The man trudged through the thick, densely packed forest, branches and leaves alike cracking under his weight as he stepped upon them. His large cloak concealed much of his body, the only parts visible, at least without considerable effort to be looking from the right angle, were his hands, which had clearly experienced some degree of wear throughout this man’s life, the skin littered with wounds and cuts and scratches, both new and old, though none actively bleeding, nor seemingly causing him any active discomfort or pain, despite how rather unpleasant they seemed to be.
One of his hands clutched the front of his cloak, holding the two sides together with a firm grip, concealing the front of his body in much the same manner that the same simplistic garment concealed the back of it, the other remained at his side, seemingly ready to clutch onto something at a moments notice, though what specifically he anticipated to be grabbing at was unforseeable.
His head slowly turned back and forth as he walked onwards, his face covered by a combination of the black cloth that comprised the hood of his cloak and the shadows cast by it, as well as those so conveniently cast by the dense forestry that surrounded him. In spite of this, it was clear he could see out of this, given how he seemed to have no issues walking through the thick woods. He continued to glance in practically every which way, clearly he was on the lookout, for what, though, was the question. The area wasn’t exactly plagued by bandits or other such criminals, though as with any place on this world, it was hardly devoid of them either. Still, though, the level of caution he displayed was unusual, unsettling, almost, as if he knew something, or someone, was going to do something to him.
Suddenly, he saw movement from the corner of his eye, something quickly dashing through the trees. His hand which had been free suddenly grasped at his waist, returning out with a small dagger, its crude blade clearly the work of an amateur blacksmith, but it was still a dagger no less. He ceased walking, and darted his vision around the area, holding the small weapon in front of him, seemingly ready to attack anything that came at him, but nothing did.
”Must’ve been some kind of animal.”
He muttered to himself, his voice sounding exhausted, as if he hadn’t slept in several days. He returned his dagger to where it had presumably been stored before, beneath the cloak which concealed so much else about him, before he carried on walking. He remained on guard as always, yes, that one instance may very well have been a false alarm, and posed no threat to him, the odds of the next sudden occurrence not following that pattern was far from zero, at least in his eyes.
He carried on walking through the densely wooded area, for what was presumably several kilometres, though it may have been less, or more, perhaps, the man didn’t truly know himself. Every few minutes or so, the same thing would happen again, a small movement in the corner of his eye, occasionally accompanied by a quick rustling noise, to which he would respond by drawing that same dagger out, only to return it mere seconds later, yet again realising it to be nothing more than an animal, likely an insignificant squirrel or bird, or some other creature of a similar variety.
After some time, he slowly reached an end to the wooded area, revealing a relatively large grassland beyond, which he quickly began travelling through as well. Now that the leaves and other such things overhead were behind him, he could see he sky, a deep, orangey-red indicative of a sunset. Glancing to his left, he saw just that, the life giving, firey sun disappearing behind the horizon, just as it did every night.
”I should probably find somewhere to sleep, while I can, at least.”
He once again spoke to no one in particular, as if narrating his own life, perhaps that was his way of keeping himself sane or entertained during his long periods of isolation? Either way, he swiftly acted upon this suggestion of his, walking back towards the forest he had just exited, before propping himself up against the rough bark of one of the outermost trees. He hung his head down, and presumably closed his eyes, though again, the thick garment that covered almost the entirety of his body, including his face, made this difficult to tell for sure, regardless, however, he swiftly began to sleep, exiting the realm of consciousness, if only for a short while.
But of course, as with all else, his slumber would not last an eternity, nor very long, as a matter of fact. He felt himself awakened by the sound of approaching footsteps, and a good many of them.
”That frequency, there must be three, no, four men approaching,”
He thought to himself, tilting his head slightly to try and view whoever it was approaching him, though not enough so, nor with enough speed to indicate to those approaching him that he was both awake and aware of their presence, on the off-chance it may have made the situation any easier for him to handle.
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”Oh, well would you look at that? He’s asleep, that’ll make this nice and easy, watch and learn, boys!”
The man swiftly opened up his eyes when he heard the man speaking, just as he did, all but one set of muffled footsteps on the grass ceased, presumably, the one that continued was the man who had just spoken. He decided to take action, and stood himself up, after all, getting robbed wasn’t exactly high up on his list of events he wanted to transpire. He stared at his presumed attacker from a distance, the suddenness from which he had went from seemingly sleeping to standing straight up seemingly surprising the man, causing him to stop for a few moments.
”I’d suggest you fuck off, all of you.”
Now that he was facing straight at them, he could see the people attempting to rob him clearly, just as he had suspected, four men, one of whom was far larger and far further forwards that the rest, assuredly the leader of this group of bandits he now found himself facing. Despite his larger stature compared to the rest of his small group, he was still seemingly quite a bit smaller than the cloaked man, who looked down at him somewhat, speaking in a clearly annoyed tone.
”Did you not hear me? I said fuck off!”
The front most bandit quickly regained his composure from the shock he had earlier been inflicted, and looked up at the cloaked man, despite his larger stature, he still seemed rather unfazed, and stared up at him confidently.
”Oh, no, I’m afraid that won’t be how this is going to go down, you hear me?”
The man drew a sword from a sheathe at his hip, a nicely sized weapon, perhaps two feet in length, the craftsmanship was also far superior to the cloaked man’s daggers, delicate patterns carved into the handle and sheath of the blade, the shiny metallic blade glistening ever so slightly in the dim moonlight. He pointed the blade at the cloaked man, and resumed speaking.
”You’re going to give us all your money, and if you’ve got any food, or really anything else nice on you, we’ll take that off your hands too, in exchange, of course, you’ll get to leave with your head still on your shoulders. Seems like a pretty fair deal, if I do say so myself!”
The man grinned confidently, but this was swiftly interrupted by the cloaked man replying.
”So that’s how you’re going to be with this, really?”
He let out an exasperated sigh, staring down at his attacker, before continuing to speak in a highly unimpressed tone.
”You aren’t going to win a fight with me, it’s best you leave now, and keep your dignity.”
The man laughed, motioning towards his sword.
”Oh, is that so? You delude yourself, I’ve got a weapon here, a sword may not exactly be the most modern thing to use, but it’s sure as hell better than what you’ve got there, you unarmed bastard.”
The cloaked man sighed, and moved both of his hands to behind his back, his cloak falling away to show relatively light armour beneath, the type to be worn by someone who was expecting to be needing protection in that region. His face was just as battered as his hands, covered in scratches and scars, as if he had just crawled out of a battlefield, matching his gruff voice surprisingly well.
”On the contrary, I’m afraid.”
The formerly cloaked man suddenly pulled a colossal blade from behind his back, an unwieldy mass of dull, unclean metal, clearly some feet bigger than the already large man himself. He held it high, though he was clearly strained by the monstrous weight the glorified monolith with a handle could be assumed to possess, seemingly ready to swing it downwards.
His attacker seemed somewhat taken aback, before he suddenly began laughing, staring at the man with an amused expression, as if he were watching someone making a fool of themselves.
”Hah! You expect me to believe you can wield something like that? Once again, you delude yourself, there’s simply no way a man can swing such a blade with any real force, so don’t think your pathetic attempt at intimidation is going to work on me!”
The man signed, and lifted his oversized blade up slightly, readying himself to strike.
”I disagree.”
He spoke coldly, before swingle the weapon down horizontally at his attacker, hitting him hard in the stomach, the blunt slab of metal sending him stumbling to the side, falling to the ground, and clutching it his stomach.
”Who the hell are you!? How the hell can you wield that… that thing!?”
The man signed, putting his overly large sword back onto his back, presumably strapping it on using some sort of belt or chain, because there was no way a sheath could be used to store such an unwieldy weapon.
“Monzetsu, Orochalcus Monzetsu.”
The man picked his cloak back up off the ground, swiftly returning to clutching it over his body with one hand, once again concealing his appearance to all around him, before he began speaking again, shouting less so at his attacker, and more the men he was with.
“Now fuck off, before I actually kill you lot!”
Without the need for much further intimidation, the man grabbed their leader and hauled him off, eager to escape the man they had just attempted to rob, running away panickedly, unwilling to face a worse injury than that which had already been inflicted.
Orochalcus stared up at the sky, it was Dawn now, before long, the sun would rise back up, bringing with it a new day, one that may have brung either peace or violence, though preferably the former.
”Good grief… it’s too late to sleep now, I might as well get going.”
And he did just that, walking onwards, no particular destination in mind, just as he had for some time now, the insignificant lands behind him fading into nothing more than irrelevant memory.