3 Skirmish

It was a pitch black night, village was lit on fire. A elf child was running around in the forest, and some hooligans were following him and whispering in brawny voice ,

"dawn, that kid got away, he would have fetched quite a price".

Another one speak up,

"no we have to find him, it would add commission to our share, fool".

The child was hiding behind a tree, not far away from them and accidently step upon a branch. It scared him and he start running in the dark alley surrounded by trees. As the child was running, one of the hooligans pursuing him threw an wooden club at child which hit his back but it doesn't stop him.

Speed of child was constantly decreasing as he struggle to move far away from hooligans, the injury caused by club started exhausting him and his vision started to become blurry.

As he was running relentlessly, he thrashed into an 6 feet tall creature with red eyes, staring at him. Child froze up by those bloody red eyes, as child was sitting on ground staring at eyes in terrified way. Hooligans reached the scene and started spouting,

"hey bastard, he is ours get out of here".

The 6 feet creature came out of the shadows and made an appearance under the shine of the moon it was none other than Magnus Rane. On seeing Magnus, hooligan spoke up,

"pretty boy, he is our property get away from him ".

Hearing those words, Magnus glared at them and spoke

"what do you mean by property? ".

Hooligan replied,

"we are giving you last warning get out of here or else don't blame us if you get killed".

Those threats made Magnus laugh and an hooligan raising his sword dashed towards Magnus and slashed his sword but it was stopped in the midair by a black mist taking the shape of the sword.

"people were used to fear on thoughts of crossing swords with me and here you are, dawn bandits" muttering these words, Magnus dashed towards the hooligan and overpowered him with his slashes.

After taking some hits on swords, the arms of the sword bandit went numb. Seeing their partner overpowered, other bandits joined the party. Magnus on seeing the situation spoke up,

"looks like game time is over, lets get serious".

Total number of 4 bandits attacked at Magnus simultaneously but all the attacks were nulled due to overpowered agility of Magnus.

Magnus was shocked on his performance and sloppiness of the bandits. So he pulled himself back and revised his sword technique on bandits. Magnus shouted,

"Hundred viper sword technique"

A gust of wind flown towards the bandits and huge amount of stabs and blood can be seen on the bodies of bandits in the next moment.

Hundred viper sword technique was one of Magnus's original technique in which user controls his breathing and stabs an opponent at different positions at the speed same as that of the biting viper. All the four bandits met their death and an green coloured aura emitted from their bodies and entered in Magnus body. Magnus was confused and spoke up,

"what's happening?",

Orion answered,

"The green aura that just entered your body was lifeforce of these beings ".

Grasping his knowledge on lifeforce from Orion, he went towards child who was unconscious due to exhaustion after being stumbled into him. Magnus checked the child's pulse and it was very weak which was life threatening. Magnus asked Orion if it can help out, Orion advised him to create a healing skill using magic creation.

Magnus followed Orion's advise and created skill and performed it on child. After few moments child opened his eyes and started begging,

"please save my village, my parents", panting and crying.

Seeing the child crying, refreshed one of his bitter memories which turned him into an orphan and then a murderer.

Consolling the child, Magnus lifted him on his back and head towards village entrance. On way they kept on hearing screams, cries and the child just kept on holding his grip more tight on Magnus.

At the village entrance, a bloody scene can be seen. Magnus asked the child to close his eyes until he tells him to open . Any child or adult would be traumatized on seeing his village full of corpses and blood of his friends and relatives.

The scene refreshed the old wounds of Magnus and his fair skin, start brimming with red colour due to his insane anger and hatred.

As he entered the village an female elf carrying her child on seeing Magnus started running towards him. But she was followed by an brawny middle aged bandit with axe in his hand. On seeing the elf, Magnus put the elf child whom he rescued down and hurriedly dashed towards the woman. Bandit threw his axe towards the woman, so she closed her eyes and grabbed her baby tight and put her back towards the projectory of axe. As she closed her eyed waiting for axe, she heard an metal clacking sound and when she opened her eyes Magnus was seen shielding the women.

Bandit froze up on seeing the speed of Magnus with which he dashed towards woman. The distance between the Magnus and woman was of about 60 m and within a fraction of second he reached the woman.

It was like lightening travelling in front of his eyes. Bandit changed his direction and tried to run in opposite direction of Magnus. But it was too late, Magnus grabbed the neck of the bandit and threw him on the wooden wall of the house near him. After the crash, when bandit was preparing for his escape from his predator, a hand grabbed his face and lifted him up. Seeing the red eyes of Magnus, trembled the bandit in fear of death and as he was struggling to free himself from his hand , a strong stab pierced through him but it wasn't the end, continuous supply of stabs were thrashed into the bandit's body until he died. Seeing the scene terrified the woman as Magnus can be seen as epitome of death. Woman closed her eyes and warm sensation travelled through her body, it was the warmth of healing from healing skill Magnus performed.

Coming back to her senses, Woman told Magnus about the battle going on in the centre of the village. After ensuring the safety of both the woman and her baby and another child whom he rescued, Magnus headed towards the centre of village.