"You fucker. You're dead." Before he could finish his sentence, the bald man was on the attack.
For the first time in the fight, Bondrewd's sense of danger showed itself. 'Then the opponent is worthy, don't underestimate him.'
"The Lord of Dawn" had already put his blade forward and prepared to fend off the furious onslaught of the surviving bandit. His opponent struck a sweeping blow, and the swordsmen's blades slammed into each other, sending out a pillar of sparks. The opponents separated and already Bondrewd half a step away made a sharp jab in the opponent's head. The blade hit the void, the bald man ducked at the last moment and struck back at his thigh. Bondrewd almost managed to sidestep the body in time and the blade only edge-stripped the body, still dislodging a few drops of blood.
"Fast." - Bondrewd remarked to himself and delivered a vertical strike at the bandit. He was not a fool and did not even think of blocking such a powerful blow coming from such a strong opponent, and simply somersaulted away. The blade sliced through the void again and slammed into the ground, embedding a third of its blade into the ground and raising an impressive pillar of dust.
He was fast, incredibly fast, and his silhouette was enveloped in a light aura of reddish colour. He had no time to draw his blade, but he threw a giveaway, and at the last moment he fended off a blow aimed at his head with his wristband. There was no time for Bondrewd to get his blade out, throwing a giveaway, he fended off a blow aimed at his head with his wristband at the last moment. The bandit's blade flew aside with a clang, and for a fraction of an instant the satisfied face of his assailant appeared in front of Bondrewd's face.
"Go to your dung heap, you freak!" After these words the bandit struck with a wild acceleration of his fist at his opponent's torso, but without reaching his target he drew back with a sharp jerk. And Bondrewd smelled the pungent odour of lit gunpowder.
The explosion went off all around, scaring away all the birds in the forest. A large dust cloud formed on the battlefield, and a bald man stood in front of it. The man's face blurred into a smile, picking up his blade he wanted to go away, but at last he turned round and said.
"Know our people, you bastard."
"Definitely recognise it, believe me." - The smoke began to clear, and the violet visor of the helmet shone through its veil.
The bald man had no time to finish the phrase, but Bondrewd came at him with a jerk, almost "flying" and struck him with a half-torch. Not having time to react, the man took the blow on the blade... it was a mistake. The force of the blow was simply monstrous, and the bald man flew aside for a good ten metres, rolling on the ground like a sack of shit. The bald man felt threatened and jerked away, where he had been lying a second ago, three needles stuck in the ground.
But the bandit didn't have time to think about it, his aura glowed brighter, and his opponent, not giving him a break again attacked him with a hail of blows. Baldy dodged, counterattacked and retreated, but the enemy kept up with him for a second, not letting him catch his breath, and every time Baldy left in a spurt for a good ten metres Bondrewd followed him.
The bandit's face was drenched with sweat, and the muscles in his whole body ached unbearably, demanding a respite. 'I can't get him, what to do.' The bandit could not find a way out of the situation, the enemy was still briskly pressing on him, as if his endurance reserve was endless. The leader of the gang decided to go a bank.
After another dodge, the bandit again reached for his holster, which, of course, did not go unnoticed by Bondrewd, making a sharp attacking leap, he threw something under the feet of "Lord of Dawn" and before it reached the ground, as it turned out, the paper roll detonated, covering everything around with a layer of dust.
Bondrewd was standing right on the edge of the dust cloud, and a second later a sword flew out of the dust curtain, tumbling in flight towards him, knocking it away with his blade, Bondrewd created a blind spot for himself, which was used by the bald man. Who had already ducked under Lord of Dawn holding two more rolls. And again igniting improvised mines, keeping as low to the ground as possible went behind the back of the enemy.
1... 2... 3... seconds, and still there was no explosion. But Dick was no longer interested, the man was running through the forest at full speed.
'I should have fallen for such a monster, bitch if we'd gone earlier all this definitely wouldn't have happened.' Creeping through more bushes, Dick lay down in a ravine, and leaning his back against it, caught his breath. "That's it-it's off." said the bandit quietly in a confused voice.
"I certainly don't think so." The voice was familiar to the bandit, and slowly he raised his head and saw the same violet visor staring into his soul.
"Soo..." No sooner had the bald man finished than Bondrewd's fist hit him in the face, Dick was thrown aside, and a black veil came over his eyes.
