//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 Bandits // Story: The merchants new life // by Jade Copperfield //------------------------------// It's been probably two days since I left Port Dorade in a unprepared state at least what I call unprepared, since I forgot to pick up a sewing kit and my shirt still has the slashes from the angel's arrows. But forget about the past, right now I was probably about half way to St. Curtis if my map was correct so that means I'm starting to hit the mountains. I looked around from my position on the road and noticed a wrecked carriage on the side of it. "Why is there a random carriage with its top off here"?I walked cautiously over to it to examine the wreck, and noticed several burn marks all over it, along with the wooden wheels missing. When I got over there I put my claw on it and notice that it was still somewhat warm, along with the ashes crumbling off the moment I touched. I stood up and looked down the dirt road to notice two more carriages in similar condition not too far away, probably twenty meters apart. I said "This ain't fucking good". I looked around quickly and sprinted to the forest edge and duck inside a bush as fast as I could. I moved cautiously for a while longer, staying in the forest to hopefully blend in and be significantly less obvious. I knew what must have attacked the carriages though I don't want to believe that this place had the same types of pieces of shit, though the evidence pointed to them existing and everything. I didn't notice any blood at the carriage I checked, though I was there for a total of ten seconds. After about a mile of creeping through the trees and uneven terrain I heard commotion up ahead. I crept slowly to a tree and watched the group of two converse, not going anywhere. I was standing behind the tree since there was no use crouching and it gave me good sight on them. the group was a Human with a iron sword that looked like it was poorly made, there was also a female Jakkai that went to approximately the man stomach with a small knife. The human said" Why do we always have keep a lookout it's not like anyone knows we're here". The female glared at him" Of course you know since you always back talk the boss". I kept my eyes on them as they argued about why there on watch and judging by the fact they don't look like a traveling merchant couple, they had to be one other thing. "Bandits".The type of people I cant stand looking at. As they continued arguing I crept slowly away and dropped my pack of at a tree that I marked with a cut shaped like a target cross. I kept my gun in its holster and I moved my knife holster to the back of my pants. I grabbed all the ammo I have on me left which accounted to three sets of seven shots, so not much. I proceeded back toward the two and now they were talking about the carriages from earlier. The Human said" What exactly was in the wagon we snatched anyway". The Jakkai showed him a few coins. "They had lots of junk in there, the only thing of value was there money and wheels pretty much". They were fucking bandits. I kept quiet as I calmed down slowly and waited for them to go there separate ways. I was lucky that the Human needed to go to the bathroom and his partner didn't care where he went to go. So now the poor bastard was walking toward my direction and decided to go a little deeper in the woods and walked right past me. When he just passed me not noticing my presence, I covered his mouth with my left claw and stabbed my knife quickly through his throat. He tried to scream but his attempts failed miserably with me covering his throat and the three inch knife I kept firmly held inside his throat. He stopped struggling barely a second after I plunged my knife in his throat and his arms slumped to his side dropping his sword in the process. I dropped his corpse on the ground and proceeded to watch the Jakkai as she stood around the clearing. I noticed her beginning to get antsy so I grabbed one of my fired rounds and flicked it at a tree in her view. She noticed the gleaming brass metal and heard the ping noise with her ears as she noticed it almost immediately. She stood there looking around until she muttered something and walked toward where I threw it, before she got there she noticed the body immediately and put her dagger in front of her holding it with both hands. She walked cautiously to him while looking in every direction including up, but the minute she passed my cover on the other side of a extremely thick bush I grabbed her. She yelped in a terrified girly way as I held her arm with the dagger and kept my claws over her mouth. I looked down at her since she was shorter than me and noticed she was scared beyond belief. Her eyes were almost bulging out and they slowly began tearing up. Seeing that face made me think of something I rarely ever did "If she tells me what I want to know she lives". I kept my voice low" Tell me where the rest of you're friends are at and I will let you live, and anything important". She looked at me and I noticed that she stopped tearing up but was quite terrified. I hardened my grip on her hand as she continued shaking. "I'm going to take my claw off and your going to tell me what I asked no screaming, and you will live". She didn't shout when I took my hand off and was actually calming down but I grabbed my knife with my right and kept it in view. It was still stained in the mans blood and she physically began shaking again. "T-there a-at a cave hid-de out that direction, t-there are more than ten of us, a-and we have five prisoners, including something we never saw before". She seemed to be telling the truth and she pointed in the direction that made the most sense since they would most likely have there backs to there territory. "Thank you and goodnight". I began shoving her head in to a tree. She said" Wha...". Before her head collided into the trunk of the tree and she was out cold. It wasn't entirely clean since now her nose was leaking blood and I did hear a satisfying crunch but she should be alive when she wakes up. I looked in the direction she pointed and continued stalking in that direction keeping an eye on the trees, listening for voices, and just in general staying undetected. I hit the edge of a few trees surrounding a clearing and noticed five more guys in the clearing, three sitting down and having a chat while two kept on circling the clearing. In the clearing was a few tents that in this time of day most likely didn't have anyone in them, there was also a few rocks doted in the clearing that blocked sight from the three in middle which also included the tents that is if they could see through them. The men patrolling would past the rocks and not be in view of the main group. "This is probably the dumbest thing I will ever do but poor me and not wanting people to suffer".I waited for a while to hopefully confirm people are in the cave which had a yawning entrance past the group huddled in the middle. After a few while of staying behind a tree and my legs tiring I heard a yell from the cave that sounded like any average person trying to scream for help. And shortly after that there was wail that wanted to physically assault my ears, the guards noticed it and started screaming in the tunnel for them to shut up including both of the perimeter guards. While everyone was looking I quickly moved to the guard that was to the left of the main group. The moment I was right behind him I heard a "Huh" and I put my claw over his mouth and stabbed him in the throat, I ended up shoving the blade through his throat more opening up a gash in his throat making blood spray and made him start gurgling on his own blood. I moved him back into the trees with me hiding him on the other side of a tree. I looked at his waist and noticed he had the same crude sword as the last guy and I noticed this tree was here, It gave me quite a useful idea for a distraction. I picked him up and when he was head height, I stabbed the iron sword through his head and into the tree. The blade entered the left side of his face through the jaw and pinned him to the tree almost at head height. His mouth was open and he stared at the group with cold eyes. The group and guard was still looking at the entrance not bothering to look anywhere else, I also cleaned my blade on his clothes. After I was done I started skirting the edge of the clearing toward the right side of the cave. I kept my head low and I ended up hitting the right side of the cave entrance fairly quickly. Which was a sheer cliff so now I couldn't climb up to any over hangs I might have seen. I looked at the guard that was on my side looking into the forest but not toward the cliff at all not caring what was there. I looked at the group in the middle and noticed most of them weren't looking in my direction so I began stalking toward the last perimeter guard which was walking back toward the front of the clearing. When I was about to rip his throat out I heard the guard yell" Do you guys know where Tom is". One of the guards answered back" I don't know where he...Oh wait there he is". I stood behind a tree two feet from the guard that I was going to kill. I peeked out and noticed that all of the guards were looking toward where "Tom" hung from a blade implanted in a tree. The guards were giving scrutinizing looks at where the dead guard was and I took my chance. I stalked behind the guard and grabbed his mouth as I began pulling him into the bushes. I stabbed him into the throat and pushed forward with my knife almost decapitating the man. his throat was slit almost half way as blood gushed out at a alarming wait, he was also gurgling on his pouring blood. I dropped him there and hid behind the tree and stared at the main group of two? "Wait where's the third". I whispered with a hint of anger at not knowing where he was. I looked toward where "Tom" hung and saw a very startled man backing away from the tree. He backed away until he was almost to his friends when he yelled. "Tom's dead"! All the men in the group drew there weapons, one man had a wooden axe while the others drew swords or knives. I stayed where is was keeping myself calm as I drew my gun and kept an eye on them. They were all looking around for me but none of them noticed my existence, though they noticed the other guy was. One of them yelled" Hey where's Jerry at guys"! They looked where he was at last time but he wasn't there at all and they all grew nervous at the sight that there friend was gone. They muttered