"Stop! Go away!" Shouted Watt towards the attackers.

"Ha!" The bandit didn't seem to bother about Watt's words. He rushed in his direction, without stopping, charging at the defender.

The bandit jumped on the wagon, surprising Watt who didn't expect the attacker to come to his ground.

What he also didn't expect was a person ramming his shoulder into him. And that is what happened, the bandit crashed into Watt, throwing him off the wagon.

Watt crashed on the ground with a thud sound.

Adam's friend rolled as soon as he could, but that didn't save him from the sword making its way into his thigh, somehow making its way between the plates of Watt's heavy armour.

"Aghhhhhh!" A shout filled with pain escaped the defender's mouth, making people around turn their heads towards the place of the fight.

Adam's eyes widened at the sight, he stumbled while running towards the attackers and fell to the ground. Luckily, Kyll wasn't as distracted as Adam was and managed to arrive before the attacker's blade fell on Watt's head.

Kyll deflected the falling blade with his spear, and right after that, he made a quick stab in the attacker's throat. His Elementary realm wasn't just for show, Kyll's strength, speed and reflexes were on a different level from the bandit, who didn't look stronger than Watt or other aspiring warriors.

At the time the first clash ended, bandits compatriots arrived at the camp and the two warriors were in trouble again.

Six attackers came from the crevice between two wagons, another one stood at the cart, knocked bow in hand.

Arrow whosshed through the air, quickly flying towards Adam, who barely escaped impaling by rolling to the side.

The mage stood up and sidestepped behind the carriage next to him, hiding from the shooter.

"Hide behind the wagons from the shooter!!" He shouted at the workers, who stood still beside the main fire in the centre, being a perfect target for the attackers. Adam's warning proved to be effective, as the workers hastily made their way to safety.

At the same time Berta, Monica and Max emerged from their tents. Women had their weapons in hand, iron flew around Max's torso. Iler was still out of sight.

Berta stepped in front of Marta, to defend her with her with a Iler's shield she picked off the ground, while The archer knocked an arrow onto her bow.

Bandit's arrow bounced off of Berta's shield, leaving the girls unscratched. Monica's shot also wasn't the best, missing the target by a mile.

The melee situation also wasn't the best, Watt stumbled with every step while defending against attackers while Kyll fought with all his might. His might thou, wasn't uncontested, as for every wound he gave enemies, two appeared on his body. The first attacker was definitely the weakest one, as the new arrivals fought with might comparable to that of Kyll's.

Adam shot a salvo of [icycles] towards the bandits in the back, trying to lessen the burden on his comrades. The ice hit the attackers but didn't damage them much. All the while, slowly moving in their direction with his [shield] raised, against unexpected attack from the shooter.

Pieces of metal also flew towards the bandits, and they struck true. Max finished off two of the bandits that were affected by Adam's volley by piercing their throats, blood splattered everywhere as those two fell to the ground, breathless.

Stolen novel; please report.

Bandit's shooter unexpectedly changed his target and shot unsuspecting Kyll in the back, feeling that he was the most dangerous out of the defenders.

Adam quickened his run and arrived next to the brawl in a few moments, his haste being the only reason he managed to create a shield between Kyll and Bandit's spear, which nearly struck the face of a warrior who fell on his knees.

Adam raised a huge [shield], defending both himself and Kyll from all sides, and started to pull the warrior in the direction of Watt, who didn't have a good time fighting off the bandits. The shield fell and was raised repeatedly every few seconds, in Adam's desperate attempt to defend himself and Kyll.

The shooting standoff returned to its earlier situation, with Monica and the bandit shooting at themselves from the distance. Bandit evaded the arrows by pure agility, jumping around the camp on the wagons and trying to breach Berta's shield and reach Marta with his arrows.

Max was beside the workers, who escaped the camp and took refugee in the forest, he sent some of his metal towards the bandit's shooter, but it was ineffective because of the distance, the same reason made him unable to help Adam and the warriors in their fight, it was too risky to try and hit the enemies on such range when his comrades were near.

In arguably the worst position was Adam. He gradually lost most of his mana, holding up the [shield] and defending Watt and Kyll, who suffered terrible injuries, both of them had an arrow sticking out of their torso, lucky far from their hearts and multiple wounds on their bodies. Watt's leg featured a gaping hole left by the deceased bandit's sword.

Adam's shield suffered an onslaught of attacks from four attacking warriors. During this time, Kyll was already on his legs and Adam had a little more room to breathe.

After a while, one of them stumbled a bit and lost the momentum he had before. In a rush of adrenaline, Adam used the opportunity and shot an ice shard in the direction of his head.

The icicle struck true and impaled in the bandit's forehead, blood and brain matter splattered out but the ice remained in its place, making him look like a bloody unicorn.

The last guttural shout of pain escaped his mouth before his body fell to the ground lifeless.

Adam's eyes widened, as the information about what he did enter his brain. Bile rose in his throat, but he soon got hold of himself. 'No, stop, it's not the time for this. Survival is the priority' He threw unnecessary thoughts out of his mind, focusing all his attention on the three warriors attacking.

"Ahhhhhhh!!" A shout reverberated throughout the surroundings. It was the bandit archer, whose body was impaled by a sword from behind.

Iler finally arrived, but from where no one knew.

Now, The refrigerator's focus was all on the bandits cornering Adam and the warriors. Both women and Iler dashed towards them, Taking them from behind.

Iler took one by surprise, impaling him from the side, his sword cleanly went through the attacker's head and unfortunately got stuck there.

The dying bandit's friend, seeing his comrade attacked, turned towards them and used Iler's inability to take his sword back to attack.

Sadly for him, Adam was once again free and shot him in the heart with an ice stake, which he prepared some time in advance.

The last of the bandits was taken care of by the girls, his head was decorated with an arrow sticking out of his eye socket. His torso featured a deep gush, created by Berta's huge blade.

The bandit situation was taken care of, but not without any damage. Watt and Kyll were both seriously wounded, and Watt's leg could potentially be crippled for life if not taken care of appropriately.

And for non-physical damage, Adam was probably the biggest victim. First time in his life he killed an intelligent creature, and even two of them.

Adam never was a fan of killing, Throughout the first week of the year he kept killing monsters in the forest, but he thought it was inevitable and necessary for him to learn how to survive. Later, at the service of the army, he killed monsters around Viscout Jared's mansion, while he had done that he excused himself by saying that it was necessary, as the monsters would attack humans if had not taken care of them. But were they really that dangerous?

But now, after killing fellow humans, his mind couldn't find an appropriate excuse. Couldn't this situation be taken care of in a non-violent manner? Could he have stopped them and scared them enough so they ran away? Why did they attack?

Why did they have to fight?

Why the only possible option was murder?

Eventually, the young mage puked himself and then fainted.