Punching Bandits [doing a solo, Mission]

[Nines]

Nines was walking down the road cautiously. It was one of those situations where he had too, he moved silently through the underbrush off to its side. Scanning his perimeter he watched for any signs of movement. This was his job, this was pretty much how his entire life operated. He saw a shadow move from a tree as the wagon approached where he was. The shadow walked out into the middle of the road and bid the driver stop. The wagon stopped, and the masked man approached the wagon slowly, along with one other who was on the other side of the road.

Odd, that didn't match the report he got. He thought back about two hours ago.

A man named George had put in a request for Magic Councilmen. Bandits had moved in onto the highway between Hosenka and Oak town. Normally things like this would be given to journeyman who had yet to complete their training, but Nines took the job just incase. He had just happened to be there at the time, and he was itching for some action anyway. He got impatient on his way to Magnolia in the short version.

George himself was a decent guy. Nines met with him on the Premises and agreed to do the job. He was told there were three bandits, each one armed with a holder knife that contained strong fire magic. They had been robbing his merchandise filled wagons along the roads. This was interesting because normally Nines knew bandits like this operated in bigger numbers than three. George’s stuff was probably just a small amount of their total take.

It was more likely that these three bandits were part of a bigger group. It was probably really large, and had more than just this trade route on their maps of game. Nines thought about it and asked if there was any similar situations around that area, and found out that there were none to mention. However a few months ago there was another group of bandits near that same road, doing the same stuff.

Nines thought that was interesting, it was as if they stopped to let the heat of what they were doing die down. Probably to avoid exactly what was going on between the council mage and this trader right now. This was basically a job to beat the tar and arrest three illegal mages. He would need two extra pairs of Anti-Magic cuffs. He thanked George for the information and set him on his way. Then stopped at the Quarter master and acquired the extra cuffs, this was gonna be fun.

Three bandits they operated at the same time to either cause the driver of the trade wagons to stop, or cripple the wagon itself. Knowing that Nines could figure out where the third Bandit was as he watched the two of them walk up to the wagon. He snuck through the undergrowth and crouched through the bushes. If he was a clever bandit with fire magic, and he had to incapacitate a wagon he knew where he would be.

He drew his knife, and realized how interesting this would be when he thought about his magic. He crawled slowly out from the undergrowth, then started to move slowly over the road at a crouch level. He was wearing brown and green patched clothing, matching the landscape quite well. He stopped about the middle of the road, right past where the two bandits were hiding in the trees. By now the two of them were opening and searching the wagon, and of course finding nothing.

If Nines had gotten what he wanted from the Quarter Master this would be over by now, they would have opened the wagon and had anti-magic cuffs slapped on them right then and there. But he couldn't get the approval he needed for him, so he dealt with the problem the old fashioned way.

He activated his magic and his clothes changed from their camo pattern bagginess to his normal Attire. The white coat adorned with the symbol of the Magic Council, colored with their color. He chuckled as he flipped his knife through the air catching it and pointing it at the cart.

“Stop right there criminal scum, by the Order of the Magic Council, you three mages are under arrest, you can either come with me quietly, or pay the fee you charge your targets”

“Oh shit its a Council Mage” Said one of the two bandits popping his head out of the wagon. “Jimmy what do we do”
“What else would we do? We silence him before he silences us, I ain't going to prison for this shit.” said the bandit rightfully named Jimmy as he drew a knife from his belt.
“But he’s part of the magic council, he could probably beat us Jimmy”
“Shut up Steve, we got this, especially with our boss on our side.”

“Then I guess you shall pay with your blood.” Nines said a grin sliding across his once serious face, as he did he pulled his left arm back and punched downwards. HItting the dirt road, which instead of a normal thump noise made a crack noise instead. Nines then grabbed what he punched and pulled a person out of the dirt who had a very confused look on their face. The person was clutching their nose and grumbling.

“Clever way to disable a wagon with the type of weapons you guys have by the way.” Nines commented before throwing the guy on the dirt in front of him. He pointed his knife at the man. “Now seriously surrender, or ima break out the magic” He stated.

“KNIFE HIM” The man on the ground said drawing his knife and charging Nines.
“AHHHHHH!!” The other two screamed as they charged towards Nines.

Nines jumped back three feet and swung his knife horizontally, as it moved its blade changed from a cold metal to a hot orange, flames shot from it’s arcing form causing the area infront of Nines to catch on fire. The man who was closest to Nines, who gave the order to charge was in that area, and as such he was promtly caught on fire. “OH GOD, OHGODOHGOD.” The man started screaming and dropped to the ground and started rolling around immediately. Nines gave the man some credit for his reaction time to being on fire. In the end however Nines ended up taking points away for his intelligence though, because the entire area the man was rolling in was on fire, naturally the screaming just got worse. The flames wouldn't kill the man, it wasn’t possible for that spell to do that.

The other two bandits stopped running when the curtain of flames shot from Nines’ knife.
“Shit Jimmy I wished mine did that” Said Steve, “Thats scary as hell”
“OH GOD HES ON FIRE” was all Jimmy could reply with as he started looking for something to put out the flames.

Nines dashed through the area that was on fire, using the man on the ground as a bridge, and decked Steve right in the face with his left fist. There was a pop noise that went with the impact, and the man went flying about two feet and landed on his side with a groan. Nines figured the pop was the man's jaw being dislocated from the running start he had and the impact with the mans jaw. Figuring that, Nines assumed he would be down for the rest of this fight. If you could really call this situation that.

Jimmy was trying to run away now, given up on his two comrades in arms. One of them probably even his genetic brother. Nines sighed and started sprinting after the man who took off through the woods. It wasnt long before Nines lost the guy with the head start. He stopped running and slowed to a walk. If this wasn’t the woods with so much cover Nines would have caught him. Nines cursed a little bit under his breath as he turned to go capture the other two he did have.

As he turned he barely saw the glint of red coming at his eye before he moved to the side. The blade stopped right past where his head had been and then came at him in a sweep, forcing him to jump back. Nines saw his attacker then, it was Jimmy. Well that was dumb Nines thought to himself. His knife wasn’t drawn, however he was pretty sure he could incapacitate this guy without it.

Besides last thing he needed to do was shoot fire everywhere and have to explain why a quarter of the woods burnt down.

The knife slashed again, and then Nines stepped forward into the mans swing just past the knife. Jimmys wrist hit Nine’s shoulder and Nines punched him in the chest with his left fist. The impact sent the man sliding back a little and coughing. The man tried to recover faster but Nines’ fist was already coming around towards his face. The gauntlet came in contact with the man's jaw three inches directly below his temple. What Nines referred to “The Magic Button”.

With that punch the man went out like a lightbulb being hit by a hammer.

Nines bent over and slapped the Anti-magic cuffs on him, and then picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. It wasn't long after that the three men were cuffed, their legs were tied, and they were stuffed into the back of a wagon. Nines driving it towards the nearest Magic Council outpost. The man he asked to help him take care of the problem worked there, so he was pretty much giving him a ride home.

This was a good day.

Mission Details and Post Details: