Looking back, around six people were coming down the alleyway. It almost became five when Lyrika fired a shot at them, but the arrow whizzed past one of the men in front.
The numbers they saw still did not make up the numbers they had seen before. They also could not see the chief and his guards with them either.
The group kept running between the houses, keeping a good distance from the angry mob following them. They quickly got to one path and as soon as Olivia saw it, she realised it could do with a makeover.
Not because it looked horrible or anything. No. It was because all along the side leaning up against buildings were crates, barrels and market stands among other things. Everything that could turn this generally clear pathway, into a lovely little obstacle course.
"Quickly, throw some of this stuff behind us!" Olivia shouted to the girls as she moved to the side. The girls followed her lead and headed for the crates and barrels.
Olivia took hold of a somewhat sturdy market stall and tore it apart throwing it into the path. The others tipped over barrels and sent them rolling away, thankfully down the path with it having a slight decline, followed by boxes being thrown, some of which were filled with food. It was rather wasteful, but every little helps, especially when it comes to trying to trip others.
By the time the villagers had reached the path they were on, it was filled with debris almost like a storm had torn through the place. But not even wooden storm shutters would have helped with the amount of damage that had been done though.
The mob turned the corner, and as the second member made his way around, a rather heavy barrel that had picked up a little speed rolled right into his legs. Taken by surprise, he fell to the side, falling over the barrel and landing in the mud.
One of the women, likely his wife, cried out in shock having seen the man fall and moved to help him up. The rest of the group, started to make their way up, only to find the destruction Olivia and the girls had caused to hinder them more than probably any of them thought.
This being among the poorer of the villages around it, given that there was hardly anyone here and a lot of the coin probably went with the new chief heading around the land, clothing was not the best. It was worn out, had patches and what was prudent to note, the soles of shoes were worn down and some full of holes.
This didn't help when you had chips of wood sticking out of the ground you were stepping on.
The girls just stood there in fascination as they watched it happen, but after a while, it soon turn to pity.
They all ran as fast as they could, climbing over boxes and barrels, and at this point, the girls turned to start moving again. But when one of the men got his leg over a box and set his foot down, a large and very sharp splinter of wood went straight through his shoe and into the sole of his foot.
"Ahhhh!"
He cried out, shocking the man next to him, causing him to jump out of his skin and trip over the wooden pole that was lodged between a few crates. This sent him flailing into the mess and ended up tangled in the debris, trapped and being crushed as more fell on top of him.
The girls just stood there watching as their, very rushed and not very thought-out trap worked so much better than they imagined. The rest of the six either tried to help the others or push forward. But no matter the case, they soon found themselves experiencing some form of distress, either from sharp wood being jammed into their limbs, falling when one of the barrels rolled out from under them or what was rather funny was when one of the men slipped on of some of the green coloured fruit that had been spilt from one of the boxes.
After a while, groans and cries of pain were all that could be heard from the men and women, as they all found themselves stuck in the mess, unable to move and pursue them.
Olivia just turned back to the girls and raised her eyebrow at it all.
"Shall we just…go."
"Yes."
"I guess."
"Why not."
It was a rather odd situation, and having seen all of that, it almost felt like fleeing from this place was too easy.
"..."
Which is when things got a lot harder.
…
They found themselves a little turned around as they moved through the village. The houses were not all parallel to each other or anything. They were all just haphazardly jumbled in any orientation. This meant that some paths they thought would take them out of the houses met dead ends, or curved back on itself.
It was rather annoying, especially given how many houses there were.
While the place was near enough abandoned, with only a few dozen people remaining, the number of houses remained the same. With the number of houses there were, it just showed that a lot of people had headed off with the chief when he went on his tour of the beast-kin villages.
They ended up colliding with another woman at some point who was holding onto her pitchfork as if her life depended on it. But before anything could happen, she dropped it and just ran away.
'That's another one down. There can't be that many left.'
A few houses later, and Olivia was proven right as she saw five men standing several meters away.
"Bloody peasants. Useless, the lot of them."
Those words were the first that were said by the chief as he stood with the two guards by his side and two others who looked to be some of those peasants he mentioned.
"Err, Chief, you said that out loud."
"Huh…Did I?"
'This guy is such an idiot.'
After he said that, one of the villagers just dropped his rake and started walking away.
"Hey, what are you doing? We need to kill this Orc!" The chief shouted to the man as he walked off.
"Well, I don't see how a useless peasant can help you with that."
The chief was fuming, his numbers dropping down to four before the fight had even started. He looked over at the other peasant and said if he left, he would kill him.
When that debacle was finished, the chief finally turned back to their group and went on what was…well Olivia just saw it as the villain's rant.
Although he wasn't very good at it.
"So…here we are. You may have made it past the weak and feeble peasants of this village-"
The remaining villager just looked more aghast as he said that.
"-but you will not get past me. I have worked hard to keep this place afloat while…Beatrix…Kathleen! Wh-what are you doing here?" he said with a shocked look on his face as he saw them.
Olivia looked back at the two girls in question, but Kathleen just looked confused.
"What do you mean what are we doing here? We're escaping."
"No, but… I was sure I told the servants to take you with us when we enacted this plan." He even started looking around for his servants to confirm with them.
Not that there was anyone to answer him.
"He really is quite stupid isn't he," Philly murmured.
"Well…no-no matter. I was getting bored of you two anyway. I'm sure when the chief returns he will reward me greatly for taking down the monster that had been nosing around his business. I can think of three lovely girls that will make fine replacements."
Shivers went through the girls in question when they heard this. Even Philly who was usually unaffected by things unless it involved her research looked repulsed by the idea.
"But first, you will have to die. While it makes no sense for a monster to do so, this investigation of yours will have to come to an end. Whatever information you may have gathered in your journey will not be leaving this village. I will remove you from this world, dealing with a thorn in our side and freeing these girls of whatever hold you have over them."
"Why do people keep thinking I've enslaved you lot?" Olivia said looking back at them. The looks of derision she received told her all she needed to know. "Ah, part Orc part Goblin, right."
'Remembering I used to be human, sometimes makes it so easy to forget that.'
"My name will forever go down in the history books. I will have saved our village from this almost long-forgotten monster plaguing our lands. I will-"
He just went on and on. It was so droll that it honestly made it hard to concentrate and figure out a way out of this.
Looking over at the guards and the villager that was by him, they also looked like they were starting to fall asleep.
But, all of a sudden the chief stopped talking, and a sound rang out.
"Ahh," One of the guards said stumbling backwards, as he looked down at his body.
Now seeing an arrow protruding from his chest.
Olivia and the rest of the girls turned to look at Lyrika.
"I just…It was so annoying. I don't know what came over me."
Well, not that it mattered as Olivia was sure she would have lost it after a little longer. But, with the first attack dealt, the battle commenced.