The Aftermath I

At that point the bandits knew it was over. The guards had the advantage but even if they didn't without their Leader it wouldn't matter. They didn't know what to do or where to go. The remaining bandits then surrendered while the guards that could move started to restrain them.

After a couple of minutes Aster finally opened his eyes and then put his hand in his mouth. When he took it out there was a crystal with a weak white glow in his hand.

*cough* *cough*

He put the crystal away while taking a look at his body. There were dozens of cuts all over his body his clothes barely usable at this point, and he was almost completely covered in blood and sweat. His wounds however had mostly stopped bleeding although his arm and shoulder were still killing him while the rest of his body felt like it was on fire.

Yet he still moved towards the Bandit's body before crouching down, he then started to check his belongings.

It didn't take long before he pulled out a crystal with a decent white color from his pocket and smiled faintly.

" As I thought he kept it in his person. "

After finding his 'lost' crystal he checked the Bandit's wounds. The shoulder and arm were severely wounded but didn't really present any risk. The wound in his chest however was what Aster was more interested in.

He felt relieved after he noticed that he hadn't hit any vitals and that the wound wasn't fatal. He had tried to do just that, but he couldn't be sure.

He was still bleeding a lot but it wasn't life threatening at this point.

He then quickly made his way towards the commander.

A guard was already applying first aids on him. Just like Aster the commander had cuts all over his body and a few more grievous wounds. But unlike Aster he was still bleeding quite a lot from them.

"How is he?"

The guard was in the middle of bandaging his wounds when he turned around to look at Aster.

"Stable... I think. " The guard was shaking and it was clear this was his first time treating wounds this bad.

"The wounds aren't that deep but there is a lot of them, and he lost a fair bit of blood."

Aster nodded before taking out the weakened crystal from his pocket.

"Do you know how to use one of these?"

It took the guard a few seconds before he recognized the item and then answered Aster.

"Y-yes."

He then gave the crystal to the guard and went to look around the battlefield. The after match was what you could expect. There were wounded people all around the cave. Some with light injuries others with a couple finger's cut of or with such gruesome wounds you could see the bone.

Aster's eyes landed on a person who was laying in a pool of his own blood.

He moved closer and as he did so, he could see the person shiver in cold as he kept his shaking hands on his neck doing his best to stop the blood from flowing out.

The persons eyes were cold as they landed on Aster's face, as he quickly recognized the man who put him in this situation.

Aster ignored the look the Brute gave him and instead took out his Light Crystal from his pocket and held it in front of the Brute.

The Brute instantly recognized what it was but even when shivering and not being able to talk he sent a repulsive look towards Aster.

"You can refuse my help and die here, in this cave. Or you can take this, accept whichever punishment you will receive and then keep on living."

The look he gave Aster turned from one of disgust to one of stubbornness.

" I won't make the choice for you, but there are more people who need my help. So I can't wait long... "

The Brute passed the next few seconds switching his gaze from the crystal to Aster's face and back. But eventually raised one of his hands from his neck and took a hold of it. When he did soon after a felling of warm came over him, and he stopped shivering. A few minutes later his complexion was much better, he was significantly less pale than before and the bleeding had clearly stopped even if the wound was still fairly large.

Aster then took the crystal back which had a lesser glow than before and moved on to the person in the worst condition he could find.

" *gasp* Why... *gasp* Why would you..." Said the brute in between gasps as Aster walked away.

...

...

...

It was now afternoon. Yet in the Inn's room Aster was just now waking up.

" *yhaaawnn* So... tired..."

He raised himself out of bed just to be hit with a feeling of pain all over his body. He tried to stretch but the bandages covering his body made it hard to do so.

...

After helping the wounded as much as he could and returning from the raid. He was immediately told to go take some rest from the Commander who had woken up soon after he was given the Light Crystal.

This was the following day.

...

Even though his body was still aching Aster summoned his Sword for the first time in a while and started to flow his energy through it and his body.

The felling wasn't pleasant, but he did it nonetheless until he couldn't keep it up anymore.

"I need to improve a lot more than this... I noticed when fighting that my technique is almost non-existent. Also, my speed was more than lacking."

He then took a glance at the Sword.

" I have been training with the Sword too much and have been neglecting my body. I'm increasing the amount of energy I have and can output but just that is meaningless... Guess I will have to switch my training regime."

Afterwards he put some clothes above his bandages and went downstairs to have breakfast... or lunch.

He then made his way towards the town hall.

In his way he could see some people working in their fields and on their animals most with a smile in their faces. But he had also seen a few with sad expressions.

Nonetheless, they were all working quite motivated.

...

...

When he arrived in the town hall he had barely got in before he was instantly greeted by the Commander's voice. As he shouted at the Mayor on the meeting room.

Aster simply gave the secretary a conceding look when she just pointed him towards the room yet again.

* sigh * "Here we go again."

...

"What do you mean have the reports ready ASAP what do I look like to you a god-damn office worker?"

"The sooner you deal with it the sooner we can have someone from the capital come take them away. I thought you of all people would want that."

"If that's the case then YOU handle it. I can't stay in an office all day dealing with paper work. I heard that is the leading cause of baldness."

The Mayor clenched his teeth while taking a deep breath.

" I wasn't there during the raid. And as the COMMANDER I think you are the most qualified person to describe and document said events."

" I already told you what happened just write that in a piece of paper and call it a day."

The Mayor just smacked his head against the table at that point.

"If you call that half-assed mess of words "telling me what happened" then I just give up."

Before any of them could say anything else the door opened and Aster walked in the room.

The commander just grinned while pointing at Aster.

"There you go someone who can give you a report of what happened."

Aster couldn't help but notice the felling of déjà vu that suddenly came over him.

"Hu... report? " Asked Aster confused.

"Just ignore him." Said the Mayor swinging his hand dismissively.

"I assume you are here for your reward." He continued. A smile appearing in his face for the first time since the Commander had joined him in the room.

"Well I..."

"Our little village doesn't have much, but we will try to meet your demands do the best of our abilities from what I could understand from the gibberish the commander said, You were the most valuable asset even managing to incapacitate the Leader of their group when others could not."

He looked at the Commander when saying so.

"Now hold on a minute! He might have finished him off, but I was the one who battled him almost for the entirety of the skirmish. He was basically on his last leg, I was the one who mortally wounded him so to speak." The commander said while puffing his chest proudly and hitting it with his fist.

' Although I'm not exactly sure about "mortally wounded" the commander is right. The Leader was exhausted and barely had any energy left. Even if I was on my best condition there was no way I would win... even if I used the sword I'm not fully sure I would be able to win. '

"Ye, ye, ye pride of an old fossil."

" Old fo-now listen here you piece of sh-"

"Any way what kind of reward would you like to receive?"

Even though he had things to say to the Mayor that you would find difficult to find in a dictionary he held his mouth shut and also glanced back at Aster.

"Uhm well I would like... to... make a call."