First battle

The very next day, three men appeared at the entrance of "Four Flavored wine Inn".

They released an aura of excitement. They were from the Li family. After the discussion with Knuckles, they had sent these men to act together with Knuckles' team awaiting the execution day.

Their goal: to chase the bandits from the Li village.

...

"They only sent 3 people?" sparrow asked. He seemed very annoyed by the Li family. Were they such cowards that they couldn't fight for their own people?

The man in the middle was carrying a sword around his waist and appeared arrogant.

He became enraged when he saw the look of contempt in sparrow's eyes, but he realized they had been acting like cowards for quite some time.

Knuckles had a big smile on his face. The Li family understood the severity of the situation, so they sent these three to help out with the initial activities.

"How many do you have ready to fight?" knuckles asked

"About 20 are ready to go at a moment's notice," said the sword-wielding man. He later introduced himself as the fifth fighter of the Li family.

That means he was the fifth strongest person in the Li family, so we started to refer to him as fifth.

"Fifth, we can't tell you the whole plan because we don't know who is who, but we can take you along," Knuckles said they had to be careful If the plan leaked, they would all be buried here.

"We understand. Just give us your commands." The fifth nodded, showing he was very cooperative.

"Okay, you two will be under Brother Frank here. He's in charge of releasing the prisoners and rescuing our teammates that were captured," said Knuckles. Putting them under Frank was to let Frank gain experience in leading people.

He assigned the two that came with the fifth to come with Frank, but since the fifth was powerful and influential, he would be better off rallying the guards that weren't loyal to the bandits.

So he was to work with sparrow.

Another thing he'd been considering but just couldn't find a solution to was how we could get our brothers outside into the village. Knuckles said he was hoping that the lis had a secret passage

The fifth said he was very confident that the people in charge on the day of the execution would be our people.

As the bandits had bought over some guards, so had the lis, and some were always loyal to the lis, which was why they still survived till this moment.

"Good, good," knuckles said,

the plan was coming together.

Knuckles left out the fact that there were only ten people coming as reinforcements because amongst those ten were cultivators.

They moved out after the discussion, and Frank went away with the two others to scope the guard house again.

"what are your names" Frank asked.

He had to keep the demeanor of a superior, else these guys would look down on him.

He already had the problem of being too young; he didn't want to couple that with weakness.

"ren li," one of them said.He was short but not too short. In fact, he was a bit taller than Frank, but he was short for an average adult. He also had this look of aggressiveness to him. He seemed ready to fight at any given moment.

His weapon of choice was a mace.

"bataar" The other one said he didn't say li because he wasn't a li. He was just a member of the family guard, but he was experienced in battle, so he would be useful.

"You may call me Frank if you like." frank looked indifferent.

He had to remain focused. He was one who wanted to attain strength. He wanted to protect his family and save his mother, so strength was a must-have. And to attain strength, one must go through countless battles.

They stayed over there till nightfall.

...….

In a room of about 15 men, this was where the guards who weren't loyal to the bandits came to drink, but this room specifically had the guards that had a particular kind of grudge towards the bandits.

Some had family members murdered by the bandits; some had friends hung and humiliated. They hated the bandits, so as soon as sparrow let them in on what was going to happen, they all joined willingly.

"It'll go down tomorrow during the execution," said sparrow.

One of the guards raised his hand and said: "Even if we manage to get all the guards together, they still outnumber us. Are you sure this will work, brother sparrow?"

He was skeptical and so were the rest of them. They were really sticking their necks out here.

Yes, they hated the bandits, but they valued their lives more than anything else. They weren't willing to die for a lost cause.

Ordinarily, sparrow would disdain them, but after making friends with most of them, he came to understand them.

"We will have reinforcements, for example." sparrow then walked towards the back door and opened it.

A man with a sword around his waist walked out. He released an aura of righteousness.

They all stared at him in shock.

"Master Fifth." They all stood up and bowed. They all worked for the Li family, so they naturally knew Master Fifth.

He was a righteous and arrogant man. He was a hero of the Li family and was ready to die for this village, but sadly, not all Lis were like him.

A few of them had already made up their minds to fight as soon as they saw Master Li. They no longer feared death.

But the words that came out of his mouth later made the whole room boil.

"The Li family will fight !" The fifth voiced sounded

this made the flames that had died in These men's hearts instantly ignite.

If the lis fought, then they would fight. If the lis died, then they would die.

"We will convince the other guards to join us." The fifth added.

It was sure that the other guards would join.

The execution day would be a massacre.

...

The following morning, ten horsemen rode toward the Li village. They were ready to fight and die to save their comrades.

The gate was right ahead.

When they looked at the guard, they were stunned. These guys were armed to the teeth and also on horseback. Was this an ambush?

Until one of the guards rode forward and raised his sword,

"We will fight with you officers." We will fight with you officers he said loudly

...….

At this time, Frank and the Lis had also snuck into the guard house and were currently engaging the guards.

"Ren take the left guard, and I will take the right, bataar will take care of the big oaf in front, when im done I will aid you.

After Frank finished saying that he lunged for the big oaf, catching him off guard, he gave false orders to throw them off.

Frank wielded his dagger and aimed for the neck of the big oaf.

His legs were pretty strong and he could jump extremely high. His constant training had paid off.

Although most of the guards weren't as experienced and didn't have any skills, they knew how to fight.

The guard used his arms to block

The dagger cut his hand and he started bleeding, but he had preserved his life.

The other two were having their own battles.

Frank went for the legs when he saw that the guard was distracted by his wounds.

Frank was fast and nimble; he was practically dancing around the oafs.

"fire-bird dance"

He activated the dance fully and soon injuries appeared all over the giant.

The oaf blocked but this time attempted to run.

That was a big mistake Frank leaped up and stabbed his neck. He started bleeding profusely from his neck.

He soon fell over lifeless.

Frank turned and helped the rest take down their opponents. It seemed like these were the most skilled guards in the whole village, but they managed to take them all down.

"Sigh!" they all heaved a sigh of relief.

Frank quickly turned around and ran towards the door that led to the underground prison. He used the key he took from the guard to open it up and ran down.

As soon as he got in there, his nose was assaulted with a terrible stench.

But when he looked around, he couldn't find Joey or Jake, just a middle-aged man.

Frank asked the middle-aged man where the other two were.

"The two young men..."

"The guards took them through the back door," said the middle-aged man

"Noooo!" Frank screamed

he had no idea that there was a back door.

The middle-aged man looked nonchalant. "They aren't dead. If you want to save them, then go. They are going to be executed publicly."

Who in their right mind would try to stop a public execution alone? The man looked at Frank with a knowing smile.

"Get me out of here and all the men upstairs will gladly follow you," said the old man.

Frank didn't have time to think, so he got the man out

But to his surprise upon getting up the stairs.

Both Ren and Bataar ran forward and bowed. They said, "Lord first."

...

At the same time, Wang Ben and his horsemen had arrived at the execution platform. The leader of the bandits and Wang Ben were currently staring at each other fiercely.