In the darkness of night, with rain pouring down heavily upon the land, Lili felt nervous sweat forming on her face as she listened to the distant sounds of howling. She could feel their quick approach, there wasnt much time now and she needed to act fast.
Looking around she spotted one of the men next to the middlemost wagon trying to light a torch with the help of some flint and iron.
Noticing this a plan quickly came to her mind. Without thinking further on this matter she set her sights on the man and went to take a few steps towards him, but she felt a powerful squeeze on her hand stopping her from moving and then she was pulled back into the arms of Robin.
The boy held her in his arms as he looked down upon her small fragile body with a hint of annoyance as he said.
"What are you doing Lili? You have been acting strange ever since we left town. What are you up to? Why wont you look at me?"
Looking up at the boy, Lili felt extremely frustrated by his actions. Why was he stopping her now? Damnit she didnt have time for this. With desperation, Lili yelled at him saying.
"Damnit Robin! I don't have time to explain! Just let me go or we are all going to die!"
Robin didnt listen at all to her words as he suddenly bent down and went in for a hug. His arms hugged her tightly and as he pressed his lips close to her ear he said.
"No Lili I will never let you go! I love you!"
Hearing these words made Lili's face immediately turn to outrage and disgust as she couldn't help but think to herself. Whats wrong with this boy? This is so not the right time or place to have this type of conversation.
Lili couldn't help but feel enraged by this teenage boy who constantly harassed her and was now even getting in her way. Why couldnt he understand that she just wasnt interested in boys? With each passing moment, Lili could feel the threat closing in which prompted her to start struggling desperately in his arms.
Despite her clear protest the boy just wouldnt let go as he spoke into her ear once more and said.
"No Lili. I'm not letting you go until you say those special words back to me. I Want to hear you say I love you."
Realizing that no mere wiggling in the boys arms was going to get her anywhere. She then clenched her little right fist and with all her little might she then took a swing at his dick. The hit wasnt powerful, only managing to make him grunt and loosen his grip around her a little. Realizing this Lili took drastic measures.
Opening up her little fists Lili grabbed his crotch and squeezed as hard as she could on the spot where she could feel his decently-sized dick being. In response, she could feel his grip loosen even more, but she also heard Robin moan softly and could feel his member harden.
Realizing this Lilis eyes immediately widened in horror as she pulled her hand away and thought to herself. Holy shit, no! Whats wrong with this dude? That was supposed to hurt him and not make him hard. Is the strength of my grip truly that weak?
With Robin distracted by his momentary arousal Lili managed to pull away enough to move her legs freely and then she sent her knee straight into his crotch. Immediately Robin's eyes widened in shock and he fell to the ground like a rock. In pain, the boy held his crotch and yelled to the sky.
"Aaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!"
Seeing this scene the thin man couldn't help but laugh at the two youngsters.
"Hahaha!"
Uncaring of this Lili just turned around and ran to the man who was attempting to light up the torch and then she said.
"Please sir, let me help you light up that torch for you."
Hearing her innocent and cute-sounding voice the man turned to look at her. As his eyes landed upon her his dirty face turned into a kind smile as he then said.
"Sure girl, have at it but do be careful not to hurt yourself."
With a quick bow of her head and a quick thanks she then took the flint and iron along with the torch into her little hands and then went under the wagon to the mans surprise.
Under the wagon, thanks to her short stature Lili managed to just barely stay in a crouching position as she started to try and light up the torch. The torch was somewhat wet which made lighting it quite hard, but soon sparks flew and it started to catch on fire.
As if realizing what she was about to do, Lili could hear many loud and angry shouts could be heard saying.
"What are you doing girl? No, stop that! You'll set the whole wagon on fire!"
Uncaring of these angry voices Lili continued to try and make the fire even larger, until finally sparks flew and the thing amazing fully caught on fire. Just then shocked gasps could be heard as the original owner of the torch tried to reach under the wagon and grab a hold of Lili, but then he stopped and froze in place as a powerful monstrous howl was heard by all.
Immediately all the men were alerted by this and without a word needing to be said they pulled out their weapons. Through the loud rain, Lili could hear one man say in a fearful voice.
"What the hell was that?"
Then came another even louder howl which made all the men flinch in fear as they unconsciously took a few steps back. Lili sat still under the wagon torch in hand not daring to move a muscle as the fire slowly started to turn the wagons wood black. Then she heard the thin man yell.
