Damion stood to the side of the road and watched patiently as the ground cars sped closer to him. He was expecting the ground cars to continue past him and on to Saung. It may have taken most of a day for Damion to walk to where he was, just outside Benault Forest, but these ground cars would be able to reach Saung fairly quickly.
What Damion did not expect, was for the smaller ground car to co to a stop just after passing Damion. When the ground car stopped, Damion turned to look and saw it was a young woman driving with an infant held in her arms.
“Quick get in!” The woman shouted to Damion. “Hurry!”
Damion was in no hurry to get in a stranger’s car, even if she was an ordinary person, as told by True Sight which he had reactivated. The woman was clearly distressed about sothing and with the second ground car fast approaching Damion could not help but assu that was the reason for her apprehension.
“Are you being chased?” Damion asked calmly.
Without answering Damion, the woman started up her ground car and shouted back to Damion as she drove off, “Run while you can!”
A mont later the second ground car ca to a halt by Damion. This ground car was much larger and had an open bed on the back that was filled with rough looking n. Damion quickly surmised these n were bandits and had chased the woman through Benault Forest wanting to rob her or worse.
“Looky what we got here,” one of the n said as he jumped out of the back of the ground car. “A itsy bitsy adventurer walking all alone. Give it up if ya’s knows what’s good for ya.”
Damion looked at him and tried not to laugh as the man pointed a spiked club at Damion. Through True Sight Damion could see most of these n were only E Rank with the one pointing the club at him being D Rank and a few were only F Rank. As they each climbed out of the ground car and surrounded Damion, he made a ntal note of each of their Ranks.
The leader was the sole D Rank, five were E Rank and three were F Rank. They certainly had numbers on their side, but Damion was not worried. ntally Damion summoned his sword from the Magic System’s inventory. When the sword appeared in Damion’s hand the n suddenly realized they had perhaps bitten off more than they could chew.
“Surrender now. This is your only warning,” Damion told them. Even though they were bandits, they had not actually attacked him yet, so Damion wanted to give them the option to surrender.
“Piss off!” the D Rank shouted as he swung his club at Damion.
Damion cast Ice Shield and blocked the D Ranker’s spiked club and easily brushed the blow aside. Channeling his magic into his sword and the fire glyph, Damion’s sword instantly lit up like a torch. Several of the bandits instinctively stepped back, but the D Ranker urged them on.
“He’s just wet behind the ears mage with a space artifact. That’s worth enough ta set us all up fer life. Get ‘em!”
Since Damion was not able to scare them away or convince them to surrender, Damion decided it was best to rid the world of these bottom feeders. With a quick slash, Damion sent out a fire slash from his sword that, while not enough to kill the group of bandits on his right, was enough to give him more space while giving so severe burns to them.
Damion then spun around and spewed out a cloud of frozen air from his mouth as he cast Ice Breath at the bandits that had been creeping up behind him. The sudden change of direction and different type of magic caught the couple of bandits behind him off guard and forced them to retreat or be frozen.
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As Damion continued his spin he slashed his sword across the arm of one of the E Rankers that had been originally on his left before Damion found himself facing the D Rank bandit again.
The D Ranker was bringing his spiked club down in a two-handed swing that Damion caught on his Ice Shield. The bandit’s blow was enough to crack Damion’s Ice Shield and send Damion down on one knee with a throbbing in his shoulder. The bandit was stronger than he thought, and while Damion would certainly win in any one-on-one fight, since this was not a one-on-one fight Damion needed to start evening the odds.
Damion released his Ice Shield spell letting the magic ice vanish into nothingness and imdiately recast the spell giving him a brand-new Ice Shield ready to intercept the D Ranker’s next attack.
The D Ranker narrowed his eyes when he saw what Damion did and began to wonder if attacking this young mage was really a good idea. However, since the fight was already started the thought faded as quickly as it ford and the bandit swung his spiked club towards the mage again.
Damion leaned back and let the spiked club swing harmlessly by before stepping forward with a low swing of his sword, catching the D Ranker in the thigh. After landing that quick blow Damion was forced to roll forward as the bandits on his right and behind had co charging towards him again.
The force of Damion’s roll propelled him forward several ters and when he got to his feet and faced the bandits that were now all in one direction, Damion could not help but smirk as he channeled his mana into his sword’s fire attack glyph. When Damion unleashed his fire pillar attack into the crowd of wide-eyed bandits most of them were too slow to get out of the way and ended up getting cooked.
Two of the E Rankers and the D Rank bandit managed to jump out of the way and had not even been burned by the attack, but the rest of the bandits were all on the ground either dead or in too much pain to get up. As the D Rank bandit looked at his fallen comrades he began to rage at Damion.
“I’m gonna kill you boy,” the bandit snarled. “I’m gonna rip your heart out and…”
Before the bandit could continue his tirade Damion had raised his left hand and shot an Ice Shard through his heart. Damion had already seen that none of these bandits were wearing armor and without that protection they were easily felled by his Ice Shard spell. Damion quickly cast the spell several more tis, putting the bandits on the ground out of their misery before Damion turned his attention to the two stunned E Rankers.
“Load up the bodies in the bed of the ground car,” Damion ordered.
The two E Rankers nodded silently as they dropped their weapons and began doing as Damion ordered. Both were just hoping that Damion would not kill them once they were done loading the bodies.
Damion watched in silence as the two bandits loaded their fallen into the ground car’s bed. Rubbing his sore shoulder, Damion could not help but wonder the identity of the D Ranker. If the bandit had possessed armor and a proper weapon, or had any of these bandits, the fight likely would have been much different. Damion was still confident he would have won, but he felt he would have suffered more than a shoulder ache.
As the E Rankers loaded the bodies of their fallen comrades, Damion felt a pang of guilt in his heart. He had given these n a chance to surrender, but he had also finished off the wounded. Damion could have easily chosen to stabilize the bandits with the healing salves in his adventurer kit, but he had not even thought twice about finishing them off.
‘Have I really turned so cold as to not care about killing?’ Damion thought as two surviving bandits worked nervously. ‘Would they have approved of this?’
Damion did not have an answer to his question. He had killed bandits before, but now he found himself wondering what drove these n to lawbreaking. Did they have families? Would these n be missed or grieved for?
Once the truck was loaded Damion gave up his self-reflection and stored his sword back in the Magic System’s inventory and looked to the two E Rankers. He did not trust them, but he felt they were scared enough to do exactly what he told them to without having to worry they would try to stab him in the back.
“Get in. I’ll turn you over to the Justiciar Order in Bufort,” Damion told them. The two E Rankers looked relieved when they realized Damion was not going to kill them. Punishnt by the Justiciar Order would be harsh, but it was still better than what just happened to the rest of their group.
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