A Taste of Violence

They thought this was going to be easy. That he was barely a man, just a boy wet behind the ears. They had surrounded this side of the tavern, and with mounted horses they were sure he couldn't escape their grasp. Most of the gang hung back, letting the few with a penchant for hurting people take care of it. Three men walked forward, and their intentions were clearly written on their faces.

Jon took stock of them first. The largest of them was outfitted with a short sword, and two sheathed daggers, one in each of his boots. He took heavy steps, and Jon felt confident the man didn't know how to use his weight.

Beside him was another man, with a wicked grin on his face. To Jon, he looked like an idiot, so he mentally named him Clownface. Clownface was sporting a short sword as well, and a leather sash that hung 6 daggers in sheathes on it. He was already holding one of them in his hand tightly, exposing that he was already excited.

The last one was quieter, holding a machete and buckler. His filthy face and beard were his most striking features, his boots were in disrepair and his clothing was tattered in various places. Jon had the impression that this was quite possibly a very disturbed individual. The glint in the bum's eyes was enough to know he needed to be put down.

Having surveilled his immediate attackers, he spared a glance to look over the rest. The group as a whole were poorly equipped. Only the three mounted men, Reek Dagger included, had long swords, and there was only one person with a bow. There weren't any crossbows, and no metal armour. Some wore wood plating with plenty of gaps, but a few depended on thick leathers. Likely, this gang mostly thought no one would ever oppose them, and neglected to wear the hot and heavy leathers that might save their life in a real fight.

Jon suspected this gang lacked the discipline to have a few trained archers. To properly utilise the bow, you had to train heavily and regularly to maintain the strength needed to shoot an arrow at any appreciable speed. You'd also needed to fletch arrows constantly to replenish the supply. Archers were extremely useful in the right situations, but this gang probably never experienced any opposition to be wary of.

Even the mounted men weren't much. They had long swords, but no armor and the saddles they were on weren't meant for fighting. They could have easily slipped loose in an extended battle that pushed both rider and horse to the limits. Jon shouldn't be surprised though, he could tell this was a very poor area. Most of the gang members had short swords because long swords were costly to make. The expertise needed to make a strong long sword wasn't everywhere, and it would take a lot of metal to make. Especially if the smith wasn't experienced. An unbalanced sword would just cause your own death in the heat of battle if you relied on it, so you might as well melt it down and reforge it until it was made right. That took time, energy, metal and money. In the end, this was just a ragtag group of bandits that Jon had no reason to fear.

Jon's eyes snapped back to the assailants in front of him. "Davius, you better get inside. Close the door and stay away from the walls."

With that, he sprung forward at the big guy. The large man took a large swing with his short sword in reaction, but Jon simply side-stepped it. It was easy for him to see the direction and momentum of the swing, and the big guy had swung too hard! As the swing passed, Jon grabbed at his arm and pulled down, while at the same time planting his foot to trip his assailant. The big guy began to tumble, and Jon half-crouched to grab his foot and pull upward to fully flip the lout! His hands were nimble and his body responded just as he wanted to. Jon felt a rush of adrenalin as he grabbed the dagger from one of the lout's boots.

Clownface had followed closely behind the big one, and by now was striking out with his sword too! Jon expertly deflected the sword strike in the nick of time, and quickly changed directions to slash at his wrist! Clownface dropped the sword, his smug grin wiped off his face and replaced with an expression of pain and disbelief as he dropped the dagger in his other hand to grab his bleeding wrist.

Another strike came at Jon! The crazed bum had struck right after Jon had slashed the last enemy, so Jon barely was able to bring his dagger back to position to defend. It actually wasn't a bad swing, coming from an untrained fighter. This one had a little weight behind it, and the short sword's blade bit into the wooden hilt of Jon's dagger. Reacting instanting, Jon jumped a little, absorbing the impact of the strike and letting it throw him back a couple feet. Right beside Clownface.

