The trio of Lyle, Ascalon and Sylvana makes its way out of the forest, fortunately they didn't have much left to walk from the clear spot to the end of the forest. They walked through a field filled with flowers of many kinds, it was a pleasant sight. There was a silence that turned out to be a bit awkward for both Ascalon and Sylvana, not much for Lyle since he was lost in his own thoughts.
After some minutes of that uncomfortable silence, Ascalon decided to say something. "I think you didn't tell us, but why are you going to the capital of Lisbea?".
Sylvana, who had been walking in front of them, looked back at Ascalon. "Oh, that's right, I didn't tell you. Well, as a guardian elf I had been assigned to protect a powerful elven weapon, named the 'Elven Cannon'". Ascalon's genuine curiosity had woken up.
"Elven Cannon?" He asked.
"Yes, it's a powerful magical cannon made by the most powerful elves generations ago", Sylvana said as she looked at the sky. "The cannon is powerful enough to destroy an entire city, by that time elves were worried about a possible war against the humans, if that happened the elves would stand no chance against them, so with their combined efforts, the most powerful elves at the time created the Elven Cannon".
Ascalon looked impressed.
"Isn't that cool Lyle?" He said looking at his best friend.
Lyle snapped out of his thoughts, having paid no attention to what they were saying, so Ascalon gave him a little summary of the Elven Cannon.
"Yeah, I guess it is cool", Lyle said.
"But… What does that have to do with you going to the capital of Lisbea?" Ascalon asked.
"Yesterday, me and my companions who were guarding the cannon, got attacked by demons" The words of Sylvana stirred Lyle. "They beat us up and took the cannon with them, I was the only one who made it out alive".
Lyle looked away.
"Wow… that… that is not good" Ascalon stated.
"Wait, if that's true, why do you look so calmed? Doesn't it worry you that those demons use the cannon?" He asked.
Sylvana remained with a serene expression on her face. "No, it can only be activated with an enchantment that a few elves know and that I'm pretty sure no one would give away. However, someone with a great power could trespass the need for the enchantment, but even if they do have someone with such power it won't be easy to trespass it"
Sylvana once again looked back at the two friends, Ascalon seemed intrigued while Lyle looked worried by the elf's declaration, she tried to assure that there was nothing really to worry about and that she surely could get some help by explaining the situation to the king of Lisbea, but that didn't really work, so she tried to change the topic by asking them what was their reason for going to the capital of Lisbea.
Not the best topic she could've chosen. Lyle looked away, not wanting to talk about it. Ascalon told Sylvana the situation that happened with the demons in their village. The elf looked concerned and tried to apologize to Lyle, who looked clearly affected by this, but the swordsman told her that she had no reason to be sorry since she didn't know about that. They continued to walk in silence, which seemed to be the best option after the conversation they just had.
After a while, Sylvana spoke up "I can see people ahead".
"I just see a hill", Ascalon declared.
"To the other side of the hill I mean, based on their distribution it must be a small town". The elf clarified.
They walked up the hill, reaching its top, from where Lyle and Ascalon were able to see the town Sylvana had speculated about, it was a very small town, even smaller than theirs. There was barely anything spectacular about the village, excepting for one thing, it was surrounded by a lot of flowers of many kinds, the air was filled with the scent of all those kinds of flowers, resulting in a mix very pleasant to the nose.
The trio walked down the hill towards the town, it would be a good place to make a stop after so much walking. They had woken up when the sun had barely risen and now it was almost at its highest point.
Once at the village, they walked through what seemed to be the main street. It was a very humble town, most of the buildings didn't stand out from each other, some places such as the church, the blacksmith or the town hall, that was like the houses but bigger, barely highlighted from every other building. They reached a point where there were several sales stalls.
A chunky bald man with a mustache that had a stall with many kinds of fruit called out to the trio. "Ayo! Never seen you before, what brings you to Flower Town?" He said.
The three of them approached the man, Sylvana at the front.
"We were just stopping by, we are traveling to the capital of Lisbea and just happened to come across this town" She responded to him.
"Oh well, I hope you have a good time while in our humble village, everyone here is a nice person! Well… except for someones but that's not important, would you like some fruits? They're very cheap". The bald man said.
His offer was kindly rejected by the trio who continued to look around, the bald man told them before leaving that if they wanted anything they could ask him or literally anyone else.
"What a sympathetic man", Ascalon said.
They looked around for a while, just in case there was something they were interested in buying, but there really wasn't anything they wanted or felt like they needed. Lyle and Ascalon still had some gold that they had with them when the incident occurred, while Sylvana had no gold at all. After some thinking and checking how much gold they had, they decided to just look for a restaurant or something similar to have the energy to continue their walk.
At that moment, the bell of the town hall began to ring as someone screamed "There they come!" repeatedly.
