Leaves crunched under the weight of my feet as I sped through the forest.

Hiss*

I hear arrows behind me and instantly roll behind the safety of a tree. As the arrows hit against it’s hard bark, I didn’t waste any time and started running again.

”You can’t run forever, boy!”

”Stop running and we’ll make it quick!”

The bandits began to mock me, their voices only a distant away.

Tch*

I click my tongue, and seeing that I’m finally out of their sight, quickly climb up into the branches of a tree.

Shrouded in leaves, I unsheathed the dagger at my hip and wait silently.

Crunch crunch*

Footsteps steadily make way towards me, and 7 men adorned in leather and cut up clothing appeared in my sight. Three of them stretched the bowstring of the bows they held, glancing in the places they thought I would be.

The other four brandished their swords, and some began hacking at the grass and small branches in amusement.

Time passes by, and not seeing or hearing me, they grow impatient.

”Fuck, where the hell is the bastard!”

One of the bandits holding a sword couldn’t suppress his frustration any longer and blurted out.

”Don’t worry, I got him in the leg; the blood’ll show us right to the fucker.”

One of the swordsmen leads the rest of the ones with blades to search for my blood.

The rest of the bandits with bows stayed behind and slowly began to walk cautiously towards the direction of my tree, looking everywhere except where I was. Then one of them couldn’t stand the tension any longer.

”Come out and play, boy, before I go back and do another round on that whore’s corpse!”

As the voice of the bandit entered my eardrums, my eyes turned bloodshot and the grip on my blade tightened until I felt the blood from my hands flow down from my nails penetrating my flesh. I tried to suprress my rage, but I couldn’t wait a second longer.

I leapt from the tree and aimed for the archers first.

“SHOOT HIM!”

As soon as I leapt out, they turned their bows towards me and released their arrows. Two out of the three arrows I managed to dodge in the air by maneuvering my body around them, and the last one I cut down with my blade.

“The bastard’s like the whore, watch out!”

As the archers quickly tried to nock another arrow, I was already aiming for the one closest to me.

Still in midair, I drove my knife through his neck and used his body to cushion my fall. His eyes opened wide in surprise as he slid across the grass and dirt. His neck snapped in the impact, and as his body went limp, I leapt off his corpse and set my eyes on the next one closest to me.

”Die!”

The second bandit archer I aimed for had enough time to nock an arrow, and at this range, I didn’t have enough room to dodge.

I moved to my right as fast as I could, but the arrow still struck my left shoulder.

”RAH!”

My rage easily overcame the pain I felt in my shoulder, and with my blade in my right hand, I leapt towards him and struck his head downwards in a diagonal angle at the left side of his head.

Blood spurted from his wound into the air, and another arrow shot through it. As the blood from his now dead comrade covered the arrow, I grabbed the corpse and used it as a body-shield against it.

Pcht*

I kicked it at him as hard as I could, and the corpse flung at him and hit him, toppling him over a couple feet. I heard his ribs break from the impact, and he coughed a mouthful of blood.

”DIE BASTARD!”

I turned around to see one of the swordsmen in the air, about to cleave me in two with his broadsword. It looks like they came back rather quick.

I force my body around and sidestep to the left. In the place where I was, dirt sprung into the air due to the sheer impact of his blade. A hole around a foot deep was sliced into the ground. If I had tried to face it head on, I would’ve been cut in half.

When I landed, two more bandits, to the left and right of me, appeared. They both swung towards me with their blades, and I aimed for the one on the left. I dodged his sword and sliced his throat, but before I could dodge again, I felt a sticky sensation on the back of my shirt. He had the opportunity to slash the middle of my back, and blood gushed out from the wound. When he was about to swing again, I rolled away from him.

As I landed, another bandit came from behind me and lunged his sword towards me. I barely got to turn around and try to counterattack, but he was too quick and I was caught off guard.

Puchi*

I felt my ribs snap as the blade penetrated my flesh, aiming for my left lung. I barely had enough time to stop the blade with my left hand, now bleeding from the grip on the sharp blade.

"Quit struggling, bitch, and go see that whore in the afterlife!"

