Team Exercise - Part 2

Samuel quickly jumped over logs and stones and ran up from the side, there was an ever so small creek outside the cavern so the water revealed his presence before the two bandits at the campfire saw him, the slight splashing made them both jump up and try and draw their swords.

Unfortunately for them Samuel had taken them completely off guard, he was upon them quicker than they both could react. Samuel instantly with the hilt of his sword knocked right into the first bandits head, knocking him out cold - unfortunately that did give the second bandit the time to back up and draw his sword.

The bandit went to scream to his allies in the cave, but he suddenly noticed no sound was coming out of his mouth and his eyes went wide in panic leaving him full of openings that Samuel abused, knocking his sword out of the way with ease and then suckerpunching the bandit with as much strength he could muster.

The unfortunate bandit got knocked out cold as well, but not before his feet lifted off the ground and he was sent flying a few meters. Samuel double checked that they were actually out cold as his teammates joined him, Ulma was filled with new innocent hope that maybe they didn't need to kill anyone after all.

Samuel nodded at Ulma who conjured magical vines that would keep them bound and gagged for enough time that the rangers could collect them. While Sonya let go of her silencing spell that had covered a small area around the campfire the moment before Samuel had struck the first bandit. Erica made herself useful by checking their surroundings to make sure they were still undiscovered.

Samuel nodded to them all. "Keep it up like that and we won't need to shed much blood!" He whispered as he dragged the bandits bodies into the side of the forest so they would not lie in the open, just in case some bandits strolled out.

He once again took point after making sure they were hidden and continued the slow walk into the cavern. Damp and cold quickly replaced the outside feeling of warmth, the others followed him into the cavern keeping a relatively safe distance between them. Sonya staying back a bit to always double check their back, eventually they came into what looked like a built in mineshaft that had been remade into a base.

Samuel checked each corridor and each sideroom as they delved in further, he found every room empty however which left him confused, after a few minutes of continuing their walk he finally started hearing voices, most of the areas had been dimly lit by torches and area ahead looked like it was well lit. So he motioned for them to start sneaking forward and he started almost crawling.

They arrived in a large rectangular room that stretched on a long way in both directions, it looked like a large assembly hall, fortunately they arrived at a staircase that led down both left and right into the room. With a small railing covering the top of the stair Samuel took looks left and right and saw no one standing up on the staircase where they were. So he took a few more steps forward and looked over the railing into the large hall, there were at least twelve bandits in there sitting and eating or talking.

Which made him a bit nervous, there were a lot of them in here and he had no idea if this was all of them. But he saw at the end opposite of his stairs was a larger table with another bandit sitting with heavy armor, he was obviously the leader of the bandits, but next to him sat an individual in robes with a small smile. All of them were humans which surprised Samuel, considering all the different races that lived in the Republic.

Samuel started to crawl back a bit when suddenly something yanked him forward over the railings making him fall down on with a small yelp, luckily he came crashing down on a table and crashed through it hidding the floor with most of the impact gone he still coughed and slowly started trying to get back up.

"My oh my, it looks like we have company from a little student that has wandered to far from home!" The bandit leader spoke making all the other bandits draw their weapons and stand up with laughs. Samuel felt someone jumping down behind him and he saw that it was a shadow like phantom that had grabbed and pushed him as it slowly hovered above in the air.

He looked at the robed figure and he felt the magic presence around him, they had a spellcaster. "Yes yes, I am a mage and I noticed you the moment you came in! I saw the magic." The spellcaster said in a raspy voice.

Samuel stood on his feet and drew two blades. "Well, you better surrender or the rangers that are coming soon will kill you all." Samuel tried stalling with a fake threat, but unfortunately it had the opposite effect. "We take no chances!" The leader shouted. "Cut the kids head off and pack your things." He said with a grin as his underlings started walking towards Samuel with killing intent.

Samuel backed off as much as he could until he suddenly felt the wall behind him which made him sweat, there was no way he could take on twelve of them at the same time.

"INFIRO!!!" Sonya's voice suddenly resounded as a small ball of fire came crashing down into the middle of the room. The next thing Samuel heard was the screaming of several individuals as the small ball exploded into a huge ball of fire and setting fire to everything in its vicinity.

The shockwave alone sent most of the bandits stumbling while at least half of them died instantly. Samuel felt the singe of fire reaching him, most of the center of the chamber had been filled with the fire. Sonya was not kidding about being able to cast spells of higher level. Samuel noticed the four remaining bandits in front of him were stumbling because of the shockwave so he quickly dispatched two of their heads from their bodies. Running his sword through the heart of the third one, while the fourth one parried left and then right and slashed from above - to which Samuel blocked with one sword and ran the other through the bandits gut.

He heard yelling as Ulma's voice screamed his name. "Look out Sam!" Samuel turned around and saw the shade creature swoop towards him and suddenly his left eye was taken out as the creature sliced the left side of his face.

All he had managed to do was fall backwards to lessen the damage.