16 Chapter 16: Bandit Raid
To be honest, i wasn't sure if my water was clean or drinkable, so i would use ignis to heat it up and filter it.
So far, the journey has been great, yesterday we finally got out of the forest. and now all that we can see around is mountains and wild animals.
I don't know what kind of animals they are, but David said they're neutral and won't attack needlessly.
Tomorrow we'll finally Arrive at atlas, I'm so excited!
"John, are you listening?" Ariel asked
"Wh Yes?" I replied
"I was asking, who's turn will it be to go on a lookout tonight"
Ariel seemed as if she really wanted to keep watch. I wasn't sure why but i'm guessing it's her way of helping. After the first day, since i didn't end up waking her up for her to keep watch, she got really mad so now we take 4 hour turns.
But since we can't tell the time, it usually ends up being inconsistent. haha..
"Would you please go first today?" I politely asked
"Of course, you can count on me." She said with a proud expression
"Than-"
Before we could finish the carriage stopped. The sun hadn't set yet, and the horses had already taken a break so i was confused.
"John! Ariel! Bandit's a lot of them."
Oh, so it's finally time. I was wondering when there would have been a bandit developing and honestly..
"I was starting to get bored"
I Told Ariel my plan, and we walked out of the carriage and stood at the front
"Uhm.. Bandits. If you do not wish to die a meaningless death, turn around. This carriage barely contains anything, Do not waste your troops!" I arrogantly said
The bandits let out a loud laugh as they saw 2 kids start talking about them dying. There were around 7 of them on the hill to our left and 8 of them on the hill to the right. All of them had Bows pointed at the carriage.
The hills was around 50 meters away from the carriage, it seemed like a good spot to raid people if they ever went under or through the middle. I knew it was suspicous
They weren't shooting at the horses because they knew thought that we had resigned since we weren't moving, horses are worth a lot after all.
Ignoring our warning, the bandits began to approach us. The 7 of the left rushed at us with their sword while the 8 on the right, kept watch with the bows.
I already knew that bandits were coming since
"Um david.." I said
"What's wrong? You can't beat them?" He replied
"Uh no not that, it's just i'm going to do something i tried when everyone was asleep, so don't worry" I said
"Alright, let's see what you can do" He replied
"Okay. Sphaera Glacies" I muttered
On the instant i said the word. A Sphere of ice Slowly started to rise from the ground around the carriage, covering both the carriage and the horse.
It was difficult to explain how it looked. You weren't able to tell it was forming a sphere at the beginning, since it didn't instantly cover the top. it waited for the Circular walls to reach the top before covering it.
This spell was really hard to learn, not to mention secretly too. It took 4 days to actually properly use it. But now, as long as i know what radius i want, I can form any sphere as long as it's not too far from me, i might be able to improve the distance over time.
"Well then, what do i do with them?" I asked myself
To be honest, i wasn't planning on killing them. There was no reason to and i don't think i'd be able to bear that thought. I also told Ariel not to kill anyone and that we were only going to subdue them and sell them off to the guild if we could.
"What are you guys waiting for!! ATTACK!!" Said one of the bandits on the hill alongside the archers
The 7 bandits who had stopped in their tracks after seeing the ice sphere form, began to rush at us.
"Ariel! You ready?" I asked
"Yes!" She said as she nodded
Ariel, on her casting position waited for my signal.
"Now!" I said
"Ventus tormentum" Ariel muttered
Ariel, wasn't able to use Ignis or Glacies. She wasn't able to properly grasp the composition of water as she didn't exactly know what was hydrogen. As for ignis, the moment i mentioned, Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour, she looked lost.
On the instant she muttered those words, The pressure in the air in front of us increased and expanded before bursting towards the direction of the bandits at high speeds. Without knowing how to react they tried to dodge but it was too late.
They got hit by an overwhelming pressure which caused them to get flung back to the wall of the hill. After hitting the wall some fell unconscious while others looked immobilised.
"Whoa..." I unintentionally let out
Ariel, able to use other elements of magic. It's
So i decided to teach her the only other wind spell i created. Wind cannon 'ventus tormentum'. While i can use it, i never expected her to be able to learn it too. I explained the process to her 4 days ago, yet she was able to execute it perfectly.
I only managed to learn how to use it the day before yesterday, despite already knowing the concept. She has immense talent.. I'm looking forward to seeing what she looks like in the future.
"That was amazing, Ariel!" I said
Ariel who seemed surprised at what she did, showed me a pleased smile before collapsing to her knees.
"Are you out of energy?" I asked
"Yes.." She said
"That's fine, you already took out half of them, get some rest inside, with david." She nodded as i princess carried her to the sphere.
I placed my hand on the ice and a hole big enough to fit both of us in opened. The remaining Archer bandits who froze after seeing Ariel's wind cannon had now started shooting arrows at our ice cube. But it was useless, puny arrows will barely scratch it.
I laid Ariel down on the back of the carriage and turned to david
"Wait just a moment. Their boss has been hiding and he doesn't look like he'll come out anytime soon so just sit back and relax."
David wordlessly stared at me and just nodded his head. As if he has seen something that shocked him.
I didn't pay too much attention to it and walked out of the ice sphere
"You idiots!! Aim at the kid. Don't let him approach us!!"
