Sun shines brightly into the sky, it's high noon.
A young man with plain and worn-out clothes stood be the shore of a lake, someone could recognize him as Glen the missing hunter. At the moment he his unfocused gaze is staring at his reflection on the water.
He just can't help it; his mind is a mess. There are no stabilised goals in his mind.
After leaving the village, he realized that there isn't something for him to look forward in the future.
Returning to where he came from was meaningless, the only thing left there was a destroyed land waiting to be rule over, he also had almost no relationship with the people form there anymore.
His lover, friends, even most of their descendants died… the landscape that once would be nostalgic is in ruins. His heart always feels like is being shredded when he remembers what was lost.
Unknowingly his motivation to move forward was slowly lost, the only thing that move him forward was his survival instincts…
However, as a man with his wisdom he knows he can't stay like this. Deep within he wants to go back, but to go back and see again the result form the war makes him anxious.
"Focus German! Focus!" He whispers to himself, trying to regain his mental stability.
He looks at his trembling hands and concentrated to trying to make sure he won't fall back in those despairing thoughts.
With a deep breath he starts to check his belongings.
'My clothes don't even look like it use to be a custom made treasure.' He thinks to himself, noticing small holes and stains of dirt in his pants and shirt.
Putting his hand at his waist he feels a small knife at his touch 'I stole it from those villagers, but I hope they won't miss it.'
He picks up his last item an empty canteen made of bamboo with a strap to hang from the shoulder. 'And finally, the water canteen that I got from the hunting party. They know how to make more, so I know they won't miss it.'
With the canteen he opens its cap and aim the opening in the canteen to the lake. With a small gesture the water rose from the lake.
He chants a low-grade spell of purification it forms a wall, the water hits said wall and slowly but surely the water goes through the wall. Then the water that went through the wall enters the canteen until the canteen fills up.
Then the wall dissipates and the water floating falls back to the lake.
At the moment he can't help but feel tired, he is on his way to the city he heard of from the villager.
Before leaving he decided to move closer to the road, since bandits appear around the road, he could also kill them for a map, new cloths and even some money.
It has been 3 days since Germain left the village. A long and arduous journey alone that is taking a toll on him.
Luckily, he had spotted this lake from a far. There're a few human tracks left around the lake, but he decided to not give it much thought.
He decided to take a break by this lake, maybe hunt a small animal for food then take a bath, swim to relax, clean the stains on his clothes and look for a safe place to sleep for the night.
Taking a swing from his canteen he looks around, but it really seems like the food for tonight is fish.
He takes of his clothes and enter the water.
As he brings his right hand closer to the water, mana leaves his body from the left hand. It forms a water net underwater, even fish might not notice if it tries to get close to it.
Swimming around he got close to a fish, the net moved by itself trapping the fish within. Not giving it much though Germain swims back to the shore, meanwhile underwater despite its struggles the fish is dragged along.
As he walks out of the water the fish slowly float trapped in water bubble right behind him.
Germain just feel miserable, he can only rely on his mana mastery to keep himself alive. On the same note the food will be saltless again since he never thought that learning such spell like creating salt would be useful and he has not been successful in making salt with his custom spells...
However, with his high expertise in mana, a bonfire to cook his fish was completed in a blink of an eye. The fire fuel by mana burns brightly under his catch.
Turning around he decided to enjoy himself in the lake while it cooks, he doesn't know any cleaning spells for his clothes but after chilling in the lake he might try his hand in making such spell.
....
....
The night was long, finally the day is about to start. He got almost no sleep, his mind is tired, but his muscles aren't as worn out as yesterday. A bit of magic and a day of rest made his body reinvigorate.
He walks to his campfire fishes out a piece of fish covered in mana. The leftovers from dinner, mana coating kept it edible through the night. He uses water from his canteen to push it down.
The taste isn't bad, but he's sick from eating food without seasoning. As a mage he made potions that tasted way worst.
After refilling his water canteen, he chants a spell for movement. The mana enters into a cycle of entering the ground and moving back to his body. It is an earth based spell that focus on covering up more ground in the long run instead of speed.
After few hours of running the movement spell, he finally spots human tracks leading away from the road. Someone tried to cover it up, but he's sure that they're fresh maybe even from yesterday.
Germain spend a few moments thinking and looking at the woods those tracks are leading to. Even though he is quite confident in himself, he isn't ready to fight against a group with unknown numbers.
He knows that to enter the city he'll need to pay a fee. He also might get investigated for being alone with so little equipment. Why would the guards believe that a low level mage is traveling around with only a small knife and water canteen. If he gets any weapon from those bandits, he can pass as a mercenary at least.
Walking stealthily through the track he made his mind. 'I don't need to kill all of them, if I get one that stepped away from their group it might be enough to get what I need.'
Confusing enough he found their camp not long after following their tracks. He thought it'd take maybe a day or two using his movement spell to catch up.
As he moves around in the woods looking at their camp from a far, he slowly understood their situation. They had heavy casualties, looking around he saw that although their numbers are over 20 members but only 8 are healthy while the other are looking pale, sick or even lost a limb.
'They have captives, only 2 horses and over half of them are wounded. I'll wait the sun go down by night I'll strike. I need to recover my mana and maybe I can scheme a plan.'
....
....
The night has come, the moon shines in the sky. Germain prepared himself for this, in his left hand a piece of rock in his other hand a small knife, he looks at the camp, some makeshift fences they have small poorly lit up camp. It does seem like they don't want attention being draw toward them.
