The first rays of sunlight has just appeared in the horizon when Rengha and his group prepared to march onwards.
They did not bother with the demon that was watching them the night before. Rengha knows that engaging a demon with their current equipment right now will be a tough battle. He instead activated a communication bead. He will contact the Pintados headquarters in the Royal city and report the situation in great detail.
Being an elite force, The Pintados always carry with them all sorts of magical items that is essential to any given mission. One of which is the communicatinon beads. It looks like thumb-sized beads tied with a string together to form a bracelet. Each warriors wears one of it. A set of which has 12 pieces of beads and a warrior has to crush 1 bead and add a droplet of his own blood for it to be activated. It has 5-minute time duration and each bead has a direct connection to a particular headquarters which the communication bead came from.
Rengha removed the bracelet in his wrist and crushed a bead. Holding it in his palm, he then pulled a dagger and made a small incision therein.
A thick smoke suddenly emit from his palm and rose up. It took about 10 seconds for the smoke to stabilize itself and form a thin screen around 1 meter high and 1 meter wide.
"You activated a communication bead." A voice came from the screen. It revealed an elder Pintado around 60 summers or so.
"Head Captain! Rengha, leader of ten reports." Rengha made a salute. His fellow warriors standing in attention at his back.
"Speak. The demonic attack is yet to happen for few more days. You must be in a dire situation to activate a bead just 2 days from your departure?" The captain from the other side of the screen said in clear voice.
"Reporting to head Captain, We encountered a demon last night." Rengha answered.
"A demon? A single one? Did you have casualties?" The head captain asked.
"Negative, Head captain. The Demon did not clash with us. We attacked it for an hour but it did not fight back."
"It did not fight back? Tell me everything." The Head captain said, frowning.
Taking a deep breath, Rengha started to recount everything that had happened. Including his thoughts and theories. He ended up using all his communication beads and he has now have multiple incisions in his palm. His magic vein automatically clotted his incision and the bead requires fresh blood to be activated so he needed to wound himself repeatedly.
The head captain's face turned darker and darker the longer Rengha talked. He finished his report on his last comminication bead. After a second, it was the headquarters that contacted them back using high tiered communication magic. it looks the same as the communication bead's effect, only on a larger scale. It was as if they were all teleported back to the headquarters. It was just some sort of illusory magic of course. It feels that they were back inside the walls of the headquarters in the royal city, but they can still feel the grass under their feet and the cold breeze of the early morning air.
Before them was a big table. The head captain stood up and walk around to face them.
The head captain stood motionless for a while. He would nod to himself from time to time as if in deep thought.
"I believe that what you faced last night was an emperor class demon. It has a royal demonic bloodline. I have only heard about it on legends and i have never seen one myself. It is told that an emperor class demon does not require any weapon to slaughter hundred warriors inside a minute. They are told in the legends to possess the capability to walk in air and can move as fast as a flying arrow." The head captain said slowly, making sure they heard him clearly.
Rengha and his group felt cold sweat in their body and their faces turned pale. They realized since last night that the demon following them is stronger that normal. But they did not expect it to be this strong.
'To slaughter hundred of warriors in a minute and not requiring a weapon to do it.' Rengha gulped.
"We do not know why it did not attack you last night. Maybe it thought that you all were too weak for him to raise his hands. Or perhaps that demon has a plan that requires your lives. Killing you ahead of its plans was not to its advantage."
Rengha and his group nodded. Whatever the reason is, they still consider themselves lucky to be alive. It was indeed a good decision for him not to pursue the demon any further last night, or else they would not be talking with the head captain right now.
"Head captain, your orders please!" Rengha said.
"You are to return back to the village with haste. Warn the Family head of Lubaw about your encounter. I will ask the Royalty to delay the lady enchantress for one more day. She has to be escorted by atleast a few hundred Pintados. I will ask the Master General to send atleast 500 more as your reinforcements." The head captain said.
"We will do as you command!" Rengha and his group saluted.
"Go now!" The head captain said and turned his back.
"Communication terminated." They heard the head captain's voice again and in an instant, the walls of the headquarters vanished. The illusion was lifted and they were back standing by the bridge.
"Okey, let's head back fast. We should be back at the village before high noon." Rengha announced and started to march back.
-----
Saluk was awaken by the warm rays of sunlight hitting his face. As he raise himself up, his feet slipped off and he almost fell to the ground. He slept on a tree branch.
Gathering his thoughts, Saluk carefully stood up and streched. The sun is high up. Jumping down to the ground, he was assaulted by stinging pain in different parts of his body.
'Damned those bandits.' He grimaced.