"Lord of Dawn" was walking towards the camp, carrying the man's body on his shoulder, he wasn't going to repeat the past mistakes, this guy was worth questioning, in Bondrewd's eyes he was carrying valuable information and resources on his shoulders.
"Ordinary people don't move like that, he's obviously not an ordinary pauper who became a bandit, I wonder." Bondrewd finished his thought and went out to the camp, where Ozen was waiting for him, as if waiting, with a satisfied look, biting off savoury pieces from another dead man. Some things never change, after all. Smiling to himself, Bondrewd headed for the wagons drawn by frightened horses.
...
Dick woke up. His body ached terribly, and his face was burning with fire, causing him indescribable discomfort. And he could not even touch it; his hands were firmly bound to something. The man found himself near some fire, he was tied to a tree, but what was even more frightening was that the black knight was sitting against him, indifferently stirring his soup in a cauldron.
"He woke up at last." Without taking a break from his occupation said the stranger.
"Yes, it is, and by the way, what?"
"That, what will happen to you further, will be decided only by me, if you do not rage and obey, I promise to let you live. Is that okay?"
"I'll do it." Dick said without a second's hesitation, for he had little choice.
"What's your name, who are you, and what were you doing in the woods?" Dick thought these questions were rather strange, because even a moron would know who he was and what they were doing in the woods, but he answered.
"My name's Dick, I'm a former tenth man, and in the "recent" past the leader of a band of forest brigands, you came upon our temporary camp, we were just about to leave for the south."
"And why did you decide to leave such a settled place, you say don't be shy, I'm just not from here and I'm extremely curious." Having finished speaking, Bondrewd started to dig in his rucksack, looking for salt.
"We've got an undead invasion, if you haven't noticed, and we wanted to get as far away from that shit as possible." Dick noticed a slight movement in the bushes as he spoke, but he didn't think much of it. But when the big Pale Ghoul came out of them, the man's pipe nearly burst. To his surprise, the beast simply approached the stranger and lay down on his right.
"Don't be so frightened, this is my companion - her name is Ozen, ah... ah... How rude of me to forget to introduce myself. My name is Bondrewd." Dick was terrified, but he didn't show it.
"So, what's next?"
"If you mean now, now we're going to eat." and the bandit's stomach rumbled at the most inopportune moment. Bondrewd simply stood up, untied the rope, returned to his seat, and handed Dick the bowl of steaming brew.
He, without a hint of embarrassment, piled on the food like a pig, Bondrewd, too, began to take in calories, while Ozen lay lazily with a full belly and warmed herself by the fire. Dinner passed in silence.
When he had eaten enough, Dick habitually reached for the flask on his belt, which was no longer there. Bondrewd noticed this, of course, and said.
"If you keep drinking that stuff you'll go blind, you've been taught that you can distill broth."
"I've never heard of such a thing, and where is it, by the way?"
"I poured it out, all of it." Dick's face, for a moment, had all the sadness in the world. But a moment later, the man found the strength to ask a question.
"Did any of my boys survive?" Dick's voice trembled slightly, and his eyes were fixed on Bondrewd, a mixture of anger, rage, and fear.
"I counted fifteen bodies," he answered emotionlessly, and drew his sword, before the bandit had time to be frightened, when Bondrewd put it in his lap and, digging in his knapsack, drew out a sharpening stone, and Dick was relieved, but not for long, for he recognised the rust-stained blade.
"Its owner is dead, too, if you're interested." Said Bondrewd ahead of Dick's question. 'Who the hell is he anyway.' The former bandit leader's musings were interrupted by another question.
"How long is it from here to the capital?"
"One day by wagon, but only if we turn to the road, it will be hard to move through the forest, and why do you..." Dick had no time to finish his thought as he was interrupted.
"We are going to the capital, tomorrow at dawn, and you will take me the shortest way, that's all for today, and sleep now." Dick was not just shocked, he was in a complete depressed, why the fuck would he go to the capital, maybe he's a necromancer too, what does he know about necromancers, well, they are strange and raise the dead, that was the end of the forest robber's knowledge, so many questions tormented the bandit's mind, but there were no answers, at least not today.
Bondrewd stood up and with the rope walked towards his interlocutor. "Is this necessary," Dick asked.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm not sure about you yet."
"What the fuck did I get myself into this time?" The man mumbled quietly, his indignation directed somewhere in space.