Chapter 6: Luke, The Young Hero

"Bandits… here!?"

There were a total of 5 men who stepped out of the bus, all either carrying knives or a whole sword. And yet despite this, Luke did not waver at all as he raised his wooden shield and pointed his wooden sword at the obviously burly men.

As for Luci, he just stared at each of the men and started shaking his head.

"You see this, Luke?" Luci let out a sigh as he gestured to the supposed bandits, "This is what will happen to you if you do not study well."

"You also don't study!" Luke screamed as he scanned the enemies in front of him, "I'll… I'll hold them back, go and warn the others!"

Luke quickly covered Luci from the bandits, even though his legs were clearly trembling.

"...You are aware that I am stronger than you, right?" Luci blinked a couple of times as he curiously looked at Luke's shivering back.

"I know!" Luke gulped as he slightly took a step back as the bandits drew near, "I've seen you pulling old Joy's goats all at the same time when you tried setting them free. But this… this is dangerous, I am the only one between us that has a weapon! And I've trained to swing the sword ever since I could walk!"

And while Luke and Luci were talking to each other, the bandits could not help but just look at each other in disbelief.

"Why… are these two shrimps speaking like adults?" One of the bandits whispered.

"Does it matter? Village people are weird that way!" The leader of the bandits raised his voice as he pointed his sword at Luke, "You, brat with the shield, scram!"

"No, you scram, evildoers!" Luke tightened his stance as he made sure his body was covered by his wooden shield, "If I run away from here, how could I even face the Hero of Freiden!?"

"We will let you meet the Hero of Freiden if you don't scram!"

"Then all the more reason I stay," Luke breathed out.

"That means we will kill you, brat! She's dead."

"See what I told you?" Luci whispered into Luke's ear, causing him to almost jump to the side, "The Hero of Freiden is dead."

"L…Luci!? I thought you ran away!?" Luke glanced at Luci before quickly turning his attention back to the bandits, who still had not moved from their spot, "G… Go! I can… I can handle them!"

"Then do it."

"Wh—!!!" And before Luke could even say another word, he was suddenly pushed by Lucifer… straight toward the 5 bandits. Luke was shocked, of course, but the bandits even more as they watched Luci just push his friend to the death.

"Oi, kid… are you okay?" The leader of the bandits slowly approached Luke as he tripped on the dirt, "We are only after the blue-eyed menace, you should just go and—Gukh!"

"Hya!"

And before the bandit leader could finish his words, he found his vision shift as Luke suddenly swung his sword straight onto his chin. And before the bandit leader could even recover, Luke spun his entire body and slammed his shield, once again, straight onto his chin — this time, completely knocking him out.

"Good plan, Luci!" Luke smiled as he glanced at Lucifer, who was not even looking at him and was seemingly distracted by a bird flying above the trees.

"You brat!" One of the bandits lunged toward Luke, but he quickly ran away back to Lucifer's side and once again shielded him from the bandits.

"Now that I know you're after Luci, I truly won't back down…" Luke tightened his hold on his shield, "...Because a hero never leaves his friends beh—ugh!"

Luke found himself violently rolling on the dirt as his shield was met with one of the bandit's feet, who immediately rushed toward him and kicked him away. The bandit was not done with Luke, however, as he once again rushed toward him while he was recovering.

"We were going to leave you out of it, you little runt! But now you're dead!" The bandit was about to kick Luke again, but Luke swung his sword even from the ground; hitting the bandit directly on his shin, "Grah!"

Luke quickly stood up, and before the bandit could complain, he bashed his sword directly on the bandit's crotch. Suffice it to say, the bandit fainted there and then from the sheer pain that jolted his entire body.

"Ho…" Luci looked at the remaining bandits while pointing at Luke, "...You old people are getting beat up by a child even younger than me. How is it that you are not embarrassed?"

"By… by my ancestor's titties… there's something wrong with these children."

"Shut up! Just get rid of the one with the weapon and let's just grab the blue-eyed menace!" Another bandit began rushing toward Luke, who quickly put up his stance again.

"Come, I am not afraid of you anymo—Kh!"

Unfortunately for the brave Luke, he did not notice the two remaining bandits joined the fray and kicked his sword to the side. And before he could even move, he was pushed to the ground and violently beaten up without any hesitation.

His face, now completely covered in blood.

"Run…" Even then, however, he found strength to somewhat look at Luci; his finger, pointing toward the village, "...Run, Luci."

"..." Luci could really only stare at his bloodied face for a few seconds, before his eyebrows began to lower and the ground beneath his tiny feet began to crack,

"Oi," he said as his eyes began to emit a red glow, "I think you should let go of my best friend now, his face has had enough."

"Wait for your turn, you blue-eyed…? What in…" One of the bandits turned to look at Luci, only for him to quickly crawl back in fear. The others turned to see what their comrade was looking at, only to do the same as him as the three of them were now pointing at Lucifer's glowing red eyes.

"Your… why are your eyes glowing. You… are you a cheron!?"

"What are you even…" Lucifer placed his hand in front of his face, and as soon as he saw a red glow reflecting on his palm; his lowered eyebrows began to raise, "My… my eyes…

…my eyes are burning! H… 

…help!" And with those words, a bright beam shot out from Lucifer's eyes.

"Grah!" He quickly removed his hands as he felt pain, seemingly for the first time, "Meera…

…please…Meera!" And with his hand no longer covering his eyes, the beam that shot out from them began rampaging across the forest…

…completely obliterating the remaining bandits' head when he happened to glance at them.