Rescue: The Village

The sun had begun to set upon the village of Komichi and it was normal at this time for the whole village to quiet down as villagers would return to their home, being welcomed by their wives and children as they would all enjoy a hearty dinner, closing their day.

However, the village was currently nowhere near quiet as the loud hearty laughs of bandits could be heard as they were all seen walking out of the houses, huge evil grins on their faces as they each carried a huge sack of grain.

"Hahahaha! We truly hit the jackpot!"

"Hell yeah, we did! With all this food, we will last until next year!"

"These peasants are truly stupid to allow us to take these. We will leave not even a single grain"

The bandits laughed among themselves as they carried the grain all the way toward the Western end of the village, gathering them there as they went through every house. At this point, they had looted over half of the houses in the village.

And currently in the middle of the village, stood the village elder's residence and the scene was tense beyond words. A group of bandits could be seen sitting around the village campfire that was just outside and among the group was a sixty-year-old man who was trying his best to put on a facade of calmness as he tended to the needs of the bandits. His words were focused on a particularly large man among the bandits whose right arm was laced with scars. A calm evil smirk appeared on his face as he stared at the bandits who were pillaging the houses.

Another bandit suddenly appeared behind the large bandit, a large smile donned on his face as he reported, "Boss, We have finished looting about half of the houses. I estimate our looting to be enough to last us for half a year at least."

Hearing this, the large bandit seemed to dismiss the report as he simply turned his head and stared at the village elder with a complicated expression. Since they arrived upon the village, they had come in weapons blazing, ready to be met up with some resistance.

And it did work out like that, the scenario started exactly as expected with their entrance into the village, all the villagers immediately ran into the closest houses that they could find as they quickly shut their houses while the men came out with pitchforks and other weapons in hand as a brawl broke out between the armed farmers and the bandits.

Seeing this, evil smiles appeared on bandits as they raised their weapons, ready to be met with a fight. However, only a short face-off occurred as once the villagers all retreated back into a house, the hunters all ran back into the houses while an old man walked out and pleaded to them that they could loot all they want, just please leave the villagers alone and don't hurt them.

And that was how the situation ended up developing to this moment as the houses of the village were ransacked of their food supplies.

"What game are you playing?" the bandit leader grumbled as his eyes narrowed as he stared at the village elder. Of all the villages that they had all looted, this was by far, the strangest.

"Nothing at all, sir," the elder replied with the calmest face he could muster. He knew that he would not be able to keep the bandit leader occupied for long. His plan had been to throw the bandits off course by treating them with hospitality so that they would be distracted with looting so that they would not hurt the villagers, alongside this, he was hoping that this would make them less likely to hurt the villagers.

"Tch!" a judgemental laugh escaped the leader's mouth as an evil smile donned on his face as he spoke, "That's quite brave of you to act like there is nothing going on."

"What could you possibly mean sir?" the elder asked as he felt his heart suddenly grow heavy.

"Do you think that we would actually believe that there is nothing going on?" the leader asked with a disappointed look.

"What do you think the concept of looting entails?" he asked, keeping the creepily evil smile on his face.

Hearing this, the elder's heart seemed to completely drop as he realised that the bandit leader had caught right onto what he was trying to avoid.

"Us bandits have been camping in the Western forest for quite a few months now. We are currently on a low and that low is not just on supplies…" the leader spoke out as his smile seemed to grow even larger, "Did you think that by treating us nicely, you could possibly make us content with just stealing your grains?"

"Please! Don't hurt the villagers. They have done nothing wrong and we did not put up any resistance to your looting," the elder spoke out as he fell on his knees and a pleading expression appeared on his face, "I beg of you to not hurt them."

"Hahahahahaha!"

The leader let out a 'tyrantish' laugh as he found amusement by looking at the expression of despair on the face of the elder, "There was never a single shred of a chance that we would've left your villagers alone."

Suddenly, before anyone could react, the elder seemed to suddenly disappear from everyone's eyes and he appeared right behind a bandit with a dagger pulled out, frozen right on the tip of his neck.

