The night was young and still delicate and the moon threatened to remain dormant throughout. This was good, this was the exact cover that allowed creatures to act, sequestered within blankets and blankets of darkness. Under the guise of obscurity, a young man crouched, hiding underneath the bushes so that his red hair matched the color of the red leaves. His hand held onto a sword eagerly, already having it unsheathed in anticipation of battle.

Despite his anxiety, he was patient, he was waiting for someone...a signal perhaps. Just 30 meters in front of him, his targets lay asleep, a group of 11 men huddled under dark tents with their red banner flailing under the howling wind. The banner consisted of a dismembered wolven head chewing on its own corpse. They were bandits. The Manged Eaters.

3 days back, he and his friends had crossed a small village suffering from the grasp of the rogue military units. They deserted their lords merely to pursue a life of carnage, thieving and extortion.

Normally, he wouldn't have thought to come after them, but after hearing of their actions, he decided it best that he kill them. They were a group that not only extorted the village constantly, but killed all who tried to pass through the greenwood. His destination relied heavily upon passing through this forest, else he take a full years trip to reach it.

Vel took the moment to stroke his red hair, scratching his scalp with his right hand before doing a low whistle that could easily be mistaken for a bird. He had given it a few minutes which he believed would have been appropriate for his comrades to prepare. This plan relied heavily upon them.

The rogue's slept in formation, one man remained awake at all times, serving as a lookout, while the rest sleep. There were 6 tents total all huddled around the small tongues of flame. For the most part, all of them seemed fast asleep. All, but the watchman. He remained seated, arms crossed and back resting on his own sword he stabbed into the ground.

He whistled again awaiting for the signal he sent. Still no response. Vel grew increasingly impatient, whistling louder so that even the bandit might hear him. The watchman did hear, alerting his attention for just a second as he tried to entertain the possibility of what he heard being a beaked flying creature.

The man's hands uncrossed and he slowly reached for his sword behind his back. He didn't want to wake up his comrades for something that might have possibly been just a false alarm, so he remained silent as he moved to get up. However, he didn't get far.

Not a moment sooner after his hand reached his sword, did an arrow whiz through the air nestling itself comfortably between his eyes, just above his brow. The arrow dug deep, piercing his head all the way through the other side. He died instantly, his muscles tensed up from the split second realization before his death. He slumped back having not withdrawn the sword at all and resting against it.

That was the signal he had been waiting for. Vel and 3 other's unfurled from their cover, running towards the camp as silently as they could. The man to his left was a tall slender male, carrying two daggers and a plethora of knives on his person, wrapped in loose leather apparel.

It didn't do much for protecting against damage, but then again, he was light on his feet. He most-probably didn't take any damage at all in combat. The other man was, in contrast, much bigger than the first. He was a heavy giant build, almost fat, garnering an axe in his hand.

To the behemoth's left was a girl, very lightweight and short, she ran ever so gracefully with her long brown hair blowing behind her. She held a sword, and a wooden shield she had retrieved from the villagers. The girl that shot the arrow, rested 40 meters away, perched atop one of the many trees in the forest. He had waited for her to find a comfortable discreet location in which she could shoot and kill everything without being seen.

Moving as quietly, yet as quickly as they could, the 4 converged upon the camp. The giant one, Orin, swung his ax down on one of the tents, its edges piercing the fabrics as it glided, catching the man in his wake just one inch below shoulder. The guy got up instantly, screaming, before Orin did another strike, and a 3rd one and finally silenced the man.

The others began to rise on high alert, some stepping out of their tent confused, other's already garnering a blade in their hands. This was the moment that decided the course of events...kill as many while they were still disoriented. Immediately after the second man emerged from his tent, Orin brought his ax down on the man's head.

Traveling to another target. Raven had been crouching and as the men all exited their tents, Orin drew in most of the attention. With swift fluidity, Raven's dagger dug into the neck of one of the unarmed, and turning over to stab another man in the chest. It failed, for the bandit blocked his attempt, taking the stab right into his forearm before bringing his sword around and over his head, attempting to slice Raven straight down the middle.

Out of the entire group, Raven was the only one that actually held combat experience, having been one of the soldiers trained and honed in the war of scars. With smooth brevity, he let go of his other dagger, closing in the distance between the man and himself so that they stood just a centimeter apart.

This ruined whatever strike he attempted to do, as it lacked distance. His knee rose up, pummeling the lad's stomach and as he brought his knee to the sky, he withdrew a dagger from his shins, bringing it up right into the man's clavicle. The rogue convulsed quickly gasping for air and clawing at the dagger.

It was a big mistake to remove it because immediately upon doing so, blood spurted out in immense streams and the man fell to his knees.

One of the others turned to him, with a kick sending Raven sprawling to the ground. The man that attacked him was a lot older than expected, his gray hair and beard framing the sides of his face. Upon having him fall over, he stomped on Raven's chest with force unprecedented for his age.

Raven struggled to remove his foot but to no avail. Luckily for him, the old man held no weaponry, but another one with a scar was turning towards Raven with his sword drawn in an attempt to stab him.

