'Alright, just need to finish up and we're done.'

A small brawny man stood on the battlefield, the blood of another still on his blade he looked forward but appeared lost in thought for the moment.

"Oi, Rag, keep killing not thinking, that's what you're better at anyway. Weren't you dwarves supposed to be good at fighting? How come you aren't dead yet if you stand around like a retarded goblin, and you know what they say about goblins right? Right? Yeah you don't even have a proper beard like one of those screeching pests, maybe you..."

The dwarf's stubbly mouth froze up in annoyance, throwing a glance at the elementalist behind him, if not for the man's prowess there would be little good to say about him.

His face looked crunched up with sinister small eyes of slightly different sizes looking towards the dwarf, who let out grunt, nodded, then continued stabbing his spear while thundering back;

"In the names of all hells will you shut up Fer, if you have that much breath keep singing and doing your fancy hand gestures like a good boy, stop distracting the front line, if I die you'd be just as fucked.

I don't doubt you have experience with that but you can trust me it's not the kind you'd have fun with."

The dwarf laughed loudly, aimed at a man who just dropped his shield as it suddenly heated up and with a soft sound the spear plunged into his throat, tearing through to the other side while the man fell onto his knees, a look of realisation and regret was stuck on his face ever since he had lost his protection.

"Good boy."

The dwarfs trumpeted towards the elementalist in a mocking manner, then continued moving onwards.

Meanwhile Fer stoped moving for a second, looked grimly, then snarled.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

"Really, I am sorry."

A surprisingly sincere voice escaped the grinning elementalist.

"I did not take you seriously enough, you have more skills than battling and standing around, you can curse just as well.

I'll be damned I didn't expect it, but I take back what I said before, you definitely are a full-fledged goblin.

My deepest apologies, now excuse me, I would just be a hindrance in your fight of course, so I shall return to camp while the grand goblin warrior can instill fear into this mighty army of shattered and fleeing bandits.."

The dwarf seemed to have tired of the lengthy exchange and chose to conserve his breath, moving away from Fer.

'Bah, how annoying. Let him wave his little toy of a spear then, I've done my job.'

At the same time in another part of the battle the fight was still fierce, it was, however, a ferocity and power born from knowing they would die otherwise.

The enemy camp had been hidden on a hillside and tried to extort protection fees from the local villages and caravans for around a year, recently it had grown in manpower and audacity to an extend that forced the closest city into taking action, resulting in the current scene.

A large amount of mercenaries had surrounded the bulk of the bandit forces within the encampment, not yet pressuring forward while skirmishes seemed to be as far as the fight had escalated.

"Hoooooh. Who is your leader?"

A voice tore out of the middle of the encirclement, stemming from a muscular, handsome man.

He had a square jawline and inquiring eyes with a resolved look in them.

Stepping forward he dropped his longsword from both hands and turned his palms outside pointing upwards.

From the mercenary's side a man, around 35, of average height, appeared, while the mercenaries collectively made way, drawing open like a curtain.

The man seemed unremarkable at first, holding a bloodied axe and a scar running across his cheek he leisurely moved forward.

' ' 'The captain' ' '

Multiple sellswords stocked at sight of the seemingly unremarkable man and stared into his eyes which, contrary to expectation, were much more memorable and of silver colour, creating a stark contrast to his brown hair.

'So that is him. Their leader, if not for those eyes he wouldn't seem so special but...'

The bandit leader hesitated a second, a slight frown forming on his face while thinking.

'I really don't have a good impression on Lady Luck today, do I? No chance. Not with something like that on their side.'

"I will surrender. Would you let my men go? They aren't cutthroats like the average bandit but good soldiers."

Everyone's eyes flickered with slight shock, then some with pity, some others with respect.

The mercenary leader had stopped a distance away from the bandit leader while looking at him for 5 minutes, until he started writhing a little and stepping from one food onto another, quickly stopping again however.

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"Verethor, adopted son of Arranel, brother of the Sylvan Duke Varangil."

The bandit leader lifted his eyebrow.

"You even know about being adopted? That is one incredibly witty mercenary here, ho'?"

The mercenary stepped forward.

"Your last wish has been heard. I will give you the chance to duel me in respect of your choice. I promise the safety of your men and depending on the outcome of this duel you will be able to keep living. My name is Hall, take up your sword."

Verethor picked up the sword while his opponent dropped the spear and similarly drew a longsword.

Meanwhile 6 people had moved forward and formed a half circle behind Hall.

'A gargantuan woman, a completely covered person of small stature, a goblin with crossbow, a dark skinned... elf? They have a dark elf? I'm done with.. ah never mind, an elderly desert dweller and a dwarf. This couldn't turn out any weirder could it?'

