Part Five

“Are you sure?” George says to Damon.

“Yes, I’m sure. I saw it happen.” Damon says impassively.

“Damon, I’m not saying that I doubt you, buuut, it is pretty dark out and it could have been shadows, I’m just saying.” George says with a smile.

Damon rolls his eyes, and somehow makes it look monotone. He turns to me.

My mouth bends into a sharp smile, “Really?” I ask him with a fierce excitement.

He nods briefly. “Yes, perhaps we should-”

“See you guys there!” I say in a single breath running past him and into the woods.

Or would have, if Damon didn’t grab my arm after I run past him. Which with a surprising amount of strength, he manages to keep me from running away into the trees to see some good ol’ bandit killing.

I look back at my small anchor, who has a trail of turned up earth behind his feet and breathes with effort.

“Yes?”

He gives me a dull scowl and says in a quiet, but hard tone “Perhaps we should wait till whoever is foolish enough to attack a bandit camp by themselves,” He glares at me. “To either get themselves killed and then wait till the bandits lower their guard and attack them, or wait till after he’s done then go on our way,” Damon says in a way that sounds more like an order than a suggestion.

I scowl at him and his suggestions, “Those sound boring ... and hey! They both sound like the same option either way! I gotta get going to go see how this massacre plays out.” I say shaking off Damon’s arm.

“I don’t care what you think!” He hisses at me with an unusual amount of ferocity in his breath. “I am here to keep the Master safe, and you giving away our position is not going to do any favors for us! So if you keep on with this I will take you out by any means necessary!” He says with a death glare at me, his twin daggers shining in both hands as a shadowy fire surrounds him.

What does he mean to give away our position? I can stalk. But the tone of his words cannot be accepted no matter what.

“Oh, really now? You think you can take me, little man?” I say ready to establish who really has the power to control the other, my Aura lighting up the darkness in a honey glow of power.

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” George says rushing in between us in a startling display of speed, somehow also managing to add some more distance between us, “Please don’t fight! Save that for when we don’t have to risk our lives!” He turns to Damon “If you fight you’ll give away our position anyway.”

He turns to me “You could take him, but what if you kill him? Then what Atlas? You’ll have killed Julian’s best friend and lost a new friend in the making! And don’t give that loner crap about not needing friends.” He says in a tone that I can’t fight against.

His words cow the both of us, and he continues “Anyway, sorry to get in between you two, but I don’t want to deal with this right now.” He turns to Damon and says perceptively “What’s gotten you so shaken up buddy? Your not normally this aggressive, or talkative or well anything but harassing me or protecting Julian, so tell me what’s up?” George says calmly with a non-judgemental tone.

Which bring to my attention how shaky Damon looks, he’s trembling slightly like he’s chosen flight in a fight or flight situation, his eyes are darting everywhere looking at every shadow and crevice for somewhere to hide, his ears twitching to every little sound, and most of all he’s looking like he about to have an aneurysm from sheer fear whenever he takes a glance at the wagon, yep, something's gotten him pretty bad.

“Wha-what are you talking about-” George just gives him a firm look and he sighs. “Is it that obvious?” We nod. “Give me a moment then, I’m not used to this feeling.” He walks away to the shadows and disappears into them.

He's gone for a good minute, but we say nothing and wait for him.

He returns and looks no worse for wear, and his demeanor is back to his normal stoic image.

He stands before us straight like there’s a stick up his ass, just like normal. “My apologies, but let me say quickly that my reaction was quite justified. But to explain why I reacted as such, let me tell you how it happened.”

Ok, then he’ll tell us, so it wasn’t traumatic … hopefully.

George nods and I motion for him to continue on.

He speaks, “I was scouting the camp, watching their guards patterns, how many, where, and when. They patrolled mostly the southern end where the wall was weaker and had a guards tower on the north wall where it was stronger, they might have changed out every couple hours if I could haphazard a guess. The patrols were sloppy, the guards as strong as the ones we fought earlier if not a little stronger, but their numbers were likely about a hundred more or less, so I was figuring out how we could take them out efficiently. But then He happened.

