Berserk : The Deviant

Still towards the nearest city, they continued peacefully on their way when suddenly, riders coming from both sides of the road intercepted them and surrounded the two wagons to start circling around them. 

"This smells like gold" 

"Look what we have here" 

"The big wagon behind, it looks very well reinforced. There must be some cool stuff inside" 

"Women or gold" 

"maybe a noble's daughter rahahahah" 

The 21 bandits on horseback said with amusement as they circled around them while Barkha's men looked at them impassively, they were even annoyed by these guys.

A rider at the top of the hill on the right looked at everything in silence, he was tall, sturdy and with a large war axe with armor.

"You are surrounded by the famous and fearsome gang Raul and his 21 bandits. Wisely hand over everything you have and your death will be quick, fight and you will suffer, there are some in my gang who like to have fun with women as well as men." He said with authority and his men started to laugh. 

Vincent, one of Barkha's men at the front started to think while listening to Raul. 

Vincent: Are you the famous gang of looters and rapists "Raul and the 21 bandits" ?! You are wanted and there is even a bounty on you... 

"It feels good to know that we are famous bahahahahah, 100 gold pieces that these nobles put on our bounty it seems." Raul said proudly. 

"100 gold pièces ? Gentlemen, do you plan to sit comfortably for much longer ? » They heard Barkha's voice and his men started to smile because of Vincent's provocation who had worked.

He had asked these questions about Raul's bounty out loud for Barkha to listen to from inside his wagon. They wanted some action so these bandits were welcome. 

"Guys, we decided to fight, please attack us without mercy" Leo, Vincent's partner said at the front with amusement while the four brothers of shadows drew their short swords or other secondary weapons.

The brotherhood had equipped its members with different weapons. First, a normal secondary weapon (short sword, medium axe, morningstar etc), a main weapon which was a claymore in silver/Calciros alloy an ore found at the bottom of other caves on the top floor in Golm.

This blue ore was extremely valuable although abundant in Golm, dark blue in color it had the characteristics of being terribly flammable and did not consume, it could burn infinitely and its fire was incredibly hot once lit.

The dwarves used it to fuel their furnace as a kind of magical and durable coal but also to make other objects like mystical lamps.

The creation of these swords was the work of Barkha himself who had succeeded in a terrifying mixture from a long process between silver and Calciros to create silver swords that lit up with an extremely hot blue flame out of their scabbards by an installed device.

Yes, Barkha was really a monster to create this kind of thing in two years of apprenticeship with Alfgest who had recognized him as a dangerous prodigy.

He knew that the deviants were special and terribly talented, the last one before Barkha had made the continent his empire but Barkha himself was on another level. 

Of course, not all were equipped like that with more than 400 brothers of the shadows and the strongest were favored, Barkha with his gold sent men to collect silver ore or silver objects in large quantities and paid the dwarves to do the alloy work for him.

This is where a good part of his gold went, the equipment, the maintenance of his men and the purchase of many other things . 

(now) 

Vincent, Leo (Leonard), Kail and Marco the four brothers of the shadows got down from their seats at the front of the wagons with their secondary weapons smiling while Raul annoyed by their provocation charged towards them ordering his men to attack.

One of the bandits fired a crossbow bolt that Leo deflected laughing with his short sword while the projectile lodged in the neck of another bandit moving on his horse. 

They began to attack these poor bandits and the massacre was only a fun for the brothers whose frightening agility (Legolas level) allowed them to jump from horse to horse to kill the riders, all while having fun.

Consuming monster flesh for two years had given them physical prowess that normal humans could only dream of (the tapasas are able to move like that too, it's not really a super power but the peak of humanity in the Berserk universe, Guts is capable of resistance and strength that are practically impossible for humans in our world so we shouldn't compare the human elite of Berserk to that of our world) 

Raul saw his men being cheerfully massacred and wanted to escape when Marco threw the spear of one of the dead bandits directly into his head from the back of the skull and the throw was particularly powerful. 

"In his head ? Seriously ? What if the face is too damaged to be recognized ?" Kail asked him and Marco just shrugged saying that they could take his entire body away by staring at him above the treasure wagon.

They arrived at the nearest city, the city of Lavys and the fiefdom of Count Richard where they were checked by the guards at the entrance where they were asked questions about the corpses and they told them who it was. 

Guard 1: What are you carrying in these wagons ? 

"Gold in this one and in the largest, there is the lord our leader in the company of his advisor." Vincent said without any restraint or fear and it made the guards laugh who asked to open the wagons for inspection and without any worries, they opened the wagon to see the 7 chests with several gold coins outside.

Immediately, the guards remained frozen and Leo immediately closed the wagon under the mocking laughter of Kail and Marco at the front of Barkha's wagon.

Guard 2: This gold, where did it come from ? 

Vincent: A treasure discovered by our lord. 

Guard 1: Who is your lord ? 

