As the hours passed for the soldiers keeping an eye out hiding in houses. Both hoping that their reinforcements would get there first and that the bandits wouldn't attack early. Time seemed to pass ever so slowly.
Finally a large group of people started assembling outside the village and started walking towards the village mayors house. The soldiers held their breaths hoping it was their comrades. But as the sun had gone down and the sky had darkened slightly, the early torchlights revealed no uniforms but instead two dozen bandits walking slowly to the center of the village with confidence.
However they stopped several meters short and what seemed to be the bandit leader stepped forward with a grin and grabbing a torch. A completely bald man with several missing teeth and several scars covering his face. With a rough voice he spoke up. "All ye soldiers hiding in the houses better come out or else we gonna start burning down them houses all over yeh." He grinned. Making Faleah swear loudly. Waiting for quite some time until the bandits started throwing torches nearby buildings. "Someone ticked them off, stay in here kiddo and keep your head down." She said with a voice and look that gave no argument.
She walked out first and signaled all the other soldiers to come out as well. Standing with her few men vs the many more bandits not breaking ground. "You bandits better lay down your arms or piss off, we got plenty a reinforcements coming." Faleah said with a grin.
Making all the bandits laugh. "You speaking of the poor lad you sent back?" The leader asked as he tossed the privates decapitated head forward making it roll on the ground. "We aint going nowhere, the way I see it you are better off joining us. We would treat ya well trust me!" The leader of the bandits said while clearly checking out Faleah, making her shudder and want to kill the man.
"Well lads, we die or live here so you better show some backbone." Faleah said to her soldiers who were not breaking ground at all. They all showed extremely good restraint and duty. But Samuel could see that compared to Faleah the rest of the soldiers were disgusted with their fallen comrade suffering such a fate. Faleah just had learned to not break character and stand strong without any hint of opening.
The leader of the bandits nodded with a face that showed his enemies respect as he dragged his axe. "Fucking gut em LADS!" He yelled at the top of his lungs and the bandits charged forward. But a yell from behind the road confused many of the bandits.
The moment the bandits at the back turned around they yelled at the top of their lungs. "PALADINS!" and started charging towards the new threat. Leaving the bandits divided half and half. Faleah did not miss the opportunity of the chaos, "With me boys!" She yelled as she charged forward.
Samuel ran out of the house and stared in awe at the ensuing fight not really knowing what to do as the soldiers were fighting the bandits. Faleah engaged the leader. The Rejgarde soldiers were still outnumbered but they were in high spirits at the words yelled about paladins.
The Soldiers moved into formation to cover for eachother with their swords and shields. One bandit ran past the soldiers and headed for Samuel. Making Faleah lose concentration for one second, she instinctively threw a dagger at the back of the bandit who got hit by it in the back and he tumbled to the ground in pain. Trying to get up.
Alas Faleah's action gave the bandit leader an opening he didnt miss and he ran his sword through her gut, making her cough out blood as she headbutted him and stabbed her sword throug his foot making him unable to back off as he yelled in pain. She completed her work by stabbing a second dagger through the bandit leaders throat. Before finally hunching over from the blade stuck in her belly.
Between the paladins and the loss of their leader the rest of the bandits panicked and started falling like flies. Meanwhile Samuel got so distracted from seeing Faleah being stabbed, it instantly flashed some very bad memories of his parents and he froze on the spot. Missing the fact that the bandit in front of him got up with a shortsword in each hand still alive even though the dagger in his back slowed him down.
Samuel's instincts made him move back in time for the swords to only create scratches on his face. As he moved to parry his mind and body were not cooperating. 'Is this how I die.' Samuel finally got snapped out of it when the bandit in front of him lost one of his arms to a sudden sword swing. The arm got cleanly cut off and spurted some blood that hit Samuel's face.
Almost moving in slow motion behind the bandit was a woman dressed as a paladin, sporting a rigid build of a warrior. She cant have been more than a year or two older than Samuel but she did not hesitate to kill to protect others. A paladin trainee with long pink hair that was covered in blood in some places.
Samuel finally snapped, angry at himself and his reflexes moved at extreme speed instantly parrying the second shortsword and cutting the bandit from left shoulder to right hip. Finishing the job with a stab to where the heart should be, yelling out in anger for everything he had lost the past year.
