Feb 18 Update: I only updated the breaks in the lines so nothing new. Sorry :/
What to do, what to do, were Darren's first thoughts as he carefully observed the new group of people that were about to intrude on Counter Village's borders. Sure, they seemed official as their party had a Magi along with a group of knights in tow, but, they could also be very well funded bandits that were looking for their next big score. For the past few hours Darren had used a few roaches to follow the passing group to better understand if they were a threat. And after careful consideration and observation of the group he had come to an answer.
Darren could steamroll these guys in a second flat.
The group of knights seemed battled hardened already, but there were only a few notable exceptions such as who seemed to be the lead knight. Abraham, Darren believed that was his name if the other man, who was apparently the guy's nephew, who said it was correct. With that, his attention was brought to the nephew, Jones. This knight was young and looked nervous, but he seemed ready to fight if the time called for one to be fought. And finally, the Magi, which he assumed to be from the robes the man wore rather than the shined plate armor that the knights had equipped and his earlier arrogance as well being a typical characteristic of Magi. Although, now, the Magi seemed ready to bolt at the slightest hint of a fight.
Each of the other knights looked like they could handle a Beta Wildling if they worked in pairs, but Darren wondered how they would holdout against a human enemy. As luck would have it, this contingent of people were being stalked by a roving group of bandits for the past few minutes.
Earlier when Darren had been alerted by some of his zerglings, it turned out to be a ragtag group of men that had been resting after walking aimlessly through the forest. They each either wore a mismatch of clothing and armor or wore the bare minimum to cover themselves up from the elements. Most of the men were armed with rusted swords and blocky looking hammers with a few others were armed with bows and knives. The largest and stockiest of the men, probably the leader, had the most armor on his person along with a well-used war hammer that was slung over his back. He was also one hell of a mean bastard.
"Boys," the man started as he looked at everyone gathered around him, "I know we've had a spot of bad luck lately and I've been hearing a few naysayers talking about how I run things around here lately. So, I've got a solution to make sure that our little peace is kept." The man pointed at one of his men watching him.
"Jeffey, come're." The man in question gave a confused look but still went to the leader.
"Yeah, Boss," the man asked, "What is it?" Boss got next to the man and wrapped an arm around the other's shoulders.
"Jeffey," Boss started as the bandits watch interested, "I remember when I found you in that sorry excuse of a village a few months and you begged me to let you come with us. Remember that Jeffey?" Jeffey went to answer but was interrupted by Boss. "Of course, you remember that day! It was one of my more profitable raids, your village was. Anyway Jeffey, I heard that you were planning something for a while now." At those words, Jeffey went pale and started struggling to get out of Boss's grip as it suddenly grew tighter. "I heard from a little bird that you were planning to get rid of me soon. I said to myself, 'Impossible! Not good old Jeffey. He's been a good friend for quite a while now.' Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the little bird was right."
In a flash of movement, Boss held Jeffey with one arm around his throat and the other pressing down on the back of Jeffey's head. Boss slowly squeezed his arms and, in a panic, Jeffey tried to pry the arm from his throat, but trying to do so was like pulling on a metal beam. Boss brought his mouth to Jeffey's ear.
"You really shouldn't have done that Jeffey," Boss whispered menacingly. He raised his head and turned to address the rest of the men.
"I don't like traitors in my band and if I hear of anything else like this happening ever again...," Boss said as he slowly put pressure into squeezing Jeffey's neck. Jeffey continued to struggle until everyone heard the gut-wrenching sound.
CRUNCH
Once Boss was sure that Jeffey had died, he dropped the body like a sack of potatoes and turned towards the watching crowd.
"If I ever hear or even suspect that any of you are planning something behind my back, then your gonna wish you went out like dear old Jeffey," Boss said as he slowly observed his crew. As he finished his little speech, a scout ran towards Boss. Without even glancing at the still warm body, the scout quickly whispered in Boss's ear and stepped back after he had finished. Boss had a contemplative look on his face, but he seemed to come to a conclusion rather quickly.
"Boys," he addressed the crowd with a twisted grin, "it seems we got a little group headed our way. Get everyone ready, it's time for a little payday!"
After shadowing the bandits with roaches for some time, Darren had found the group that the bandits were about to claim as their next victims. As the bandits began to arrange themselves for an ambush, Abraham stopped everyone with a closed fist raised next to him.
"We're being watched."
With those words, all movement from the bandits stopped. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut through as the knights slowly began to arm themselves, everyone waiting for some unknown signal. Bow strings pulled back slowly as the bandits took aim and waited for someone to fire off the first shot.
WHISS
An arrow was sent flying straight toward Jones who had turned to look behind himself. He heard the sound and turned to see the arrow about to impale him. He couldn't raise his shield in time to stop the arrow, nor could he move quickly enough to dodge it.
CLANK
Thankfully, he didn't need to as the arrow was stopped inches from his body courtesy of Abraham who had seen the arrow speeding towards his nephew. Abraham had swiftly brought up his shield in time to stop the arrow and gave a quick glance to where the arrow had come from. Time paused for a moment until a battle cry came from the surrounding trees as bandits began to pour through. There was only one appropriate way to respond to the threat.
"Ambush!" Abraham snarled as he charged to meet the tide. "Form up on me and charge!"
With Abraham at the lead, the group of knights charged head first into the band of bandits, knocking them over and trampling more than a few unfortunates. The knights' training shone through as, in a matter of moments into the charge, half of the bandits had been killed. Swords slashed through the air and severed limbs while the horses crushed anyone in their path.