"Prepare for battle boys! Its time for you all to earn your pay!"
To these words, all the men broke out into loud cheers. These might not have been professional fighting men, but they were still men chosen from poor living conditions and all of them had at one point or another been in a fight. Sure many might have only seen some fist-fighting action in their lives but as poor men, they were eager to get their newly acquired blades red with blood and acquire coin so that they could finally turn their lives around.
Sitting under the wagon, safe there from the rain, Lili watched with her bright deep blue eyes as the underside of the wagon slowly caught on fire. Soon the fire started to spread fast as the bags of grain on the wagon caught on fire. With this, there would at least be light for the men to see their enemies as they fought.
But Lili didnt celebrate as from the back of the caravan she heard loud dethening screams followed by the fearful yells of other men. Turning to look at the source of the sound Lili too yelped in fear at the sight.
From under the wagon, Lili could see a rider and his horse lying on the ground as a massive over two meters tall and muscular, black-furred werewolf bit down on the riders neck. The man was trapped under his horse unable to do anything except hit the werewolf desperately with his fist as his sword had flown somewhere into the dark distance. His struggles although did not last long as with but a single bite the werewolf ripped the man's unprotected neck wide open. Over two-thirds of the man's neck was ripped off. Blood flew everywhere as the man went completely lip with his head barely attached to his body anymore.
The sight of this made Lili gasp in terror. Sure in her past she had seen some bloody and violent things done by humans against other humans, but this was something completely different. This was an actual fucking werewolf ripping apart a human right there in front of her eyes. The idea of such creatures existing in this world just completely stunned Lili. She couldnt believe her eyes.
Almost immediately the thought of maybe her becoming a werewolf came to mind, but seeing as the thing had just eaten the mans neck almost completely whole as if it actually liked eating human meat, this didnt give her much encouragement about becoming one of them. She definitely didnt want to turn into a man-eating monster.
After the werewolf had bitten off the man's neck and noticed him go limp the werewolf quickly ran back into the darkness of the forest. The whole time this had been going on the other men had just stood there in fear unable to find the courage to do anything. Clearly, this enemy was something that these men were not ready to face.
While thinking of this, Lili picked up sounds of more screaming, this time it was coming from the front of the caravan. There she noticed an armed man kicking and screaming as he was dragged into the forest by a gray werewolf. Then as he disappeared into the night the screaming suddenly ended and only a victorious howl of the wolf could be heard coming from there.
Then even more pained yells came, now it came from in front of the middle wagon. There she saw a man fall to the ground, on his left arm he had his wooden shield and on his right, there was a werewolf biting hard on his arm that was covered by a long-sleeved chainmail shirt. The werewolf's bite was so strong that Lili could hear the snapping of the mans bones and she could see his arm breaking under the immense force.
Seeing this two of the men stepped forward and charged towards the beast. The werewolf seemed to notice this immediately as it just pulled the man by his arm into the darkness like he was pulling nothing more than a small naughty child away from the playground.
The two brave men were left there not daring to follow their dying friends screams further into the darkness.
Then more pained yells came as more werewolves appeared and disappeared into the darkness. They came fast, too fast for most to react in time. With each attack they either snatched a man into the darkness or simply left their victims bleeding and wounded on the ground.
Lili was not a strategic genius or anything, but clearly, the werewolves were not stupid as they were using well-coordinated hit-and-run tactics against them. They were also knowingly trying to target the men's unarmored spots. They might not have been wearing any clothes or holding weapons, but these werewolves seemed to have some level of basic intelligence in them.
With the fire spreading more and more on the middle wagon Lili quickly crawled out from under it with the torch in her hand as she then heard the thin man barking out orders.
"Hold your ground you fucking cowards and send these fucking monsters back into the depths of hell from where they came! Do not give into fear! It is either them or us!"
Then as she stood up she heard no cheers from the men, the speech didnt seem to work in this situation, but she did notice Robin bow in hand aiming blindly into the darkness. His hands were shaking and his movements were frantic, the boy seemed scared just like everyone else. While she didnt like the boy very much, he was still a boy and she definitely didnt wish death upon him so the sight of him still being alive and kicking was good.
