Rescue: Defeating the Leader

"Sh*t" Shoma commented as his eyes widened in shock at the pace of the leader. He hurriedly let go of the dagger as he brought up his sword to meet the oncoming slash.

Fwoosh!

The instant that the two swords met, a burst of wind seemed to accompany the sword strike as it immediately crashed on Shoma.

'It's so strong!' Shoma thought the exact moment that the swords met but as he was then met by the wind, he found that the force that the bandit's sword increases by two-fold.

Crack-

'Crap, it's not going to last,' Shoma thought as he saw a crack appearing on the sword. Needing to act quickly, Shoma turned as he pivoted his foot, and delivered a kick straight to the leader's midsection.

Bang!

Shoma was suddenly sent flying…

"Hahahaha!" laughed the leader, "That was some quick thinking. Too bad, I was already expecting that."

In the instant that Shoma had attempted a kick, the bandit had suddenly changed his whole stance as he brought his right arm forward and delivered a devastating hook toward Shoma's side right before Shoma's kick landed.

Shoma could be seen slowly getting up, his hand placed on his ribs as a pained expression appeared on his face.

Clank-

The sword that was being held in his opposite hand finally fell apart as it broke into two pieces.

"You're… definitely stronger than me," Shoma spoke out as he took in some deep breaths of air. Luckily, while he may have been hit very hard, his ribs were not broken.

"My mastery of this is not very high. But it's more than enough to be able to say that you are not going to kill me today if your strength is only around that much," Shoma let out a cold smile as his aura changed. He shifted his body weight on his right leg as he slightly bent his knees with his left leg forward. His arms were both open, revealing his palm as he pointed them at the leader.

Tch!

An annoyed expression appeared on the bandit leader's face as he brought out his sword and got his next stance ready.

"Let's see if you can tank this hit, Kiddo. Kido, enhanced stage: Kireaji," the bandit declared and in that instant, the blade of his sword suddenly seemed to shine as a layer of extreme sharpness seemed to coat it. He pulled his sword close to his hip as he pointed his sword right at Shoma, a sudden layer of white seemed to suddenly coat the sword.

At that moment, the two fighters instantly charged at each other. A tyrannical expression on the bandit's face while a confident and serious look was visible in Shoma's eyes.

As the both of them met, Shoma brought out immediately threw a right hook, swinging as fast as he could.

However, at that exact moment, the leader stabbed outward with his sword!

"Second strike, Setsudan-Zashi"

The silver glow that coated the sword suddenly cracked as the silver coat broke off from the sword, creating extremely sharp shards of metal that encircled the sword which had turned thinner and sharper.

'Gotcha!' the leader thought out loud as he saw Shoma's hook that was heading straight for his head change its trajectory.

"It's too late to dodge now," he shouted out loud as he let out an evil laugh, "You're de-"

Just as Shoma's hand suddenly changed its trajectory, it suddenly reached for the ground. 'There's no room to dodge,' Shoma's head shouted inwardly as he rose his concentration to its peak.

Just as the sword stabbed through, Shoma lets his body drop backward as he landed with his hands on the ground, just about dodging the sword and swung his right leg as fast as he could.

However, while he was able to dodge the incoming sword, he was not able to completely dodge the shards that followed the sword. A series of cuts appeared on Shoma's leg as the shards cut directly into his leg. Nevertheless, he did not stop there as he followed through with the attack…

Thwack!

In that instant, Shoma's leg struck the bandit leader straight in the head, interrupting the leader's dialogue as he fell to the side. His face immediately turned a beautiful shade of purple on the side of his face.

A shocked expression appeared on the leader's face as he slowly got up from the ground. The stinging numbing sensation on the left side of his face confirmed that he had indeed been kicked.

A kid who is not even half my age just made me fall to the floor…

As this thought sank into the bandit's head, waves of humiliation and shame poured over his whole body. He was an ex-soldier of the Zui Imperial Army who had deserted his army to make a greater name for himself.

How had he just allowed himself to be damaged by a single country bumpkin?

Feelings of anger and rage suddenly burst forth from the bandit as he let out a bloodcurdling scream, "YOU ACTUALLY MANAGE TO HURT ME! HAHAHAHAHA!"

The atmosphere on the battlefield changed drastically as the bandit began to emit an intense amount of bloodlust with killing intent glistening in his eyes as he stared at Shoma, who was currently standing up with all his weight on his left leg and his right left was riddled with cuts, preventing him from being able to stand equally on both feet.

The bandit leader slowly got up as he picked up his sword and almost immediately, the winds began to pick up around him as he got into another sword stance.

He charged forward, causing small cracks in the ground as he dashed forward, charging straight toward Shoma.

Fwoosh!

The sound of an arrow suddenly made him wary of his surroundings and he was able to see in the corner of his view, a small glint of an arrowhead that was charging straight at him.

The bandit continued his charge and didn't stop, all he wanted to do at this point was to cut Shoma into as many pieces as he could; blocking the arrow now would mean that he would lose all his current momentum.

Thus, the bandit bent his body forward as he did a barrel turn forward while keeping his balance. And as he saw the arrow glide right over his body, the bandit immediately pushed off of his legs once again to regain speed. However, right as he did so, he felt a sharp pain in his neck…

"You're too angry," a voice sounded, "You left me a huge opening…"

The voice brought the bandit all the way down to earth as his body suddenly shivered. The source of the voice was from right under him. He turned his head to see Isao, staring right at him with cold grey eyes.