The bandit gave me a sadistic smirk and used both of his hands to push the blade deeper into me.

I coughed out a moutful of blood onto him as my lung got pierced by the tip of the blade. The pain was unbearable, and unable to stop the sword any further, I let it pierce through my body. As the blood poured out from my body like a fountain, I decided I was going to take this bastard with me.

"DIE!!"

Blood poured out from my mouth as I let out a roar, and I drove my knife through his throat. His face showed astonishment and fear as his body slowly went limp and fell to the ground. I grabbed the handle of the sword stuck inside of me, grit my teeth, and yanked it out. Blood spurted across the grass.

"Just die motherfucker!"

The strong bandit with the broad sword swung at me from behind, and I didn't have enough time or strength to move out of the way. I held the two swords in front of me, and when the weapons clashed, both of my swords broke, and I was sent flying until I crashed into a nearby tree.

Barely able to open my eyes, I saw with hazy vision the two remaining bandits walk towards me. With gleeful smiles on their faces, they stepped over the corpses of the bandits I killed without any shred of remorse.

"That bastard Ewell paid a fuckload for you, boy! I can see the fuck why too!"

The taller, scar-faced bandit with the bulging muscles and giant broadsword on his shoulder spoke first. I didn't pay much attention to how they looked before while I was running, but it looks like he was the leader.

"That bitch of a whore was trouble too, took more than half of the guys just to take care of one fucking whore."

The other one, one of average build and height, smirked.

I didn't have the strength to talk back, so I coughed blood in his face.

"Can't wait to die, huh bastard!?"

I smiled was I saw the anger on his face.

He kicked the side of my face, teeth and blood flew out of my mouth.

"No more wasting time."

The leader shoved him out of the way with one hand, and with the other, he took the broadsword off of his shoulders.

He swung his blade at me, and on the impact, I flew in the air and landed hard on the ground. The tree I crashed into before snapped in two, and crashed to the floor. I lifted my arms up to block it, but the bones broke as soon as the two collided and it didn't stop there, cutting half of my left arm off and mutilating my right hand. My legs and ribs cracked when I touched the ground from the fall.

As I lay face-first onto the now bloody and dirty grass, I hear the bandits walk away.

Tears flowed and mixed with the blood pouring from my broken skull.

Forgive me, mother, for I wasn't strong enough

As I thought about the past, and how foolish I was to aspire to become a paladin, I laughed inside of my head. All of them are the same. Demons, humans, dragons, beasts, they have no difference. All of them are just a different type of evil.

After my mother and I survived the first attack in the second Great War, we headed towards the capital's docks in order to safely arrive in Mainland, away from all of the chaos.

Three months later, we eventually arrived there, and on the same boat was the merchant that I saw from before with his underlings. Occassionally, I would see the lustful look on his face that he showed whenever he looked towards my mother's direction.

It angered me, but I didn't do anything, for most men would look at my mother like that. They would try to flirt with her, for she is beautiful. But in the end, she would beat them to a pulp by herself if they tried anything. I should've killed him then and there.

He was unceasingly desperate. He would talk to my mother every chance he could get, and she would always shoo him away.

Overtime, he got more and more frustrated at the fact that a woman would keep rejecting his confessions. One night, he told my mother she should be honored to be his wife, blessed by the gods to have a husband with money like him.

He was beat to a pulp, and his men had to save him from almost drowning when he was thrown overboard. As he was pulled back into the water, his entire attitude changed. He gave my mother and I a hateful look as we laughed at his humiliation, and since then, he hasn't bothered my mother the entire time back.

As the land finally came into view, the captain spoke to us and the others on the ship.

"We're at our destination, Prehg! Get your things and get ready to board the docks!"

The ship finally came to a stop. Prehg was one of the main trading center of the Alligned Kingdoms. We grabbed our stuff, and one by one the passengers of the ship came off the boat onto the docks of Mainland. Hundreds of other ships could be seen coming in and out of the docks, people and soldiers coming in and out.

Looks like the war started.

At the time, I thought of what happened in Miudard, the city that my mother and I survived the attack, and I clenched my fists. I was going to apply for the paladin examinations.