Chapter 30 A Slight Confrontation.

The four bandits walked toward Kara and Iris. "Draw your sword," Iris told Kara. She did as she was told, she drew her sword and held it in her right hand. It was a lightweight short double edged sword for easy movement. They got to the middle of the road and met the bandits. One of the bandits stepped forward, on his right hand he held his one sided short hand axe that he tapped lightly on his thigh as he moved closer to Iris and kara, he was baled. The thing peculiar about him was his boots and chest piece, they were bronze and looked well made. On the upper right side of the chest piece an inscription in a different language, it was dwarvin language. The man stopped in front of Iris, "Welcome to the borders of Daria laddie," the bandit said, "see to pass these parts, a certain fee has to be paid. So drop all your valuables and you can pass."

Iris looked at him and furrowed his brows, he then turned to Kara, "Draw your sword Kara." She obeyed. "Take the stance for first five strikes." She spread her feet apart, the right slightly ahead of the left, she held her short sword in her right hand which and held it slightly forward, while left was spread out beside her. The bandits looked at Iris and laughed, the scene looked comical to them. "You." Iris said pointing to the leader. "Fight her, don't hold back. The rest of you don't get involved." Th bandits looked enraged, one of them spoke from behind, "Hey, do you think this is a joke. Throw down your valuables and get on your knees." he spoke angrily. "Iris looked at Kara "Take first strike, slash" Kara stepped forward and slashed at the bandit's abdomen taking the bandit leader by surprise, but as she got close she hesitated slightly, her hesitation fave the bandit a chance to bring his axe forward and blocked her attack. This caused her to lose her balance and stumble slightly. He brought the axe down on her but blocked the attack by raising her sword but she still buckled under the weight of the attack. "KARA" Iris yelled, "he is bigger and stronger than you. Use light taps to parry and quick jabs and slashes for attacks, be nimble and if you need to be faster use Qi"

"Do you think this is some kind of training session?" One of the bandits behind shouted as he dashed toward Iris, but Iris simply raised his hand and a water bullet made contact with his forehead sending him flying several feet away. He did not get up, wether he was dead or alive they didn't know. But the two remaining bandits knew that the kid before them was dangerous. Meanwhile, after listening to Iris, Kara disengaged, she jumped back and went on guard. The bandit leader gave a sinister smile, "You wanted a spar little girl, you got one." He dashed forward faster than before, but Kara remained calm. When he got to where she stood, he made a slash but she stepped aside and made a quick slash to his side but he parried, he swung at her head but she ducked and made a quick jab at his abdomen which cut through his leather vest and caused him to bleed slightly. He got angry. She did her best she was light on her feet, she ducked and parried and attacked, few jabs and slashes later, small cuts filled the bandit's body, he was sore all over.

"Stand down and naybe I will spare your life." Kara spoke for the first time, the man's eyes widened in anger, his facial expression distorted and he screamed "YOU DAAARE" he got up and attacked, Kara tried to parry, but with her guard down she failed to block ipthe attack completely and her sword was knocked out of her grasp and she fell on her arse, the bandit held his axe with both hands and brought it down on Kara still screaming with rage, she rolled to the side avoiding the attack, she reached for her sword in time to block another swing, but she was knocked back down with a kick to the abdomen. He walked up to her and spoke with a rage filled voice while she backed away in fear " YOU DARE, YOU'RE NOTHING, YOU'RE JUST A WOMAN. YOU WANT ME TO SURRENDER TO YOU. YOU WISH TO BE A SWORDSMAN HUHH? GET UP THEN, GET UP AND MAKE ME BOW PRINCESS, GET UUU--"

A sound was heard, Kara looked up to see the bandit before her, his eyes bloodshot, blood ran down his nostrils to his lips, he let go of his axe and dropped to his knees, then fell face first into the dirt with a loud thud. Kara looked closely and saw his left temple was cracked like something fast had gone through it but not completely. Levi ran got down from his horse to help Kara up. While the old man and his daughter brought a gourd filled wifh water to Kara. Iris walked up to to the bandit leader's body and assessed the wound, "it's more of a surface wound, it is the after shock from the attack and the damage the brain took that killed him. I need to make the bullets denser." Iris turned to levi with a smile on his face, "told you I use the weaker versions of the bullets during our training."

"Still you need to be careful with it, especially whom you use it on." Levi reasoned, "which makes me wonder do you really need to go to leave the seven kingdoms to gain strong. You are smart Iris, and I believe within a few years you would have a good grasp on your abilities and also be strong enough to defeat king Steven by yourself."

"I'm sorry err," the old farmer interjected, "are you talking about the tyrant?" Levi turned and smiled at the old man.

"Levi" Iris called as he sat on the ground. "The reason I am going to the lands beyond the seven kingdoms is not just to train and gain experience but also to make alies. We need people to help us, strong people. Don't forget about what Pete and Nora said, there's been an influx of those touched by the gods, they're going to make allies with Kingsland. We can't do this alone. " Levi nodded with understanding.

The other bandits already escaped, they didn't wait to have their heads blown off. Levi and Iris helped each other burry the bodies of the dead bandits and decided to take some rest before continuing on their journey to Daria.