“Wake up!” Sethan stirred as the other knights were either already equipped or were wearing their armor and preparing their weapons. “Bandits?” “Yes.” Sethan stood up from his bed and began to don his armor, hastily wearing each piece, each gauntlet, and each legging of armor. “Finally, we might have a chance to solve this problem, then we can go straight back to headquarters.” Said one of the younger knights. “Let’s go!” They ran down the stairs of the inn, some of the other knights as well as Asralyn was looking outside the window. “Numerous hostiles.” “Yes, there are a number of them outside.” Felkin remarked, looking out of the window as bandits slowly prowled with torches lit.
The barkeep and some of the patrons looked on nervously. “Tch. They’re too many of them. We need to consider some strategy, to cleanly take them out.” Felkin put his hand on the door, intending to go outside. “Wait!” Sethan held him back. “Didn’t you hear what he said? We’d be better off picking them off one by one in the shadows.” Felkin stepped back and nodded. “Understood. I go and draw them out and you take them out from behind.” Sethan released his grip and then Felkin stepped outside. “Either bravery or foolishness can compel one to act like that.” Gruffly spoken by one of the senior knights. “No, there is another reason: certainty.” Sethan said as Felkin walked towards the middle of the road.
The knights exited crouching and slipped into the back alleyways. “Hey.” Said Felkin waving one of his arms towards the bandits. His eyesight focused and he saw the exact number in front of him and raised his sword and constructed a planned strike. “You wanna die!” “Hand over your goods!” The men walked towards him, swords, axes, and torches raised. He slashed horizontally in one swift motion and cut across the bandits, cutting one in half, and striking them down. “Help! Help me!” One wounded bandit ran away, clutching his barely held on arm. Felkin was surprised but the bandit fell to the ground after one more fast strike to the head. “Hey, is that one of our guys?” “No, it’s probably some poor idiot who got his coin stolen.” “Shouldn’t we still check?” “Tsk. Fine then.” The bandits talked amongst themselves.
Sethan and Asralyn quickly crept behind the bandits, and struck them from behind, them falling without a sound. “Hmph, the gall on these miscreants, attacking in the dead of night.” Remarked a senior knight. Felkin extended his weapon upwards, and struck down a nearby stone pillar, it crashing to the ground and creating a loud boom. “What was that?” “It looks like it came from there!” Bandits came down the road, some running and some walking. They noticed the bodies of the bandits that lay near Felkin as blood trickled down his weapon. “Hey! Kill him!” The bandits rushed towards him, and he struck them down with strained motions, striking up and down, extending and compacting his weapon to attack opponents from closer to farther range.
An arrow flew towards him and he struck it out of the air and swiftly extended his weapon to strike the bowman like one would with a thrust of a spear. His crimson eye, saw behind him, through him, a small spark of light; and he turned around and struck an opponent with his heavy iron blade, protecting himself from the sneak attack. A few of the bandits saw the skirmish and walked behind the backways and alleys of the buildings on the streets. Sethan struck one with his spear, Asralyn with her sword, and the other knights also eliminated them in unison, before they could attempt to flank Felkin.
“What are we doing here? We should be out there, fighting! Not doing cowardly tactics?” A younger knight had said. “No. We can’t take anymore risks, lest we get a repeat of last time.” “He’s right.” Sethan responded. “But he is there because he can handle it, we have our mission, we are only to engage in direct combat when absolutely necessary.” Sethan and the others continued to lurk and survey in the darkness as Felkin engaged the bandits. The bandits that remained were corralled and drawn to the location, their bodies piled one after the other as Felkin struck them down and the knights took care of any stragglers.
Far in the distance, two figures stood barely aware of the carnage that was occurring. “Boss!” “What’s the hold up?” “There seems to be some opposition that’s already taken out a bunch of our guys.” “Do you know anything about this?” A man with a golden gauntlet grabbed a townsman by the scruff of their shirt. “There were a company of knights who came here earlier today. They promised to deal with the bandit threat.” “Just a few knights. You, deal with them.” He motioned towards another bandit, a masked individual with a black mask with golden brown wavy sigils on it. “Destroy them, ‘bandit lord’.” The figure bowed and disappeared into the night.
