The Brigand Contract (Complete)

Aberham wrote:Mission Name:They brigand contract
Mission Rank: Experenced
Location: Hyrule field
Description: A group of eight bandits has been identified far from castle town. So far away they are practically on the border of Hyrule. They are well armed and dangerous, it is your job to kill them.
Requirements: Bring back all of their ring fingers and collect their collective bounty
Player Count: 1
Reward: 300k rupees and 500xp
Word Count: 3500
Mission Boss: N/A

Aberham had been making a name for himself.

Ever since he had defeated that knight and taken care of a dragon problem at his home, he was getting renown. This was a great thing! Career wise. Mostly it spread whenever somone asked why a Drake was pulling carts and helping a family of dirt farmers with their labor. His father had been no prouder then to tell them all that his son, a brave knight had the curage to face it in battle and the compassion and mercy needed to allow it to live.

He had been signing every contract he had ever exicuted with his own name. This would become dangerous soon enough, part of the reason he wore this helmet in the first place was so no one but the closest freind would be able to spill his identity. Anomisity was such an important part of the job that when he heard second hand tales of what he had done on his last adventure he sent a letter home asking his father when telling strangers not to mention him by name. "The black knight will suffice for such story's father. But you are yore than welcome to tell them that he is your son."

He had undergone a wardrobe change, he put on a cape that was black on the outside and red on the inside. For he was cold to those he turned his back to and warm to those he would face directly. He had also dived into his study of magic. Reading great tales on knights of great power who could cast mighty spells that could turn the tide of battle. He had learned a basic ofencive and defensive move respectively. But he longed to amp these spells up to their true potential. Lifesaving shields and enough axes to rain on his enemy's were the goal.

Then came the new amounts of work! He was flooded by contract requests from all angles, everyone who knew how to contact him and wanted work done sent him mail. He trippled his rate he was in such high demand! He just hoped he could take on these new challenges. No, he knew he could take on these knew challenges.

Eventually he tired of sending replies to every letter, he picked one at random who could meet his rates. A fellow adventurer contacted him this time, even if it was a relatively slimy individual he was glad to be talking to someone he could simpathise with. It was an amateur ranger. Experenced on tracking prey through the forests. He told him of how he had discovered a bounty in a far away land for sevaral escaped convicts. Collectively the bounty was five hundred thousand rupees. And way more money than was offered in the  contract regarding him. He was hired to catch all of the bandits, but this was far to much work for him to realistically accomplish.

So behind his employers back he sent a letter to Aberham, the plan was that if he accepted the ranger would send him the exact location of their camp. Then once Aberham had taken care of all the bandits he would plug their body's full of arrows and cut off their ring fingers. Aberham could not turn in the bounty himself, because he had no such contact with the bounty givers. It seemed like a good plan, the ranger got double of what he could possibly take away from a job and Aberham got his rate in full for services rendered. As long as he paid, there would be no issue at all.

He mounted up his horse once again and set his corse for the edge of Hyrule. He felt underprepared for this quest. He was wearing the same armor from when he was no better than the ranger. He would have to have it improved after this. He also hoped that his lance and sword would be enough to kill eight armed men without to much difficulty.

Eventually he met the ranger in a tavern at an agreed upon location, he ordered a glass of red whine to strengthen his heart and waited for him to arive. When he finally did a few minutes later it was clear he was not the man that could take on these bandits. His bow was made if the poorest wood gathered from saplings in Hyrule and the knife on his belt was better suited to peeling potatoes and coring apples than to skin animals or cut throats.

He sat next to the black knight and ordered a drink that was far more stronger than his. He explained in great detail how he had swindled his way into the job. He knew a guy at the bounty agency and when he took on this job to end the lives if several heavily armed escaped convicts who were known brigands he gave the fake name of an adventuring company he pretended to work with and took the job.

