The sun glittered off the earrings of the two girls sitting at the front of the wagon. Their long ears came out much further than that of humans making the large earrings they were wearing seem small in comparison.
“Okay one gold ring, and a bronze.”
Nari was taking note of the earrings that each of his kin were wearing. He lowered the telescope he had to his eye and looked to his nearest allies that were hidden in the bush near the road with him.
“Regular transport from the look of it, likely one hero in the back, maybe more. But they would likely be new as well. They aren't expecting any resistance. We will follow the plan, stick to the script should be easy pickings”
The transport in question was a wagon pulled by two horses, there were four guards on horseback positioned around it as well. There could be one or two more inside, but we had the numbers on them. A smile crossed Nari’s face, easy job today, no blood should be spilled. Not that he cared about spilling vile human blood, he just wanted to make sure his fellow beastkin were not injured or worse. The wagon was plotting along at a steady pace, kicking up dirt from the road as it went along. In a few minutes we would be in position to make a move. Nari took a deep breath, he wasn't nervous, he was used to this kind of work, he was running over possible scenarios in his mind while they still had time. He looked around the grass to the quiver that lay near him. He recounted his arrows and made sure the feathers in the back were all straight and in place. He slung his short bow off his shoulder and gave it a few test draws, though the bow was compact it still had quite the draw and required a lot of strength to pull back. While most of his allies liked longbows for the higher power and range, he was a fan of short bows, he had used them for hunting since he was little, it felt like an old friend in his hands, although now he hunted a different kind of prey.
The wagon was slowly approaching, the sounds of the horses' hoofs on the road and distant voices became audible. Nari lifted his hand to his hand to his shoulder and clenched his fists, the signal for positions. His men were well trained and knew the deal. They shifted and quietly knocked arrows into their bows. They didn't want to talk and scare off their prey, the worst case scenario is they start going full speed and try to escape. He pulled out a small whistle from a pouch he kept at his side. He brought it to his lips and gently played it, the whistle was designed to sound exactly like a bird that was common in the area, it took a bit of practise to get right, but once you got the hang of it, it made for a very effective and discrete signal.
Hearing the signal, Farrow made his grand entrance. He casually walked out from his hiding place in the woods onto the road still a few meters from the transport.
Panic instantly spread through the faces of the members of the transport, it didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. They looked like they were about to make a run for it and blast past him. Nari didn't need to signal his men this time, arrows flew out from all sides of the woods blasting into the sides of the wagon and ground surrounding the transport.
“As you can see we have you surrounded, we wouldn't like to spill blood if we don't have to. We will just ask you to leave your cargo and then you can go on your happy way? How does that sound good right? It's not like you have an option anyways.” The two guards and the front gave quick worried glances at each other, not sure what to do. Must be their first time getting robbed on the highway. The beast kin with the gold ring spoke up for them.
“Yeah it's all in the back, I'm not even sure what we have we weren't allowed to know. We have two heroes in the back of the wagon, both of their first times out, so I don't know what they will do.” She said casually to Farrow.
“This is why I like robbing from gold rings, so professional. Tell the guards to disarm of course, I'll go to the back and empty the cargo.”
She gave a glance to the guards in the front and they quickly laid down their arms dismounted and stood awkwardly looking around, unsure of what to do. Farrow walked down to the back of the wagon, when a figure emerged from the back of it.
“Are we really getting stopped by some bandits? And why are we surrendering? I'm a hero, this is like a level one encounter.”
He hopped out of the wagon and so did another man similar in age. They both looked young and had pretty good armor. It was shiny and looked new. Nari scoffed to himself, new armor just means that they haven't fought at all before. The one who was talking had a long sword at his side, a really long sword. It was easily two meters long and any normal human would be unable to wield such an impractical weapon. But Hero's were blessed with strength that wasn't human and could make the impossible possible. Farrow took a few steps closer.
“Well you see, great hero, we have the place surrounded. Any resistance would be suicide. So we advise that you kindl-” Farrow couldn't get the words out.
The hero quickly swung his sword before anyone could react and hit Farrow in his side, right under his ribs, slicing all the way to his belly button. Farrow coughed up blood, and quickly fell on his back, life quickly draining from his eyes.
“See? Look how weak these guys are. I can't believe I'm stuck fighting such lame enemies. Let's just kill them and go.”
He looked up to the guards to see what they were doing and was shocked to see that they were already riddled with arrows.
“Wait, when did they..” He looked confused as he tried to take in the scene.
His friend before him spoke up.
“Hey, was this smart, we don't know how many there are.”