"Oh shit! It's 15 already?!" They heard the bald man from before say as he and the people of the town hid wherever they could, the trio was confused, the bald man came out of his hideout to tell them that they had been being terrorized by a group of bandits recently and that they had no way of getting rid of them, they were powerful and they should hide too.
"Hiding? We are warriors, well, one warrior…" Ascalon said, pointing at Sylvana "...and two wannabe warriors" He said pointing out at Lyle and himself. "We will take care of those bandits"
"It's not a good idea, those bandits are very strong" The bald man exclaimed in a futile attempt to make the trio desist from their idea to fight the bandits..
"They have been terrorizing us for months, when they got here they killed our sheriff to assert dominance and since then they've been taking whatever they wanted and killing anyone who dared to oppose them!". The bald man hid again, not before telling the trio to hide as well.
Sylvana said in a very serious tone "I see…"
Ascalon looked at her with a bit of confusion. "Was that a joke?" he asked. The elf looked at him a bit confused, which pretty much answered Ascalon's question, "Nevermind".
The trio stood in the middle of the street, waiting for the bandits to show up, and soon they did, there were five of them, the bigger and badder walked in the middle, he was tall and intimidating, he held a big knife, his hair dark as well as his eyes, he had a shady expression and a 3 days beard, one of his eyes covered by his bangs. To one of his sides there was a guy with messed up brown hair, his smile relaxed and a bit creepy, he had a scar in his right eye and wielded a sword. To the other side there was a noticeably short guy with black hair who had gloves with claws. In one of the corners stood a young guy with spiky black hair, seemingly younger to the rest, he held no weapons and had a serene expression on his face. In the opposite corner to the weaponless guy, a particularly slender guy with the face of an absolute psychopath, dark brown hair and a very pale skin.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The big intimidating guy asked. "Haven't seen your faces before, are you new around here?".
The slender guy chuckled as he salivated. The short guy spoke up "Welcome to our town, the only rule here is that whatever we want, we get it":
"We are the Big B Band, I'm Big B, and these are my guys" The big shady man said.
"This is Wesley". He said pointing at the bandit with the sword.
"He is Lloyd". He said pointing at the short bandit.
"That guy over there is Ryo". He said pointing at the unarmed bandit.
"And he is Bloodthirsty". He pointed out at the one salivating, "We don't know his real name, he has never said a word, I doubt he can talk, but trust me, he got that nickname for a good reason".
"These guys aren't the big thing" Sylvana said in a volume only Lyle and Ascalon could hear her clearly. "Only their boss has a speciality on a magic, the rest can only use basic magic"
"Hey cutie, turn on the volume! We wanna hear your sweet voice" Wesley said.
"Wait a moment, I think she's an elf, boss" The short one pointed out.
"Huh, interesting", Big B said.
"Hey, morons! I warn you, get the fuck out of here or we are gonna beat the fuck out you" Ascalon yelled, causing the laughs of the Big B Band.
"Oh, I haven't had such a good laugh in a while", Big B said. Ascalon was officially annoyed, and so was Lyle.
"Alright, since you want to die so badly, let's get right into the action!" Big B declared with a big smile "Blood, Lloyd, take on the one with the axe, Wesley, take on the blondie. Ryo and I will dispose of the elf".
The trio got in their fighting stances and separated to fight their respective foes.
Lyle held his sword tight as Wesley looked at him with an evil grin. Lyle was nervous, he had never been in a real fight before, just practiced with Ascalon, but Sylvana said the guy wasn't a big deal and she seemed to be very experienced on this so he had no reason to doubt her words.
Ascalon stood in front of his two opponents, a short guy with claws and a freaking psycho. He wasn't scared of them, not even a bit. The axeman was so unimpressed by his foes, that he didn't even bother to draw his axe.
Sylvana stood before Big B and Ryo, they both looked down at her, both literally and figuratively, they had heard that elves were usually weak, so they thought they were just gonna toy with this poor little elf that had the misfortune to come across their path and was stupid enough to defy them. That's what they thought. Despite being blind, Sylvana looked at them, an expression of sheer hatred could be appreciated on her face.
They all began to fight.
Lyle clashed with Wesley, their swords hitting against each other. Lyle was surprised by himself, he never thought he had this capacity of reaction to keep with someone who had actually fought before, although the fact that he was missing an eye probably was playing in Lyle's favor. Back and forth, they swinged their swords, constantly clashing without it seeming like any of them both had the advantage over the other, it was a pretty equal fight.
However, the same could not be said for Ascalon's fight with Lloyd and Bloodthirsty, the short bandit and the psychopathic bandit tried and continuously failed to land hits on Ascalon, who was dodging each of their attacks.