"So you're the leader..."
The leader stood in between the archers. With magic perception and deprehendre i could tell that he was a lot stronger then the rest of them.
I activated magic strengthening and began to rush to the hill where the other 8 bandits were. Seeing me run towards them, they desperately tried to hit me with arrows but i managed to avoid all of them while i ran up the hill
Shortly after i was standing in front of them.
"So... Is that all? Well it's good that you're all here, I wanted to try the last spell i learnt after all this time. It was the easiest one to learn."
The bandits looked frightened and confused at what i was saying.
"Well, aren't you going to attack?" I asked
The bandit leader shouted "Atack!!!" as he heard my question
The bandits who were frozen in fear, slowly recomposed themselves and hesitantly began to rush at me, while the leader stood there watching.
I'm not supposed to kill them, and Glacies wastes quite a bit of energy so i'm glad i learnt this.
I stood still as i waited for the bandits to attack me. The first guy to attack swung his dagger diagonally at me and i easily evaded
"Glacio" I muttered as i placed my hand on his chest before pus.h.i.+ng him to the ground
The part of his body that i had touched was frozen, the ice slowly began to spread through his body. He tried to break it off, but it was impossible. The way You can only get rid of my ice through fire. I learnt that the heard way.
The other bandits, now hesitated to approach me after seeing what was happening to their comrade
"What are you guys doing, Huh!? Can't you tell that the kid is afraid of killing you?! He hasn't even pulled out his daggers, Don't show mercy."
Hearing his words, the bandits regained their morale and began to rush at me together. I evaded all of their hits and managed to touch all of them and activate glacio
"Tch, useless fools." Said the bandit leader with a grin on his face
I stared at him trying to figure out what he was grinning and noticed while using magic perception that one of the guys i hit with glacio got up and swung their dagger at me
"Scutum glacies"
The man who felt contact with his dagger, didn't hit me, but my s.h.i.+eld. Shortly after, an expression of terror filled his face as the ice on my s.h.i.+eld began to expand throughout his arm and body.
I made sure not to freeze his head, only his body so there wasn't any risk of him dying. I did the same for all of them, ice was enveloped throughout their whole body as they remained motionless on the ground.
"Come." Said the bandit leader with a grin on his face
"You come to me, i'll wipe that grin off your face." I coldly replied
"Don't underestimate me kid.. I'm not like those guys." He said as he pulled out his dagger
"You're right. Even if i end up causing a lethal wound, it should be fine as long as i freeze it up." I said as i pulled out my daggers and began to circulate magic through them
We stared at each other for what felt like minutes. The first to make a move was him. He rushed towards me and began swinging his dagger without rest in an attempt to land a hit on me. I easily evaded each swing by barely tilting my body
"Is that all? Why don't you stop holding back? You realise what will happen if you get hit by my ice spell right?"
The man who's expression changed from a grin to that of anger started to speed up.
"That's better, looks like you're finally strengthening yourself with magic. But you're still slow. I'm guessing the more magic you add to yourself, the stronger the strengthening. I always add a small steady amount, i wonder what happens if i add more... I'll try that out later "
I continued to dodge his blows as i talked to myself
"Well then, i guess it's my turn."
I parried his swing with my dagger and that caused him to go off balance, i then landed a spinning kick on his left rib. It happen so fast, that he wasn't able to block it. This was a move i copied from the guy who cheated in our fight
The guy dropped down as he spat out blood
"Is that it? I was expecting more.. The B-Rank adventurer must've been very strong then.. Well, Sleep well!"
"Curse yo-"
Before he could finish, i hit his head with the tilt of my dagger and knocked him out. I casted glacies and froze the rest of his body.
"Hm.. That was unexpected. I was actually hoping for a better fight, i was even excited to try out my 'Ignis' For the first time in a fight.. I guess bandits will always be weak, whether it's the boss or not."
I knocked out all the bandits that i had frozen and unfroze them so that they wouldn't freeze to death, while they were unconscious and dragged the bandit boss to the carriage.
The bandits that Ariel had knocked down were still motionless on the ground. I made sure to check whether or not they were alive and they were. I did this so that Ariel wouldn't worry about having killed someone without knowing.
After making sure they were alive, i got rid of the Ice Sphere i had created to protect the carriage and explained what happened to david.
"Well done, thank for protecting us." He said with a perplexed expression
He probably didn't know what to think, a kid managed to take out a bandit group, that surely that's probably uncommon
I went to Check on Ariel and she was asleep. She must've used up quite a lot of energy.
"She tried her best to stay awake in case you might need help" Said david
"Haha, that sounds just like her." I replied
"Yeah.. Something's been bothering me..." David said
"What's wrong..?" I asked
"Who's that man that you've been dragging around all this time?"
"Oh this? This is the bandit leader. I'm hoping that he might have some sort of bounty on him at the guild since he was pretty strong. We're going to make a fair amount from all this wolf pelt, so it wouldn't hurt to make some more from a bounty." I straightforwardly said
David let out a loud laugh before saying "That's a good idea. Haha"
I placed the frozen man on the back of the carriage and got on. Shortly after, the carriage began to move again, and we continued the journey while acting as if nothing had happened.
Man.. I can't wait to reach Atlas!