Sneaking around the bottom of the walls Artanis sighed softly, he was tired and it was late. He had hard marched all the way to this town to scout it for hostiles. Word came it the monastery that local bandits had taken a small city under their control and was bleeding the people dry of their food and valuables. Knowing such a travesty could not be ignored they mobilized and moved out with some local good natured mercenaries. Artanis was sent ahead of the pack to scout around and report back with any news of danger or traps but being bandits they were far from smart enough to set any traps. It was so bright with the moon he could see everything without a lantern.
"This is ridiculous, they don't even have a watch guard? Everyone in this town must be incompetent if they let these bandits take them over" He mumbled as he found a good foothold in the wall and slowly began the climb up. He was ahead of everyone but not too far ahead so he had to get into position to open the gate when the troop came. It was only a dozen or so since the bandits were not organized nor well armed.
Sitting the the top of the wall he thought to himself about why he was there and what he planned to do. It was while he was lost in this thought that a man ran up to him with a sword drawn.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" he demanded "What are you doing here?" He asked with the short sabre pointed toward him. The blade he could see was old and dinged up but if it met his flesh would still hurt something fierce.
"Just a man sitting on a wall, who are you?" Artanis inquired back at the leather and fur wearing man
"Don't be cute with me you little shit, and I'm the man who is going to end your life!" He growled as he tried to stab but the curved blade dinged off even the soft armor of Artanis's
"That was pathetic, you are using a slashing weapon and tried to stab me? Are you stupid?" Artanis was angry at this mans stupidity and kicked him in the knee, he yowled in pain and stumbled backwards. Standing up Artanis closed the gap between them in a moment and kicked him in the gut then kicked again into his face. The man was barely staying on the edge of the wall.
"P-Please NO, HELP ME" The man called to Artanis and everyone but no one was coming to his aid.
"Tsk Tsk, no one is here to help you. Idiot you deserve to die. Hopefully you haven't poisoned the world with your seed and there are more of you, though they are so dumb they might not even reach the age of manhood." While he was talking the man was waving his arms and barely holding on "You are so Stupid, look at you waving around like this and now look at you fall" The man slammed into the roof of a house below and smashed right though it, at that moment a ear piercing scream lit up the town and two woman ran out of the house and into the street screeching like banshees. "ah shit" Artanis mumbled as the town started to come alive.
He ran into the small gatehouse and hid behind the closed door. The town was now awake with villagers trying to calm the woman and the bandits were trying to find out why a hole appeared in the house. They knew where he was and came up both sides of the walls, he saw the man who fell was leading them. There was four on both sides of the building. One had a huge shield, four had large axes, one a bowman, one just a short sword, and the final was with throwing axes.
They quickly splintered the door on the side he came in from, the man with the shield was leading His features were lost behind the huge circular wood shield. It had a lion or something on the front but it was worn away with age and blows but the steel braces held the shield still in fully functional state. All of artanis's blows were being turned away from this thing and the man would lash out at every failure. Slowly being pushed to the corner Artanis was running out of options. The other door was almost down and Artanis was out of time to think of how to escape and he had to fight his way out. He kicked the mans shield throwing the bandit off balance, he tripped on a small wooden stool for the gate rooms watchman and he fell onto the seat. He looked around confused but within a moment Artanis had pierced his throat with his sword.
The axeman was ontop of him swinging the shafted blade without even a though. Dodging and knocked the blows aside he became away of the archer as a arrow whizzed past his body. The Man with the axe took another large swing which Artanis managed to catch with his sword but the steel blade was wrenched from his grip and knocked away. The Archer notched another arrow and the other man with smaller axes pulled his arm back to throw. Acting fast Artanis pushed the man with the axe back, which didn't do a lot since he was huge, it gave him the second he needed the lift the large shield up to catch the blow aimed for his chest. With the axe stuck in the shield he pulled the man toward him by twisting the shield to the side, Off balance the man took two steps forward and suddenly stood up rigid. Blood streamed from his mouth as the arrow pierced his lung and the axe cleaved into the back of his skull.
Putting the shield up he charged the two remaining men outside the door, picking up his sword as he passed it. They had tried to shoot at his feet but were took panicked and missed badly, hitting the ground with the axe and arrow. Artanis Slammed the shield into the axeman and slashed at the archer. He attempted to block the blow with his bow but it snapped and the steel sunk into his flesh feeding on his gushing blood from his shoulder. The other man was knocked to the ground and was dazed so he brought the shield up and brought it quickly down on his neck three times. With both men dispatched and in agony he turned as the door to the other side broke.
Looking over the wall to the right he saw the troop of soldiers coming over the hill nearby, they were almost upon the village and the door was still locked. With the enemy men charging at him turned toward the village and took a step off the wall. With the house coming to him fast he sat on top of the shield so it would take most of the blow and a second later he hit the ceiling hard crashing through it and as he hit the ground the shield splintered and he went sprawling on the ground with his sword flying away again.
The men on the wall looked down trying to see if he lived or not and not even he was sure himself for a few moments but he heard them yelling to more people around his building and he knew his job wasn't done. He grudgingly got to his feet and grasped his sword again. He saw the corpse of the man he let fall from the wall earlier and he wasn't so lucky as he was and he fell head first smashing his skull and breaking his neck. But there was a small shield on the mans back, it was decently sized and in good condition.
"Since you aren't using this, excuse me while I do" Artanis removed the shield from the mans back and clasped it to his left arm then raised his sword with his right and charged out the partially open door of the house. He took the Bandits by complete surprise and taking advantage of it he slashed the face of the nearest one, the bandit buckled to the ground screaming, hopping over the body he bolted for the gate.
A large man with a greatsword barred his path to the door. Looked past the man he saw the door was only being held up by a large piece of wood. He continued to charge the large man using the shield to side knock the blow, and as he ran past he swiped the mans leg bringing him to his knees. He continued to run for the door and as soon as he made it an axe hit the door to his right. He lifted the wooden block and the doors immediately opened toward him and arrows flew at him, he closed his eyes.
"I have lived a good life" Artanis said softly "but my time is not yet" He opened them and the bandits behind him fell to the ground with arrows poking out of them. The Justicar walked towards him and put his arm on his shoulder and patted it twice.
"that'll do" he said and continued to walk into the town.
Artanis was tired and sighed softly to himself as he began to walk back to the monastery
