Destroying Bandits

The sun started its descent as it left its pinnacle position in the skies. Hundreds of men ran towards the now berserk Velia in an orderly manner behind the bandit leader. The leader was a rather large yet lean man that had overgrown sideburns. A wolf pelt rested on his shoulders as two massive scimitars hung on either side of him. He sported a rather large nose and fierce grey eyes while a wolf's head was tattooed on his right cheek. A grin plastered his face as he looked at Velia like she was a treasure chest full of gold.

The latter though seemed to have lost all sense as she started killing all the bandits. She seemed to be dead set on taking out anything that looked like the first bandit she killed. There was a total of around 200 bandits that had attacked the convoy and only about 70 of them had suffered casualties before Velia's awakening. This number had reached 100 when the bandit leader arrived. The reason why Velia only killed around thirty of them was because the bandit leader and his group weren't very far from the convoy and that Velia took her time killing. She didn't attack all the bandits at once, but she slowly killed the bandits one by one. Slowly killing them felt better than killing them quickly together. Plus, it had more of an impact.

The remaining 100 then regrouped with the newly arrived ones as the remaining mercenaries lost all their hope. However, they were extremely loyal as the ones that had tried to escape had long been caught and killed. Inching backwards, they had Velia and their captain's body behind them while in front were their enemies. There tattered armoured and chipped weapons were all they had to survive.

As Velia once more went to attack, a groan was heard next to her causing a jolt to flash through her body. She immediately turned back to normal and went to check upon Leonard who was still unconscious. She checked and found that he was still breathing albeit faintly. The wounds were too dangerous and needed to be checked upon soon if there was any chance for him to live.

The mercenaries surrounding them also heard the groan as they looked back to see their captain still alive. They quickly turned back only to see the bandits looking confused wondering why they were not attacking. One by one, they looked at the leader who had his eyes furrowed.

There was a bad premonition in his heart as it grew bigger and bigger. He looked at the girl but realised that it wasn't her, she didn't have the same dangerous feeling from before. It wasn't the heavily injured, unconscious man either, nor was it the mercenaries in front. Then what was causing this feeling?

His instincts had never betrayed him but seeing the eager look on his subordinates and the big walking bag of money in front, he had to make a choice. So, for the first time in his life he went against his instincts and looked towards the group in front.

"You have two choices! Surrender and drop your weapons, we will let you live or…"

The leader didn't finish it off but indicated their fate by unsheathing his weapons. Even he didn't believe his words what more to say the veteran mercenaries in front. Sensing the atmosphere, Velia was about to change into her other form. The mercenaries got ready to defend while the bandits got excited.

"It seems you have made your decision! So, you choose the path of death!"

As soon as he finished, the bandits shouted and were about to charge towards them when they all came to a halt. First it was one then the others followed with the leader also halting his charge. The mercenaries looked confused while Velia also stopped transforming and looked behind them. The mercenaries felt the ground shaking a little with the pebbles on the floor jumping around. A faint dust cloud entered Velia's vision accompanied by a rumble. The leader also saw this as his instincts started ringing again but this time with more vigour.

All they could see was a dust cloud getting closer until they saw hints of red within it. The closer the dust cloud got, the clearer it was.

Until it was fully clear. While fear emerged in the eyes of the bandits, hope reignited within the mercenaries while confusion was plastered on Velia's face. If it was a normal army then the bandit leader had confidence in escaping but what had appeared shattered all his hopes.

Blood red armour that carried the faint smell of blood and the aura just radiating from one weakened his knees. They felt like an ant caught in the middle of a pack of wildebeest rushing over them, they couldn't do anything but wait until they left. But these guys seem to be here from them so he couldn't just wait for them to pass.

What scared the bandits even more was the massive carriage that was right behind them and didn't lose out to the speed of the group approaching. Seeing the two dragon-like creatures pulling the carriage frightened them even more until they saw the odd one out of the group of armoured warriors.

Judging by size of the armour alone, it looked like a little kid but seeing what it was carrying as a weapon and the monstrosity he was riding made them question their decisions in life. It seemed that just by seeing the charge, made them fall back onto the right path, but by the time they decided to ask for forgiveness, the group of armoured warriors were already upon them.