He stabbed his dagger into Clownface's neck, the blade plunging deep into the muscles! Quickly ripping it out, hot blood spurted upwards into the bright noon sky! After quickly taking another dagger from Clownface's sash, he threw the bloody dagger at the crazed bum's face! Jon was again mildly surprised when the buckler came up to block the knife. It was a fast reflex, but Jon was already throwing another dagger with his other hand at his enemy's gut! Once the bum had blocked his vision with the buckler, he was totally unprepared for the dagger that came from below. It struck him deep in his abdomen on his right side!

Jon took a few steps and stomped just perfectly on the hilt of Clownface's sword. It flipped up, straight into Jon's hands, and he thrust it into the chest of the big guy who had just righted himself and was rising from the floor. Even for a big guy, this idiot was slow.

The bum slumped to the floor at this moment. He had pulled out the dagger, and fainted from shock. Likely he would die within a few minutes as well. The fool should have left the blade in and endured the pain. But he wasn't a professionally trained soldier, and hadn't prepared himself for the thousand thousand situations he could encounter on a battlefield.

The gang was shocked at this moment. Everything had all happened too quickly, and suddenly this boy of fifteen had cut down men near twice his size! Jon took advantage of their momentary paralysis, and grabbed the shortsword nearest him and a few of daggers from Clownface's dead body. He shoved dagger, sheath and all, into his own boot and a couple into his belt. Grabbing one more for his free hand, he ran along the tavern wall, charging at another enemy!

The gang woke up to the situation and moved to action! All of them yelled angrily at Jon, but Jon calmly ignored it. Emotions and excitement might lend aid to the strength of your arm, but it would slow the mind and make your movements less precise. Jon was a precision machine, oiled and perfectly in sync. His body couldn't help feeling at least a little excitement and adrenaline, but he made sure his breathing and mind were calm to offset it.

By now Jon had reached another assailant, but this time he was armed. He deflected a sword strike to the side, and flowed past him, his dagger slicing open the man's gut! It wasn't deep enough to kill him immediately, but he'd bleed out unless it was bandaged right away. At this time, he kept his eye on the archer, who was standing beside the mounted men.

Jon made sure the keep a man between him and the archer at all times, now that he had reached the periphery of the gang's encirclement. He retreated a bit by bit, lunging in for the kill whenever someone was inattentive or overstepped. Three more men fell by the method, bringing the total dead to seven now. His retreat lured the gang in, fooling them into thinking they should keep fighting, but Jon only laughed inside. The moment they realized they couldn't kill him, or tried to run from him, cleaning up these ruffians would become quite the chore.

Right now, the mounted men, the leaders of the gang, stayed in the back. They couldn't charge forward with their horses, as they'd more likely crash into a wall, but they slowly drew closer and closer to the fight, trying to keep a handle on the situation.

By now, the gangsters were wary of getting too close. Each of them had become nervous to approach, and just did their part to surround and contain Jon. Jon wasn't concerned though. He knew how to break through at any time. He was just waiting.

The archer was eager to shoot at Jon. His long hours of practice would finally pay off, and he'd likely be celebrated as a hero by his gang. Walking forward, he kept moving around the brigands blocking his way, moving closer and closer.

Finally, the only real annoyance to Jon could be removed. Right when the archer was about to start aiming over the shoulder of a fellow, Jon threw a dagger at him and charged in his direction! The skittish gangsters shied away from the dagger, reacting more than thinking, or else they'd realize daggers didn't throw very well over more than a few feet. Not with the force needed to kill a man, and not with the strength of a fifteen year old boy. He had become a demon in their minds by now, and every action by him was equivalent to death!

Slashing aside any swords half-heartedly pointed in his direction, he stabbed a dagger into the arm of a swordsman blocking his path to the archer. Wrenching the dagger and the arm upward, he made a gap he slipped under, and thrust out with his sword at the archer! The archer was slow to react, as his view had been obscured by the crowding men, and screamed as the blade plunged deep into his side! In the chaos, Jon quickly and expertly killed the injured swordsman and another one beside him with couple of quick slashes to vital areas!

Having pushed himself into the fray, Jon was more surrounded on all sides, and seemingly had given up an advantage. But Jon was close to one of the mounted men now, close enough to throw a threatening dagger at the man. It stabbed into the leg of the rider, causing him to scream! Jon had bought another moment of confusion, and charged forward again. As the horse began to panic and jumped up and down in fright, Jon threw another dagger into the neck of the rider, killing him instantly!

