They woke up in the early morning. Brig was feeling much better but he wasn't able to fight yet. "What are you planning to do guys?" he asked them. "I mean, you may be strong but they have superiority in numbers." Tia wasn't really sure what Anju was planning. She was much stronger than the day she left the village, because she kept training every evening, but she couldn't defeat all of them. She looked at Anju.
"Don't worry. I have a plan." Anju said as he carefully looked on something in the distance.
*
The village was surrounded by mountains and forest. The village's leader was standing in front of the gate. He was nervously waiting on those thugs to arrive. There were two men and his daughter with him. He wouldn't normally allow her to be in dangerous situation like this one, but she was really good at bargaining. Although he wasn't a warrior, he brought those two men to protect her if something went wrong. She came closer to him and asked him "Do you think Brig is alright?"
"I hope he is." he answered. He wasn't sure about it though. The village was surrounded by the bandits so trying to escape from the village was really dangerous.
"Here they are." said one of the man as he pointed to the forest on the left. Five persons walked out of it, slowly getting closer to the village. The leader looked at his daughter.
"Are you sure about this? You can still go back and hide." but she shaked her head.
"I won't be safe if I hide. Nobody in our village will. This is our best chance." she answered. He was proud of his daughter.
"You are exactly like your mother. I wish she could see you now." he said as he smiled. Meanwhile the bandits got close enough to start a conversation.
"It's nice to see you again, old man" said the one in front of the others. He had sword attached to his hip. He raised his hand and the other bandits stopped walking. Then he slowly walked alone towards the village leader.
"Can't say the same thing about you." he answered to him. The bandit laughed.
"My boss told me to deliver you a message." he was standing face to face to the leader now.
"What message?" the leader asked but one strong punch knocked him to the ground immediately. His daughter cried out when she saw her father getting hurt.
"You fucking bastard! Did you think we wouldn't find out about that guy who left your village to find help?" he was really angry. He kicked the leader on the ground. "Too bad for you, he got caught by my guys. He won't help you." The daughter ran to her father and hugged him, wanting to protect him from kicks. The thug didn't want to hurt her yet so he stopped. The other two men grabbed their weapons, but the leader told them not to do anything. He knew that they had no chance against five bandits. "My boss is very angry. And he wants a strong punishment for you."
The leader with the help of his daughter slowly got back on his legs. "Will you kill me?" All bandits started laughing.
"Why would we kill such an old loser like you?" he turned to one of his man and waved a hand. The man grabbed a horn he had around his neck and hooted it. After a few minutes three persons walked out from the same forest. Two of them were wearing hoodies and in the middle was Brig. They quickly got closer to them.
"Brig! You are alive!" the daughter shouted. The main thug begun to laugh.
"Not for too long!" he drew his sword and pointed it on Brig. The two persons around him didn't move at all. "Watch carefully old man. This is what is gonna happen to anyone who will try to leave this village."
"Stop!" the leader shouted. The thug turned around to look at him. "Don't hurt him, please. It was me who told him to do it. He is innocent!" The thug started to laugh again.
"What can you offer? What can you give me for his life?" he asked. Those questions made the daughter angry.
"How could my father give you something when you have already taken everything from us?! We have nothing left! Our people are starving because you have stolen our food!" she was full of hatred. The thugs looked at her.
"Well we obviously haven't taken everything yet." he licked his lips. The leader knew what he was talking about.
"They want to hurt her! Protect her!" he shouted on the two villagers that were there too. They ran to the daughter and stood in front of her.
"Do you think two pathetic villagers have a chance against us? Take her!" four thugs ran towards the villagers with their weapon ready.
"I can't take this any longer!" female's voice shouted. It was one of the two masked persons who brought Brig there. "~Fireball!~" burning ball fired from her hand and hit the thug that was closest to the daughter. His body was on fire immediately and he fell on the ground. He died really quickly.
"What the fuck was that? Who are you?!" shouted the main thug. Everyone was shocked. She took off her hood. It was a black-haired young girl.
"Leave these poor people alone! ~Fireball~" she casted the same spell again. It killed another of the bandits, but she was exhausted already.
"Good job Tia. Although you can cast only two fireballs, they can already kill." said the second masked person. It was Anju's voice.
"You will pay for that you bitch!" shouted the main thug as he charged towards her with his sword. Anju blocked the incoming attack with a red glowing sword that materialized in his hand. The thug was shocked.
"This sword... Don't tell me you are..." Anju decapitated him before he could finish his sentence. The other two bandits were terrified. They threw their weapons on the ground.
"Please! Mercy!" both of them shouted. But Anju didn't need two of them. He walked to the first one and killed him with one stab into his chest. Tia was shocked by his cruelty.
"What are you doing? He surrendered!" Anju came to the last bandit. He felt on his knees.
"Please, don't kill me! I will do anything."
"Lead me to your boss." Anju ordered him.
"Yes, of course! Thank you!" the bandit shouted. Anju turned around and looked at Tia.
"I will take care of him, you will stay in this village and ask people about Artrog." she didn't like what he said.
"You can't go there alone, I will go with you!" he gave her a strict stare.
"No. You have already used your magic power. You would slow me down."
"But..."
"Just do what I said. I will be okay." then he looked at the bandit on the ground. "Let's go." The bandit immediately stood up and started to lead Anju into the forest. Tia watched his back as he was walking away. Then she got interrupted by the leader.
"Thank you for your help. I don't know what would happen to us if you weren't here." she smiled.
"You should thank to Brig. We wouldn't come here if it wasn't for him." she let them to thank him and then continued. "I think you have already heard what I wanna know." The leader nodded in agreement.
"I will tell you where my friend Artrog is. But let's go to my house first." he said. She agreed and everyone relievedly walked to the village.