Rolith turns around and gives him an incredulous glare. "Shhh!" 

Yeah, Roy tends to feel the same way.

Elan shuts up though, hoping that he's gonna get higher than a four.

The bandits aren't listening out for approaching knights—which, it soon becomes apparent, is because they're focused on a softer target. 

"Well well well, what have we here? How foolish of you, Priestess, to travel through these woods—MY woods—with only a moglin for escort!" 

On the bright side, it sounds like they've found the bandits!

Elan rushes forward to get a better look.

A band of masked, leather-clad ruffians have surrounded Lady Celestia and are brandishing miscellaneous weapons threateningly at her. The guy doing the talking is the only one not wearing a mask; he also has a purple cape and a fancy sword, just in case Elan was in doubt about who the important characters are. 

"My men have you surrounded. You have nowhere to run, and no one is coming to save you. Now, hand over the Black Dragon Box." 

If Roy was here, he'd probably want to think about a plan for confronting these guys. But this isn't Roy's story.

"Not so fast, you big meanie!"

Elan steps into view, rapier in hand.

"You should leave the nice lady alone! Why do you want that box, anyway?"

Dramatic villain monologue: unlocked! 

"Who do you think you are, talking to me like that? I am Drakath, the rightful ruler of this land! The Black Dragon Box is the key to my throne, and there's no way I'm letting a peasant like you keep it from me. Stand down, or like the trash that you are, you will be blown away by the winds of my great destiny!" 

Oh good.

"I'm Elan! If you're so rightful, why are you banditing in the woods instead of ruling the land?"

"Do you know nothing, peasant? My father, the late King Slugwrath, was overthrown many years ago by the vile usurper Alteon." He spits to the side. "With that box and what's inside it, I will finally have the power to avenge my father and reclaim the throne!" 

(As Elan keeps Drakath monologuing, the knights are sneaking around to flanking positions, ready to turn the tables on the bandits.) 

"Oh, does your dad's ghost appear to you and tell you what to do? That happened a lot to my friend Roy. His ghost dad was a huge jerk."

Elan shakes his head.

"It's still mean to steal, though, even if it's what your jerky ghost dad wants! You should have asked Lady Celestia nicely instead!"

.....what??? 

"First you insult me, and now my father as well? Prepare to die for your words, you low-born simpleton!" 

Roll initiative. 

"Pfft, if I was gonna die for saying dumb stuff I wouldn't have made it to Bard Camp."

He gets into a ready position, prepared to parry.

And sticks out his tongue.

With a yell, Drakath attacks. 

He might have a big fancy sword, but it's clear that he isn't used to fighting opponents with any real skill. Shock flashes across his face when Elan successfully parries his powerful swings, and his own defence is clumsy. 

Around them, Rolith and his knights take their cue to engage the rest of Drakath's bandits, keeping them from coming to their leader's aid. 

Yay, being a distraction worked!

"Is this the part you blow me away with your destiny? 'Cause to be honest, I'm more worried about all that hot air."

Swordthrust!

"You—!" 

He attacks harder and faster, raining down a flurry of sword blows in an attempt to make Elan shut up. 

Whew, he hit a nerve there! Elan dodges as best he can; he's not sure if this ends with Drakath exhausting himself from how hard he's attacking or with Elan waking up in the infirmary with Sir Junn or maybe even Captain Rolith telling him off for being reckless and provoking him too hard.

Well, he can do his best to be exhausting to fight.

"What about me?"

(Elan tries to get a sense of what's going on in the rest of the fight without getting too distracted from Drakath. Getting too distracted because your ally looks like they're in danger is how you turn into the ally who's in danger.)

Sir Norre and Sir Jer are working together to keep three of the bandits busy. 

Rolith is handling the rest.

His warhammer is a blur of motion as he takes on three bandits at once. Two more are already on the ground, clutching their heads and whimpering.

Seeing Elan's divided focus, Drakath seizes the moment to press the attack, trying to drive Elan backwards and send him off balance. He's stepping up his game now, recognising that he's facing a genuine threat. 

Elan's fought better swordsmen. 

Oh, cool, this is the first kind of fight.

And it's probably about time to wrap it up! Elan doesn't actually want to kill this guy, so he'll need to end things another way. Such as with a disarming technique that he hasn't actually done himself before, but that looked really badass when Julio was teaching it to him.

And it is narratively appropriate for Elan to defeat this guy but leave him alive to be a recurring villain later, so: this works! Drakath's sword is knocked from his hand, much to his shock and displeasure. 

"Impossible!" He clutches his stinging, empty hand and scowls at Elan. "You got lucky this time, peasant!" 

(Around them, the few bandits still on their feet see that their leader's been defeated and flee into the woods.)

"A hero makes his own luck! Or her own luck, if she's a girl hero!"

Elan sees the rest of the bandits fleeing.

"Well, it looks like we got what we came here for. You should look after your guys. Oh, that reminds me, my girlfriend once said that trying to make a living as a bandit gang isn't a good idea, because you gotta take huge risks just to break even! So maybe you should talk to them about finding a different job."

He waves, then rejoins the group of knights.

"Lady Celestia. I'm glad we got to you in time." 

(Unspoken: and if you'd stopped at the keep instead of taking a shortcut, you'd have had a knightly escort to begin with, and we wouldn't have had such a panicked scramble to save you.) 

"Thank you. I am grateful for the rescue. Alas, while you were bravely fighting off the bandits, a sneevil ran off with the box." She seems quite calm about this. 

… Elan's going to be annoyed if she turns out to be a twist villain. She was so nice!

Well, if she is a twist villain he won't gain anything from treating her like one, and if she isn't it would be mean.

"What's a sneevil? Are they really good at taking care of black dragon boxes?"