"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.
Loganel leaped off the cliff with his regular blade drawn and summoned the lightning infused blades once again. Those blades circled him as if a protective shield and with his command, they shot out towards another bandit, this time also killing the bandit immediately on impact.
Tetsuya could only watch in awe as the lone boy seemed to dance through the furry of blows, parrying and dodging every attack while also using a shield formed by the Mana blades he had summoned. Cries of pain echoed throughout the forest as the bandits fell one by one to Loganel's attacks with great efficiency since Loganel attacked with both the blade in his own hand and the Mana blades he had summoned.
"So this is Loganel..." Tetsuya muttered to himself as he laughed out of despair. How the hell am I suppose to overtake him?
The last of the other bandits fell as his head rolled off his neck and onto the floor, leaving only Lucas still alive. Lucas has crawled away in hopes to distance himself as far as he can from the monster that had just slain the rest of his camp and had his back against the cliff. Tears streamed out of his eyes in fear and his arms and knees trembled.
"P-please!" he cried. "I have no part in this! They forced me to do it! I was living peacefully in Solivrad with my parents but they dragged me out here!"
"You still did it," Loganel said calmly as he started stepping towards the frightened young man. "So you've committed the same crime as these bandits."
"No no no please!" Lucas brought both hands up instinctively to protect his face as he closed his eyes and pressed his body tighter against the cliff from fear. "Don't kill me! Spare me, plea—"
With a swift motion of his blade, Lucas's head was removed from his neck and rolled about on the ground next to his headless body. The cliff where he had backed up against was also dyed red with the blood that sprayed out of his headless body.
Loganel stared at the headless corpse in silence and indifference. Then, he shook the blood off his blade and sheathed the sword.
"Loganel!"
Loganel looked over to the source of the voice and discovered that his party members had descended from the cliff and was heading towards him. The person at the front leading them was Tetsuya.
"You've...you've killed them all," Tetsuya muttered in horror.
"A-are you hurt?" Marilin asked, and Loganel noticed a severely disturbed and frightened expression on her face. She had both hands holding tightly onto her healer's baton but even then, the hardwood stick trembled greatly.
"I'm fine," Loganel responded simply.
"D-do you feel anything?" Kaz asked with a trembling voice. "You just killed twelve people without any hesitation!"
"I..." Loganel stared at his right hand and just now realized what he had done. However, even then, he didn't feel disturbed or guilty at what he had done. It just felt normal and natural to him, like this is the way things were supposed to go. Like he's born to do this.
"I think we should go back and report to Mr. Wilkins," Sheriel changed the subject with her voice trailing off at the end of her sentence. "It's...getting late."
"...Yeah," Tetsuya nodded with a depressed countenance.
***
Although it was already nighttime, when the party returned to the village, they discovered that the lights to Mr. Wilkins cabin was still on. Therefore, they decided that they would inform the village elder about the success of their mission and depart the next morning for Astalan.
Tetsuya knocked on the door and it was answered quite quickly by the village elder.
"How may I help you?" he greeted them with a pleasant smile.
"We've...we've taken care of the problem," Tetsuya explained.
"Really?" Mr. Wilkins exclaimed with a smile. "What was it?"
"A group of bandits had waken a bear and was hoping that the bear would ravage the village so that when they raid the village they can blame it on the bear," Tetsuya responded.
"That's quite scary," Mr. Wilkins frowned. "But I suppose you've taken care of those bandits?"
"We..." Tetsuya paused and sighed. "He did," Tetsuya said as he looked over at Loganel.
"Thank you young man," the old village elder expressed his gratitude towards Loganel and bowed his head.
"...Mr. Wilkins, do you happen to know a Lucas?" Tetsuya asked suddenly.
"Why yes," the old man responded with a smile. "That's my grandson. He's one of the few that always comes by and visits at least once a month."
"What does he visit you for?"
"He comes by and just spend the weekend. He helps out around the house and stuff."
"D-does he ever ask you for money?" Tetsuya continued.
"For his studies. The boy said he's attending the Royal Academy in Astalan." Mr. Wilkins appeared confused as to the questions that he was getting asked. "Is something the matter?"
"No," Tetsuya lied. "We ugh..."
"He's an acquaintance of ours," Loganel immediately added after realizing what Tetsuya was attempting. "He wanted us to send his regards to you."
"Oh that's great!" Mr. Wilkins's smile returned. "Tell my grandson that I'm fine and that he doesn't have to visit as frequently and should focus more on his studies."
"Mr. Wilkins..." Tetsuya sighed.
"Yes?"
Tetsuya wanted to cease his lies and tell the old man the truth. However, just when he had gathered the courage to do so, the look of innocence on the old village elder's face restrained him from doing so. He couldn't make himself ruin the last hope in this elderly man's life.
"I don't think your grandson will be able to visit in the future..." Loganel spoke for Tetsuya.
"What?" the elderly man appeared shocked and confused. However, that smile soon returned to his face once again. "You mean he won't be able to visit in the near future? That's fine. Tell him I can take care of myself."
"...Goodnight, Mr. Wilkins," Loganel bowed his head, turned around, and started walking away.
After saying their goodbyes, the rest of the party followed after him.
"I suppose having a false hope is better than the harsh truth," Kaz sughed.
"I guess you're right," Tetsuya looked down at the snow covered road with a disappointed expression.
As they walked, Loganel gazed up at the starry sky and breathed out a white cloud. He gazed at the moon, unable to tell whether or not he was still entirely normal and whether they had made the right choice in not telling the elderly man the truth.
Author's Note:
Sorry for not posting the past few days. I was busy writing my new book My Eighteen Year Old Father. It's something different as to what I wrote before and I would love it if you guys can go and check it out. Thank you!
Please vote and comment if you've enjoyed. Thanks!!!!!