The moon's glow in the forest was very eerie, given the events that had played out within the past hour. Four men had died here, leaving the only survivors, a man and a child, cautiously staring each other down.
The bandit leader was a mountain of muscle with unruly hair that was shoulder-length. he had a scar from his right chin, crossing his nose to just under his left eye. Just a few centimeters more, and whatever caused such a gruesome scar would have cost him an eye.
The bandit leader, whose name is Jack and title the oppressor, for he had destroyed a good number of settlements like the one he and his companions had just done, capturing slaves, women, and children. Some slaves among them, the ones who have a good head on their shoulders, children especially, eventually go missing from their ranks.
Those who are left only serve to quench the men's lust in their entourage. Some eventually end up broken before getting killed, their bodies left to rot in a ditch somewhere nobody would care to look.
Their raids began months ago, so news of them has spread far and wide. The knowledge of this bandit group has put every settlement around on constant alert, but in utter futility, they are left to wait their turn for death and destruction. They have no one to defend them from such wastes of the human bloodline. They were just living life, hoping the next day wouldn't be their village's turn.
Jack the oppressor looked at the young boy in front of him. he smirked, but it was just a broken smirk, one born from the cruelty and hardship he had endured. The bright purple eyes of the boy reminded him of his younger years, a time he was filled with hopes and aspirations, a time in a settlement. They were poor, but happy at the time. Alaric's glowing eyes unlocked a memory Jack had buried for years.
[FLASHBACK]
He wanted to be the one to break the mold, to elevate the standard of living in their oh so small settlement. He aspired to be a practitioner, a man of great strength. He thought himself to be talented, to be favored by the heavens, until reality hit him with its unforgiving hammer. He couldn't even step into the first realm of cultivation. He couldn't break past his limit to become the figure of great strength he wanted to be.
He tried for years, practiced daily, and he managed to reach the peak of what could be considered his 'human' limit, but couldn't progress past that; he just wasn't talented enough. Constant losses like that have a way of getting into a man's heart. Once a boy thinking he could have the world in his palm, now a man with no hope for said future, he became disheartened, and that bred resentment in him.
Life was already hard as it is, but when his settlement was raided by a group of men, he knew little of it till this day, his world truly fell apart. They took the children and started killing off the men and women, but when it got to his turn. The stench of burning thatch choked him as the raiders dragged his sister away. Her nails dug into his arm as they dragged her. Her screams followed him into the forest, so he picked a weapon, trying to defend her.
"Hold," one of the raiders said. Saving Jack from getting his face sliced off while trying to defend himself and his household. The attacker, with superhuman control over his body, stopped the weapon from taking Jack's eye with ease, dispersing the force behind it.
Jack was immediately brought to his knees in front of the one who spoke.
"Ye seem well practiced," the man said with a pause, then continued, "What do ye think about working for us?"
"We will spare thy household and grant thee whatever resource ye need after breaking thy limiter. All you need to do is gather a few rogue men together to raid settlements when we need you to. We will pay good money for each talented child you manage to capture, while the resources and the rest people are yours to keep."
This accent….
'They shouldn't be here.'
Jack was shocked by what he had just heard, he couldn't picture himself being a bloody bandit and repeating what he had just done to his village to other settlements
"I…"