“Honestly, despite the years I’ve been through, one thing that still surprised me to this day is to see people who killed others, then start being surprised when someone kills them back. It was as if they thought they were immune to being killed or something, due to their status or whatever, and it happened far too often to even consider it a coincidence anymore.

Seriously, how self-centered, delusional, and foolish must someone be to even be able to think like that?” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Take down these wenches, n- ack!”

Another of the bandits – one of the women – had just started yelling at the others to attack when all of a sudden, Aideen seemed to blur in their sights as she covered the ten meters that still separated her from the bandits within moments. None of the “bandits” managed to react until after Aideen already struck the yelling woman’s throat with a thrust of her staff.

While Aideen had not set the blades of her weapon in place, a forceful thrust of the heavy metal staff, with all her weight behind it to boot, coupled with the momentum of her dash, combined into more than enough force to not just crush the female bandit’s windpipe, but also to snap her spinal cord in twain like it was nothing more than a twig, sending her convulsing body to the ground.

Aideen had not stopped there either.

Just as some of the bandits were beginning to react, she whirled her staff diagonally around herself. The tip on one end struck another nearby bandit with enough force to crumple his nose up into his skull and into his skull’s cavity, while the tip on the other side struck just above the base of another bandit’s skull from behind, the force seemingly undiminished despite the impact from the other end, instantly slaying the bandit.

Naturally, the skill she displayed – as well as her physical abilities, as while it was well within the range of capabilities of what a human could do, the vast majority of people would have never trained their bodies and reflexes to the level Aideen had done over the centuries – made the rest of the bandits wary of her, which they displayed by striking at her with whatever weapons they had in hand, often in rather haphazard, panicked manner.

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While taking a hit from their weapons would have been little more than an inconvenience for her – it was not like physical injuries could even threaten Aideen, and besides she could have it healed up in moments anyway – habit and instincts still took over as she weaved and dodged her way through the flurry of blows from the bandits, avoiding, deflecting, and blocking them deftly.

If Aideen wanted to finish a fight as soon as possible, she would have prioritized offense instead, simply taking the hits as they come while healing every wound she took. In this case, however she was more relaxed, as there were only her and Celia engaging the majority of the bandits, Calais being left with only one well-softened bandit to practice with, so she took her time and even watched how the others were doing.

Celia still lacked the almost preternatural reaction speed Aideen displayed, and the way she fought also differed, since the oversized sword-staff she used was designed for heavy, vicious chops more than anything else.

Despite its weight, Aideen’s staff was a very well-balanced weapon, one that could literally be balanced on top of a finger if the finger was placed right below its center point. As a result, it was also far easier to use once one got used to the weight and the techniques to allow the momentum from the weapon’s movement to flow from one strike to another.

Celia’s weapon was more top-heavy in contrast, and she relied on that carryover momentum from her strikes even more. Her swings were broad and sweeping, often threatening more than one enemy to back off even as she struck another down. Although the blade wasn’t particularly sharp, the mass behind it meant that even if it didn’t cut through, it would likely still crush bones regardless.

While the younger unliving woman might have been sluggish with her weapon at first, after decades of constant practice she was more than capable of moving her weapon around as if it was a regular polearm instead. Still, those on the receiving end of her strikes would have to face the combination of mass and speed behind them, often a lesson many learned the hard way.

Aideen smiled even as she deflected one bandit’s spear into another’s gut, because she saw how Celia had just cleaved through the spear of a different bandit who made the mistake of trying to block a swing from her with the shaft of his weapon. The result was not just said bandit’s weapon being chopped into halves, but also the blade of Celia’s sword-staff embedding itself halfway through his torso from the side, having severed one of his arms along the way.

Further in the back, Calais held his own well against the injured bandit who was wildly swinging his mace around, though a bit too timidly for Aideen’s taste. Then again, the boy – she couldn’t help but think of him as one – was probably not used to killing others, so his reaction was perfectly understandable in some ways.

It mattered little either way, as the remaining twenty or so bandits quickly lost their nerve once Aideen and Celia cut down half their numbers without even being slowed by the effort, and a few started trying to escape. At that point Aideen left the ones who were still fighting to Celia as she picked up a dead bandit’s weapon and hurled it at the runners, repeating the process until she got all of them.

By the time they were done, the only bandit who was still alive was the one Calais had been fighting, and even that bandit was in bad shape, with one of his arms and legs each broken as he laid pitifully on the ground, still bleeding profusely from his mouth, where Aideen had removed more than half of his teeth.

All his pleading might have been able to stay Calais from delivering a final blow, but they had no such effect on Aideen once she walked back.