The Bandits II

The three of them were now sitting in the room with serious expressions. The mayor was linking his fingers while his chin rested on top of them, his eyes measuring Aster as he occasionally glanced at the commander at the side.

"First of all. To make things clear. You really are an Elementalist right?"

Before Aster could respond the commander was already intervening. "Yes, he is one. I can confirm."

The Mayor took a glance at the Commander before looking back at Aster.

"Then let me ask you..." The mayor opened his palm as if asking for Aster to continue.

"Aster."

"Aster... are you aware of the current predicament in our village?"

"Sort of. I'm aware that the village is being targeted by bandits, is that what you are referring to?"

"Yes, but I have the felling you aren't aware of the gravity of the situation. The bandits are annoying yes, but their direct impact on the villagers is minimal. The real problem comes from their indirect impacts. You see, our village like most on the outer areas of the continent, doesn't really have any exports other than vegetables and dairy products, so all the merchants that travel trough here come simply to the village because it's in the way to other more important locations or because they need to resupply, however if there was a massive downside to travel trough there such as being harassed by bandits, said merchants would simply take another route. No point in taking a risk because of an extra day of travels. Due to that for the past 2 months merchants have been more and more scarce to the point that in the past week the only one who dared to come here was the one who arrived yesterday. The smithy is gonna have to close soon, and we are out of medicine, if we don't resolve the situation soon only the Elements know what is gonna happen."

Aster pondered the situation. "I understand that, but why hasn't the situation been dealt with already. Are the bandits that much of an issue, even if you don't have the manpower to handle them surely a nearby town or the capital would send someone if the situation was that dire."

"You seriously think those shit heads give a flying fuck about us." The commander interrupted. "They have their heads up their asses and are "way to busy" in dealing with their own matters to take care of some no name village like ours. We don't have any Elementalists, and there is never any Elemental beasts nearby. As long as the bandits don't kill anyone in their ambushes the whole situation is low priority, which means they ain't doing shit about it. And the bandits know that."

"It's not like the situation is that uncommon most villages in the outer part of the continent have had this problem before." The mayor explained.

"Ye, but they usually don't take such a pussy approach and wait for someone else to appear and fix their issue."

At that comment the Mayor closed his mouth and took a deep breath.

"Either way, that is the basic of it, so what we want from you Aster, is that you help us raid the bandit's hideout, basically lead the raid with our Commander here."

Aster took a moment to let what he had head sink in. 'I didn't know some villages had it that hard in the Wind Continent, even if they are somewhat self-sufficient I guess the isolation does take a toll.'

"I'm gonna need a few more details but I wouldn't mind helping on what I can."

The mayor let out a sigh in relief while the Commander just smiled faintly.

"Our village will definitely repay you." The mayor sincerely said. "Thank you very..."

The mayor was once again cut off by the Commander.

"Well now that this is over I'm gonna take Aster here to the camp and figure out how the hell are we gonna do this." Without even waiting for a reply the Commander just dragged Aster out of the room.

"Well see ya Baldy, talk to you later."

"It's Mister Mayer to..." 'and he is gone'

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After leaving the Town hall Aster was guided towards the training grounds where the Commander demanded all guards to be rounded up.

The training grounds were ridiculously simply with no more than a few logs of wood stuck to the ground probably to act as training dummies and a couple rope circles as sparring arenas.

As they were waiting for the men to arrive the Commander was the first to talk.

"So mind if I see what you are capable off?" He said while moving himself to the center of an arena.

"I guess that is only fair, but do you mind me asking how did you know I was an Elementalist."

'Considering I'm not one, yet he is so certain I am, he has to know something I don't.'

"Ho that... easy. When you entered the room you were obviously still recovering from essence exhaustion. Now considering I've never seen anyone in this village other than me doing aura training especially as soon as one wakes up. You either are an Elementalist or you are probably still considerably stronger than any of my soldiers but then again I guess I'm about to find out.

'I guess he makes a good point. Who on their right mind would do Aura training if they were not an Elementalist.'

"Mind if I grab a spare sword." Aster asked while looking at a barrel filled with metal swords. 'I sure as hell not gonna summon "that" for no good reason.'

"Sure, go right ahead."

After grabbing a similarly sized blade to his own Aster moved to the arena where the Commander was already at. The first thing he noticed was the added weight he was not used to, has well as the difficult time he was having surrounding the blade with his own aura.

'It really is an amazing blade.'

"Whenever you're ready." The Commander said while surrounding himself in aura and drawing his own sword.

Not wanting to stay behind Aster started to flow energy trough his body and grabbed the sword with both hands.

"We end the match when one of us is disarmed, got it?"

"Ye." Aster answered keeping his eyes on the Commander.

The moment Aster answered the Commander had already rushed forward sword in hand and swung it sideways.

*clash*

Aster easily blocked the strike and returned it with a thrust.

The Commander sneered as he moved to the side and swung the handle of the sword towards Aster's head. He barely managed to block as he raised his arm to intercept the blow, stumbling backwards as a result. The Commander didn't give Aster a chance to recover however as he swung his sword downwards.

Aster stumbled to block the strike and right after he did the commander was already swinging the handle straight to his face. This time it hit, forcing Aster back. Aster now kneeling looked up just to see the Commander's sword slashing trough the air straight towards him.

Aster quickly focused his energy into his arm and blade trying to mimic the way The Sword shaped his energy. He struck at the descending blade. When the blades connected the Commander's eyes widened in surprised as he held to the handle for dear life while being pushed back about 2 meters (6'6''). Eventually losing his footing and falling to the ground.

'Dammit it. What was that. I didn't hold back but I didn't expect that to happen.'

Despite the fall the Commander quickly got himself back up laughing as he did so.

"Well shit. No offense mate but your swordsmanship skills are nonexistent at best, and your swings are so slow I could dodge them twice if I had to. But credit where credit is do..."

He looked at his sword, the blade was chipped at were the blades had clashed and pieces of it were falling to the ground.

"... you sure got one hell of a mean swing."

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After the little exchange between the two fighters the soldiers soon after arrived one after the other.

Everyone was now gathered around the commander as he was wrapping up the briefing.

"So that is about it, the both of us will lead and take out anyone we find until we reach the hideout, then we go in and take them out."

"..."

"..."

Only silence could be heard as the "soldiers" wore serious expressions on their faces thought most of them also gave away nervous ones.

"Just a quick question." Aster said as he raised his hand, resulting in some confused looks from the others.

"Are you sure there all only two weak elementalists? I've met one and they seam underwhelming."

"There are in fact only two confirmed Elementalists. Now they might have someone else with them but to be franc. If they did have someone stronger why the frick would they bother to steal trash from merchants when they could be hunting Elemental beasts somewhere else."

Aster mentally sighed at the answer. 'Fair enough but I would rather be certain.'

"Well then, I recommend you guys to prepare and rest up cause we are moving out at dusk."

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