“It happened at the north gate, and I had a perfect view of what I could see. At first, all I could see was bandit walking up to the gate, he was walking up there for guard duty. The gate had a large wooden bar on it keeping it closed, it was cut in half along with the man. Then He walks forward from the forest, and his Aura floods everywhere and hits me, then next thing I’m aware of is that I’m running back here.”

“Did you get a look at him before you left?” George asks.

He goes quiet for a second. “Yes … I did … He was tall, maybe as tall as Atlas and wearing armor, it covered him entirely with dark grey plate leaving nothing to see him. He strode out of the forest after he cut the gate open, there was a long plain sword in his hand with a terrible dim light shining off it as he moved. He seemed strong, fast, and very intimidating, but at face value, I had seen worse and many others. That’s not enough to have made me fled it was … It was his Aura … He’s a master of it.”

I stiffen up at those words and a cold sweat rolls down my back.

“Are you sure about that Damon? ... I mean what’s the odds of a random Aura master being out here in the boonies …” George says with a fear in his voice.

There’s no reason not to be afraid either if this master decides he doesn’t like us well then it’s good by us.

“Yes, I am very sure that he’s a master George, because of this,” He says angrily, then lifts up his dark shirt to show several deep red and purple bruises and with a couple deep scratches all over his chest, without a mark on his clothes. “These are from just coming into contact with his active Aura, it felt like I was in a storm full of blades that were focused on each of my vital points. He knew I was there George, I could feel his gaze on me and he chooses to let me live. It told me to leave, and I complied.” Damon says with absolute conviction.

George gulps and asks. “And you weren’t even in the camp?”

“Yes.”

A silence falls over us.

Time to speak up.

“Welp, that sucks for you. So I don’t know about you lightweights but I’m going to go check this out myself.” I say with some false courage, but a lot of interest, he doesn’t seem hostile to Damon so maybe he won’t be hostile to me.

… I’m much more durable than him anyway.

Damon gives a dismissive sigh and waves me away, “Do what you want, I was a little rash earlier, but do what you can to keep our position hidden.”

I give a snort “Like I would do anything else.” Then walk off into the woods.

“Hey, wait up!” I hear George say from behind me as I slow my pace.

He catches up quick enough and we take off silently as possible. Not that’ll matter if this guy is a master.

Within ten minutes we are within spitting distance of the camp, and to my surprise, it’s still in one piece and very, very quiet.

I look next to me at George, who to my confusion, has somehow managed to change into some green and brown outfit with a black hat that has a couple of stripes. I raise my eyebrow at him but say nothing. Then he grabs some dirt off the ground and slides it across his face with his palm.

I give him a blank stare.

“Haha, sorry, it just felt appropriate for the situation.” He says somewhat flustered.

I can only stare blankly at him saying nothing and then turn around.

Turning around to put my attention on the camp, I notice how still everything is in there even the torchlight seems to not flicker there and the shadows are still.

It had only been so many minutes since Damon had told us about what happened.

Had that man already killed them and left? I smile and let out a low growl at the thought.

George jumps up from behind me. “What was that?!” He calls out from behind me.

I smile wider and say nothing, still looking at the unnaturally still camp.

Then it happens.

A blur of action emerging from the shadows.

Seven men vs one lone swordsman. That must be the guy.

The noise is almost deafening as the seven let out stomach deep roars of anger at the men and clash their weapons at him. They all glow with a degree of power, as their Aura surrounds them. The strongest coming from a guy with an ax.

The lone man almost casually, no, with almost no effort avoids all their strikes and hits all of those that attack him once, once in a vital spot and they drop, the heart for one, one goes down in a spray of blood as his neck is gone, one went too far with his strike with his spear and left an opening and then the back of his neck is another spray of blood, the rest fall to the same blade till only one is left.

The one left is the biggest and strongest one there, wielding an ax bigger than most men with one hand. His face is twisting in pain, as his chest is just a mass of cut up flesh that lays like leathery flaps. Underneath the skin reveals what was once probably dense and healthy muscle, to be torn and cut meat that almost falls out when he breathes.

