Echoes of Fire and Shadows

Chapter 36: Bandit Attack (Part I)

(Warning: There are a few mentions of rape and other crimes in this chapter!)

Just like Lia had predicted, a few minutes after her initial warning, a large group of bandits had reached our location. The group consisted of a high number of men and a small number of women. They were all mounting horses and some of them even wore heavy plate armor, but they were all armed to the teeth… On top of that, there were quite a lot of mages among them. Most of the bandits had confident smirks on their faces as if they had just seen a golden opportunity served to them on a silver platter.

My dad and I were quickly surrounded the moment they reached our position thanks to the speed of their horses. Fortunately, this meant that they were ignoring our camp for the time being, which was a blessing in this kind of situation.

Mom had already set up a very powerful barrier around the vicinity of the camp, which meant that Mom, the Twins, Mia, Klein, the Professor, his driver, and our horses would be safe during the battle.

It was one thing less to worry about, yet that didn’t change the fact this was still a dangerous situation that could get out of hand at any given moment…

After all, this was my first real battle against other people... These guys weren’t cocky adventurers or monsters acting on their basic instincts… No, these were murderers, thieves, slavers, and rapists. People who fight and kill other people on a daily basis to rob them of their goods... People who made a living out of their evil deeds…

Needless to say, I was nervous. Even with all my training, I couldn’t shake off the anxiety and fear that one feels before facing a situation where you have to fight for your life…

But even if I felt anxious and fearful, I knew what was at stake in this situation… My loved ones, my life, my revenge, and my future itself… This battle was my first turning point.

While I was busy calming my anxiety and observing the movements of the enemy, the man that seemed to be in charge suddenly jumped off his black horse and took a step forward to get closer to us.

"Greetings, mister." The man said to my dad with a hoarse voice while also offering his hand for a handshake.

The man had the looks of a ruffian. He had long dark brown hair which was quite messy and dirty, with just a glance I could tell that his brown eyes were similar to those of a vicious monster looking for prey to kill, even though he was trying to mask it under a mask of politeness. He was not very tall compared to my Dad, he was around 1.67 meters tall so my father towered over him by quite a bit. Despite being smaller than my dad, he looked really tough and robust, even more so than all of the band of bandits combined. The fact that he had several scars all over his face made him look all the more intimidating.

He was one of the few men wearing plate armor. It was a silvery armor with golden patterns and a blue cape with the crest of a Dire Eagle, the emblem of one of the orders of knights of the Empire. But, I knew for a fact that this guy was no knight... In contrast to the long blue cape he was wearing, there was a crimson spear with a large ruby that shone with a very ominous light that was pulsating like a heart while emitting a considerable amount of elemental fire mana.

That man was by far, the strongest and the most dangerous of the bandits. I could tell that much with just a glance at him.

"Howdy." My dad replied with a polite tone, his sword was back on its scabbard due to my request. He shook his hand with an easygoing attitude, trying to make it seem like his guard was down.

This was of course all part of our plan to catch the bandits off guard instead. My sword was back on its sheath, and I was even suppressing my mana too. I was pretending to be just a little kid with light brown hair cowering in fear behind his father, which wasn’t something that difficult to do due to my appearance and my small size…

Not that I’m particularly happy about that…

"I didn’t mean to interrupt your business, but allow me to introduce yourself. I am known as Rexon, the Knight of the Blazing Spear." Rexon said with a warm and friendly smile. "May I have the pleasure to know your name, citizen?" He said to my dad.

"David." My father replied. "So, how can I help you, Mr. Knight? Is everything in order?" Just as I had instructed him, my dad was acting like a meek normal man.

"Nice to meet you, David." Rexon answered with an enthusiastic tone. 

Even though I had been told beforehand by Lia, I couldn’t hide my surprise that the bandit leader didn’t know about my dad’s appearance despite knowing who the Skull Crusher is. Which was good for our plan, but it was still quite shocking to know someone who didn't recognize my dad. I get a pass because I didn't know anything about this world when I met him...

"Oh! What do we have here!?" Rexon said with surprise as he leaned to the right and saw me hiding behind my dad. "Hello, little one." He showed me an innocent smile.

I did my best to play pretend and hid my face behind my father’s back. I even made it seem like I was trembling.

"Sorry about that… You see, little Jonathan is afraid of strangers, so he's a little shy." My father said to the fake knight as he moved to block his vision of me. "So what business do you have with us, Mr. Knight?” My dad asked again.

Because of what he was doing, I could continue to work on our secret plan without the bandits noticing…

"I see… That’s a pity, I thought he was also a strong knight like me judging by the sword on his hip." Rexon said with an awkward tone. "As for what business we have with you. Well, as you can see, my associates and I are on a very particular and secret mission given to us by his Majesty in person." Rexon explained with a serious tone.

I could hear some muttering and some laughs coming from the group of bandits. They weren’t that loud, so my dad and I ignored them for the sake of my plan.

Did they seriously think that they were fooling us with this ruse? There's no way that they think that we are buying this when they all look so sketchy…

"So because of the urgency of our quest, we didn’t have much time to buy any provisions or bring enough funds as we had to depart from the capital almost immediately." Rexon was trying to make it seem like he was about to save the world. "I am ashamed to have to do this as a knight, but we have to humbly request of you David and Jonathan, that you help us by sharing some food and money with us for our quest. I promise that I will not forgive this debt and that the crown will pay you back. With interests, of course." Despite his rough and dirty looks, Rexon seemed to be a good and persistent salesman.

Is he actually trying to pull the fantasy world equivalent of the Nigerian Prince scam on us?

"I see… It must be rough for you and your companions to have to march with no rations and no funds…” My dad tried to appear understanding of their situation. 

"Yes… It most certainly is a difficult situation, but as knights of the Empire. We must protect our homeland at all costs! Even if we have to march into battle with an empty stomach!" Rexon and his men got fired up thanks to his words.

"We cannot thank you enough for your service, but I am afraid that we don’t have enough supplies or funds to give to such a large group." My dad spoke words of fake admiration and then shook his head with disappointment.

"I know you must have very little to spare, but anything could help us in this mission to preserve the peace in our country!" Rexon said with a half pleading half encouraging tone.

Gods… This is so asinine… This guy really likes to hear himself talk, doesn't he?

It is a good thing that my preparations are almost complete because I'm getting tired of hearing him…

"Boss, we don't have time for this shitty act! Let's just take their food, the money, the kids, and the women and get the hell outta here before the actual knights arrive!" A sketchy hooded woman suddenly shouted at Rexon.

"Rayna shut the fuck up! I was getting to the good part! You are always ruining my fun! I don't give a fuck about the knights!" Rexon shouted after breaking out of character. "Fucking hell, now I'm pissed…" Rexon said with frustration.

"Ehh? You are not actually knights!?" My dad continued with his act though… He even exaggerated quite a bit…

"Of course, we are not the fucking knights, you moronic peasant!" Rexon said with annoyance. "Were you dropped as a child? Do we seriously seem like knights just because a few of us have their armor!? I know that my words can be very convincing, but it is clear we are bandits, you imbecile! We are here to rape your women, take your children as slaves and steal anything of value from you! So, if you value your life you'll do whatever I say and I might allow you to leave to spread the tale of how merciful we are." Rexon revealed his true colors as he insulted my dad.

The things he said were sickening and quickly filled my heart with rage… But I knew I couldn't let my anger control me, not in this situation. I had to keep my cool no matter what.

"Yeah! If you know what's best for you, you'll do exactly as we say!" The woman from before, Rayna said with an overconfident tone.

"Ha! We might even let you see how we take turns with your women! In fact, we might let that kid of yours watch too while we fuck his mother senseless!" One of the male bandits said with a lascivious tone.

…!

"Hahaha! Man, you're actually sicker than I thought! That sounds like something I would do!" Another man laughed while patting the back of the previous guy.

"You know, I might actually keep the kid for myself." One of the female bandits said with a voice full of expectations.

"What? You want to play mommy with that child? You could have asked any of us to solve that problem for ya!" A male bandit said with amusement.