Remembering them, Saluk jumped back up to the highest branch and looked at the bridge. The bandits were gone. Recalling what happened to him last night, he quickly scanned his vicinity, thinking about the possibility that the bandits might attack him again.
After a few minutes, he finally relaxed. Considering the time, the bandits might really have gone ahead and crossed the bridge while he was still asleep. He will look for them later and maybe avenge himself. What he needs now is to clean his wounds and refresh himself. He also needs to find food.
Saluk leaped again from tree to tree and head back to the river.
He quickly stripped his clothes and cleaned it by the river. He didn't mind being naked as he was alone in the area. He then swam around while catching his food. He was getting good at it. He ate his fill and looked for common herbs for his wounds.
Around 3 hours later, when his clothes are dry and clean, Saluk took his bandana and put it over his eyes. He then finally headed to the bridge.
"Those bandits really are good at their trade." Saluk said to himself when he reached the bridge.
He was sure that this was the exact spot where the bandits made camp last night and rested till morning. Yet he can't see any bent grass or upturned rock. He can't even see any footprint in the area. Those guys really were a bunch of experts.
He walked around for few more minutes and after he found nothing, he finally crossed the bridge.
Saluk still did not walk in the road, He was just walking by the tree line following the road. He cannot afford to be seen by the bandits again. It's always better if he saw them first.
It was already past noon when he reached a clearing. The road ahead was forked into two. He believed the one on the right leads to a main town and the one on the left leads to another unnamed village like his own . He has seen the map for this road hanging on the wall back in the Minggud house.
He chose the left side of the road leading to the other village. He was about to leap again to the tree line when he suddenly noticed another small pathway on the left, just meter wide. It now looks like the road was forked into three direction being the middle one leads to the village he was intending to go just a moment ago. The small pathway is easy to miss because the two roads are wide that two horse drawn carriages can pass through it side by side while the small path is just a meter wide.
Curiosity got the better of Saluk. He headed for the small pathway. He still choose to walk between the trees while moving forward. It pays to be extra careful.
He started to hum to himself when he caught a glimpse of something eye-catching. There are four big canvass tents erected in the woods ahead. He saw some carts and barrels on one side. There are also bunch of weapons and shields, leaning on a tree. On one side, there is a carriage that is covered with heavy canvass. there are few bandits walking to and fro carrying spears talking to themselves.
'This must be the bandit's base. Look at those weapons, there's so many of them. That carriage right there must contain their treasure.' Saluk thought.
He looked for a good spot and hid himself while watching on.
There were just about 10 bandits last night. How come their base is so big like this? He wondered.
We was watching for a while now when he suddenly heard a deep scream. it was coming from the back of one of the biggest tent.
Saluk contimplated about it for a while before deciding to take a look. He slowly retreated from his spot then run around to the back of the base. it took him about 10 minutes as he was being careful not to be noticed.
What he saw almost made him throw up. There were 5 men tied into a tree with multiple arrows in their body. Some are impaled by swords. Insects and bugs were starting to feast on some of them. They were wearing strage dark clothing that covers their whole body down to their feet.
"I think that one is finally dead."
Saluk heard someone speak, only then he became aware of the 4 bandits standing on the side, holding bows and arrows.
"Dead already?"
"Yeah. I think so. It took only 4 arrows this time"
"Of course, the last one hit the head, anyone hit by an arrow in the head will surely die."
Saluk listened with a darkened face as the bandits talk and laugh among themselves.
Saluk is no stranger to seeing death, His village will sometimes conduct a public execution on criminals. But it were all clean and quick death. Not like this.
Saluk closed his fist tightly. He should do something.
"Shall i get another one?"
"How many do we have left?"
"There are 2 more, i guess. 1 is a child."
"No, not the child. We will sell it for gold."
"I will get the other one then."
"No, that's enough for now. We won't have any source of entertainment later this evening if we overdo ourselves now. Let's save that one for tonight."
The bandits was talking among themselves again. After few moments more, they finally left the area laughing.
Saluk stay frozen at his feet. He cannot believe what he just witnessed. Normal people can kill each other out of emotional outburst or accidents. Warriors can do it for duty. But this is the first time he saw group of people actually kill someone out of boredom.
He heard lots of stories about bandits doing this kind of things. At that time, he will only chuckle or nod. He always thought that he was physically stronger and faster than a normal person. Something like that will never happen to him. He might not be trained for combat and he has almost zero experience in fighting, but he is proud at his skill at running away and escaping. He was never concerned.
This time was a different story, he had seen it for himself and heard their conversation. They will actually sell a kid for gold and kill the other person this evening. It nearing sunset this now.
'I will not let this happen.' Saluk resolved himself and turned around.