Laughter all around, howls and cries of excitement. His eyes slowly opened to the commotion around him, a large roaring pyre of flame stood before him. Around the massive flame men danced naked, holding the skin of a large serpent, its skin stretched in a ring all the way around the fire.

Other men danced around the fire holding their weapons, some with a jug of ale in hand.

He layed there watching them, it was amusing, as if crazed animals that could only understand the material things in life. He could smell the stench of alcohol, sweat, and blood covering the whole camp. The young body couldn’t even handle the strong smell of alcohol, his mind faded into another slumber.

……..

Bright light shined on Aias face as they left the woods, he retracted his gaze forward but was met with an unpleasant sight. Aias had woken up a whole day after his teacher's dual, he was still lying in the same carriage surrounded by the same boxes. But teacher wasn’t there, neither was Varja. Aias turned his eyes forward and let the sun shine in his eyes, the sight around him would make him cry again.

Those bandit scum had hung the large skin of Varja on the carriages surrounding him, this was to torment him. Aias was still safe from harm, he hadn’t noticed it while tired two days prior, but O’jghar had connected him to the powerful formation of raging energy. The bastards around him couldn’t touch him without first dissolving the formation, or who know what could happen.

“Now ya wee little shit, tell me, how is it upp in Delano now a days?” Leading the carriage Aias is sitting in is an old drunk man. He was the first Aias met waking up, and had been a displeasure since.

Aias didn’t want to answer, but unlike some of the other bandits who would do sickly things towards Aias to taunt him, he was an alright man, only very rude. “I have lived in the orphanage my whole life, I don’t know much of anything that’s going on” Aias truthfully responded.

The drunk man spit on the seat next to him and made an annoyed face, “Ah, yeah, that orphanage! You kids are lucky, you kno’ hau much the cuntry talks ‘bout honring the warriors! Well look at mee! Im sitting here with a bunch a savages, all cuz a war!” The man could barely speak, he was drunk and angry, and had lost all control.

He had however intrigued Aias. “Did you fight in the war?” A simple question, but it seemed to sting the old man like a bullet. “Yeah, I fought in it. And I lost this!” He pulled up his leg over the railing of the cart, however instead of a knee and foot there was only a large pegg. “Yah, this is what happns t warriors ho com back broken. We become nothin, forgotten”

He burped and smashed his fist into the wood of the cart. “You kids are lucky, born after the war.” He mumbled before going back to slowly managing the road.

It took several hours and several miles of travel before the old man began to speak again, “I’m sorry for your teacher, he was a great man” The old man had sobered up and calmed down.

“I know, he was O’jghar, you should know of him if you were a soldier!” Aias was proud of his teacher, but he felt detest for these scum if they would praise him after killing him in such a cowardly way.

“Of course I know who he is, we all do. One of our men saw him while at the in by the farmlands. We barely managed to catch up to you! Although we didn’t think he would be as strong as he was” The old man sighed, “To think he could take on Morgor in a dual, amazing!” By the tone in his voice Aias could tell he was sincere.

But why, “Why is that amazing! O’jghar was a hero on the battlefield, a great warrior, of course he would win against a lowly thug.” Aias snapped at the old man. The old man again spit in the seat next to him, “Pah! Little shit don’t know shit! A great man he was, NOT a great warrior. If it was Georgio ‘earthbreaker’, or Meleth ‘the black flame’ we wouldn’t even had considered trying to attack, those are real great warriors. O’jghar was definitely a hero in that battle, but not by his fighting strength, it was because of his large scale formations that held back the enemy forces. That was what made him into a hero. That’s also why we haven’t touched you, if that formation you are tied to would go off, then who knows, maybe a hole will be created in the landscape.” He scoffed and swore under his breath, “He was never known for being a great fighter, but he sure showed us!”

As the old man started to sit back and relax he seemed to recall, “Ah! You called our boss a lowly thug, didn’t you! Little shit, you really don’t know a damn thing about a damn thing, what do they teach you at that orphanage? Morgor is the eight strongest man in the whole Bittens bone, you think the biggest and most powerful bandit band would be weak? We have fought against the army damnit! Knights, lords, generals, you name it! Sure he would be nothing compared to Georgio, but who could fight that monster!” The old man went on a tangent on how little Aias knew, and of how ‘bullshit’ both Georgio’s and Meleth’s strength were.

