The Bandit Lord (1/2)
Upon receiving his order, Haalfrin leaves directly for the royal capital. Brandsdale is close enough to the king's residence, and Haalfrin is fast enough that he arrives at the city well before midnight.
Once he arrives, he immediately goes to fall asleep in an inn. The next morning, he's called to the palace.
Haalfrin is half expecting to meet the king, but instead, he's shown to a waiting room where he waits for a few minutes before a steward shows up. Haalfrin is given a short letter with instructions on where he's supposed to go.
So… why would the king bother to make Haalfrin come all the way to the capitol before being almost immediately sent on a mission back in the direction he just came from?
Haalfrin may never know, but the purpose was to have complete proof that the Archmage's Disciple had returned, as well as to provide some buffer between Haalfrin's journey and the archmage finding out where his disciple went.
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And so, we see Haalfrin with a pack full of camping gear as he's riding across the countryside on a royal horse far to the east – way past Brandsdale and towards the Brancotte Empire.
Haalfrin's orders in his letter had told him that there is a bandit lord hiding away in the mountain and that he's to return with the man's severed forefinger as proof of the kill.
As to why the king would bother making such trouble to have Haalfrin do the job… It was partly to please the court, partly to satisfy his eldest son's thirst for Haalfrin's blood, partly to mess with Kalastros, and partly to try prying such a talented mage away from a third party he's not fond of – the archmage.
Haalfrin and the bandit lord Lornal are both 2nd gate mages, but the king is fully confident in Haalfrin defeating the outlaw. Disregarding his faith in Haalfrin's battle spirit, the king believes in those decades of education given by the best mage in the kingdom.
On the way up, Haalfrin arrives at the inn designated in his orders. There, he meets with a local ranger, who's been tasked with guiding Haalfrin to where he needs to go.
With everything set in place, Haalfrin makes great speed across the kingdom. Mages especially tend to travel quickly, as they have priority with their status, as well as magic to get rid of most inconveniences such as long camping times and horses growing fatigued.
And so, it takes Haalfrin nearly a week and a half to reach the other end of Alasta where the border between them and the Brancotte empire lies. It's here that the bandit lord resides – preying upon travelers and nobles alike.
Brancotte is especially wealthy compared to all the other kingdoms of this world, what with them owning the world gate and having exclusive trading rights with the realm on the other side. This guarantees a lot of trade and an abundance of lucrative monopolies – hence, why any border with Brancotte is a ripe place for ambitious bandits.
Of course, the only reason King Galver bothered to care about the outlaw called Lornal is that the man isn't afraid to attack, rob, and ransom off nobles – even messing with the kingdom's tribute payments to Imperial Brancotte.
… And messing with a tribute to the empire isn't just an inconvenience - it's a political disaster.
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Upon arriving at the correct ravine Lornal is known to camp out in, Haalfrin bids his ranger guide goodbye, and he walks confidently down the mountain path – trying to appear lackadaisical.
He honestly goes through the mountain expecting to be ambushed at any moment.
However, what he doesn't know is that there's a scared-looking bandit running off and telling his Lord Lornal that there's a scary second-gate mage coming through.
As one, the bandits stealthily creep along a ridge overlooking the road below – one of their usual ambush spots.
All the bandits lie flat on the ground with bated breaths as they wait for their boss's verdict.
After studying Haalfrin for a minute, Lornal frowns and commands, "Let him pass. Come. Let's go back home."
Feeling his troupe of bandits all looking to him for answers, Lornal looks up, and explains, "This man's a 2nd gate mage, so there's a high chance some of you would die in the fight. I don't want to lose any men attacking a single target. He also doesn't have any spatial storage equipment, so he doesn't have enough wealth on him to justify risking our necks.
One of Lornal's few subordinate mages is looking through another far sight lens when he exclaims, "Wait... that's... the archmage's brat. He's his apprentice!"
Hearing this, the bandit lord chuckles to himself. "Change of plan, boys. We're going in!"
Capturing the apprentice to such a wealthy person like the archmage will make for a great ransom! Besides, the bandit lord has enough connections that he's confident the archmage won't be able to find too much trouble with him. This bandit lord may know that Haalfrin is also a second gate mage, but he looks far too young, and he likely hasn't had time to perfect his arts yet.
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…All the while, Haalfrin is nearing the end of the small canyon – seemingly uncontested.
