stereotypical surprise

the carriage suddenly stopped as the driver shouted into the carriage

"some fucking idiots decided to fight you guys, probably some newbie bandits, get ready!"

as the party heard this, they hurriedly stepped out, Boa had to get out too, if he didn't the protection wouldn't count. he sighed as he looked at the bandits, they were mostly males five males and two females, they all wore pretty ragged and worn out clothes. they looked pretty pathetic their attemps seemed understandable.

Boa moved forward and pushed the old tank to the side

"ı'll deal with them."

the old man got angry and stopped him by grabbing his shoulder

"boy! didn't we just talk about this?"

Boa sighed

"come on, by looking at them you can understand that they are not better than those wolves, ı can take them on easily!"

"look boy-"

Boa slapped his hand of and unsheatened his sword while advancing forward, 

the posture of the bandits were horrible, each one held their weapons differently and they were all in an wrong place that they could hurt eachother if attacked, it was clear that these bandits were trying to do this out of thier bad fates

"give us all the money you got kid!"

"look at him unsheatening his sword, he thinks he is something!"

the bandits were trash talking but their words didnt match their faces at all, Boa moved forvard as the old tank stopped his party members. he stopped them because he was sure Boa would be defeated and this would be a good lesson for him, this boy didn't even wear body armor and only went on with an helmet. surely he relied on his swordsmanship

the bandits rushed forward 

[the bandits will be called out by numbers to avoid unnesecary misunderstandings]

the first bandit lunged forward with his sword pointing at boa, the second bandit shot an arrow as the third started to chant a magic spell

as the first bandits charge and the tip of the sword was aimed badly, Boa simply changed their trajectory and continued his movement by slashing the arrow, he kicked the first bandit in the guts as he stumbled and fell to the ground, Boa picked the arrow head and threw it to the mage distrupting her chant

"you bastard!"

the second bandit shot an arrow again as the other bandits joined the fight, the third bandit started to chant her magic again as the fourth bandit joined in chanting, the fifth bandit held an axe and an shield as the sixth held and blade the charged forward to bash and slash Boa

Boa stepped back resulting in their attacks to go to waste and disturb their balances, the arrow missed, he sweeped with his leg to make them fall down and he stomped their heads as he saw a flame arrow and an ice shard fastly aproaching him, Boa forgot the mages as he was finishing the other ones. he couldn't dodge this and if he didn't the people would be suspicious, he didnt have no body armor. Boa had to think out an 'skill' in this small second. Boa had found a new ability of his helmet, it was improved thinking, he could see the time slowing down, sadly his body would be slowed down also he quickly came up with an plan, he moved his arms into a blocking position, when the magic attacks came in contact, he threw his hands sideways and 'destroyed' the attacks

the mages was dumbfounded as they sweated a little, another arrow got shot to Boa but with his new ability he catched the arrow in the middle of the air. this made the bandits shocked again, Boa smirked as he felt a little push on his head, he looked at his right to see the seventh bandit holding an bented sword, the bandit looked at his sword then at Boa with wide eyes. boa made him fly with an punch and then he looked at the direction of the other bandits, as he slowly approached them they kneeled down and bowed their heads down

Boa's smirk fided away when he saw this 

"please forgive us!!!"

"tch.."

the three bandits bowed their heads on their knees. Boa sighed and turned back to get a rope only to see his party members open mouths, the old man was scrathing his head. he just saw the boy destroy magic attacks with a block, what kind of skill was that? and the sword dent when he got hit, the arrow catch at the middle of the air? who the hell is this guy? 

Boa got a rope from inside of the carriage and tied the bandits. the only problem was what were they going to do with this? sure they had captured them but they couldn't take them along and they couldn't leave them alone.

they had decided to set them free, Boa in his toughts had a small glipse of an tought 'it would be easier to kill them, if we set them free they will surely do this again' after he realized what he had tought he flinched and furrowed his brows, how could he think of killing these people? Boa felt like this was not himself.

after some time Boa cleaned his mind from those negative toughts and focused on the recent fight, at the time he got his brain to focus on the movement and an solution everything almost stopped , he could predict the movements as there was a set speed. he could simply move his hand to the place of his target in the opposing speed of the attack, his body was slow to get his commands but he could block those attacks in that wery close timespan that felt like hours to him.

this was cool, if Boa had somehow found a way to keep on his body with his mind he could almost stop time and still move. this was an overpowered ability, the other people had one minute to reply an answer but he got hours to think about it, in a metaphorical way ofcourse.

but for his body to be able to be as fast as his brain would be almost impossible to him right now. Boa now would excersize every day but how could he excersize he didnt know any movements

as boa tought about this, a window appeared right infront of him, 

[early options had been discovered! your helmet will undergo an class promotion and evolve!] [will you evolve your helmet right now? y/n]

Boa's eyes widened after he saw this information, he grinned and almost chose the yes option before thinking again, what if the helmet evolved in a flashy way? he didn't want to create a ruckus. Boa would wait untill the night came and would proceed then.

the short haired girl saw the curl on Boa's lips, it was the first time she saw him smile, it was an good opportunity to strike an converation. she also wanted to ask about his strenght and the fight

"you look happy, is it because of your win?"

Boa flinched , her words had snapped him back to reality and he was in good mood, so he acctually talked

"yes and no, it is related."

she raised an eyebrow but didn't ask as she didn't want to lose the opportunity to talk, his voice was soft and warm instead the way he talked usually

"so how did you block those magic attacks?"

Boa had already gone trough this conversation on his head

"its an skill that lets me block and destroy simple magic attacks."

this raised suspicion on her, she never heard any skill like that

"what about the arrow?"

"its trajectory was simple enough ı just needed to catch it."

this sounded simple but it was not simple to do at all! she shrugged it off

"what about the time that the sword dented after hitting your helmet?"

Boa smiled and tapped his helmet

"you can't harm this helmet, even if an dragon breathes fire to it it will stay untouched!"

the girl giggled after hearing this, she tought Boa had an defense skill, at the conclusion for her: this boy was strong as hell!

"ı never asked your name" 

the girl asked boas name

"my name is Boa"

"mines alicia, nice to meet you finally!"

Boa smiled before he realised what was he doing right now, he coughed and got his tone to its old cold and immovable one and turned around to avoid looking at alicia

meanwhile alicia was pretty happy that she got to talk to Boa.

the carriage continued to move towards the forest