Ajax and Shaula stand tall, their bodies surging with might. They made sure before landing that they absorbed as much energy as they believe they’ll need.

The two stand and face their enemies. They look to the left and focus their attention on the bandits.

The bandits and the merchant’s group, neither side speaks. Both are wary of the interlopers.

Shaula shifts her reflexes up as she considers the state of the criminals.

Hm. All of these pillagers have better-looking weapons than the ones we saw in their shit cave. So… we’re going to have to get rid of both their main and spare weapons… I can melt those away just fine and Ajax can…

Shaula whispers to Ajax.

“Ajax.”

“What is it?”

Ajax whispers back.

“Just make sure to get rid of their main AND their spare weapons, we don’t want those shits to get the jump on us.”

“...Where are their spares? They’re holding their main ones but I don’t see a second holster.”

“You mean ‘sheath’. It must be hidden at their calves or back or--”

Click.

The carriage door opens once more and another man in bronze armour steps out.

This thin man moves to stand behind the four glave-wielding men. He is of average height but compared to the guards, the difference is almost a full head.

He is holding a glave as well, a shorter one. The four men move to shield him.

The man came out after hearing the commotion made by Ajax and Shaula. He speaks:

“Who are you!?”

Shaula ignores the man and continues speaking to Ajax.

“Ajax, tell them we’re not going to hurt them.”

Ajax looks over at the thin man holding his glave.

“Um... Hello! We’re on your side, we saw these bandits plan their ambush against you! Don’t fire at us while we take care of them!”

The man’s expression cannot be seen under his helmet but he talks to one of the four guards for their response to this new threat.

Ajax and Shaula observe the formations of the men in front of them. The four bodyguards are in a crescent moon formation with two standing close to the thin man.

The seven bandits have two at the front, four in the middle and one a bit behind them in the rear. The man holding the glowing transparent sword is in the front.

None of them move. Too many unknowns have revealed themselves.

Shaula has noticed an opening.

“Ajax. Aim for the guy far in the back.”

“Huh? Are you trying to give me small fry?”

“No. That guy has an important vibe to him. He plays like a support role or something. Remember, like that MMO anime you showed me?”

“Right… guys in the back play top-notch supportive roles. Like healers or something”

“If you aim for that guy first and take him out, then we can attempt a pincer on the guys in the middle.”

“O-Ok, yeah. That might be a good--”

The man holding his transparent blade speaks up in vexation and fear.

“Shit... Alright! You guys! Aim for the two of them. They’re… They’re strong!”

The commander of this group of bandits has an instinct about Ajax and Shaula. He cannot sense their strength... but their sudden, dramatic entrance into the fight is not a good sign.

The four bandits in the middle of the bandit formation immediately sprint towards Ajax and Shaula. They’re fairly fast runners but Ajax and Shaula aren’t daunted.

“Ajax. Leap. I’ll take these four down.”

“Right. Really though, attacking their support...”

“This is real life, bud. Don’t bitch out on me now.”

The men are within two metres of Ajax and Shaula. Ajax and Shaula don’t appear prepared for battle yet. Then… Ajax crouches slightly, bending his knees and… vaults past the four of them.

They back off slightly at his powerful jump and follow his trajectory until he lands directly in front of… the man who they had been protecting in the rear.

The man in the rear of their formation is actually a healer, a person who can perform healing magic. It’s nothing spectacular, only magic of the skin and muscle reconstruction tier, the lowest tier of healing.

This tier gives him the power to heal small wounds with the potency to recover minor amounts of skin and muscle tissue. This man is particularly skilled at it and can even repair pierced blood vessels and hairline fractures.

Ajax now stands before him. The man is holding a sword as well. He attempts a thrust to Ajax’s midsection. Ajax dodges it by stepping backwards.

Then Ajax grabs the sharp point of his slightly rusted sword with his index finger, middle finger and thumb. It’s a slight taunting action to show the man how far ahead Ajax is compared to him.

The man stands dumbfounded for a moment before coming to his senses but it’s too late. Ajax grabs the double-edged sword blade in his right palm. The blade is too dull to even cut his hand.

He yanks the sword tightly, the healer still holding it. The healer is pulled forward and Ajax sticks out his right foot. The healer trips and falls forward. The sword is now in Ajax’s hand.

Then, Ajax throws it far enough away that the healer cannot reach it before Ajax can reach him.

Ajax sees the healer’s spare sword. The man’s back is covered in armour and a small sheath is attached to it as well.

Ajax removes this short sword while holding the healer down with his foot. He launches it away. This man is now weaponless as far as Ajax can tell.

Then Ajax realizes something crucial. Something he should have thought of earlier before he ventured into this fight.

Wait… how do I incapacitate this guy without killing him or risking his death?

Ajax considers his options while continuing to hold him down. He consciously upscales his thought processing to ensure he doesn’t leave Shaula to fight alone. It’s the little mistakes.

He should have thought about this before, he had a lot of time to do so.

Ajax doesn’t have any rope and neither does this guy. He doesn’t have any handcuffs, shackles, chains or binds of any kind at all.

He considers hitting him over the head and knocking him out.

