A caravan of five wagons, being pulled by horses, slowly travelled along the road, through a forest. The first wagon was for the caravan master, the second contained the rest of the passengers, while the last three had goods that were due to be sold at the caravan’s destination, the capital of Hurria.

There were twelve armed men, surrounding the wagons, vigilantly scanning the area for a possible ambush, since it was known that this road had been the recent scene of frequent bandit attacks The men all wore leather armor with metal plates built in to protect their most vital parts. It was basically budget armor but it also allowed for better movement than full plate would. Most of them had a shield on their arms and a sword on their waists but there were four who had bows on their backs instead of the shields.

They were mercenaries. While some people hired adventurers for this sort of work it wasn’t a very good idea to hire them to guard large caravans. Mercenaries were more popular for that sort of work. Large adventurer parties existed but only rarely and you needed quite a few people to protect a large caravan. As such if you hired adventurers you would most likely need more than one party to come on the job which wasn’t a great idea. The coordination of the whole group would be much weaker. Mercenaries on the other hand usually had military training. Even if they weren’t soldiers the guilds usually taught untrained members themselves. They all obeyed the orders of the leader and part of their training was specifically for guarding caravans like these.

The sounds of the wheels rolling and the wagons jumping with every bump was overwhelmed only by the tension in the air, which came with being in hostile territory. The passengers were silently hoping they could pass with no incident while the mercenaries were concentrating fully on locating the enemy, bringing an eerie atmosphere around them. This road was known to have had a large amount of bandit attacks recently, and even a request to the adventurer's guild had been issued, but they were yet to be cleared out.

The tension was suddenly released instantly as a bow was strung back and the slightest noise alerted the mercenaries right as the arrow was released. The mercenaries all raised their shields, three of them blocking projectiles, while one of the mercenary archers was hit in the neck, with no hope for survival.

“Ambush!” screamed the leader as everyone drew their weapons. The remaining archers instantly shot back at the locations the arrows came from, screams echoing out along with the thuds that signified the fallen enemies. Suddenly they were surrounded by shouts, as bandits rushed in from within the trees and surrounded the caravan. The horses, pulling the wagons neighed, obviously fearing what was to come. The bandits outnumbered the men, being at least twice their numbers but they weren’t as well equipped. The sounds of metal clanging on metal spread out as the passengers shook in fear, within the wagons. Just a single one didn’t fear for their circumstances.

The passenger, travelling with the caravan master jumped off the wagon “Can’t you quiet down a bit?!” everyone’s heads turned in his direction. He was a boy with white hair, scales around his neck and a lizard-like tail. “Seriously! Can’t I take a nap in peace without someone interrupting me?” he had a bow and quiver on his back, a shortsword on the side of his waist and a dagger on the back of it. He didn’t wear any armor but why would he? Everyone knew Dragon scales were one of the strongest natural defenses in existence and Drakin ones, while much weaker, were still better than any steel armor you’d find at the blacksmith, not to mention they allowed for absolute freedom of movement unlike most other protection humans usually wore.

The bandits hesitated and while the mercenaries were caught off guard as well, the fact that he had come from the caravan meant he was possibly on their side, letting them recover more easily. They struck back at the bandits while they were distracted, a few killing their targets. The boy sighed and drew his sword before rushing towards a bandit, stabbing the sword through the man’s heart, without giving him a chance to recover from his surprise. It seemed some of the bandits, if not most, were by no means combat-trained. It explained why the mercenaries could hold their ground despite being so heavily outnumbered.

As soon as his sword pierced the bandit’s heart, he pulled it out and rushed towards the next one. His sword slashed one’s neck, the next one, falling soon after. Bandit after bandit fell, allowing the mercenaries more room for work, as they started slaying them as well, the boost in morale helping along with the lower number of enemies. The bandits on the other hand were forced to give up. They no longer believed this could end with anything but all their deaths. They called a retreat, running back into the trees. The mercenaries didn’t pursue. While they ended up having only one casualty, the rest of them were quite wounded and in the first place their job was to protect the caravan, not get rid of the bandits. But as the leader turned to thank Rex for the help, he found him to be gone. After all, the same thing couldn’t be said for the boy’s own job.

Rex ran after the bandits, easily following them by scent, but keeping his distance. While he was complaining earlier, after just being woken up he was actually lucky to get attacked by those bandits. It was also something he was hoping would happen. It was just that he was still annoyed to be woken up. Thankfully the bandits were kind enough to lead him straight to their hideout.