The paladin in front of him quickly looked around to see if any more bandits remained but calmed down when she saw there were no more. While Samuel struggled to keep himself from crying. He felt like puking as soon as the adrenaline faded, but he managed to keep it in because he had seen enough death to keep his food.
He quickly remembered where he was and looked up in horror expecting to see Faleah lying dead on the ground, but instead he saw her standing up slowly with not a single wound remaining. While the other paladins seemed to go from soldier to soldier and placing their hands on them. Soon after any wounds the soldiers had healed. They even reattached a hand to one of them. Making the soldiers feel like a miracle had stumbled upon them.
What looked like the captain of the paladins talked to Faleah, who in turn was thanking the captain with a lot of gratitude for saving their lives. The captain of the paladins quickly walked over to the paladin who was still in front of Samuel. "Apprentice Kin'Hara! How many times must you learn to stay in formation. Sure you cut down more bandits than the rest of us, but you left your damn point guard exposed. Never the less." The captain placed his hand on the young paladins shoulder. "Good job." He said and gave a nod of respect to Samuel.
"Yeah so thats my name!" Kin'Hara turned back to Samuel. "Are you alright?" She asked in a worried tone. While gesturing to his face. Making Samuel touch his face and he realized there was a lot of blood from the two shallow cuts on his cheeks and one of them had cut a part of his nose.
"Want me to heal those cuts for you?" The young paladin asked Samuel, who shook his head. "Nah, let them stay as reminders for how stupid I was for freezing up in combat!" He said with a smile while extending his hand forward. "Thank you for snapping me out of it! My names Samuel but you can call me Sam!" The paladin accepted the handshake with a smile.
After some collecting of bodies and burning the dead. Gathering any loot that remained. The paladins finally departed after checking that the village and news about bandits were all but dealt with. The soldiers finally relaxed happy to be alive and having another succesfull mission done.
Faleah finally relaxed as well before checking up on Samuel. "You froze up right?" Was the first thing she asked with a sigh. Making Samuel look down in shame. But Faleah lifted his face to take a look at the injuries on his face and finally cleaning them with some water and cloth to get rid of the blood. Samuel noticed how tired she looked but her eyes were also filled with relief.
"Good job snapping out of it at the last second and surviving!" She said with a smile. Samuel could swear he saw her eyes veiled by tears for a few moments. But she turned around quickly. "You made yourself worthy enough to keep the sword at this point!" She nodded and walked back to the soldiers who were preparing the cart.
At that point the mission was complete and a proper cleanup squad was set to find the bandits base as well. So they were all eager to return back home for food and rest.
The journey back was filled with a lot more silence mostly because of their fallen comrades corpse being covered in the cart. They would toast in their honor when they had a chance. What surprised Samuel was the fact that they now treated him as one of their own. Soldier camraderie went far when one survives battles together. Although Samuel had been nigh useless for their mission.
When they finally after several more hours of night journey arrived back home. The first sun was already rising, the soldiers and Faleah left their reports and the body of their fallen comrade. Faleah finally returned.
Samuel asked the question that had been bothering him for a while. "I though this mission was supposed to last two weeks? Not only a day?" Faleah chuckled a bit at the question.
"Indeed the mission could have lasted for a week. Depending on how sly the bandits were, but it seems that they were informed about our arrival already." She said with a smile. Which made Samuel wonder. 'She probably knew the bandits had informants and made sure to spread news and plans loud to draw them out faster... which means she probably knew there was a group of paladins closeby.'
Samuel had no idea how she knew, but it was probably part of her job. She had sent the fastest rider because he would be very unlikely to get caught. Alas not everything might go according to plan. Holding the lives of her men and knowing where to place them. Thats what its like making tough calls as a commanding officer.
"So what am I supposed to do with the rest of the free time I got?" Samuel quickly asked after he had been silent thinking to himself. Making Faleah smile again. "You proved yourself capable and you have drawn your first blood. Which mean we are moving onto more advanced fighting!" She said while patting his back. "Now we got plenty of time to shape you up into a better fighter before you gotta start working again!" She laughed and they went on to continue their victory with food and sleep.
The next few days Samuel got his ass kicked more times than ever before, full days of hard training in more than just swordplay but also how to keep stamina up and learning how to swim as well. The remaining days he had off were not days off in any way. Except for the one evening where the squad he had been on the mission with invited him to food and drinks to both celebrate and pay their respect to their fallen friend.
Those two weeks passed quickly.