“What about me? I’m a bandit lord as well!” He had been cladded in poorly fitting armor and had a worried expression and had beads of sweat rolling down his cheek. He held his axe to his chest as if a child clutching a doll. He was greasy and unkempt and looked like any other bandit. “You are leader because the previous one died. Your group of brigands was descending into infighting and was splitting up right before I took over. You are here as a figurehead for the ones who choose to follow you.” The other “bandit lord” skulked off grumbling. “It won’t be long… Until I can gather enough strength even to challenge the capital.” The bandit with the golden gauntlet remarked.
Felkin remained in the center of town and took down more of the approaching bandits. He made sure to keep his distance and to take out each one as fast as possible, when they group up to attack him, he diverted or blocked their attack with his sword as a strike from his fist was enough to incapacitate some of them. The people in town cowered in fear and looked anxiously outside their windows at they witnessed the combat. The group of knights threw stones and rocks at some of the isolated targets and dispatched them with ease. “I still feel that this isn’t right.” They looked on in the distance. “Would he be able to handle it?” “Should we go and help?” “I have a feeling that he’ll come to us or call for us if he really needed to.” “You have a lot of faith in him captain.” “There’s something about him, a certain- ““Light.” Asralyn finished the sentence.
Leaves rustled on the ground and the soil stirred and shook, like a force was moving under it or through it. The masked figure leapt out of the ground, directly in front of Felkin. He was startled and slashed through the air, but cut through nothing but sand, which splattered onto the ground. The figure rose from behind him and quickly held a crescent-shaped blade to his neck. Felkin saw the white blips of the soul of the knights and quickly made eye contact with them, while slowly raising his hands. “I guess he does need help after all.” Said a young knight.
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More bandits were still moving closer to Felkin’s location and Sethan noticed this as they exited the alleyway. He quickly set out a jet of flame and set one of the bandits on fire, alerting the others. “Hey! Over here you buggers!” said one of the old knights, chuckling in glee as he struck down a foe with a heavy swing of his mace. Felkin extended the sword as he had his hands up, striking away the crescent blade of his attacker. The sword extended and curved back shooting towards its target, and Felkin quickly turned around and slashed. Again, the figure retreated backwards in a puff of sand, evading his attack. He took notice of the mask and the strange weapon his assailant was using. Was the mask a magical item, a relic? Or is it the weapon that is special, and the mask is purely for concealment? Are both unrelated and the ability innate? He was only a moment in thought when he narrowly ducked a vicious slash from his attacker's sickle.
He retaliated with an upward slash and the figure leaned back to evade. He then struck them with a quick jab of his fist. The masked assailant did not anticipate this and blocked with an arm instead of dodging. His strike knocked them back and Felkin quickly glanced over to the other knights as they fought against the seemingly endless onslaught of bandits, Sethan spraying fire and keeping them at bay while the other knights covered his rear. Even as they were in a tight-knit formation, they were barely pushing back the opposition. He extended his sword farther and struck down a few bandits with one swipe, lessening the load of the knights.
He turned around and stepped back startled as the edge of a blade grazed his face, leaving a wound on his cheek. In the distance, the bandit with the golden gauntlet thought for a moment. “Hmm… Maybe I should have joined the fray…” A few loud thuds emanated behind him. “But it looks like the fun came to me!” The bodies of a few bandits, as well as the ‘bandit lord’ lay lifeless on the ground. Two cloaked and helmeted figures emerged from the darkness. “Blue demon, of the crimson hand. The kingdom brands you a threat to its peace and to its rule. The knights of Lodeleth, sentence you to death.” “Good.” He took of his left gauntlet, and exposed his arm, the red markings already grew all the way up to his elbow.
The two cloaked knights held daggers in their hands, assassin’s weapons. One of them held a peculiar golden metal cube, lined with runes and other markings. He grabbed one of the townsfolk and threw them at the knights and they quickly sidestepped to avoid them. “Argh! Help- “The civilian suddenly burst with blue energy and the two dodged the explosion. The blue demon jumped through the explosion, unaffected and jumped forward with his palm open to blast blue energy towards one of the knights. His hand glowed blue but it was pulled back without him launching an attack. A rigid metal enclosed on his arm, like a golden geometrical net.
