"What is Zenal doing on our property?" the bandit leader asked.
His fiery amber eyes swarmed around looking at everyone of us. "So where are the Generals that came along." He walked over to the soldier who was holding the red cloaks.
The soldier backed up and was about to put his hand on his weapon, but quickly retreated his arm back to his side.
He must had figured it was a bad idea. If he would've drew his sword, the bandit would've then killed him in that instant. The other two guards around wouldn't make it in time, neither will I. I guess these soldiers weren't as dumb as they looked
"Them two over there," he pointed at Jade then at me.
The bandit leader eyed us with curiosity before bursting into a series of laughter. The other bandits joined in.
He then stopped laughing and took his sweet time as he advanced towards me.
As his face was only a few inches from mine I noticed something more. He had a burned mark of a dung beetle on his right cheeks and three moles on his left. As he smiled his death-like breath leaked from between his yellow crooked teeth and found its way into my nostrils.
"You can't really take me for a fool. You want me to believe this little kid is a general of Zenal's Royal Army!" He snarled, I backed up and covered my nose as he talked. "What is my smelled bothersome to you? Are you insulting me!"
This man creeped me out in so many ways. His body odor was already disturbing enough, on top of that his breath smelled like he been chewing dead rodents.
His eyes kept on scanning me over and over as if to see if I had any hidden weapons, or probably why was I a General. The way he walked and acted was a perfect model of a criminal. There was no telling what he was going to do next. His sword was out wide in the open and ready to strike me at any moment notice.
I backed up until we was about ten feet apart. "What do you want?" I spat in disgust.
He smirked and tapped his shoulders with his sword back and forth while he paced around and looked up into the sky as if considering his options. "Well I'm just curious if Zenal was actually interested in us."
"What do you want?" this time I said it a little more direct and firm. He stopped in his movement and raised an eyebrow towards me.
"Ah I don't think you know who you're talking to?" the bandit replied with a smirk. He took his sword and licked the blade while glaring at me. "You're pretty gusty litle boy. Maybe I have to make an example out of you."
I had it with this guy, I was ready to put up my guards and attack him any minute now. The distance between he and his men was in my favor but they outnumbered us by two people-- not counting the old man, the skinny villager near him, and Jade.
The soldiers could read the situation and reached for their weapons, the bandits did the same. If a fight broke out here I could tell that we were going lose.
"Stop it please," the old man said. "Please the supplies you ordered are here, we don't want mean no harm."
The bandit leader eyed the old man as if saying how dare you talk to me. He placed a hand in the air and made a gesture. His subordinate-- the other bandits, recognized the command and started loading the crates of villager's good on the cart.
"Wait stop that!" Jade yelled. "Why are you taking this poor village supplies? They barely have enough for their-self but yet they have to scavenge anything they can find for you bandits. How cruel can one person truly be!"
I can tell that Jade was really furious but she made a huge mistake. The bandit smiled as if he found an excuse to wreak havoc again. He slowly walked over to the old man.
"You see little girl, when you're a bandit you can do whatever you want without no regards to the rules." He grabbed the old man and shoved his sword through his belly, he then stirred it around before taking out the sword and admired it with so much beauty. The old man fell to the floor emotionless in his own pool of blood.
The bandits started to laugh as if this was a fun game to them.
Jade had a look of anger, fear, and sorrow. Her emerald green eye almost turned a shady or moldy green.
The bandit leader licked some of the blood off his blade and spat it out at the skinny villager who was on the floor beside the old man. The bandit leader towered over him before slicing the skinny villager head right off.
"See the luxury you get from being a bandit," he smiled. "I just took the life of two worthless rodents and I'm going unpunished. Everyone fears us and let us do whatever we want." He then turned around facing Jade with a crazy look in his eyes.
It wasn't a look of murderous intent but a look of lust. "Yes little girl, you look to be the age of ripening. You got quite a face and a developing body. Oh the wench in this village are too skinny for me and my men, I guess you'll have to do for now!"
He walked over to Jade and grabbed her by the waist. Her struggling was doing nothing but giving the group of bandits just the kind of excitement they was looking for.
"Let go of her!" I yelled.
The bandit leader started to laugh as if this was all a joke to him.
"I said let go of her." I didn't know why but my heart was burning and my skin was heating up. I began to lose a little of my vision. No, it can't be happening again. I could tell that I was about to black out.
I needed to stay calm, but I couldn't do that with this bandit hovering over Jade as if she was some sort of meat. How dare he touched her like that! How dare he ignored me! How dare he think that this is all a joke!
Jade did something unexpected, she took out her small knives and stabbed the bandit in his arm before trying to make an escape. He captured her again and knocked her out with the hilt of his sword.
"Insolent wench," he spat. "Kilo come throw her in one of the carts." One of the bandit hopped out of the carts and picked up Jade. He then carried her and tossed her into a cart.
"Where do you think you're going?" I yelled as I charged towards the bandit leader. I guessed seeing the bandit grabbed Jade and tossing her onto the cart like a ragdoll overcame the fear.
He grabbed my arm as I swung and flipped me over on my back. One of the soldiers threw a spear stopping the bandit from impaling me. I couldn't believe that I almost lost my live just now.
I was completely helpless, my back was aching and I couldn't feel my leg. I was forced to watch as the bandits take out two of the nearby soldiers before getting on the cart.
"Farewell little boy and soldiers of Zenal," the bandit leader laughed as the carts began to accelerate. "Next time I see you, you will surely die."
Jade! I watched as the carts gather some distance between us. I couldn't believe it, the only person I had a connection with was being taken away from me right before my eyes. Am I so weak that I couldn't even save one girl? Chosen one my ass. How could I save an entire world if I couldn't even save the person I care about the most. Jade!
I was finally able to build up the strength to stand up again. The carts that the bandits were on was still within sight.
"Get me a cart right now!" I shouted an order. A soldier ran to get two carts near some house at the end of the road.
"Lets Go!" I yelled as I entered a cart alone and pulled the rope to set sail. The cart started to move slowly then accelerated at an incredible speed. Two of the soldiers followed closely behind me in the second cart. Even though the cart seemed to be moving fast the bandits were still too far away.
"Come on! Come on!" I repeated to myself. As I said that it felt like I was advancing faster towards them. Within a matter of minutes I was already about five meters away from the bandits.
As I got closer to the rear cart I seen the surprised look on the bandits faces. I could tell they wasn't expecting me to catch up to them, no I'm guessing they didn't even expected me to follow.
The bandits in the rear cart took out a spear and threw it towards me. I ducked as the spear sailed over my head and hit something on top of the cart. Immediately the cart began to slow down as the bandits moved further away.
What in the world did they just do? I thought to myself.
The bandits were getting further and further away with every passing second.
"No!" I shouted, and soon after that a gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew against the sail. The cart advanced faster towards the rear cart.
The bandits seemed surprised to see that I was so close to them again, now that I didn't had that thing on top of my cart. Without it I should've been blown in the opposite direction, but somehow the wind changed direction and it was blowing against the sail.
I passed the rear cart as the bandits bickered about how to handle the situation. I zoomed past the second cart making my way to the third-- which hopefully Jade was on.
As I reached the cart I could see that she wasn't on it. There were two bandit-- one of them was Kilo, the bandit that captured Jade and tossed her in a cart. There were also some items from the village packed under the benches. They looked just as surprised as the previous bandit.
I quickly took this opportunity to jump aboard their cart, and as soon as I did the cart I was on started to slow down.
The bandits recovered from their daze and reach for their swords. The one on the left with the scar running all the way from his left eye to his chin was pretty quick. He grabbed a sword on the floor and swung it.
I managed to dodge it in time and landed a right hook to his face, causing him to stumble backwards almost falling off the cart, but managed to stop himself.
Kilo grabbed me from under and entrapped me in a full nelson. The other bandit give a bloody grin as he admired the opportunity before him.
This time for sure I knew I was going to die. There was no way I could escape from Kilo's hold, he was just too strong for me.
"That's fire-dancing gloves" the old general voice spoke in my head. What the hell did he mean by that and why was I thinking about that now out of all things?
But what was that going solve? Even if the gloves was immune to fire how could I get my hand on one at this time and situation. If the gloves could produce fire then now would be a good time. I could use it to burn Kilo neck and dodge the bandit attack.
Dammit what could I use to stop these bandits, and how could I let myself be captured so easily like this. After all the tae kwon do, mix martial arts, and boxing I took, I couldn't even beat a few thieves. What kind of chosen one am I?
"Ahh," I yelled in outrage as I struggled to break from Kilo's firm grip. "Let me go you son of bitches." As much as I struggled it was to no prevail.
"Let me go!" The cart flipped over about twenty feet in mid-air. I flew out of it and fell on a blanket of sand injuring my ribs and probably spraining my left arm.
"What just happened?" I groaned as I managed to pick myself up.
There was so much pain in my chest, ribs, and arm that I couldn't help but moan. There it was on the floor. The cart was completely in pieces and the materials from the village was scattered everywhere. "
What could've possibly caused this?" I thought as I limped over to the mess.
There, lying motionless on the floor was Kilo impaled with a sword and about five feet from him was the other bandit who looked like he fell neck first.
I was starting to lose consciousness and my head was spinning. The two rear carts zoomed past me not even bothering to check up on their fellow bandits.
"Stop," I said in a hoarse voice as I reached my right hand out in desperation. I dropped down to one knee and could tell that I was about to pass out any second now.
"Stop," I repeated as I reached out with my right hand.
The carts was too far away for any of the bandits to hear me, and if they did I doubt they was going to listen anyway. I don't know if I dreamt this or not, but the last thing I seen before passing out on the hot desert floor was a small tornado forming out of nowhere and sweeping up one of the rear carts, tossing it aside before disappearing.