The young man hid behind a boulder watching the bandit camp smiling.
"It didn't take long to find them… This camp doesn't look that big." He frowned. "This can't be all of them… There must be more camps along the pass."
"You're right. It's highly likely that there are several of these camps. We just got to keep hitting them until we find one that has a map of the other camps. Then we can return to the transport."
He nodded and stared at the entrance to the camp. "It seems they only have two outlooks keeping an eye on the pass. We need to silence them without alerting the camp."
"Let's see if I can make a small fireball, that doesn't explode and just incinerates upon touch…"
He shook his head. "That won't do. Better I go myself…"
"Stop… if you don't try then you won't know if you can do it or not. Try and stop doubting yourself."
He looked at Salina in thought. "Yes… You're right. I should try…"
He closed his eyes and focused on the fireball. "Small, extreme heat, no color, no explosion, moves fast…"
"You did it… See you just need to believe in your ability."
He opened his eyes and looked down at the small spark dancing on his open hand. He smiled. "Thank you, little spark… Let's go save our unit."
He walked from behind the boulder and threw the fireball towards the sentry guard in the tower. He then formed another and threw it at the other tower guard in quick succession.
He closed his eyes and waited with his heart beating loudly in his throat. "No explosion…" He smiled and looked at the guard towers.
He stopped and clutched his heart and took deep breathes. "That was easier than I thought…"
"What do you mean?"
He looked at Salina with a pained expression. "That was my first kill… It shouldn't be that easy…"
"I understand… You know I also remember my first time���"
He looked at her and decided not to push her further. He looked down at his hands in silence.
"That person wasn't a good person… They were stealing from others and killing them. We were also given orders to wipe them out. No one should fear travelling the Supremes' roads."
He nodded. "You're right… But that doesn't make this easier for me…" He looked at Salina with a pained expression. "Blood on my hands…"
"You just need to remember one thing right now. Every battle you go in you must look at the enemy and decide is it going to be me who dies… Or is it going to be them? It's not about who's right or wrong, not about morals or orders from a superior. It's about if you want to live and keep living. That old monster wanted to keep living, and he's still running around setting people on fire…"
He stood in silence finally nodding. "You're right. I can deal with the blood on my hands after this mission. I'll not mark your flames with their names. That will hide the beauty of your fire…"
He put his hands down and walked into the camp forming his fire sword."One hand my fire sword and the other tiny sparks…" He started running slashing at a bandit watching them turn into ash. "Must hurry and find the information that I need."
"Up there." He looked up and saw a guard tower organizing the bandits.
"We have to bring that tower down. If it's still there they'll be able to find us always…"
"Any ideas?"
He smiled and looked at his fire sword watching it turn into its whip mode and looked at the tower. "I may have an idea…"
He looked at the tents around him and threw fireballs at them to set them on fire."This should keep them busy…"
"Fire… Fire… Fire… Stone Dogs stand ready… We're being attacked!"
He ran towards the raised platform taking down any enemy that ran into him, instantly turning them into ash. He flicked the fire whip and jumped into the air swinging the whip around the platform pillars.
"Time to come down…" He pulled on his whip causing it to flare up and engulfed the pillars in flames, and watched it fall over crashing into the ground.
"AHHHHHH!" He turned around and stabbed the bandit that struck his back.
He took a deep breath. "It's only a shallow wound… At least I can stop the bleeding."
He closed his eyes and grit his teeth as his back started turning red from the heat. "Ahhh!" He opened his eyes and stretched his back.
"I'm okay Salina… I've stopped the bleeding, but it's the first of many scars."
"What is it with men and scars?" He heard her sigh. He turned and smiled at her. "No idea, why don't you tell me how you feel about scars?"
"No comment... Look at what you are doing."
He looked around at the camp on fire. "The camp is now in shambles… People are running everywhere, scared and confused… Now, if I was an officer or leader, I would have the best place… Where are you ol bandit leader?"
He climbed up on the ruined viewing platform and looked around at the camp falling apart. He smiled and pointed. "That's where our snake is hiding… Let's go pay a visit."
He jumped down from the destroyed platform and walked in the direction of the best-looking tent in the camp. He turned anyone into ash as they ran into him, as well as setting tents and buildings on fire until he stopped at the tent and smiled. "I'm here… Let's see if anyone is home."
He went to open the tent flap and stopped suddenly.
"Sir, a transport has been sighted… scouts say from FireStrike unit… They're setting up to take them down…"
"Bang!!"
"Stupid soldiers… We're… attack… take them down… come back…"
He looked at Salina with a worried expression. "They're going to wipe them out… They're a sitting target in that transport."
"Yes… We have to hurry back as soon as we're done here and return to back them up."
He nodded and walked into the tent throwing a spark at the bandit standing instantly turning them into ash. He walked up to the bandit leader sitting behind a table surrounded by wealth and smiled while holding his fire sword.
He leaned on the table and smiled as it creaked under his weight.
"Take all the wealth it's all yours… But you must let me live… I can be your servant, your slave even…"
He shook his head at the bandit leader, throwing a spark at the bandit leader and watching as they turned into a pile of ash. He looked at the maps and documents on the table. "Should we take these Salina. Are they what we were sent on this mission for?"
