Inside a dim cavern present at the base of red mountain, a group of approximately two hundred people -both male and female- were present. Some of them were drinking, others were polishing their weapons but one common thing was that they were all wearing somewhat ragged clothes.
Th carvern was large enough for them to not feel conjested. In the middle, a man sitting on a raised platform made up of a big rock can be seen as if showing his superiority on the rest of them.
The man seemed to be in his fourtees and had a scar starting from his cheek up to his forehead. He was sitting on a chair made up of bones drinking from from a big bottle while aggressively tearing meat with his teeth.
This was the bandits group in the red mountains. Everyone was enjoying themselves, when a bandit scout came in running in a hurry. He went directly in front of the raised platform and shouted amid the joyous atmosphere.
" BOSS!! THERE IS A LARGE GROUP PASSING FROM HERE! MOST OF THEM ARE CHILDREN!!" said the scout amid his exhaustion.
The whole cavern fell into silence after the scout's voice rang, meanwhile a loud laughter came from above the platformalong with some words.
" Fantastic. LISTEN BOYS AND GIRLS! GET READY, WE ARE GOING FOR HUNT!!" The bandits leader said while shouting.
" Haha, I'm gonna make more money than you this time!"
"Heh, dream on, your ass is going to get kicked this time too."
" Those unfortunate brats.... I'm gonna get a pretty one for me."
"What?"
Just like that sounds of bandits talking and celebrating among themselves echoed through the cavern.
______________
~ some distance way from the mountain~
" Whoaa..look the mountain is so big!"
"Yeahhhhh, I bet it would take a month to cross that."
"Nah, I bet it would take 2 months."
Inside the caravan, the children were awed by the sheer size of the red mountains and they started betting on the time it would take to cross it.
Arthur was also flabbergasted looking at the mountain as even he had never seen anything so big in his life.
His carriage driver was a friendly person and when he saw the children's bets, he also placed one of his
" Let me bet too then, let's see.... I bet it will take two days at most to cross the mountain."
The driver's bet shocked the kids and they looked at him as if he was a madman.
"What? Is there something on my face?" He asked noticing their gaze from the corner of his eye.
" Mister. You shouldn't lie, Lying is bad." Said a child proudly.
The carriage driver sneered at his lecture and said
"Who do you think I am? I don't bet on a losing game."
"Then how are we going to cross that thing? Drill a hole through it?" That boy said again
" Well you're not wrong, in fact that's exactly how we're going to cross it." The driver said
"Mister, you've really gone insane. Look that that thing, we can't even put a dent on it with even our combined strength." The boy retorted.
" Haha, who said we're going to drill it, it's already drilled by someone else. We just have to pass through it." The driver stated as a matter of fact.
" Whoaa, how strong must that person be to put a hole that big?" Another girl said in awe.
" Don't know but legend say that the person had a sapphire tire ability."
Hearing this, the students were hopeful more than ever about getting a high tier ability.
Everything was going fine untill the soldiers outside sensed something wrong in their vicinity. One of soldiers went forward but after taking ten steps forward -an arrow came from his left and pierced his neck and came out from the other side before lodging in onto a tree by the right side.
Only when the soldier's cold body hit the ground, did the others noticed that they were being ambushed.
The Elder leading the group became extremely vigilant and ordered the group to form a defensive line and keep an eye everywhere around them.
As the Elder's voice echoed, all the soldiers without a single thought formed defences around the childrens. Everyone's eyes became sharp and they took out the most lethal weapon they had on them.
After some time passed and a sound of laughter echoed in the area and the visage of a young man with a sword was seen at a distance.
The Elder looked at the man and said
" We don't have anything of value on us, we're just passing."
The man who was looking at the caravan focused his eyes on the Elder and said with a saintly smile
" Don't worry. We'll take the children then. I'm sure Their parents would be mare than happy to give us some money for their childrens.
As he said that, a group of around two hundred people came out brandishing their weapons, forming a circle around the caravan.
The elder saw this and frowned as he ordered to the soldiers
" Don't let any of those bastards get to the childrens. We are going to kill every one of them."
The bandits leader saw the group forming a tight defence around the caravan and he too shouted orders to his gang.
" Attack! The with more children will get whatever he wish, be it women, men aor money!"
All the bandits roared in understanding and charged towards the Caravan at the same time. After that.... All hell broke loose.
The bandits and soldiers clashed, killing each other ruthlessly as the bandits tried to penetrate into the soldier's defence.
The first kill came from the bandits side when a soldier's neck was slashed a by a somewhat rusty sword. After that the battle continued somewhat slowly.
___________
Arthur was seeing the whole scenario from inside the carriage and excitement bubbled within his heart as he thought about using his lightening to fight some weak bandits.
But his wish came in the form of his side's soldiers getting annihilated by the bandits.
The battle raged on and some bandits escaped the defence line but were met with the Elder who killed them mercilessly.
When everyone thought that the battle was at it's peak, the bandit leader joined in the frey and after seeing him, so did the Elder.
' I'll not get anyone to test my powers on at this rate.' Thought Arthur as he exited his carriage and scanned the battlefield with his eyes.
After seeing everything, he found three people looking somewhat weak with broken swords and could easily be taken care by him. so he made his way towards them slowly and stealthily.
When Arthur was just some metres away from his first target, a soldier saw him looking at a bandit as he went towards the bandit faster than him and pierced the bandit's neck with his spear. The soldier looked towards Arthur as if expecting some praises but Arthur cursed him in his mind for killing his target.
After the soldier went to fight another bandit, Arthur also moved towards his second target but looking out for soldiers from his side too.
Arthur reached his target from his blind spot, the bandit being oblivuous of the fact that someone was just behind him as he kept fight mindlessly.
When Arthur was just behind the bandit, he looked around him again and scanned his surroundings to make sure nobody was watching him. When the test result was positive, he willed to activate his ability as mana began to flow from his chest to his right hand and cracks of bluish lightening began to form in his palm out of thin air.
He then threw his palm filled with lightening directly towards the bandit's heart.
Arthur felt his arm pass smoothly through the bandit's body like a hot knife pass through butter.
When all the deed was done Arthur pulled his arms towards him as the bandit's body fell to the ground with a hole in his chest and his heart being a bloody mess.
Arthur looked at his first kill and then moved his gaze towards his palm which was now covered with the blood of the bandit. He didn't felt nauseous or excited, what he felt was pity. Yes, pity.
At that moment he felt just how cheap a life was, how it can be forfeited on the whims of a person stronger than you if he or she wished for it.
Arthur felt this lesson being an eye opener for him in the matters relating to the world of awakened.
He also swore to never mess with person he couldn't deal with unless the gains far exceeds the losses.
While Arthur was having his epiphany, the battle outside never ceased. The bandits and soldiers alike saw a boy standing dazed in front of a bandit's corpse with blood in his hands. But they all forgot the matter as they thought that the boy must be scared shitless after witnessing the kill in front of his eyes. They didn't knew how wrong they were.
Arthur finished his thought quickly and returned towards his carriage as he didn't want to get unnecessarily killed and his third target had also gotten himself killed by someone else.
___________
On the other side of the battlefield, the Elder could be seen in front of a corpse with his clothes torn, bleeding wounds and broken sword. The corpse in front of him being none other than the bandit leader who lead his two hundred so people to raid the caravan.
This was supposed to be a simple robbery for them but little did they know that Renan had especially sent one of the most capable Elders in the stonerock village with the childrens as their escort.
This end was very much expected by Renan when he send the Elder with the group.
The Elder looked at the corpse and then at the battlefield as he shouted
"The bandit leader is dead, those who surrender will be spared while others will not be shown mercy!"
Most of the remaining bandits surrendered and the rest got themselves killed.
After a few hours, the whole mess was sorted out and the dead were buried. Now the caravan was ready to continue its journey again.
___________
AN:- I am deeply sorry for my inability to stretch moments like these in multiple chapters as I don't see the point in reading something for five chapter when the same thing can be read in one chapter.
Again it's just my opinion. Please share yours in the comments.