"Me? A mother? Fuck no! I don't know what mushrooms you are smoking, but you would be the last man whom I would have a child with!" The woman said with disgust. "I want the child to sell him! There's a high number of noblewomen who like to buy their lovers young, and believe me, they pay a good amount of gold coins for them." The woman explained with a greedy look on her face while keeping her gaze fixated on me.

"Hey! You have to share with us some of that money too then!" Another woman said with excitement.

I didn't have any words to describe how sickened I was due to the bandits' conversation… I simply couldn't… I was disgusted beyond words…

But I could tell… My blood was boiling… I was seething with rage… I was already aware of what kind of trash these guys were thanks to Lia, but hearing them openly talk about how they'd rape my mother and make us watch erased any anxiety and nervousness I was feeling… Those feelings were replaced by an unyielding burning rage that was incredibly hard to contain…

I was certain that I would not care in the slightest if any of them met their end during the battle that was about to start.

I could no longer bear to hear all the vile things that the bandits were spouting, so I quickly grasped my dad's sleeve and pulled hard twice. That was the signal that my preparations were complete.

"You know? There are a lot of things I can forgive… But tarnishing the honor of the knights, hoping to sell my son to some perverted old women and on top of that threaten to rape my wife in front of me? Those are not things I can forgive." My dad spoke in an eerily polite tone. "You guys must certainly be in a hurry to meet the Goddess of Death." I could actually feel the subtle murderous intent in my father's words.

"Pfffft! Are you serious, big guy!? Do you think you have a chance to beat us because you are tall and you have a little bit of muscle!? Do you even know how to count!? There's a hundred of us, you fucking idiot!" Rexon looked at my dad as if he had said something hilarious.

As soon as Rexon said that, the rest of the bandits started laughing very loudly. Some of them looked like they were about to fall off their horses due to how 'funny' they thought my dad's words were.

Their laughter just pissed me off even more, but in reality, their laughter was just the final piece of my plan to catch them off guard.

My plan was just to beat them up and subdue them, but I guess it may be time for them to taste a little bit of despair.

"Dad! Crouch and cover your ears!" I shouted at him as I stopped hiding behind him.

"It was about time kiddo!" My dad immediately did as he was told and crouched while having a shit-eating grin on his face.

"[Curse of Silence]!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I clapped my hands.

A huge wave of almost pitch black mana was shot from within me and traveled all across the immediate area around me… In less than a second, the wave of mana had hit all of the bandits.

"Ugh… You… What did you…?" Rexon looked at me with befuddlement.

I looked at him back with a blank expression while I immediately prepared my next spell.

[Curse of Silence] is a very useful yet very difficult Grade 4 spell from the Dark Element which makes other mages unable to use any mana for a very short period of time. It requires quite a bit of mana to use and it only affects those who hear the voice of the user. This spell doesn't affect the user, but it can affect allies as well as enemies.

"Boss! I can't use magic! I can't gather any of my mana!" Rayna immediately yelled with a shocked look on her face.

The mages from the bandit group quickly fell into panic as they realized that they were now useless. The other bandits were looking at them with confusion.

I was not going to waste this precious opportunity now that they were in disarray.

"[Megalith]!" I said as I raised my leg and then made my foot crash against the soil beneath me, hitting a rune I had drawn previously. "[Raging Gale]!" I used another spell in quick succession.

The ground beneath our feet started rumbling, threatening to open the earth itself to swallow us all, while a powerful vortex of hurricane winds was threatening to send everyone flying away from the ground.

As the powerful winds hit all the bandits in the face, the ground beneath their horses started splitting itself open… Columns and other rock formations quickly rose from the ground all around us, causing the horses to lose their footing and thus making the bandits lose their mounts as they were thrown off by their panicked horses.

"Uwaaaa!?" Rayna yelled with surprise as her horse launched her into the air.

"W-W-What the hell is happening!?"

"Aaaaaarrgh! My arm! My arm! I think I broke my arm!

Screams of confusion and pain from the bandits as well as the incessant neighing from the horses as they ran away were the only things that could be heard in the area.

Truly, it was a combination of spells worthy of their names. A megalith to represent the future graves of these lowlifes and a raging gale to represent my fury.

