Blood Stain Flowers

The Leader of the bandits watched his small army slowly getting obliterated from where he sat. The four helpless people he thought were in front of him were not as weak as he had originally thought.

The loss was a pain but those who would die here were just fodder, easily replaceable pawns that only served to increase their numbers. Next to him stood his real champions, three battle hardened warriors that would no doubt bring an end to their little squabble.

He wanted to have both girls but judging from how violent the one swinging the dagger was he doubted if she would allow herself to be taken alive.

'Oh well, I'll have to do with only one.'

He suddenly tilted his head to the side as one of his men's head was blasted straight from his body towards him.

A wind based enigma, how troublesome. His target, Sarah or so according to the merchant, had just killed another one of his men.

'Not hard to deal with though.'

The other girl with her seemed to have a weapon manipulation enigma. She had not yet unlocked the full potential of her technique, and as such stood no chance against him.

But strangely she continued fighting around a particular area not moving around freely like the rest.

'Was she making a statement that no one could move her from that spot? Amusing.'

And as for the two children, well there was nothing to say about them apart from the fact that they were pure brutes, no enigma whatsoever, just pure undiluted violence.

'Who raised these vicious beasts?'

The last of his men fell, a dagger sticking out of his forehead and now all that was left was a field of blood, his 3 warriors and him.

He slowly stood up from his comfortable chair, the heavy Naginata still resting on his shoulders, then the Naginata came down right through the abdomen of the merchant.

Sarah fell to her knees onto the field of blood.

"No."

Her gentle broken voice came.

The bandit leader Mubita smiled as he looked at them then with a tired expression on his face he said:

"I am Mubita the fortress. Shall we begin?"

***

Chari spun forwards using the body of one of the bandits as a foothold to push himself forward and then landed a kick on the back of the head of one of the bandits and then the man fell down like a log of wood.

The bandits were slowly thinning and now only a few of them left. But in front of them the leader sat down comfortably next to 4 other men looking utterly unbothered by the fight. For whatever reason he felt like the true battle had not begun.

Jane had killed the most bandits amongst them and even went the extra mile to kill those Chari had knocked out.

She placed her dagger in the last bandit's head and then turned to face the bandit leader who slowly rose from his chair.

To their surprise his large Sword came down onto the merchant's stomach cutting through it like butter.

Sarah fell to her knees, grief encompassing her being while Jane seethed.

"Shall we begin?" He asked, a wicked grin on his face.

And then he moved, his speed nothing short of incredible as he clashed with Jane. The other warriors behind him moved as well, one of them aiming for Sarah who knelt hopelessly on the floor.

Luck held one of them off, engaging the bandit in a flurry of blows while Jane was too busy with the boss of the bandits leaving two to him alone.

'No matter.'

During the fight he had picked up a more proper staff from one of the bandits so his chances against them was now considerably better. He spun his staff around and intercepted the two of them making his intentions clear.

It is both of you vs me!

The taller bandit was dressed in light armor and had a gleaming scimitar in his hand while the other one had a spiked battle mace that was bathed with blood, no doubt the blood of the merchant.

The man with the mace struck first, heaving the mace as though it weighed nothing. Chari took a step back dodging the blow but the other bandit was already at his side thrusting his nasty scimitar forward.

The gleaming silver steel of the sword clashed against the indomitable wooded staff sending splinters into the air. He looked straight into Chari's eyes and smiled only to be met a stoic emotionless face.

Chari was not as strong as either of the bandits in front of him but what he had was his speed and technique, he was going to have to use everything he had learnt in his last life and in this life to overcome them.

He bent the staff slightly and using the enemy's force against him pushed forward towards the man with the mace but he was ready for Chari and using both hands swung the mace forward with a devastating force.

Chari tried to retreat but he was not fast enough, one of the sharp spikes of the mace managed to scratch his cheek and then the man moved forward planting his foot into Charis gut knocking him backwards.

Chari gasped, clawing for any amount of air he could get while the two men stood side by side laughing.

They were really enjoying themselves beating up a child. The good thing was that they were underestimating him, he had to use that to his advantage any way he could.

He staggered forward acting as though he was still in deep pain from the monstrous kick, which wasn't too difficult because he was actually still in pain, although not as much as he made them believe.

When they saw this the two men began walking towards him like hawks ready to devour their prey before they got to him though Chari put all his strength into his foot and propelled himself forward moving between the two of the bandits in a flash, his small frame easily fit the small gap between them.

Then he got behind them and swung his staff with all the force he could gather, straight towards their heads.

He was going to knock out the two men at the same time, kill two birds with one stone.

But that did not happen. The two bandits reacted fast blocking his strike and then laughed at his futile attempt.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun breaking you!" The man with the mace said.

Chari gently rested his staff on his shoulder and took a strange stance.

"Come on, give me your best shot."