"That settles it then."

Contrary to his expectation, this strange group reacted to his name. Instead of turning their weapons against him, they came to his sides and braced themselves for the impact!

In the last moment, before the crowd of soldiers clashed with Mike's and his newfound companions, the whole world seemed to stop. A tranquil feeling of uniting with the universe overwhelmed the young man. As if some stars aligned, god's looked down on him and the time halted its steps, Mike could see every detail of his surroundings.

Drops of sweat falling down from the random soldier's face, glistering shine reflected from the blade of another warrior, everything felt right in its place. Connected by the unseen bonds of fate, every tightened muscle, tensed face and wide opened eyes created a wonderful piece of art. And then, all hell broke loose.

Clash.

With a loud clang, weapons got interjected by weapons. Armours bent under the hit of the great axe to Mike's left. A spear pierced the shoulder of the man to his left. Blood splattered when the young man's sword slashed the head of the enemy soldier open.

Covered with blood, intensities and small bits of brain in an instant, Mike had no idea how he survived the charge. Three of his new companions were lying on the floor, either dead or bleeding out. There was no time to even remember their faces.

With the first row of soldiers down, another strike reached for Mike's party.

Squeezed between the crowd and the metal cage behind, all he could do was to slash away at his enemies with fury. Knock one of the swords aimed at him out of its trajectory, only to see a war hammer shattering the arm that held it. Bend your neck to the right, to avoid a pike thrust. Grab its handle and pull the unfortunate soldier under the blades of his companions. Push the woman to his right away from the slash of a small axe.

There was no beauty in this slugfest.

What was described in heroic tales as brave deeds of the chosen ones were just a bunch of lies. Mike wondered if the authors of those fables ever seen a real fight to the death. If they did, they wouldn't dare to describe a fight as something glorious. But who would like to read the story of what kinds of patterns formed the blood from the neck of decapitated person? Who would want to know how ugly was the sight of a person with his internals flowing out?

With every slash of the weapon, the numbers of the soldiers thinned down. They were no match for experienced warriors that came to Mike's aid. When Xyenna shrugged her dizzyness away and joined the fray, the entire fight was already over.

After this clash, only about forty soldiers remained standing. On the other side, half of Mike's new company was unable to fight. With only one man seriously wounded, the remaining five either died instantly or departed during the fight. In theory, the enemy had five times more people than them, but that didn't mean they were outnumbered.

While the soldiers were armed and uniformly dressed in armour, their skills were lacking. They were no match for the experienced veterans of the opposing side. Truth to be told, Mike was impressed with the newcomers' military prowess. Despite varying weapons, they supplemented each other. What made him curious though, was the man in the very middle of the formation, holding tightly to his bow.

He didn't wear any personal weapon. Not even a single knife! With his right arm lying motionlessly to his side, he couldn't draw his weapon!

Mike's received an answer to his question as soon as everyone calmed down. This man's bow was mounted on a special holster on his glove! When reaching for the arrow, he attached the string to a small pin on his shoulder and grabbed a small loophole with his thumb. Propelling his arm forward, he readied his bow, while resting the upper part of the arrow on hid fingers tightened around the grip.

After spotting the unusual weapon, Mike looked around to check if there were any bodies impaled by the arrows. Only when he saw around eight corpses with the arrows in their hearts did he realise how effective this method of using the bow was!

"Any ideas now?"

The female standing on his right whispered. It was hard to say who was the intended receiver of this question, but Mike took it to himself.

"We can either kill them all or try to disperse them. Without the horses, we won't be able to run, and they won't give us the opportunity to find those."

Not waiting for anyone else to reply, the young man pointed out their options.

"Killing them all would take too much time. We don't know when someone else could arrive. Let's break their morale completly and find some horses. Ours are already dead tired from chasing after you."

The man in the back with the strange bow interjected. While most of his sentence carried a piece of important information about their current situation, there was a bit that interested Mike a bit more.

"That's settled then. Any objections?"

In the end, there was no time to ask for more information about their reasons for coming here. the young man had to ensure that everyone would follow their charge. With even a single person less than what they actually had, their engage would very likely become unsuccessful!

With no response to his question, Mike stretched himself.

"Three, two, one… GO!"

Coordinating their attack was crucial. No one could slack off at this moment. As they set off, this small group of eight people charged against soldiers numbering more than forty!

Another clash happened.

While Mike's party was reorganising, so did the soldiers. Putting the wounded behind, the frontline was supplied with the remaining fresh meat. Even if someone could consider it a wise move, it was the worst decision that the traitorous officer could make.

Despite the slight wounds, those who were on the front before could still be qualified as seasoned soldiers. With all the elite already dead, they were forming the backbone of the remaining troops. Pushing them to the back, only allowed Mike's party to swiftly break through this line of encirclement.

With the overall level of the soldiers being way belove the average of a typical mercenary or adventurer, there weren't any problems in getting past them. Just by chopping some heads off or cutting down the holes in the bodies of a very limited amount of rookie soldiers, the troop morale reached the bottom. Unable to take it any longer after seeing another brutality unfolding in front of their eyes, those people dropped their weapons and just started to run away!

Just when the Mike was about to start looking for the stables, a haughty voice announced a newcomer.

"What the hell is going on here?"