'These bastards…' Luan thought as a wave of fiery rage burned inside him. He didn't even bother to pay attention to the twisted faces of the bowman's companions as he sidestepped a spear that had been thrown furiously.
Then, he dashed towards the spear wielder as an inhuman roar came out from the depths of his throat.
"This bastard!" One of the guards shouted as he gave Luan a devastating kick that would've crushed half of his ribs if he didn't block it with the flat side of the blade.
The force of the kick sent Luan flying, causing him to hit his back against a tree. As the leaves of the tree fell on the crumpled Luan, the man who kicked him swore loudly.
"I swear we should have killed this brat's family! Now see what he's done to Misaat! If I don't break him limb from limb, I am not Bisa!"
He stomped to where Luan lay unmoving and raised his leg above the hand that was gripping the blade. He was about to bring his foot down when a sharp pain suddenly assaulted him a moment before his right eye became blind.
He shouted, but suddenly found his speech cut off as something extremely sharp passed through his neck. He bore through the pain and opened his one remaining eye, only to see his body crumpling to its knees, revealing a fourteen-year-old bathed in his blood.
'Huh…?'
Luan's eyes were no more clouded with fury and rage, but were now calm. His deep blue eyes gazed at the spearman, swordsman and axe wielder that were now staring at him with wariness in their gazes. Then, he spoke.
"What? Cat got your tongues? Why aren't you speaking anymore?"
"You monster,'' the swordsman replied. "You just killed two humans from your own village… Don't you feel any remorse?!"
Luan didn't speak, but walked towards them. Then, he stood out of the spearman's reach and calmly replied.
"I'm an abomination, have you forgotten?"
The spearman grunted and delivered a thrust to Luan's head, to which he replied by tilting his head to the side. The thrust turned into sweep that would've decapitated Luan if he didn't crouch and dash towards the swordsman.
Knowing he would lose in a frontal clash, Luan resorted to using an old trick.
He made it seem as if he was going for an upward slash, but used the flat side of the blade to kick up the soil. The swordsman, who was clearly not expecting such underhanded tactics, was temporarily blinded as Luan's blade made its way to his throat.
Unfortunately, the blade was unable to complete its severing motion as an axe bashed it to the side, causing Luan to lose his footing for a moment. The axe wielder capitalised on this and brought his axe downwards, but Luan retreated, causing the axe to only split the skin of his chest all the way to his hip.
Blood bloomed like a river of crimson water, but Luan disregarded his pain to roll to the side in order to dodge a cleaving sword that cracked the floor once it was impacted.
'One hit and I'm dead,' he noted inwardly.
The weapons of the three men and the boy clashed, sending sparks flying and causing the surrounding vegetation to suffer the brunt of the devastating shockwaves that sometimes erupted from a residual clash.
Well, calling the exchange a clash was a bit of an overstatement since the "clash" was simply Luan getting tossed around like a ragdoll as he tried his best to avoid blocking attacks directly.
He had learnt his lesson after being sent tumbling into seven different trees.
His arms were numb, his breath was ragged, his clothes were in tatters, and his body was covered in blood–most of it his own.
He looked far worse than he had when the fight began, but his movements were less erratic and more refined.
He was still being thrown around due to the disparity between his and the men's strengths, but it wasn't as bad as before.
In order not to alert the men that were at least thrice his age, he kept spinning along with the force of their blows and flying about while trying to land on his feet.
After flying about for the umpteenth time, Luan landed perpendicular to a tree before gravity took its course, making him land on the floor with his feet instead.
He looked at the three men who only had Nick's on their armour and bodies for a while before breaking into a smile.
He had been stupid.
The three were stronger than him in every way.
He also knew that the two he had killed, he killed due to pure luck and a moment of carelessness from the other side.
Still, he kept fighting because his thoughts were clear, straightforward and simple.
'If I can't kill myself, I might as well get others to finish the job for me. And if they die, well…'
He was about to dash without a care for his life when a sharp pain appeared in his head, causing him to scream and his knees to buckle.
Now, he was defenceless against the three men.