43 Retaliation Clash

Dante was clearly not a happy man, and Galahad understood why. The man discovered sixteen of his men and women were killed by this arrogant and scrawny looking boy who barely passed for an adult. And then the first thing the boy does in that confrontation was act all daring enough to make jokes at his expense. Plus, Galahad didn't even know about what had become of Symora or that he broke her entire being from ever coming back to reality.

It seemed to Galahad that he appeared to Dante as an malfunctioning idiot thanks to the shock he received, but Dante didn't know Galahad was stalling as he looked through the list in his brain, scrolling and reading as quickly as he could.

Dante knew from the beginning that Galahad must have been the same person to take out his team near the highway, but he wanted to be sure. So surprisingly to Galahad, he responded to the stupid quip and with a question and not an all-out assault.

"Are you the one who killed Gigan and his men? The one who brought a cliff down on them?" He sternly asked.

Galahad raised his sword bit, pretending to still feel the after affects of the shock. "I don't know about any men. I did meet a boy who is being trained to reel in victims of a slaughter site and made some interesting friends right after. Whatever became of them afterwards was their own fault." Galahad replied.

Dante made a face at Galahad but still stood in front of the growing hole of flames. He seemed completely stuck to the spot and continued.

"So you murder my men, think you can steal our treasures, and try to wage a one-man war against us? I commend you for your abilities, but nothing more. You lack a form of control over your power that I can refine. If you're willing to join." His voice sounded dead serious about the offer, but that only confused Galahad.

'Now why is he all talk and no bite? He was willing to shock me not too long ago, now he wants me to join. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was stalling same as me.'

"Sorry, but I have prior arrangements. Maybe next time." Galahad replied as he acted like he was in a daze, stumbling like the shock was still affecting his legs.

Dante didn't react to Galahad's refusal, but he never planned on truly giving the offer. He was waiting until the blue diamond on the long black hilt of the claymore started to flash a little blue light.

Dante's actions proved he was stalling for the weapon to charge as he swung the two-handed weapon in horizontal motion. The giant blue claymore unleashed an arc of sky blue electricity straight at the spot Galahad was standing.

Had Galahad delayed activating Fury and Fyre or waited to dive under the table any later, he most certainly would have been open to Dante's powerful lightning and killing swings.

'Yep, he was stalling too. That giant magic sword has a recharge time of at least two minutes.' Galahad rolled out from underneath the table covered in cracks and red flames. His complete change in appearance only made Dante squint harder at the annoyance before him. He then leaped over the table at the red flaming boy.

As the chase began inside the pavilion tent, the wall Dante shot lightning through was still growing with fire. The sounds of action and multiple lightning strikes drew the attention of the twenty or so bandits that remained, leading everyone to gather around the tent as the fight continued.

No one stepped in to help their boss for a number of reasons. Some were not willing to risk their lives in the crossfire, others knew this fight belonged to Dante alone, and the rest were scheming on how to take over as leader if Dante were to somehow lose.

At first they thought the battle would end quickly as it started, but the doubts of Dante winning grew with each swing he missed. Galahad had managed to avoid the huge reach of Dante's weapon, some dodges very narrowly escaped and he even manage to get a quick occasional stab towards his bigger opponent. It wasn't until half the walls of the tent were missing that someone decided to start intervening.

A dark-haired male archer poised an arrow toward Galahad and released it straight at the back of his neck. The man smirked at the thought of the foolish intruder dying by his hands, imagining the praising rewards Dante would give him for stepping up. It smiled until the arrow missed Galahad's neck and only grazed his shoulder. Somehow managed to dodge the wind of the shot at just the right moment, confusing many bandits watching.

"Did you see that?"

"He saw the arrow coming without even looking."

"Who is this guy? Is he a mage, assassin, or a swordsman?"

The archer cursed at himself as the whispers went around at his miss, he was supposively the best archer in the Fangs of Nyt. Now it seemed Galahad was tarnishing his reputation.

'Heh, the psycho elf could shoot way faster than that.' Galahad mocked the insolent archer in his mind, he too busy dodging another lightning strike from Dante to make his thoughts vocal.

The archer began arching another arrow, but Dante shouted this time from inside the still burning tent.

"Do not let this bastard think for a moment that his strength can match our own. He doesn't deserve a quick death of an arrow, only the pain of electrocution by my hand alone." He growled.

Galahad stood on the other side of the tent, trying to discreetly shuffle closer to the barrel of orbs. He was still rapidly scrolling through the list, aimlessly looking at this point for some orbs to consume.

It wasn't until Galahad finally found an orb saying something besides [ Locked ], that he started grinning again. A familiar popping noise went off in the barrel.

Blue mist rose from inside the barrel and straight into the little cut made from the grazing arrow, resealing the skin.

Some of the bandits witnessed the smoke and were dumbfounded. They wanted to say something about the strange sight; but with how angry Dante seemed and the possibility of the flames playing tricks, they thought it best not to speak out.

