'They want to kill me, but they aren't acting rash.' Alexander thought as he observed the six bandits.
Instead of going on the offensive, they had formed up and taken defensive stances. While they had not seen it, there was little doubt that Alexander had killed over twenty of their associates. Someone capable of doing so without seeming to have a single injury on them was unbelievably dangerous.
Then there was the fact that they could see that their attacker had some sort of shadowy limb.
With shadow magic having been considered taboo for centuries, there was also a great deal of fear directed towards anyone that could use it.
Alexander continued to have a glaring match with the bandits for a couple of seconds as he thought through his next move.
He was certain that his physical abilities vastly outmatched his opponents'. Still, it was six on one, and he was not yet fully used to wielding the orichalcum ring or shadow magic. If he jumped in and got into a messy brawl, he might mistime some of his actions, or overestimate what he could currently do.
'I should be able to break their formation this way though.'
Moving in front of one of the tables set up in the chamber, Alexander knocked it to the ground before kicking it with his shadow leg with all the force he could muster.
This caused the cheap wood to shatter and fly forward like buckshot. It was a similar trick to what he used on the ghasts with the rubble strewn about Tharildron's castle.
The dangerous and fast-moving projectiles elicited an immediate response from the bandits.
As they specialized more in quick ambushes against unaware targets, none of them possessed any shields or magic items that could produce barriers.
There only way to avoid the sharp pieces of wood coming towards them was to get out of the way as fast as possible.
Of course, they could not very well stay coordinated when in such a rush, and Alexander used this to his advantage.
"That's one."
Before any of the bandits could react, Alexander rushed up to the nearest one and cut them down.
The next closest hastily took a defensive stance, but she was unable to so much as swing her weapon once.
Without slowing down, Alexander used his far greater speed to overwhelm the bandits and take out four of them before the remaining two formed up next to each other.
'These two are a bit stronger than the others. They're the only ones that didn't take any damage from the wood splinters.' Alexander thought while searching for any injuries on his last two foes.
All of the other bandits had taken at least some sort of damage from his opening attack, and this had made them easier to deal with.
Nevertheless, Alexander did not think he would be beaten by these two bandits even if they fought together. There was simply too large a difference in their abilities.
'Behind you!'
Suddenly, Tharildron's voice blasted through Alexander's mind.
Thankfully, he realized immediately that this was a warning and swiftly turned around.
As he did, he saw a large chunk of earth coming directly towards him.
"Sh*t!"
Unable to dodge in time, he crossed his twin daggers in front of him and received the incoming attack.
The blow was heavy and pushed him back, but with his enhanced strength he was able to endure it.
"Your mine!"
Now that his back was turned to them, one of the two bandits that Alexander had been facing lunged towards him.
It was a sharp strike and would surely reach its target.
Being off balance, Alexander could not dodge. If he did nothing, he was certain to find himself skewered on the end of a bandit's blade.
Yet, just before the sword reached him, his shadow started to move, and a dark inky arm rose up to grab the weapon.
'I did it!' Alexander thought, genuinely surprised.
Up to this point, he had been unable to control more than his shadow's left leg. From what Tharildron had told him, the Shadow Manipulation spell should have allowed him to control his own shadow like it was another body. With enough practice, it was apparently even possible to separate it from himself.
Up to this point though, using a single shadow limb at a time had been all he was capable of. Except in this desperate moment, he had willed his shadow's right arm to manifest.
Now he had the weapon that was only a moment away from killing him held in the grasp of his shadow's hand, and his adversary stunned by the sudden development, Alexander whipped around quickly and took the head off the bandit.
He was about to do the same to the final one, but another large rock came flying towards him.
'I only caught a glance of him before, but that must be this group of bandits leader.' Alexander thought as he deftly avoided the powerful projectile.
Standing in the mouth of the other tunnel that connected to this chamber was a towering middle-aged man that had long dark hair and a well-groomed full beard.
The two bandits that had fled from the room were hiding behind his back and glaring towards Alexander. It did not take a genius to realize that they had gone to get their boss when things were looking bad.
"Shadow magic." The bandit leader said, staring at Alexander with a warry expression.
While it was subtle, he was frantically looking around as if searching for several other hidden enemies.
There was a surprising amount of fear visible on his face. It was like he was expecting some monstrous entity to suddenly spring out of nowhere and rip his throat out.
"You're not… No, they don't act alone, or this sloppily."
Seeming to have come to some sort of conclusion, the boss of this bandit group cast away his wariness and gave Alexander a death stare.
The grip on his pair of war hammers tightened and he steeled himself for battle.
"So, you're the one that's been killing my people. It took me a long time and a great deal of effort to whip this lot up into shape, and now I'll practically have to start over from scratch. When this is all over, I'm going to make sure you wish that you were never born."
Exuding unwavering confidence, the bandit leader bounded towards Alexander with more speed than his large frame would suggest was possible.
He was not quite as quick as Alexander, but it was clear that he must possess a fairly powerful physical enhancement magic tool.
In their opening exchange, Alexander first dodged the man's heavy swings and counterattacked.
However, the bandits' boss easily intercepted the dagger that had been coming for him and at the same time slammed down into the ground with one of his hammers.
When the blow connected with the earth, several large spikes of stone rose up out of the cave's floor and nearly turned Alexander into a pincushion.
"Your moves are amateurish, but you're quick. You must have some pretty powerful magic items on you." The man said, his eyes shifting between Alexander's umbral steel daggers and orichalcum ring.
Alexander nearly quipped back the same to the man, but kept his mouth shut instead. He wanted to avoid giving anything away to his opponent.
After only a single exchange, he could tell that the person standing before him was strong. He was not only equipped with powerful weapons but had dozens of years of combat training and experience.
'He's too strong to be the leader of a bunch of outlaws practically at the edge of the kingdom. At some point in his life, he must have been a high-ranking soldier or a knight.' Alexander thought once he had assessed his enemy's abilities.
His sword instructor was a knight of the kingdom, and Alexander felt that the man he was facing felt similar. Perhaps he was not quite as strong, but there was no doubt he was a formidable fighter.
Eliminating a few bandits and taking their stolen goods had become far more difficult than he expected.