ABU AMBUSHED 

Unknown to Abu Bin Zayyid. In a sharp turn up ahead, concealed by several trees on the right and big boulders on the right side. A group of six bandits had seen him coming from far and laid in wait for him.

The nasty weather had affected their business too as few people were traveling in this foul weather, they could have preferred to stay inside their tents warming themselves next to the fire or in the warm bosom of their women but they had to survive. Ever since the war between Sultan Saladin and the Crusaders had stopped. Resources had become hard to come across and life was tough for these bandits.

Buluhani Ashraf had deserted from the Muslim armies of Sultan Saladin and his five colleagues two years ago to become bandits on the road to Casal Maen mostly but also on the route to Jerusalem depending on their prospects. Life as bandits was rosy, they had become masters of their destiny, reaping big in material treasures. Whatever they killed for was theirs and only theirs, no need of having to report it to a commanding officer or have him give them scraps after taking the best for himself.

Within this period, they had become infamous and elusive bandits. Whoever was unfortunate enough to land in their grasp could live to tell their brutality to the world through their decapitated corpses.

Many knights, traders, and small convoys had fallen prey to them. The local administration had paid bounty hunters to hunt them down, unfortunately for the bounty hunters, the majority of them had become their prey. Currently, the bounty on Buluhani Ashraf and his men stood at 500 silver coins.

Now here, they were, lying in wait for the poor traveler who was so unlucky that even his horse collapsed on him before he could reach Buluhani Ashraf.

Buluhani felt some sympathy for this lone traveler, in the past he could have told his men to stand down and let him pass, waiting for bigger prey but not today. He shared yesterday night, the last food rations with these men before they also shared with their families.

They had to strike big or small today if they were to stave off starving.

Patiently, and hidden. Buluhani and his bandits waited for the lone traveler with his meager luggage from the collapsed horse to approach their designated ambush location.

Abu approached the sharp behind with a mind heavy with thoughts. How was he going to walk all the way to Casal Maen on foot in such bad weather. He hated walking in mud, as it reminded him of the life lived by peasants in his village. Having been inducted and passed out by the Hidden Ones as a warrior. His life had changed, he should not walk or live on the same standard as the lowly servants or slaves.

The mud in the potholes along the way made him feel like vomiting. Having lived in Jaffa for the past two years, at least he had relief from such backward mainland roads. Had it not been for this important task of pursuing the Knight Yosef and his escort squad of Commander Gallo, Abu Bin Zayyid could have turned back.

His ears picked up the sound of heavy footsteps running on the wet ground, splashing in the mud, as they stepped in the muddy water and it splashed overall. These sounds alerted Abu that all was not right. Looking left and right he saw two men running towards him from both sides with long scimitars in their hands. The scimitars were held in a ready manner, just waiting to approach him and strike him.

But this was not the deadliest problem he faced, behind these running bandits, he saw an archer with an arrow nocked in his bow, ready to strike at him. Within no time, the archer realized the arrow which speedily bypassed the bandits on the left and raced to Abu.

With a heavy bag slung across his back, Abu's movement was greatly affected, he threw it down and bent his knees backward at an angle of 30 degrees as he attempted to dodge the deadly arrow approaching him. The arrow arrived and bypassed his stomach by a few inches and he marveled at his close shave. Abu having survived this arrow decided to straighten himself and face the incoming bandits, this is when he lost his footing on the muddy ground. The momentum from bending over suddenly and the effect of gravity on his body caused him to fall backward. He swung his arms to attain balance but it was too late, he ended up in the mud.

Falling backward into the mud, the force of his fall splashed the muddy water up from the ground, as he lay on his back, his mouth open in surprise. A big part of the muddy water fell over him with a portion landing in his unprepared, open mouth.

This is when two arrows from left and right struck and embedded themselves in the wet soil, in the exact spot a few inches from where he was standing previously before he lost balance and fell over.

"Wow! That was a narrow miss, these bastards, want to kill me over nothing." He said in his mind.

This is when two arrows from left and right struck and embedded themselves in the wet soil, in the exact spot a few inches from where he was standing previously before he lost balance and fell over.

"Wow! That was a narrow miss, these bastards, want to kill me over nothing." He said in his mind.

He continued talking in anger in his mind. "Do they think am some street rat they can just kill or rob anyhow, foolish bastards, am an official Assassin's Order member who has killed greater and lesser men than these? They are just playing with fire, let me show them what real killing looks like."

Swiftly, Abu rolled in the mud to gain his footing (by now he did not care about getting dirty as long as he killed these bandits) as he saw the four bandits with swords about to approach him. His weapons were in the bag which he had thrown down a few meters from him, by the time he approached the bag, the swordsmen brandishing their scimitars could have reached him, not counting the two archers who had him in their crosshairs.

Abu decided to run over to face the two bandits on his right as they were the nearest to him. Seeing him running towards them, one of the bandits, removed a small ax from his belt and swung it at Abu at an astonishingly fast speed. With his sharp reflexes, Abu managed to leap away from the approaching ax but its speed was too fast for him, it missed him by several centimeters. Unfazed, he widened his steps and ran to them.

Anger bubbled in his heart; these bandits had tried to kill him, there was no way he could let them get away with it.

Approaching them, they both swung their scimitars at him. Abu quickly sidestepped to the left of the bandits; the two swords slashed in the air where he stood a few seconds ago. This bandit had used a lot of force in his swinging of the scimitar, Abu saw an opening, as this bandit was going to take a few seconds to recover from this slash, he decided to exploit this blunder.

With a powerful punch, Abu struck the elbow of the close bandit on the arm which was holding the sword. The force of the punch was enormous and it dislocated the bandit's elbow, the bandit hollered with pain, letting the scimitar go. Abu had been eyeing this scimitar, he grabbed it before it fell to the ground with his right hand, at the same time he kicked the injured bandit in the groin before he recovered and use the other hand to attack him. The force behind this kick was equal to or greater than the elbow punch. Abu heard the force of the kick-breaking bandits' two balls as his shoe connected with the groin, hurriedly he withdrew his leg and took a fighting posture with the stolen scimitar. This injured bandit was already lying in the mud groaning in pain while cursing at Abu. For now, he had been somehow neutralized so he wasn't going to kill him soon, the other bandit was the biggest threat to him.

Grabbing the scimitar in his right hand, Abu met the other bandit and fenced off with the bandit who was still standing as he attacked him with savage intensity for breaking his comrade's balls.

This bandit was experienced, after several exchanges, Abu had not got an opportunity to make use of, to make matters worse he was stronger than Abu in strength and bigger in physique. Abu had to put in all his strength to defend himself or strike back. On the other side, the other bandits from the opposite side were nearing him. Their number had increased to three having been joined by the archer.

This is when he wished he had his poisoned daggers. He could have killed this bandit as soon as possible.

If pure tactics were not working because of the disparity in strength, Abu decided to resort to tricks to grant him the opening he needed to finish off this bandit.