Saalim around the edge of the base, he witnessed mothers holding their children get gunned down in cold blood. 

Many men died rushing to get their weapons, and by the time enough bandits had assembled to mount a defense half of the encampment was already in flames. 

By the time Saalim's forces had reached the base's tents, Draco and his entourage were already behind the enemy. 

Saalim and his bodyguards drew their weapons and sped towards the tents.

Draco saw them already beginning to cut down men from behind, caught off guard from the sudden pincer attack.

Draco rushed after Saalim, but a man exited his tent with a rifle and began to spray towards him. 

Sliding under the sudden hail of bullets, Draco came up from the sand to deliver a kick to the man's weapon.

His kick bent the rifle's barrel and knocked it from the man's hands, and his next strike pierced the man's heart. 

Letting the man fall lifeless on the ground, Draco continued towards the bandit's main defense line. 

He found several more men rushing out of their tents with their weapons in hand, but Draco struck them down before they even realized he was there. 

Swift chops severed heads and sent them flying, and deadly kicks crumbled the bones of unwary fighters. 

As he sped towards the large tent up ahead, he avoided a mother holding her crying child to jump over a sudden attack from a bandit's sword. 

The speed of the attack caught him off guard, and it was evident that this man was powered. 

His strength was laughable though, for Draco jumped backwards a few feet and drew his pistol. It only took a single shot from his weapon to pierce his defenses and send him flying, a gaping hole now in his chest. 

The man flew several feet before smashing lifelessly into a tent. The tent collapsed over him, hiding his corpse from view. 

Looking at the golden desert eagle in his hands, Draco remarked that it was just as good as the pistol he had been given aboard the Death Barge. 

He put his weapon away in his robes, and then resumed his advance through the bandit's camp. 

The large tent was just ahead of him now, and he saw Saalim and his guards slaughtering their way towards it. 

Saalim grabbed a man's head like a baseball and crushed it with his grip, and his two guards severed men's legs from their torsos and bisected them as they charged forwards. 

The main tent was now within reach, and Draco followed Saalim and his guards as they pushed past the tent's flaps. 

A wave of pressure passed over them, and they looked to see that the tent was vastly larger than it appeared from the outside. 

"A spatial-compression artifact, huh?" Draco said, looking around the place. 

There were wooden support beams lining the interior, and the floor was carpeted with red silks, rugs, and animal pelts. 

At the end of the room stood a tall man, almost at Saalim's own height. 

He was wearing a sleeveless shirt with loose fitting pants, and his bulging muscles stood out in the dim light of the tent. 

The man had a bushy beard, and his long black hair flowed down his back like a tangled mess. 

Around the man were a number of powered guards, and Draco counted seven of them. 

They wore tan colored robes that blended in with the desert, and had different assortments of weapons. 

Some carried spears and swords, while others carried spiked cudgels or staffs. 

As Saalim entered the tent he greeted the man, "Hello, brother. It's nice to see you again." he said, a cruel smile on his lips. 

Draco had to do a double-take when he heard the word 'brother', for that meant that this man was also from the Khalid Dynasty! 

Now that he looked closer, he could indeed see a resemblance between the two. 

Saalim's brother laughed heartily, his voice booming throughout the tent, "I can't say the same for you, Saalim." he said, spitting to his side. 

"Now, now Hassan. Did you think you could raid my city forever and I would do nothing about it? You may be my brother, but you are nothing more than a savage and a thief." Saalim said, his features cold. 

This 'Hassan' snorted when he heard that, "You're one to talk. As we speak, your soldiers are razing my camp and slaughtering our women and children." 

Saalim laughed aloud, "And you and your little guards are next." he said, ending the discussion to charge towards the man. 

Hassan was not going to run from this fight, and he charged at Saalim as well.

The two met in the center of the tent and collided with a thunderous impact.

The aftershock from the collision sent waves of pressure and wind throughout the tent, and they began to attack each other in a furious exchange of blows. 

Draco and Saalim's two guards looked at each other, and then back at Hassan's forces on the other side of the tent. 

Without saying anything they all charged at each other, the melee frenzy now taking up the entirety of the tent. 

Draco saw that two bandits were coming straight for him. One of them held a spear and the other a spiked club of sorts. 

Draco ducked under a piercing strike from the spear and kicked the spear upwards. 

The force of Draco's kick clearly surprised the man, and he watched helplessly as his spear flew from his grip and into the air. 

Draco jumped up and grabbed the spear, turning to throw the spear directly into the man with the club who was charging at him from the side. 

The spear pierced the man's gut and sent him flying towards the edge of the tent, where he died in a futile attempt to remove the spear from his stomach.

The bandit who was just holding the spear stared at Draco with a stupefied expression, and Draco met the man's surprise with a swift kick to his jaw. 

This kick shattered the man's jaw and left it crooked towards one side. 

The bandit fell to the ground, sputtering some unknown words while he clutched his face in pain. Draco then promptly stomped down on his head, putting him out of his misery.

Hearing the crunching sound of the man's skull shattering, Draco directed his attention to another bandit that was now charging him with a longsword.