No, that’s crazy… I can’t even control my strength properly yet, I could kill him. He’d likely get a concussion and die from that if I’m not careful. What about CTE? Shit…

Ajax considers another option. In order to incapacitate this guy, all he really needs to do is… deal with his arms.

I’m not going to hold Shaula’s back. I guess… shit… I’ve done worse at this point, just more to repress. Fuck it.

Ajax places his left foot on the upper arm of the healer near the shoulder, still held down by him.

“...I’m really sorry.”

Ajax steps down.

Crack.

“AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

The healer’s left arm shatters at the shoulder. His arms had armour protecting them, which was slightly weaker on the back of his shoulder, but it didn’t last long against Ajax’s current might.

While continuing to hold the man’s left shoulder down with his left leg, Ajax steps on the man’s other shoulder with his right foot.

“Shit! Stop it! Stop it!”

Crack.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH! Fuck!”

The healer’s shoulder and upper arm are broken beyond the simple healing magic he can muster. He can no longer raise his arms or use them to hurt Ajax or the people he and Shaula were trying to help.

“...Y-You should have considered this outcome before you helped try and ambush these guys...”

Ajax tries to put on a brave, cold act but he’s just had to disable someone. Luckily, he won’t need his arms in prison, Ajax thinks.

When Ajax had jumped, Shaula is facing two of the four men, the other two behind them. They are bewildered by Ajax’s jump and leave an opening. Shaula uses it.

She grab the swords of the two distracted bandits in front of her.

“Hey!”

“Oh! You want these? Should I give them back to you?”

Shaula smiles and taunts her opponents. Shaula holds the swords by the blade edge. These swords are sharp and create cuts in her palms. Shaula activates her heat.

The swords turn bright red while still maintaining their shape... for about two seconds before melting out of her hands into liquid metal pools on the ground.

Shaula brings her arm back in an attempt to throw the incredibly hot molten metal back at the two unarmed enemies.

“Ah, shit!”

They hold up their hands covered by gauntlets. They can feel the heat and see the bright molten metal, like pure lava about the size of two snowballs, in Shaula’s hands. They prepare for Shaula to throw what’s left of the liquid sword at them.

But Shaula pauses.

“Hm. This might actually kill you if it gets through your helmets and onto your face... Better not.”

“...huh?”

Shaula shakes her hands dry and the liquid sword mixed with her blood falls to the ground as small blobs, instantly cooling solid. Her hands heal rapidly.

The men, both the ones holding weapons and those now unarmed, look at her, shocked.

Shaula has another opening. Shaula swiftly raises her left leg and kicks the closer unarmed man in his armoured right shin. She doesn’t penetrate the armour but she causes a shin fracture nonetheless.

The man drops to the ground holding his leg in pain. If he tries to stand up, that fracture will only get worse. Without the ability to stand now, he’s been incapacitated temporarily.

This man is on the ground now clutching his leg and Shaula can hear sobbing coming through his helmet. She sees his spare sword on his back.

But before she reaches for it, she notices the other unarmed man try to retreat behind the two remaining armed men.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Shaula grabs the retreating man’s right gauntlet, which softens slightly from the heat still emitting from her left hand and yanks his arm in a quick jerking motion.

“Aaaaiiiieeeeee!!!”

His arm dislocates at the shoulder and his right-hand burns in its gauntlet. Some people have dislocated their shoulders many times in childhood and know how to place them back without issue.

Not this man.

Shaula flips this man over and subdues the other man still holding his shin. Then she removes their spare swords from their sheaths attached to their backs. Rather than melting these, she throws them away from their vicinity.

“W-Who are these guys-- Aaahhh!”

The man speaking is one of two men still armed and is standing to Shaula’s left. A hand grabs his throat, pulling him backward. This man is tripped and falls on his back to the ground.

“Done already, Ajax?”

Ajax pulled the man by his throat backwards, tripped him and grabbed his sword in one fluid motion. Ajax throws the sword away.

“Yeah… Shaula, the best way to restrain these guys is probably to break their arms or legs...”

“So, you figured it out, huh? There’s a price to following your morals, Ajax...”

“Sigh… y-yeah… but at least they’re not dead.”

The last armed man standing on his feet is left. Shaula rushes towards him and kicks his knee. A hard kick.

“AAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Fuck! Fuck! My leg… ah, my fucking leg!!”

“Oh… geez, that’s a bit… sigh… shouldn’t have gone into the robbery business.”

The man’s knee is bent the wrong way. Shaula had assumed she needed to kick harder in order to actually break his knee through his knee guard. Now his knee is shattered completely and his leg is useless and deformed, sending massive pain signals to his brain.

“Ew, Shaula… couldn’t you have… no, never mind...”

The man that Ajax is currently holding down tries to strike Ajax with the spare sword he’s pulled from the sheath on his back. Ajax feels it go through the ribs in his back.

“Ow... You were right again, Shaula.”

Ajax looks back to the man, unphased by the attack to his back. He pulls out the sword from his back. The wound heals and disappears in one second.

The man looks at Ajax with fear hidden by his helmet.

“Sigh, I’m sorry about this but I can’t let you move around.”

Ajax steps on his left shin, shattering it.