Summary/Disclaimer: Time for another chapter of Swordsmen and Thief. Enjoy the 900-word chapter. I do not own any rights to Fairy Tale, Hiro Mashima, Kodansha and a few others that I may write about.

Clell was beginning to hate bandits with how often they seemed to show up just to try and kill him and his friends.

Then again? What else did bandits do besides try and kill and steal from people? Clell couldn't exactly feel bad for them when this seemed to be ALL bandits did.

"Can I point out just how much this SUCKS?!" Clell shouted before launching his knee into the skull of one of the thugs. "Seriously, I'm hating these constant damn ambushes!" Clell yelled before being forced to duck behind cover.

He didn't know if the thugs were fighting on someone's behalf. If they wanted something from them, or they were just being a pain to begin with.

Then again? He wouldn't put it past them if they had decided to try and hunt them down.

"This is neither the time nor place to really say something like that!" Erza stated as Clell hummed and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, because there's perfectly a good time for this in the first time." Clell muttered to himself before elbowing one of the thugs as the man came to attack him. "Just like I'm sure there's a good time for a bandit attack down the road." Clell snarked before Erza stabbed one of the thugs, making the woman drop to the ground.

Clell made another mental note never to get on Erza's bad side… If it was within his ability to do so at the moment.

"Why haven't they blocked the side roads?" Erza questioned Clell as he hummed, not expecting Erza to give a question like that. Clell didn't really have an answer for a question that seemed to answer itself at the moment.

"Uh… Not part of the usual pirate tactics when it comes down to it." Clell responded before he flicked his knife over and threw the blade into one of the bandits.

The man collapsed in a heap as Clell sighed, forgot he was going to have to pick the weapon up as well.

"Should I also point out not one of them has made a beeline for the convoy itself?" Clell heard from Lucy which caused him to look at the convoy in question.

Not of the bandits had decided to grab the treasure or any of the supplies aboard the trucks. Clell didn't know why they'd put such effort into trying to kill them so much.

Then again? Clell was trying to fight for his life. You didn't exactly need to be able to think to try and stay live. Clell was about to respond to Lucy's words when the attackers started to pull back.

Clell didn't know what to think, maybe they wanted to lore people into a trap and this was their bait.

"What the hell….?" Clell questioned as he pulled one of his knives out of the wounded bandit. The man passed out from the pain of the knife being pulled from his skin. "Didn't they just have us pinned down?" Clell asked before looking at the rest of the group.

Clell sighed and put his weapons back on his hip. He couldn't believe the bandits just decided to give up.

'No, they're not giving up. If they were? They wouldn't be pulling out like this. Whoever brought the bandits here? They weren't playing around at the moment.' Clell thought to himself while rubbing at his eyes.

"Anyone question just what the hell seems to be going on?" Clell asked before brushing at his jacket. He rolled his eyes at the very thought of trying to chase down the bandits.

If they did want something? They would be heading into a trap, and it took time to really prevent the convoy from being attacked when it came down to it.

"Yeah, I want to ask the same exact thing of those bandits." Natsu stated as Clell hummed and then nodded before turning and walking away.

He'd figure out a way to take down the bandits if they came back. It wouldn't do them really any good to deal with this group currently.

"I think they ran off to get reinforcements." Erza stated as Clell hummed. "In any case, we should be gone by the time they come back." Erza added to which Clell nodded.

"Yeah, if we aren't? I don't think the convoy will survive another attack like that one anytime soon." Clell added in before cracking his back.

He looked around and then walked back towards the tree. Cutting them would require a lot of power… Lifting them? That was less hard at the moment.

"This seems like it's a trap in itself." Clell heard from Natsu as Clell shrugged.

"I can't tell if their messing with us or just trying to scare us." Clell stated before cracking his knuckles and starting to examine the tree.

Author Notes

Phew, another chapter done! I want to point out that Clell and the others will be in worse fights down the roads. Next chapter will be in a week on Sunday or so and will show the others camping and other things. Until then, Lighting Wolf out!

P.S: I might make more Fairy Tale stories down the road down hopefully soon.