"Lord Barkha, does that name ring a Bell ?" Vincent asked and the guard didn't say anything for a few seconds before giving them permission to enter, he then whispered something to the other guards as he watched the wagons enter.

What was Barkha doing in side ? He was sleeping with Corell who was resting his head on Barkha's muscular chest, she was really sleeping a lot after what he made her do last night.

Inside, Vincent who was the highest ranking took matters into his own hands and asked to be guided to the most secure stable in the city and he was shown the large inn "Fleur de Lavys" frequented only by wealthy merchants and nobles near the western entrance of the city but before being guided there, Leo took Raul's body and went to submit it to the authorities to collect the bounty of 100 gold coins while the others went their own way.

The procedure took a little while but he came out of there with a big purse full of gold. He walked carelessly through the streets of Lavys in the middle of the evening, he noticed that people were watching him but they didn't care. He was heading west of the city where to find the inn where the others were when suddenly... 

"HELP…" he heard the voice of a woman in distress and headed in her direction to see a pretty blonde woman surrounded by a dozen men on a street corner, he moved forward when suddenly four men who were hiding came behind him to close the passage through which he came. 

"Ah, so naive these foreigners…" The pretty blonde said with amusement as she turned around to taunt Leo still calm who had fallen into their ambushes. 

"You are always so efficient, Vera. It always takes an idiot to come to the aid of the first damsel in distress rahahaha, welcome to Lavys my boy. Now, kindly give everything you have or we'll take it from your corpse." A blond and rather handsome man said with a smile. 

"Regis, it's him that the little ones saw delivering the corpse for a bounty. He must have a lot of gold on him now. (to Leo) You have gold for us, my brave savior?" Vera said with amusement and the others started laughing to mock Leo. 

Leo : How much ? 

Régis : What ? 

"How much for me to spare your lives ? You have 10 seconds, I'm in a hurry..." Leo said calmly when Vera the girl asked the men behind Leo to catch him but at a speed far too fast for them, Leo turned around and with a single kick, he hit three of the four men in the head.

Leo's strength was on par with tapasas and that single kick violently broke the necks of those bandits, the sounds of cracking joints were heard and his men fell to their deaths.

The fourth man got punched in the throat by Leo and the place was completely deformed by the blow, he died painfully on the ground as Leo calmly picked up the knife from one of his last victims, he didn't want to stain his weapons and clean the blood afterwards.

"YOU BASTARD! KILL HIM!" Regis ordered as he pulled out his rapier as the other men charged towards Leo who only smiled in a sinister manner, they started to attack him but he dodged each of their attacks by slitting the throats or stabbing the bandits in vital areas to kill them.

Leo was fast, too fast for them and in a few seconds there was only one man left next to Regis. 

"That guy...he...he's not human...we're going to die" The bandit said but Leo directly threw his knife into his face to kill him. In front of the siblings, he removed his hood and they could see his silver eyes that glowed slightly in the darkness of the alley. 

Vera : Dressed in black...silver eyes...REGIS !! 

REGIS : The brotherhood of shadows...it's not a rumor after all. (to Leo) We want to negotiate for our survival, my sister and I. 

"The 10 seconds are up, you're going to die today..." Leo said as he started walking slowly towards them. 

Vera : REGIS !? 

"He's strong but he's unarmed, I won't allow us to die here...not now..." Regis said before attacking Leo with his rapier, he honestly had excellent technique and speed. In terms of fencing skills, he was only slightly inferior to Griffith or Serpico but Leo was on a whole other level.

He dodged all of Regis' attacks before grabbing the wrist of his armed arm and kneed him under the elbow to deform his joint and Twisting it into an unnatural shape under Regis' cries of pain but he didn't stop there and with the palm of his right hand, he violently hit his chin to brutally close Regis' mouth who was screaming. 

Poor Regis bit his tongue as his teeth shattered from the shock of the violent collision and blood began to flow from his mouth under his sister's cries behind.

He tried to beg Leo who immediately stuck the tip of his own rapier in his throat to watch him die choking on his blood.

Leo after taking the pretty dagger stored on Regis calmly approached Vera who immediately backed away but there was a wall behind her. 

 "Please...please don't kill me, I'll do whatever you want...I'll do anything sir..." She said as she began to remove her clothes to show her chest. 

"I'll go have fun with prostitutes later, I don't see why I'm going to lower myself to rape you." He said smiling before strangling Vera against the wall with one of his hands and having the other hand, he repeatedly stabbed her in the chest and abdomen before planting the knife in her heart.

He put on his hood before leaving there whistling a melody, Barkha didn't create this brotherhood to defend justice or train heroes. They were treasure hunters, mercenaries and assassins who followed him blindly so pity was not really in their register if they were provoked.

Like Leo, they could defend innocents if they wanted to like he tried to do for Vera but in general, they didn't care. They were not bandits, looters or rapists but provoking them was practically a death sentence.