By the time both spells were over, bandits' horses were long gone. The bandits were all now on the ground, confused with no possibility to escape.

"I'll take care of the mages, you can take care of the others." I said to my dad as I unsheathed my short sword.

There was no way that I would give them any time to catch their breath. This wasn't an anime or a fantasy novel where I was the main character, I needed to quickly overwhelm them and defeat them before they could actually reorganize themselves and fight back.

"Understood. Leave the small fries to me." My dad spoke with a proud expression on his face as he stood up. He immediately started cracking his knuckles.

I quickly ran towards the useless mages amongst the bandits who were now lying on the floor near my megaliths.

The bandits were in my terrain now. I had as many footholds as I could possibly need… With my speed, I was sure that I could take care of them in a heartbeat.

My first target was a personal vendetta of mine… It was the guy who said that would do nasty things to my mom… He wasn't a mage, but he needed to be the first to be beaten up.

Using the tilting large stone pillars protruding from the ground as footholds, I quickly crossed the new megalith field as fast as I could. The bandit that I was aiming for quickly realized that I was coming straight toward him and looked at me with fear.

But unfortunately for him, by the time he had managed to prepare his longsword to fight back, I had already jumped past him…

While I was in the air above him, I quickly used several wind magic spells at the same time to completely kill my momentum and then impulse myself back to the direction I came from. Immediately after that, the bandit met the full might of my roundhouse kick to the back of his head.

All of that was a feat that I could only pull off because of my small size and low body weight and years of extensive training under the expertise of my Dad and my Auntie.

The bandit didn't even have a chance to scream as his face crashed against one of the stone pillars in front of him after losing his footing due to my kick.

His whole body fell limp against the pillar. A small river of blood started to pour from the bandit's face towards the ground below the stone pillar.

At a first glance, it almost seemed like he had died, but I knew that he was still alive thanks to [Appraisal].

<SYSTEM: Name: Unknown. / Race: Human. / Gender: Male. / Statistics: Unknown. Skills: Unknown. / Description: A vile bandit. / Current Status: Unconscious/Incapacitated - Bleeding - Holding onto life.>

The moment I landed and took a glimpse at the vague details of the bandit's status, the confusion and panic of his companions had grown.

I was prepared to move to attack my next target, but a certain voice had caught my attention.

"Oi… Who the fuck are you two!?" Rexon was still pretty flabbergasted. He seemed like he couldn't understand the situation in front of him.

"Oh? You wanna know that?" My dad asked with a grin on his face. "I was considering telling you the truth, but right now, I'm seriously pissed off about what you guys said about my wife in front of my kid... So, you can just think of me as an upset father. Prepare yourselves." Even though my dad was still talking in a polite tone, his last words were truly filled with murderous intent and malice.

"Prepare myself, you say!? How fucking dare you! I'm Rexon of the Blazing Spear! I don't give a fuck now about who you are, I'll simply reduce you to ashes in one attack!" Rexon roared with rage as he brandished his spear. His weapon suddenly started expelling flames from its edges.

"That's the spirit! No hard feelings for when we sent you to see the Goddess Skell, though." My dad as he started walking toward the weaker bandits, completely ignoring Rexon.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing, you fucking idiots! Grab your weapons and fight! If any of you are defeated by that kid like Arko, I'll fucking kill you myself, you hear me!?" Rexon shouted at his lackeys. He was absolutely furious.

"Y-You heard the boss! We outnumber them! Even without our magic, they are still easy pickings!" Rayna yelled with determination as she pulled out a dagger from her robes.

The moment those two screamed, the bandits roared back and finally got some semblance of organization. That didn't mean that they would be able to win though.

As the bandits brandished their weapons and reorganized themselves, I immediately started jumping through the megalith field, quickly making my way toward the useless mages.

"He's aiming for the mages! We need to stall him until they can use magic again!" A bandit barked his orders as he thrust his spear at me while I was in the air.

It was a skillful move on his part, however, the moment I noticed the tip of his spear aiming to pierce my body, I used wind magic again to dodge his attack. Immediately after dodging, I pointed my hand at him and channeled my mana…

"[Icicle Rain]!" A barrage of tiny sharp icicles was shot from my hand.

