While we both stared each other down, I was trying to figure out if I should make the first move or wait for him. Since I took too long to figure out, I was taken back when the bandit boss began running towards me. I quickly raise my blade to block the incoming strike.

My face jolts sideways as his fist flies past my sword and into my cheek. I stumbled backwards, not expecting to get punched. “Fightings more than jus lookin at blades kiddo” he says while tapping his blade on his shoulder. I hold my cheek for a moment before rushing toward him myself.

Instead of getting ready to block, he just stands there, still resting his blade on his shoulder with a smirk on his face. Annoyed by his actions, I swung down as hard as I could. All my blade meets is the ground as it sinks down, with him standing beside it. “Ya also shouldn’t let yer emotions get to ya.”. Instead of pulling out my blade, I throw a fist right into his cheek as payback for earlier.

While he takes a step back, spitting a loogie to the side, I pull out my blade. “I guess I deserved dat one.” he says while looking back towards me, no longer smirking.

We study each other once more, with the bandit boss taking it more seriously. Not wanting to get caught up in his pace, I charge towards him first. I swing my blade, aiming for his neck. Sparks fly as he blocks my swords. Before giving him a chance to punch me, I jump back.

As I landed farther back, the bandit boss was already clearing the distance. He makes a sweeping strike, causing me to block while taking a step back. Right as the first is blocked, he slid his blade off of mine making sparks fly and was already coming in for another strike. One more time, attempting to push me back, he swings again.

I expected the third strike and instead of letting his blade slide off of mine, I guided it into the ground. I quickly counter attack, swinging down. Unexpectedly the bandit kicked out my knee, causing the strike to go off course. My blade cuts down the side of his arm as I dropped to one knee.

Instead of attacking me, he begins laughing “Hahaha! Yes! Dis is what I wanted! Yer swordsmanship is gettin betta. I’ll take ya a lil bit more seriously.”. He then settles down and intently watches me as I pick myself up and get ready once more.

This time we both broke dirt as we charged in. I swung my sword towards the side he was hurt while he came in with his own attack. Shhhhing! His sword scrapes off mine as he uses the momentum to spin around and strike again.

Not expecting the second attack, I struggled to bring my block up in time and he got a shallow cut on my arm, causing blood to splatter. He gave no time to rest as he spun around once more, making his way behind me and strikes again. I tried to block the attack again. Unfortunately I didn’t see where he was aiming right away and his sword strikes at my leg, leaving a shallow cut. I stumble backwards while quickly trying to think of a counter attack.

Luckily he didn’t press on and spoke out while placing his bloodied sword on his shoulder “Nomally mah cuts er a lot deepah but ya managed to barely keep up, unlike that otha kiddo.”.

While he was talking, I realized he probably meant Vaero which reminded me that I should try and wrap this up as soon as possible. I didn’t want to spend much more time fighting him since it was clear who had the upper hand so I decided to end it with my next attack.

I rushed towards him before he could make a move. When in range, I tightly grip the hilt with two hands as I come in for my attack. He sees it coming and swings down, to clash with my blade. As our swords came close, I began my gambit. My left hand lets go of the hilt while I was still swinging and I quickly reach out and grab his blade and throw it off course.

Since I was only swinging with one hand, my sword got stuck half way through his shoulder. Before he had a chance to figure out what just happened, I head butt him with all remaining strength. The bandit’s body goes limp and drops to the ground. I take a step back while trying to catch my breath now that it was all over.

My victory was short lived when he began getting up, holding onto his shoulder and he started laughing like a maniac.”HAHAHA! I neva expected dat fom you. Dis maybe yer win but I’m going out on mah own terms!” Right as he finished talking he began laughing like a maniac again as his whole body became engulfed in flames.

Surprised by the flames, I took a step back. I thought to myself that if he was able to use fire magic and did so during our fight, I never stood a chance then. I didn’t know why he fought without it if he could use magic but was happy he didn’t.

After I collected myself, I remembered why I was here and quickly made my way to the log house. Once inside, I saw two figures on either side of the room. One was of a lady who was hanging from the ceiling, restrained and with her head limp. The other was a guy that looked all battered, bloodied and bruised up, laying on the ground almost lifelessly.

I first approached the one hanging, and slowly got closer, I was able to confirm that it was Chelsey and luckily she didn’t really look hurt at all. Once my hand was on her wrists, attempting to break her free, her head jolts up with her eyes closed and she begins screaming and crying “NOOO! Don’t take me back!”.

Startled by her response, I quickly break her free while telling her “Chelsey, it’s okay, It’s me.”.

When she heard my voice and realized she was no longer hanging, she looked to me through her puffy red eyes. “C-Crim! I-If you’re here then Vaero’s safe now?” she says while trying to calm herself down.

I nod to her “He is but we need to get out of here and get some medical supplies, he’s hurt badly.”.

