POV: Bash
Location: Southern Empire
The early morning sun rosed to me polishing my sword. its a three-foot-long sword polished with a dark silver finish. The handle is dark gray almost resembling dark ink, it has two white lines going around it like a vine.
I was preparing for the job I took from the village elders in the sword garden. The only institution the Southern Empire allowed to carry swords. It started as a mercenary group but now its operating like a state body.
I am tasked with getting rid of a group of bandits terrorizing merchants coming to the Iron Stone village for trade.
Those bastards have not struck for over two weeks, I am left spending my entire day just sitting down on the tallest mountain along the route leading to the village. Hoping I could get a lead or catch them in action.
Today I arrived at the head of the tallest mountain before the breaking of dawn. My food ration was with me, roasted fish and Onigiri (a rice ball). My back was resting on a rock with one leg pulled to my chest and the other spreading on the ground.
I was taking a slow bite of the roasted fish with my sword lying down beside me in the rubble. The mountain is dry as a desert with not a single plant growing on it, it only has a random mix of dwarf trees resistant to bad weather, each hanging brown leaves with no fruits or anything edible.
My eyes were fixed on the narrow pathway created by two long mountains, after finishing my dry fish I leisurely started eating my Onigiri (rice balls). The thoughts of Ash are still lingering in my head, is she going to be okay, she said she could survive the ordeal, I trust her but—.
The sight of eight guys descending a mountain opposite me pulled me out of my thoughts. They were heading towards a convoy of three carriages pulled by horses.
Each of the eight men was holding a sword and not even using any scarf to cover their faces, how arrogant.
I immediately took my sword and also started descending the mountain at high speed. With dust building up behind me I spotted a rock that was stuck on the mountain, the remaining half of it exposed to the surface was enough for me to land after a long jump.
"BATTLE ARTS, POSITIVE CHARGE," I yelled out.
From a distance of two hundred meters, my body got pulled down by the rock, like me and the rock are opposite sides of a magnet.
I slammed into the surface of the rock breaking my fall. I then immediately resumed running down the mountain, upon sighting another rock I zoomed into it, draining some of my energy for a gravity technique.
I fell on different rocks about five times before reaching the ground level. By that time the eight bandits were already at the ground level, they were lined up along the road creating a blockade in front of the three carriages.
Looking at a distance from the back of the carriages, I could see their leader wearing a tight red bandanna. he was standing at the center and digging his long sword in the ground.
"I need everything valuable you have," he yelled out, "Gold, jewelry, silver, and even hot women if you have any."
The carriages stood still with the horse riders stepping out of the wooden benches they were sitting on, they had their shaky hands raised in the air, I could not see their faces, their backs were turned against me.
"Those bastards," I whispered, getting closer to the carriages at high speed.
About thirteen individuals came out of the carriages, an old man holding a bag probably carrying gold, there were two women beside him, one was old enough to be a mother and the other was a young lady.
All the occupants of the carriages lined up in front of the bandits holding their possessions before I was able to reach the location of the bandits.
The leader of the bandits stood still with his sword now dangling along his waist, he was twisting his musdash as his underlings snatched belongings from the poor merchants. They were throwing everything in a brown wool bag.
At that time, I reached the location of the first of the three carriages. While holding my sword in one hand I squatted for a moment.
"BATTLE ARTS, DESTRUCTIVE TOUCH," I shouted.
The air on top of the carriages hardened and my body was pulled to it, my feet were hammered to the plain invisible wall of air and my eyes darted to the sight of the bandits on the ground surface.
The impact wave of my landing on the air surface made the bandits look upwards, they only saw my indifferent eyes as I stared down at them.
My sword felt heavy on my right hand as we stared at each other for a moment. I standing upside down in the air and the bandits looking in the direction of the clouds, to my location.
"SWORD ART TECHNIQUE, 300 POUNDS," I whispered.
Immediately afterward, I came flying down with a heavy sword gripped with both of my hands. The edge of my sword mercilessly landed against the soft neck of the leader of the bandits, decapitating him in an instant.
The dust of my hard landing settled with my silver blade covered in blood.
From the narrow corner of my eyes, I looked behind me to the sight of a corpse with its hand gripping the handle of a sword.
"Too slow," I whispered to the dead body.
"Who are you!" seven shaky voices shouted at me.
In the background, the terrified merchants were fleeing the scene with screams scratching the air. Leaving all of their belongings behind.
"I am Bash, the wandering swordsman," I answered, turning around to look at them directly.
"You would not get away with killing our boss," a voice from a corner shouted. Looking at the person it was coming from, I could see the sword in his hands shaking.
"Scared hah," I muttered. looking at them with indifferent eyes.
Without saying a word, they began to form a circle around me, each of them had a firm grip on their sword, they were dressed in forest green outfits, a combination of long trousers and short sleeve jackets.
"You are planning to gang up on one man, Cowards," I hissed.
"Where is your confidence from a while ago," a chuckling voice asked.
"Just a warning, underestimating me would prove fatal," I said, staring at them with a satisfying look.
All seven swords went for my head and I was forced to jump upwards, avoiding a fatal strike aimed at my head.
Seconds after landing, one of the seven men charged forward slashing his sword towards my thighs. I back-flipped three times then gasped out a large chunk of air.
"BTTLE ARTS, POSITIVE CHARGE," I yelled out, pulling the lonely bandit to myself.
He came crashing into me with his sword pointed toward me, I Just stepped my left leg to the right avoiding his strike. Grabbing him by the head, I smashed his skull on the ground, bathing my boots in blood.
"Two down remaining six," I whispered.
Before I could get up from my kneeling position, a guy jumping forward was about to land a blow directly to my right shoulder.
Jerking backward I raised to a standing position, his second strike landed on my sword as I blocked a vertical strike.
"BATTLE ARTS, TEN POUNDS," I screamed, striking my other fist to his left chest. Breaking it and pushing his heart out of the ribcage.
Three down four to go.
Removing my hand from a ribcage, I saw the four other bandits splitting into groups of two. One group circled and approached me to my left and the other to my right.
Immediately after they got me surrounded, one of them slashed his sword aiming for my lungs, I blocked it to my right with a sword, simultaneously, another sword aimed for my left lung.
I extended my left arm grabbing the bandit's sword in the handle. In front of me, the third bandit's sword was slicing the air vertically directed at my neck, with both of my hands busy, I violently opened my mouth and bit on the sword at point black, narrowly avoiding my head from getting decapitated.
"Checkmate," a voice whispered from my back.
I could see the last of the four bandits reflected in the eyes of the man in front of me. He was running towards me with his sword pointed to my back.
Do I have to use my Ace card, on swordsmen that don't even know how to use BATTLE ARTS? how low have I fallen.
"BATTLE ARTS, ABSOLUTE ZERO," I grumbled with a loud voice echoing throughout the valley.
At a three-meter circle, a strong gravitational energy pulled all existence to the ground except me.
The four bandits got instantly slammed to the ground, they fell so hard that I felt the sound of their bones crushing on impact, the sound of the front and back ribs crushing each other.
A long gasp escaped from my mouth, I released the technique with my tong still extended out in the air, licking on the dustless atmosphere.
Bending down to the now crushed bodies, I pulled out a dagger from my left leg and began to cut the right ears of the dead bandits. It's proof that I have to present in the sword garden before I can be paid my reward for bandit extermination.
It took my tired body only three minutes to cut the right ear belonging to the eight bandits. I inserted the ears in a leather bag and then hung it over my shoulders, leaving it to dangle along my back.
With my sword returned inside the scabbard, I took a long gulp of water, hydrating myself before I walked back to the Iron Stone village, to the sword garden.