in low tones so I couldn't hear what they were saying but they all stood there ground looking like sentries now other than a bunch of friends singing around a camp fire. I stayed there waiting if any of them would move but none did so I pointed my gun at the one that discovered the death of Tom, I pulled back the hammer and fired. The poor bastards head got blown out the other side as my arm kicked up from the recoil, it wasn't too heavy but significant as it pushed my gun up about an inch. One of the bandits stood there in complete shock as the one with the axe started running for a tree near my position. I couldn't hit the axe man, so I quickly put two shots in the shocked mans upper torso and put my sights on the axe man that was keeping behind a tree. "Well it seems this isn't his first time in a battle".I kept my eyes at the tree the axe man was at while also glancing at the downed bandit. the downed bandit was squirming on the ground, clutching his wounds while also trying to crawl toward the axe man. The axe man peaked his head out and I fired to have the round only embed itself in the tree. I kept my position waiting for him to peak again when I started hearing a fizzing sound coming from his direction. A moment later a fiery red orb came shooting from the axe mans tree, I ducked behind mine barely in time before it hit my tree and temporarily blocked my view with ash and embers. I heard a roar just before a axe embedded it self in the tree inches away from my gun. I quickly stepped backward from the tree that was now missing the axe, though the man was right in front of me so simply he had the axe. He swung the axe down trying to embed it into my skull but missed when I moved to his left, though it didn't stop him from changing direction mid swing. The axe missed my chest barely but it didn't stop me from pulling out my knife and imbedding it into his left side, the knife stayed inside him as he staggered backwards into the burnt tree. His back hit the tree with a loud thump and he slid down slightly as he regained his footing, but ultimately it wouldn't help. The moment he looked up his head got a bullet shot through the forehead. The man hit the wood yet still stood slightly so I put a bullet in the center of his chest. He didn't even try to keep standing as he fell to his right, staring with cold eyes. I ripped the knife from his side and began reloading my gun one bullet at a time, luckily I still had two bullets left in it so I replaced the used ones and moved toward the cave. I heard hoarse coughing behind me so I looked behind me to see the crawling bandit from earlier laying down with his arm in my direction moving violently at each cough. I looked at him for a moment before I walked back to the axe next to the body and picked it up. The downed man said to me as I walked over" Please d-don't... HACKlet me suffer". His voice was barely audible but I heard every word so I let him have one more moment. After what felt like a moment I heaved the axe up and brought it down on his head. I said "Hopefully in the next life you wont make the same mistakes". I kept my voice low as I stood there for a second before looking at the cave. I walked toward the cave quickly hoping that there weren't anyone else around to stop me. I stopped at the maw of the cave near the side, looking into it I noticed that it didn't go far and that it was well lit with torches and since it didn't go far I saw four people in chains behind a man using a white furred unicorn with a dark blue and light blue shaded hair as a human shield. "Wait what why is she here in this hell hole"? I looked at her and noticed she was wearing a white button up and a pair of blue pants, she also had her violet glasses on though there wasn't a cocky smile instead it was a scared one. The man noticed me and put a oddly shaped blade that if anything was used for ritual sacrifice, and that was for practicality. The man pointed the knife at me and shouted" Don't move any further or this demon mistress dies"! I stopped moving and the man grew a big grin. Though she didn't like that since she struggled a little bit which brought the knife closer to her neck. The man shouted again" Hah now whos in control you animal"! I kept as calm as possible but his hostage gave me a look of "what the hell are you doing" or "follow my lead". Before I could figure out what exactly she meant She elbowed him in the stomach and ducked away from him even though he was still holding her. Taking my chance I aimed and shot at him three times, making sure to avoid his hostage. Two of the bullets hit him in the chest and another made blood spurt out from the back of his head. It was safe to say he was dead and will not be coming back ever. The white unicorn looked at me while leaning on a wall, just before I walked closer to her and started shouting. "Vinyl tell me how the hell did you get here right now"! I was looking at her with practical murder in my eyes even though I already murdered almost ten guys. She shrugged and responded in her British or whatever accent" Are you talking about being in a den of bandits or here in general"? I could tell she wasn't really meaning to say it in those exact words but I didn't care. I shouted at her" The One that matters"!