“Thank you for saving him.” After she says that, I get up and head over to Vaero’s body to give her time to compose herself. Once above his body, I remembered that Chelsey gave me some potions the other day and I quickly pulled one out.

I kneeled down over his body and rolled him over so I could pour the potion into his mouth. When the bottle was empty, color was returning to his face. “Lesser potions won’t be able to fully fix him, I need to get to the carriage right away for my medical supplies.” I turned to see a now composed Chelsey. Since I had my sword resting on my back, I picked up Vaero, princess style with him still being limp. “If he saw how you were carrying him now, he would be so embarrassed.” Chelsey says with a soft giggle. Happy that she was getting better, I then started heading for the exit.

Once we were outside, Chelsey gasped at the scene in front of here. There were heads of several bandits scattered around with their bodies and two fires, one being a bonfire and another coming from a crisp body that was beginning to die down. “Oh my… you did all of this?” Chelsey abruptly speaks out.

With just a nod to her, I then make my way to the back of the house to try and find the carriage. We began searching all around the house to try and find the carriage but to no avail. Since we couldn’t find it anywhere near the house, we decided to begin looking around the treeline. It wasn’t before long until we finally found the carriage that was now sadly badly damaged with the horses nowhere to be seen.

My gaze makes its way to Chelsey to see her looking at the carriage, depressed. “It may look like this… but at least it’s replaceable…” as she talks she peers towards the limp Vaero in my arms, on the verge of tears.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be okay.” I assure her as we get closer to the carriage. Since it was dark, Chelsey only scavenged the medical supplies and we headed back to the bonfire for light.

I put down Vaero’s body sitting down, against the house and facing the bonfire. Chelsey begins stripping off his top and it reveals cuts and gashes along his chest and arms. Chelsey looked away while holding her hand to her mouth. She took a moment before taking a deep breath and looking towards him again. As she begins cleaning his wounds she mentions “I don’t know why or how you knew we were here but thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart… he would have died if you didn’t make it…” her voice started trailing off near the end and was filled with sniffles.

I turn around and look towards the bonfire “Everything seemed suspicious, the bandits started becoming active when we arrived here and they started getting worse the day you guys were leaving that the guild even put out an urgent request.”.

“So you took the quest?” she asked.

“No, they wouldn’t let me, it was above my rank so instead I followed the path to the capital and spent hours trying to find this place since I had a feeling you were their target.”.

Chelsey stifles a sniffle “Yeah… I am…”. The air fell silent as she began wrapping his wounds. The silence didn’t last long as Chelsey breaks it “After this, I guess you have the right to know.”. Hearing that confused me and I turned to Chelsey.

Chelsey lets out a sigh before talking “I really am from a well known merchant family and what I said before is true as well, unfortunately my elder brother didn’t like that our parents treated me better than him so he disappeared for a while.”. “When he came back a year later, he was a completely different person. At first we thought not much about it and my father let him back into the household.”.

“Everything seemed fine at first but then we started getting word about someone using our respected family name to abuse other smaller merchant families into extorting them for their own personal gains.” Chelsey then takes a moment as she lays Vaero’s body on the ground, back facing up. “My father started trying to figure out who it was and began a witch hunt since he just couldn’t think to believe it could have been my brother. Sadly he exhausted a lot of resources to no avail. My father was at his wits end before he finally acknowledged that it could have been my brother but by the time he tried talking with him, my brother disappeared with the whole family's savings and continued to slander our families name, making us the number one most hated merchant family…”.

She lets out another sigh as she continues “Our family went into hiding after that, luckily Vaero’s father was close with mine and since he was the third son, he was tasked to be my guard and even when my family went into hiding, Vaero came with because his father didn’t care to stop him.”. “We spent several years hiding before I had enough and told my father that I was going to regain the honor our family once had. Sadly my father was just a shell of who he used to be, crushed under the responsibility of his own child destroying everything he built up.”.

Chelsey finished cleaning and patching up Vaero back and fixed him to sit against the house once more before turning to me “That man mentioned my brother's name when I was restrained… so I seriously want to give you my thanks, from the bottom of my heart.”. She stands up, facing me and bows down deeply “Thank you for saving Vaero and stopping them from taking me back to my brother! I’m certain if my brother got the chance, I’d be dead as well!”.

I was overwhelmed by everything she was saying “Please raise your head, I just did what I felt was right, nothing else.”.

Chelsey lifts her head and looks at me with a smile while rubbing away the tears forming “I just knew you were a good person, thank you Crim.”. After she fixes herself she claims “Since we are far from Trennent right now, if it’s okay with you, I’m going to rest.”.

I nod my head to her and she lays down in between the bonfire and Vaero and swiftly passes out. I look around, wondering what there was to do until daybreak and decide to clean up the bodies so they don’t disturb their sleep.

Once I piled up all the bodies near the forest line, away from the bonfire, I then began doing the only thing I knew to pass the time and started practicing my swings once more while thinking about the fight I just had with the bandit boss.