16 The Village of Ice and Snow (Part Two)

-Charm's POV-

"Leave the village... NOW!"

I commanded with all the authority that I could muster. I then took a step back, raised my right hand with my wand on it, and cast a level 2 fire spell in the intention of overwhelming them.

"Flamma Imbrem!"

Rock-like forms of fiery flames soon emerged from above and poured down on my enemies, but also making sure that the village chief won't be harmed.

As it hit the ground, it soon created a horizontal line of blazing flames dancing in the air which grew ravenous as several seconds passed by, separating the village chief from the rest of these soldiers.

"Get out of here, chief!" I hastily said to the village chief.

He was at first bewildered by what he had just witnessed, but later on after he regained his senses, he quickly fled from the scene. When he's already out of sight, I sternly looked back at these soldiers from Citadel.

*BOOGSH"

Suddenly, there was this huge blast that was caused by a huge snowball hitting the ground, which sent the soldiers flying in the air for a split second and landed in several directions.

"I'm sorry I'm late!"

It didn't take that long for me to recognize the owner of that seemingly alluring voice. Surely, Aurora soon landed smoothly to my right then immediately switched to her fighting stance.

"We're clearly being outmatched here! RETREAT! RETREAT!"

At this point, the soldiers were now able to stand up. As soon as they all got the order from their captain, all of them ran as quickly as they could and fled from our presence.

I saw Aurora attempt to make another huge snowball and was planning to hit the fleeing soldiers but I rested one hand on her hand to stop her.

"So what? We'll only let them escape just like that?" she groans, her eyes looking at me in disbelief.

"For now, yes. The important thing here is we have already driven them out of the village for the meantime." I calmly responded.

"What do you mean 'for the meantime?' Didn't we win earlier?" she added as her forehead creased and confusion is now visible in her tone.

"I'm afraid not." I sighed and looked at her straight in her eyes with one hand now rested on her right shoulder. "There's a huge possibility that they'll come back by tomorrow, and the moment they do that... I'm certain that they'll be bringing a battalion with them."

I heard her respond with 'aaahh' while she nods her head in the process.

"Please witches, spare our lives."

Our brief conversation was soon interrupted by that familiar voice of the village chief. At this moment, he already brings with him other villagers who are standing behind him. Their eyes clearly tell us that they are somewhat scared of our presence.

I decided to take a step forward, cleared my throat first, gathered all my willpower altogether, before I could finally speak in front of them.

"Apologies for this sudden intrusion into your village, but we mean you no harm in contrary to what your beloved government officials say about us..." I paused for a moment and gave each of them a quick glance.

"We are here to help you out! To free you from bondage from the Gilead Empire! So that you won't have to pay your taxes to them anymore." I quickly added.

Sadly, their horrified looks on their faces didn't change one bit.

"Oh really? And how do we know that you're telling the truth?" shouted by one teenage boy resident from the back. The rest of them followed.

I heard Aurora sneering to my right but then I immediately took charge of the situation.

"Tomorrow, there's going to be a battalion of soldiers coming to your village. And to prove to you that we are not your enemies, we're willing to help you defeat them and save your village." I responded to that resident's question.

The rest of the residents soon exchanged whispers, making a fuss.

"In regards to that, we will be needing your help! A number of your armed men will do!" I heard Aurora finally spoke to the villagers.

"We don't have one, nor weapons. You see, we focus more on how to survive than to train to fight." the village chief explained.

Wait, what?!

"No wonder your village can be easily penetrated by outsiders." Aurora said in between her icy breaths then smack her face with her right palm. "Alright, me and Charm will be the ones to take care of the soldiers."

After that very tense conversation with the villagers, the chief soon agreed on letting us stay in here provided that we keep our promise. The old man, to whom I left Baal and Trash with, was the only resident of the village who agreed on letting us stay at his house. He later introduced himself to us as Mang Kanor.

"PYU! PYU!"

Trash was the first one to greet us with its cute little voice as soon as we entered Mang Kanor's house.

According to his stories on our way to his house, we found out something about him. Like how he's been doing since his wife died five years ago and after his only son left him to try his luck at the capital city.

"He has always despised this place."

I remembered him saying back then about his son.

"What happened back there?"

I suddenly went back to what's currently happening when I heard Baal spoke in his still adorable tone.

While we are waiting for dinner that Mang Kanor is now cooking for us, I explained to the guardian animal here in full details what exactly happened earlier.

"We only have me and Aurora that's going to face a battalion of soldiers from Citadel tomorrow." I said, somehow frustrated and heaved out a sigh,

"What do we do? We're clearly outnumbered!" Aurora said, panicking.

"There's another way to win this fight." Baal said, which sparked both mine and Aurora's attention. "And that is to get Deity Roku's blessing upon reviving the spring."

Right! The spring!

"I hate to break it to you talking kitten, but there's no resident here that I've inquired with who knows where the temple is located." Aurora cuts into my celebration. Baal shoots her a sharp look for calling him a 'kitten'.

"Aurora was right. Even I was not able to gather information regarding the temple's location." I said in a flat tone.

"I do!"

We all turned simultaneously to look at the old man who said that. Oh right! I wasn't able to ask him regarding the temple's location earlier.

Well, finally though, we have found someone here who can guide us to where the temple of Deity Roku is.