"This is… pathetic", Ascalon said, triggering Blood who jumped at him like an animal with rabies, to which Ascalon responded by throwing a punch at his face, breaking his nose and throwing some teeth off his mouth.
Lloyd, now with preoccupation in his face, embodied the claws of his gloves with magic, increasing their length as he lunged, alongside Blood, against Ascalon who continued to dodge their attacks.
"Yeah, this is pathetic", Ascalon said once again.
Meanwhile, Sylvana stood before Ryo and Big B, the spiky haired bandit embodied his fists and feet in magic while Big B, using his magic, heated up his knife, setting it on fire.
"Do you like my little trick?" The boss of the bandits said with arrogance and malice.
"You must've already noticed the trouble you've gotten yourself into, and since I find you attractive, I'll let you surrender and I may spare your life, but I won't promise to not do anything else afterwards."
The elf, unfazed by the bandit's words, summoned a double edged sword made completely out of magic, she got into her attack stance.
"Let's dance". She said in a cold tone.
Ryo attacked first with a sphere of magic that came out of his hands, Sylvana jumped over the attack and kicked Ryo in the face, pushing him away. Big B attempted to slash the elf with his knife on fire, all of his attacks were either dodged or blocked by Sylvana's magic sword. Thanks to her agility, she managed to land some hits into Big B in between his attacks. Ryo tried to attack her from behind but Sylvana summoned a second doubled edged sword made out of magic and blocked his attempt of attack.
While Sylvana fought against Big B and Ryo, Lyle struggled to keep up with Wesley, even though at the beginning of the battle they were equal, as it progressed, Wesley was getting the upper hand, Lyle was having a difficult time dodging his attacks and even got a cut on his right cheek.
Wesley chuckled, "What happens? Did you get tired already?" He asked rhetorically.
Lyle was getting nervous but he wouldn't let that make him lose focus, in his next attack, Lyle would manage to make a cut on Wesley's hand, which was responded to by a strong slash from the bandit. The blonde swordsman just barely managed to block it, mere centimeters from his face, they began to struggle, their swords against the other trying to overpower their opponent. It didn't take long for Lyle to realize he was gonna lose the struggle, so he did a quick movement that allowed him to back off.
Lyle was hyperventilated. The bandit with messed up hair looked at the blonde with a mocking grin. "Why don't you save time for us both and let yourself get killed already? We both know how this is gonna end" He said while making a throat cutting gesture.
Returning with Sylvana, she was fighting off against Big B and Ryo who had trouble even landing a hit on the elf, there was just no point of comparison between a pair of bandits and someone who had received training like her and had years of experience in combat. As the battle progressed, the elf managed to land several hits on both bandits, hits that, although not very strong, hit on vitals points that weakened the bandits more with each hit.
Big B and Ryo hyperventilated, they could not believe that this elf was dominating them so hard.
"I never thought elves could be this problematic" The boss stated. "I don't like using this trick but I have been left with no option".
Big B took a deep breath and began spilling fire from his mouth, almost taking Sylvana off guard who started to run around the boss of the bandits while he chased her with his fire breathing. Ryo jumped in front of her in an attempt to distract her so she would get hit by the fire, but Sylvana managed to run past him, causing him to almost get hit by the fire.
Big B's attack stopped, he had to take air, letting his guard down. Sylvana used this moment to beat the living shit out of him, Big B couldn't react to any of the elf's attacks, Ryo tried to help but he was too tired to be of any help and got beaten up as well. The boss of the bandits and the spiky haired bandit fell to their knees in front of Sylvana, defeated. The elf summoned a spear of magic as she looked down at them.
While Sylvana had been beating up Big B and Ryo, Lyle himself had thought of something to deal with Wesley, who continued to look at him mockingly.
"Come on, try something. I bet you're gonna blow it anyways" The bandit said.
Lyle had gotten sick of his chatter. The blonde swordsman concentrated. 'You can do it' he repeated in his mind as his body started to emanate a dark aura. Lyle had activated his Dark Boost as a last resort against the bandit, he just hoped he could last more than mere seconds with it.
Lyle charged against Wesley who tried to block his attack but Lyle's strength caused his sword to be sent flying from his hands, leaving him defenseless, but before he could land another hit, Lyle's body could no longer resist using the Dark Boost and fell to the ground completely exhausted.
Wesley's breathing was agitated, for a second he thought he was gonna die, but after seeing his foe fell to the ground, powerless, he began to laugh.
"Oh for Eternal… I really thought you had me for a second" Wesley said as he walked towards his sword and grabbed it.
"Well, it's time to end this. Don't worry, it will be quick". He said as he slowly approached a defenseless Lyle.
Back with Sylvana, Big B and Ryo began pleading for their lives as Sylvana looked at them holding a magic spear.
"Please, let us go! We promise we will never put a foot in this village again!" Big B claimed with desperation.
"We are serious! We learned our lesson! We promise! Please!" Ryo screamed, worried by his life.
The elf looked at them with a death stare, the bandits were beyond terrified.
"Come on! We will do whatever you desire!" Big B begged.
Sylvana held the spear tighter as she turned around, making the bandits feel relieved, but that relief just lasted for a brief moment.
With a swift movement, Sylvana threw her spear of magic right at Wesley, who was just about to stab Lyle. The bandit was completely caught off guard, barely having the time to notice the magical spear thrown at him. Wesley couldn't do anything to defend himself or even dodge the attack, resulting in him getting hit on the face by the spear, getting killed instantly and being left with a completely unrecognizable face.
Big B and Ryo looked in horror at what had happened to their companion as Sylvana turned back to them, summoning a sword of magic that she used to slash Big B from his left shoulder to his stomach, causing him to fall to the ground as he screamed in agony, blood spilling from his wound, drenching his clothes and Sylvana's. Ryo stood up and started to run away as fast as he could in his current state, but Sylvana followed close behind, and when Ryo tripped and fell, it was over for him, he looked back at Sylvana, trying uselessly to beg for his life but the elf stabbed him in the abdomen, Ryo spitted blood as Sylvana pushed her magic sword even deeper into his abdomen, causing him to spit even more blood, to then pull it out with a strength that caused some of his insides to be pulled out alongside the sword. The spiky haired bandit tried in vain to put his insides back on his body before getting finished off by Sylvana decapitating who took the bag of gold he carried with him.
Sylvana walked back to where Big B was bleeding out, his body twitching because of the pain, as Sylvana turned her sword into a knife, the bandit extended a hand to her as tears went down his face. The elf ignored him completely, she took the gold he had with him and used the knife to slash his throat, causing him to begin choking on his own blood and slowly die by bleeding.
The elf walked towards Ascalon, who had got bored of toying with Blood and Lloyd and had knocked them out.
"Hey Sylvana, how did-?" Ascalon's words were interrupted by Sylvana decapitating both bandits and taking their gold bags.
"Oh… wow" Ascalon said with surprise, causing Sylvana to look at him with a scary gaze.
"Don't misunderstand me, I give a fuck that you killed them, I'm more surprise by how cold-blooded you were when doing so" He clarified.
"I told you, being a guardian is your equivalent of being a soldier, I was trained to be able to kill without hesitation and to know when to do so, and for what these guys did, they didn't deserve any mercy." Sylvana said with a cold look, which really surprised Ascalon.
"Not gonna lie, I sort of agree with that, but killing isn't my thing to be honest. Not that I can't bring myself to, I just don't want to". Ascalon said.
With the bandits now dead, the citizens of that town emerged from their hiding spots, as they noticed what had happened, they began to cheer for the strangers that had saved them from the horrible Big B Band. The bald man from before stepped closer to Ascalon and Sylvana, thanking them for freeing them from those horrible bandits.
Sylvana says it was no problem as she hands him the bags of gold that she had taken from the bandits. "I think this belongs to your people". The bald and the citizens around thanked her.
Ascalon went to where Lyle was lying, "How are you my friend?"..
Lyle looked at him as he could but didn't respond. The axeman helped his friend stand up, the swordsman had barely any energy left so his friend had to help him walk as well. Before that however, Ascalon took the bag of gold from Wesley's corpse, he doubted a bit but decided to return the gold.
"Hey! This guy also has a bag of gold!" Ascalon said as he walked towards Sylvana and the bald man while helping Lyle walk.
"Ah! Keep it! Consider it a payment for helping us!" The bald man said, no one opposed, so Ascalon just kept the bag.
The people of the town continued cheering for their heroes, the bald man had begun to distribute the gold between the citizens. The trio was approached by the mayor of the city, who thanked them and told them that anything else they desired they would give it to them. Sylvana denied any kind of reward since they had already been given a bag of gold, but Ascalon interrupted her, asking if they could give them a ride to the capital of Lisbea, which was heard by a merchant who said that he was going to the capital and that they could go on the back of his cart, which was well accepted by Ascalon and Sylvana, while Lyle just looked down.
They rested for a while and Lyle got the wound on his cheek treated, in the town there weren't any people who had any healing potions or things of that sort, so that scar would remain there, forever.
Once the merchant was ready to go, the trio got on his cart so he could take them to the capital of Lisbea. And as they were being driven out of the city, the citizens of Flower Town waved at them, thanking the trio for their help against the bandits.
Sylvana humbly waved them back. Ascalon also waved them back, but he seemed a bit weirded out to be treated as a hero, and Lyle just sat on the cart, looking down, lost in thought ignoring everything around him.