" I thought we were going to hide? " asked Christina, causing Leo to glance at her, seeing his gaze on her, she gave him a bright smile which caused him to chuckle
Christina was one of the taller girls, similar in height to Rebecca even though she was only 9, red shoulder length hair and quite out spoken. Not afraid to question even him. Now being one of those times
He didn't mind her behaviour, and he was glad that she was comfortable enough to say what she thought as she was one of the girls who was in bad condition when he bought her
" what are you future plans? " instead of answering her question, Leo asked one of his own
" I mean all of you " said Leo watching her falling silent, turning to the others
" you own us, don't we have to follow you " said Tori with an indifferent expression, drawing everyone's attention
" you're wrong sister, Leo bought us but he does not own us, you don't own family " said Tia calmly. Hearing her sisters words, Tori fell silent, turning her head to the side after Leo looked at her
Leo looked at the two of them, twin sisters, Tia was the older one, long black hair with a calm personality, he can't remember ever seeing her flustered. Tori had short hair, barely reached her ears. This was the only noticeable difference between the two
Rebecca came right beside Leo and stood, her gaze never leaving his face as she spoke
" whatever you plan to do, we're going to be right here with you "
Hearing her words, Leo glanced at all the girls, finding that they all nodded their heads. Seeing this he smiled
" I'm not planning to put you guys in any danger " said Leo, regardless of his personal feelings, he wouldn't do something so selfish
" I simply, want to take a look at them and gauge how powerful they actually are, as they're the biggest hindrance in our future plans " explained Leo as he walked towards the bed, telling the girls to sit
" what plans? " asked Lisa
" you've all seen what happened yesterday " said Leo calmly, seeing their expressions he continued " our stay in this village, more than likely this territory is probably coming to an end "
" when they come back tomorrow, I intend to teach people how to make the fish traps then challenge the beast for a chance to develop on our own. No longer have to worry about our fish being stolen or people beating us just because they can" said Leo
Seeing their eyes brightening at his words, he continued
" we've all seen that they're no dangerous animals within the territory, we have the Baron to thank for that which just leaves "
" demonic creatures " said Lisa
" exactly. They'll be the only real threat to our current well being. So tonight is to test if we're too big a group or if we're small enough to go unnoticed " said Leo but internally he thought differently
' I rejected the Baron's offer, who knows what kind of reaction he'll have to this news. He may let us leave only to send his guards to finish us off. So we need to leave before the news gets to him '
" but what if we are? " asked Christina " big enough to be noticed by the demonic creatures, I mean "
Hearing her words, every one looked towards Leo, waiting for his answer
" this is why tonight is so important. It will teach us how to hide, when to run and how we can fight " said Leo calmly
" how can we fight them with no weapons? I dont think my punch is powerful enough yet " asked Anna, as she flexed her nonexistent biceps
Hearing her words, Leo nodded to Diana who went outside before coming back inside with something wrapped in a tarp. She carefully placed it on the ground before opening it, showing several long swords and a single long bow
Seeing this, all the girls gathered around them excitedly before easily picking them up and started playfully swinging them around
What Leo noticed was the ease and uniformity in each swing. He realised that it must be muscle memory from the army Swordsmanship skill, now feeling even more confident
" where did you get those swords " asked Rebecca as she handed the last sword to Leo, who took it and looked at his reflection in the blade before he answered her
" we borrowed them from the Mayor's house, it seems that these were ordered by the Baron. It seems that he's planning to recruit soldiers in the future " said Leo calmly, ignoring the strange look Rebecca gave him
" won't that put a target on our backs? " asked Lisa as she skillfully sheathed her sword
" that's why I said borrowed, we're going to return them "
" so that means you're not going to strengthen them " said Rebecca. Hearing her words, he shook his head
" a stronger weapon won't change anything. Even if I could somehow strengthen these weapons to the point where we could injure and kill demonic creatures, I doubt we'd be able to use them " explained Leo