Nari was already reading another arrow and sent it flying into the hero who was just talking. It slammed into his neck. He fell to his knees in shock and looked down and blood started spilling around from the wound. He looked up to his friend, and struggled to say one word.
“Help.”
He crumpled to the side, then fell on his back. The hero was taking in the sights around him. Seeing all his allies fall one at a time, he just stood there in shock.
“But they're just bandits.” was all he could say. Nari saw his ally in the bush next to him ready an arrow and aim it at the hero who was just sitting there.
“Stop, I'll go myself.”
He was furious, this was supposed to be a clean robbery, no bloodshed, but of course a stupid kid with a hero complex had to ruin it. Farrow was a good man, they worked together for a long time. Nari stood up and walked slowly out of the woods onto the path.
The defeated looking hero looked up to Nari and his eyes seemed to come back to life.
“Ohh so you're the boss of this encounter? If i beat you ill clear this event right? I was wondering why bandits had such a high difficulty. This makes more sense now.”
“Sure kid.” Nari said in a chilling voice.
He raised his long sword and held it out in front of him with two hands. Nari noticed the tip of his sword swaying slightly, he might be a hero but a sword that size was still too large to hold properly. Nari unsheathed his two curved swords, the one on the left was slightly smaller than the one on the right. His swords looked like knives compared to the massive hunk of steel that the hero was wielding awkwardly. The hero let out a shout and swung the sword in a straight sideways arc towards him. It was easy to see where it was going, Nari simply took a step backward while the sword hit nothing but air. The weight of the sword swinging and hitting nothing knocked the hero off balance and he almost tripped over his own feet. With much effort he lifted the sword back up. Nari noticed that even though the swing was messy, it had a lot of power behind it, if he tried to block it straight up it would probably shatter his sword and still maim him.
“You're clumsy, are you sure you're a hero?” Nari said in a cold mocking voice.
The taunt got what he wanted, the hero got mad, and rushed him. He started a few steps closer to Nari, which was his mistake. He should try and fight back with the range he had, but he was a novice through and through. The hero went with another horizontal slice, he used less power in an attempt to not over swing again. Nari quickly stepped up and with both swords crossed to form and x, he parried the blow from the hero knocking the blade upwards. Instead of trying to block it head on, a parry would redirect the moment of the swing in a new direction. While the hero was off balance, Nari quickly brought his right sword down on the Hero's shoulder slicing down to his elbow. He let out a cry of pain as his left shoulder started bleeding profusely. The large sword was now scraping on the ground, with one arm he was no longer capable of fighting with it. He realized this and dropped it altogether. He took a few quick steps backwards trying to get some distance from Nari. He looked up and saw he was now at least three meters away, he raised his good arm and stretched it out towards Nari. He opened his palm with fingers to the sky and magical energy began to spark between his fingers.
“This is the difference between heroes and dirty animals like you. Firebolt!”
A bolt of flaming energy zipped from his hand with a loud crack that sounded like thunder. Nari was waiting for this though. He quickly dashed to the side and the bolt of energy hit in the distance causing a large explosion of dust and debris. Nari closed the distance between them almost instantly, and with a quick flick of his left arm he brought his sword crashing into the hero's hand, hitting him at the bottom of his knuckles and slicing clean through all of his fingers.
“I don't know why you heroes always say the names of your moves before you use them, also it's easy to dodge when you point your hand like that.”
The hero couldn't hear him, he was screaming at the top of his lungs looking at his outstretched hand wondering where his fingers went, and why there were fountains of blood where they should be.
Nari let out a loud sigh.
“It's over eh, you know a hero is just a title right? You're not special at all. But it's a little late for you. The only reason you killed Farrow was because you caught him off guard.”
The hero looked up in horror at the large figure over top of him. He scrambled backwards awkwardly crawling away in a frenzy, he didn't get far before Nari brought his sword down on the back of his head, ceasing all of his movement.
“It's funny that you call us animals, when here you are rolling around in the dirt like a pig. I really hate humans.”
Nari walked over to where Farrow lay, he leaned down and shut his eyes. Reached behind and cut off his cat-like tail. Some more members of Naris crew were coming out of the woods now.
“Bury him somewhere here, I'll take his tail back to his family, we will have a remembering ceremony soon. Kill the gold earring and free the bronze one.”
Nari looked around at the bloody scene around him and shook his head. What a disaster this turned out to be. I'm heading back to the village first. I'll let you guys bring the supplies, we can keep the horses. Nari went to the back of the wagon to take a look at what they had. There were some normal merchant wears, and a locked chest. Nari quickly broke it open. And the contents surprised even him.
“Now this is interesting.”
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