3 Slaughter in the Suburbs

Outskirts of Sendra, a small town east of Yanoku: Summer of the red moon.

Zedd was hard on the witch's trail. He knew that she was in Ash Lake, a city of outlaws. 'She planned her escape very nicely. But she left a trail behind. Lucky I met Dismas back then,' Zedd thought as he urged his mare to run faster. 

 'It's good that I planted one of my Little Fairies in her belongings.' Zedd had an unusual power. Not only was he a strong fighter, he was also a magic user of sorts. His magic was ancestral, more powerful than that used by sorcerers and witches in the four continents, but bound by strict rules. 

He saw shadows in the distance. Three riders were approaching him. They looked like they had eyes but for him. Zedd looked around. The road he was riding through was surrounded by rubble. He was in an old Oasis. Nobody lived there anymore. Only the sound of wind howling in the dried up well could be heard. 

Where housed used to stand; only rubble remained. He could sense the presence of more than two dozen men behind the debris. 'I didn't think the outlaws had become so bold. To get so close to Sendra… The Chancellor and his Custodians are getting sloppy,' he thought as he cast a spell to conceal his real face. 

"Oy!" one of the riders shouted. "S'cuse me sir, we're lost. S'pose you could show us the way?" 

'Classic!" he thought as he scanned the approaching riders. 

"I suppose," Zedd shouted back. "Come closer, I'll even escort you to your destination if possible." 

The three riders grinned. One of them had lost most of his front teeth. Another had a broken, swollen nose. "Thank the Gods we found you kind sir!" The rider that first spoke reached Zedd. His eyes feigned terror, although he wasn't much of an actor. 

"What happened to you?" Zedd asked.

"We was attacked kind sir. The bandits came at us from behind the walls. They was so many sir. We had to flee, leave our families behind." The rider spoke quickly barely breathing between syllables. By the time he finished speaking. The other two riders reached Zedd. Each of them stood on one side. He was surrounded. 

"I assume that the bandits you speak of are hiding behind the pile of rubble that surrounds us," Zedd said as he eyed each of the skinny bandits. 

"Yes sir!" the first rider said, his grin growing larger by the second. 

Zedd let out a long sigh then looked at the three riders surrounding him. "The story you just told me. Was it of a family you just robbed?" 

"What's it to you?" the first rider, who Zedd assumed was the bandit's leader, said. 

"Nothing, I'm just wondering…What type of punishment do you think you deserve?" Zedd was looking at the road ahead of him. He noticed some tracks. It looked like bodies had been dragged through the dust just recently.

The leader of the bandits roared in laughter. It got louder and louder until the other bandits followed suit. "Ya mean to punish us? Us? Yer all alone mister? What can ye do?"

Zedd swiftly swung his sword. His movement was unnoticeable. The moment the bandits heard the sword click, it was already sheathed. The leader's face was cut in half. The upper half slowly slid down to the side then, with a heavy, slurping thud, it fell on the ground. 

The other bandits, terrified, all attacked at once. To their dismay, their swords collided with each other. Zedd was no longer on his horse…

He had vanished and reappeared behind the bandits that hid by the rubble. They heard hysteric screams and the sound of swords clashing. Blood splattered. Heads flew, and the crumbled walls were painted red. The riders, along with the other bandits on the other side of the road, started panicking. 

From behind the rubble Zedd appeared again, slowly walking toward his prey. He was smeared in blood. The others watched, horrorstricken, as the man made his slow approach. 

"Who do you pray to when frightened?" he shouted at the petrified band of outlaws. "Or will you cry for your mother?" 

Zedd instantly appeared beside one of the riders, pointing his sword at his lower parts. Nobody knew how he reached his target so quickly. To the others watching, it felt like he just vanished then reappeared next to the rider. 

"Will you pray that your God, whichever he is, would come and help you?" Zedd asked. 

His eyes were black, his pupils golden and rectangular. In his anger, he'd forgotten to keep the concealing spell active. 

"What – What are you?" the rider asked. 

"Look at them eyes!" a bandit exclaimed.

"Tis the Devil, he got 'em black eyes!" 

All bandits started whispering, some called the man attacking them a Devil. Others called him a sorcerer. Zedd smiled then looked at the group of bandits in front of him. "Go ahead and call me devil if you'd like. Whatever helps you die in peace..." He thrust his sword at the rider's hip joint.

The rider screamed. His high pitched wails penetrated his comrades' ears. With every twist of the sword, the man wailed and begged. The pain was unbearable. His friends could only wince at hearing his screams and pleas. Their legs were too stiff to move, their arms to weak to lift the sword.

The only one who managed to act was the only remaining rider. He kicked his horse and galloped toward Sendra, screaming hysterically as he urged his mount to run faster. 

 "Run boy! Run!" Zedd shouted at the fleeing bandit before he took care of the other ones. 

That day, news reached Sendra. A group of bandits had been decimated by a Devil. The word used to describe the group of brigands wasn't bandits though. The NewsCo decided to use a more appealing title. 

"Slaughter At Sendra's Suburbs!" 

Extra papers were issued and people started speaking of a Devil with black eyes. Zedd however, had no idea of the news spreading around him. If he'd known, he'd be delighted beyond measure. 

'I shouldn't have shown them my real face,' he thought as he kept riding towards Ash Lake. 'But then again, they'll never be ready for it, might as well start now.' Zedd urged his horse to move faster. He was out of sight now. 

"Pharah," he said, addressing his magnificent mare. "There's no one watching now. You can go all out. When you see the city gates, go back to your usual speed." 

The horse neighed then started galloping. At first, the wind started caressing Zedd's face. But as the mare increased its speed, Zedd's eyes started watering. He closed his internal eyelids then continued observing the road. He had to reach the city before the witch suspected Dismas. 

'She's paranoid. She'll no doubt suspect something. If I allow her any opening, she'll surely use it...'

The trap he was preparing for the witch was simple, yet completely out of expectations.