The shouts of battle rang out in the villagers' ears, who had assembled in the plaza. The archers frantically fired arrows from the wooden platform, while a few people occasionally jumped out of the walls to intercept the bandits. The majority of the villagers were trembling with tension, wanting to rush out and butcher the vile lot when they heard familiar screams from outside the gate and witnessed the archers falling one after another.

One of the retired soldiers had forcefully stopped the advance, denying the crowd's wish to open the gate. People kept arriving at the plaza from within the village, gradually increasing the size of the restless mob.

Twenty, thirty, forty...the soldier counted. Delaying the imminent battle had one more reason apart from waiting for more troops. The more frustration and impatience the villagers suppressed, the more explosive their counter-attack would be.

Among the people, the old soldier was probably the one who desired the most to open up the gates, and instantly rush out to fight for the bandits head-on. His body trembled with nervousness and anxiety, as he clutched his fist hard enough that fingernails bore into the palms to calm down his state of mind. They needed to tackle this tragedy with patience, else any form of fickleness will cost them their lives and an even worse fate for the people hiding behind. But while he was busy estimating the number of troops assembled, the sounds of battle abruptly stopped.

"What! This quickly!?" disbelief was written all over his face. Did they kick the bucket so fast?

Peering ahead, he found that the archer platform had already been cleared out, with the majority of them being dead, while the others had arrows sticking from various parts of their bodies, rendering them incapable of fighting any further.

Let alone the soldier, everyone in the crowd had bewildered expressions on their faces. This was because even though the sounds of swishing arrows and clashing weapons had stopped, heart-stopping wails still rang in their ears from the other side of the wall. Many of the people recognized some of the voices as worry and anger mixed into their hearts. Seeing as waiting any further was impossible, the old soldier finally signaled to open the gate before he commanded the villagers to get ready to charge.

Boom!!

Just as one man approached to unhinge the large wooden bars, the gate exploded with a loud bang, flinching the entire mob with surprise. As the men stared into the scene with perplexed faces, they felt all of their tension and nervousness being washed away in an instant, instead replaced by shock and fear.

The man near the gate took the brunt of the massive force, as he flew back slamming into the crowd injuring a few people. The entire body was riddled with holes, where wooden pieces had pierced through as blood and wood dust mixed over, displaying a gruesome sight. He had died on the spot.

Under the shining moonlight, twenty-four silhouettes outlined themselves to the dumbstruck mob. All of them had a dangerous reddish glint in the eyes, and their murderous aura brought forth a feeling of trepidation among the villagers. It was the feeling that one gets when staring at death itself.

Their trance state was broken away by the ghastly wails that pierced their eardrums. An expression of sheer horror warped their faces when they found the slant-eyed man viciously dismembering their living comrades in the distance. Many of them who had recognized the screams, could now watch the vomit-inducing scene very clearly, turning their gazes bloodshot with fury.

The slant-eyed man, on the other hand, had an expression of ecstasy as he licked his bloody dagger, seemingly enjoying the prickly feeling on his skin. He quickly lost interest in the man sprawled under him, as he got up staring intensely at the collection of his new 'toys'.

The old soldier fiercely gritted his teeth glancing at the twitching bodies of his fallen comrades. He shuddered for a moment, thinking about the fates of the woman and children who would fall into the hands of this demon if he ever broke past them. The villagers all shared this similar sentiment, and strength filled their bodies once again, wiping away any emotion of fear and despair, as their eyes gleamed with determination and resolve.

"Kill those fuckers!" the old soldier roared with all his might.

The villagers who had become as taught as a bowstring rushed forwards with grievous faces as soon as they heard the command. The bandits also responded to the soldier's war cry and charged into the breach of the wall with sinister smiles. The battle to determine the fate of the village had finally commenced.

"Surround them! Surround them!"

"Don't rush too far! Maintain proximity to others and form groups!"

"Attack at the same time! Skewer these motherfuckers from all sides!"

The villagers with army experience barked orders as they tried to organize the mob. They knew the men would only get cut down if they attacked the bandits one at a time. Hence, they wanted to make it a battle of attrition, slowly tiring and wounding them, before delivering the kill. It was the only way they could think of to deal with these monsters.

