Kuran patrolled down one of the main roads to the city, his purple and red helmet glinted off the sunlight, his sword by his side. He was joined by a few other adventurers, the dwarf and human duo, Helm and Darin, along with that armoured adventurer lady, Rose, Kuran believed was what her name was. Kuran honestly wasn’t paying much attention; he was busy being bored.  

It had been one week since the chaos had attacked the caravans and there were now quests being commissioned for adventurers to patrol the roads in case of another attack. Kuran had healed up and ready to take on new challenges. However, after the main leaders were dealt with, the chaos worshippers were essentially done. There had been next to nothing when it came to reports, but the city still sent out these commissions and Kuran foolishly excepted them.

Kuran didn’t travel to another country just to walk up and down a road, he was a swordsman, he was a fighter. He really should’ve taken another quest, something that could actually let him fight.

Kuran didn’t have any type of challenge since the chaos chief and Kuran needed a challenge. It helped him feel alive, it made him happy. Right now, Kuran was half zoned out listening to Helm and Darin converse with one another as background noise.

“Hey, so why did you want to join us on this job?” Darin asked Kuran.

Kuran snapped back to reality and looked over to Darin, “Hmm?”

“This isn’t exactly an exciting job.” Darin continued.

“Oh, its just I heard some rumors that this path might have some chaos movement still.” Kuran explained. He had thought that he could find a something more substantial than a couple of goblins here. Right now, he would rather clear out a goblin nest then deal with this.

“That’s why I joined to.” An echoey voice emitted from the full suit of armour.

The three turned towards Rose, somehow all three of them forgot about her presence. Kuran had a sneaking suspicion that part of the reason was why was because she wanted them to.

Kuran had no idea what was behind that armour, it could literally just be a set of reanimated armour. This Rose was closed of and hiding something, not that Kuran himself wasn’t. But still, even compared to him, she was secretive.

“That’s what we’ve heard. But rumors a’ rumors, so don’t put ye hope too high.” Helm said.

Kuran noticed Rose stop moving and looked into the air.

“Is something wrong?” Kuran asked.

“I think I here something.” Rose replied before going static again.

The other three strained their ears and they heard nothing.

“I don’t hear anything.” Darin murmured. As he said that Rose suddenly sprinted forwards past them.

“Follow me!” she called out as she left the others in her wake.

Kuran immediately chased after her, a moment later the other two joined. None of them sure why exactly.

“Wait a minute!” Helm yelled out, his small legs struggling to carry his stocky frame at the same speed as the others.

The group approached a hill, and it was then that Kuran heard something, screaming. A single female voice and a few different male ones. They then reached the top of the hill and Kuran could see what the commotion on the other side.

Still a short distance away from the hill was a carriage that had run of the road and turned onto its side. Kuran saw a woman being dragged out of the wagon, two other men had been rounded up and being harassed by a couple of men wearing bandanas that covered their face, swords drawn.

Kuran counted five bandits in total, one dragging the woman over to the other passengers, the two already guarding them and two more ransacking the carriage’s luggage. Kuran began to sprint forward past Rose and towards the group.

“Wait a minute!” Darin called out as Kuran began to move an again. With a deep breath he chased after Kuran once more.

Kuran saw the man strike the struggling woman right in the stomach with a closed fist before raising his blade ready to cut her down. Kuran was still to far.

But before anything else occurred an arrow soared over their heads and embedded itself through the skull of the bandit that was dragging the woman. The bandit collapsed immediately, the woman quickly scrambled away and yells of panic from the bandits resulted.

She’s good. Was all Kuran thought as he sprinted forward.

One of the bandits guarding the passengers pointed at the group of adventurers in panic. The two standing above the helpless passengers looked at one another and seemed to come up with the same conclusion, they turned and ran.

The two looting the carriage, now with newly obtained treasure before them were hesitant to immediately leave. They spent a few more seconds to pick up a few more items before fleeing.

This coupled along with the fact that they were now weighed down allowed Kuran and Darin to chase them down. The two bandits moved at different directions as they ran.

Darin chased after the slower one and leapt on top of him, taking him down. Darin then pinned the man onto the ground, twisting his arm behind his back.