Just then a sword peaked out of the old man's rib cage. It was the girl, Ralva. Her thin rapier blade protruded from inside the man's back to the front of his rib cage, just on the right side. Raven held back the urge to laugh. He realized that she intended on stabbing his heart, but didn't take into consideration that from behind, her left, is the man's left. So the heart would be right where she originally thought.

She scowled because she knew he had noticed. She then brought the shield down on the old man's neck, throwing him to the ground. The weight shifted off of Raven's chest and he turned to trip the rogue with the scar. At the same time, Ralva slammed her shield against the scarred one's head. He was sent tumbling down but grasped onto raven on the way down, choking him. Raven met him with a dagger in his stomach and quickly tossed the guy aside.

Ralva helped him to his feet quickly and his eyes shifted around the area. All but 2 were dead. One of them were fighting Orin, and the other was locked in combat with Vel.

Orin had abandoned his axe in the ribs of a bandit he killed just prior. The two now engaged in hand to hand combat, which Raven disregarded with lack of interest. He knew Orin would win. Not only was Orin two times bigger than his opponent, but his layer of fat was almost impenetrable, he should know, he had once attempted to fight Orin hand to hand.

The other fight, however, was alarming.

Vel was not much of a fighter, he became too anxious in combat was way too inexperienced. He was hesitating in all his attacks and remained entirely on the defensive. It was bad, any further in the direction he was headed, and he would have surely make a mistake somewhere and die.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

While Vel was an expert at thieving and sneaking, combat he lacked greatly in. Raven nodded to Ralva who was headed towards the direction of the fight after recovering her rapier from the old man. Upon realizing Ralva's intentions, Vel's opponent turned his attention to her, believing her a much more worthy opponent. He kicked tripped Vel and instantly turned towards the lady with his 4 foot blade.

Ralva caught the sword with her own, and lurched forward. The man had attempted to withdraw his blade, but realized something...he couldn't lift it. The blade was trapped within the hilt of the rapier, just what they were designed for, before he could recover and instead pull his sword backward instead of up, Ralva had closed in the distance and clawed at the man's eyes, digging her long nails deep into them.

He cried out and dropped his sword, clutching at his eyes. Ralva didn't show any mercy, taking her rapier and shoving the blade into under the man's chin and through his head. She withdrew her rapier shortly after his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

Velharys got up, and thanked Ralva for helping her, noting that he would have done fine without it, which was just like him. A few minutes passed as they treated the match between Orin and the scrawny fellow as an entertainment piece, watching though already knowing the outcome.

After the landing his first blow to Orin's head, the short lad seemed surprised. He actually landed a hit that seemed to effect the behemoth. This victory was short-lived, because for whatever reason- be it surprise, or contempt, he had ignored Orin's grab for him. It was slow enough for anyone to have realized.

Orin placed both hands on the lad's shoulder picking him up and slamming him heavily into the ground. A noise seemed to hollow out through the entire camp. He was unconscious...or dead. The latter sounded more believable. Orin stood up, looking at the 3 behind him. "Well, guess we can go get Etski now." He said.

The camp was entirely destroyed. Most of the bandits not only lacked knowledge in combat, but were greatly fearful in actual sight of death. They must have only went around grounding small fry and bullying weaker villages. Should a royal army have passed by, they would have all surrendered without a fight.

Etski still remained in her elevated position. She had been the archer that bolted the watchman earlier. But she also saw the entire battle from her elevated position, not having shot a single arrow.

Her accuracy was great with a bow and arrow, so it surprised him that she did not participate in the series of events from where she was. Then again, noting her personality, it was easily understandable why she wouldn't want to. "She's lazy...and mean." Raven thought. He silently nodded to Orin's words and went over to pick up his fallen daggers. He always kept a full supply, having no less than 8 daggers on him at a time. He hated having less.

They were foolish. The battle was not yet over, and to believe so, only allowed an opening.Raven was occupied picking up his daggers from the corpses, and Ralva killing the remaining living beings. Orin had already slipped away to call Etski over. Between all this, they were utterly defenseless.

Their attentions all became cought the moment something rose from within the nearest tent to them, just behind Vel. A man even bigger than Orin rose from within.

His hand clutched onto a 3 foot hammer with a pointed pommel. His hammer swept to the right, striking Vel right in the ribs and a shattering noise hollowed out. Another strike came over Vel's shoulder and his giant hand clutched onto Vel's arm. "You two, drop them." He said in a hushed low voice. He aimed the pointed end of his hammer to Vel's neck.

Raven groaned. He had been in this situation all too many times before. They will lower their weapons, and slide it to him, only to have him kill Vel anyways and go for the rest of them.

A few moments passed by before Ralva set down her blade...raven followed her lead, setting down his 3 daggers he had picked up, and to make it more convincing, he set down 2 more. He played on the fact that the giant had no idea he had more. "All of them." He said looking to Raven.