He followed them until arriving at a point where he could see into a clearing. Tents were set up in it, though there wasn’t a wall or anything surrounding it. ‘That’s just careless…’ he thought while sighing. He climbed into the trees and approached the camp further. The bandits that had just come back were surrounded by others, explaining themselves to another.

‘The leader?’ he certainly seemed to be better armed than the others and he looked like he was better trained. He was a large man with large muscles and an air of experience around him. He had an axe and shield strapped to his waist and back respectively, looked old, probably beyond his years, and had a gruff face with a few scars as well as a bald head. ‘Alright. If I kill that guy, it should be good enough. Hmm… but if I do that the others might run away… It’ll be a pain getting to them then. If I’m gonna do this, I might as well make sure it’s done well… That being said it’s not like it would be easy to handle so many bandits in a straight on fight.’ He thought about what to do for a moment before deciding. He pulled his newly bought bow off his back and nocked an arrow, pulling back and aiming. As he calculated the trajectory of the arrow he released and saw it satisfyingly fly into the neck of the leader. He stumbled, trying desperately to take a breath, to no avail and as he fell to the ground another arrow flew in and hit another bandit in the neck. The others drew their weapons. In the end... Rex had decided it's not worth thinking too much about.

Most looked like they had done so out of desperation, only a few looking like they were actually composed to some extent. Rex fired another arrow at one, who didn’t have a shield and it hit him straight through the eye, piercing his skull and killing him. At that point they finally saw where the arrows were coming from, causing Rex to drop down from the tree while putting the bow back in its sheath.

The bandits finally saw him causing them to all tense up in surprise. Some didn’t notice the peculiarities in him right away, causing them to be surprised at their enemy being just a child. The rest were pale in the face, thinking about running away. Rex wasn’t going to make it easy for them as he instantly rushed towards them while drawing his sword. At that point everyone noticed he wasn’t normal.

As Rex reached them the first man slashed his sword at him but it was easily dodged before his throat was sliced. Though another two instantly tried to close in and kill him. Rex deflected one of their axes with his sword and right as the other one was about to strike the back of his head, the bandit, thinking he had already, won let his guard down only to have his axe knocked out of his arms by the boy’s tail. He thrust his sword forward piercing the heart of the man in front of him before jumping up and smacking the one behind him with his tail, a snap was heard as the bandit’s head turned at an impossible angle and he was knocked down, his eyes open wide and lifeless.

As he landed on the ground he pulled his sword out and turned to the others. They were all hesitating but he wasn’t. Every second he wasted could be a second he could kill another person, before they make up their mind and run. He knew he couldn’t kill them all but if he killed the majority, including the leader his mission should be sufficiently complete. He could have waited for night and eliminated them quietly. The thought had passed through his head. But he didn’t want to resort to such cowardly tactics. He was a tyrant. A tyrant wielded his power indiscriminately and directly. Maybe he didn’t have much of it yet, but it was enough for these guys.

He rushed towards them instantly. Their desperate attacks failed to hit him, as his sword danced around, precisely dealing nothing but mortal injuries. Another ten died before the others simply turned back and ran. Even those that had some semblance of bravery left, lost hope, seeing all their comrades flee and joined them in their escape, all of them running away in different directions. The boy pursued as best he could. He caught up to one group, slashing the back of their necks easily while they ran away. Another bandit passed close by alone, giving Rex a view through the trees. He drew the dagger on the back of his waist and threw it, piercing the back of the man’s head. ‘Shit. Did I waste my money on this bow? Should I have just bought some throwing knives?’ a carefree thought passed through Rex’s head in the middle of his murder spree.

He ran after the rest, seeking them out from the sound of desperate footsteps but as five more fell to his blade, the others were already too far for him to track efficiently. He could still find them with some effort, but it didn’t seem like it would be worth it. In less than ten minutes a whole camp of around forty bandits had fallen, with only sixteen leaving alive. That should have been enough.

Rex sighed as he sheathed his sword and retrieved his dagger, before walking back to the camp. He hadn’t brought a bag along this time, but he didn’t really feel like looting the camp. He had unfortunately had to abandon the cloak. It was only weighing him down anyway. He could buy a new one later. The only reason he took it was because he had no reason not to as it used to be one of his only possessions in the world. For now though, Rex walked into the clearing again. He looked around, the ground had several bodies sprawled out. He sharpened his ears but he couldn’t hear any of them breathing… no… there was breathing but from somewhere else.

He opened his eyes again, cutting his concentration and looked in the direction the breathing came from. The biggest tent in the camp stood there, quite a bit larger than the rest. Rex walked over, already having an idea of what was inside. He opened the flaps of the tent, looking inside with his eyes, piercing the darkness. The inside held a few wagons worth of merchandise, no doubt, stolen from the caravans passing through the forest road. The bandits weren’t around here for long, they were relatively new in the area, but two weeks was still enough to gather this much if you were lucky. They obviously were, until now. They had been too brazen with their activities which lead to their current situation.

That’s not what caught the boy’s attention though. No. What caught the boy’s attention were four large cages with people inside them, five in each. They looked at him, some with hope, others fear, but all of them right now had their eyes on the boy who had shed light into the darkness of the tent. They were all naked, stripped of all possessions. Some were women, others men, even kids. Though there were no old ones. Rex guessed they didn’t sell for much. He stood at the entrance for a minute, his expression cold. All the cages had padlocks on them. The leader outside probably had a key, but Rex didn’t care at the moment.

He approached the door of the first cage and took the lock in his hand, before transforming it into a claw and pulling with all his might. The lock creaked and snapped, giving way to his herculean strength. If it was made of steel it might not have been as simple, but this was a comparatively fragile iron lock. He moved on to the next cage, doing the same. Then followed the other two, until all the locks on the cages were completely torn off.

The people, slowly looked on as he did his work, unable to see him very well in the dark tent, which no longer had the light of the sun shining through the flaps, not daring to exit yet, but more and more people gaining hope in their eyes. As the last lock was torn off, one man from the first cage, stood up and opened the cage with slow movements, stepping out cautiously. The boy gave him a glance, before throwing the torn lock to the side and proceeding to leave the tent. As he walked away more and more people left the cages and as he left he heard some talking, even crying inside. Though he didn’t care enough to concentrate on it and make out the words.

He waited in the camp for a while. About half an hour passed before someone reluctantly stepped out of the tent. It was a woman, this time dressed. Quickly after her followed others, all of them seeming to have borrowed some clothes from the pile of merchandise in the tent. They all flowed out of the tent little by little, until they were all outside. Twenty people gathered. They all approached the boy and the man who had left the cage first earlier stepped out in front of the others.

“Thank you!” he said bowing in gratitude “Thank you so much! For saving me! For saving all of us!”

The boy looked upon the man with a still cold expression. He raised a finger and pointed in a certain direction “There’s a road that way. Once you arrive there, head left. If you walk without stop, you’ll arrive in town before night.”

“Y-You won’t be coming?” one of the men in the back asked worriedly, before instantly shrinking back, as if having said something wrong.

“If you’re worried about your safety then…” Rex paused and pointed at the bodies sprawled out in the camp “There are weapons and armor there. You should take them. If you wish to be safe…” he looked meaningfully at all of them “Then earn the strength to protect yourselves.” he couldn't have carried the loot anyway and Rex was never a very materialistic person. He was fine as he was.

The men, women and children were all speechless. They looked at the corpses and then back at the boy. The first one to move was ironically one of the boys in the group. He started walking over to the dead bandits. Some of the men followed, before most were there, picking the corpses for what they had. A few looked at the bandits in disdain before starting and while stripping them of their possessions. Before long they walked back to the scaled youngster. The men were now armed with weapons and armor while the women and children simply carried something to protect themselves with. They couldn’t wear armor as none of it was suitable. All of the bandits were male, and none the size of kids.

“And you?” asked the man who had addressed him first earlier. He seemed to be appointed leader. “May I ask what you intend to do?”

Rex stood up at those words “Ah. It’s nothing important. I just changed my mind on something. After all…” the boy’s look was cold, almost physically so. The men and women could feel it. There was something in that boy that was beyond them. Of course they resented the bandits for what they’d done. Some of them had lost families. Some of them were personally mistreated by the bandits. Some of them had even kicked the dead corpses out of frustration. But there was something more in the boy. Something that wasn’t as simple as resentment. It was an obsession. A cold, burning fire that could consume all of his being burned in those cold, piercing eyes. The boy turned around, walking off towards the woods. His next words caused chills to travel down the spines of all those present.

“I have a job to complete.”