As with all journeys, it's going pretty well until your far away from the safety of the city walls.
"I hear footsteps, Dustin"
With the strong hearing ability of the elf's she could pick up the faintest sounds if she concentrated, so picking up footsteps wasn't that surprising.
"How many?"
"A few hundred but since no one sensed anything before they probably aren't that strong"
"Still we shouldn't let down our guards"
"Reyner's right, we still need to be ready just in case"
Azreal could feel his heartbeat speeding up, his grip on his blade tightened, a few minutes passed and no one said or did anything so he became a bit confused but didn't say anything.
Six minutes more passed and he started to relax a bit, it was about five minutes later when he was about ready to completely relax that Dustin spoke up.
"Sadie protect the carriage, Azreal you take the west side, Reyner you take the north and the south and I'll take the east side"
Azreal was there in a daze for a moment how good was Sadie's hearing if she could hear possible enemies that were a dozen minutes away and since he didn't hear any horses or anything like that they must've ran.
When Dustin issued his order everyone went into position, Sadie jumped on top of the carriage and took the wooden staff from off her back, that slowly transformed into a bow with the green orb that was at the top coming into the middle glowing faintly.
Reyner jumped off the carriage and stood in front of the horses with his staff in hands glowing faintly, Dustin walked into position with a serious expression.
Azreal was the last person to get into position because he hadn't seen anyone or even felt the slights pressure.
It took about another two minutes before the saw people off in distance
...
"Looks like the seers' were right there are only four guards"
The man who spoke stood in front of everyone with his head held high and his back straight, he was clearly the leader of the bandits.
"Don't you think it's weird that there are only four of them what if they're more hiding"
The leader looked around at his subordinate viscously like he would kill him at any moment, as the leader of a group of outlaws you had to know when to be cruel to your subordinates and when to reward them because if they don't fear and respect you they'd turn on you in a second once you showed weakness.
With the look that he'd just gotten from his leader, he didn't dare to say anything else or those might just be the final words he'd ever say.
"Everyone spread out, were attacking from all sides full force! if any dares to retreat then consider your life and your family's forfeit."
When everyone heard these words they all shivered because they all knew too well that he wasn't just saying that for the show.
"Although the back isn't guarded don't run in like a bunch of idiots, no one would leave anywhere unguarded unless they had enough strength to protect it or there are traps set up there...Everyone attack!!!"
Once they were given the order everyone ran forward except the leader and two of his other subordinates who all stayed back to observe until they found the best time to strike.
.....
Seeing all the bandits splitting up and coming towards them everyone held there ground, the three guys were a good distance from the carriage but not too far, just far enough so they could keep the fight from getting too close but just close enough so if anything happened they could get back to the carriage.
At this time the bandits were already within range so Sadie started firing off arrows of light in every direction to any bandit that came within her range of attack.
Woosshh
Wosssh
Wossssh
Despite watching their comrades fall none of them dared to turn back.
Under Sadie's arrows bandits dropped like flies but still there were hundreds of them so the majority of them still made it up to the guys.
Reyner was the first to encounter any opponents but he looked as relaxed as ever almost as if there was no one in front of him, before the bandits could get within attacking distance he started chanting in a language none of them understood but as he chanted the light on top of his staff grew brighter and brighter and shortly after the earth started to shake and two huge earth golems grew from the earth one stood in front of the carriage and one at the back.
The golems didn't seem to have any intelligence but one thing they had in abundance was strength.
All the bandits who had to face off against the golems felt like they wanted to run away, it wasn't that they were scared of it because if they all attacked it together, of course, they'd beat it but the fact that it was in its natural environment means that it could always just reform and the summoner didn't seem like he used much magic so he could keep supplying them with energy so it would be a pointless battle that they were bound to lose.
They might be bandits but they weren't stupid, if they were they'd be dead by now but even though they knew they'd get killed they still chose to fight because if they turned back not only would they die but their family would as well.
The bandits on Dustin's side looked a lot happier because Dustin was a fighter so he had to get close to them and since they had strength in numbers they all felt like they had some chance of winning.
Looking at the bandits in front of him, Dustin didn't plan on letting them come to him so he ran towards them and the bandits were more than happy to see this so they charged towards him as well.
When he was close enough to them Dustin's entire arm turned into fire and when he swung it out a huge wall of fire was formed infront of him, the bandits who couldn't stop in time were all set on fire somewhere lucky enough to put out the fire while others weren't as lucky.
Meanwhile on Azreal's side he was walking up to to the bandits who were running towards him, the bandits subconsciously slowed down a little bit they weren't stupid enough to just run towards him thinking that he was just overestimating himself, they were all experienced bandits so they knew that only someone with the strength to back it up would behave like this in front of danger but compared to faith that they'd encounter if they ran away it was better to try their luck with this kid.
It didn't take long for the bandits to find their lost courage and Azreal was surrounded.
When the wall of fire finally diminished in front of them and they got a good look they saw hand made of fire and there and then they all knew that they had the worst possible luck.
"E...Ele...Elementalist!"
A voice among the bandits shouted, bring the others back to reality.
"What's he doing this far north, I heard they never leave the south"
Elementalist are a race of people that are the embodiment of the four major elements, manipulating the elements is no different from breathing to them.