"To be honest, I also can't read this language… It's very different to what I've seen before. We should take them…" He nodded and watched as she pointed at the marks on the map. "These I can see are bandit bases. There are quite a few of them. We need to head back and save them…"
He quickly picked up the documents, putting them in his side bag setting the tent on fire and walked out stretching. "Now… how do we get back to them before they are attacked?"
"Let's head to the cliff face… I have an idea, and you'll probably land in a giant fireball causing lots of destruction, but that's what we need at this point. It's also going to cause you immense pain…"
They walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. "That's really high… If we're climbing down, it will take time… What's your idea?"
He looked at Salina and his mouth fell open. "I can do that?" He looked at her elegant wings of fire and smiled. "You haven't had any practice with wings, nor the ability to turn. All we'll be doing is gliding down and crashing on top of the enemy."
He nodded and focused on revolving his energy forming the wings.
"Ahhhhhhhh! This is painful and is tearing me apart… Must fight through the pain." He clenched his jaw.
He shook his head and opened his eyes. "That is way too hard to keep an image of… There is no way I can make wings as elegant as yours." He panted and sat on the ground.
"I'll try again, but I'll make some changes since I'm not an elegant person like you… I'm more of a monster… a fire eater…" He smiled and revolved his energy around in his body again.
He bent over as his back started burning with intense heat. "Ahhhhhhhh! I'll get there to save them…"
He stood up against the pain and panted heavily. "I'm ready…"
He looked at his wings and smiled. "There more suited to me this way…"
"Wings of fire quite monstrous… Nothing elegant about them at all, just raw power and energy…"
He looked at her. "What do I do now?"
"No time to have a lesson… All we're going to do is point in one direction and crash in a ball of fire… Just follow me and copy my movements as I glide down…"
He nodded and smiled. "Point me in the right direction and I'll do the rest…"
He looked at Salina's smile and felt his heartbeat in his throat. "Now no questions. Keep your wings straight and let the wind do the rest…"
He watched her stand in front of him and jumped. "Let's go…"
"Hahahaha…" He jumped off the cliff
He watched as Salina flew in front of him and moved his wings as she did with a smile on his face.
"I wish this could last forever…" He shook his head. "I need to focus and protect the unit." He looked down at the pass and saw the transport.
"It seems they started the attack without the signal from the camp… We need to hurry down there."
He felt the wind blow against his face and smiled closing his eyes. He could hear Salina's voice clearly through the wind.
"Are you ready? It seems the unit has taken quite a few hits… They won't last much longer."
"I'm ready… I wonder if that squad leader is hiding behind the senior Firewarriors?"
"Doesn't matter… We need to take them out and then we'll know what we have to do next."
As he was about to hit the ground, he dispersed his wings covering himself in fire and rolling onto the ground with an explosion spreading fire around him.
He stood up and started slashing the bandits that got too close to him making his way through the bandit unit.
"I… can't see or sense any more bandits… tired…"
He knelt in the snow breathing heavily.
"You did well… you saved them… we need to finish the mission."
He nodded and stood up slowly walking towards the transport watching the recruits slowly get off the transport and walk up to him.
"You're not dead… Pity… He looked up and saw the squad leader walking towards him. "Did you complete your mission, or did you just report that we were here so they would attack us spy?"
"Reporting… here's their locations and communications between the camps. As you'll see… We've got a problem."
"I'll be the judge of that fire eater… I bet you just did this all yourself, so you look good to the squad spy…"
The young man sighed and watched as the squad leader opened the map and documents watching as their eyes went wide and cursed loudly. "This is clearly a trap by you… There's no way that the reports we got were wrong."
He looked on as the senior Firewarriors looked over the notes and frowned. "It seems our reports were wrong… We'll have to report this back at base… Good job fire eater. You saved the entire unit."
He looked at the recruits and smiled.
"You should've seen the squad leader. He was hiding under one of the seats… Still he hasn't realized we've lost half of our unit…"
"They followed orders and protected me… This was all about protecting me and keeping me safe…"
He shook his head at the squad leader. "Their blood is on your hands… Deal with that…" He looked at his own hands and sighed.
"Firewarriors… What do we do next, there are many bandit camps, I was only able to destroy one of the camps and it's leader…?"
"Your stupid fire eater… We head back and report to the commander and get them to wipe them out. I'll also be presenting a report about you being a spy and wanting to take my unit from me…"
"The test is over…"
He looked at the Firewarriors and sighed. "Does that mean we return?"
"Yes, it does…" He looked at the smug squad leader. "Everyone on the transport we're pulling back…"
"Hold it squad leader… The test is over, but the mission is still on going. We need to remove all bandits in this pass with the people we have here."
The young man looked at the squad leader and watched as their face turned pale. "We're only a recruit unit… How can we take all the bandit camps before they report to the other camps and band together and take us down?"
"That's easy… Your unit takes one side of the pass, and we take the other…"
The young man nodded. "Okay… The first base on this side of the pass is already destroyed… When do we go?"
"As soon as you rest fire eater… Squad leader prepare your unit for attacking the camps."
He turned and looked at the squad leader staring at him with fire in his eyes.
"Yes… Firewarrior. I'll obey… I request that I join your group and the fire eater takes the rest of the unit on the other side."
"You're willing to leave your unit just so you can hide behind us? That's not going to happen squad leader… We start climbing at dusk…"