Blood drenched sands part 4

Dodge, parry, strike.

Those were the only things that remained in my head as I immersed myself in the fight, letting all other thoughts melt away into my subconscious.

Allowing my instincts and muscle memory to take precedent and all my thinking be allocated to honing the finer details.

'Where the next attack will come from?'

'Which direction should I dodge towards?'

'How much force my attack needs to break the enemy's defense?'

'What is the best Aura technique to be used in the situation?'

Those are questions that I had to answer to myself hundreds of times in just a few minutes from the start of the fight.

Like right now, there's a question:

I'm currently holding a blade lock against one opponent while another is ready to strike my back and their leader is ready to shoot from the safety of the back of the group.

What should I do?

The answer:

Let the man's sword slide off mine and follow it up with a pummel strike to the face, then perform a crouching spin to relocate myself and slice the oncoming enemy's back while dodging the incoming shot.

And the result was two more enemies dead, one with a slice on its back and another with a bullet through its head, courtesy of their leader, but there were many more to go.

Seeing another bandit approaching with a dagger to stab me, I positioned my sword to deflect the attack, swatting the dagger aside and letting the momentum carry it forward. Then I struck his outstretched arm with my shield, the sharpened edge allowing the arm to be cut off cleanly.

Then rotating it's orientation 90 degrees on my wrist, I performed a punching motion that resulted in a shield jab but with the very sharp triangular tip of the shield. The result was it hitting the neck, leaving a deep stab wound and causing the man to drop to the ground clutching his neck.

Then I charged his blade with Aura and released it while dragging it across the ground, releasing a vertical slash that travelled through the ground.

The attack carved a path through the group towards the leader, which avoided the attack by throwing himself to the side.

Using the gap this created, I continued pushing forward, still mindful of my current objective.

It's obvious that the leader is the only thing keeping this group of bandits together, as long as I'm able to get to him and kill him, then they'll all lose their cohesion and start fleeing in desperation.

And about my previous statement of keeping him alive? Although having him alive would certainly be nice, he's not so important as to justify putting myself at risk to get a guaranteed capture.

If a good opportunity presents itself or he takes the initiative to surrender along with his men, then maybe he'll get to live a little longer. Otherwise they will all have their bodies swallowed by the sands and I'll just figure out what's going on with this caravan on my own.

Approaching their leader's location, my path is then blocked by two men, by the fact that they've been sticking close to the leader since the begining of the fight, I'd assume they're his personal guards and wielding curved blades with both hands, they seemed considerably more dangerous than the rest.

They didn't waste any time before surging forward to engage in close combat and prevent me from continuing forward.

Then I started being attacked from both of my sides as the two guards fought with a great coordination, covering each other's openings and making a counterattack challenging.

And even when I forced an opening despite that, there was an even greater annoyance nearby that is constantly harassing me.

*Bang*

Whenever he was a few moves away from removing one of them or even both from the fight, a bullet would be shot by their leader in the most inconvenient time, sending my progress back to the square one.

The bandits around didn't help either but they were comparatively easy to dispatch unlike those three.

The problem is that I simply can't predict it, it's like the three of us are engaged on a dance of blades but the bullets always arrive off-beat, ruining my tempo.

They are either shot when both my hands are occupied by the enemies, forcing me to dodge or they make me position my shield to intercept it, which allows one of the guards an opportunity to attack.

If the bullets were aimed at my body then I could safely ignore them thanks to the inner armor, but they were almost all aimed at my head, probably due to the leader realizing that the bullets that hit my torso and bellow didn't do much damage in the previous shootout.

And trying to use the guards as shields for the bullets also doesn't work since despite their skills still being subpar compared to mine, their teamwork more than makes up for it, so their experience fighting together allows them to avoid such accidents.

He could always just brute force it through or just trade blows knowing that I can take the damage, but I want to challenge my fighting skills, just using Aura techniques shouldn't always be the answer, I need to also hone my basic combat skills so as to not become completely dependant on it.

So with a plan forming on my mind, I once again advanced towards those two while keeping in mind the other bandits around.

The enemies respond in kind and move to intercept it, the leader seeing this reloads his gun before taking aim in preparation.

