[B]Simon[/B]

Simon maintained an eerie calm as bandits drew closer to his position. He tightened his grip on his sword, even closing his eyes as the bandits began to sneer, "Ha! Is this scrawny excuse for a kid the best this town's got?" a voice jeered, to which Simon offered no response. These bloodthirsty bandit types were like animals, caring only about where their next prey awaited. And so Simon would treat them as such as well, not offering so much as an introduction. Instead only saying one thing and one thing only.

"Leave peacefully, and you may yet live to see the sunrise." this was answered by laughs and scoffs. Unfortunately, the warning fell on deaf ears.

"Kill this whelp!" said a voice, and from there everything became a blur of motion. Someone lunged, an axe raised high to chop into the myrmidon's shoulder and neck. No more words were spoke, instead Simon spun his body forward, the chop of the axe meeting only thin air, but leaving the bandit helpless as the blade of Simon's sword tore through the man's bare waist like the claws of a tiger rending its prey asunder. Simon didn't stop there, his maneuver had given him a momentum he was not about to waste. Simon spun his body forward once more, this time the edge of his blade finding prey in a bandit's neck, cutting through it with almost sickening cleanliness. The third of the bandits who had approached him was just stunned, too slow to act when Simon's movement ended with the tip of his blade jammed cleanly into the man's back at an upward angle so as to avoid being caught in the ribs. With one final spin of his body, Simon simultaneously pulled his blade free of the the now dying bandit and flung the blood of the three men to the ground before giving one final swing as it entered the sheathe from which it was drawn, all in the time it took for the three bandits to hit the ground dead. Simon's assault proved to be every bit as "beautiful" as his reputation alleged it would be.

It seemed, though, that the bandits began adopting a different strategy. Simon stared in silence as a man held a young girl in front of him with one arm, using his free hand to point the blade of his axe to the girl's neck, "Heh, let's see how heroic you are now..." the man taunted, pressing the blade ever closer to the girl's neck.

"...Fool." said Simon, drawing his sword, "You could have walked away, but instead you choose a miserable death. I pray your gods show you pity. Because my father and I will not."