Mark was traveling through the forest tracking a group of individuals. From the amount of tracks, he guessed there were at least ten people in the group.
From the deepth of the footprints four maybe five of them heavily armored, the rest traveling pretty light.
Fifteen minutes ago he has found a freshly put out campfire. Near it he found human tracks leading further into the forest.
Deciding to check if it was a group of the Stranglers he went after the people. Maybe he could even follow them to their hideout.
With that he would only have to wait for night to fall and they would be ready for reaping. He would have to be careful and most probably use guerilla tactics, taking under the consideration the assumed power of their leader.
Right now he was listening intently. Just seconds ago he thought he heard a scream. He was listening to see if he could hear it again and pinpoint the exact location of this person.
The birds were singing, squirrels chittering, but he could no longer hear the human voice from before. Calming his breathing, he closed his eyes focusing on his sense of hearing.
Not a long time later he started to hear more screams. Darting that way, he found himself by the edge of the trees.
In the clearing he saw a little farmstead with a small house a barn and a little kennel.
In the middle a bunch of men were fighting what looked like an extremely oversized wolf. It was completely snow white with only a slim black stripe running along it's spine. It's eyes seemed to glow ferociously.
It was currently gnawing on one of the men' shield arm and ferociously shaking it's head. The arm broke, leaving the poor soul screaming as he was tossed a couple meters away by the wolf.
It was heavily wounded but it acted as if it was nothing, still fighting and killing more of the men. A couple of them already lying dead on the ground in big pools of blood leaking from the big claw marks and bite wounds on their bodies.
Then he found corpses of a woman and a little girl slumped against the walls of the little house with their throats slit. A small boy bound and gagged lying next to them looking at the women with dead eyes.
Seeing that, he could piece together what has happened. Looks like in the end he was to late to help this family from the fate the bandits just decided to deal upon them.
That's why he hated such groups, there was no purpose in this attack, looking at the family, they didn't look like they had enough to eat themselves. What could the bandits rob them off?
It was purely just for their sick pleasure they are doing this.
He guessed that the smell of blood must have lured the wolf here interrupting the bandits' crimes.
The was also very dangerous having up to this point killed a third of the bandits already, but it was too wounded now, drawing his last breaths it became much more ferocious and dangerous.
When he was about to interfere and use the opportunity to take the bandits out, one of them made a completely exaggerated swing motion with his sword.
The sword started glowing, and the man slashed it at the spine of the wolf who was currently preoccupied with tearing apart another bandit.
The slash connected with the wolf, striking directly on another wound, bisecting the beast. Finally pin cushioned with arrows and sliced apart with blades the majestic beast fell.
Seeing this the boy who until now was sitting in a daze made a run for it, darting into the forest.
The man who killed the wolf cursed and said.
"Derrek, Gus, you guys come with me, Matt and Tony, you guys clean this mess. We already suffered such losses the boss is gonna be furious already, we can't have the boy run to the guards to or she gonna gut us like fish" With that he threw himself into pursuit after the little bastard.
Seeing the leader leave, Mark wanted to follow to at least save the boy, but suddenly decided against it.
He saw people with the eyes of the boy way too often. And most of the times they did not want to continue life. Many taking their lives shortly after they were rescued.
He decided to take care of the two in the clearing first and then pursue the other three. If the boy showed enough determination to live and was still alive by the time Mark caught up, he would help him.
Maybe even show him a path to live by after what happened to his family.
With that the young man crept around the clearing in the tree lines and unslung his bow from his back. Of the two bandits one was wearing a chainmail and on his back he had a shield slung over. On his belt a steel mace.
The other one was wearing fur armor covering almost his whole body with to short swords on his hips. They were busying, piling the dead bodies of their comrades without any care.
Knowing that it would be troublesome if the guy with the shield was alerted he decided to kill him first. The bandit was wearing armor so he had to aim for his neck.
Mark took position on his flank and prepared his shot. He was actually interested if he could use more energy than usual on skills to increase their effects as he hadn't tried that yet. Testing new skills in fights to the death would usually be a bad idea, but he had full confidence in taking down those guys even if they knew he was here.
Nocking an arrow and pulling the string back he used Precise Shot and when usually it took one or two points of Stamina he willed more to flow into the arrow. And after a short hesitation from the energy, like it didn't know what he required of it, it started flowing into the arrow. Three points, four, five, when it hit ten energy in total he stopped the flow.
Mark released the arrow, and surprisingly the skill wasn't what it usually was, a small correction to the trajectory. The arrow disappeared, appearing with a blast hitting a tree on the other side of the clearing, completely broken and useless, leaving a trail of light in the air. As for the bandit warrior? He slowly fell to the ground.
His head tumbled away, detached from his body, not a small bit of his neck left, bloody mist covering everything in diameter of half a meter around the shieldbearer.
The other bandit was momentarily startled, but understanding they were under attack, he instinctively hid in stealth. Seeing the other bandit disappear, Mark also used stealth and quickly repositioned knowing the glowing trail from his earlier shot has compromised his position.
He circled around his position waiting for any sign of anyone traipsing along, any leaf movements, any disturbances to the forests undergrowth. Standing completely still he waited for the other Rogue to betray his position
Not long after he heard a light creating followed by an almost inaudible gasp. Not giving his opponent Amy chances he turned and instantly shot two arrows towards the source of the sound.
"Argh, no, no don't kill me please. I didn't want this I was made to. Please spare me!" The rogue fell on the ground with one arrow sticking out of his belly and one piercing his right arm. Not giving the man any heed, Mark drew once more and shot him through the heart. The bandit died seconds after.
Recovering the arrows he started running after the three other bandits who went after the boy.
He hoped the boy had it in him to preserve and keep running, if not it would be a shame, Mark would avenge the family then. If the boy lived maybe he could help him get revenge himself, though if he wanted to get away from here he would have to hurry a little.
Who knows if the boy had any talent he could show him the foundations and throw him on deep water. What better way to learn than almost dying trying to accomplish your mission? As for the bodies?
It could wait a little.