2 years later

2 years have passed since I forced to join the bandits.

At the end of the first year they developed a bit of trust in me and allowed me to walk about the camp freely.

This made releasing the girls of their torment far easier, but I still had to be careful.

Sadly for their girls that meant they did have to go through some of the rougher members before I could I help them.

If you can even call it that.

Either way with that new trust from the bandits came with them handing me a weapon.

I would now be joining them in their raids to prove my loyalty.

If I failed it was back to the cage

And I really didn't want to go back in the cage.

I wore clothes like the bandits now, just a simple tattered brown tunic with pants and no shoes.

My body had began to lose the baby fat, from the constant toil of living in the wilderness as well as my daily trainings.

I wasn't some training expert, but I did do push ups and various stretches as well as lunges.

I would heal my muscles as I worked out to increase the efficiency in which I trained.

My core had also broke through to dark red in that first year.

Now closing in on the end of the second year I'm approaching light red, I could see the cracks beginning to form in the core.

I was trained by one of the lowers members in the group on how to use a sword.

Today they would be testing my loyalty to the group.

We waited in the brush of the trees as we saw a group of 5 wagons being pulled down the trail.

I could see men and women as well as some kids and I couldn't help the grimace that found it's way to my face.

They only had one party of adventurers surrounding them too.

"Alright boys on my count we charge for the adventurers first.

Half of you circle around make sure none of them escape.

And remember kill all but the women and children, there's plenty of people who'll pay a high price for undamaged goods." Tezar chuckled as he ended his reminder with a smirk.

I held my sword right in my hand as mana fueled my body.

When Tezar's hand fell, I saw 10 arrows get shit at the adventurers and catch a few of them in the shoulders and one directly in the chest.

"Bandits!" They called frantically as the horses came to haunt and the adventurers got into formation.

They were only red core mages like me.

They didn't stand a chance.

There was a female adventurer that had gotten her arm pierced by the arrow.

She seemed to be a newbie as she was on the ground with tears streaming down her eyes.

She scurried and crawled away from the battles in hysterics, repeating over and over again.

"No no no no no, not bandits."

When I finally reached her there was a wagon blocking her retreat and when she turned to me her eyes shown with despair and i felt my heart ache.

I've never had anyone look at me with such utter despair.

She held her hands up.

"Please don't kill me I'm too young to die!"

And I had to agree with her, she seemed to be only about 17 or 18 years old.

Probably had big dreams about being an adventurer only for this to happen.

"I'm sorry."

Was all I said as I stared at her impassively while on the inside I was raging at my weakness.

I lifted my sword up and brought it down into her chest where her heart should be.

She gurgled briefly before the light faded from her eyes and her body slumped down.

I stared for only a moment until I heard a yell.

"Maria! Nooo!" A masculine voice sounded from my right and I turned to find the only person that didn't get hit by an arrow.

"I'll kill you, you fucking brat!" The man bellowed as he charged at me with his own sword drawn.

I saw the rest of the bandits were standing around us in a circle and Tezar was even smiling as he watched what happened.

I sighed to myself as I got into my stance and sent mana through my body.

This guy was also only a red core and didn't seem to have his element yet, as he also only used the mana to strengthen himself.

Only I also had fire mana and I used it in a way nobody could see.

It was something I had come up with on my own.

I used the fire mana to heat up the inside of my body and make my blood pump faster and nerves to fire quicker.

I also had to constantly funnel healing magic through as well, but I had long mastered that to where I could do both at the same time.

I had been practicing this since I got captured by the bandits after all.

The adventurers movements seemed sluggish as his sword swung down diagonally toward me.

I stepped to the side of his sword and with a spin I used the momentum gained to take off his hand at the forearm.

Blood spurted from the wound as hand with the sword still gripped in it fell to the ground.

The adventurer's eyes went wide as he stared at and clutched his dismembered arm, falling to his knees in the process.

Now at a height slighter shorter than me I cocked back and sliced horizontally and decapitated the final adventurer.

The bandits let out a loud cheer and I was lifted up by my sword mentor who was named Marco.

He had apparently been an adventurer in his younger days before he became a bandit.

"Haha, not bad kid!" He said and I just nodded.

They had come to know I was one of few words, and they accepted my nods for responses.

"Alright men! Search the wagons for goods and tie up the women and children!" Tezar shouted.

"Ayyyyye!" All of the bandits chorused.

I watched them from the side as I let my healing mana fix any damage my fire caused to my nerves.

I got this idea from anime I watched, well honestly it was the lightning version I was copying, but I was sure that fire could have a similar if weaker effect.

Thankfully I was right and began to walk back through the battle.

Of course I felt bad for the people I killed, but I couldn't dwell on it.

It was either them or both of us.

Just because I didn't kill them didn't mean they would get away from the rest of the crew.

And I certainly didn't want to die or get sent back to the cage.

It's a selfish notion, but one that I'm fine with having if it means that I get to live.

I don't know what kind of evils await me in this world, but I imagine I can live a nice life as well if I get strong enough to defend myself.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the a line of the captured.

The bandits had tied them all up on one long thing of rope.

Some of them couldn't wait and Tezar cut one of the women off and waved away the others.

The sadistic grins on their faces still bothered me but I tried to ignore it as best I could as they dragged the kicking and screaming woman off behind the wagon.

I fought to keep my face impassive as the woman's sobs and pleas for helps echoed from behind the wagon.

The other women and children also broke down crying from the screams, and once again I found myself cursing my weakness.

I wished that I could cut down every bandit in this camp and provide justice for all the people that have suffered at their hands.

Only, there are 5 mages in the group and all of them are in the orange stage, with Clause being a light orange water conjurer.

I kept my face neutral as I began eating some food we found from their wagon.

Ignoring the looks of shock and hatred from the women tied to the line.

One of them kicked a rock at me and I just looked at them with empty eyes.

They recoiled from the look and realized I wasn't doing this of my own free will.

I turned back away and went to sit underneath a tree, observing everything.

I would kill each woman throughout the next week to end their suffering, but this is the first time we had captured kids.

I didn't know if I should kill them as well.

They weren't old enough to escape and have any kind of chance at surviving the wilderness.

I sighed to myself and shook my head as I strengthened my resolve.

"Kill them it is…" I muttered helplessly to myself.

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Another time skip next chapter.

It will also be the last chapter with the bandits.