This was a problem for many reasons. One it was a crime in this kingdom and all around to comit fraud and two he could not hope to take on their group! He devised a plan as he followed their trail of crimes and when he heard for a farmer about a guy who piledriver a dragon and insulted how mother on top of that. He said "That guy, that's the guy I need to help me. Yep him, no one else."

After Aberham had hear everything before he would let the Archer say another word he offered him a contract. He had to use all sorts of legal and illegal terms in it, what exactly both party's want, the consequences of not following the deal for both of them. What would happen in the event of discovery. The whole thing was around four thousand words in it! It was like three times the length of his old contracts. By the time he was done filling in the details his partner was roaring drunk and the sun had set. But they each signed it in blood and it was an official deal.

Then began the planning, he took his cleint away from the bar before he drank to much more and sat him down in a private room where they could discuss their plan. The bandits had set up a temporary camp a few hours on horseback from this town. They have established nightly watches and spend everything they get their hands on as soon as they can. So it would mean they would be guarding their own hides instead of some pile of rupees and gold. These were all prisoners of war and in there number included many heavily skilled combatants. They were armed with various weaponry and victory could not be assured. They were all confirmed murders.

In the end they came up with a plan. They would attack in the early hours of the morning, Aberham would draw their attention and do to his constant insisting, would fight them all outside of their camp on the field, like any honorable knight should! Whenever Aberham would whistle and point to a target, the ranger would snipe it. He was rubbish in combat on his own, but he had brought home the archery prize in his hometowns yearly fair three years running. He was more than capable of hitting a few targets at range if he took up a perch on top of a hill.

So they put their plan into action, after sleeping until three in the morning in their shared room in a totally heterosexual way they set out on horseback to reach the camp. Aberham dismounted once they were on the hill overlooking the camp, it was just a few tents with a laundry pole, a fire pit, some targets plugged full of crossbow bolts, and a trash pile. But as soon as the sun raised almost everyone got up. Aberham could see even from here that everyone in the camp was a woman women, unless if they had a super secret hidden ninth member (which they did not) then Aberham would be fighting a bunch of chicks... The few women he had known in the past with enough spunk to become warriors had been some of the toughest people he had ever known. This would not be easy, but he would engage them in honorable combat nonetheless!


His horse galloped up to the camp and he announced to all the women. "Ready thy selves! You have five minutes to prepare for our battle." He had to duck a crossbow bolt that came from one brigand's crossbow. But when he pulled back on his horse and retreated he was not followed. After three minutes he could see from the bottom of the hill that all the criminals were huddled up and planning their attack. By the time five minutes had past all eight of them were facing Aberham from their camp. They were in a line, they had two crossbow women, three with weapons and shields, one who chose to fight with a pair of brass kuckles, one with a massive two handed mace, and another who was holding the book of a mage. A spellcaster. Great.

The woman with the mace looked to be in charge, she wore heavy armor and a helmet with a spartan like design. She walked forward ahead of everyone else. "So you're the one hired to kill us then huh? It doesn't have to be this wa-" "I am afraid it does!" The knight said interrupting her. "The only one to thank for the situation before you today is yourselves. Now you will fight me, or you will die!" He hopped off of his horse, one of his biggest advantages, and instead drew his broadsword. The woman closed the face of her mask. "So be it."

The first wave to come at Aberham was the three lady's armed with shields and a hand ax, sword, and mace respectively. Their weapons grew red hot as Aberham heard an incantation wash over the battlefield. Their caster could imbue their weapons with magical power! He readied his shield and got ready to fight the only way he knew how, with courage, honor, bravery, and strength!

The woman with the long sword had the longest reach. She dashed forward and swung her blade, Aberham stepped forward and blocked with his shield to counter. He ducked under most of the force of the attack, and the woman took way more steps than she wanted to in recoil. She went scrambling past him. The next woman to attack him wielded her hand mace. She brought it down in an overhead strike but Aberham Bashed with his shield. This massively knocked her off balance. This would have normally been the time when he would have stabbed her and killed her for showing him the slightest weakness. But her shield sister swung her ax immanently.

Aberham's sword moved in a blur. He slashed the hand holding the ax before spinning around and kicking her square in the face. Driving her to the ground, he wanted to plant his boot on her neck at shatter it but her sister with the sword came rushing back in for another attack and he decided against overexposing himself. He stepped to the side and let the woman run into her sister with the mace, who had just about recovered and was readying her weapon to attack. The two ran into each other and both fell into the ground. (Yes, the swords woman was blond.)

He heard the familiar click of a crossbow and instinctively leaned to the side a little bit without even seeing where it was coming from. The arrow whizzed by his face, he saw the mage readying another spell. He knew he had to stop her! He charged forward as fast as he could possibly run in his armor, the woman with the two handed mace did not take kindly to this. She stepped forward and swung her mace in an intervening strike aimed at his head. Aberham blocked the blow with his shield , and could feel the magical power coursing through it. The sound of the mighty slam filled the entire battlefield.

Meanwhile, the woman with a much smaller hand mace got back up and began to charge at Aberham, but was immanently stopped when his ranger friend shot her in the back of the leg causing her to fall and curse in pain.

Aberham recoiled after the power of the strike, he had to take out the mage! She was giving them all power! His current opponent, their heavily armored leader, would not give Aberham an inch. She pulled back her mace and hit Aberham again and again, from different angles each time. Abe kept himself busy by turning to block these attacks with his shield, at one point he had to brace himself with both arms against the assault. But then he saw the tiniest of a flaw in her technique, she pulled up just a little to much with her elbow when it came to over the shoulder attacks. He waited for just the right moment for her to strike again. When she did he moved his sword with perfect timing and got the woman in the fingers, causing her to cry out in pain and drop her weapon. Disarmed she was much less of a threat.

The woman with the boldness to enter this battle with a pair of brass knuckles came running up behind him, and he heard the mage call out an incantation. He knew she was done readying her spell! When he saw the telltale red orb form almost instantly out of her hand time slowed to a crawl and he mapped out his options, he decided just how much force he would need for his plan to work, just what time he needed to dodge and just what time he needed to grab the one with brass knuckles. All in the blink of an eye.

He heroically set his plan into motion! When the fireball came sailing at high speeds at his head he waited until just the last second before tilting his head back and letting it sail some more. Right into the woman who was charging him's face. She cried out in terrible pain as her face was scorched and the flame sphere burst. Her red hair was set on fire. She had so much much momentum however, that she could not slow down fast enough to stop running in time. When she reeched Aberham he ducked low, put his arm firmly in between her legs and lifted her up off the ground before throwing her into the mace woman, who had picked up her woman and was just standing up to strike. This sent both of them onto the ground.

With the crossbow women still reloading and everyone with a melee weapon firmly on the ground Aberham saw that the mage was open plain as day. He charged into her, and she was so surprised and horrified at what she had just done to her ally that she could not bring herself to cast a shield spell on time. He crashed into her and they entered a big cartoon like dust fight, where no one could really see what was going on. She sent out short range waves of force by hand along with some other shotgun like ice and fire magic. But Aberham had such a huge advantage since he had initiated the clash and his armor protected him from most of her attacks.

This went on long enough for his sniper to wonder just what was happening inside the dust cloud, then is cleared for a single second. You could see an exhausted mage with a black eye and a gash on her chest breathing heavily and watch as Aberham readied his mighty boot, bringing it back as far as it would go before he sent it home. "NO!" Said their leader who was fighting to stand up. Aberham kicked the mage several feet into the air and several more feet farther away, destroying what was left of the dust cloud. He sprinted out of the mage, sidestepped a carelessly left there crock pot and leapt into the air. A swing of his sword and the sound of her blood hitting the ground before her meant that the caster was dead.

Aberham turned around, breathing heavily and deeply. He had ice on two places on his armor from when a couple of her frost spells had struck him. It melted very fast and even the water that made up the ice disappeared shortly after it hit the ground. The brigands, who had mostly recovered gazed in horror at their weapons as the red faded. Marking it as perfectly normal steel.