Disbelief spread all across the bandit's face as he found that he was no longer able to keep his balance as he fell to the ground. An intense choking sensation came about as he began to cough but it did not at all sound at all like a dry cough.

Confused, he brought his hand up to his neck and was greeted by a damp sensation of touching something wet. As he brought his hand back up to see what it was, he was greeted with blood.

'Is this my blood?' he thought in disbelief as he slowly felt the life slowly getting sucked out of his body.

"The moment you let rage take over all of your instincts, you leave yourself way too vulnerable," Isao spoke out in all seriousness as he appeared next to Shoma.

He immediately took Shoma's arm and crossed it across his shoulder and brought him next to the old man who was not on the village ground, leaning against a house.

As the bandit leader turned around to look at Isao, he saw the source of the arrow.

'I should've killed him,' he thought with much regret.

The old man was leaning on the house with a bow in hand. It was him that had shot the arrow, distracting the bandit leader enough that he would not be able to see Isao charge in.

The bandit leader had been left there on the ground, his breaths now hazy as the life in his eyes quickly faded. However, just as he was about to die, he saw a silhouette appear in his view.

"I don't know why you would resort to banditry as a living but I hope you find peace in the afterlife," Isao spoke as he knelt down, running his hands over the bandit leader's eyelids as he closed them.

And it was in that moment, that the soul of the bandit leader left its body, never to be alive and moving again.

"You okay guys?" Isao asked out as he turned around to face the two injured characters.

"What in the world took you guys so long?" the old man asked with annoyance, "If you had arrived earlier, I wouldn't have had to be this injured."

"Haha!" Shoma let out a small laugh, "There wasn't anything that could've been done about it. We all know that you're one durable old man anyways."

"The tiger caught Riku so we were a little preoccupied with that," Isao replied nonchalantly as he looked at Shoma, "Let Vom tell the villagers."

The sun had set on the village of Komichi, and it was a rather eventful day. They had been attacked by a band of bandits and were at risk of losing all their food stores. But Isao and Shoma had come to their rescue and managed to defeat all the bandits.

A wild campfire was burning vigorously outside in the community area in front of the village elder's house and the villagers all sat around it. In the middle of the campfire was a huge tiger that was currently being roasted. The scent of meat slowly cooking and the sounds of villagers cheering and kids playing around the fire filled the atmosphere.

Shoma and the village elder were currently sitting around the campfire with bandages around their wounds as they were happily conversing with all the villagers.

The old man was currently passionately story-telling as next to him sat a bunch of children who were currently listening to him giving the kids the highlights of what happened in today's attack.

"And the bandit leader whose face looked like an angry pig punched your great village elder. He punched as hard as he could but all he could give me was just a small bruise," the elder spoke arrogantly as he puffed out his chest.

"Whoahhhh!!!!!" and the crowd of kids went wild with excitement and adrenaline as they urged him to continue with the story.

Meanwhile, Shoma sat on the other side of the campfire, being interrogated by a majority of the young teenage girls of the village.

"Brother Shoma! Would you like a massage?" a brown-haired girl offered expectantly.

"Brother Shoma! Don't let her do it, I am better at massages than her," a black-haired girl interrupted and cut in.

"Ehehe…" Shoma let out an embarrassed laugh as he did not know what to do in this scenario… I felt a little suffocated by all the attention that he was getting.

All the girls were trying to get in his good books but deep inside, he was waiting for just one person to come…

"Brother Shoma… I made my mother's special medicinal soup for you," a young eloquent voice suddenly sounded. And in that instant, all the village girls surrounding Shoma had suddenly all gone quiet as they subconsciously moved to the side to make a path.

A beautiful red-haired girl walked out of the crowd of girls, holding a steaming bowl of soup that had medical effects. Her beautiful hazel eyes stared right at Shoma with concern as she made her way to Shoma and passed it over to him.

"Here you go…" the girl spoke with a little embarrassment as she was uncomfortable being under the gazes of all the other girls around him.

"Thank you so much, Shino," Shoma thanked with a big smile on his face as he accepted the big bowl of soup.

The instant that this happened, a wave of depression flooded that part of the campfire as a defeated expression appeared on the faces of all the girls.

"Looks like the village hero, Shoma's heart has already been taken by Shino," a girl spoke out in a defeated tone.

Meanwhile, all this was happening, Isao could be seen far on the West side of the village, about a kilometre through the thick and dense forest.

"Brother Isao! Why are we burying the bodies of all these bandits?" Riku asked curiously as he wiped a stream of sweat off of his face. He had followed Isao to go and bury the bodies of these bandits.

"Tired already?" Isao chuckled as he slowly placed another body down in another hole.

"No, I'm not tired at all," Riku hurriedly replied with a slightly agitated expression, "But are all these bandits bad guys? Why do we have to bury them?"

"Riku, the dead, no matter who and no matter what is something to be respected," Isao spoke seriously as he got himself out of the pit and began burying the body, "Remember this. I know that you won't understand it now but I hope that in the future that you will. Death is a part of life. They are returning to the state that they were in before they were born."

"Hmm hmm" Riku nodded in understanding as he held his chin as if he was absorbing the wisdom that Isao had just said.

"But how does that answer why we are burying the bodies?" Riku asked in complete confusion.

"Oh, that? I just wanted to avoid all the conversations back at the village," Isao answered as he let out a small chuckle.

Riku immediately deadpanned as an annoyed expression smeared all across his face.

"You finished digging already eh…" Isao commented as he gave Riku a thumbs up and the two of them got to burying the final body.

"Well then, I guess it's time to make our way back now," Isao commented as he clapped his hands, shaking off the dust.