by Max Jager
One brave man tried to attack him with a sword, but Bandit easily knocked it out of his arms, and the man grunted in pain when he grabbed onto his neck and squeezed it tight, choking him.
"I'm sick of fighting all these fodder," asserted Bandit as he squeezed the man's neck even tighter, "Now, you're going to tell me where Zor is, or you…will…die!"
The man was scared out of his mind, but despite that, he most assuredly was not going to respond to Bandit's inquiry. Bandit realized this, and was about to crush his throat, when he was suddenly knocked away by a powerful force of nature.
Zor had blurred at him so quickly, he had not even sensed him, and had punched him right in the side of his head.
Bandit yelled as he flew through the air.
There you are, you bastard! he thought as he looked at Zor with pure anger.
To his chagrin, Zor's blow had sent him flying quite far away, but he was not about to let that stop him from trying to take him down. While he flew through the air, he took in an incredibly deep breath, and Zor gritted his teeth when he realized what he was about to do.
He couldn't possibly…he thought as his eyes widened in surprise.
Once Bandit took in as much air as he could, he clenched his fists as he bellowed in the direction of the Infernal army, releasing a massive blast of icy air from his mouth that spanned a wide area. The blast was so powerful, the Infernal army, or rather, what was left of it, did not have the power to avoid or contain it, so they had no other choice but to scream in terror as the blast enveloped them and froze them where they stood.
The blast extended so far, it froze a small part of the forest located beyond the plain, and even a few of the citizens of a village in Vast Expanse started to feel a drop in the land's typically warm temperature.
"What in the world?" one woman reacted as she began to shiver.
"What's going on?" asked another in shock.
"Is that Bandit?" inquired a man as he watched the grass beneath his feet slowly become covered in ice.
Meanwhile, another man who stood somewhere else in Vast Expanse, a tall, muscular, fair-skinned man with dark eyes and blood-red hair, smirked as he felt the air become a bit colder than before.
Bandit…
After having been knocked over half a mile away from the Infernal army, Bandit grunted as he landed on the ground. He had enough strength left in him to land on his feet, but as he slid back, he panted heavily as blood, sweat, and tears dripped down his face. That attack of his had drained him of nearly all of his strength, and he coughed up a good deal of blood whilst doubling over in agony as a result.
Unfortunately for him, holding back was a concept that never occurred to him when he was angry, but nevertheless, it seemed he had managed to freeze the entire Infernal army.
Guess I overdid it…he thought as he slowly reached into his pant pockets, but…at least it's…finally…over…
He brought out a lighter, a double guillotine-style cutter, and a Corona cigar from his pockets. He used the cutter to cut the closed end of the cigar, also known as the "cap", lit the other end, and placed the unlit end of the cigar in his mouth as he slowly began to walk forward. After putting the lighter and cutter back in his pocket, he swirled the smoke around in his mouth before exhaling it, and made his way towards his frozen adversaries.
The Climb
After having walked for fifteen minutes, Bandit stood in the midst of the frozen Infernal army, and swirled the smoke of his cigar around in his mouth as he looked around.
Where is he…? I know he's here somewhere…
He continued to walk around and observe the members of the frozen army, when he saw who he had been looking for: Zor, who was frozen in ice just like the rest of his army.
There you are, you son of a bitch, he thought as he walked towards Zor.
While he did so, he looked at the weapon Zor had strapped to his hip, a golden longsword sheathed within a golden scabbard. He exhaled another puff of smoke from his mouth as he observed the weapon.
This is it, he thought, The Cosmic Sword. The son of a bitch has used this sword to hurt so many people, and take so many innocent lives. Before I go, I should take it away from him and break it so no one can ever use it to hurt anyone else ever again.
Bandit slowly reached for the sword, when he noticed something strange: Zor's eyes were following the movement of his hand. He heard a crack in the ice covering him, and quickly realized Zor had been waiting for him to approach him, and was not as incapacitated as he had originally believed him to be.
Shit!
Zor broke free from the ice that had covered his body, and tried to punch Bandit in the face. Bandit gritted his teeth as he ducked to avoid the blow, and watched as Zor tried to punch him in the face again with his other hand. He grunted as he blocked the punch with his hand, but despite his block, Zor's strength was great enough to knock him far back regardless.
He tumbled backwards for nearly half a mile, and groaned in immense pain as he slowly got back on his feet. He looked up ahead, and saw that not only Zor, but four other members of the Infernal army, had managed to break free from the ice that constrained them.
Bandit sucked air through his teeth as he irritably watched Zor and his remaining conscious and mobile allies charge at him.
That attack was supposed to freeze them solid. I'm guessing these are the more skilled members of the army. This may not end as well as I'd hoped…
As soon as he got back on his feet, Zor suddenly appeared before him, and kicked him in the ribs. He grunted as he felt three of his ribs crack.
