Chapter 6: Conflict
It was deep into the night when I opened my eyes and came out of my deep meditation. A small breeze passed by, my hair fluttering in the wind as I slowly stood and reached my full height on the surface of the water. I tensed my leg muscles and bounded off the calm stream and into the forest.
I blurred through trees not stopping for anything as I made my way deeper and deeper, even after I was where I've never been before. I traveled for a long time and when I finally stopped, it was dawn. Not too far away from the tree branch I landed on, multiple men donning dirt-ridden and old leather clothing were camped out, many of them having scars on their faces and easily seen cuts on their garments from multiple battles. Tents were scattered about and spiked wood jutted from the ground, menacingly surrounding the entirety of the area. A number of them patrolled around the nearby forest with their weapons casually drawn out, some of them laying them on their shoulders as they walked around brazenly with the stench of alcohol clouding wherever they stepped. It was clear they were bandits.
Far off in the middle of the camp, a much larger tent was present which gave away the location of what could only be presumed as the leader of bandits. Saikyō crouched and simply waited for a while before grinning and bounding off of the branch he was currently on and landing straight into the middle of the camp with a flip near the large tent.
"Oi! The fuck you come from, squirt?!"
Saikyō simply ignored the nearby bandit that spotted him, even when he unsheathed his blade menacingly and started to slowly walk towards him. He grabbed a fistful of the soft material of the large tent in front of him, flexed his muscles, and pulled. The entire cover of the structure was ripped clean off, leaving a wide-eyed, large bandit in view for all to see -- the only thing left of the tent being metal poles jutting from the ground which held it all together. The bandit leader turned around in bewilderment as the one that spoke before fell silent in disbelief. A few moments later, they both shook out of their stunned state and regarded the intruder with ill intent.
"I don't know how you managed to completely fuck up my tent, boyo, but you're gonna pay for it with your life!" The bandit leader roared as his initially surprised face changed into one of sheer anger. He grabbed a large blade laying on a wooden table nearby him and started to walk towards me furiously. "You know how fucking long it took me to set up that tent, gaki?! THREE FUCKING DAYS!!"
With that he leaped towards me with his sword, his veins bulging over his body as he swung with all his might, intending to cleave me in two with one swing. The bandit nearby smirked in confidence of his leader as he stepped back so the blood of the dumb kid didn't stain his already stained clothes.
As the blade inched closer and closer, Saikyō remained still with no reaction whatsoever, looking as if he were suicidal. When the blade finally reached his arm from his right side, threatening to carve its way forcefully until it came out his left, he simply flexed and part of the large blade broke and ricocheted off his arm, impaling the smirking bandit in the process.
Before the bandit leader could even fully widen his eyes in surprise, Saikyō's fist slammed into his face without mercy, a sickening crunch sounding as his entire facial structure simply caved inwards -- crushing his brain and instantly killing him in the process. The body flew backwards and collided with one of the metal poles that constructed his tent with a loud crash and continuing to fly even further away into the camp, taking the part of the pole which it broke from the impact flying off in another direction in the process and leaving his broken blade lying on the floor.
*Thud*
The bandit who had his neck impaled landed on the floor and as he gurgled to death choking on his own blood, the bandits throughout the camp finally noticed something was up and the ones inside grabbing their weapons and rushing towards the sound of the commotion. The multiple bandits who saw their leader's corpse flying like it was weightless let the others go first, completely wary and more than a little fearful of the mysterious but strong intruder. Saikyō simply walked through the metal poles that made up the leader's tent and came to a stop. Before long he was completely surrounded, more than 30 bandits looking at him with a wary gaze and their muscles tense as they held their weapons out, not underestimating him from his child-like appearance in the slightest. The atmosphere was tense.
"Well..? You know I didn't come here and crush your worthless leader's skull for nothing, right? Hurry the fuck up and come at me, before I come to you!!" Saikyō roared arrogantly.
"You think your tough, kid? We'll see how tough you are when we turn you into a porcupine with how many blades'll be sticking out of your corpse!!" A bandit confident in their numbers quickly retorted with contempt. "Kill him! We outnumber the brat, he can't take all of us!!"
With their morale and overall confidence being boosted, they all rushed at Saikyō at once with sadistic grins on their faces. He matched theirs with a maniacal grin of his own as he caved the skull of the nearest bandit from the force of his punch, sending the many others behind the now flying corpse crashing backwards. He then twisted with insane speed as he broke the neck of the bandit closing in behind him with the back of his enclosed fist, a loud boom sounding throughout the area as he was sent crashing face-first into the ground. The corpse's entire head embedded into the dirt and the body was sent sliding in the ground until it came to a dead stop from the leftover force of the attack.
He weaved from under the blade of the last of the three bandits nearest to himself and sparta kicked him, both breaking and caving in his entire chest cavity along with his ribs, rupturing his heart in the process and instantly turning him into a corpse as his body was sent flying backwards with a blur. Bones of unlucky bandits in the way of the corpse were broken from the impact.
When Saikyō was done killing the first three bandits and many others indirectly, he leaped towards the nearest breathing bandit and twisted in the air before finally caving in his skull with a sidekick, sending the body flying. By this time, the rest of the bandits quickly lost their morale and ran away desperate to escape with their lives.
"Ba- BAKEMONO!!"
"AAAAUGHH!!"
Many of them screamed in fear as they ran away, a few of them that doubted that they could escape even if they tried charged at me with a loud but fearful battle cry that sounded no different from the screams of the ones fleeing for their lives. Saikyō quickly finished them off and bounded into the forest in pursuit of them, slaughtering all of the bandits until the last one was in front of him, desperately trying to back away from him after his ass fell backwards on the ground in fear until he bumped into a tree on the back of him.
"DON'T KILL ME, DON'T KILL ME PLEASE -- I'LL GIVE YOU EVERYTHING I GOT!! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!" The bandit covered his face with his hands, palms facing me, and curled his body in fear. Saikyō grabbed the bandit from his unkempt and dirty hair moist with the blood of his comrades and lifted him up to eye-level forcefully, the bandit screaming out in pain as the force of the pull threatened to rip his hair straight out of his scalp.
"You're going to spread my name throughout the land of fire and wherever else you go -- tell everyone what happened here. Do you understand, ant?"
The bandit nodded frantically in response.
"Good. Now run away, quickly now, before I change my mind and cave in your skull."
Saikyō threw the bandit onto the ground and he quickly got up and ran with all his might deep into the forest. As he watched the bandit run off into the distance, his signature grin slowly made its way onto his face.
Word of an ogre with hair tainted red from the blood of its victims quickly spread throughout the Land of Fire.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone