Chapter 1: The Hunter, The Prey, and The Scavenger
HA...I....HA, HA...I won. Said the young bandit gasping for breath just before he fell on his ass.
He was giddy, not only was he alive he was the only one of his bandit clan alive. Everything was his. All the weapons, the armor, and the coins of the dead were his. The wagon full of treasure was his, and all the loot back at the hideout was his. A few hours ago, he was a poor runaway farmer's son who dreamed of riches as a powerful bandit. An hour ago, he was one of many in the bandit clan that wished to let this so-called score go. Not even half an hour ago as he and the rest of the bandits got over their shock at what just happened a few moments before and ran into his first battle. Now he was trying to calm himself down so he can claim his prizes.
It all started a few hours ago as a scout of the bandit clan spotted a lone wagon being escorted by 6 church knights. Qinn the leader of the bandit clan brought all 31 members to knock over this one wagon treasure convoy, figuring that 6 church knights were guarding something of great value. After a couple of hours trailing their prey, Qinn still couldn't bring himself to give the order to attack. He knew there was a vast difference between a church-trained knight and a bandit, especially since of the 31-person strong bandit clan only 7 were real bandits, the rest were runaways and lawbreakers that have never been in a real fight.
The six more experienced bandits and Qinn spent the time they were stalking their prey to discuss the pros and cons of attacking. They discussed the 5 knights with dull armor only covering their chests and upper legs with hardened leather boots and gloves, and they discussed the 6th knight's polished armor that covered everything but his head and the large great sword strapped to his back. Sometimes they spoke highly of their chances, but most of the time they didn't. The rest of the bandits listened to the discussion and were becoming more demoralized every time they spoke, and wishing the scout never saw the wagon.
Then it happened. Orin, a 15-year-old who ran away from his village as a lawbreaker to avoid being flogged and locked in a root cellar for a month for stealing food, let loose an arrow. Orin didn't mean to fire the arrow, he was just bored and started playing with his bow when Qinn grabbed his shoulder. The knights had stopped the wagon on the side of the road to eat and rest the armored lion rat pulling the wagon. The beast was slightly bigger than the wagon it was pulling, its body looked like a very, very large rat with a head that kind of looked like a lions with blue overlapping scales covering its whole body, and it had hair growing from underneath the scales on its neck that gave it a lion-like mane.
The arrow only flew through the air for a few moments before lodging in the monstrous beast's right eye. The monstrous beast screamed in agony and lashed out at the closest thing to it, a knight who was giving it food. The knight yelled at the beast as it reared its front half into the air before slamming down onto the knight crushing him into the road. The other knights saw the beast rear up and slam down, they heard one of their own yell and fall silent, and they also saw the beast begin to run away at full speed. The beast only ran for a few moments as it had tried to go off the road, and it slammed head-first into a large tree. A loud cracking sound was heard, neither the knights nor bandits knew if it was the wood of the wagon breaking or the bones of the large beast as the wagon slammed into it due to the sudden stop.
The knights ran to check on their companion, he was dead, crushed under the feet of the armored lion rat and the wagon wheels. The knight in the polished armor walked towards the wagon without even looking at the dead knight. He was more concerned with what made the beast go wild, and how they were going to complete their mission without the beast pulling the wagon. It wasn't till he got near the wagon he heard someone yell "ATTACK". The polished knight looked towards the woods and saw movement, then yelled "TO ARMS" as he drew his great sword, the other knights drew their weapons and grouped up near the wagon just as the bandits cleared the woods.
Qinn and the bandits watched it all happen from a wooded hill next to the road. They all heard the thwack of the bowstring, first looking at Orin and then at the commotion on the road. They were stunned, that was a monstrous beast rank armored lion rat. That beast only has three weak spots, its eyes, its nose, and the inside of its mouth. In a fight an armored lion rat will fling its head back and forth causing it to run in an odd zig-zag pattern, this makes hitting its weak spots hard to do even for a skilled archer. Orin was far from being a skilled archer, but he hit a target the size of an adult's fist from over 100 yards away.