Those small shards of pure ice were quickly incrusted into the bandit's body as he was trying to block my attack. The wooden shaft of the spear was immediately broken by one of the icicles.

"Aaaagh! Fuck! What the hell is wrong with this kid!?" He shouted as he looked with horror at all the icicles that had penetrated his body.

With another roundhouse kick to the face, the bandit was knocked out of the fight. I quickly started making my way to the mages as I knew that the [Curse of Silence] wouldn't last long.

As I was jumping from pillar to pillar knocking the small fries on my way there, I could hear the screams of terror coming from the bandits that were fighting against my dad. I could also hear the ground rumbling due to his powerful attacks.

At that moment when I had lowered my guard, my stomach sank and my instincts started screaming at me to dodge.

Using wind magic while in the air yet again, I twisted my body in such a way that I barely dodged an attack that was aimed to decapitate me. I was able to see a sword go above my head in slow motion…

"Tch!" A bandit clicked his tongue when he noticed his attack had failed. "This kid is a fucking monster…" He said with his gaze fixated on me as I landed on the ground.

I remained silent as I analyzed the guy… He was strong. Not as strong as Rexon, but he could become a pain in the ass if I let him be… But at the same time, I didn't have much time to deal with him since the mages would soon be able to join the fray and they were infinitely more dangerous than this guy.

I guess I'll have to stop this charade if I want to make it in time to take down the mages…

As I kept my gaze fixated on the bandit who was now in a defensive stance, I gathered a considerable amount of mana and sent it to the ground. Almost instantly, half a dozen pointy stone shards emerged from the ground and were shot at the bandit, catching him by surprise.

"Rakon! Watch out! He can actually use the Voiceless Method!" Rayna yelled at her companion with a sense of urgency as soon as she realized what I had done.

Even with her warning, the bandit called Rakon could only hope to block all of the stone shards. Without losing his focus, he moved his sword restlessly in order to deflect my attack.

He had been successful. All of the stone shards deviated from their course and none had even come close to hitting the bandit. That success came with a price, however… His iron sword had been broken in several places, leaving huge holes in the metal and losing a lot of its edge thanks to the stone shards, thus making his weapon utterly useless against me.

"This brat… What a fucking monster…" Rakon said as he looked with surprise and even fear at his now-destroyed weapon.

Just like he had done before with me, I was about to take advantage of that single moment in which he had lowered his guard. I immediately used a wind magic spell to enhance my speed and rushed at the bandit.

"You must be looking at your reflection then… You truly sicken me." I said as I appeared right in front of him.

"...!?" His eyes widened when he noticed how fast I had closed the distance between us.

Just like I had done during my training session with my dad, I kicked the hand he was using to hold his blade, sending the already destroyed sword into the air, much to the dismay of the bandit.

My kick was quickly followed up by a slash with my sword.

"Guuauargh…!" Rakon made a very loud guttural sound the moment my attack connected against his stomach.

"Rakon!" Rayna shouted the bandit’s name with disbelief as she saw me slashing at him.

What she didn’t see was that I had only hit him with the handle of my sword instead of using its edge. Rakon was only stunned at the moment, looking like he was about to puke his guts out thanks to the strength of my attack.

"How dare you! I will avenge Rakon!" Another bandit screamed with fury from behind me.

The moment I heard that scream, all of the alarms in my head went off… I immediately cast a thick blue-colored barrier behind me. The moment the barrier went off a loud metallic crashing sound was heard across the battlefield.

As I turned my head I saw a terrified bandit whose battleaxe shaft had been split into two. I couldn’t deny that the sight made me grin at the bandit… They were getting what they deserved, I thought.

But, of course, I didn’t spend much time reveling in the bandit’s fearful state. I quickly knocked out Rakon with an uppercut and then send him flying across the megalith field with a flying kick to the chest. I didn’t forget to give one of those too to the guy whose axe broke against my barrier.

I continued to make my way towards the mages, who were now looking pretty terrified with me getting closer and closer to them.

