People cheered in the background, their shouts were deafening. Recipients of their attention, The two women pummelling at each other, obviously didn't keep their attention on their fans.
The blonde was too focused throwing an uppercut in the direction of Brunnete's chin.
Unfortunately, the brunette had better reflexes, the blonde's fist missed her by a few centimetres, as she stepped to the right, her left arm hooked and quickly approaching the blonde's cheek.
The blow landed, throwing the blonde off balance, and stunning her.
Her opponent used the moment to knee her in the abdomen.
The blonde was thrown to the back, and the impact of the blow squeezed the air out of her lungs.
Another fist flew through the air, hitting the blonde on the side of the chin. The fist returned to its owner, leaving the girl lying down on the ground, unconscious.
Roars of victory reverberated through the tavern, drowning out shouts of misery and anger.
Adam took out five silver coins out of his pocket and gave them to Max.
"Told you, she has waaayyyyyy more experience in the field. I rarely have seen her lose, and when that happened, that were true warriors who fought her!" Said Max with a smile, counting coins in one hand and drinking beer with the other.
"But she looked so promising! So smug and pridefull!" Wailed Adam, thinking about the money he lost.
"Well, looks like you will take care of today's check! We are all happy for you to win." Interrupted Monica, staring at Max and chugging her glass.
"Yeah, right. Don't forget that I am still mad at you, how could you not tell me that you all were going here in the evening?" Unsettled anger rose in Adam again.
"As I told you before, and before then, we thought that it would only interfere with your studies, and we don't want that, someone has to sew Watt up when another hole appears on him." Responded Max, gaining a rare disapproving stare from Watt himself.
"About holes, which hole do we have to check this time?" Asked Monica, curious about their next mission.
"There will be no holes. We got a very interesting task this time. The Governor of the village of Grimos wanted an investigation team from outside the village. We will investigate disappearances of livestock from all around the settlement." Answered Max.
"Why would they want someone from the outside to search? Wouldn't getting their guards to do it be more practical?" Questioned Adam.
"Normally, yes. But this time, guards are one of the suspects, so people without any possible gain are needed. That's where we step in."
"What about beasts? Couldn't that be a powerful beast who steals the livestock? We are not an appropriate group to hunt one." Interjected Watt, looking at his newly healed leg. A perfect example of their weakness.
"Don't worry, our mission is to find the culprit, not to catch one. and even if we encounter a beast, it's a green area, after all, we are going to a village."
"O! Another pair is going to the ring! I bet thirty copper on the buff one!" Adam noticed guys walking toward the arena and tried to get some of his money back, unfortunately unsuccessfully. Which only worsened his already miserable financial situation.
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In the morning, the weather was very beautiful, the sun gazed on the icebound plains, bathing them in sunlight, warm enough to feel on the open skin, but not enough to melt the snow.
It was also quite chilly, but this Monday morning was one of the rare windless ones, so cold didn't penetrate the thick coats of the warriors and robes of the mages.
Even thou the sight was beautiful, there was no one to observe it. There were a lot of people thou, though it was just that their heads sunk down from their necks, not a sound emerging from their throats to blend with the thud of wagon wheels and claps of horse hooves striking the paved road.
The wagon filled with seemingly dead people rolled ahead toward its destination when one of its inhabitants shook and stood up to slap another.
"Wake up you lazy fuck!" Shouted Adam in Iler's ear, who only then started to move, and clench the reins to keep horses in check.
"Don't shout so loud! I am awake!" He returned in the direction of Adam's.
"And it better stay this way." Stated the mage, before returning to his seat.
The rest of the sunken heads stared at the encounter with a mix of sleepiness and pain, as loud voices reverberated through their skulls painfully.
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The village of Grimos was the smallest settlement Adam saw in his life. Yes, he saw only two, one soon-to-be city and a capital city nonetheless, but still, Grimas was a small place, the size of about one-eighth of commoners district. Max told them that only about three hundred people lived here, which was a weird number of residents for Adam.
'How do they even occupy all the positions and jobs necessary for a society?' He thought.
The village, even if less populated than the capital, felt lively and occupied. On a windless, and sunny day like this, children played on the streets, while adults minded their business, doing their work. Most of the families had their own farmland, which wasn't currently occupied to the brim, not like in the summer, There were far fewer plants that could survive and thrive in winter.
The wagon, full of young people, arrived in the early evening, and strolled forward towards the biggest house in the village, assuming that's where its governor resided.
Max knocked on the door, but not hearing any response, he knocked again.
"What?" Shouted a voice from the inside, clearly annoyed.
"Hello, we are the team called from the capital." Responded Max.
Adam stood to the side, and a slight smirk made its way on his face when a man with a towel wrapped around his hips opened the door.
"Ahhh, if you thought I was the governor who called for help, you are mistaken, he lives in the fifth house to the right." He spoke while pointing in the direction he was talking about. He seemed experienced in dealing with this type of situation.
As the host closed the door, Adam heard him mutter. "I really need to put a sign up here, it's the fifth time this month."
Max, stepped aside from the door and headed towards the governor's true house, seemingly unbothered. His subordinates, thou, were trying their hardest not to burst laughing behind him.
The next session of knocking proceeded, this time successfully summoning a person after the first wave. The host was a middle-aged man, wearing a a brown coat with a red circle at the back and red stripes at the shoulders. It was the governor's robe, made to make finding local authority easy.
As long as they weren't in their house, it seemed.
The man invited them inside, to explain the situation.
He wasn't one to play around, after exchanging greetings and sitting by a table, he went straight to the point of the Refridgerator's visit.
"Let's start with Lessie's cows, who disappeared some time ago in the middle of the night. There were three of them, all mottled, with a semicircle burned to their skin. Lessie lives at the south end of the village, her house is the one which is nearest to the forest.
Next would be Mathel, whose goats seemingly vanished, also in the middle of the night. His animals were taken five days ago from a farm on the north side, similarly, it's the nearest to the forest. Those animals also have a semicircle burned on their buttocks..."
The Elder told them about another three groups of animals that were stolen. What connected each of them was that they disappeared in the night, at the end of the village, either northern or southern.
The Refrigerators wrote down details of each loss, said their goodbyes and went outside of the village to make their camp.
The settlement was too small to have a tavern or other form of accommodation for travellers. This is another thing pointing at the greatness of the loss of such a large number of animals. If not found, their ex-owners would find themselves in quite the pickle.
Most of the lost were cattle, which help greatly while ploughing the fields, give the farmers milk and eventually are slaughtered for meat.
Without them, villagers will have a hard time surviving next winter, or maybe even this one.