Rastel didn't waste any time, he quickly called out to the rest of the fleeing group and followed Gai and his team through the streets.
Rastel was already panting from the weight of the girl on his back. She was quiet all through but kept on throwing worrying glances to the back. A group of soldiers were hot on their heels.
Marco glanced back worryingly at the lagging muan before slowing down beside him.
"Hey, the name's Marco. Let me get her for you, I'm sure my stamina stat is better than yours."
Rastel smiled at him as he let go of the girl for Marco to carry.
"Much obliged brother, call me Rastel" he sighed with relief. He was really reaching his limits there.
The girl although reluctantly, allowed herself to be carried by Marco who instantly held her princess style in his arms. She looked at Rastel with frustration in her eyes as if he had betrayed her trust deeply. Rastel chuckled as he straightened his back with relief from the loss of weight.
Marco quickly moved to the front of the pack but contrary to his expectations, Rastel stayed back. In fact, the muan came to a complete halt!
"What are you doing, fighting would waste time! If the leader catches up, we're dead!" he yelled back at him.
Gai turned back to look at Rastel trying to discern his thoughts. Turning quickly to Ann who was a few steps behind him, he gave her instructions.
"Stay back a bit and help him buy us some time."
She nodded at him before also coming to a halt just behind the muan.
Rastel turned to look at her and smiled.
"Nice to be working with you, shall we?"
"On your signal"
"Let's go with a classic fire ball then"
They both chanted the fire ball spell and fired it right into the middle of the approaching men. The guards, seeing the incoming attack had tried to scatter and dodge but the following explosion from the colliding fire balls sent them scattered into streets with the rubble.
"That would kill a few of them I think?" Ann fussed with her robe's collar as she heard the notifications.
"Very sure it killed all of them" Rastel said looking at his own notifications. He couldn't say he felt comfortable killing them even if they were NPC's but he didn't have the luxury of that thought right now.
"Let's go, I can already hear the rest of them coming" he turned to her.
Ann simply nodded as she led the way to their rendezvous point.
They kept moving towards the direction of the village gate as more and more men appeared behind them. It seemed like there were more goons in the village that they had originally imagined.
They turned around a corner out of sight of the men before Ann suddenly came to a halt beside a wall. She knocked rapidly before the wall suddenly shifted and caved in. It was a hidden entrance to the building!
Marco was on the other side as he quickly ushered them in before shutting it. Inside the building was a large space like a warehouse. The tired escapees were resting on the floor as they slowly recovered. Apart from them and Gai, there were other people in the warehouse.
The only person he could recognize was Marilyn, the inn keeper dressed in her black dress. Apart from her, there was an old man dressed in rags, a big heavily built man with brown hair and eyes dressed like a hunter with a bow on his back, there was also another man who looked small and wiry with shifty black eyes dressed in black clothes with black hair. Marilyn approached him with a smile.
"Thank you for rescuing them. To be honest we had wanted to stir up some commotion ourselves but it seemed you were more than up to the task" she chuckled.
Rastel smiled bashfully as he explained what went down. Marilyn looked at the girl who had already approached Rastel and had stood behind him for some reason, she looked thoughtful.
"Well we don't know who she is, but it is good that you saved her either ways. But now I have another request to make of you, I hope you don't mind?" she asked looking apologetic.
"Sure, go ahead" he didn't mind. He wanted to see the events through anyway.
"We want to set a trap to lead the men outside the village into the surrounding forests." A deep voice cut in.
Rastel looked up at the hunter who nodded to him in greeting, he nodded back.
"Just like he said, we are setting a trap to lead as much of them as we can out. Some of our people should be out there right now causing chaos and leading them here." Marilyn turned and looked at the small shifty man.
He nodded vigorously at her as he spoke in a high pitched voiced.
"Ark! My men would do their part! The summoned made the job much easier!" he ended the statement with an unpleasant cackle.
Marilyn nodded.
"We on the other hand have decided to set up the bait, the escaped prisoners! Or what they would think are the escaped prisoners to be exact" the hunter added as some people came into the warehouse through another hidden door led by a man, they were all dressed like hunters.
"Are you people ready yet? The village has already been fully evacuated. Let's get going before something unexpected happens." The man said anxiously.
The people that came with him, three women and three men, proceeded to strip the clothes off the escapees and wear them over their hunter's garb. The shifty man and the old man who were standing silently all the while also proceeded to swap clothes with the village chief and his son. The man and the hunter also took the escapees clothes and wore them while giving them clean clothes that they had prepared beforehand.
Marilyn looked at Rastel who was absentmindedly patting the girl on her head as she held on to him while watching curiously.
"We hope that you could pretend to be leading the 'escapees' out of the village while we lead them towards a trap we set up. This way, with you and the other summoned still leading, they would not suspect anything till it would be too late." She continued.
Rastel could only sigh knowing she had planned for this from the beginning. Patting the girl one final time, he looked down at her with a smile as he reassured her.
"I'll be back in a while so wait for me here, won't you?" he asked her. For some reason, she seemed to be attached to him.
She looked back at him with her blue eyes but didn't reply. He just smiled as he lowered his hands and walked towards the group where Gai, Marco and Ann were already gathered in front of the hunter.
"Come on let's go, they would soon be near the gate so we have to move quickly!" he hurried to a wall and pulled a lever nearby.
As the wall slowly shifted open, they heard footsteps behind them. The village chief was on his feet supported by his son. He tried to speak but seeing that he still hadn't recovered, motioned for his son to lean closer so he could whisper to him.
"My father said that he does not know what he had done to bless him which such loyal friends. He is touched and forever grateful for the danger you're putting yourself through to help the village. He says to thank the summoned too, even with the bad rumors surrounding them, he is happy to see that there are people of compassion among them" the son spoke after listening to his father, on the last part, his eyes shifted to Rastel for a moment.
They all looked at the chief for a moment as his eye glistened with unshed tears, it seemed he was really touched by the events.
The big hunter walked towards him as he clasped the old chief's hands in his big palms.
"We will free laron tonight, I swear it on the white moon!"
The chief nodded silently as he allowed his son lead him back. The hunter turned back as they left the warehouse with Rastel and the others leading the group.
Marilyn watched the chief for a few seconds nearly brought to tears herself before she realized the door had to be locked. She went and pulled the lever and watched as it slowly shut close before turning back, she had to lead the others to safety. It was only when she decided to have a head count, she discovered the anomaly.
"Where…. where is the girl?"