The trail was long and desolate. I rode for several days before I came across the band of Raiders that I believed were the ones that I was told about. I followed behind them for the rest of the day until they made camp for the night. It was the normal Raider procedure. The prisoners were kept by the road side and guarded by a few men, while the rest of the camp was tucked in a clearing near a source of water. I wouldn't have the benefit of anyone else to help save the villagers, so I would have to draw all attention towards me and away from them.
I tied off my horse in the forest a mile from the camp and quietly made my way to observe the camp before full nightfall. This was a large band of 50 men with 5 of them guarding the villagers. It seems that Mudwood had been busy in my absence. This appeared to be an area made for rest. There were built structures that the men were staying in, instead of tents. They weren't the typical huts and cottages that the people of the Targen Realm would build, but there seemed sturdy and would protect the inhabitants from weather. Even with that, they kept the imprisoned villagers outside in what looked like a corral for cattle. That caused my anger to rise, but I had to keep it under control.
I waited until a few hours after nightfall. Enough time for all those that weren't on guard duty to fall asleep. It appears that they still hadn't learned from their past, and only left the 5 guards at the corral. I snuck into the camp and went straight to the fire pits. I pulled a long limb that was still lit and threw it under the nearest hutch. It was engulfed in flames within seconds. I threw another limb under another, and the same occurred. The came came to life with the sounds of screams from men and their fear of the licking flames that surrounded them. The other hutches began to empty and confusion and panic was inscribed on their faces. I stood in the middle of the camp with both swords drawn, waiting for them to notice. They didn't.
Men began running around wildly, most of them heading for the stream and right past me. I was dumbstruck for a moment, and then began cutting them down as they ran past me. That created more panic and chaos. The Raiders were more focused not the fires than they were on me. I simply ran through them without even notice. I methodically made my way to the stream and let them all come to me, I would strike without remorse as each man came to meet his end. It wasn't until a pile of bodies lay around me that the steady stream of victims stopped. Men began approaching slowly with weapons in hand. I entered the Euphoria and gathered as much aether as I could, and ran at them. With my speed they didn't even see where my blades came from. Thy just stood their with their mouths agape and then screams of pain came from them as my blade cut through their guts. A few men managed to raise their swords to try and block my own, but they still weren't fast enough. I deftly maneuvered around them and opened them up.
I didn't keep track of how many I had killed, but it had to be near the number of men in the camp. I saw the guards running towards me. They were they only ones that still had armor of any kind on. I waited for their arrival. I stood with my left foot forward and both my blades out to the side. When the first man got to me. I simply side stepped his attack and took his hand at the wrist. His blade fell to the ground still gripped tightly by that hand. The second man hadn't seen what happened and ran directly in the back of his fellow Raider who had stopped suddenly from the loss of his hand. I dropped and spun sweeping both their legs out from under them. the toppled to the ground as I stood up and stabbed my father's blade through both of them. I let my father's sword rest there for a moment as I quickly readied myself for an attack by the remaining three guards.
They slid to a stop and spread out. The slowly began to encircle me. I looked from man to man, and I didn't see confidence in any of their eyes. What I did see was fear.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Are you The Patchwork Knight?"
"Indeed I am. You know what is about to happen next?
"We are going to kill you and become heroes."
"That is not likely. Take a good look around you. You are the only three that remain of what? 50 men. I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to give you an opportunity to live. Would you like that?"
"You are outnumbered, you don't make the deals, we do."
"Clearly you didn't hear me. Take a look around you. Your brethren are gone. They are no more. You are the only three left, and you are clearly not the best of this group otherwise you wouldn't be on guard duty at the first of the night. I will give you my offer only one more time. Would you like to live?"
"I would. I would like to live."
"Good for you. Throw down your weapon and I will let you walk out of here, better yet, I will let you ride out of here. On one condition."
"Anything, just say it."
"I want you to tell you superiors what happened here. I want you to tell them that the offer I'm giving to you, is the only offer that the Mudwood will get from me. Tell them, that The Patchwork Knight is coming for them. Can you do that?"
"I I I I I I, Can."
"Good, throw down your weapon, get a horse and ride out of here as fast as you can. Do not look back and remember what I told you to say. If you don't want to die later, I would also add that you should leave the Realm as soon as you are finished telling them your tale. Now go."
The Raider threw down his small ax and ran towards the horses. The other two stood in astonishment of what had just happened. I saw a pulse of the golden light that surrounded the man standing in front of me, and heard the shuffle of feet from behind. The brief negotiation period had ended and the men were set to attack.
I stepped forward and slashed my blade at the man in front of me. He raised his small rusty sword to meet mine, but it was for naught. It shattered with the impact from my blade. I let my momentum carry me over and I leapt into the leg swinging my back leg over my head and coming down on top of his. I could hear his skull crunch under the impact of my boot. I turned to see him still standing with a crevice in his forehead with a small line of blood trickling from it. His nose began pouring blood just before he fell to his knees and then flat on his face. I quickly turned to see the other man trying to pull my father's sword from the two bodies it was buried in. He was struggling and began moving franticly in a panicked way. I had stabbed the two men with such force that the sword was also buried into the ground and it had a good hold on the old blade. I slowly walked over watching as the man screamed and strained to pull the blade from the bodies. He screamed one more time before losing his grip and falling backwards sprawling on the ground.
I slowly walked to the sword. I sheathed my own sword and reached down without looking, and pulled my father's sword free.
"Where you going to attack me with my own weapon?"
"No no no no. I want to live. I was only trying to retrieve it for you. I will ride off now and you will see no more of me. I will tell everyone that you are coming and tell them what I saw here."
"I'm afraid that offer expired. You will not tell anyone anything. I will do one thing however."
"Yes."
The man looked up at me with hope in his eyes.
"I will give you this sword, since you want it so badly."
I thrust the blade through his chest. He grabbed the blade and stared at it before the life drained out of him.
After pulling the sword from his limp body, I walked to the corral and freed the villagers.
"You are The Patchwork Knight. We had hoped that the stories were true."
"You are free to leave. I would suggest that you return the way you came. When you get to a fork in the trail, go to the right. The end of that trail is my old home I gave a man that was with you and escaped directions to it, and how to care for the gardens that I had for food. Make a new home there, or try to return to your own villages. When this war is over, the King will send men to help you rebuild. Take the horses with you and whatever supplies you can carry. I'm sure you will make good use of it all."
"You will not come with us?"
"No, I have an appointment with the Mudwood at the Kingdom, and I plan on keeping it. You should be save. I haven't seen any Raiders in my area for months. I cleared miles around it from any Raiders long ago."
"May this world see you to your appointment. We will tell everyone that we met The Patchwork Knight and that he saved us from sure slavery and probably death."
"Go and get what you need, once you are ready to go, I will torch what is left of this camp, so that none can use it again."
The villagers began their slow ride back to freedom as I walked through camp and lit every hutch on fire. I stayed until they were all ash on the ground before I walked to my own horse and rode onward towards the Kingdom.
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