What the…?
He jumped back as quickly as he could, and they both threw a punch at each other. Their punches collided, and when they did, the collision produced a small shockwave. Zor smirked at him, and Bandit yelled as they tried to punch each other again. Their blows clashed once again, however, and a shockwave was produced like before. Unfortunately for Bandit, Zor grabbed his neck before he could try to throw a third punch, and threw him in the direction of his remaining men. He landed right in the middle of them, and got on his feet as they charged at him.
One of the men, Sui, yelled as he tried to kick him, but Bandit swerved to evade the attack, and punched him in the nose, sending him stumbling back a few feet. He used the man's imbalance to his advantage, and kicked him in the stomach, causing him to throw up a bit of blood. He punched him across the face five times before he knocked him down by kicking him hard in the shin.
Before he could continue his assault on Sui, however, another man, Yel, tried to kick him from behind. He swerved to the side to evade the blow, and Yel yelled when he punched him across the face three times before headbutting him, causing him to stumble back as he held his face in pain.
Once Sui stood back up, Bandit tiredly lunged at him and punched him across the face four times before sending him stumbling back with a roundhouse kick to the face.
A third man, Nirek, tried to attack him from behind, but he blocked the attack with his hand, grabbed a hold of his neck, and placed his fingers on Nirek's eyes.
"Ah!" Nirek screamed as Bandit began to freeze his eyes.
He struggled to free himself from Bandit's grip, but despite all Bandit had been through, he had a sufficient amount of fight still left in him, and Nirek did not have the unnatural strength to escape his grasp.
Once Bandit froze his eyes solid, he proceeded to freeze his brain
"No!" Nirek screamed in anguish.
Of course, Bandit did not care about his screams of horror, and once he finished freezing the organ that acted as the center of Nirek's nervous system, Nirek fell to the ground and lied motionless.
Upset at the brutality Bandit had just shown his ally, Zior, the fourth man, charged at him, but Bandit managed to punch him across the face four times, before grabbing his head and hitting him with a facebreaker knee smash. Despite the pain he felt, however, Zior had the strength to grab Bandit's neck, and Bandit yelled as Zior picked him up off
the ground. Zior slammed him onto the ground, and raised his foot to stomp on his face, but Bandit grunted as he rolled away to avoid the blow, and groaned as he got back on his feet as quickly as his body would allow. Zior tried to kick him in the stomach, but he swerved to the side to evade the blow, and yelled as he punched Zior in the temple, causing him to blackout and fall to the ground.
"You bastard!" yelled Sui as he and Yel charged at Bandit.
He tried to kick Bandit in the stomach, but Bandit swerved to evade the attack.
Unfortunately, Yel managed to kick him across the face, and Bandit grunted in great pain when Sui punched him in the throat.
Ah, shit! thought Bandit as he stumbled back and held his throat with both of his hands.
He could feel himself weakening, and he was starting to have trouble breathing, but since he was the only one around who could defeat these men, he knew he had to work through the pain and keep fighting.
He grabbed Yel, but Yel grunted as he shoved him away, and got behind him. He got Bandit in a chokehold, and struggled to keep him in the hold, while Bandit struggled to free himself from the hold. After two seconds of struggling, Bandit hit Yel hard in the face with the back of his fist, causing Yel to yell in pain as he released his hold on him. He proceeded to punch Yel in the nose, breaking it, and Yel yelped as he clutched his bleeding nose in anguish.
He struck Sui three times across the face, and when Yel managed to forget about the pain in his face for a moment and tried to attack him with a kick, he swerved to the side to evade the blow, and punched him in the nose again, causing great pain to fall upon him. He punched him in the face three more times, and punched him hard in the stomach, causing him to throw up blood. He tried to punch him in the face again, but somehow, despite the immense pain his body felt, Yel managed to dodge the blow. He balled up his fists and tried to punch Bandit in the neck, but Bandit grabbed his fist, and sent him stumbling back with a headbutt.
Sui came at Bandit from behind, and tried to get him in a chokehold like Yel had done to him, but Bandit spun around and punched him hard across the face, causing him to yell in pain as blood flew from his mouth. He punched Sui across the face seven times, and was about to finish him off when he sensed that Yel was trying to attack him from behind. He grabbed Sui, and shoved him into Yel, causing the two of them to crash into each other and fall to the ground.
He knelt down and panted lightly for a moment, before he watched as both Sui and Yel slowly but surely stood back up.
Don't these guys know when to quit? he thought as Yel charged at him.
Bandit tried to punch him across the face, but Yel swerved to evade the attack, and delivered a powerful uppercut to Bandit's jaw, causing Bandit to yell in immense anguish as he stumbled back a few yards. He groaned in agony as he rubbed his jaw, yelled as he ran at Yel, and punched him eight times in his broken nose, before he spun around and delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to it, causing Yel to finally fall to the ground permanently.
Before he knew it, however, he was punched across the face by Sui, and grunted as he stumbled back. He tried to punch Sui three times, but Sui evaded every punch he threw at him. Sui jabbed him in the chest, and Bandit clutched his chest as he groaned in pain, fell to his knees, and coughed up a bit of blood.
"Give it up," asserted Sui as he looked at Bandit with the intent to kill, "You can't defeat us."
Bandit closed his eyes as he panted heavily.
"You don't stand a chance against us, against Zor. Why do you continue to fight?"
Bandit's body was beginning to shake in pain, but Sui watched in disbelief as he slowly but surely got back on his feet.
"Why are you trying so hard to defeat us…' he began astonished by his enemy's behavior, "when you know full well that you won't make it out of this whole thing alive?"
Bandit closed his eyes and continued to pant for several more seconds, and as he did so, he thought of all the people he had encountered during his journey, how desperately they had all fought to protect Vast Expanse. Some of them had even died with that goal in mind.
"My friends…" he whispered.
He heard footsteps behind him, and figured that it was Zor, waiting to see if he could defeat Sui. He gritted his teeth as he thought about just how many people had died fighting to protect Vast Expanse, and when he opened his terribly bloodshot eyes, he gave Sui an intense glare as he yelled.
"I am not going to let my friends down!" he bellowed, "I'm not alone in all this! I know a lot of people who have fought hard to protect the people of Vast Expanse, and I will not let them down…not when I'm so close! As long as I'm still breathing, I will continue to fight with everything I have, because everyone else I've encountered on this journey would do exactly the same!"
Sui charged at Bandit and grabbed him by the shoulders, but Bandit knocked his hands off him, and punched him right in the face.
"I'm ending this," he yelled, "Now!"
Sui charged at Bandit and tried to punch him, but Bandit grabbed his hand, and Sui cried out in pain as he broke his wrist. Sui wanted to tend to his injury so badly when Bandit released him, but he did not want to lose the fight. He tried to punch Bandit again, but Bandit easily moved his head to the side to dodge the blow, and punched him across the face. He yelled as he proceeded to punch him in the nose, head butted him, and punched him hard across the face, before he grabbed onto his neck, got him into a chokehold, and broke his neck, causing his body to fall to the ground and lay motionless.
Finally… he thought with satisfaction.
Unfortunately, that satisfaction he felt did not last long.
After having finally defeated all of Zor's men, Bandit panted as he watched Zor walk towards him.
Now…there's just one more person left to beat…
"Impressive," said Zor as he rested his hand on the hilt of the golden sword attached to his waist, "Very impressive. You sure know how to put on a show."
He slowly took the golden sword out from its scabbard, and Bandit shook his head at the thought of what Zor would do to him with it.
Shit… he thought as Zor pointed the sword at him.
"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this," said Zor as he continued to walk towards his adversary, "Oh, who am I kidding? I was actually looking somewhat forward to this, and…now that we're here… in this moment…it's perfect. Now it's just me…and you… The last time we fought, you didn't present much of a challenge to me. It was all too easy for me to beat you down and impale a few of your organs. But that was years ago. From what I've seen today, you've gotten a whole lot stronger. But we have yet to see…"
"…if you're strong enough to defeat me!"
The Promise
Zor blurred at Bandit with great speed and tried to stab him in the stomach, but Bandit swerved to the side to evade the attack. He yelled in anger as he punched Zor in the face, the stomach, and the throat, and Zor smirked as he went flying six yards back.
Unfortunately for Bandit, his attacks did not do as much damage as he had hoped, for Zor landed on his feet, and blurred up to him immediately.
Bandit gasped as he stepped back in shock.
Crap! He's just as fast as ever!
Zor punched him hard across the face, and Bandit yelled as he stumbled back and held his face in pain.
Damn it!
"You did a good job fighting my army," complimented Zor as he prepared to swing his sword at Bandit, "but that doesn't mean you can defeat me!"
He swung the sword at Bandit, but Bandit swerved to evade the blow, and punched him right in the face with all his might, once more knocking him a few yards away. He ran at Zor and tried to punch him repeatedly, but every time he threw a punch, Zor used his great speed to blur out of the way.
"You're just as determined as ever," said Zor as he evaded Bandit's blows, "but considering what happened to your lung, kidney, and spleen, well…you should know that determination is not enough to defeat me."
When Bandit's guard was down, he
punched Bandit in the stomach, and Bandit yelled as he flew a quarter of a mile back.
Luckily, he landed on his feet, but as soon as he did so, Zor blurred up to him and tried to slice him with his sword. He swerved to the side to evade the attack, and punched him in the face, only this time, blood flew from Zor's nose. He proceeded to knee Zor in the stomach, and knocked him back with three punches to the face.