Looking around she also saw something quite alarming. The men were scattered all over the place, at most they stood in groups of three. This was basically like they were just asking to be picked off one by one. What was the thin man doing? Why wasnt he giving out any orders?
At the front of the caravan, she could see a lone man axe and a round shield in hand looking into the dark distance, when suddenly a black shadow of a werewolf came and grabbed a hold of the man and pulled him with sheer brute force into the forest. And just like that, another man was gone.
This was not looking good at all. If this continued for too long then soon no one would be left alive. Right now they had maybe lost 10 and there seemed to be a few wounded men around, but the werewolves seemed to be quite few in number. If they just managed to work together then she knew that they could survive this. If they all just gathered around the light of the burning wagon then at least they could have some light to see these fucking werewolves.
Having played some medieval strategy games and Napoleonic era war games in her past Lili knew exactly what to do in this kind of a situation. Whenever a slow-moving infantry army meets a fast cavalry-based army, then in those situations its just common sense to group up into a defensive formation and use your range units to fight off the cavalry while the shields block the enemy arrows.
With this in mind, she ran to the thin man's side once more and called out to him as she said.
"Boss! Please listen to me! You need to get the men into a square formation around the burning wagon. The archers should be placed in the back with melee fighters in the front. The men need to get together and watch each others backs or else we will all be picked off one by one! Please boss give the command!"
Hearing her words the thin man looked at her and was about to say something until the sounds of loud rustling of the bushes came from the roadside and out jumped a werewolf. Its arms were outstretched as if it intended to hug the thin man to death, but then again its mouth was wide open as if it intended to bite him to death.
The thin man with his sharp senses almost immediately noticed this. But with only a short bow in his right hand and a short sword on his side, he was too slow to defend himself against this attack in time. In that split second, all he had on use was his long-sleeved chainmail armor, a metal breastplate on top of the chainmail, a simple metal helmet and some nice green leather gloves. Of course, he had his green cloak on top of all of this but in this situation it wasn't much use.
Lili being the first to notice the threat managed to take a few steps back right before the werewolf impacted with the thin man and his horse.
The force of the collision sent the thin man along with his horse tumbling down towards the ground with the werewolf on top.
Just then as they were falling Lili noticed that the thin man had managed to move his chainmail-protected right arm in front of his face which the werewolf happily bit into. All the thin man could do was yell in pain as he along with his horse fell right in front of Lili.
The sight of this terrified Lili, but it also made her feel strangely happy. To see this tall thin bastard in pain and about to die was something that she had secretly hoped would have happened. After shooting her with an arrow which could have killed her and branding her as a slave the man deserved nothing less than a painful death. A person who was willing to do such horrible things to a mere 6-year-old girl needed to die.
Despite thinking about this, something inside of her still told her that she shouldn't just let this man die like this. If she did nothing here then wouldn't she basically be taking part in his death? For such an offense the other brothers might find her guilty and despite her great dislike of him, he was still the boss. And being the boss meant that if he died then the men's morale might die and break. If that happened then she would surely die as well in the hands of these werewolves.
All these thoughts flew through her mind like a flash, but she still hesitated until a memory came to her. Back in the past when she was still a police officer Frank had said.
"Hey Bruce, you need to seriously calm down and listen. Stop acting upon your emotions. You need to think before you act. Use your head and don't let your emotions have the better of you no matter what type of a scumbag you might face. Because in the end, you're a police officer god damnit. And, police officers uphold the law and let the judges judge."
Thinking on these words Lili could also remember Frank saying something similar regarding their last mission together before he got them both killed. If only back then she would have listened to Frank then maybe they wouldn't have died in the first place.
With all this in mind, Lili focused on the present. Only a second or so had gone by since the thin man had fallen to the ground. He seemed to be trapped with his left leg under the horse making it impossible for him to run. His left hand on the other hand was free and attempting to grab at the short sword that was on his left side between the ground and his body.
Despite the man's few attempts of trying to pull on the sword he hadn't succeeded in doing so because of the angle of the sword and his body pressing down in it.
To Lili this here was her chance, her chance to slay a fantasy creature and a chance to become a hero.
Lili quickly dropped her torch and jumped down straight towards the short sword. With a soft splat, she landed on the soft grass next to the thin man as she then grabbed a hold of the swords handle.