The other knight charged towards him and he could barely react as he stopped the dagger before it could reach his throat. He looked back at the other knight who had the golden spiderweb that came from the cube. The knight held onto it with both hands, bending his hand backwards. “Is that an enchanted weapon, no, a relic!” The blue demon grinned with glee. The blade pushed deeper and he held onto it with his bare hand, causing it to cut and bleed. “It looks like I have underestimated you.” He was forced to take a knee on the ground as he struggled. He yanked hard with his left hand throwing the knight and released his trapped hand from their grasp.
He kicked the other knight backwards and their dagger hurtled off. He blasted a spear of energy towards one knight and he blocked it with the golden cube as it shifted to become a compact shield. The other knight pulled out another obsidian black dagger and swiftly lunged at him. He caught the attack with his left arm and it glowed as he crushed it, destroying armor, and bending it irreversibly. Without hesitation the knight dropped the dagger and caught it with their other arm, and swiftly slashed upwards, causing him to jump back in surprise but still getting cut across the chest. He quickly aimed his palm forward to unleash a blast before he fell face first, the golden web attaching to his leg and tripped him forward.
As he fell, he punched the ground, creating a shockwave and propelling him to the air. He changed direction and aimed a downward strike at the knight who had the relic. He crashed onto the ground and struck the spiderweb shield and the ground shook with the impact. It clasped onto his arm, and the knight slashed at him with their dagger. The relic was affixed to their hands, and as the blade came towards him, he stepped back, and kept his distance, keeping the relic as a means of separation from him and the short blade. The cloaked knight who had been injured ran in and brought down their dagger on him and he caught it with his right hand effortlessly. “I’ve already found a counter to your attacks.” Suddenly a lance of flame extended from the dagger and thrust toward him. The thin line of fire shot through the air and he ducked under it, his arm still bound to the relic.
But the other knight did the same and before he could react, a lance of fire punctured through his chest. And then he lay on the floor with one knee and went limp. His hand sparked alit with blazing blue energy, and he pulled harder on the golden net. “How!? The relic is to suppress your power!” He stood up, the flame lance still pierced through him and he used the golden web to release its grip on its previous wielder and struck their hand, making the dagger fly off. He retracted and extended it and grabbed onto the knight’s face, throwing them onto the ground. He swung the net and struck the other knight with the body.
“I thank you knights, assassins, for my newest toy.” He retracted it back into a tiny cube and threw it to his other hand, the two shadow knights did not squander this opportunity and continued their assault. He pounded with his palm onto the ground and a massive explosion erupted. He moved in the cover of the blast and caught the injured knight off guard, he bound their arms with the relic and sent out a lightning quick jab to the torso, puncturing flesh and armor. He tossed the carcass aside and sent out a wave of energy towards the other knight knocking them to the ground.
He extended the net and pulled the knight to his location. With one quick motion, he raised his palm towards the knight. He shot with a quick blast, punching through metal, skin, flesh, and bone and metal again on the other side, leaving a crater on the ground. He felt something pierce through his foot. The knight he had punched through was barely holding on and plunged what remained of the dagger into him. He swiftly kicked them in the face, and their body finally went limp. He sighed deeply. He held out his left arm and clenched his fist tightly. The inside of his hand glowed, like his blood shone with crimson energy.
“For a second there I thought I might lose.” His flesh stitched itself together, and the bleeding from his wounds stopped as his injuries healed instantly. “But it was just as expected.” An image formed from sparks of blue energy and settled atop his palm. It showed him standing victoriously holding a square-shaped object over the bodies of two fallen cloaked figures. “But now, I’m not so sure about this one.” He looked over the horizon and the piercing glow of a crimson light shone in the distance. Fire and destruction lay across the battlefield, and only one figure stood amidst the chaos. Felkin coiled his sword and faced down the blue demon, who had his arms wide inviting challenge.