He has to lean on his ax to keep from falling, there's not an inch of him not covered in blood. His green Aura fades.

The man tries to say something as the swordsman raises his blade, maybe his last words or rites, but no, the swordsman thrusts his sword out at him, a blade of cold steel grey Aura hits him through the neck and his head goes flying.

Not for long though, it pauses unnaturally in the air as though being held by unseen hands, and then drifts over to the Swordsman.

He grabs the head and whistles once sharply.

For a moment there’s nothing, then from the woods comes out a long-legged and graceful beast of a horse that’s probably almost as tall as me at chest height.

The beast comes over to him dragging a wagon that’s as big as mine or bigger, and the beast moves effortlessly with it.

He reaches up and pats it on the side and then tosses the head into the back of the wagon.

He reaches up and grabs the horse’s saddle, but not before, he turns to us and I feel his Aura wash over us.

My skin burns with the annoyance of scratches, and I almost immediately well up my Aura, and it disappears.

I can feel a sense of amusement coming from his Aura, and I’m moving towards him without a second thought.

Within seconds I stand in front of him, Damon was right about him being tall as I don’t quite tower over him but he’s an inch or two shorter than me for sure.

His body is covered in dark grey scales of armor, that cover his face and gives nothing away. His body is lean from what I can make our, and what little shape is shown under the armor shows the form of muscles that have been abused into their shape.

He sheathes his sword right in front of me and cocks his head at me slightly.

“Who are -” I say, but interrupts me and speaks first “What are you doing out here boy?”

I grimace at him annoyed but speak. “I’m Atlas, I’m doing a quest, who are you?”

He mutters something under his breath, I can’t catch it all but I hear, “Too damn young..”

I laugh a little at that and he stares at me till I stop.

He takes a moment to stare at me and looks me over, then speaks in a dry, kinda monotone voice. “Well, Atlas that’s fine and all, I suppose those other boys are your chums then? Oh wait, I don’t really care, I’m Roland, I came here for the bounty.” He says dry and bored, pointing to the dead bodies. “So tough luck if that was your quest.”

“Nope, it wasn’t.”

“Really then? Well as much as I’d like to stay and chat, get to know your life story and all, but I really rather go get drunk and get hilt deep in some whore, so goodbye.”

“I want to fight you,” I say as he turns around.

Everything goes silent.

He doesn’t even turn around. Just stands there completely still.

I feel a gaze on me, and see the horse is looking at me. It’s head shaking back and forth.

“Ok then.” I hear a near-silent voice say. "Counter this and I'll consider it."

In one fluid motion, he goes from standing there still to having his sword on my neck, cutting into it, blood flowing down in a red stream.

I had my Aura up before he struck and he cleaved through it. The sword just barely stops after cutting my skin.

Roland removes his sword from my skin and looks at me quietly.

“Most impressive, you kinda slowed me down. Well good on you, keep up the Aura training and you might be an actual challenge, now I’m off to go claim a bounty, get blackout drunk, and do some whoring.”

The horse lets out a snort of approval, and then within moments, he has gone. With nothing left but a whistling from the woods he came from.

I fall on my ass and sit down. My heart racing in my throat.

I take a second to calm down and then feel my throat. The cut is already done clotting and drying.

I get up and walk into the light, and wave to George if he’s there.

I wait a moment to see if he appears.

He doesn’t.

I walk back to the clearing and see George screaming at Damon and Julian.

“Come one! We gotta go help him, I saw him fall down after that guy cut him. And I can’t lift his heavy ass alone!” George yells at them with worry in his voice.

“I can lift my heavy ass by myself, George.”

“Oh, then thank the Arch Wizard then … Atlas you’re alive! Great!” He says running over and gives me a pat on the shoulder.

I pat him back, and he crumbles under my hand slightly.

Damon speaks first. “So what happened?”

I smile twistedly. “I think we got camp is what happened.”