The greater evil

I love bandits

The fact that they are the cornerstone for the standard throwaway 'bad guy' in every entertainment media out there, be it games or movies and drama shows, makes me adore their very concept. And in this world, I love them even more

After all, most of the bandits around these parts are criminals who chose to live a savage life by moving from one spot to another and plundering as they go. And if that's the case, then they would probably have some sort of treasure that I can take from their grubby little hands

And I could also practice some of my spells!

Sure, doing in on wild monsters is cool and all. But seeing the reactions and expressions of my fellow human beings as I demolish them just hits differently. The best part about this is that no one would really care If I wipe their existence off this planet

If I destroy a village, then that would prompt the knights to investigate which may be a hassle for me at this stage of the play

But bandits? No one is gonna care if I kill some scummy bandits. Hell, they'd probably thank me for it. Which makes this encounter all the more exciting...

I get to plunder the plunderers, and I'm at the moral high ground! What more can I ask for?

But before I pounced, I first watched them go about their night from the shadows. After all, it's rare for any fools to camp out all the way here. They may have the advantage in numbers, but those wolves I took out earlier should be more than enough to lay their camp to waste...

Yet from how I see it, they're just chilling without a care...

So there's either one of two things, they're either stupid, or there's someone or something strong backing them up which gives them the confidence to sleep all the way here.

And bandits might be savages and all, but I highly doubt they're this incompetent...

So I continued to locate their big bad boss...

"Gotcha..."

And just like I'd expected, there was someone pretty strong who was sleeping in one of the tents. His mana pool was way above average, and I could feel just how well-toned it was. It's clear from this alone that he was well-versed in combat...

"Hmmm...And there's also...Two? No wait, three other people inside with him? They're all women from the sound of it...Ah...Ahaha, cheeky little bugger, they really have some guts doing it all the way out in the open"

I didn't really wanna be the one to spoil a man's fun, but I'm also quite vexed for entertainment as well. So with this in mind, I pointed my fingers toward their camp and focused my mana. I took a deep breath as I chanted these words

"[Firebullet]"

Flames began to quickly build up and were launched at blind speeds

A loud explosion then rang out, which alerted everyone in the camp. Since I was putting a bit more effort into it, the spell was far stronger than when we playing around back at the manor. But It didn't really do much damage since I directed it at the most isolated part of their camp

Next, I walked down carefully towards their camp with my black wand at the ready, I was also wearing a makeshift wooden mask that I carved with magic...

I wore this to mainly hide my identity. I highly doubt that things would get serious enough for someone to spy on me from afar, but it's also for aesthetic purposes so I might as well do it

"W-Who the hell are ya!"

One of the bandits screamed in the usual bandit-like matter

God, everything about them practically screams the word bandit. From their raspy voices to their wicked smile, and their ragged and busted-up clothes and weapons...

Oops, I think I fanboyed too much

I cleared my throat and greeted them with a smirk

"Who I am does not matter, what matters are the war crimes that I'm about to do with you lot. I'm only gonna warn you guys once, give me all the treasures and valuables that you have and I'll make sure your deaths would be painless"

After hearing my proclamation, the bandits all looked at each other before laughing out loud. I myself couldn't help but smile as well

"Who do you think you are you little shit! I don't know where you came from but you've made a bad choice taking a stroll out tonight, I'm gonna beat you like the trash you are until you wish you're dead-"

"[Combust]"

I activated one of the niche spells that I've been working on

Basically, it's a neat trick that I can pull off on other people's mana. With a little bit of tweaking from my end, I can cause it to go ballistic and expand wildly throughout the body, causing it to enlarge to serval times its original appearance, and like a balloon that had too much air, this process will end with a-

*POP*

The bandit exploded, sending blood as well as his innards flying across the camp

His fellow buddies could only look in horror as they stared at the puddle of blood that was once their friend. I took a glance at the end results and took a mental note on my end

"Hmmm, not bad. Though the process was a bit too slow...I guess I should use more mana? Or maybe I could somehow make it faster by doing it in a more precise manner..."

