Mountain hunting

He enters the area a short walk and begins looking around. " Man this place seems like a good place to start searching.". He goes on top of the tallest nearby hill and looks around. While looking around he finally is able to take notice of the floating boulders that were once hidden behind the hills. Unable to help himself he spoke aloud, " Holy shit. This is amazing!" Even after all the years of being a mercenary this was still a new and amazing experience. With such an amazing sight at the beginning of his search he knew things were going in a great direction.

Just as Devis exclaimed, there would be hundreds of boulders spread out over the expanse of the hilled zone. Some of them were floating, others glowing or emitting some form of energy. The place was extremely potent with both chi and ki. Most likely it was an Earth users paradise. There were several paths, all going along the less hilled parts of the area. There were very few trees about and to the Southwest, Devis would see a large mountain range that seemed to rise from absolute nothing. Clouds covered the base of the mountain and it seemed like it would be a pretty long journey to its base.

"Well I'll be damned, luck is on my side today. A long walk huh? Well better hope my luck stays this good." With his goal in sight he decided to head on taking in one last view of his surroundings before moving on. "Ah! I need to do the daily check up on my gauntlets. Good thing I can do that while walking. I wonder if there is anything wrong with them today?" With this in mind he soon forgets his surroundings and focuses his attention on his gauntlets while peeking every minute to keep himself on track.

A bad thing to do in any wilderness was losing focus of your surroundings, especially while moving. As Devis did a diagnostic on his gauntlets, about 5 minutes into the area, eyes would fall upon him. Seeing him absorbed in his tinkering, the eyes would follow him in the shadows, unseen and unfelt by him.

'Easy pickings...' One of them thought.

"All circuits still intact and functional? Check. All gears intact and functional? Check. Hmmm, everything seems in order. Wait, what's that? Damn it, something is stuck in the electric generator. Crap, another small piece of sword. Always seem to find a piece stuck in there after fighting a few people wielding swords. Almost there, annnd . . . done." A spark then flies of the left gauntlet and lights a small fire on a nearby tree. " Oh shit!" Taking immediate action he quickly begins punching the tree. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" After a few punches the fire quickly goes out just as fast as it started but leaving obvious evidence that a fire was here and someone with large metal gauntlets put it out. Taking a quick look around of his immediate surroundings he spots no one and quickly brings out the blade in his gauntlet. "Never happened." He then chops the tree down and poorly hides behind a few trees. He whistles for a few seconds while walking away in the direction of his destination. He then continues his daily check up mutter to himself and saying aloud, " I'm an idiot."

The eyes that watched Devis couldn't help but sweat drop after he essentially murdered one of the very few trees even within the area. Seeing that the boy, though he had strength, was probably an idiot, they decided now the best time to make their move.

"FLASH BANG OUT!"

A call behind a small cluster of boulders would grab Devis' attention before a small blue object soared over towards him and burst in the air. It would most likely blind Devis momentarily and in that moment he would feel a sharp kick to his stomach, knocking him off his feet. If he got his bearings back together, he would be faced with three bandits, two men and one woman. They all wore basic leather breast armor with short sleeved black shirts and black jeans. They all wore black bandanna with the symbol for gaia on it. They were part of the Legaian Bandit Group that usually roamed the Boulder Hills.

The first man smirked at Devis. "Alright boy, you know the drill. Pay up and we won't beat the ever loving shit out of ya."

Devis takes notice of the voice from behind the small cluster of boulders and quickly turns toward the voice to notice the small blue object only for what the voice said to finally kick in, flash bang. "Shit." Being the last thing he was able to think before being blinded and deafened for few seconds before regaining his senses. Once his were regained he took notice of the figures in front of him. Bandits huh? "Well," he closes the gauntlet up, " I guess I'll" he activates his stun generator on his right gauntlet to level one, " have to fight." He then lunges towards the closest person with the stunning gauntlet forward.

Seeing the boy recover from being kicked off his feet so fast, the three knew he wasn't a pushover, but he wasn't very observant either. The three were side by side, so no one was closest. As he lunged forward, all three would move back. The two on the left and right would move to the sides in their respective directions before pulling out pulse daggers. Small blue energy blades extended from a small hilt and the bandits lunged forward on both sides of Devis, aiming to cut his sides. The girl, whom was the one in front of him just stood with a smirk and a hand on her hips as she had a large black pole slung over her shoulder.

"Not very smart are ya?"

"I have my moments yes, but those moments can be the greatest of gifts to bait in opponents and make them underestimate me." He would say this with a sly grin while waiting for the two bandits get closer until they were just a couple of inches from two foot away. He would crank the level of the shock generator to level four making them run into the shock field shocking and temporarily stunning them. He would then use the moment gained to quickly turn on the other shock generator to level one and turn down the other to level one as well and grab the men by the heads shocking them further and stunning them again. The next thing he would do after a few seconds would be to knock the men's heads together hopefully knocking them out and tossing them aside. He would smile at the female bandit and motion come with his hands.

(You should know this shouldn't have worked. The time frame between their attacks and your own would have allowed their attacks to hit first. But I was told to let it slide this one time. :3)

The rough handling of the two bandits would indeed send them to the world of unconsciousness. The female bandit looked surprised and narrowed her eyes when she realized Devis had a few tricks up his sleeve to. Unfortunately for him, they had never underestimated him to begin with. (lol you underestimated them honestly.) The woman moved the black pole she held in front of her as if it were a sword and held it with both hands.

"You've got skills. Maybe you should join us."

She called before slashing down with the weapon and sending a blade of wind at Devis. It was fast and unexpected, meaning he would be hard pressed to avoid it. As the wind blade cleaved towards him, the woman was already rushing forward, the black pole beginning to glow with a small blue tint.

He would see the wind blade and would be a little surprised and would interlock his fingers to form a large wall in front of him. What he would do next would depend on how much of the wind blade hit him. If the blade was completely blocked he would turn the right gauntlet up to five while dodging forward and right to avoid whatever that pole could do if it was striking in a vertical manner.

Then from the dodge he would make use of her flinching from going into the shock field by turning on the other gauntlet to level one and bring it into her stomach stunning her while turning the right back down to one, he would hold it a couple of seconds then smack his two gauntlets on both sides of her head to try and knock her out(barring that her pole didn't strike in a horizontal manner or have an aoe effect). If he was partially hit he would flinch allowing her to get closer in which he would jump back and left putting himself in a defensive stance and activating his shield on his left to level two and shock gauntlet level four on his right.

If he was fully hit he would stammer back leaving himself only enough time to put up shield and shock generator where hes at to same level as previous possible reaction statement.

(Also thank you for letting me know I messed up, I'm still new to it and I should pay more attention to what is stated. Also it has come to my attention that I did not state how he activates his mechanisms and I do apologize I will edit my weapons list later to clear that up but for now I will simply tell you. He activates them through a series of infections in the palm of his gauntlet that are small he has press in on with his fingers, he can do this with the hand he's activating them for. Also the gauntlet I activated to level four on my previous post was my right gauntlet, I will try to be more clear from now on. Once again thank you and sorry.)

Devis' reflexes were good as he blocked the wind blade and attempted to dodge. However, the girls smirk showed she had anticipated such as well. As he narrowly avoided her thrust, she would send a small amount of chakra into the pole she held and the blue glow would burst outwards into a small sphere of electricity. However, she wasn't expecting Devis to do the same thing. The electric pulses collided and cause an explosion of electricity that would send the two bouncing several dozen meters away from each other. The girl would have small electric burns on her hands and arms but would otherwise seem fine.

She groaned as she attempted to stand to her feet and noticed her weapon was completely burned and unusable. Devis had output a far larger amount of electricity than she had and had fried her weapon. "Dammit, what the hell was that?"

Seeing her two unconscious comrades and now finding herself without a weapon she knew she couldn't win. "That was unexpected. But I'm not gonna push my luck. You win this time." She called and run to her two teammates before pulling out a small black box and pushing the red button on it. In a flash, the three bandits were gone.

Devis was free to continue his journey towards the mountains.

With the fight now over Devis was free to get up and dust himself off and stop reeling from the explosion that had occurred. Realizing he had made to many rookie mistakes he knew he would have to train more, he would also need allies that can help him realize those mistakes and help him overcome them. For now he would have to finish his current objective and head back to the city. So he would then check his gauntlets just once more before heading on.

The remaining trek through the boulder hills would be far more peaceful than many would expect. The natural inhabitants of the land would leave Devis be, some having already scurried away due to the skirmish from earlier. After what seemed several hours of walking, the ground would begin to incline. The mountains that Devis had seen earlier began to loom overhead and the boulders of the hill began to cluster together more, almost turning the fields and plains into maze like caverns. A light mist began to cling to the ground. If Devis focused, he'd feel that the mist was being generated by a powerful build up of chi and ki in the area.

With the mist building up and the chi and ki becoming more dense he would begin to walk much more cautiously feeling on edge from the sheer power emanating the world around him. A sense of dread came over him as well just from the thought of how strong anything that can live here must be, and if he's nervous from just being here he might be somewhere isn't ready for yet. But it was to late for cowardice, he was here and he still had an objective to complete so all he could do would be to move forward, for better or worse he had to find something even if wasn't what he came for. "I can't just let myself die with nothing I want to do accomplished."

Walking forward, Devis would finally reach the base of the mountain. The boulder hills were far behind him and it seemed as if multiple, obscure paths lead to this spot. Even more interesting, it seemed as if something had intentionally drawn him. No other living entity seemed to be around, yet Devis would not know this. The choking thickness of the chi and ki would not effect him right away.

Almost as if beckoning him, some of the mist before him would clear away. In front of him would be a large crack in the mountain, one in which was big enough to fit several giants, let alone a small person. How could the entrance have been hidden so well from simple mist?

Either way, it was up to Devis on whether he would explore further or turn back.

Continued here!