Aias was forced to sit there and listen until he felt like his ears would fall off, it was only interrupted when the bandit in the cart next to them screamed, “Leif, for FUCK sake could ya shut the fuck up! I still have a headache from last night and you ain't making it better!” the old one legged man was apparently called Leif, Aias noted. Leif hearing this responded quickly, “No you shut up, this dumb kid don’t know shit, he’s underestimating our strength!”

An argument between waggons had arose, well maybe not an argument, more like a contest of who could curse the most and loudest. There were so many words that Aias had never heard, or even knew could be used in a demeaning way. However it ended with Aias hearing something he wish he hadn’t, “What does it matter what the dumb cunt knows, he’s gonna be sold to sum old filthy man in the end anyway!” the bandit in the other cart said in defeat. Aias could fully understand what that meant, the world definitely had some fucked up people who would prefer the ‘young’.

Aias was stuck in this situation, there was nothing he could do. Feeling his body he could tell that there was no way he was sneaking away from them in the dead of night without getting caught a few hours later. Aias didn’t know what his future would entail but he had to persevere, he still had things he wanted to do.

………

They had traveled far to the east during the day and were now stopping in a small grove filled with large boulders. The many bandits got together to discuss how they would set up camp, this gave Aias the chance to recount them. Forty six, Aias hadn’t been sure how many there were while they were attacked but he was sure they had lost at least ten to Varja. Aias remembering his beloved snake began to silently weep, he was now alone so he didn’t have to keep up a facade. Tears streamed down his face, he sat there crying for about an hour until the bandits came to set up where his cart was going to be.

Time passed, Aias observed the bandits building a pyre in the middle of the camp. Large tents had been set up to the sides, sleeping bags had been placed around the fire. Most of the men had already gone to sleep when the sun went down, but others sat up until late in the night. Every now and then they would switch guard duty, guards had been placed on top of the large boulders, to keep a lookout for any possible patrol.

Aias remained awake through the night, both focusing on what was happening around the camp and training his body. He didn’t dare try using his energy, as he had no idea what the formation he was attached to could do. There wasn’t much Aias could do for training however he did what he could. Aias easily grew exhausted from the training however simply stopped, rested, and began again.

When daylight came he stopped and went to sleep instead, he didn’t want to speak to the bandit group so he wouldn’t.

……..

Several days had passed, Aias had stuck to trying to sleep through the day, it had somewhat worked, there were times he had been forced to converse with Leif or look at the provocative nasty taunts of the other bandits.

It was in the middle of the night and Aias was resting after some of his training, then it started, the ground began to shake, sounds of thunder came closer and closer to the camp. All the sleeping bandits quickly got up, curses were heard, “Shit is that Georgio!”, “Dear god where all dead!”, “W-We have to get out of here!” Confused screaming throughout the camp until suddenly the shaking, and sounds stopped. Everyone started to slowly settle down however none let down their guard.

They stood around the fire with weapons drawn looking out into the darkness. There was no moon in the sky that night, the complete darkness of the forest surrounding them had never felt so terrifying.

“HYIIIII!!” a scream came from one side of the fire. Aias looked into the darkness where he also saw it. Two large eyes reflecting the light of the pyre, slowly they approached. When finally within the range of the fire's light what was first shown was a large weapon. A stone club that appeared to be larger than a person. The wielder of the massive weapon slowly walked out from between the trees. The body of that person was massive, far larger than any Aias had seen. Muscles the size of tree trunks, a bulky mass of muscle unlike any other. Not wearing any armor, only skin, and a loin cloth around the waist. This wasn’t Georgio, as given away by the lack of stomach. But what gave it away the most was the skin color, green.

As the giant man walked out into the light the many bandits roared at the incoming creature, “What it’s just an orc, and we were all scared. What are you doing here you dumb ape, got lost and wandered to our fire. HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Mocking laughter and jokes came from all the bandits. The fear that Georgio was coming had completely disappeared.