The mob moved forward maintaining crude groups under the commands of the soldiers. On the other hand, the bandits leaped forward, each of them advancing on their own. Some of them even jumped over the villagers head landing inside the middle of the mob, while the two archers positioned themselves at a distance readying their bows.

At first, the commanding soldiers had excited faces after they saw the bandits scattering in different directions since it was easier to deal with them individually. But their faces gradually lost colour as the battle progressed, and any confidence they had, significantly decreased with each passing second.

The bandits resembled lions jumping into a flock of sheep, as they massacred everything around them. Each swing of their weapon claimed three or more villager's lives. Their bodies emitted strange, coloured strands of mist, while their weapons glowed similarly under the night sky. Their strikes broke past any defense, shattering the villager's weapon, along with their heads or chests.

The commanding soldier made his way to the front lines with a bitter look on his face. The entire plaza was too small for the villagers to surround their opponents. The bandits knew this fact, hence they had rushed inside the walls at once. Had the villagers intercepted them out in the open, they would have had a lot more advantage, and more chances to deal effective strikes. The soldier had realized his grievous error in judgment, making his heart filled with deep regret, as he frantically planned to find another solution.

Right now in the closed space of the plaza, which was enclosed by the wooden wall and huts, not all villagers could participate in the battle at the same time as many of them stood behind blocked by the human walls, allowing the bandits to easily slaughter the ones in front. The two archers only added to their disadvantage, as they sniped the helpless folks one after another.

swish! swish!

One of the bandits who had jumped into the mob, whirled around like a cyclone, with each of his hands wielding an axe. People could not even get close before their various body parts were chopped off.

Four men dashed together, hacking at him simultaneously just after he finished one of his devastating rotation. The bandit snickered, instantly closing in on them like a fierce gale and swung his axe horizontally with a backhand swing. Two of the men got flustered by the instantaneous counterattack and shifted from offense to defense trying to block the axe. But the weapon simply cut through them, slamming into one of the heads and slicing all the way out, with a gory splatter of blood and brain tissue. The swing did not stop as it crunched down the other head right after.

The third person did not stop his charge, thrusting his sword forwards without hesitation, since the axe swing had lost all its momentum from slicing his comrades. But before his thrust could pierce its target, the axe on the other hand of the bandit made his way to his head cleaving it apart with another bright splatter of blood.

The three of them plopped to the ground lifelessly with their heads being shaved off from above the nose, while the fourth one finally managed to reach the bandit, sticking his sword into the chest. But much to his horror, the thrust stopped midway just piercing the skin, as the bandit's body glowed with a metallic sheen.

crack! spurt!

Snickering again, the bandit raised his axe and chopped downwards on the confused villager, whose head cracked open like a watermelon, as it's two halves separated with a guttural sound, dangling from both sides of his intact neck. It took only two instances for the four of them to receive dreadful deaths.

The slant-eyed man also had jumped into the middle of the chaos, but unlike the axe wielder who got nicked now and then by weapons, he came out unscathed as if his body itself was illusionary. Even amid such a mob he slipped through like an eel dodging and parrying any of the villager's strikes.

Two of the lumberjacks tried to tackle him after none of their swings caught his flesh, and instead, witnessed the villagers around getting stabbed all over. One of them lurched forwards like a spear aiming for the bandit's waist, while the other swung his axe from the opposite side.

The slant-eyed man unconventionally twisted his body, as his legs lifted off the ground and he spun like a top in midair. The lurching man whizzed past below his body, while the incoming axe was kicked away during the spin.

The striking lumberjack suddenly felt a skinny hand grasp his head at the moment his wrists were thwarted, as the slant-eyed man vaulted over him to land on the ground. The lumberjack wanted to turn around, but the skinny hand that now squeezed his neck exerted so much strength that he felt suffocated.

schiing!

In the next instant, he could only see a red line moving from left to right, bisecting his field of vision, as his eyes went dark and he plopped to the ground screaming. His comrade who had tackled onto the ground, suffered the same fate right after getting up, as a dagger instantly slit his eyes.

The slant-eyed man had killed the least amount of people among all bandits. All of his opponents were blinded instantly, or at most took a few stabs to their non-vitals, mostly the limbs. It seemed as if he was on a sacred mission of turning everyone in the world to look like him. Strangely enough, no other bandit ever touched those poor blinded souls.