*Clang*

I use my sword to parry the blades from one of them and the shield to defend against the other. Despite my weapon being reinforced with aura, their weapons are managing to endure with just a little chipping on the edge while the other bandit's weapons were shattered with a single strike. A testament to the difference in quality between their equipment.

But the enemies don't persist on a frontal attack and instead move to attack from different directions to make blocking them both as inconvenient as possible.

Without Aura stomp, fighting an enemy that's behind is quite difficult.

Lucky, I have no plans of fighting him.

I kick the ground with all my strength, propelling myself towards the first guard and at the same time creating a cloud of sand that blinds the other. With the two unable to coordinate, they should be easy picking.

But just as I was expecting, the leader seeing the unfavorable situation decides to shoot, though my initial acceleration is very high, the path is very predictable, so by now he shouldn't have to much trouble hitting his mark.

And the guards retreats just enough to not allow me to flank and use him as a human shield, something he can do I in a split second thanks to his coordination.

But the clueless bandit nearby doesn't have such coordination as to know that he's just a hindrance.

So I slightly adjust my direction and instead arrive near the bandit

The enemy panics and does an overhead swing, that I parry followed by an easy disarm before spinning to reach his back and grabbing him, successfully turning him into a meat shield.

*Bang*

And right on time, as the time to subdue him is just the time for the leader to readjust his aim after the unexpected change in direction.

The body I was holding went limp as he died from the bullet, meanwhile his leader didn't show any regret, just a bit of annoyance that his subordinates are getting on his way.

But the guard didn't stay idle and tried to take advantage of the current situation to get an attack in.

So as he thrusts his two swords forward to perform a stab, I make use of the limp body in my arms and push it towards the guard.

Unable to stop his momentum in time, both swords are stabbed on the body of the already dead bandit.

And before he has the chance to get his weapons unstuck, I do a horizontal swing towards the neck aiming to finish things right here.

But unfortunately, only one head goes flying is the already dead bandit's. The guard decisively discarded his weapons in order to dodge, prolonging things a bit more.

But before I could cut the unarmed bandit, my instincts informed of danger, so I quickly turned around and holding my shield, which blocked the sneak attack from the second guard, the one that was made to eat sand before.

But his appearance wasn't enough to return the fight to its previous stalemate, I have already basically neutralized his partner.

And the other bandit's? After seeing their comrade's fate, they no longer dare get too close.

So as we start to fight, it's easy to see that he's now firmly on the disadvantage, even his boss's intervention could do nothing to help him.

Seeing this, his partner quickly picked up a sword from one of the bandit's corpses, since he couldn't retrieve his own without risking being beheaded by me while I'm standing near it.

And as he charged in to provide support, I remained passive, waiting for the right time to strike.

When I saw the leader finally having to reload, I knew that this was the opportunity I've been waiting for.

So I turned towards the bandit that had lost his weapon, decisively advancing towards him and putting all my strength on the next swing.

He was briefly flustered by the sudden increase in aggression but quickly positioned his sword to block it.

But unlike before, my attack directly shattered the blade and bisected the guard in a single motion.

The shabby emergency weapon proved to be unable to contend with my strength and ended up letting him down at a crucial time and resulting on a quick death, such is the importance of a good weapon in a fight.

And so, I immediately turned towards the other guard which was staring at his companion's corpse completely frozen.

And despite him being considerably above in standing compared to the rest of the average bandits, more skilled and more disciplined, he didn't hesitate to turn his back and run away from the scene, along with the majority of the bandits that surrounded me.

It is just as they say: 'The stronger one gets, the more they value their own life'.

But seeing this, I didn't bother to chase him down to finish things cleanly as I intend to do.

*Bang*

Afterall there's already someone more than willing to do this work for me.

The fleeing guard immediately drops, as a bullet hit him accurately, a grim reminder from his leader.

"Anyone else feels like running?" The leader, which now doesn't have even a shred of his previous pretence, asks in a sharp tone.

Though the defection of the lower ranked bandits didn't concern him in the slightest, his personal guard turning his back on him must have been out of his expectations.