Lying there on her belly Lili immediately felt the werewolf take notice of her which sent shivers of fear into her body. Despite this, she pulled and pulled on it a few times. To her horror, the sword seemed to be stuck under the man or maybe she was just too weak.
Then the thin man let out a deathly loud yell of pain which caused his body to twitch as he also moved his left arm to support his right arm. At this moment Lili felt the pressure on the blade lessen as she then managed to pull the thing out of its sheath.
There on the wet grass, Lili lay on her stomach short sword in hand amazed at its extremely heavy weight or maybe she was just too weak, she wasn't sure. Her moment of amazement at the sword quickly came to an end as she sensed danger.
Quickly turning around on her back Lili noticed that the werewolf had ripped through the thin man's chainmail and ripped a big chunk of meat from his right arm along with it leaving the bone completely exposed to the rain. The thin man was screaming like crazy as he used his left hand to try and stop the bleeding.
The werewolf on the other hand was munching down on the thin man's meat that was in its mouth as he watched this scene from above the now dead horse whose stomach seemed like it had been ripped out by the werewolf's sharp claws.
Despite Lili encouraging herself to move just a few seconds ago, now she found herself frozen in fear as the monsters eyes landed upon her. As if seeing something fun to kill the werewolf lifted up its hand in preparation to send its sharp claws straight into Lili's soft belly.
Like a little girl, Lili moved her hands out of her girlish instincts In front of her as if she was trying to catch this incoming attack.
Sensing her fear the werewolf smiled viciously and blindly brought its hand down straight towards Lili's belly, but its happiness was short-lived as it stupidly failed to realize that there was a sword in the girls hands which was pointed straight up.
The werewolf's skin was tough but the speed of the impact and the blades sharpness combined caused its hand to get pierced straight through with the other end coming out of the back of its hand. The beast almost immediately pulled back, releasing its hand from the blade as it bowled to the sky in agony.
For Lili there were no screams or words to give this situation as the werewolf had pushed the swords pummel hard against her stomach, effectively punching her air out.
In pain and out of breath Lili let out a few coughs as she attempted to catch her breath and recover.
The werewolf on the other hand recovered almost immediately as it prepared to strike once more, now more enraged than ever before. Lili still weakly holding the now bloody sword in her small hands saw this and also saw as an arrow suddenly came flying into the werewolves right shoulder, stopping its attack before it even began.
The werewolf staggered to its feet and off of the horse as Lili heard the sound of horse hoofbeats coming her way accompanied by the loud yelling of the 3 brothers.
"Get away from our brother you monster!"
The werewolf pulled out the arrow from its shoulder and tossed it away, after which it turned and ran back into the forest to Lili's great relief.
Taking a moment to catch her breath Lili saw the 3 brothers run to the thin man's side completely ignoring her existence. Uncaring of this Lili used the sword as support as she pushed herself back up to her feet.
Standing there Lili was about to say something but before she could Robin took hold of her sword-free hand and pulled her close to him as he said.
"Damnit Lili you scared me. If I hadnt shot that arrow then who knows what might have happened? You really need to be more careful and stick close to me from now on."
Hearing this Lili looked up at Robin in amazement. She found it hard to believe that this kid had actually been useful for once. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
Then the thin man's voice could be heard from behind her as he yelled to all the men.
"Quickly men form up around the burning wagon! Archers in the back and shields in front! Move!"
Immediately praises were sent the thin man's way as Robin said.
"See Lili. All you need to do is trust the boss, he knows what to do."
Lili wanted to say that it was actually her plan, but Robin didn't listen to her at all as he dragged her to the burning wagon.
There the remaining 18 men who were more or less in a fighting condition gathered into an unorganized circle with Lili and Robin close to the center where the thin man sat while holding his bleeding arm in pain.
Standing there surrounded by these giant-looking armored men Lili couldn't help but notice that the night had all of a sudden turned suspiciously quiet. Nothing but the distressed sounds of the men mixed in with the pained moans of the wounded could be heard. Even the heavy rain had started to seize as the sky opened up to reveal the clear full moon and its cold light to the world.
Lili could still sense the werewolves moving all around the forest, but for whatever reason they weren't attacking them anymore. What were they waiting for?
Lili clenched the short sword in her hand in anticipation of the coming battle. Or at least she hoped that there would be a coming battle. Sure she was scared but she really wanted to slay one of those werewolves for the sake of her pride.