The 6 didn't attempt to take action and simply stood there, the dwarf smiling sardonically.

'What an idiot that Fer is, now he'll miss the captain taking action'

Verethor in the meantime assumed a stance, pointing his sword towards the ground in a 45° angle, waiting for the mercenary to finish his preparations.

After a short while had passed he felt a weird sensation, a shiver running down his spine and and some sweat forming on his neck.

He quickly suppressed the feeling and before anything else happened decided on moving forward while his hands had moved next to his head, pointing the sword towards his opponents throat and delivering a thrust at the still calmly standing sellsword.

Contrary to expectation the thrust seemed to bend the air in front of the enemy, slowed down significantly after moving a small distance, and before stopping was quickly pulled back by Verethor.

Staring back and forth between his sword and the opponent who still hadn't retaliated, he startled a second when he realised how those silver eyes were mustering him, piercing him, then he was plunged into darkness.

The 6 mercenaries who had moved closer stared blankly.

A moment later every one of them started struggling and moving around, darkness creeping across their vision.

Each of them barely managed to resist an onset of nausea and unconsciousness, steadying themselves they looked towards their captain with strange expressions.

'Fuck what was that, never mind being lucky to see him take action, what a damned bastard dodging this one, I'll pay him back twice.'

Rag cursed in his head while the dark elf had something akin to veneration in her eyes, biting her lips nervously and starring towards Hall with lowered eyes.

'That, that is what I search. That is what I need. Need. neeed. neeeeeed. NEED.'

Her her eyes turned imperceptibly while she froze up.

When she regained control she saw Hall standing in front of the unconscious bandit leader.

Impressively he had not fallen down and his sword was firmly gripped in hand, his eyes closed as if sleeping.

Her captain had shouldered his sword and seemed to be inspecting the bandit.

'I guess he means to... I wonder why he would though? The Captain has incredible magic so it could work. It'd be more than lucky for that one if it did.'

The covered person suddenly let out a monotonous voice, neither male nor female.

"Slaughter."

Some bandits seemed to back up slightly on hearing the word but relaxed when they saw nothing happened.

The mercenary leader similarly did not make a move or react, so everything calmed down, until he finally sighed, moved his sword up and swung it at the neck of their leader.

Right before hitting he stopped, looking straight at Verethor again as if he had seen something.

A split second later Verethor's sword pierced forward, tearing through the barrier, the mercenary seemed a little surprised at the sudden attack, lifted his eyebrow and stepped aside, avoiding the blow.

A pommel smashed their leader in the face who dropped unconscious again, then they saw themselves faced with the mercenary leader who had turned towards them.

"You guys carry him, we are done with the contract so you should at least do some of the work.

I hope you don't mind a mercenary's life rather than a bandit's, though there's not much difference to the peasants when its comes to that anyway. Get going. Don't worry he won't die, yet anyway."

The bandits were stunned but quickly made work to not disagree with their new captain, may that be of gratitude or fear, carrying their old captain towards the direction they were pointed.

While they were scurrying out of sight with Verethor in tow, Hall looked towards his 6 subordinates while slumping to the ground and sitting down.

"Phewwwwwww, that was dangerous, didn't I look cool? I swear I was scared when he actually managed to get through all of a sudden.

I should deeeeefinitely pay more attention that woulda just sucked completely if I got myself stabbed a little there wouldn't ya all agree? That would be more than just a... mood kill."

He looked exceptionally proud of his joke, seemingly fighting with himself to not burst into laughter while grinning at his subordinates who had different reactions.

The dark elf turned her head over to the dwarf next to him, staring blankly.

"Did he.. He didn't did he? No he wouldn't, but. It sounded as if... but there's no way, no I definitely must be growing old yes that is it, someone on the level of a warlord is a dignified person, I must have had a very impolite hallucination..."

She kept muttering to herself while the dwarf had turned to meet her gaze, thinking for a second about her reaction when it dawned on him and a wry smile spread across his face.

'I betcha I wasn't any better when I first joined in here. I betcha...'

While the giant woman shook her head, sighed, turned around and started fleeing the scene.

"Ahhhhhhh come on you guys, you never laugh, you should be a bit more jovial all o' ya. I mean look I just almost died didn't I, that would just be irony at its finest you gotta appreciate that, someone with my skill just dying cause he didn't pay attention to someone he chose not to kill.

Come on, you gotta at least get a giggle from that. It's so obvious, I swear I need more men with good humour, why do those people seem so rare? Wait, where are you all going, weren't we going to have a victory celebration and enjoy chatting? Hey? Heyyyy?!"

The group of mercenaries quickly started dispersing, the 6 being the quickest to get away, with Hall at the center, who stared a little shocked after them while he was the only one left in sight.

"Tch, I swear it was at least a little funny."