What's so good about being a hero?

Baaam!!!

The bandit crashed violently on the ground, his body convulsing with each tumble until he came to an abrupt stop atop a jagged rock.

Still clutching his daggers, their edges glinting in the dim light, he struggled to maintain his grip as he attempted to rise.

'How has he become more formidable since our last encounter?' The bandit's mind raced with the question as he exerted every ounce of strength to free himself from the unforgiving terrain.

Touching the ground, he remained on his knees, panting heavily while looking to the ground, absolutely terrified.

'I didn't land a single hit. All my men are dead, meaning not only do I have to face the hero, I also need to watch out for that psycho demi human…. What in the hell is happening?!'.

"Ohhhhhh banditttttttt!".

Gasp!*

The bandit immediately stood up, grabbing hold of his daggers and taking a defensive stance. The little time he thought he had to rethink his steps, disappeared in mere seconds.

"Oh there you are."

The voice echoed behind him.

Eyes widened in fear, the bandit switched his hold on his dagger with the aim of turning around and stabbing whoever was behind him, even if it happened to be someone else.

But before he could even take a swing of his dagger, Ethan grabbed him by the arm and then crushed it. The sound of the bandits' bones being shattered resonated around the forest.

"Arrrrrgh!!! My hand!!!" Cried the bandit, but he didn't want to stop there, he pushed back, ready to attack with his second arm, when out of nowhere, he noticed he could no longer feel his limbs.

Terrified, he shifted his gaze towards his arm and noticed not only was his arm now on the ground, blood was also spilling from the opening like sprinklers.

"Eh?" The bandit remained shocked, before falling to his knees, unable to grab the opening since his other hand was broken. All he could do was knell there, gawking at the ground helplessly.

"You've finally come to terms with reality. I appreciate a human who can tell when there's no point in fighting back." Ethan spoke as he looked down at the bandit, in his hands, a white blade with blood dripping from the tip. "If you truly thought you could beat me, then you might as well sign yourself up for suicide, don't you think?".

Not a word left the bandit's mouth. Almost like he was stuck in a trance or something, despite the rapid pace at which he was losing a lot of his blood.

"Don't feel bad, I'm not so heartless as to kill you. That being said…" Ethan placed his foot on the Bandit's shoulder, and with just a little push, the bandit fell on his back.

"If you refuse to tell me how I can get away from this forest and probably a few directions… I will make your death as slow and painful as I can make it. And trust me, I've seen better tortures than ripping your heart out".

".... You… arshhh hewwooo"

Ethan paused, noticing the slight movement in the bandit's mouth.

"Oh right, my bad, I forgot you humans have such fragile bodies." With that, he aimed his hand towards the bandit for a magic circle to form.

Almost immediately, the bandit's body began to heal, the blood returning back to his body, but just before the bandit's severed arm and broken bones was about to heal, Ethan canceled the magic circle.

Healing his prey just enough to speak, while making sure he also had no means of fighting back, even if he wanted to.

"Now then, you should feel less pain now, meaning, you can speak properly and not the gibberish you were attempting earlier." Said Ethan with a disgusted face.

Although the bandit did feel the pain in his limbs disappear, he still couldn't help but feel his throat clog up as he looked at Ethan.

"Y…You are supposed to be the hero of mankind. The one chosen by God." The bandit voiced, "The hero … is supposed to be the embodiment of all things good".

"Oh?" Ethan mutterred.

"Oh? What happened to the goodness you, the priestess, the king, were sharing to the people in the kingdom? No hero watches while others suffer just to save his own skin!!!" The bandit yelled, "Just you wait, I'll expose you for the fraud you are… you are no hero… you're a villain!!!".

"Now you tell me… what is so great about being a hero?" Ethan uttered with a cold gaze.

"Uhn?..."

"Having a sense of morality and forcing it onto others because you see life in a different shade of light, doesn't make you bigger, only makes you annoying. And surely you don't believe anyone can be all righteous, that's the bullcrap people who are afraid to look life in the eye say…"

"What are you-"

"And don't get me started on the villains. There's nothing interesting about being an asshole just because you felt the need to be. Take you for example, you just stabbed and kidnapped an innocent boy for money." Ethan sighed as he continued..

"And now you're going to tell me some sentimental story about how you've suffered and life did you this and that. But yet, I'll question why you felt I deserved to be stabbed in the chest because you happened to have skill issues".

"What the hell do you know about life?! You've lived it good, being the hero is a title worshiped everywhere!!! You ungrateful-"

"Worshiped, yet I'm trapped in a forest. I simply want nothing to do with such a lifestyle. There might have been a time I had such thoughts. But it takes maturity to realize no matter how many people you do good to, some are still made to hate."

"Tskkk…"

"And begs the answer. Hero? Or villain? But I, Ethan Crimson, reject them both." He grinned, grabbing the bandit by the shirt and pulling him closer.

"So I'll ask you one more time…. How do I get out of this forest?".

....

A/N

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