They just started lying to themselves and thought about the flames on Galahad's body and the orange cracks were simply throwing them off.

"Perfect, just gotta grab more later." Galahad said to himself, before jumping out the back end of the burning tent with a fistful of orbs.

Dante had turned around just in time to witness Galahad fleeing, he cursed at him as the red flames disappeared and the intruder darted into the darkened areas between the tents, lost to their vision. Dante screamed for someone to find him, the situation became even worse.

It was one thing for him to stay and fight to the death, but if Galahad escaped and returned after killing nearly half his men with more fighters, they'd only suffer even more.

Galahad was now the bane of their existence, his survival and actions hurt them; if he were to attack again or reveal the camp's location to the authorities, they'd certainly be done for.

'All of the times for him to come, why now.' Dante thought with clenched fists. 'He destroyed half the camp's size, rendered Symora unconscious, and now were gonna have to fight the winter season with very few hunters. Damn the New Royals and this stupid deal, they've made him our enemy now.

And all this nonsense for what? A handful of mana orbs for him and supplies for their war? Why is there such a reason for either one of them to take such a risk with us.'

Dante thought all this with only angry faced flared at everyone as they came back empty handed from the search. Galahad seemed to have slipped out the other entrance of the camp, making Dante curse his situation even more.

"All right, pull everything down now!" He shouted to his remaining men and women. "The tents and lights are only giving him cover. If we circle up and leave, him fleeing like a coward to the authorities would be useless for him."

As everyone set off to leave, Arma came running out between the crowd and right to Dante, who kneeled down to speak with him.

He grabbed Arma by the shoulders, speaking in a far more grave tone than before. "Listen closely you need to send out Croten and watch for that intruder again.

He may seem strong to everyone, but he is using speed and his smaller size against us. I don't want anyone getting near him as we move to the next location. I need the two of you to find him, can you do that?"

Arma only frivolously nodded before running off.

Dante felt a headache brewing behind his eyes and concern burning in his heart. His whole situation seemed to have been flipped from the happy day he was experiencing earlier. Now everything was falling apart in the silence of the night.

'Wait, what?'

Then Dante realized his camp shouldn't have been silent. It should have been bustling with the Fangs of Nyt trying to pack up. Why did it seem so quiet?

"You really should have just let me take control from the beginning." Said a nonchalant voice behind him.

Dante turned to see the cloaked female standing between him and the burning skeleton of the tent. The flickering cinders behind her shined a bit of light around her hood, providing enough visibility for Dante to see the wicked smile curling her face.

"Where were . . . You did this, you did this to my men. You're the reason this is happening!" Dante accused the New Royal loyalist with rage seething through his every word.

She let out a chuckle and snort at Dante's anger. Treating his tone like it was the temper tantrum of a little toddler.

"Oh please. I had no need for doing such reckless things in a camp of that was full 'greed' as you put it. I truly was the only servant in this place, that boy didn't come with me. I only used his distraction as an opportunity." She seemed to hold back more chuckles to

Dante glared at her until he realized she was talking in past tense. He looked around to see in the shadows of the night, his comrades stood silently at attention. Including some with snapped necks or stab wounds in their chest.

Her eyes started glowing brightly beneath her hood, and everyone else's began glowing with a grey light in the pupils of their eyes. They were all under her control.

"Ahh, now the big oaf understands. Meet the newest member's of the Royals of New." She said cheerfully before she began laughing hysterically as Dante was swarmed by the the husks of what were once his followers.

*****

Galahad wasn't dumb enough to keep fighting Dante inside the tent. He knew if the fight turned to his favor, he was just gonna get jumped by the rest of the bandit camp. So during Dante's little outburst about he made a hasty retreat in the other direction. The shock of his actions made him get away fairly clearly.

But Galahad knew that wasn't going to be enough. He ran to the edge of the camp and found the river that acted as a boundary of protection.

'I can only hope the water is still a bit warm from the fall weather.' He hoped until making a dive straight into the frigid water to find ice chunks hitting him with the power of the river's current.

A current that led straight back to the direction he just came from.

'Oof, that's real fucking brisk. I really hope they're not dumb enough to check in the river.' He thought without realizing the irony until he climbed out of the water half a mile down the stream.

Now his enemies were going to be stretched out across the camp waiting for him to walk back around the giant hill, or trying to get back to his cart. They'd have no idea that he was already back at the beginning at such short notice.

Galahad slowly made his way out of the water and crawled low to the ground while uncontrollably shivering from the cold. The wind was far worse than the water now, it was biting at him as his jacket and clothes stuck to his body like icy second skin.

'Gods this may have been a mistake. Let's only hope they aren't ready for round two.' He thought while trying to suppress the chattering of his teeth.

And so he reentered the camp from the same spot he started that night, having no idea the new enemy that awaited him.