Blade and Mine

Chapter 12
Part 1 - Blade

We stare into the box filled with odd-looking creations, one catches my eye. I lift a rough-looking blade, red string dangling from the hilt. Curved and notched along the edge, it resembles a weapon I once knew about in my past life.

“Oh, that thing. Heins made it after the bandits took over. Waste of good Sil-ore, if you ask me,” Björn says as I hold the blade.

“I’ll take it,” I tell him, weighing it in my hand.

“Hmm, sure, take anything you want. They're all Heins junk that the fool came up with,” Björn says.

Dima lifts up a wooden box filled with mud-colored balls, he sniffs them and says:
“What are these? They smell weird.”

“I would be careful with those, Heins almost blew up the shop with one of them,” Björn says, unfazed.

“Oh…” Dima says, slowly putting them back.

“I guess we know what that smoke was then,” Dima says while looking at me.

“We’re off, old man,” Elda tells Björn, holding her spear at the entrance.

“Hmph! You all will come running back soon enough!” Björn snarks, turning around.

Seeing his big back turned against us and arms crossed on the other side, his hands are tensely gripping his arms.
I ask him:
“Sathrill, light shimmering blue, with white crystal inside. Right?”

He doesn't speak, just slightly nods.

We leave through the front door.

Following the same path as we came from, finally we reach the mine. Scouting it out from a small hill, barely making the camp visible over the wooden stake wall. Outside the mine entrance, there are small huts and carts. The bandits had set up camp, thrashing the place with bottles and broken equipment. A fireplace is in the middle where broken pieces of wood were burnt into coals.
The bandits themselves stink, even from here their musty stench reaches us. We are all holding our noses, and Elda whispers:
“Can we just do this fast?”

I look at the men with unkempt hair and beards down below, their armor stained by liquor. They honestly don’t seem very strong. Some seem drunk as they laugh and wobble around, but there are many of them.

“I count 15, there are probably more of them inside the mine,” I whisper to the others.

“I think I have an idea, but it depends…” Dima whispers.

“On what?” I ask him.

“On Elda…” He says, looking skeptical toward his sister.

“Help, help! Anyone, please?” Elda yells as she runs toward the opening of the camp.

Some of the bandits gather up front and look at the Avi girl running in helplessly.

“What is this? You know where you are, missy?” One of the bandits bends down and asks her.

“No, sir. I escaped from slavers, I’ve been running for hours,” Elda says with her hands clutched to her chest and teary eyes.

More and more of the bandits gather in the middle of the camp, standing around the helpless girl.

“Oh no, that’s terrible,” another bandit says, cracking up the others.

“Hey guys, come check this out!” Another calls after the rest.

Now almost all of them are there.

“Can you help me?” Elda says, staring at them with her scared purple eyes.

“Sure we can, why don’t you stay here with us?” A bandit says with a twisted smile, making more of the others crack up.

“Thank you… but one more thing…” Elda says as she raises her hand.

Inside her palm she is holding one of the balls Heins created, and she smashes it to the ground.

A big cloud of smoke bursts in the camp, engulfing all the bandits and Elda. Dima and I move in. With the blade in my hand I feel the heat from the grown Baiin within the smoke, their movement and armor rustle, making them clear targets. Holding my breath, I thrust my blade forward, piercing through the man in front of me.

“Hmphff!” I hear him sound as I quickly draw out my blade and move on to the next.

I hear others scream, thuds and cracks from their bodies. I slash and stab many more in the confusion. Blood splashes on my face, almost evaporating from my markings’ fiery heat. My mind is empty, only my senses drag me from body to body, before they drop to the ground, all in a single breath. Dima's voice suddenly snaps me out of it:
“Now! Get back!”

Jumping out of the dispersing smoke, I finally breathe. Coughing, I land close to the entrance with Elda and Dima next to me.

“You guys okay?” Dima asks, with his eyes wide open and Elda’s bloody spear in his hands.

“Yes man! Give me!” Elda says to Dima, making him throw the spear to her.

“We’re not done yet!” I tell them, sensing bandits still standing in the smoke.

As it clears, five men still stand, their bloody comrades on the ground around them. They look around in distress as they cough. When they see us three standing before them, their eyes turn with wrath.

“Why you little…!” One of them screams as he throws his fist to the ground.

Rubble flies up while another bandit pushes both his hands in our direction. The pebbles get thrown toward us as we are catching our breaths.

“Oh shi..!” Elda starts to yell, as we all desperately run to the side.

The pebbles thrash behind us, creating holes in the stake wall and crumbling the wooden huts. I’ve run to one side of the camp, while the siblings the other. My brain is starting to understand what is happening, back to thinking. I see the tremendous destruction behind the siblings, as they start to turn against the remaining bandits. Fear builds within me, desperate to save my friends. I crouch down, collecting heat into my body, making my legs light up like fire.

“Ahh!” I scream.

The ground cracks and the air buckles with a big thump as I fly toward the bandits. Swinging my blade forward with incredible speed, I slice through a bandit’s neck. I land between the others and I immediately throw my blade into another. Just as I look to the side, a bandit has his fist punching into the air toward me. I only realize what is happening when I see the hard rock grow out of the ground next to him, it flies right into my stomach, sending me flying. Dima knees the bandit’s head, while I crash into a wooden wall, breaking it to pieces.

“Urghhh…” I moan, blood filling my mouth.

“Get down!” I hear Elda scream.

She tackles me, with sharp rocks flying, piercing the wall that I crashed into. One slightly cuts Elda’s arm.

We roll on the ground until we stop. With my head dizzy, I see the blurry Dima on top of the last bandit, hammerfisting down…

Part 2 - Mine

“Ugh! That was too close, I thought we would die,” Elda says while Dima is wrapping up her arm.

Dima looks at me sitting on the ground, I’m trying to calm myself down. Shaky, I can barely look at the fifteen men laying dead on the ground. Guilt turns in my stomach, making me feel sick. I can’t believe that I didn’t think twice before I took their lives.

“Hey!” Dima says while grabbing my shoulders and looking me in the eyes.

I feel nauseous, looking at Dima’s desperate expression.

“If Elda truly were a helpless girl, asking for help, what do you think they would have done to her? Huh? These people were scum, you felt their maliciousness, didn’t you?” Dima continues to ask me.

I did, their stench was mixed with the smell of dry blood. These were not innocent men, they were monsters. My instincts told me of their vicious nature, but still… They were people.

I try to be strong, it’s not over yet. I can see that Dima is confused and rattled too, but he still tried to help me.

Dima did get me to calm down a bit, I grab his arm and respond:
“You’re right. Sorry, I was just overwhelmed, thank you Dima.”

He helps me up, and we both breathe out slowly, watching over the bodies. Elda walks over to us, she looks at me with worried eyes.

“But that was really dumb Iris, just jumping at them alone like that. Don’t do it again…” Elda says, half aggressive, half embarrassed.

“Sorry. I won’t,” I promise her.

Standing in front of the entrance to the mine, all three of us stare at the big door. Nobody has come out yet.

“Either these guys were all of them, or they are deep in there,” Dima says.

“Only one way to find out,” Elda says as she pushes the door open.

The darkness goes deep, only fire from torches lights up the rocky hole. Pickaxes, helmets and other equipment are scattered on the ground, some stained with blood. Some walls are colored, almost glowing from minerals.

“I guess we should check the place out before we start looking for the mineral,” I whisper with a slight echo to the others.

“I think so…” Dima starts to say, but stops as we hear a noise down the mine.

Like a metallic drop to the ground, bouncing off the walls from deep within. Quietly, we move in.

At the end, there is a big room with a higher ceiling, made in the mine. Tables, shelves, hides and a desk. A man sits with his back turned to us, like he is writing something. We all slowly walk into the room, freezing when I accidentally kick a pebble.

The man doesn’t turn, only speaks:
“What is it now?” He says with a raspy, angry voice.

My heart is beating fast, the man in front of me sends shivers down my spine. I can tell, he is different from the other bandits. Facing my fear, I raise my posture and walk to the middle of the room. The siblings nervously follows.

“We took out your men!” I yell.

The man stops writing and slowly turns. He glares us down as he stands, his armor rustling around his muscular body. His slicked-back hair and thick brows shadowed eyes full of predatory malice.

“What are a couple of Avi kids doing here? You took out my men, you say?” He asks with his intimidation, making my body squeeze.

“Yeah… We did! All of them!” Elda nervously yells at him.

I hold my hand in front of her, asking her to wait.

“Please, just leave this place,” I tell the Baiin bandit.

“Haha! Those scum got taken out? By you, a couple Avi?!” the man burst out in laughter.

We all silently watch him, getting ready for a fight.

The bandit’s laughter calms. He stares at us, then slowly lifts both hands. A heartbeat later, he slams them down. The ground splits under our feet, the shockwave buckling our legs.

“Huuh!” the bandit sounds as he waves his hands in a cross.

Rock splits from the roof and shoots toward us. The siblings jump away, I take my blade and try to cut through the rock. Snapping it in half, the tip of the blade goes flying. With the rock inches from my face, I barely evade it at the last second.
Elda hurls her spear. A wall of rock erupts in front of the bandit, swallowing the strike. Dima dives in, his markings blazing. His fist smashes through the wall, aiming for the man behind. But stone spreads over the bandit’s arm, hardening into armor. He catches Dima’s fist mid-swing and squeezes.

“Ahh!” Dima screams in pain.

Using Dima’s attack, I’m right there. I throw a kick toward the man as he shields himself with his other rock enveloped arm. Dima's scream makes my heart burn, filling me with heat and fury. Kicking his arm with all my might, I send him smashing into the rock wall.

“Hmph!” He lets out on impact.

Elda grabs her spear, running towards him. Her fiery legs push her forward, jolting the tip of the spear. The man throws his hand up and then grasps the air tightly, creating a rock that grows around her spear, snapping it.
He thrusts his other fist upward. The earth rips open, a jagged boulder shooting straight at Elda. Only shielding herself with her arms, blood from her nose splatter as her eyes roll back at impact.

“Elda!” I scream after her.

With his bloody hand, Dima once again charges the man. I see the rock surround the man's arm as he brings it towards Dima. The markings burn, making my body move by itself. I launch, kicking the rock hand away. A bloody fist, with a trail of fiery glow, digs into the bandit’s rough face.

Dima keeps punching, even if the bandit is now laying motionless on the ground. I grab him, pulling him off.

“It’s over!” I tell him as he is breathing erratically.

He pushes me off, running to Elda who is laying on the cold rocky floor.

“Elda! Elda!” Dima yells as he takes her into his arms.

I run after, with my heart dropping into my stomach.

I watch her closed eyes and bloody face as tears fill my eyes. My ears ring from the battle, from the unbelievable sight in front of me. Dima is holding his motionless sister, while I stand frozen in time.

“Eld…” Dima screams in tears, before he is interrupted.

“Shut up you nerd,” Elda mutters in a weak voice.

Hearing my heart beat again, relief ease the anxiety in my chest, I see Elda open her eyes.

“Please, my head is pounding, stupid,” she complains.