Chapter 2

Their training continued unabated for many years. Although the villagers would continue to pay attention to them when they were present in the village, the mountains became their exclusive paradise.

At the beginning they didn't dare to stray too far into the mountain, out of fear of meeting a beast they couldn't defeat, but after so long training with each other, using the most ruthless methods they could think of, the two really wanted to know how capable they were.

In the beginning they looked for small animals, rabbits, pheasants and the like. It was a great test on their speed and agility, later it progressed to deer, then to boars and continued onto tigers and bears.

Thankfully they were born in such a desolate place, void of any magical beasts that might have inhabited such a forest. The two knew from the stories that those creatures were terrifying in strength compared to regular animals. Imbued with a magic crystal that gave them unparalleled abilities, the stronger they were, the more cunning.

At least that's what they thought, until one normal day they ran right into the rumoured magical beast. A rabbit the size of a boar, a set of serrated horns extending from its head.

When Isla and Sila saw it, they knew from the stories that this was considered a low level magical beast. Looking at each other, they tacitly understood that this was a chance. So without hesitation they both grabbed the rusted scythes attached to their belts and launched themselves towards the horned rabbit.

The two of them worked in tandem to attack from both sides trying to fluster the beast, and it seemed to have worked, the horned rabbit hesitated what it should do, leaving enough time for the two to reach the rabbits sides, swinging down the scythes with ruthless determination. However the situation didn't go as expected, instead when the scythes came down, the blades shattered against the solid flesh.

The two didn't waste any time and quickly changed position, aiming the broken scythes towards the horned rabbits eyes. This time the rabbit seemed to sense the imminent danger and swung its head trying to impale at least one of the twins.

The two once again changed their tactics, and Isla flung herself towards the rabbit, grabbing its horn, and attempting to drive the rabbits head to the ground, using her own strength to wrestle it into submission, Sila followed up with the original plan and stabbed right through the horned rabbits eye, continuously stabbing until the thrashing beast went limp, and still stabbed after that. When she finally managed to dig far enough with the broken scythe, she saw the famed magic crystal.

Sila quickly ripped it out and looked at the crystal. It was quite small, no bigger than a finger, but it was more beautiful than any gem the two had ever seen.

Isla walked up next to her, and the two just immersed themselves in the beauty, until they heard hurried footsteps leaving the area.

The twins looked at each other solemnly, they knew that someone must have seen their actions, and was going down to report it to the village. The two didn't want to leave the village so quickly, but the shamelessness of the people there, they'd definitely try to take the magic crystal, as well as the horned rabbit.

Luckily the two of them had been planning to leave for a long time, they had gathered many supplies in a hidden cave a little ways away from the village. The two didn't hesitate, they found a reasonably sized log, tied the horned rabbit to it, and carried one end each, rushing towards the cave.

By the time the men of the village had rushed over, there was only the blood on the ground and some rusted metal shards tk prove that a fight had even gone on here.

"See! I told you it was true" the teenage boy said arrogantly.

He had long had ulterior thoughts towards the pair of twins, but when Isla and Sila saw him, they'd simply ignore him, which made his frail teenage ego very ashamed.

He didn't expect to discover their secret, and thinking of the embarrassment they had caused him, he rushed back to tell the village.

Unfortunately they saw the blood trail leading deeper into the forest, where none of the men present were willing to step foot into, so they could only grunt and groan, shouting out slurs and insults, leaving a few people to watch from a distance when the two of them would come out. None of them seemed to have thought that the two managed to kill a magical beast without injury, and if they themselves could have that ability. This seems to be the inherent arrogance of these ignorant village men.

Isla and Sila managed to make it back to the cave, before setting up a fire and roasting some of the horned rabbit meat. They didn't intend to stay here long, the villagers were afraid of the mountain forest now, but they would slowly inch their way in, and when they realised that the animals had been mostly cleaned up, they wouldn't have any worries.

The reason the two didn't want to stay was because although they hated the villagers, they never intended to kill them all, they knew that even if Olbrand village was remote, it was still connected to the town, and the massacre of a village wouldn't go unnoticed. So they had to process the horned rabbit, and quickly pack up, within two days at most.

They found the knives they had bought from the town, which were of subpar quality, worse than the rusted scythes that they had broken, and quickly skinned and deboned the horned rabbit, deciding to smoke the meat so that it would last them a while on their journey.

The bones of the horned rabbit were too cumbersome, they didn't know if there was any use for them, but it would only slow them down, so they chose to discard it. The fur and the horns could be kept, they would definitely sell. So after everything was completed and they had finally packed everything up, Isla and Sila headed towards their new goal, the capital.