Well, since Haalfrin figured he was going to be ambushed here, he did think about sneaking around the top of the cliff to try ambushing them back instead of giving them the first strike. However, he's curious about how the bandits' ambush is going to go.
'Either way, with Das's blessing, I'm pretty sure that nothing ordinary can be lucky enough to actually kill me.'
Just when he's thinking this, Haalfrin remembers Das's words earlier. 'Well,' Haalfrin reasons, 'I never agreed to be the next Longevity god... and I'm sure there's other options besides, me, right? Either way, I'll probably survive anyway, due to Das's blessing. It can't hurt to just barrel my through as usual.'
'But then again... Do I really want to just get myself killed pointlessly? It would make master sad.' Haalfrin scratches his head. 'Fine. I'll do my best to win. Plus, I'm pretty sure they noticed me already.'
As he's walking down the canyon, Haalfrin suddenly feels in his bones a thick bloodlust in the air. Certainly, his targets are getting ready to attack him.
In this moment, flashes of memory flit through Haalfrin's mind – memories of what Das had shown him in the Death realm – of a soul's fate when they die in anger.
Remembering this, Haalfrin feels a lot of his enthusiasm to fight fizzle away, and his grin down into a frown.
In fact, the boy's so lost in thought that he almost misses the moment when the walls on either side of the canyon suddenly collapse – blocking any conventional escape from him.
Arrows then start to rain down on him, but Haalfrin reacts in time and manages to dodge out of the way and duck behind one of the fallen boulders.
Haalfrin pulls out the spear holstered on his back, then he casts a barrier spell. This spell has a minute or so timer on it before it fades away on its own, but it does have one advantage; it doesn't require concentration to keep up.
However, the bandits came prepared; all the mages up top had already charged up powerful spells before they launched the attack.
Thus, despite Haalfrin being a higher-ranked mage than the bandit who launched the first fireball, the arc of fire lands on Haalfrin's hastily constructed shield, and it shatters into glassy fragments before disappearing.
With his barrier gone, Haalfrin launches the quickest attack he can think of; he lets Kaalhyme's Will inhabit the fancy spear, then he throws the spear at the bandits.
One would think that Haalfrin's throw would be completely off with the thick black smoke from the fireball clouding his vision and stinging his eyes.
However, Haalfrin's Wills have a single advantage that makes them far better than normal remotely controlled weapons; they're controlled by Will, not by Thought.
If they had been directed by Thought, Haalfrin's floating weapons would have to be actively controlled by him, as one would control their own limbs. This wouldn't work very well on a larger scale, since your brain isn't equipped to move dozens of limbs at the same time.
However, since the possessed weapons are controlled with his will, all he has to do is WANT the spiritual spear to do something, and it'll do it on its own. Since they don't have intelligence, the Wills are certainly more clumsy than if he had directed them through thought, but Haalfrin still thinks it's the better option.
And as Kaalhyme's Will shoots toward the bandits, his Will only has one instruction; kill the mages first, then the normal bandits next…
None of the bandits know the spear can direct itself and move on its own; seeing it shoot way over their heads, a few of them laugh lightly at their victim's poor excuse of an attack.
Lord Lornal has a smile on his face that shows exactly how he thinks this battle is going to turn out.
One of the bandit lord's reasons for being so sure of the battle is because of his subordinate's fireball spell. The thing had been designed to release a lot of smoke upon landing – improving its versatility in battle a lot.
Right now, since they're trying to capture this teenage-looking mage, Lornal releases the spell he'd cast minutes earlier and has been holding onto until now. (This is one of the advantages of ambushing as a mage - you can prepare a longer, more complex spell without worrying about having your concentration broken.)
Just the moment after Haalfrin throws his spear and the smoke from the fireball has engulfed him, Lornal launches a thick spherical shield around Haalfrin.
…And since Lornal's shield is airtight and the "helpless" boy down there is engulfed in smoke… that means the 2nd gate mage down there can't breathe at all.
Haalfrin and Lornal are both 2nd gate mages, so it would theoretically take Haalfrin an equal amount of preparation, and concentration to break the spell Lornal prepared half an hour ago.
Of course, there's no way the boy down there can possibly have enough wits about him to cast a great enough spell… nor can he last long enough to find a way to break the barrier. Soon, the archmage's apprentice will pass out from the lack of air, and he'll be in mana-sealing chains the next moment!