He cursed under his breath removing 4 more daggers from his back and 2 from underneath his sleeves. "Don't play with me" The bandit said, before sticking the knife closer to Vel's neck. Removing his light leather tunic, Raven revealed the inside of it...all lined with rows upon rows of knives and daggers, tucked underneath the raps in directions that made them harmless to him.

Ralva seemed shocked having seen the full amount. The man nodded "Now...I'm going to ask you all a question and I want you all to try and answer as best as you can." He coughed "Why shouldn't I jam the end of my hammer down this lad's throat?" He looked pissed. "I've spent years developing this group of loyal subjects...years. And in one night, you 4 foolish idiots, kill them all."

There was a bitter silence amongst everyone there and the man smirked. As did Raven. He said 4...meaning he was completely unaware of-

Whatever thought he had was disrupted by a long silence as the leader dropped his giant hammer, let go of Vel and dropped to the ground. In his head were 3 different arrows. Three all shot at once. Etski.

Raven and Ralva both let out a sigh of relief. Vel slumped over, catching his breath and holding his broken shoulder. Raven observed the man with secrecy. It always amused him how Vel constantly survived situations with minimal injury. His shoulder should have been broken, but they both knew it wasn't, nor was his ribs.

Vel had been in plenty situations that end up with him getting injured but never were the injuries serious, that was something Raven had noticed. Though he couldn't for the life of him find out why. For whatever reason, his party remained oblivious to this aspect.

He had first run into this group a year ago in the city of Exidon. They were an unruly group of three, docking into the city's ports on a pirate ship. The city was in panic, for the masts bore the flag of the notorious Skullers. A pirate group form Hellios that continued to terrorize the north.

The ship came crashing down into the ports, shattering the entire dock. Vel, Ralva, Orin, and Etski. They were the only living four aboard the ship. Slaughtered remains of the entire pirate crew lay scattered across the ship as if a massacre had occurred.

They, remained in chains tied amongst the mast, claiming they were captured long before and were to be traded into slavery before a rival group slaughtered everyone aboard. They were the only spared. Raven never bought that story when he saw the group. They looked too healthy, too well fed, and too unperturbed by the events they had faced.

While it was not uncommon for those that have survived the war of scars, it was very strange not to celebrate living another day. Vel eventually told Raven the "truth" later on. They were actually stow-aways, and got caught within the middle of two major battles.

They set themselves in handcuffs purposely to avoid any confusion of their situation amongst the guards and everyone else. Something still didn't stick with either arguments they had put forth, but Raven didn't care to pry.

Over the months he'd known him, he had come to respect Vel's leadership and critical thinking. While he wasn't much for combat, he knew so much essentials about survival, combat tactics, and setting up traps.

It was in-fact, Vel that set this entire plan into motion. Besides the fact, had it not been for Vel, Raven was almost certain that either him, or the others in the group would have ended up killing each other. They were not on close terms. The only one even remotely acknowledging of him, was Ralva- and even then it was a more rivalrous relation.

Ralva helped him up, carrying his arm over her shoulder and letting him rest his head on her lap as he lay down. She removed his shirt, to observe the severity of his wounds. "You really need to be careful more. It's almost as if this kind of thing happens to you more than all four of us combined."

That was a statement that couldn't be any more closer to the truth. He had been in a multitude of situations since raven had met him, and god knows however many else. Ralva removed his tunic observing a much worse sight than she had originally thought.

He did get pierced by his earlier opponent, a long thin scar trailing down his chest to his lower left abdomen. It was luckily just an inch too shallow to have reached any damaging vitals. The rib-shattering strike he received earlier, however, caused him to bleed profusely from the scar. She gasped horrified, her fingers trembling as she traced her hand over the scar.

She seemed moved to tears, but bit her tongue. "Seriously...you have to" Vel sighed and reached his hand over to her's removing it from his chest. "I know...I got too careless and didn't take the time to observe the battlefield. The fight wasn't over yet, and I wasn't aware of it." Just then, Etski cut in "-Luckily for you, I was." she said in her self-dignifying voice.

"I was counting the number of people in the battlefield. Only 10 out of 11 were dead." Orin then added "That was a bit too close for to be celebrating this as a victory. We'll count our losses." He nodded staring at Vel's wound. He sat up, paying no heed to the injury.

Now the scar he had on his chest matched the one he acquired on his back during the war of scars. He propped himself up as Ralva wiped off the blood from his chest. "I know." He added one more time, more annoyed than sincere. The sternness in his voice was a dismissal of the topic altogether.

"We'll set up camp here, and sleep for the night." He said, nodding for them to clear away the bodies. Raven didn't favor the thought of sleeping amongst cadavers, particularly ones he was responsible for, but he didn't contest Vel's decision. Over time he had come to respect Vel, perhaps just as much as the others did.

That night, they all went to sleep in the bloodied tents of their fallen victims. In the morning, there was a bigger battle awaiting them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't know what events transpired on the night the great 3 disappeared...but if I ever find the one responsible, be it man, woman, animal, or even infant, I swear I'll make their world a living hell."- General Locus, 1214 R.C.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------