Like certain bandits I prepared to fight (3-5)
I believe the answer is:
one-armed
'like' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'certain bandits i prepared to fight' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'i' could be 'one' (Roman numeral for one) and 'one' is located in the answer.
'prepared' could be 'armed' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'armed' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for one-armed that I've seen is " A slot machine is considered to be this type of bandit".)