Seeing that taken care of, Kuran chased after the other one. Despite the fact Kuran was wearing a set of armour, with large shoulder pads, leggings and everything else Kuran moved far faster than the bandit man.

 In fact, Kuran ran past the bandit and stood in front of the bandit, who stopped in his tracks and gapped at him. Kuran used this moment to catch his breath. The bandit was at a lost at what to do.

Still holding onto a crate that he had stolen from the carriage the man looked at Kuran, who still hadn’t drawn out his sword. Kuran at this point didn’t feel as if he needed his weapon just yet, the bandit had no weapons on him, he had abandoned it as he ran and his hands were tied.

Kuran gave the bandit a single warning look. Not taking the hint the bandit dropped his crate and charged towards Kuran. Kuran simply let the man draw closer towards him until Kuran could grab the bandits outstretched hand.

Kuran clasped both of his hands around the bandit’s arm and twisted his own body. Using both his own strength and the opponent’s momentum he threw the bandit over his shoulder and the bandit slammed back first into the ground.

The bandit let out a wheezed groan as the wind was knocked out of him. The bandit looked at Kuran in daze, still conscious. Kuran fixed that by slamming his face into the bandit’s face. Kuran watched as the bandit’s head smacked into the dirt as consciousness left him.

Kuran then dragged the man back to the rest of his group. Darin dragged the other bandit over; his bandit was tied up and still awake.

“So what about the two that ran?” Darin asked.

“We can leave them, there’s no point in chasing them.” Rose replied, who had caught up with the group and had gathered the carriage passengers together. Darin was also with the group; however, he was panting heavily, trying to get oxygen back into his body after his run.

“Thank you for saving us adventurers.” One of the passengers said to them.

“Not an issue at all. What happened?” Rose said.

“We were travelling to Esterwood, then these bandits attacked.” The passenger explained.

“Any reason why they attacked you?” Rose asked.

“We work for a bank; we were carrying some coins and bank notes.” The woman explained, “They somehow found out and attacked.”

“It’s a good thing you found us.” Another one said, “But how are we going to get to the city?” The man said as he stared at the toppled carriage.

Helm squinted as he stared of at the distance, “Ah, I can see the horses haven’t run of far. I can go get them over, pack the supplies back on them and head back to the city.”

“Thank you.” One of the bankers thanked.

“No worries. Least I could do. Since I didn’t do much.” Helm said sheepishly as he headed of towards the horses. On the other side, Darin was tying up the three bandits and trying to wake up the one Kuran had rendered unconscious.

As the other two were busy helping the bankers Rose approached Kuran.

“Would you mind me asking you a question?” Rose asked.

Kuran looked over, “Sure.”

“Never got to ask you this, but how did you managed to take out the chaos chief?”

“It wasn’t easy, and it was all thanks to Eleanor and Blake. Without them, the chaos chief would’ve killed me.” Kuran said recalling the battle. Kuran still couldn’t believe that he wasn’t able to break through the chaos chief’s defence until the very end.

Kuran felt that he should’ve been better, he almost felt that he had been cheated with the use of the enchantment. He also felt that he shouldn’t have struggled nearly as much, he needed to get better.

“Evidently I need to get better.” Kuran continued.

“You can’t blame yourself for struggling against a magically enchanted monster like that chaos chief.” Rose replied.

“Mmm. I was trained to be able to deal with these sort of opponents.” Kuran grunted, still unconvinced, “Still I do owe you for dealing with the warlock.” Kuran continued.

“Well, it was the sorcerer and Shawn that did most of the work.” Rose said.

“Ah, him.” Kuran said with disdain.

“Oh, right, you two aren’t friendly. Any reason why?” Rose prodded casually.

“Nothing important.” Kuran replied shutting the conversation down. Rose thought it was best not to pursue and stopped pressing.

Thankfully, Helm walked back with two horses in tow. Rose quickly helped Helm load the horses and with that the group began to move.

Though while Kuran tried his best not to show it, he recalled his interaction with that discount thug, Shawn. That stupid look of confidence, that annoying know it all attitude. He knows nothing. He thought furiously. He’s wrong. As he continued to walk forward, he continued to think. Who cares? He’s not important. No point caring about him. Focus on myself and getting stronger, forget about Shì. He chided himself. Kuran had plans to make the most of his time in the continent of Acrary.