It was at this moment where Dagger Reek realized what a monster he had provoked!

"RUN!!!" His yell threw everyone into a panic, and the gang began to run for the village entrance!

Jon grabbed the reins of the horse, kicked the rider out of his saddle and mounted the saddle himself! He grabbed the long sword as the rider fell out, and kicked the sides of the horse, urging it onwards! The horse had been bucking and in a panic at this time, but given a command to run forwards, it obeyed that gladly! It was easier to just run from the strange situation, so it charged after the other horses!

Dagger Reek galloped in a manic rush to the exit, but Jon was catching up! Jon laughed at the riding skills of these bandits too, as they didn't shift their weight and move with their horses. Instead, they restrained their horses, making it difficult for them to breathe with their clamped legs and ill-timed kicks to urge them on.

Jon swung the longsword out at the second rider, lopping off his head in a clean slice! Even on a horse he was an expert fighter! It didn't even slow him down, as he continued to chase down Dagger Reek!

Dagger Reek took out his sword, and swung backwards at Jon's horse as he neared! But Jon predicted the movement, and had tugged the horses head out of the way with the reins, a moment before. Dagger Reek had exposed his vital points at this moment, and Jon easily threw his last dagger at Reek's head! It slammed straight into his stupid face, launching his head and body backwards and unbalancing the horse! The rider and steed both went flying and crashed in front of the village entrance, crushing Dagger Reek's body further.

At the moment, Jon was ahead of the other bandits. He had killed thirteen of them, and he had passed seven more chasing after the mounted enemies. He turned around to see them all stopped in the middle of the road, desperate and despairing. They were exhausted by this mad run, and didn't know what to do now that their leader was dead.

"Stop now. Discard your weapons and follow me back to the tavern."

Disheartedly, they had no choice but to obey. This silver-haired demon was invincible, and they couldn't think of anyway to resist.

In front of the tavern, jon had the living gang members kneel. Then he called out to Davius.

"Davius, tell me about these men." Jon watched his prisoners attentively. He sat on the horse, looking strong and powerful in the bright sunlight! He struck an imposing figure, and Davius was stunned looking out at him.

"KILL THE BASTARDS!" The crowd shouted! The villagers, meek and jovial before, had turned vicious with red eyes. They piled out of the tavern to spit and curse at the criminals.

"Is my daughter still alive, you fucks?!" Another man screamed at them, overcome with emotion.

"QUIET!" Jon yelled! His domineering presence instantly shut up the crowd. His acts of violence were beyond their comprehension, and he was ineffable in their eyes.

"Davius. Tell me about these men." Jon repeated.

Davius began to nervously describe Dagger Reek's gang of men.

"These men are… These men were bandits, terrorizing the four villages of the Outlands. They'd come and kidnap our daughters or wives when they needed people, and demanded food and drink whenever they wanted. We were never able to properly resist… Dagger Reek nearly burned down Fairsummer village when they tried…"

Davius himself wanted retribution. He was scared, but beneath that he was also angry at the harm Dagger Reek and his men had done to his precious village and his villagers. But it was one thing to dream about something, and another thing to ask someone to kill a man. In this case, it wasn't even one!

Jon dismounted from the horse. Looking deeply at Davius. He could tell that Davius was truly a good man, and it was touching.

"Do you know where they took the women?"

"Yes. They made themselves a little fort a little distance from here. About an hour's walk in that direction."

Jon looked at the captives, who were trembling at his gaze. In a detached voice, he asked "Do we need them alive for anything?".

Davius' eyes widened at the question. He knew where this was leading… Remembering the pain they had brought, he steeled his heart.

"No. Nothing."

Jon turned to the criminals. It was chilling to the crowd how a young boy could hold the lives of these men that had been terrorizing them for years.

"Lie down. You have lived disgraceful lives, but at the least you can die with dignity."

A couple of the men began to cry, but the rest had seen this moment coming. They lied down, ready to accept their inevitable fate.

Jon executed them without any further words. He had no pity whatsoever, and he had killed too many in his life by now to hesitate in the slightest.

"Okay. Let's go get your people back."