Attack

Duran had been lucky during his assault, the bandits hadn't spotted him. They only could guess at a general direction based on how the arrows hit their fellow bandits.

"He's over there! After him before he gets away." One shouted while pointing his saber towards the forest. He wasn't far off from Duran's location either, so Duran patiently waited for them to pass him.

He let the first 5 pass him and singled out the last one. This camp had over 20 bandits left and while he had faith in his spearmanship, there was no reason to be a complete idiot and try to fight them all at one time. He still didn't know if they were high level mages or not as he needed to be within a certain distance to read their mana through energy.

As the last unfortunate bandit passed Duran's hiding place, he leaped out of it and slashed the man across the neck. Catching his body to prevent the sound of his body slamming the ground, Duran dragged the body to a nearby bush.

It wasn't a perfect hiding spot as he didn't have time, but after killing that man he now knew that at least some of them have to be mages. This man had been at the dark red stage and seemed to posses an affinity for fire.

Duran disregarded that and followed behind the other 5 only lamenting that he couldn't take the time to absorb the man's mana before it dispersed.

'Maybe if I take them all out fast enough I can gather them together and absorb all of their mana at once?' Duran questioned internally, but shook the thought out as he still had to kill them all first.

The remaining 5 continued quickly through the woods, smacking against branches and generally fumbling around in the dark of the forest. Only one man, short and stocky with a long beard hanging to his chest seemed to be able to maneuver through the wood with any grace.

Where he stepped over twigs and ducked low hanging branches, his followers crunched them and smacked against the branches causing the the man to tense in annoyance every-time.

With his mind made up Duran decided to attack the bearded man first, he seemed to be almost as skilled as himself in tracking and that would not be for the long run.

As the man came around the corner he sensed danger coming and leaned back at the last moment seeing a flash of metal sail through his beard. Before he could fully recover the metal was gone but the next moment he heard a cry of pain behind him.

"Argh!"

"Simon!"

A bulky man was down on one knee clutching the other as it now had a gaping hole in it from some strike. The bearded man looked around and then felt a had on his shoulder. He spun quickly with his saber drawn and earth mana fueling his body only to find his blade against his subordinates throat.

"It's me cap! Jorge!"

The wirey man named Jorge held up both hands in surrender and as if the attacker had waited for this, as soon as leader quit channeling his mana through body a whistle could be heard. All of them jerked their heads towards the sound of it, but the strike came from the opposite direction and insoles Jorge through the rib cage. The man fell to his knees gasping for air as his lungs had been pierced.

The bearded leader of the hunters looked around frantically and brought the mana back into his body, his saber became coated in sharp rocks as he scanned their surroundings.

"Come out coward! Fight me instead of picking off these idiots! Fight, Ajax of the mountain valley bandits!" He roared at the forest, but all he got in return was a stifled laughter from somewhere to his right. He held his blade in 2 hands as he kept a constant stream of mana to his saber, but his grip tightened and his face became enraged.

"What's so funny coward! Come out and fight like a man." He bellowed again as he continued to slowly approach the area of the laughter.

"Me? The coward? I would like to think I'm just cautious." Duran responded, but his voice seemed to bounce off the trees confusing where Ajax had assumed he was.

Another cry of pain sounded before a gurgle and the sound of a falling body happened behind him. Simon had been killed, as well as Jorge.

"Larson, get back to camp and send the others to help!" Ajax shouted only for when he turned to meet Larson's eyes to see a dagger crossing his throat and the blood sprayed out hitting Ajax across the face.

The man beside Larson had frozen in fear and began to soil himself as he fell to his knees mumbling.

"I-i-I—I don't want to die." Was repeated over and over again. Ajax could only watch as their attacker appeared behind Martin, and jammed a dagger upwards from the back of his head. The mumbling stopped and a sigh was released from the man, no the boy. Ajax could see the face of their attacker in the moonlight and even with the mud and blood covering his face and body he could tell that this was just a boy, no older than 16.

"Monster." He breathed out and saw the boy tilt his head in confusion at the word.

"Monster? Me? No, I believe you and your bandit friends are the monsters here. I counted 4 nice wagons with crests on the sides, as well as enough horses to pull such wagons. I heard the the cries of the girl in the tent and was sure I heard more.

Me, the monster? No, that title belongs to you and you bandits of the mountain valley. Be grateful there are still more of you to kill or I would take my time with you. You seemed to be extra cruel to the girl in the tent, you deserve much worse than a quick death."

Ajax could only stare at the boy with his saber held in front of him. He hadn't dropped the sharp rocks coating his blade throughout all of this and shifted his feet nervously, but mustered as much confidence as he could.

"Haha! The bitch deserved it, looking down on me even as I was on to-"

Ajax didn't get to finish his words as suddenly the boy in front of him spurred into motion and he had to deflect a thrown dagger that was aimed for his thigh. Only that had been a deception, a second dagger caught the moonlight on its shiny blade but he didn't have time to dodge it as it sunk into his left shoulder.

He clutched his shoulder with his right hand before ripping the knife out with a pained gasp. He held both his saber and the dagger in his hands and pointed them weakly at the boy.

Only the boy wasn't where he had thrown the dagger from and instincts alone allowed Ajax to deflect the spear tip that came soaring from his left. Many thoughts ran through his head, such as how was this boy that couldn't be more than 16 so fast and strong.

He, Ajax, was a light red stage augmenter and yet he felt he was losing a battle of strength. His thoughts were disrupted as instead of pulling the spear back the boy began to spin it in the direction that the momentum carried it.

Seeing his opponent wide up Ajax seized the opportunity and slashed out with his saber trying to close the distance. Rocks flung from his blade in a diagonal arc, but Duran sidestepped them. His spear had completed its rotation and he slammed it down like an elongated club at his foe.

Ajax attempted to roll out of the way but the shaft of the spear caught his left foot and broke it at the ankle.

"Grrr!" He growled in pain and sent mana into his ankle, but this change in focus and the pain caused him to lose sight of the spear. Where it had been near his foot it had now darted back to its wielder and lashed out catching Ajax in the left rib.

Ajax hissed again and once more tried to roll away, but he was too slow. The spear once snapped back like a whip and counting to lash out in a myriad of strikes.

Right shoulder

Left leg

Broken right foot

Left shoulder

Right leg.

Each spear thrust found a new target until Ajax was left kneeling on the ground looking up at the sky as he bled from numerous wounds on his body. He had long stoped channeling mana through his body, he knew it was futile.

Duran stared for only a moment at the sight of the man before impaling him on his spear. The man gurgled and then went limp, Duran jerked his spear out before it went with the man and flicked the blood off of it.

He didn't feel physically exhausted due to his training, but he was mentally exhausted. Outside of sparring this was the first time he had fought people. The sight of the people he killed disturbed him slightly, but then he remembered what kind of people they were and swallowed it.

He could deal with the disgust of claiming another human life later. There was still nearly 20 bandits to kill. He turned back towards the bandit camp as he sheathed his daggers back at his thighs and smiled slightly at a small boon. One of the bandits had brought a bow with a quiver of arrows. Only 10 but Duran could make that work.

The moon was currently at its peak meaning just killing 9 people had taken him 2 hours since he spotted the camp due to the fire. Duran had never expected such an eventful first night on his journey, but he wouldn't let this valuable experience go to waste.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~chapter end~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 chapters in one week? Gasp! Jk

Just had some extra time and decided to pop out another chapter. Doubt there will be another until next week, but who knows I may try and finish out this bandit attack today.

Hope you enjoyed.

Until next time.