We paused so that Hideyoshi could gather our unfortunate captive and toss him over his shoulder. Once we got closer to the bandit camp we'd untie him far enough to let him walk in front of us and act as a guide, but he'd be spending most of the trip slung across the back of his horse.

Cargo collected, we made our way for the rendezvous point.

"How many of them are there?" I asked. It didn't matter that much. After all, our side would be the only one with sword saints. Still, we might need to take precautions to make sure we could round up all of them if the numbers were too high.

"More than twenty, less than thirty," Hideyoshi said. "He didn't know for sure."

Criminals weren't exactly known for their accurate record keeping. Whether it was twenty or thirty wouldn't make much difference. I'd just have to hang back a bit from the fighting and make sure to clean up any stragglers.

I felt a little uneasy about the executions that would need to be carried out. After all, I'd grown up in a country where the death penalty was rarely applied, and was only even considered for the most heinous of crimes. This new life had put me in a rougher place. For all the courtesies involved in noble society, you didn't have to go far down the chain before people were living very close to the edge.

The theft of a bag of rice might be a misdemeanor only worthy of a fine when you were shoplifting from a big chain store. When you were stealing half of somebody's winter stores, though, it was a matter of life and death.

Not that these bandits were limiting themselves to simple theft. Judging from the attitude shown by the first bandit I'd met upon being confronted by a teenage girl, I was confident that they were engaged in far more nefarious activities as well. 

In any event, it would end tonight.

Our captive led us up further into the mountains. The road that had led to the village from Lord Ota's camp was more of a hiking trail than anything else. As we moved further into the mountains, we were walking on game trails or through untouched wilderness. This sort of territory hadn't been far from anarchy to begin with. After years of civil war, we were possibly the first government forces to set foot here in decades.

I kept my eyes peeled for danger, but our walk was uneventful. We weren't up against an army of thousands here, so there was no need for a complicated battle plan. I instructed the men that as soon as we came within sight of the bandit camp they were to attack without hesitation or mercy. We were outnumbered, after all, and my students were only half sword saints at best. Surprise and aggression would negate those disadvantages, while magic would tilt things heavily in our favor.

After several hours of walking, the forest began to thin out. We were high up on the side of the mountain. There was a beautiful view into the valley below. The rugged terrain wasn't really suitable for human development, even if it would look lovely on tourist brochures someday.

Our involuntary guide was walking out in front of us. In the trackless wilderness it was hard to determine where to go from a mere verbal direction. It also provided us with some protection on the off chance that the bandits had built traps into the approaches to their base.

I kept my mana out around me out of habit more than anything else. When I wasn't using it to actively apply pressure to anything, just keeping track of what was around me, I could sense in a sphere with a roughly twenty pace radius. Mostly it helped make sure that I didn't miss any steps, but it would also let me know if our guide did anything clever like hopping over a pit trap. It would give me some warning if we came under attack, but I didn't expect that to happen. At least not until a pair of arrows came flying towards us.

One of them was going to miss all of us and fall to the ground. The other was headed straight for Harumasa. I did mean to get around to training my students on how to defend themselves from projectiles, but I knew that subjecting them to live fire right now would be counterproductive. Fortunately, I only needed to take two steps forward to be able to swat it out of the air.

There was a brief moment of silence before everybody else realized we were under attack.

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"Run! Run and save yourselves—" was all our guide managed to get out, before Hideyoshi cut him down. Well, he wouldn't have been much use as a hostage, considering the way that bandits typically operated.

I stared forward, tracking back the path taken by the arrows. One of the bowmen was straight ahead, a little ways off the path. The other was up in the treetops, taking advantage of the extra height to shoot a little farther. That was the one who had almost killed one of my students.

"Remember, push forward and attack!" I said. "I'll take care of the one in the trees."

I didn't wait around for a response. I'd managed to drill enough basic discipline into my students that I didn't have to worry about micromanaging them on the battlefield. Instead, it was better for me to focus on the areas where I had a competitive advantage.

I darted forward, moving straight toward my target. He fired another arrow to try and fend me off. It would have hit me, an impressive feat considering how fast I was going. I batted it out of the air as soon as it came within arm's reach. I saw movement in the treetop as I drew close. It seemed the would-be assassin had realized he was outmatched. It was a little late for that, though.

I hit the tree going at a pretty good clip. I ran several long steps up the trunk before digging my toes into the bark and jumping up to the nearest major branch. I kept moving, running out along the branch towards the bowman. I could see him now, running pell-mell along the branch, bow slung over his back as he prepared to make a jump to the next tree. I was impressed that he made it safely across, but I didn't slow down. If I gave him time to take aim and fire, he could very well hit one of my students while I wasn't there to protect them.

I leapt from the first branch just as he was landing. He didn't manage to take more than three steps before I caught up with him. I kept my sword in front of me and plunged it straight through his back as I kept running forward, finally pinning him to the trunk of the tree.

He groaned as I pulled his bow and quiver free from his possession. I'd never used a bow before, but I could certainly see the appeal of contributing to the battle without getting into arm's reach of any enemy soldiers. A gun would have been even better. Well, maybe not, considering the state of the art was a matchlock musket. A bow and arrow might not be worth much against a true sword saint, but that didn't make it completely useless.

I pulled my sword free from the tree trunk and let the bandit fall down to the forest floor below. The limp crunch of impact echoed up from below as I flicked the blood free from the sword. The magic imbued into the wood made it easy to clean. I could jump right into the thick of things, but in a fight like this where we had an overwhelming advantage I wanted to try something new. I tucked my sword away on my belt and hefted the bow in my left hand.

From my vantage point, I could see the ongoing battle below. I took a few steps out on the limb to give myself a better view. There were some trees in the way, but I could still more or less see what was going on. 

The bandits had made their hideout in a cave set into the side of the mountain. The cave itself was a few hundred yards away, but most of the fighting was taking place at about half that distance. It looked like the bandits had spilled out into a counter-charge as soon as the alarm had been sounded.

It also looked like my students were winning handily, as expected. Despite being outnumbered by two or three times, all of the bodies that I could see lying on the ground were bandits. It helped that we had shown up armored and ready for battle, of course, but the real equalizing factor was that we had magic and they didn't

It was a relief to confirm that I wasn't urgently needed for the fight. Time for an experiment. I drew an arrow and nocked it to the bow, sighting down its length. I'd never actually fired a bow and arrow before, but I understood the basic principles. With the strength I'd built up over the years through magical training, drawing the string back was easy. I wasn't sure exactly how far the arrow would fly, and to be honest I was a little unclear on how to aim it from side to side too. It didn't come with a scope, after all.

I picked out a bandit towards the back of the group and did my best to draw a bead on him. He was well away from my students, so even if I missed, at least I wouldn't be harming my own side.

When I let the arrow fly, I could feel its initial flight path through the mana I kept around me. I knew right away that I wasn't going to hit my target. Either my aim or my execution had been badly off. I also hadn't aimed upwards much at all, and the arrow was dropping faster than I'd expected. I watched with a sinking feeling in my stomach as the arrow headed for the front lines of the battle. I'd never live this down if I managed to shoot my own students in the back.

Fortunately, the worst case scenario didn't come to pass. It was a close run thing, though. It looked like the arrow was going to take Hideyoshi through the neck, but at the last second he turned out of the way as he moved to attack a bandit. The arrow whipped through the open space to catch another bandit in the throat as he moved to double team my student.

I sighed in relief, then slung the bow and quiver over my shoulder. I should have known that I would need to practice with a weapon before I used it in real combat. Look at all the training that I did with the sword before I dared to show off my skills in public.