It was still night when Michael was sleeping in his cave, but then, the smell of smoke filled his nostrils, forcefully waking him up.
Cough! Cough!
After 4 seconds of coughing, Michael hurriedly got up and ran out of his cave, only to see a huge cloud of smoke in the direction of the village near him.
"No No No,NO!"Michael felt a sense of dread, he already had a suspicion of what had happened, he then went inside the cave and grabbed his weapons: his bow and all the arrows he had, a buff leather coat that could stop cuts from a sword, which he had looted from one of the bandits he had killed, and a Mortuary Broadsword.
He then got out of the cave and sprinted towards the village at full speed. It took him 1 and a half hours of constant sprinting to reach the village,and what he saw awakened a memory that he desperately tried to forget, but unfortunately, he had near photographic memory making his desperate attempts futile.
Michael's eyes turned cold, he did not utter a word, he simply walked inside the village "calmly"
The corpses of the villagers filled the stone paths, making Michael feel sadness that threatened to consume his heart, yet even that was not possible, something constantly forced him to walk the path of light,every time he was about to be consumed by darkness a voice echoed in his ears.
"Do not fall into the Darkness,no matter what you have to do you must protect the light."
Even in death, Michael's mother prevented him from being consumed by darkness, yet she also unintentionally reminded him of his failure, his failure to protect the light, trapping him in an endless circle of sadness guilt and shame.
Michael then heard laughter coming from one of the village's house, which was around 50 meters away from here.
Michael walked towards the house with silent steps, and after he reached it, he saw 5 invaders standing beside 3 familiar corpses.
Michael's eyes started bleeding, drops of blood that looked more like tears fell into the stone path,yet at the same time his face was expressionless,and in an instant he started sprinting towards the five invaders with his broad sword in his hand.
BAAAM!
Thud!
H slammed into one of the invaders sending him crashing towards another one, causing them both to crash into the ground.
Eldrin then swung his sword towards one of the invaders on his left slashing his exposed neck,and right after,elbowed the other one on his right directly in his exposed face.
Slash!
Crack!
Thud!
Thud!
But that gave the other invader enough time to kick Michael directly in the abdomen, But.
Thud!
Eldrin only took a step backwards from the kick , remaining relatively unharmed,and then looked towards the invader with his bleeding eyes, grabbed him by the neck with one hand, and lifted him effortlessly in the air,and threw him towards the two rising invaders.
BAAAAM!
THUD!
One of the invaders' chests was crushed, killing him due to the combined weight of two adult humans beings thrown on top of him, the other one, including the one thrown by Eldrin, had light injuries.
Michael approached both of them and grabbed them by the neck with one hand each and lifted them both in the air with a grunt. Clearly that took a bit of effort; lifting two adult humans with one hand each is no easy task.
The invaders desperately threw punches and kicks at Michael, yet even when injured, Michael remained unfazed by the pain, and after one minute of struggle, both men died of suffocation,their bodies now limb.
Michael's face was full of bruises, even one of his bleeding eyes was swollen,his nose was fractured, and his cheeks had scratches, yet Michael did not care because he was having PTSD episodes from the moment he lifted both men off the ground by the neck, yet another traumatising event for his near photographic collection of memories.
After two minutes of standing still with his bleeding eyes unfocused, he dropped the long-dead men to the ground.
Whistle!
Pierce!
Michael was pierced by an arrow in the shoulder, though thanks to his leather coat the injury wasn't that serious. Michael quickly picked one of the dead bodies with one arm to use as a meat shield and rushed towards the archer 40 meters away.
"This archer is either a fool or it's a trap" Thought Michael vigilantly as another arrow hit the dead body, Michael took that short opportunity and threw the body,he instantly grabbed his bow and an arrow, aimed it towards the Archer and released the arrow.
Whistle!
Pierce!
The Archer dropped dead,and from the corners 6 invaders rushed out at the same time, almost encircling Michael who kicked the invader in front of him in the chest and sprinted away with his bow still in his hands, and after he was far enough he turned with his bow aimed, only to find the invaders gone, they weren't stupid enough to chase him, after all Michael had a bow and he was clearly much faster than them, he could simply stop once in a while shoot one of them, and then run again, it's a losing fight for them, they can only resort to coordinated surprise attacks.
Michael however had a plan. he walked towards the invaders that he had killed, and took them to a hidden corner,he changed into their clothes and armour,he then took the tallest of them who was around 1.80 and changed his clothes into Michael's. He was the one with the slightly caved chest, though Michael's clothes and leather coat can hide it, he then put a helmet on the corpse's head to hide its short brown hair, tied his sword into the corpse's hand with a cloth and then walked inside one of the houses grabbed the back of the corpse's head through the window of the house, and raised the corpse into a wobbly standing position carefully adjusted its limbs to mimic a living person and waited.
From the outside, the corpse looked like a person who was leaning against the wall of the house with a sword slightly raised, occasionally turning its head towards the alleys as if vigilantly watching or searching for enemies.
One of the six invaders who was searching for Michael spotted the figure leaning against the wall and hurriedly went to inform his comrades.
After 15 minutes, the six invaders got in position,two were in the alleys behind that very same house, where the figure was leaning, and the rest were in alleys opposite the house.
Michael was already gone the only thing that allowed for the corpse to remain standing was a sword embedded in its head.
But when the bandits got closer the realised something, the figure looked too stiff, it didn't even turn its head or move anymore, the previously raised sword was now hanging from its limp hand.
In one of those alleys behind that very same house.
Slash!
A tall figure wearing the armour and clothes of the invaders,had slashed the neck of one of them and silently laid the body down.
He then silently walked backwards and took a right turn heading into the other alley behind the house, and there was the other invader now on the corner watching the standing but limp body.
Michael did not kill him but waited until the invader whistled and rushed out of the alley, along with the other 5 invaders in the opposite alleys.
They surrounded the body leaning against the wall, and started slashing and stabbing it, but it didn't even take 2 seconds for them to realise that they had been deceived by the oldest trick in the book.
Pierce!
Pierce!
Thud!
Thud!
Two daggers pierced the necks of two invaders , sealing their fate, and there he was, Michael himself calmly walking out of the alley, with two more daggers in his hands that he threw to the other two invaders.
Pierce!
Pierce!
Thud!
Thud!
Leaving only one invader alive, looking at him with absolute fear, Michael rushed towards him and threw a palm strike directly in the Adam's apple.
Crack!
Not much needed to be said, his neck was no more, he then fell to the ground, choking in his own blood.
Note: Eldrin will wake up from his coma in the next chapter.