He stealthily approaches the camp, evaluating the guards on the entrence of the camp. One of them is missing his left arm from the elbow down while holding an axe in his right hand, the other seems pale and distracted but a hammer rest on his shoulder.
The one handed axe has almost no range, but the hammer got a long shaft and seems like a better pick for the fight about to start since he might need the extra range to space his opponents.
He isn't confident in taking them out in a melee, he doesn't know if they have mages, but with a surprise attack he can prioritize those that weren't wounded that he saw during the day.
'Earth bullet rise!' The rock leaves hand and floats, you could see it has spiky shape.
Putting his now empty left hand on the blade of the small knife, without even chanting mana sticks to the blade.
Preparing to swing the blade he looks at the guards he shouts in his mind 'NOW!'
As he swings the knife, a projectile is launched in the direction of the guard on the left. Meanwhile the spiky piece of rock accelerates towards the guard on the right.
Without waiting for the results, he active his earth movement spell and rushed in their direction while holding tight on the knife.
However, he was overprepared since his spell killed his target, the guard on the left was decapitated and the guard on the right had the rock sinking through his head.
Nonetheless, he knows that he needs to get their weapon if he wants to fight the others in the camp. Without much though he throws the knife coated in mana at one of the 8 priority targets in the camp.
He picks up the hammer from the guard that is falling. Rushing in without waiting for the others inside the camp to react. He already has the next target in his sight.
By the time the sound of their falling body alerts the others he already swinged his hammer in the direction of one the few non wounded in the camp.
As Germain stabilised after hitting a direct blow on the head, he relies on the movement spell to go for the next priority target, readying another melee attack.
Meanwhile internally he had another spell ready to come out. A fire ball that is being channelled to his right hand.
Caught by surprise the bandits shouted.
"Fuck! Who are they?"
"What are the night guards doing?!"
Knowing he needs to make as much damage as possible, Germain fails to kill the second target. The target was hit in the arm and chest, at least he might not be able to fight.
"Where is Rozalla?"
"Protect Rozalla!"
As they slowly stabilised their mentality, those that were fearful of this night attack gained courage when they saw it was only one person.
As someone with great knowledge Germain decided to retreat toward the side he came from after hurling a fire ball in the direction of a third priority target. Behind him screams of pain come from the target of his fireball and the man with a broken arm.
However, as soon as he tried to go back someone is viciously swinging a polearm in his direction, he couldn't really tell what was coming but he knew he had to do something.
Turning to the side, he blocks a heavy hit with a swing from his hammer. Then he saw a vicious looking 2 meter tall man with a small knife through his neck. The look in his eyes were the same for someone with nothing to lose.
Germain knew he had a problem. This bandit knew he was the one that had fatally wounded him, and this bandit wants revenge on the guy that sealed his fate.
As Germain traded another blow he thought 'He shouldn't be so anxious, he is putting to much of his weight behind the swing and not thinking properly.'
Germain deflected one trust to the side and counterattack with a thrust back with the hammer. The hammer hit the man on his chin.
Knowing that he wasted to much time on one man, Germain looks around. One thing is soon brought to attention, a mage in the backline channelling a fireball towards him.
In one fluid motion the hammer went from the chin so flying in the direction of the fireball. His hands don't stop as they snatch the giant's spear. Around him the chaos ensued.
As the movement spell brings him closer to the camp exit, he saw that most of the people left aren't interested in fighting. Some had confidence in ganging up on him with numbers, but he's at the edge of the camp and they can't hit him from the back anymore.
He also has proven to be a skilled fighter. They saw him take down the giant in a few trades. They didn't completely understand how the fight went because of how fast everything went. They could only see the results, on the ground a big man with his hands covering up his own neck and chin.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SCARED OF ONE GUY! JUST MOVE FORWARD NOW!" A loud and commanding voice is heard from the centre of the camp.
'To late. If they had block me from the exit, this could be a lost battle. They are bandits, they don't have discipline.' Germain thought to himself.
However, going against his prediction the crowd slowly start to move to fight him. He needs to break their morale again.
The spear in Germain's hand shines brightly flames to it over, then it slowly floats turning in the direction of the mage. Most of them where smart enough to get away from this telegraphed trajectory.
Only two men stand on its path, a man with a big wooden shield and the mage with a sneer on his face. It seems like they have faith in that wooden shield. Luckily they are 2 of the 4 priority targets left.
'Let me make something flashy. Before I used 4 spell, 3 offensive that covered 30% of my mana while the movement mana cost was close to none. This spear is going to cost me an addition 40%, leaving only 30%.' Germain analysed.
With a deep breath, he let it rip. The atmosphere was calm besides crackle sound of burning on the spear. But the flutter sound as the spear get traction on the air into the sudden crash.
The crowed was shocked over the display of power.
"I might be one but today I'll slaughter every pig that can! HAHAHAH!"
Germain faked his reaction. His body isn't in condition to fight all of them. Looking around he saw the man that shouted earlier, their chief an extremely pale man that can barely stand up. The shout earlier really took a tool on him.
With the eyes of a hunter that found his prey. Germain slowly and maliciously said "You are the next!"
With the guidance of the movement spell he flashes in the chief's direction. The next strategy is to kill the commander to take down the army.
As soon as they saw him leaving the exit their very first reaction was to make a run for the exit while avoiding the invader. Regardless of their wounds their were fleeing for their lives.