The bandit who had now been caught hostage suddenly froze as he felt the blade of the dagger faintly touch his neck, ready at any moment to be the man's medium into the afterlife. The bandit immediately panicked as he turned to his boss and stammered, "N-no! Boss! No- Please don't!"

"Now that's a little disappointing," the leader spoke out as he began to shake his head in disappointment.

Danger!

The elder saw the bandit leader suddenly dash forward with his hand clutching his sword, holding it at his waist, pointed directly towards him. It was clear from this action that the bandit leader had no qualms about killing someone under him.

Sensing that if the strike did land, it would end both his and his hostage's life, the elder let go of the bandit and dashed to the side.

The sword of the bandit leader had firmly stabbed right through the stomach of the bandit, who was not even able to put up any form of resistance. Blood immediately spurted from both openings, dying the ground with a sharp shade of red. An extremely unwilling expression appeared on the bandit's face as the pain began to register and he felt the impending arrival of his death. He stared at his leader with a sorrowful and angry expression.

"I didn't want to die!" he shouted in rage as he pulled out his dagger, trying to take down the leader with him.

However, the leader immediately read the man's movements and turned his sword, swiping it to the side as he slashed right across the man's midsection, causing once again a spurt of blood.

Disbelief was seen on the bandit's face as he felt his ability to feel his body fading. His dagger stopped right above his head and he fell on the floor, unable to move a single muscle in his body as his life faded.

"I… don't… want to… die…"

Instantly looking up as he landed, the elder had witnessed this gruelling sight with extreme shock and his gaze was now locked on the leader as his face filled with surprise and fear.

"You… killed… one of your own men," he spoke out, still digesting what had just happened in front of him.

Hearing the elder's mutter, the leader let out a hearty laugh as he replied with a hearty but cold voice, "Each member of my crew knows what they sign up for when they join me… Being able to be held hostage, what use are you to me? You are simply a weakness that does not benefit me."

The elder was left stunned at what the bandit had replied. It was well known that bandits had little care for morality but even among them, it was common for there to be some sense of brotherhood to exist. This policy of action by the bandit leader had completely baffled the elder.

A real killer… A man who killed without caring for the consequences… This was the kind of man that the elder had labelled the leader.

The leader's gaze had now turned towards the elder with an unhappy expression, "Now, this death could have been easily avoided had you not done what you did. Tell me… how do you want to die?"

Alarms blared in the elder's ears as he saw the leader now make his way towards him. He slowly raised his dagger as while he was afraid, his death now would only make the impending doom of the rest of the villagers move forward.

"Tch… A pitiful final stand…" the leader spoke out in annoyance as he pulled his sword in, assuming a stabbing stance once again.

Croak! Croak!

The distinct and clear calls of a bird could be heard in the sky. Hearing this, the face of the elder changed for the better.

'Finally!' he shouted mentally.

The sudden call of the crow and the change in the elder's expression had caught the gang of bandits off guard and all their faces turned up to the sky as they stared at the raven with curiosity.

Normally, they would ignore such a sight but the elder's reaction caught the leader's attention and as his eyes turned to the raven, he immediately took notice of the raven's strangely purple eyes which seemed to have a strange 'neonic' glow about them.

The raven quickly flew down to the villager, flying past the paths of the village, croaking with every two flaps of its wings. Immediately, the windows of all the houses on the top floor suddenly opened as a glimpse of a hand became visible.

In its grasp was a strange cylindrical object that was then thrown out of the window. Upon being thrown out of the window, a series of small openings appeared on both ends of the object, and in about a second, a large amount of grey smoke began to escape from the object. In quick succession, another set of the same objects was flung out of the window of each of the houses.

The bandits that were looting the houses were all extremely confused upon seeing the object being thrown out of the windows, not a single one of them could tell what it was as it began to bellow out smoke before any of them could get a closer look. The next few seconds changed the whole outlook of the village as large patches of thick dense smoke began to cloud the roads of the village.

At this present moment, right outside of the village, two cloaked figures could be seen slowly making their way toward the village.

"You ready?" Shoma asked seriously as he moved his gaze up towards Vom, who was now circling the sky while pulling out his bow from his back.

"I'll get the right side," Isao spoke as he pulled out a pair of daggers which were sheathed neatly on the side of his legs.