However as the many bandits laughed and made jokes a large frown appeared on the orcs face, “Truly no honor in this land!” The large orc sighed to himself. It surprised the crowd of bandits, they had clearly believed it wouldn’t be able to understand their language. As one of the bandits was going to say something to the large orc he jumped forward. The distance was cleared in a moment, the bandit’s sword was already by the large orcs knee in the time it took for Aias to blink. However then he was gone! Everyone looking blinked several times in surprise, where was he, where did he go! They all looked towards the orc and slowly noticed the blood splattered along the ground, and its giant club. Then a crash was heard. A tree to the side of the camp fell over, looking at it they saw the cause. The bandit’s body had crashed into it at an incredibly high speed. It was a gory scene, mangled or severed limbs, a distorted mess.

One massive gulp was heard from the bandits in unison. Then the darkness lit up. Behind the orc another man appeared, a man much smaller, a human. He wore long dark robes and held a ball of energy. Aias sensed immense power from the orb, it felt similar to the walls of Svordie, ancient. Aias eyes became used to the sudden light and could clearly see the man, it was the madman he got the locket from, the madman he met a few days before.

The old man cleared his throat, “Dear gentlemen, you are in possession of something we need. And unfortunately you will have to die as we take it.” With the end of his short announcement the orc roared and charged.

All the bandits came together to defend against its charge, the giant stone club came down in a swing. Ten bandits together brought up their shields to defend against the massive club. They all propped each other up, their strength combined however wasn’t enough, the club touched the shields on the top and pushed down, squashed them to the ground. Seeing the massive difference in power all the other bandits who were about to surround the orc stopped. They could tell in a moment, there was no way they could win this. As they turned to flee the old man fired beams of light from his orb, annihilating any who turned their backs and ran.

In a span of five seconds twenty men had died. Five seconds later another fifteen, the orc was about to bring down his weapon to kill another five who were cowering together when a clear voice came through all the screaming, “Stop!” The stone club was resting at the top of of one of the bandit's head. All the fleeing bandits stopped in their tracks when they heard it. The old man also paused his firing of beams.

Slowly through the small camp a child walked over the dead bodies of bandits heading towards the orc. The child’s body trembled and shook with every step it took, after what felt like an eternity to the onlooking bandits he had made it to the group the orc was about to kill. “Well, do you want to save them, is that it?” The large orc smiled towards the child and his efforts to make it there.

Aias looked deep into the eyes of one of the men in the group, “No, this one is mine!” Aias pulled out a knife from the man's belt. Everyone was paralyzed in fear, the bandits, the orc, the old man. An aura of unquestionable might was exuding from Aias. His blade was resting at the bandit’s throat. “You killed my teacher. You are mine!” The blade slowly pushed into his throat. Aias pulled at the collar of his shirt to prop the bandit up, they maintained eye contact as he slowly bled out. The paralyzing fear in the bandit was slowly replaced with frantic fear and pain. His life was ending. His fingers clawed at Aias face, but he didn’t have the strength to push Aias away. Only a small cut was left on Aias cheek from his unkempt nails.

Aias watched the life slowly drain from his eyes, when all light was gone Aias started feeling the weight of that one life. His heart felt as if it was being grabbed and squeezed. He felt as if a hand was clutched around his throat, he could barely breath. His skin started itching all over, as if bugs crawled beneath it. Every sense in his body was acting up, he started seeing double, everything was twisting and turning, nauseous. He barely managed to stand and was about to fall, however he had had enough of himself. He was done with being weak. Aias stomped a foot in the ground and punched his stomach. The nausea and pain disappeared. The indomitable aura he had given off had disappeared after killing the bandit and experiencing the weight of taking a life.

During that moment most had gotten their bearings together. But then a far more powerful aura appeared. Aias had given of the aura of a tyrant who couldn’t be reasoned with, now he seemed more like a man, a man with great power. Quickly all the remaining bandits started trying to flee, however the orc and old man wouldn’t allow it. And in only twenty seconds were the remainder of the bandits taken care of.