What the hell was that, Charles thought as he walked along the edge of the stone lined road. He had always been a very go with the flow type person in conversations but he really should have said something back there, that was a weird interaction and Charles did not like one bit of it. Charles sighed, at least he got a destination even though he had no idea how to get there.

Charles looked quite menacing, as he walked along the road his body kept an instinctive march and he carried himself like a soldier, the finish put on the armour to prevent it’s shine also softened irregularities in the metal’s looks making his outline darker and hazy. Even though his armour was imposing his great sword was even more so, normal greatswords back on earth were around as tall as their wielders, they had long handles and were very thin to make them possible to wield at all. Charles’ greatsword was made for someone of enhanced strength. It was taller than he was and thicker than a normal greatsword, it hadn’t achieved buster sword levels of impracticality thanks to the thin and wide blade but it would not look out of place in an anime. The blade had a stone wash making it look well worn and chipped, the handle looked practical without unnecessary flourishes. All in all Charles looked scary as fuck, not someone the average merchant wanted to run into on the road.

Charles sighed, the greatsword was heavy and he was forced to carry it with two hands and balanced over his shoulder, he would probably have to take a break soon to rest a bit. While he was walking he discovered a problem with his current suit of armour, his carefully created runes would not even be able to go through his gauntlets, Charles cursed and decided to work on his runes to take his mind off of the annoying weight of the blade. His solution was a simple one, he created runes on his armour that designated small spots where the magic would be channeled through the armour leaving it unaffected, it was like a magical porthole on the side of a ship.

Charles was so distracted by the rune making he nearly missed a stereotypical bandit encounter right in front of him. A small group of guys in leather armour had downed a tree onto the road which stopped a small caravan of three carriages from passing through, a couple arrows were embedded in the carriages and the guards of the caravan looked like they were readying themselves for a fight. One strange thing Charles noticed was a lack of helmets, neither the guards or the bandits were wearing helmets, geez Charles thought do they think their in an anime or something even a weakling could kill them with their head exposed like that. Charles decided to intimidate the bandits into backing down, he didn’t want them to take the caravan, and a fight sounded to tiring plus Charles was already sleepy, he had not yet escaped the grips of laziness that had held him tight in his last life.

Charles approached the aggressive groups and coughed lightly to get their attention, the cough echoed out of his helmet creating a deep metallic sound.

“Is there a problem here” Charles asked.

A bandit that looked a little better put together than the others stared at him for a few seconds and looked him up and down. This must be how attractive women feel, Charles thought as everyone’s head whipped around to look at him.

The Bandit who charles assumed was the leader spoke up first “Ah, no dear sir we were just…”

A younger more aggressive bandit interrupted him“This here’s a toll station leave all your valuables with us and we might let you pass”

The bandit leader looked like he had just swallowed a lemon and the caravan guards gave him looks of sympathy. Charles looked like an experienced combatant at first glance, he was not someone that the average weak bandits would want to take on. He sighed and prepared his greatsword, Charles’s mind was already fighting with his body, he didn’t exactly want to kill some bandit but his body was itching to put some blood on his new sword.

The Bandit leader caught the quiet sigh and got ready to run, there was no way he was going to sacrifice his life to save a dumb newbie who couldn’t recognise a capable looking mercenary.

Charles prepared himself for a fight, strangely Orson’s body seemed very comfortable with the greatsword, figures Orson would train in a weapon that was more useful for intimidation for anyone not obnoxiously strong. The sword charted a massive arc as he went for and overhead slash at the idiotic bandit, first he would do a control slash then test his force runes, finally he would test the flamethrower before taking the rest out with normal cuts.

The idiotic bandit tried to block the blade coming at him but didn’t bother using his off hand to support the blade a mistake that would cost him. Charles’ sword hit the tip off the bandit's blade pushing it out of the way and continuing it’s path down into his shoulder, the blade ripped through the bandits flesh and almost made it through the bones before losing it’s force. Charles didn’t wait before going it for a second slash not even flinching a he pulled the blade out and was splashed with blood, this time he activated the force construct rune causing it to light up slightly with a blue glow. He targeted the Bandit’s blade as the bandit tried his best to pull up into a guard again, the blade cut through the Bandit’s one with only a small amount of resistance a kept going right through the bandit’s head and deep into his chest even though he was cutting through the bone of the spine.

Charles was splattered with blood again as he pulled his sword back onto his shoulder, Orson’s body was fine with the blood but Charles’s mind was not quite ready for it and he felt dirty inside. The armour covered up Charles obvious disgust with himself and as far as anyone else could see it looked like he was just surprised the bandit had been so weak.