Eh, whatever. I could work on that later. Right now is all about fun

"You bastard! Take this!"

One of the bandits charged at me with his sword overhead. Even from a distance, I could tell that he was using magic to boost his strength and agility, but it didn't really matter in the end considering that his blade just bounced off against my defenses. His eyes could only widen as I pointed my finger at him

"[Combust]"

After casting the spell, I didn't even bother to watch him inflate up and just ran towards the other bandits. Panicked, they all began to lay down their attacks and spells at me. But just as expected, nothing of them was anything noteworthy. Most of them were level 4 or 5 magic which isn't really bad per se, but using such things against me is like throwing snowballs on a tank

I know it's a stretch comparing wild bandits to a prodigy, but my sister could cast way better spells than this

"Shit! What the hell is with this guy?!"

"His barrier isn't even taking any damage, shit!"

"Step back, I got this, [Icicle spear]!"

One of the bandits launched a level 5 spell that's commonly used to pierce through magic defenses, but surprise-surprise, it really didn't do much

If I could be taken down by something as measly as that, then destroying this world would be nothing but a pipe dream...In fact, I somehow feel insulted at the very fact that she thought she could take me out just like that...

"[Scald]"

A concentrated ball of extremely hot water began to gather at my fingertips, I then launched it toward the girl. She may have had her defenses put up, but against something that could travel faster than a speeding bullet, as well as being reinforced by a lot of magic, her barrier is practically nothing but paper

"Arrrrrrrghhhhh!"

The cries of the woman echoed throughout the forest as she collapsed and began to roll on the ground. The scalding hot water quickly melted through her skin like butter, leaving her in agonizing pain. Her muscles and bones were clearly visible, and upon contact with the cold air, her pain only grew worse

Considering what I just did, I'm surprised that she's still alive...

I slowly walked towards the mage and began to gently poked her with my wand

"Ggh?! Arrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhh!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby. Crying over something like this? Absolutely ridiculous, skins grow back you know?...Probably"

I mean, I'm not really joking you know? Magic is an incredible thing. I tried to reassure her by explaining the fundamentals of mana and how it can accelerate regeneration...

But she couldn't really hear me with all her screaming so I just stood up and turned to the other bandits

"She's quite a rude bugger isn't she?"

"..."

For some reason, all of the bandits went silent. And before I could ask them why each of them began to turn tail and ran as fast as they possibly could

"What? Hey, come on guys the night is still young! Where did all of your vigor from earlier go?! I just messed up your little friends here don't you guys feel angry? Come on, do any of you guys have a spine?!...Welp, this is a real turn-off"

Since they showed no signs of stopping I figured that I may need to end this little game of ours early. I placed my finger on the dirt and cast the spell-

"[Vineseeker]"

The earth shook for a moment before plenty of large vines began to rise from the dirt and chased the running bandits down. Once they had them in their clutches, the barbed thorns quickly sink deep into their flesh and tightly wrapped against them. They were squeezing so tightly the shape of their organs from their skin

An orchestra of screams began to play, which honestly would've been good if most of them weren't tone-deaf. And some of them don't even sound that enthusiastic about it. Like come on man, you're already gonna die so you might as well scream your hearts out and cry for more help...

By the time they were done, the vines then pulled the body down to the soil where they'd be absorbed by nature itself...

"Ah, how wonderful the circle of life truly is"

"Well, Well, Well, Seems that we have a monster on our hands"

The moment I turned around I saw the flash of a blade quickly heading toward my neck. Now, this was a surprise...for the first time in a long while, somebody in this world was actually able to put a tiny dent in my barrier. He's pretty good...

His blonde hair fluttered with the wind as he looked down at me with his sharp blue eyes. What caught my attention though was the fact that he has a scar near one of his eyes which made him look pretty cool not gonna lie

And once he realized that his attack didn't really do anything, he quickly stepped back and widened the distance between us...

"Who are-, No...that's not right. What in the hell are you?"

"Me? I'm nobody special. just the greater evil that's come to consume everything"