Lost Fantasy-The Flowers of Stelis (Arc 2) [Hiatus]

Chapter 39

"Oh man oh man," the bearded man laughed. "You saw how that thing grabbed that poor guy and ripped him apart?"

"Are they talking about the bear?" Sheriel whispered to Tetsuya who quickly hushed her.

The party gazed down at the camp of bandits from their cover on the small elevated cliff. Loganel observed the camp and listened carefully to their conversations.

"I still can't believe you're so loyal to us," the bearded man continued on. "You would even turn on your own family. Isn't that village elder your grandpa?"

Loganel heard a muffled gasp from Marilin as Kaz immediately covered her mouth so that the noise volume wouldn't be audible to the bandits. Their hearts pounded as they waited to see if the bandits had in fact heard them or not but it would appear that their worries were unwarranted as the bandits were fully engrossed in their conversation by the crackling camp fire.

"Hell," the bearded man continued, "you even scammed your own gramps for 20 Gold saying you need the money to attend school. All of you guys shoulda seen the old man's face when good old Lucas here said the amount he needed. Man straight up almost died of an heart attack."

"Haha," the group of bandits laughed with their laughter being carried into the nighttime sky with the wind. 

"That old man," the bearded man shook his head. "It's gonna be so much fun when we go and burn that whole place down. He don't stand a chance. Am I right, Lucas?"

"Y-yeah," the young man whose name was Locus responded. "That's what his dumbass get for trying to stay his ass in a place and trying to hold onto his childhood. We gonna burn that shit to the ground and have that old fucker watch."

"That's my boy!" the bearded man exclaimed as he downed some alcohol from a bowl.

"How terrible," Sheriel sighed at the end of their conversation.

"Scumbags," Kaz spat on the ground. "What should we do?"

Kaz glanced over at Tetsuya for further orders. Tetsuya surveyed the bandit camp and frowned. He was counting the number of bandits there were and the condition of their gear. From what he was able to tell, there were about twelve people in the ground, which outnumbered his party, and it would appear that these bandits were veterans at their occupation judging from the skilled maintenance their gear condition displayed.

Tetsuya let out a sigh of helplessness, knowing that at the moment, he's unable to do anything about the bandits. Just when he was about to announce to his party his decision to retreat for the time being, from the corner of his eye Tetsuya noticed Loganel clenching his fists tightly.

"Loganel," he whispered at the boy, but it would appear that Loganel didn't hear him. Therefore, he did it again. "Loganel, no. There's too many of them and we're not a hundred percent confident in our abilities to take them down yet. Loganel, Loganel!"

"Auge Azure," Loganel mumbled and Tetsuya could see the boy's left eye mutating. The white part of his eye became an abyss black and Loganel's iris became a bright azure color that seemed to leave a trail of light in the air whenever Loganel moved.

"Loganel stop!" Tetsuya reached out a hand to grab Loganel's wrist so as to stop him but it was too late.

"Blitzkrieg," Loganel muttered, summoning Mana blades into the air around him. However, this time, the blades were infused with lightning.

The blades rained down on the bearded man on Loganel's command, piercing the man's heart multiple times as if a rapid stream of water with the electricity frying the man's interior such that there were no chances of recovery. Seeing the sudden death of their leader, the other bandits grabbed their weapons and became cautious of an attack.