However, some bandits had gotten a few lucky hits some knights which took them off of their horses. Most of the dismounted knights got up and began to fight off the bandits that had surrounded while a couple were ganged up on and killed. Abraham, seeing the trouble that his knights were in, decided a change of plan was needed.
"Group up on those off their horses! Cover each other and prepare t-"
WHAM
Abraham flew as a war hammer smashed him off his horse and onto the ground leaving him nearly comatose.
"Uncle!"
In an act of pure instinct, Abraham willed himself to roll to the side as a large war hammer landed where his head was just a second ago. He got up and made a quick assessment of himself noting a medium sized dent in his armor where he was struck and the loss of his helmet. He was still equipped with a standard sword and shield as most knights carried.
Abraham looked over to see one of the largest men he had ever witnessed in his life lift the war hammer that had nearly brained him onto his shoulder as easily as a child holding a stick and give him a menacing grin. The large bandit began gathering everyone's attention.
"Everyone shut your traps," the bandit yelled out. The fighting slowed until everyone focused on the man.
"I have to say," the bandit said slowly circling Abraham with him copying his movements at a distance, "I'm not impressed in the slightest. When I heard that a few knights and a Magi were coming our way, I was expecting a challenge! What I got was so much more disappointing. Some old man, a few people playing hero, and I don't even see the 'feared' Magi anywhere."
At those words, Abraham's eyes quickly moved around the area and settled back on the bandit once he had confirmed the bandit's words. Magi Cael was nowhere to be found. Abraham had hoped that the Magi would have helped them in anyway but seeing the Magi's demeanor before the fight even began made him question the man's usefulness. At best, the man had run back to the town to get help, and at worst, they had been left to die.
"Now," the bandit started, "in the usual manner of things, I would usually just sick my boys on you, steal from you, then kill you if I felt like it. And at the moment right now," the bandit leader looked over the bodies of some of his subordinates, "I feel like killing you just for the hell of it. But I like to think of myself as a reasonable man when I'm not killing everyone that pisses me off. So, I'll give you a choice right now knighty." The bandit made a motion with his hand and the surrounding bandits began to form a circle around the remaining knights.
"You fight me, one in one, and I'll let you and your men go if you win," the bandit said.
"And if I lose?" replied Abraham. The bandit gave him a twisted grin.
"I'm sure we both know what'll happen if you lose, knighty."
"Then I'll just have to finish this quickly." One moment Abraham stopped moving and in the next moment he had moved right in front of the bandit with his sword in an overhead swing. The bandit's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but he recovered quickly and brought up his war hammer to block the attack just before the sword embedded itself in his head. He gave Abraham a look.
"I thought that knights were supposed to be honorable in every way?" Abraham just gave the look back to the bandit.
"For you," Abraham said as he glared into the bandit's eyes, "I'll make an exception." The bandit started at him as they continued to push against each other until the bandit backed off and jumped back to gain a bit of distance. He gave Abraham a twisted grin.
"You," he pointed at Abraham with his war hammer, "I like you, knighty." The bandit looked over his weapon and prepared himself for a fight. "And just so you know, the name's Boss."
Boss rushed Abraham with a swing of his war hammer towards Abraham's left side. Abraham used his shield to redirect the blow, but in the process the war hammer shredded the shield. Abraham threw the scraped shield at Boss's face and charged forwards to capitalize on the moment Boss used his hammer to block the shield. He swung his sword from his right side, but Boss had dodged out of the way and swung again which nearly clipped the side of Abraham's head.
The knight took a few steps back to gain some distance and examined Boss to see if there was anything he could exploit. After a short second, he charged the bandit again and prepared to swing.
"Not gonna work knighty," Boss crowed. As Boss prepared to block the swing, Abraham stopped suddenly and instead of swinging his sword, he thrust it instead. The sword clipped the handle of the war hammer and made a cut on Boss's ribs. But that didn't deter Boss as he brought the war hammer handle around Abraham and began crushing him between himself and his war hammer. Abraham's arms were pinned uselessly against his sides as his armor was slowly being squeezed from the pressure.
"This is it, knighty," Boss gloated as he continued crushing the man, "You're gonna die and I'm gon- Argh!" Abraham shut the man up with a quick headbutt to the bandit's nose and stepped back as the bandit held his bleeding nose. Abraham swung his sword again aiming to finish the fight and Boss attempted to dodge out of the way. However, Boss misjudged the sword's arc.
SHLICK
Time stopped as everyone stared at the stump where Boss's left arm from the elbow up used to be. He reached out to his new stump in shock.
"M-m-my arm. My gods damned arm! Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!" Boss got down to his knees and started to curl up on himself as the pain started to set in. Abraham simply looked at him with a neutral stare.
"You're beaten. My men and I will be leaving now. Hopefully, we never see each other ever again or I'll finish what you started." Abraham turned away and began walking back until he heard a slight rusting. He turned back to see Boss nearly on him with a knife.
"I'll kill you, you ruddy bast-"
CLONK
The bandit was knocked aside and quickly passed out due to exhaustion and blood loss. Jones quickly looked over the part of his shield that knocked out Boss then turned to address his captain/uncle.
"Sir!" Jones snapped a quick salute. "What should we do with the prisoners?" Abraham looked over at what knights remained surrounding a group of defeated bandits.
"Finish them off," Abraham commanded, "We don't have the capability to deal with prisoners right now and I don't think letting bandits go to wreak havoc somewhere else would be the right course of action."
"Yes sir," Jones said as he went back to the knights to relay the orders. Abraham turned back to Boss to finish him off, but he stopped in place. There was only a puddle of blood where the bandit was a second ago.
Boss was gone.