Rescue: Battle with the leader

Hearing the exclamation, the leader grabbed hold of the elder by the neck as he jumped up to the roof of the building, jumping a distance of seven metres in one leap.

As he got to the top of the village, he was greeted by a sight that completely confused him.

One person, it was just one person?

He looked around, staring vigilantly as he looked for other people who could be attacking but it became clear that it was just the teen on his own.

However, it quickly became clear how the kid was able to scare all the men as he saw Shoma pull out numbers and numbers of arrows and quickly unleashed them at the bandits who were climbing the house that he was shooting them from. Each arrow accurately landed on a bandit, surprising the bandit leader with Shoma's skill at archery.

Watching this, the leader then realised something weird. The number of bandits in his sight was far too little when compared to before. A shocked expression appeared on his face as he counted only 20 bandits.

Had a single person just taken down thirty bandits by himself in such a short span of time?

"You are no use to me now," the leader spoke out as he turned over to the old man and was just about to put his sword through the old man…

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Two arrows suddenly flew toward the bandit leader, distracting him from his action and he immediately let go of the old man and brought his sword towards his body as he shielded himself from the incoming arrows.

He turned his gaze toward Shoma and was met with a small victorious smile on his face. Seeing this, the leader felt a wave of confusion before he realised something, he immediately turned to the place where the old man should have been.

Empty… The old man was nowhere to be seen.

"Eye's up to where the threat is, dummy," Shoma's voice rang out as he had more or less immobilised another five bandits.

The leader's gaze changed back to Shoma and as he looked at Shoma, he saw another young teen with his brown hair swaying in the wind with the old man in his arms, standing on the roof of the house behind the one Shoma was standing on.

"I'm sorry for not getting here soon, oldie," Isao mumbled as he gently put the old man down on the roof, letting him rest.

The old man did not reply as he seemed to be too hurt to even come up with a response.

Isao slowly got up, turning his gaze over to the bandit leader who was also keenly observing him. Now the smoke that had previously encapsulated the whole village was now dissipating and the village ground became visible.

Seeing this, Isao immediately jumped down from the roof, leaving the old man there to rest as no bandit would be able to get to him easily.

As he landed on the ground, Shoma's voice also rang out, "Their leader seems to be stronger than the previous ones that have attacked this village."

"Then we'll just have to try harder," Isao replied seriously as he stared at the bandit leader and the rest of the remaining ten bandits that had gathered about ten meters in front of them, "The real battle will begin."

Clap! Clap! Clap!

The sound of two hands clapping resounded across the village, its source- the bandit leader who had an arrogant smile on his face.

"Never in my dreams did I think that I would find such prodigies in such a small village," the leader remarked.

He turned his attention to Shoma, "Your archery skills are something that a trained soldier should have after a year of training under the imperial army."

He then turned to Isao, "And you. I have no idea how you were able to rescue that darn old man without me noticing. The skills that both of you have are something that only trained individuals in the capital would have. Tell me, what are your names?"

As the leader said this, his thirst for battle seemed to awaken as a maniacal smile appeared on his face.

"You have no need to know our names. The dead shouldn't concern themselves with the matters of the living," Shoma replied coldly while walking to a house and resting his bow on it as he had run out of arrows.

"Hahaha!" the bandit leader laughed loudly before suddenly pulling out his sword and aiming its tip right at the boys, "It seems that the wolf's acknowledgment has made the sheep think they can challenge it."

Isao simply smiled lightly at the bandit leader as he pulled out his daggers.

"Shoma, keep the leader occupied, I'm going to clear out the rest," Isao spoke out as he dropped one of his daggers for Shoma to use.

In the instant that Shoma picked up the dagger, the two teens charged, and the bandits also charged forward in response, shouting maniacally.

The bandit leader led the charge as he delivered a right slash right at Isao.

Seeing the slash coming, Isao simply shifted his body furthermore to the left side.

The bandit leader let out another arrogant smile as a smug expression appeared on his face, "That may have been easy to dodge if it was one of my lackeys attacking but too bad your opponent's me."

The leader shifted his shoulder further forward, allowing it to reach further. Now the sword had Isao in its trajectory and the leader brought his sword down even further.

Krang!

The sound of two metal objects colliding sounded as a dagger interrupted the strike of the sword.

Shoma had interrupted the sword's path and brought up the dagger and redirected the sword so that it would land on the ground.

'He's strong,' Shoma thought as his arm felt the shock of the sword's strike through the dagger.

Isao had charged straight through and slashed at the neck of the bandit who was directly behind the leader. A spurt of blood immediately followed as the bandit began to drown in his own blood before falling straight to the floor.

By this time, the leader had reacted and swung his sword toward them once again.

Clang!

Once again, the sound of metals clashing followed but this time, the bandit's attack had been stopped by Shoma with a sword. He had picked up the sword of the bandit that Isao had just killed and immediately used it to parry the attack.

Meanwhile, immediately after killing the bandit, Isao continued charging as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a series of small sharp wooden sticks that were slightly larger than a toothpick.

He immediately dashed towards the bandit that was charging at him and dodged the incoming sword stab that the bandit had attempted by diving forward. And just as he reached under the bandit's armpit, he immediately stabbed out with one of the wooden sticks and embedded it as deep as he could into the bandit's neck before maintaining momentum and he continued to take out the other bandits.

The leader saw this and immediately realised what they were trying to do so he tried to take out Shoma as quickly as possible.

He brought down a horizontal slash and was not surprised to see it being met by a block from Shoma but this was all in his plans, he turned his feet as he let out a ferocious frontal kick towards Shoma.

However, he was shocked as he saw Shoma suddenly dodge the kick as he dashed forward, narrowly avoiding the kick.

The leader's sense of danger then kicked in as he saw Shoma slashing out with the dagger.

'Dodge!' the leader's instincts shouted as he pivoted his foot, lifting his right leg out of the way as he almost lost his balance.

But he was a tad too late, the dagger had managed to cut the man's leg, leaving a horizontal gash on his shin.

'Sh*t' Shoma cursed. He had planned to slash at the man's Achilles, leaving his right leg unusable but the bandit had managed to move his leg in time to shift the trajectory of the dagger from his Achilles to his shin.

Seeing that he had actually managed to be cut by a teenage boy, anger filled the bandit's eyes as he spoke out in a vengeful voice, "It seems that I have been too careless in dealing with you."

In that instant, the atmosphere of the battle suddenly changed as the stance of the leader began to change.

"I will let you enjoy the notorious sword martial art of the Zui Imperial Army, Kido," the leader spoke out in a chilling tone as his eyes seemed to take a light glow.

All the hairs of Shoma stood on end as his brain was shooting off warning signs at the aura that was emanating from the bandit leader. He responded by taking a defensive stance as he held a sword and dagger in his hands.

The bandit leader suddenly charged towards Shoma at an alarming pace that was many times faster than before.

"Kido, first strike, Ikari no kaze!" he spoke out as he let out a diagonal slash.