"You guys chose the wrong carriage today"
Dustin didn't even bother waiting for any reaction he just stomped on the ground and instantly the topography transformed with hundreds of spikes protruding from the ground running through every bandit who couldn't react in time, and even those who reacted in time the spikes —like snakes— chased after them until they were impaled, those who still refused to die even after all that would end up with an arrow to the heart.
Reyner's battle ended before it even started all the golems did was squash anything that was in front of them.
On the other side Azreal was already surrounded but he didn't attack.
"Why's it getting hotter?"
One of the bandits asked another but no one replied to him, they all felt the spike in temperature.
Their curiosity only lasted for a split second.
"Fuck !! Kill him!!"
With that one shout, everyone charged towards him from all directions but it was already too late, they took too long to attack.
"Inferno"
The purple flames raged out in an instant consuming everything, agony-filled screams filled the air, the bandits screamed at the top of their lungs but the pain did not diminish it only intensified. No matter how hard they tried to put out the flames, it refused to diminish, it burned in a almost arrogant way.
Azreal didn't bother paying attention to them the second they surrounded him they were dead in his eyes.
What he was looking for was that feeling he had the other times when he killed but that feeling didn't come.
'Does it only happen when I think I'm in danger?.....'
This was the place his mind was in right now he's almost completely accepted himself as he is but he wasn't going to let himself become obsessed with the feeling so much so that he becomes addicted but at the same time it was almost as if he yearned for it.
Looking behind to see what the others were doing since he heard screams and he was sure all the screams weren't coming from the bandits he was roasting.
Behind him he saw the two huge golems effortlessly sweeping away the bandits in front of them, although he couldn't see Dustin he did see the wall of fire which took him by surprise he always thought of Dustin as sword user.
His mind only remained on them for a moment before returning to what he was doing.
Looking at the bandits lying on the ground some motionless and others still rolling around he still didn't recall the fire he wanted to fully test its energy consumption while it was killing living things.
While Azreal's mind was focused on the fire a shadow was flying towards him, without making a sound.
The approach person pulled out a 'gun' but perhaps a slight laps in judgement caused by a mix of joy and fear causing the sun light to reflect off the 'gun' flashing a quick light in front of Azreal.
When he looked up to find the source of the flash he just saw, he was stunned to see a person flying towards him with a 'gun'.
Because of the moment of surprise he lost control of the energy in his body causing the flames to go out of control burning brighter, with no other choice the approaching person had to put away the 'gun' and cover their face while flipping over the flames closer to Azreal where it was clear of flames.
On Dustin's side
He went through the same thing that Azreal did but his reaction was completely different instead of being caught by surprise, he just raised his hands to grab the 'gun nozzle' while reinforcing his hand with earth, seeing her 'gun' get caught she fired it a few times in Dustin's hand while struggling to free her weapon, without warning the force that was holding her weapon disappeared, catching her off balance.
While trying to balance herself she looked up at her opponent, but saw nothing, all she felt was a gentle breeze that got rough for a moment but after a while she didn't feel anything all she saw was the sky covered with a layer of red.
Dustin had already decapitated her.
On Reyner side
The woman couldn't even get past the golem Reyner was just standing to the side watching her trying to attack the golem and it attacking her and forcing her to retreat every single time.
Back on Azreal's side
His initial surprise was all gone what remained could be considered to be anger at something that caught him off guard, so without giving the man with the gun like weapon a chance to react, he was already right in front of him with the blade in his hands slicing towards him.
The bandit leader couldn't step back or he'd be stepping into the flames that were a lot higher and angrier than before so he had no choice but to use his hands to block the blade.
He wished he'd fired earlier, but the closer he was the stronger the blast.
The blade was obviously reinforced with Divine Energy because he felt it press down on his bone a lot further than he expected but before he could even react he felt a sharp kick on the back off his knee forcing him to kneel, without a chance to process what had happened three arrow were lodged in his abdomen.
'What the fuck?...'
That was all the bandit's leader could think before he felt the fist of the boy in front of him knocking him out.
Although he knocked out the bandit leader Azreal was pissed at Sadie, if she didn't intervene the feeling he'd been yearning for was only an arms length away, it was finally building up a bit and he knew that if he drew out the fight a bit he'd get the feeling once again but it didn't happen.
Still he was here to get paid so he wouldn't pick a fight.
So he took a deep breath, although he was still upset he wasn't as upset as he could've been.
Stopping the energy supply to the fire he expected it to go out but to his surprise, on the body of the bandits that had a bit of life in them it still continued to burn and it didn't go out until all signals of life was gone.
'It looks like the flames siphons their divine energy to feed itself until they die...'
This discovery completely washed away any anger that he was feeling towards Sadie but still looking at it he still didn't manage to calculate how much energy the flames used, but if he were to go off of how he's currently feeling then not as much energy is used he's still at about ninty-eight percent.
Everyone had finished up what they were doing, the woman who Reyner was toying with was captured, so they all walked around to Azreal's side only to see him searching the charred corpses.
'What's wrong with him?...'
Azreal was taking everything that looked like it had any value from all the corpse and he didn't stop until he'd 'robbed' all of them.
When he was finished he turned around and saw the others, so he walked towards them, throwing all the coins and other stuff of value he'd taken from the bandits in front of them, only stooping down to take a metal looking cord.
"Are you all finished?"
It was the hoarse voice coming from the carriage.
"Yes we're getting ready to leave now"
"Good I don't want to stay any longer than I have to"
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