"Unless you lot want a bullet through the head, then you will do as I ordered you, so turn back around and keep the tourist occupied while he's being tired out."

Hearing this, half turned back and charged towards me but the rest decided to try their luck and continued running to their horses.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

And the leader didn't go back on his word, not letting himself and his authority be questioned even when he's basically on his last straw.

And that worked, leading the ones that have been undecided while standing at the side to also enter the fight.

But that didn't improve the situation by much, the only two people that could somewhat slow me down are now dead, the rest were not an issue.

There is now just me and the leader, with a lot of speed bumps in-between.

And since the goons weren't nearly skilled enough to give me a chance to improve my fighting skills, I had no reason to hold back on the aura techniques either.

So what follows in the minutes to come is the same of when an unstoppable force meets an already crumbling wall.

...

*Cough* *Cough*

Between coughing and painful breathing intervals, the leader looks towards his surroundings while laying on the reddened sand beneath him and lets out a chuckle.

And soon, slow footsteps could be heard approaching him, but he couldn't move a single finger at the moment, so he couldn't even turn towards the sound.

But then the footsteps circle around his body and come right towards he can finally see the person in question.

A youthful and emotionless face, the one that brought him this low and the one he won't forget even after he's dead and rotting in whatever afterlife awaits him.

"Damn blondie, did you two have to cut my left hand? I was very 'attached' to it, you see."

But it seemed that the boy didn't appreciate his pun and just spoke coldly.

"If you hadn't tried to sneak attack me after a faked surrender, I might have asked my companion to be a bit more lenient towards you." He says very matter-of-factly, showing no anger in regards to the attempt against his own life.

And hearing the word 'companion', the leader's body reflexively trembles despite its current immobile state.

'She's the real devil between the two, the boy might be more deadly, but he's quite efficient in his killing. Meanwhile the girl definetely has an evil bone in her, preferring to mutilate and cause as much pain, both physical and mental before dispatching her 'prey' when her mood is bad.'

'After she saw me trying to sneak attack the boy, she seemed to become a demon and started to attack me in a frenzy, cutting off my arm, lacerating my knees, disfiguring my face and...'

'...Cutting off my fifth limb.'

'And it wasn't like my attack would do much even if it succeeded, at most it would bounce off his aura and feel like a tickle to him. Honestly I just wanted to get at least one hit in before moving on to the next.'

'But I guess that just the intention is enough for her to sentence me to die while not even being recognizable as a human being. Or a man in fact.'

While the bandit leader was contemplating and regretting his life choices, Jaune extended his hand towards the bandit's chest and started channelling his Aura towards it.

One of the things Jaune learned while testing his semblance on animals, is that although it only has effect on those with their Aura already unlocked, he can forcefully unlock it without a chant or the other party's consent, the two prerequisites to unlocking someone's aura, using his semblance and his own Aura as a catalyst.

This only works because by default, without the destructive aspect being amplified, his Aura is very gentle and easy to be accepted in a foreign body, therefore allowing him to amplify their Aura using his own. And that's what he exploits.

The leader quickly sensed a cool and very comfortable sensation as his now awakened Aura started to numb his pain and heal the wounds and fatigue, expedited by Jaune using his semblance to aid the process.

But he didn't know that, as someone that doesn't know what Aura feels like, he just thought that his body was experiencing a second wind and decided to remain on the ground and pretend to still be on his death bed.

Seeing this, Jaune paid no mind and just continued healing until he was sure that the person was in no imminent threat of death.

After he finished, he got up and looked towards Neo, that was nearby before giving his next instruction:

"Take him and keep him along with the other prisoners, try to protect them but give priority to the leaders of both groups. I'll take it from here."

Hearing this, Neo shows a concerned expression, Jaune meanwhile doesn't need her words to know what she wants to say.

"Don't worry, compared to these guys, I'm much more comfortable dealing with them. Besides, I've been saving up my Aura just for this, I got plenty to spare."

The leader, not being able to interpret this broken conversation, fails to hold back the urge to interrupt it and asks:

"Who you're talking about?"

Turning to him with a small grin, Jaune responds:

"The giant scorpion beneath us."