" so what about armour? are we going to fight in our normal clothes? " asked Tori, pointing towards her dress
" we've seen the guards armor, leather armour won't be of much use either, and we don't even know where they'd be in this village " said Leo with a shrug
" We can't do this, we can't do that, so what will we do? " asked Christina as she played with the sword in her hand
" the same way humans have always brought down creatures much stronger than us. A trap " replied Leo with a smile under the girls confused gazes
***
Several hours later
Leo stood on the wall and looked into the forest, scanning it for movement, his body tense as he gripped the sword in his hand tightly
Rebecca and the others to his left and right, each with varied expressions each holding their swords, looking around
Leo frowned as he felt the sudden drop in temperature, his eyes widening as he raised his head, watching as the moon turned bright red, sitting in the sky ominously
Before they could react to the change, a terrifyingly piercing howl was released, echoing throughout the surrounding forest erasing most of the courage the girls had mustered up, some of them nearly falling off the wall in fright
" calm down, we're fine " said Leo as he walked towards the girls helping them stand steadily on their feet as he turned his attention back to the forest
" Leo look " said Rebecca as she pointed towards a certain point in the forest. Following her gaze, Leo's eyes shrank as he looked at the black cloud of mist rising directly to the sky
" stand ready " instructed Leo as he drew his sword, seeing his actions the girls followed suit, drawing their swords in unison.
Several rumbling sounds could be heard in the distant forest, as the forest seemed to lose all other sounds.
A few minutes passed like this in silence, causing everyone's tight nerves to suddenly start to relax and breath a sigh of relief
" it seems that we're too little people to gain their attention, we're safe " said Christina with a bright smile
Hearing her words, Leo didn't reply and stared into the forest right in front of them, the frown on his face gradually deepening
" Rebecca " said Leo as he pointed towards a certain direction
Hearing his words, Rebecca, drew an arrow from the quiver on her back, wrapping cloth around the tip, dipping it in the oil beside her, before lighting it on fire
Placing it against her bow, pulling back the string, aiming towards where Leo pointed before releasing the arrow
The girls watched as the arrow shot through the air landing 100m away on the edge of the clearing. Rebecca had 100% accuracy in 30m but that didn't mean she couldn't shoot further
Everyone watched in silence, staring carefully at the arrow, the other girls realising by now that something was wrong based on Leo's expression and Rebecca's actions
The next minute a tall humanoid figure slowly exited the forest walking in this direction aimlessly. The fire from the arrow highlighting it's figure
" a Skeleton? " exclaimed Leo, hearing his words the girls looked at him before looking at the Skeleton that walked out of the forest
" what's a Skeleton? " asked Rebecca, having already notched another arrow. Hearing her question, Leo subconsciously replied his eyes never leaving the Skeleton
" in most cases, skeletons are simply races which have become undead, but they no longer have any flesh. For example humans but .... "
Leo couldn't finish his words as the Skeleton in the distance was at least 3m tall and judging by the sounded made as it walked, definitely above 1 ton in weight, what fucking human was this height and weight when they were alive? This wasn't one piece
And judging by the absolutely massize sword it carried that wasn't much smaller than itself, it was a warrior. And he didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of it's attacks
" so are we safe? " asked Christina, as she watched the skeleton warrior walk aimlessly in the distance
The moment her words finished, the skeleton warrior suddenly stopped walking and raised it's head, seemingly smelling the air before glancing at them on the wall
It's previously empty eye sockets filling with green soul fire as it slowly made it's way towards them. Seeing this, everyone glanced towards Christina speechlessly
Seeing their gazes, Christina lowered her head embarrassed, muttering softly " at least, it's slow, we could easily outrun it "
As if taking her words as provocation, the skeleton warrior suddenly broke into a sprint and shot towards them, the sword in it's arms creating a ravine as it dragged behind it
Seeing this, everyone once again looked towards Christina who looked at the skeleton warrior in shock