Chapter 16 My First Conflict

“In the end, you had to use your sword after all…” The Magistrate had to say.

“Humph.” The soldier did.

“What do you think?” The Magistrate asked.

“She is all right. She could make it to the ones who don’t actually die in the first five minutes. Stand up!” The last two words were directed at Lenny, laying with the back on the grass in front of the man who won against her.

“STOP!!”

Josiah’s voice could be heard coming from just a few meters away. The three men had their attention drawn to his direction, from which he showed up, from behind the trees.

“Leave them alone!”

Josiah was visibly tired and sweating. He had to run all the way from his house to the place before something could happen to Lenny.

“Another one!?” The soldier standing before the fallen girl made a surprise face.

Unlike Lenny, Josiah was wearing everything he had: he already carried the sword in one hand, the dagger in the other and he was even wearing the iron leggings he got as a gift from Thomas.

“This one also seems to know what he is doing…” The man watching interestedly in his dark red armor observed.

The proud soldier who defeated Lenny made a signal with his hands to The Magistrate for him to stop. He couldn’t accept he didn’t take on a kid by fighting lightly and now wanted to prove himself.

“You two, leave me alone! I deal with this one.”

The soldier started moving forward, to the direction Josiah was. He felt Lenny trying to get up behind him and then said to the other soldier:

“Take her!”

He wasn’t the one in charge neither the one to give orders like that, but The Magistrate wasn’t the kind of man who minded his men acting hot-headed like that around him. In fact, he even liked them more like that.

Instead of scolding his soldier The Magistrate smiled and said:

“He’s all yours.”

With a serious expression, the soldier withdrew his sword without thinking twice. It was a large two-handed blade, a lot bigger than Josiah’s own.

‘What the old man said is true… I can tell when a weapon is binding just by standing next to it.

The soldier approached on small steps and when he was close enough, the first clash was declared by the sudden movement on his legs.

The soldier charged straightly, but Josiah could move quicker. Partly because he wasn’t wearing armor, and partly because, as you know, he was a little kid.

He dodged the man’s stab and unleashed an attack with his dagger, which he could check it landed.

‘The good about the dagger is that the effect happens only a few seconds later.’ Josiah thought to himself.

The soldier, seeing he missed his last attack and didn’t feel anything, resumed his stance and prepared to clash once again. This time without giving Josiah much room to move.

‘If I can lure this kiddo to those trees with my footwork, he won’t be able to move aside when we are trading attacks’ the soldier thought.

Josiah quickly understood the soldier’s plan and caught the bait on purpose. He let the soldier corner him and start a trade.

But the dagger effect came into the soldier’s senses right in the middle of the clash, which gave Josiah the opportunity to strike surely.

‘One down.’ Josiah thought as the soldier fell to the floor.

Josiah looked to the other men to check their expressions. The other soldier who hadn’t done do anything at all yet had his mouth opened on a surprised expression. He expected The Magistrate to be carrying a serious expression after that, but when he looked at the man in red armor, he was hiding his laughter with his hand.

“What’s so funny?”

“N-nothing… I just… Was sort of expecting this.”

“Nevermind, old man. Leave us alone now, or the same is going to happen to you.” Josiah said that loudly and proudly but deep inside he knew a soldier wouldn’t back off his duty just because a friend lost in combat. He managed to win because of the surprise of his dagger ability and because it was a one-on-one fight, but now there were two of them and they knew what he was about. Josiah looked at Lenny, being held by the other soldier at the opposite side where The Magistrate was.

“Lenny! Let’s run for it!”

“But… Jacob and Timmy…”

Josiah wasn’t thinking of the other two ones. He just assumed some children would get caught since it was already happening in the farmstead.

He went there because of Lenny, but clearly those two were important for her as well.

A loud hand clapping noise could be heard and Lenny and Josiah had to turn their heads to The Magistrate. The man in the dark red armor was apparently in a very good mood.

“Ok, little one. Let’s do it like this. Show me what you got. Just you and me. If you can win against me, I’m going to let your friends go.”

Josiah braced his sword and stood up to it. He couldn’t have asked for a better deal himself.

‘This is exactly what I wanted. But this guy… Seeing his right-hand falling like that didn’t do anything to shake his head? The way he is dressed indicates he might be a soldier or officer or something higher-ranked. Is this guy really as good as he is hinting to be…? I have my chance to fight one-on-one and I still have some tricks, but the way this guy accepted it all lightly like that makes me worried…’

Ignoring his own internal conflict, Josiah uttered:

“Come, then. I’ll show you hell.”