Spring 1, -2700 (will correct when date conventions are updated)
It was dark outside, typical for the hour. Kage was rooming in a remote town along with a group of other soldiers. He had fallen into a routine over the past couple seasons, going with the flow and dealing with basic threats that threatened his country. He hadn't actually done anything exciting in so long. There were pros and cons to a dull life. He could rely on a steady paycheck, but the fire inside of him made him crave something a little more interesting. He was strong enough to be able to best most anyone he came across. Even the more intelligent and proficient 'bad guys' couldn't stand up to him… not without special powers of their own.
Things were shaping up to be just another boring night. The town was quiet, and there had been no interesting sightings all day. That was why Kage was surprised to hear shouting towards the edge of town. He yawned and rolled over in bed, assuming it was nothing to worry about. Sometimes people got into a fight, that kind of thing was increasingly common in more remote areas where the rule of law wasn't always respected as much as it should be.
Then, he heard a banging at his door. "Kage, you in there?"
He said, "yes," in an annoyed voice but he sat up. "What's going on?"
"Bandits, by the sound of it." His commanding officer stood patiently at the door, too polite to enter uninvited.
"I'm decent, you can come in you know," Kage said as he got to his feet and started putting on his armor. "Bandits… I can't believe it," he continued after the officer entered.
"Me too, but I haven't heard from our scouts. I thought they might have gotten drunk, but at this point it's safer to assume that they've been duped somehow. These bandits might be troublesome."
Kage grunted as he slipped on his helmet, the last piece of his set. He sheathed his swords and grabbed his bow and a handful of arrows. "Ready."
They walked in unison downstairs to where a group of aelven soldiers were gathered. They all looked nervous – most of them were green. That was the whole point of going out and doing these exercises. Protect the humans from dangers that weren't all that serious to expose young aelven soldiers to combat. Vokhai had been acting up as of late… couldn't have that.
Kage was in charge of teaching them the basics and making sure they followed orders from higher up. His commanding officer nodded to the group and continued out the door. He'd already given them orders before fetching Kage and had filled him in on the way down.
"Alright, it's good to see that you're all geared up. Now, we've got vokhai bandits to the west of the town, but we can't discount the possibility that it's just a distraction. Let's head out. If there's trouble elsewhere, I will go deal with it because I'm the best equipped to do so." He tried to instill a level of confidence and authority into his voice, but he sometimes came off as too reserved. He could tell that his words didn't have the same effect as his boss's. Still, it wasn't as if they could disobey him, so they nodded.
The group marched out the door and to the west. Kage only remembered five minutes in that they were supposed to be in formation, but he too was a little nervous and forgot. He was sure he would get reprimanded for that later.
It was easy to see where the trouble was at. There were fires off in the distance and people ran away from danger, making it hard for the soldiers to get to where they needed to go. When they came across someone who had been attacked, Kage turned to one of the other soldiers and said, "get them to medical attention."
"But our orders…"
"Were to help these people. We can't have them bleeding out," Kage said, finally spotting a bandit out of the corner of his eye. He quickly aimed his bow and fired an arrow at them. It stuck into their leg, causing them to drop to one knee and scream. As the bandit fell, he saw a handful more, going into buildings and looting.
This was where Kage struggled. He was very much someone who preferred to do everything himself. Managing other people was just not something he thought he would ever be good at in a combat situation. He had to resist running after the bandits and keep a cooler head. For now.
"It doesn't look like this was a distraction. They are all here… I think. Alright, let's charge! Go into buildings and confront the bandits if you have to!"
The soldiers roared and then they moved to do as he'd asked. "Great, that that's out of the way," Kage said to himself.
Kage took off, quickly running past the charging soldiers. His bow had been left behind and now his swords were drawn. He blazed over to where the disabled bandit was still trying to crawl to cover. He only had time to give him a look of dread and surprise before he lopped his head off. He skidded to a stop, and saw a couple bandits jump through a window.
"Not today," he murmured as he sped after them and jumped through it as well. He had to purposefully slow down so that he didn't break through the wall. Being as large as an aelf had its cons. He carefully climbed in and saw the bandits going through drawers and cupboards for anything that looked valuable.
"'Scuse me," he said quickly as he twirled his swords, "that doesn't belong to you."
The bandits turned. These ones were quick and drew short swords and daggers. They didn't stop to chat – they attacked immediately. Kage had fun for a moment, blocking their strikes with a couple of well-timed branches that grew from the ground to keep them at bay. He had time to impale them by now but he wasn't trying to kill them as quickly as possible. Sometimes it was fun to play with one's food.
He would have liked to keep dancing with these two for a while, but he heard a scream nearby. He flicked a sharpened branch across one of their throats and then plunged his sword into the other's chest. He went to climb back through the window but was caught by surprise as a couple of arrows whizzed through the window, just by his head. The bandits had regrouped, and it looked like they were wise to his presence. He did have a bit of a reputation. It was wise to mass together and pin him down.
"I don't have to use the window," he said in annoyance as he circled around to the door and kicked it down. He peeked around the corner of the house to see a half dozen bandits running back towards the edge of town. He kept scanning until he saw his fellow soldiers. It looked like they were all occupied fighting some stragglers or nursing wounds.
In the distance, he could see his superior leading a group of villagers. He'd said he would go gather up people willing to fight so they could drive away the bandits if the soldiers hadn't been enough. Something about making the humans feel like they could defend themselves if need be. It seemed like the bandits were scared enough to flee… or maybe they had gotten enough treasure to fill their pockets.
Kage made sure no more arrows were being aimed at him, then started running towards the fleeing bandits. They weren't stupid; they didn't exactly run in a bunch. They fanned out so that it was impossible to get every single one of them in a timely manner. He sped behind one, who turned and threw a dagger at him. He twirled and shifted to the side so that it passed by him and then took a few more steps to slash his stomach open. The others… where were they? A couple had already made it into the woods. The others? He ran to where he heard horses whinnying. It looked like the other bandits had made off with mounts as their prize.
Kage was fast, but he knew that chasing them was pointless. They would all die eventually, they just needed to utilize wisps and get them in their sleep. He turned back to the town and headed back, somewhat disappointed that he hadn't been able to kill all the bandits, but they had been successful at preventing the bandits from doing widespread damage. More than half the bandits had died… it'd probably be a while before they gathered the numbers to pull something like this off again.
Kage spent a few hours providing his labor to put out some fires and get some tents set up for those who'd had their homes damaged. Then, after that, he had to go and hunt down the vokhai one by one. This was made easy by talking to wisps and getting a report from his higher ups.
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