Between breaths Aberham raised his own sword, it was metal like theirs, but he was much more used to fighting with it unassisted. "Who. *Huff Wants. *puff to fight me?" The shield women had regrouped as best as they could and formed a shield wall for the one who was pulling a flint tipped shaft from her leg. They could not tell exactly where it had come from so the defended themselves from the entire area.

The women with crossbows had finished reloading and each shot Aberham, one failed to compensate for the fact that her arrows did not have as much weight to them anymore and way overshot her target, the others would have hit home if not for a magical glowing protection rune having sprung up at the last second saving his life. The bolt cracked against the shield and the one who had missed outright let an expression of terror blossom across her face. Who the hell were they fighting! Aberham saw the fear in her eyes and identified it as weakness. He charged forward sword raised only to have his blow blocked at the last second by the leader, who did not look pleased.

The two entered a weapon clash. The woman used every once of strength she had in her body to bear down on the knight. If her weapon had still been imbued with power she would have won it without a thought. But instead it was Aberham who had magic on his side! His enchanted armor gave him the leg up he needed not only to push her back but to shove her off of her feet onto the hard ground! He raised his blade to kill the crossbow woman in front of him and heard a *Thwik followed by a death cry come immanently behind him. He turned around and saw that the other girl armed with a ranged weapon had given up on reloading and had charged him with her bayonet! He could not hear her unarmored approach because he had been to busy fighting off the leader. If the ranger was not looking out for him then he probably would have caught the steel tip of a bayonet with his spine, being paralyzed was never good in the heat of battle. He looked towards the hill and gave the smallest of nods to his partner, before he sunk his sword into the weak, fearful heart of the woman in front of him.

He turned around, out of the four foes he had left two where injured and the one with no weapon had no recognizable face anymore and was no longer moving, she was probably done in by the casters magical attack. The two shield women were blocking against a sizable number of arrows. By now they had deduced exactly where the archer is but could not do anything about it because if they did their wounded friend would surly perish. They would rather die than abandon their friend. Aberham saw that as honorable, and knew deep in his heart that he had to make their deaths painless and honorable as possible.

He whistled, to his friend in the hills. It was a signal to stop firing arrows. When they did the two warriors in light armor stood up from their defensive crouch, eyeing him up and down and defending with their shields side by side. Everything went quiet for a few moments, as only their breathing could be heard over the battlefield.

Aberham wondered silently to himself if this was what he wanted. Was the life of a knight for him? Is this what he wanted to do? Kill women who were fighting for their own survival for the cash? His heart filled with honor. NO! He would fight with honor and respect, he would be the best knight that the world had ever seen!

The women charged forward and he readied his shield. Filled with pure fighting spirit, he lobbed a magical ax out of the air and it caught one of the women in the ankle, before she could fall down again Aberham sidestepped a mace strike, took a step forward and stabbed her in the heart. He turned to face his last opponent, who cried out in rage, tears in her eyes. She charged forward and attacked with every attack she had. Aberham blocked with his shield standing strong. He realized something, she had no hope of winning now. Her companions were all dead or dieing and she was giving it all she had. But it would not be enough, he knew.

He smashed her in the belly with his shield, it was more than enough to take her to the ground. Her shield went one way and he weapon the other. She had no hope of defending herself. He kneeled over her, looked her in the eyes, he knew what it meant to take a life. "Stop!" Her wounded partner yelled, who was sick of battle. Aberham hesitated, but he knew what he had to do. He finished his opponent with a stab to the heart. Then he walked over to her wounded compatriot slowly.

She swung her ax at him once he drew closer, as a warning to back off. But he just kicked the thing out of her hands, sheathed his sword, and hoisted her up by the throat. After a few seconds when she was choking for breath and pounding on the hand that was holding her up Aberham mercifully broke her neck. He stood there for a while, holding up the warrior he had just killed. Gods... He thought to himself, for his broken heart felt nothing.

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