Draco had already pulled out his whip and brandished it before the bandits.
The bandits had also pulled their swords out, and they cautiously held their positions.
They could tell Draco's whip was a powerful artifact that was stronger than their own, but they hoped their numbers advantage could turn the tables on him.
However, keeping their distance from Draco was their first mistake.
Draco jumped backwards and swung out his whip, catching the bandits by surprise with the sheer speed of the attack.
They were unable to dodge the strike in time and were forced to block.
The bandits raised their swords and deflected the whip, and when they recovered they began to sprint towards Draco's position.
Except, Draco was already backing up again, and he kept his distance from the duo.
One of the bandits threw a knife towards his position, but Draco sidestepped it and swung his whip out once again.
The bandit was still recovering from throwing, and he was unable to raise his sword to block in time.
He instead raised his arm to block the blow, but Draco took this opportunity to wrap his whip around the man's arm.
The whip twisted around the bandit's forearm, tightening itself into an unbreakable vice grip.
The bandit tried to break free, but his strength paled in comparison to Draco's.
Draco roughly pulled the end of the whip, and when the man tried to pull back his arm twisted in a sickening way.
Draco cackled as he watched the man's arm get dislocated from its socket.
The bandit screamed in pain, and Draco released his whip just in time to dodge a knife from the other bandit that was aimed at his neck.
"Woah! You guys are fast with those knives." Draco laughed.
Draco continued to backpedal to stay out of range of the bandits, but only one of them was a real threat now.
The bandit with the dislocated shoulder had his weapon arm rendered useless, and he clutched it and attempted to pop it back into the socket.
Meanwhile, his friend was left to face Draco alone.
He smirked, for he saw that this was the disrespectful bandit he had first spoken to.
Draco swung his whip in an attempt to take the man's legs out from beneath him.
However, the bandit jumped over Draco's whip and used the chance to close the distance between them.
Draco cursed as he saw that he would be unable to retract his whip in time to block the man's strike.
He knew that he had an advantage over the bandit though, so he did something unthinkable.
Draco stepped forward, leaving his guard entirely open.
The bandit grinned sinisterly as he saw his blade pierce through Draco's gut, poking out through the other side.
The man was surprised to see Draco smiling back at him though.
"DIE!" The bandit yelled, twisting his sword inside of Draco's intestines.
This caused Draco to grunt, but his pain tolerance had long since surpassed human levels.
The bandit tried to pull the sword out of Draco's gut, but before he could Draco had grabbed ahold of the man's neck with both of his hands.
Draco squeezed with all of his might, and the bandit's eyes widened with fear.
The bandit could do nothing to stop Draco, and a loud crack was suddenly heard.
Draco had crushed the man's neck between his hands, and then threw him to the side like discarded trash.
The dead bandit's comrade was still ahead of Draco, and he roared in anger as he saw his friend get killed in front of him.
He had popped his arm back into the socket and rushed at Draco, killing intent radiating from his body in waves.
Draco grinned at the man as he pulled the sword out from his body.
When the bandit saw the wounds on Draco's stomach closing he stared at him in shock. He didn't expect Draco to possess such incredible healing capabilities.
The bandit realized that he had to finish this monster off before he finished healing.
He charged at Draco with his sword in hand, and when he was within range he slashed out at Draco.
The bandit watched with satisfaction as he saw his sword make contact with Draco's chest, but Draco swiveled out of the way just in time to avoid a fatal blow.
The bandit looked on in confusion as he saw Draco's body get further and further away.
He tried to move his arms and legs, but he found that they were unresponsive.
The next thing the bandit saw was his own body, standing headless next to Draco.
The last thing he saw was darkness.
Draco watched as the bandit's head landed on the sand, several feet away from his body.
The man's body then collapsed lifelessly onto the sand.
Draco flicked the sword in his hand, splattering blood onto the sand below.
'That was easier than I imagined.' Draco thought to himself, glad he had found such a powerful healing artifact.
Draco's wounds were already rapidly healing, and the cut on his chest had already healed completely. Only a dull throbbing pain in his gut was left, but he figured that too would heal in a minute or so.
As Draco looked at the bandit's corpses, he was surprised to hear his stomach start growling.
As he continued to stare at the bodies, he belatedly realized that he was drooling.
Draco backed up and wiped the drool from his mouth, 'What's wrong with me?'
He remembered his time back in the Ahmar Cage, and the primal hunger he felt within that god-forsaken forest.
'Was I cursed when I ate that Ape?' he wondered.
Draco felt disgusted when he thought back to the person he had devoured back in the forest.
However, that disgust went away when he looked back at the bodies laying in the sand.
Now, only hunger remained.
He didn't know when he started walking towards the bodies, but soon he was standing right above them.
Before he could realize it he was bent over one of the bandit's corpses, digging through their chest with his hand.
His fingers found the bandit's still-warm heart, and when he pulled his hand out it was staring right at him, beckoning him.
Draco was now drooling again, and he couldn't even stop himself from raising the man's heart up to his lips.
When the tantalizing smell of blood wafted into his nose, his eyes turned bloodshot and he saw red.
The next thing he knew, he was digging into the heart as blood dripped down from his chin.
The taste was exquisite, and he could feel the sweet vitae flowing into his body. In only two bites he had scarfed down the entire heart.
When Draco finished it, he looked over to the next corpse and rushed over to it like a wild animal.
Draco dug into the man's chest with his teeth and tore into his heart straight through his chest cavity.
After Draco had finished, his entire face was covered in red. Blood dripped down from his face in waves, giving him a feral appearance.
Draco looked around frantically for more flesh to consume, but he had already eaten the best parts of their bodies.
He suddenly snapped back into awareness just in time to stop himself from eating the rest of the body in front of him.
'Holy f*ck. What have I done?' Draco thought, looking at the destroyed chest of the man he was just devouring.
He shakily stood up from the sand, and was unable to help it as a loud burp escaped his mouth.
His wounds had entirely healed at this point, and a rich energy flowed through his muscles. He felt like he had just woken up from a refreshing nap.
Draco tried to wipe his mouth, but only succeeded in spreading more blood around his face.
He sighed and wiped his face using his shirt, but there was still a light coat of blood stuck to it.
Shaking his head, Draco began to collect the desert bandit's weapons. They both had swords and a number of knives. The knives seemed ordinary, but he estimated that the swords were at least low-grade artifacts.
'These swords don't seem too special, maybe I can sell them somewhere.' Draco thought.
He also found a blood-stained map tucked in one of the bandit's shirts.
This map looked identical to the one he had lost, but it had several seemingly random locations around the desert marked in red circles.
Draco could only guess what these locations were. They could be bandit bases, raid locations, or even supply caches.
However, investigating it would have to wait for another time.
Draco was now heading towards where the armored bus had gone, and in only a few minutes he caught sight of it.
Addo had evidently seen Draco approaching, so he turned the bus around to pick him up.
Once the bus arrived Draco climbed into it, and he told Addo to drive towards the city of Benghazi.
The city was only a few hundred miles away now, but it looked like the sun would be setting soon.
Draco smiled ominously as he looked out of the window, he figured that it would only be another day or so until they reached the city.