After running down the hill the bandits attacked the 5 knights, losing half their number to the knights in the first clash. It was then Qinn ordered the bandits to attack in groups and to support each other. The first knight to fall killed a bandit then overextended himself to kill a second and got stabbed with a short sword in a gap in his armor. The 3 other dull armored knights killed several bandits before falling to the same tactic, leaving only the once polished knight. His armor was now covered in blood and dents, his blade had chips in the edge but that didn't seem to keep it from taking the lives of the bandits. Now alone he was outnumbered 7 to 1, a downward slash ended a bandit's life with ease and a turn with a diagonal upward slash gutted one bandit and severed the head of another and barely missing another bandit. The price of killing the three bandits was a hit to the shoulder with a club, causing him to stagger. The bandit that barely escaped death tried to take advantage of the knight's staggering only to see the knight regain his footing and turn and stab him in the throat. The knight then launched a quick stab towards Qinn and missed, the bandit with the club to try and knock the knight's sword from his hand. The club slammed into the ground as the knight twisted his upper body out of the way, the bandit just barely brought his club up to block his head from flying off. The bandit had just saved his life when he saw the knight turn his body and grab the blade of his sword to pivot it around his club bringing the blade to his neck. A look of panic was on his face as the blade cut through flesh and muscle before scraping bone.
Qinn tried to bring his sword down on the back of the knight's head, but when the knight turned his body to pivot around the club, Qinn's sword made a hard strike to his right shoulder. Qinn was distracted for a moment when his hands went numb when his steel sword meet the knight's steel armor, he missed his chance to dodge as the knight swung his left hand behind him hitting Qinn in the side of the head with his steel gauntlet. Dazed Qinn saw the knight struggle to lift his great sword above his head but saw no struggle on his face as he brought the sword down on him. The great sword slice through his left collar bone continuing through the ribs only to stop at the pelvis almost cleaving him in two. The Knight looked up when he heard screaming, a 14 maybe 15-year-old charged at him with an axe raised high. The knight tried to rise his sword only to find it still stuck in Qinn, he tried to rise his right arm to block the axe, but it didn't make in time. The axe landed in the left side gap in the armor's collar and slice into his neck. The axe struck so hard the handle broke almost causing the young bandit to fall into the knight. The knight didn't look angery, or panicked, or afraid, he looked confused.
The knight's head slumped to the right and his left hand lost its grip on his sword and fell to his side. He tried to take a step back only to find his whole left side not doing what he wanted, as he stumbled backward against a wagon wheel and slid down to the ground. The knight stared at the young bandit. He had seen him, but the kid held his axe close to his chest and stayed far behind the other bandits looking terrified. Now the bandit he had ignored and thought of as a kid was smiling as he looked at the battlefield. The knight felt compelled to pull out the axe head of his neck, he tried to pull it out with his right hand but couldn't gather the strength to do it. He kept trying till he couldn't lift his arm anymore; every attempt caused him to lose more blood turning his face paler and paler.
HA...I...HA, HA...I won. I don't have to be a farmer like my parents, I don't have to marry some ugly girl and watch her get uglier every year, or to have children to take over the farm when I'm dead. I don't have to be a bandit either. It's all mine. Everything here is mine, everything at the hideout is mine. I'll move to the city and buy a big house; I'll wear fancy clothes and eat fancy foods. I'll take a new whore to my bed every week for the rest of my life because I'm rich. No one will be able to tell me to do anything because I'm rich. I will...
The young bandit felt something hit him in the back. As the young bandit started coughing, he brought his hand up to cover his mouth and saw blood sprayed on it. The young bandit looked at the blood in confusion, he knew that none of the knights had stuck him. While he was trying to figure out why he was bleeding he felt another hit in the back. This caused him to be angry, he got up to see what had been hitting him in the back. He saw a young man in leather hunting garb pointing a bow at him, he wanted to tell the hunter to stop pointing his bow at him, as the hunter shot him. The young bandit looked down and saw an arrow sticking out of his chest, it then occurred to him that the two hits he felt to his back, were arrows. The last thought the young bandit had in this world was "but I won".