Servants in Remnant

Robbing the Robbers

Ebon Sturge was the leader of a decent sized bandit group. He was a large man, standing almost 7 feet with a face that looked like it had been introduced to many a fist. He had gone through military training in Atlas before deserting, and he used that training to help his men. In his group, he demanded discipline, order, and strict obedience. In return, he gave them results. Practicing banditry in this day and age was a difficult endeavor, with Huntsmen with super-powers, corrupted animals that could sense dark emotions, and other bandit groups that would love to take his own on, he personally felt justified in saying that he and his men earned everything that they stole.

He made sure that he and his men followed certain rules. The first one - avoid killing people, if at all possible. When you start killing people, than people who knew them started getting antsy and were willing to put out rewards and such for the removal of him and his men. Additionally, by killing him you kill a source of income. A caravan that's been completely wiped out is a caravan that's not coming through that area again! And that goes into rule two - never steal everything. You've gotta think long term. If you steal everything, that caravan is unlikely to come through the area again. But, if you only steal a portion, than they're more likely to come back again and you can rob them again.

It's a lot like caring for animals really, Ebon thought to himself.

Of course, they had to be fast in order to avoid the Grimm. Whenever they attacked, the Grimm would sense the emotions of those they were attacking, giving them a narrow window of opportunity to escape with whatever they've gotten.

Then of course there is rule three. Never mess with the Branwen clan. He had never met them personally before, but he had a vague idea of where they usually raided, and he made sure to stay away from it. He had no doubt in his mind that he and his group would be demolished without mercy, and he preferred to live, thank you very much.

All of this just emphasized the need for discipline amongst the men. Which was why he was staring coldly at the group of men that come back.

There had been reports of a caravan going through the area, and he sent some of his men to raid it. Meanwhile, he started to direct the rest of his men to start taking down the camp so they could relocate. This would be the fourth large raid in this area, and he always made sure to move the group after a time. It wouldnt do for a Huntsman to get curious and notice a pattern.

It shouldn't have taken too long. Less than an hour to get to the ambush spot, a bit more than an hour to get back, and the fighting wouldn't take that long either. So, after three hours had passed, he felt justified in being nervous, and he pushed his men to pack things up faster.

Then, the scouts reported that the men were almost back, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, when he actually saw them come through the gates, that breath of relief died in his lungs, while the rest of the bandits were trying to hold in their snickering.

They didn't have any supplies, and after looking at then he could tell that they had been in a fight of some kind, seeing the nicks and scratches, as well as several of the men needing to be supported by others.

The reason he could see said scratches so easily? Each man had only their skivvies and boots on.

Faces red with embarrassment and frustration, the men made straight to the tents before Ebon barked out an order to stand in front of him and give a report.

After some shuffling and muttering they did so, eventually forming a line.

Ebon looked at them impassively. "Well?"

One of the men took a step forward, "Sir, we were ambushed before we reached the ambush point."

He stiffened, "By whom?" Most people would just kill us, not... humiliate them like this.