"Oi! It is just a child! I can’t believe you bastards can’t fucking kill him!" Rexon seemed like he was about to lose his shit.

"Archers! Now!" A woman shouted from my left yelled.

Again, my instincts went into full alert mode and warned me about the danger… I rapidly wrapped my body with mana and started using my wind spells to increase my speed and evade the incoming arrows.

Because of my constant mock battles against my Auntie, my sense of danger was pretty sharp… After constantly fighting someone who is thousands of times faster than you, you get used to predicting attacks just by listening to the sounds of the wind. My sense of hearing had become pretty acute thanks to her.

As I jumped from pillar to pillar, I continuously dodged the arrows and made my way toward the mages, not caring about the archers in the slightest. I could take care of them later after all.

I just needed to pay close attention to the sound that arrows make when they are fired so I could tell when I needed to dodge. Even if one of those arrows actually managed to get close to hitting me, I would just need to use the wind or a barrier to deflect it. 

"He… He… He doesn’t care about the arrows… No way…" The woman that shouted before sounded completely flabbergasted. 

The rain of arrows stopped as soon as they realized that they weren’t able to hit me.

"Mages, run away! Hide until you can use your spells again! Don’t let this little monster catch you! We’ll attack him together as soon as we can use our magic!" Seeing what was happening, Rayna shouted to her companions and placed herself on top of a stone pillar to stop me from reaching them. She brandished her dagger and prepared herself to fight.

In just mere moments, I had finally reached my targets. The only thing stopping me from defeating them was that bandit woman, Rayna. Unfortunately for Rayna, however, she was way out of her league without her magical abilities and I was not going to hold anything back. 

"Die, you little…-!" She tried to slash at me while keeping her balance on the stone pillar.

"I bet you were gonna say monster, right?" I instantly countered her attack with my own blade. His dagger was knocked out of her hands without any effort on my part. "I think I prefer the term: Demon, you know." I said before hitting her in the stomach with my palm.

"Ugheaa…" Rayna made a strange sound as she fell to her knees while holding the spot that I had just hit… She seemed to be struggling to prevent herself from vomiting, just like that guy Rakon from before.

With just a little push from me, Rayna then fell to the ground incapacitated… Now, there was nothing standing between me and the weakened bandit mages.

"Rayna! Not you too! How the fuck is that little kid decimating us! We are the largest group of bandits around! This should’ve been a piece of cake!" Rexon was in denial.

There I stood, on top of the tallest stone pillar looking down on the terrified enemies beneath me… It was time to begin the mage hunt.

"Magic truly is a cheat, don’t you think so too?" I smiled at the bandits below before raising my hand as much as I could. "Let’s begin, shall we?" I immediately closed my eyes.

The sounds of the destruction being caused by my dad, the terrified whimpers of the mages below, the loud panicked screams of the other bandits, and Rexon’s slow descent into madness as he watched my dad and me beating up his subordinates all reached my ears. That was the unique song that could only be heard on this battlefield…

"[Flashbang]..." I mumbled as I gathered a stupid amount of mana on my raised hand and released a powerful spell of the light element with the intent of blinding my opponents.

My spell was shortly followed by the screams of terror and pain from all the bandits nearby. As I opened my eyes, I noticed that most of the enemy mages were covering their eyes or rolling on the ground.

"Well, it seems like you were right about one thing, Rayna." I smiled as I looked at the incapacitated woman resting at the base of the pillar. "You are all easy pickings." I then jumped down the pillar and prepared myself since I had some cleaning to do.

Chapter 36: Bandit Attack (Part I)

END

GodlyKamui

Heya! New chapter! How are y'all doing? Man, these bandits really made a poor decision. They might need psychiatric help by the end of the chapter. If they aren't executed for their crimes, that is... Well, Maybe Skell can give them some in-house patient treatment in hell. This battle was actually going to be a tad bit shorter, but I ended up going a little overboard, so I will make a second part for this chapter!

In any case, don't forget to comment and to leave a heart since that motivates me to continue writing the story. Don't forget to also join the discord to talk about the story! Here's the link: https://discord.gg/uH6APbzrFR