Most of them had tried to escape various directions but some of the blades jumped out and landed in front of them in their dragon forms.

"ROOOOAAAARRR!"

Scaring the living daylights out of them, the cowards just fell unconscious while the ones that remained in their positions, braced for the impact. The leader tried to send people to impede their charge, but none followed. Some people directly threw their weapons down while some still tried to escape. These were the ones that did the more vicious things and knew that what awaited them was death even if they surrendered.

"I'm going ahead."

Picking up speed, Amadeus left the other blades as he felt his grin widen, lowering his body and he pointed his weapon at the first victim. Swiping his blade, he chopped of the head of one who still hadn't surrendered and continued moving forwards, killing anyone that came in his way. Some tried to fight back but they couldn't even touch him. He was on a horse while they were on foot, he had the natural advantage.

Amadeus just continued straight when he reached the middle where Velia and the other mercenaries were. He didn't even stop but just directly jumped over them, continuing his assault on the defenceless bandits. Only one thing was in his mind, it was the bandit leader. Just then, the blade had reached the bandits as they finished off some that Amadeus had left. It was a weird feeling for them, picking off the leftovers, they felt that it wasn't the first time where they would have to pick off his leftovers.

Velia looked at Amadeus with sparkly eyes as she watched him reap lives whenever he swung his halberd. Amadeus just continued to attack anyone with a weapon, refusing to hear anyone out. Now, a normal attack against bandits like this would go differently. Firstly, the soldiers would shout for surrender, then the bandits would either reply by fleeing or, if they were confident, throw a few remarks of their own. What would follow was a fierce confrontation where most of the bandits would surrender, some would have successfully escaped while some would be killed.

With Amadeus in the lead, the first two steps were completely negated while he jumped straight to the last one. From the perspective of the bandits, it was completely unheard of because as soon as their attacker appeared, they didn't even hear a single word from him. If you were holding a weapon you would have to say goodbye to your life. The ones behind him seemed more reasonable so they quickly made their escape from Amadeus towards the blades.

Amadeus didn't notice this as there was only one person in his eyes. Seeing his rather shocked eyes he jumped straight at the leader who also replied with a swing of both his scimitars. The three blades clashes causing wind to be blown outwards as Amadeus' charge finally came to a halt.

The two looked at each other as Amadeus judged the leader's strength,

'He must at least be in the ranks of high-level adventurer.'

The leader was able to black Amadeus' strike while he was in the middle of a charge, halting Amadeus and Sleipnir easily while he himself was stationary. Although the leader looked fine, he realised that the horse he was sitting on was now injured. The impact needed to travel somewhere so while Sleipnir looked fine the horse the leader was sitting on did not fare well.

Jumping off, he saw his opposition also do the same and they stood a few yards away from each other. Seeing his opponent do the same sent the leader's thoughts into chaos,

'Is he underestimating me? Is he confident enough to go against me?'

While the leader was occupied by his thoughts Amadeus felt his blood pumping through his body. Adrenaline had long kicked in as excitement filled his marrows. Not waiting for the leader to sort out his thoughts, Amadeus made the first move and thrust his halberd forward.

Amadeus knew that the leader's strength and agility should be twice his while the rest of the stats like the resistance ones should be below his. Seeing the lack of strength from the kid, confidence grew within the leader as his attacks got more and more fiercer. Yet Amadeus was barely able to block his strikes and counterattack using pure technique and skill. While the leader had advantages over stats and experience, Amadeus was able to match him using techniques. This just meant that the things he was taught when being trained be Caesar were no normal technique.

Amadeus had confidence in killing him instantly, but he wanted to hone his instincts and sharpen his experience. The leader started to feel that more of Amadeus' strikes started to land on him, while Amadeus started to get the upper hand. As soon as all the bandits were rounded up, Amadeus finished his fight with the leader by decapitating him. Swinging his blade to the side, he threw off the blood on the blade as he looked back and fell forwards.

"Your highness!"

The blades immediately rushed to Amadeus and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he had just passed out due to exhaustion. The unconscious Amadeus was sent into the carriage while a messenger bird was sent to nearest city.