Not over yet

" Ah by the Primachs." She groaned. " The flare! I completely forgot!" 

Master raised a finger to the sky, and a red glow began to emit from it. The sky was dyed red as a comet shot from master's finger. She retracted her arm, dusted her palms off against one another, and began to walk off. 

"Ah well, better late than never. I'm going to check on our little prisoner now." She said. Rumius stood by as she left him behind. 

" Not coming along?" She called. 

Like always, Rumius ran to catch up. 

It felt surreal, going back into the darkness of the tent and becoming bathed in the rusty scent of blood, yet not feeling anything. It was refreshing, but in a sickening way. 

The leader of the bandits had propped himself against the leg of his bed, wheezing. He sat up a little straighter when he saw them approach. " Where are those friends of yours? They sure are slow." He faked a yawn. " Gosh, I could fall asleep." 

Master chuckled humourlessly." Oh? I don't mind lending you a hand in that matter until our companions arrive." Master replied. " They should be on here anytime now. But I suspect that they wouldn't appreciate a bandit with a big mouth for a present."

She squatted down and grabbed the bandit by his neck and jaw, twisting his head around forcibly. 

" Should I change that? Or can you do it yourself?" She threatened. 

The bandit lost his big mouth almost instantly. In fact, he could almost pass for a mute with how silent he stayed until sounds of a mortal earthquake began to make the ground tremble and the sand grains jump. 

" Ah. Rumius, stay here with our prisoner. I'll go welcome our friends." Master threw the tent's entrance wide open in a billowing rustle of fabric and was gone. Rumius thus found himself alone with the bandit leader. Without master's overwhelming presence, it would be impossible to think that the bandit leader wouldn'tchoose this chance to-

" So…how old are you, kid?" He spoke in his rough voice.

' Ah. Knew it.' Rumius signed inwardly. The last thing he wanted now was to talk to a bandit. 

" Don't even try, old man. You aren't getting out of here since, in case you didn't notice, you're missing a leg." He said bluntly. 

The bandit raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. " I know. I know. I'm not trying to escape." 

" Yes. And I believe you." Rumius replied, folding his arms. The bandit seemed to ignore his jab and continued on. 

" I just want to know what kind of amazing kid managed to wipe out my entire gang and well…" he gestured to his body. " That spell. The one that cut my leg off. That was from you, wasn't it?" His voice carried something that almost sounded like a genuine sense of curiosity.

Rumius eyed the man suspiciously. His senses told him to keep his silence. So that was what he did. But it was impossible to do it fully. Perhaps there would be some merit to be made of this. Was that why master left him in here with this bandit? Did she suspect something?

The bandit's words hung in the air like a call that would never hear its response. Until it did.

" Yes." Rumius said. " I did it." 

The bandit smiled a toothy smile. " I knew it." 

" You know." He began, looking off somewhere with a faraway gaze. " When I was a kid, I wanted to be like one of those heroes in the stories they told at the church. I wanted to be strong too." Rumius didn't budge an inch as the bandit looked as him with the same eyes.

" I spent a lot of time, you know. Imagining the person I wanted to become, the magic I would use to slay monsters. How triumphant and glorious I would be when I returned home to the cheers of everyone. The kinds of girls who would throw themselves at me and ask to share my bed." He chuckled. 

" Ah, but then here I am. A bandit. Someone who will never be praised. Someone who will only ever be hated and loathed and cursed. Ironic isn't it?"

Rumius looked the bandit dead in his eyes. " Don't you deserve it?" He said flatly. " I don't think you need me to tell you all the things you've done." 

" I haven't done anything." The bandit retorted. " All I've done has been out of necessity. Out of necessity to protect myself and to survive!" 

" ..."

" You've bloodied your hands now too. You know how terrible the feeling is! Do you think I kill people out of blood-thirst? Out of evil? I'm just doing what I have to!" He shouted. 

Rumius let the words hang without answer. He had much to say and much to refute but this was neither the time nor place. " Why are you telling me this? Is there a point?" 

The man seemed taken aback, before signing and leaning back." Hiaz…not really..I suppose. I simply wanted to get it off my chest."

" Before I get arrested, hah. Like I said. I don't intend to run." 

' That makes my job even easier for me.' Rumius thought silently. That said, when does master plan on coming back? 

Rumius looked expectantly to the opening of the tent, half expecting it to burst open majestically at that very instant. When he looked back at the bed, just periodically to check on his prisoner, his eyes widened. 

The bandit was gone! He wasn't there! 

Rumisu swiveled around and quickly noticed a dark shadow hopping, one legged, away from him. His hands raised instinctively to shoot, but Master's words came back to deter him. 'It would be best if you took only his leg, and not his life. We still have much to ask him about, after all." 

Remembering that, Rumius let his hand drop a little. 

Red blood erupted like a fountain as the white beam of wind sheared effortlessly through the bandit's remaining leg. The joint popped off and somersaulted in the air like a gruesome flesh boomerang before falling to the ground with a dull thud, lifeblood still spluttering from the severed flesh and dyeing the sand in a crimson colour. As for his part, the man fell to ground with a shrill scream, clutching his leg and hurling curses. 

As if called to the scene, the opening of the tent burst open in another billowing explosion of fabric and Rumius saw Master and Glia walk in. Their face instantly went taut.

Suddenly, Rumius doubted if he had resolved the situation properly.

" He was trying to run, so I stopped him." Rumius explained hurriedly. " D-Did I overdo it?" 

Master let out an audible sign." No. It's alright." She set a hand to her forehead. " But I really do need to start teaching you more spells. This makes it really inconvenient to transport him." 

The man screamed shrilly in pain again as electricity jumped from master's hand to cauterise the wound in a gruesome burning fashion. By the end of it, the bandit had passed out cold. 

But just when Rumius thought it was over, the massive blast of a horn could be heard echoing across the field. Rumius's hands flew to his ears and somehow, he realised that the sound seemed to be emitting from within the tent. 

The blast didn't last long, but when it was done, Master looked more annoyed than he had seen her in awhile.

" Tch. We've got to go. NOW!" 

With a flick of her finger, she made the bandit leader's limp body levitate and stormed out of the tent. Rumius rushed to keep up. 

" M-Master? What was that? Where did that horn come from?" he asked, panting as he tried to keep pace with her on his shorter legs.

" There was a magic circle on the floor." Master explained. " It was hidden well. Even I didn't see it until it was too late." 

" This asshole." She looked at the limp floating bandit with a disgusted expression. " He just called for back-up."