Chapter 18 Bandits

Leo was in the middle of asking Rosalia about how much the breakfast would cost him, when a man burst through the tavern door shouting "BANDITS! BANDITS ARE COMING!"

Leo stood up " Which way are they coming from!?" The man pointed towards the gate that Leo used when he entered the village yesterday.

Without saying a word, Leo charged out the tavern and ran towards the gate. The street Leo was on, was directly in line with the gate. Leo could see the gate, but there was a crowd of people standing around it.

When arriving near the crowd, Leo pushed through until he reached the front. He could see the guards that he met when entering the village, both of them were on the floor with two men holding each of them down. Another 6 men were standing behind those, making them number 10 in total.

One of the bandits spoke "Alright everyone, just pay us the tax and nobody gets hurt! we've even spared the two who tried to fight us as a sign of our good will." He smiled at the end while pointing at the two guards on the floor.

"Why would these people give you anything?" Leo stepped forward out of the crowd and asked the bandit. Leo had assumed this man was their leader since he was the one speaking.

He was a middle aged man with a black goatee, he wore a grey beret on his head and had basic leather armour on. He had a short sword in his right hand and was 1.8 meters tall.

"Hoo, we've got a brave one today boys! HAHAHA... Why do you think? It's so we can protect them from danger of course." The leader had a sly smile on his face.

Leo scoffs at the leader, "You lot wouldn't even be able to protect yourselves, let alone all these people. You should leave before you find yourselves in over your head."

*Gasp* everyone gathered at the gate couldn't believe their ears. Even the bandits were shocked. The leaders smile faded," You two, teach the boy a lesson." the leader point at two of the men who were standing next to him.

Before the men took their first step, Leo spoke again, "You should only fight me if you're willing to die." Leo didn't move an inch and just waited. The two men looked at each other, laughed, and then walked towards Leo.

Leo closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they were glowing blue. Another moment passed and Leo's entire body was glowing with a blue energy. Leo jumped towards the two men and threw one punch at each of their heads.

When the two bandits saw Leo start glowing, they paused their steps out of surprise. Leo didn't care about them stopping. It was too late for them to back out now, and so he attacked.

When Leo's fists collided with their heads, there was small a flash of blue. The next moment two headless bodies fell to the floor with blood sprayed all over the rest of the bandits that were behind them.

The two guards that were being held on the floor, both had wide eyes when they saw the attack. They recognized Leo from the previous day when he had entered the village.

The leader was stunned into silence. The air was so still that you could hear everyone breathing. Leo looked at the bandit leader,

"Who will you send to their death next?"

The bandit leader became furious, "ALL OF YOU ATTACK AT THE SAME TIME! KILL HIM NOW!" Leo bent down and picked up one of the short swords the dead bandits had with them. He pulled his arm back and threw the sword at one of the bandits.

Leo had used his energy to increase his strength, so when he threw the sword, it was incredible fast and powerful.

The bandit lifted his sword to try and block the attack. Leo was impressed by this 'Wow, he managed to lift his sword in time.'

When the swords collided, they both shattered and shards of metals went flying into the bandit who blocked the attacked. The others around him weren't safe either, a few of them had shards sticking out of their arms and legs that were closest to the one who blocked.

When the swords shattered, the bandit was sent flying backwards several meters. He looked like a pincushion with all the metal in his body.

'Damn, I'm using up my energy too fast. I can deal a lot of damage but I run out of power too fast...' Leo was worried about how he could increase his powers capacity in the future.

He bent down and picked up the other short sword and all the bandits panicked, thinking he would throw it again. Instead, Leo held the sword and ran towards the bandits, Activating his Aura.

' Rather than using my energy to attack, I'll just make my body faster and stronger. It uses less energy and it should be more than enough to deal with these guys.'

There were 7 bandits left now. When they saw Leo running at them, they all prepared themselves for combat, getting into their stances and holding their weapons firm.

When Leo got close, two bandits swung their swords at him, one from each side. One strike was a vertical slash and the other was horizontal.

Leo stepped towards the horizontal strike on his right and attacked the bandits sword with his own, sending it up into the air. At the same time he had moved away from the vertical strike, which had hit nothing but air.

Leo stabbed at the bandit in front of him, Impaling the man's chest. Leo could sense the other bandit was now behind him and swinging his sword down at Leo again.

Leo turned his body, stepped to the side and pulled his sword out the other man. The sword looked like it was moving in slow motion as it passed by his face. When the sword was past Leo's waist in height, he swung his sword at the bandits neck, cutting off his head.

The remaining bandits were split into two groups. One group had three men, while the other only had two. Leo dashed towards the group with only two. They were standing on Leo's right side.

Both of the bandits thrusted their weapons towards Leo's chest. Leo ducked under their swords and spun on himself while swinging his sword upwards, cutting their hands off at the wrist.

Both bandits fell to the floor, screaming and holding their arms where they had lost their hands.

Leo turned towards the other group with three bandits, one of which was the leader. The leader dropped to his knees and started sobbing, "WAIT! PLEASE... please don't kill me! I-I surrender, we'll leave and n-n-never come back!" the two men next to him fell to their knees as well, begging to be left alive.

'Does he really think I'll let them live? I told them I'd kill them if they fought me. Although, there are things that can be worse than death... Oh, I know.' a smile appears on Leo's face.

"Fine, I'll let you live." All three men smiled, "but none of you will leave here. You'll spend the rest of your lives in prison." The smiles instantly faded from their faces, replaced by fear once again. They wanted nothing more than to run away, but they knew they would die if they tried.

Leo looked towards the crowd of people that had witnessed the fight and he spoke," Grab some rope and tie them up, prevent the injured ones from dying if you can. Someone send word to the military and tell them we have captured a group of bandits."