"HEY! One of 'em's running!" A squeaky voice yelled from above David, who was strolling after Cherie.
"Two your way!" David yelled as a thin spindly figure flew down towards Cherie, hanging from thick ropes.
"And, one, my way." A huge man slammed into the ground in front of David, sending a cloud of sand flying up into the air.
In one smooth motion, David unsheathed his sword, examining his opponent from head to toe.
The man had a squashed face that only a mother could love, every part of him was thick. His neck, arms, legs, hands and fingers.
And from the expression on his face, he was thick in mentality too.
On his shoulder rested a gear headed mace, he was covered in the strange armor, made up of chunks of metal and plastic.
"You like old things, huh?" The bits and pieces the man's armor and weapon was made of reminded David of the history books he had read back at Coppervein.
"I guess I got the pretty one!" David yelled, trying to throw off his opponent.
Unfortunately for David, the bandit was unphased. The dull expression on his face remained the same.
"Don't bother trying to compliment me kid, I won't hurt you."
"Just hand over your stuff, and we'll let you pass through." Jimbo grumbled, scratching at his short orange hair. Bits of metal shavings fell to the ground.
"So instead of killing us and taking our things, you're going to take our weapons and let the wilderness kill us?" David gathered his mana in his legs, he knew that speed would be his best chance against this opponent.
"Hmm. No, we're different, y'see." While he spoke, Jimbo swung his mace at David's head in an attempt to catch him off guard.
David pushed off the ground, cleanly dodging to the side.
The mace didn't even come close to David, who only felt the faint rush of air moving past him.
David swung out his sword at Jimbo's arm that still stretched out next to him.
Jimbo was too slow in pulling away.
"Nice try." David chuckled, he had opened a long gash along one of Jimbo's arms.
"Raaaagghhh!" With a loud yell, Jimbo swung down at David's head.
David easily backstepped, a small puff off sand rising up from where the mace slammed the ground.
Over and over Jimbo swung down at David, without the slightest gap in his attacks. Fragments of rock and sand flying into the air.
"Wow. I expected more from my first bandit." David sighed. This man wasn't even a challenge.
David easily dodged back and forth, even though he was able to dodge easily, the bandit wasn't leaving any openings for a counterattack.
"You talk big kid, all of you've done is run." Sweat ran down Jimbo's red face and he raised his mace to the sky.
[User! You cannot let him continue, he's activating a mana technique.]
The system called out to David, who ignored its warning, carefully watching his enemy.
'Everyone and their mother's got a mana technique, all except me.'
David watched Jimbo carefully, utlising his improved mana sense to detect how the mana flowed.
'This is it.' Now that he had gained experience, David had realised what his biggest asset was, he could capatilise on when his opponents used their techniques.
"And... Now." David's timing was perfect. Jimbo roared, his mace bursting into a roaring orange flame.
From where David stood, a few meters away, he could feel the heat radiation off of the mace.
But he wasn't intimidated in the slightest. What was Jimbo going to do with a bit of fire, he could have achieved the same thing by getting a large stick and lighting it on fire.
"All that, for this?" Shaking his head, David leapt at Jimbo, his sword aiming for his throat.
"Hah!" With a swing of his mace, Jimbo sent a wall of flame flying toward David.
Jimbo expected to hear a yell or a scream or even a hint of movement to the sides, but there was nothing at all.
"Poor kid. He-" Jimbo started to mutter, but then he stopped, his eyes growing wide.
Bursting out of the the wall of flame was a terrifying creature with terrible glaring eyes and a blood red face.
It was David, rather than trying to escaped, he had counted on his regeneration capabilities and dove headfirst into the wall of flame.
Schlick
David's sword sunk cleanly into Jimbo's throat, the blood sizzling as it landed on his burns.
There was a thud as the bandit's massive body fell to the ground.
"Now, let's get this out of the way." The blood was still pouring out of Jimbo's throat as David placed a hand on his abdomen.
The feeling was all too familiar too David now, the tentacles burst out of his skin, digging into the still warm corpse.
It had been some time since David had felt the sense of disgust when utilizing Consume, but he felt it once again.
After all this was the first time he was using it on another human being.
But other than feeling of the flesh under his hand, everything was the same, the same burning yet comfortable sensation of the mana pouring into his body.
[User. You have gained 2 Mana Units!]
With a ding, the system called out, the heat of the mana dissolving away into his body.
"Not bad." David grinned, wiping his sword off on the fallen bandit's shirt.
He ran ahead, he could see Cherie's signal speeding about on the CoreScanner and knew the two other enemies would be having a rough time.
"Guess I was right." Up ahead, Cherie had one opponent on either side of her.
In front, was the tall skinny figure of Kyle and behind her was small dagger wielding clump that was Groggle.
The two bandits attacked over and over, and Cherie dodged every blow gracefully, her blades flicking out in between their attacks.
The small figure managed to dodge her blows, but Kyle bled from countless wounds all over his body, and Cherie's twin blades dripped with blood.
Even though it was a two on one situation, Cherie held the clear advantage.
"Still she shouldn't be taking this long." David slowed down, wanting to take the short cloaked bandit by surprise.
Red light shone from Cherie's blades, rippling along the edges of the blades. From experience, David knew that even the slightest touch of those blades would leave a deep wound.
"Why's she holding back?" Concern filled David's voice, maybe Cherie was suffering from kind of injury, or sickness.
'Good, that's more than enough.' David glanced at the mana indicator.
[31/49]
The mana indicator read, he hadn't even used half his mana while fighting the big bandit, showing how far he had improved.
The sword gripped in David's hand started to glow, as he grew closer to the small hunched figure.
As Cherie sent the two bandits dodging away again, David sped forward, his sword heading straight for Groggle's back.
"No! Groggle!" Kyle yelled out, his pipe dropping slightly.
A large spray of blood flew up into the air, as Cherie's curved blade sliced him across the chest.
David's mana charged sword ripped through the bandit's cloak without the slightest resistance.
The small figure went spinning away, falling into a heap to David's right.
"David! What the hell!" Cherie yelled out.
Standing next to the fallen Kyle, she looked true to her demonic bloodline.
A red glow surrounded her, and crimson blood was dripping all over from her black armor.
"Huh?" A look of confusion on David's face, he walked over to Cherie.
"You alright? I thought you were taking too long to deal with these bandits?" There was concern in David's voice, first the possible sickness, now she was yelling at him.
"What do you mean, deal with them?" Now, Cherie was yelling, and the red light around her grew brighter.
"I don't understand? What's wrong?" David took a step back, the energy he felt from Cherie made him want to unsheathe his sword but he stopped himself.
"What's wrong? Someone is dead!" Cherie waved at the body collapsed behind her.
"Yeah? So what? They wanted to kill us!" Now, David was starting to get angry.
"They said they didn't! Besides, they're humans, not Magical Beasts!" Furious, Cherie took her helmet and threw it to the ground.
David's eyes widened slightly, faint black patterns had appeared on Cherie's pale skin, and her eyes had started to glow.
"Cherie. Come on. You can't trust something that bandits would say. Besides, this is what they do, they kill people and take their things." David softened his tone, bringing his hands up. He needed to calm Cherie down.
Behind them, the heap of cloth that hid the small figure began to wriggle.