The Lord of Darkness took one deliberate step, and then another. His boots sunk into the ground until their soles were touching the soft dirt directly. Each step left dozens of puncture wounds in the ground from his cleats. Death flames blazed through his body with such potency that not even his incredible amount of control could completely contain them. His skin dripped the magical representation of the end of life itself. The feeling of the tip of the Reaper's scythe resting against their throats assaulted every living mortal present.

The blood drained from the bandits' faces and two of them, Aiden and Rich, dropped to their knees as their legs gave out completely. Karson wavered but somehow didn't fall over and Tarel was motionless as if he was made of chiseled marble. The boss of the bandits hunched into his shield a bit further as the weight of what was probably his impending death settled unto him like the weight of the heavens.

Isaac planted his boot right next to the boss's and raised his fists into a fighting stance. He was close enough to the larger man's shield that he could have elbowed it. That proximity was a statement and warning to the bandit leader of how far through him Isaac's fist was going to go. "Clench your teeth." Was the only warning Isaac gave the bandit leader before he tried to send his right fist through the man's shield and into his chest.

Isaac's right cross threatened to go through the warrior's shield but the steel somehow didn't tear. Whether that was a good or a bad thing was up for debate. Because the steel didn't tear, the shield instead folded inside out around Isaac's fist. That meant that the warrior's forearm, which was threaded through a pair of leather straps on the other side, was instantly broken in half. That alone would have been awful but Isaac had put everything he had into that punch and there was still plenty of energy left from the strike. The shield slammed into the warrior's breastplate with enough force to deform the breastplate like it had been hit by a stone shot from a ballista at point blank range. The warrior's broken arm, which was caught between the two clashing steel objects, was cut in half in a very messy fashion. The warrior's other hand, which was bracing the shield a mere few inches from Isaac's impact point, had its wrist shattered from the unbelievable force that had assaulted the shield.

The bones in Isaac's forearm tried to shatter from the force but the death flames inside of them were so intense that the bones had that thought murdered before it had even become a reality. The skin on his knuckles was another story, but they were healed before any of Isaac's blood could be spilled. His knees nearly gave out though from his boot's protest to the opposite force of his punch. His boots had attempted to stay in place but his top half lacked the mass necessary to prevent it from going ballistic. His core muscles strained enough that he was able to keep from folding backwards like a door pushed the wrong way through its frame.

Both men were sent flying in opposite directions, though Isaac brought with him a section of turf and dirt and only traveled a handful of feet. The bandit boss was sent through his tent and into a tree fifteen feet away. From there, he and the tree toppled back and then thudded onto the damp forest floor. The tree was young but not so young that any of the bandits present would have ever tried to cut it down without a woodcutters ax.

Isaac skidded to a halt and shook out his hand. He slowly started walking towards the bandit leader and began his monologue. "There were plenty of physical attacks that I had to choose from, one of which I really wanted to try, but that was the only one that I could do seriously and you still have a chance at living through. Do you know why I chose that one?" Isaac asked as he started walking on what was left of the destroyed tent the bandit had gone through. He did not get a response.

"You probably killed him." Lenna commented. She wasn't wrong, whiplash very well might have killed him instantly from being launched in such a way. Even if it didn't, the impact of the back of the bandit leader's head with the tree could have caused the squishy inside bits to become less jiggly and more pulpy.

Isaac frowned as he finished covering the distance to his most recent victim. Isaac looked down at the crumpled mess of a man half embedded inside of a fallen tree. "He's still breathing." Isaac called over his shoulder towards Lenna.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Do you want me to save him?" Lenna questioned.

Isaac let his boosting ability die down as he teleported to stand just in front of the only bandit still standing and coherent. "What were your boss's crimes?" Isaac questioned Karson.

Karson was quiet for a long moment and Isaac raised an eyebrow in question. Karson jolted. "Uh, robbery, murder, something he doesn't remember committing." He stammered out.

Isaac looked at Lenna and then nodded. "Just stop the bleeding from his arm, if he dies after that then he wasn't meant to live." Isaac told his mate and then turned back to look at the young man he had questioned. "What about you?" He asked while Lenna moved to fulfill Isaac's request.

"I slept with a baron's wife, the night after the daughter brought me home to meet the family." Karson explained with absolutely no shame whatsoever. "He ran me off and I may have helped myself to a few of their nicer but very fencible items along the way."

"A playboy with sticky fingers." Isaac summarized. "Serves you right that you were exiled, but you are also just the right kind of character to work for me. What crimes have you committed since then?"

"Armed robbery?" Karson asked like he wasn't sure if Isaac had wanted him to mention that one. "Spying on some of the ladies in the caravans? I don't know if that is actually a crime or not."

Isaac didn't know if he should shake his head in disappointment, warn the man against trying something similar with his wife, or just tell the rogue that he was hired. He was just the right level of crazy and free-spirited that Isaac and Phantom would be able to get good work out of him for a steady stream of coins. "What's your name?" Isaac asked the rogue.

"Lincoln Karson. Everybody just calls me Karson because there's another Lincoln." He told Isaac and then looked towards one of the long silent tents. "Well, there was."

"And what about the rest of them?" Isaac asked Karson.

"Rich somehow talked a petty theft charge up to the death penalty, but someone pointed out how ridiculous it was so they downed it to exile and threw him out." Karson explained. "He just has this way with words that makes everyone hate his guts."

"Fuck you." Rich countered but shut up as soon as Isaac looked down at him without turning his head. It was the look that someone would give a bug that they saw on the floor out of the corner of their vision.

"Tarel's been here forever." Karson went on and nodded towards the man who had finally moved just enough to keep his eyes glued onto Isaac. "Armed robbery of a general store, assaulting a guard, drunken disorderly conduct, and probably a few other things that just added up to him getting exiled."

"Regular troublemaker things." Isaac agreed. "And the last two?"

"Aiden couldn't get laid and decided to drug some girls at a bar to get his fi-" Karson's words died in his throat as Isaac appeared in front of Aiden and kicked him between the legs with just enough death flames to ensure that the man bled out through his missing offending appendage. Shadows silenced Aiden's screams of agony and rage as he writhed on the ground.

"Give me details about that crime your boss doesn't remember committing." Isaac demanded of Karson as the bandit stared fixedly at his former companion who was bleeding out incredibly quickly in his pants. "Your boss."

"What? Oh? Yeah, the boss." Karson swallowed. "He's not a bad guy, he just made some mistakes." Karson said between shaky breaths.

"What kinds of mistakes, Lincoln?" Isaac demanded in a voice so calm it could have silenced a rainstorm.

"He gets a bit handsy when he's drunk ya see." Karson began. "Sometimes he fights people, sometimes he would grab the waitress's ass, you know, what you would expect from someone like him."

"I'm getting impatient, Karson." Isaac told him just as Lenna finished up healing the boss's arm over so he wouldn't bleed out within the hour, probably.

"He may have taken it a bit too far a few times." Karson unhelpfully explained.

"Taken what, exactly, too far." Isaac said and took half a step towards Karson which made him backup.

"One of the waitresses said he took her in the back and, ya know… He says he doesn't remember any of it." Karson added, almost in hopes that it would save his former boss.

Isaac sighed and rubbed his temples. "Mortals are needlessly complicated." He said to himself but also to those who could easily hear him. He was going to have to kill the boss, who he just had Lenna keep alive, unless the boss was from one of the very small handful of places without a magistrate. If it was a court of non-paladins or clergy, then a false accusation was possible, especially if it was against someone known for grabbing waitresses. But that was the boss's only chance at survival. They wouldn't know unless the boss regained consciousness or they had someone who could read minds and memories dive into the depths of the man's most likely damaged mind. "Grab Tarel and follow me." He told Karson and started walking towards Lenna.

"Hey?!" Rich questioned indignantly. "What about me?"

"What about you?" Isaac asked and cut him down to size. "You were right, his voice does just make you want to murder him." He finished as Rich's head thudded against the ground. "Now, what to do with you?" He asked Tarel and Karson. "You two do not deserve to die right now. Well, not if you can make yourselves useful."

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