The tall giant with the sledgehammer got the least reception by the villagers since they were too afraid to go near him. A single swing of his hammer launched people into the air like rag dolls, crashing down onto others with broken bones and mangled chests.

The commanding soldier who had arrived on the front, targeted the giant bandit as he whispered something into the ear of an elderly man beside him. The old man hesitated, seeing the giant clearing a path through the mob, swinging his hammer like a pendulum. Slowly, as if getting convinced by the old soldier, he gritted his teeth resolving himself as he made up his mind.

swish!

The giant mowed down another three people at once with another swing of his hammer, and at this point the elderly man lashed at him, stepping over a villager's shoulder as he hacked towards the giant's throat. The swing had just completed, taking the hammer away from the giant's body, it's momentum being too heavy to ignore and retract the hammer to block the strike in time. The strategy was timed perfectly and was almost successful.

The giant, going against stereotypes this time, responded to the incoming peril with deft hands, rather than brute force. Since he could not retract the hammer in time, he simply pulled the shaft, closing in his grip on the pole. The hammer shaft extended backward from his wrists blocking the sword slash with a ding! sound.

Had the strike been a thrust instead of a vertical slash, the giant may have had suffered from the attack slipping through. But it was not the first time tonight, that things didn't go the villagers' way. The elderly man dropped onto the ground after the failed strike and watched the giant swing the mighty hammer atop his head. A bitter smile formed on his lips, and he slowly closed his eyes giving up on any further struggle.

SPLASH!

The elderly man's body burst open like a water balloon with a vomit-inducing sound, as blood simply exploded from within him dying the entire surroundings red. The hammer had reached all the way to ground with a thud, creating a disgusting meat pancake, as cracks began spreading on the soil like spider webs.

Just as the giant was grinning with a satisfied expression, a figure pounced onto him, ignoring all the blood and viscera flying around, and his face contorted in fear for the first time. It was the commanding soldier who had timed his attack, right at the moment the hammer had impacted the ground. This was his plan from the beginning, and the elderly man had just been the bait.

The giant faced a similar situation once again, as he saw the soldier thrust his sword forwards, aiming at his neck. This time he was in no position to use the hammer in any way since it had sunk into the soil. The soldier's expression was no less grievous, as he put forth all of his energy into delivering a fatal strike.

Unfortunately, the opponent was someone who had survived in even harsher environments. With his life on the line, the giant let go of the sledgehammer, as reddish mist rose from his body and he fiercely bit down on the sword with a crazed expression, halting its thrust. The height advantage came into play at this moment, since the soldier found it difficult to generate power in his thrust, with his feet not connected to the ground. The giant winced from the searing pain in his mouth while planting a front kick to the soldier's midsection who was still hovering in midair, and he flew away like a bullet, crashing into the mob.

"Haaaaaah!"

A ferocious roar shook the entire area, as the giant rushed towards the puny soldier with unbelievable speed. His tongue and teeth had been cut, blood flowing continuously from his mangled mouth, making his wrath filled face look even more hideous. An even stronger reddish glint appeared in his eyes, as he swung the sledgehammer from the side onto the kneeling soldier who was panting heavily, gasping for breath.

Riiiip!

The old soldiers' neck muscle fibers were torn apart, even before the hammer's momentum was transferred into the body. As a result, the soldier's head was ripped out of the neck, and launched into the night sky, with a resplendent trail of blood tracing its path. His body remained still in it's kneeling position, blood pouring out of it like a fountain. The entire act resembled a certain game on earth, where a small white ball is similarly struck atop a stand, to put it inside a hole on a large grassy field.

"Haaaah!"

The giant's roar shook the area once again, shocking the nearby group as many of them faltered backward, plopping down to their butts. Some of them had even pissed their pants in fear. They were already on the verge of giving up, witnessing the gruesome death of their fellow neighbors, as strength and morale gradually left their bodies.

Even the bandits were so indulged in the rampant slaughter, that no one present noticed the fact that the support arrows from the bandit's side had stopped at some point. If one glanced at the direction of the now nonexistent entrance, one would see the bodies of the bandit archers collapsed on the ground with horrified faces. A gaping hole could be seen drilled in their skulls, as blood and brain tissue overflowed from it.