We rushed toward the source of the screams. The deeper we went into the forest, the more our vision was obstructed by trees and bushes. After the shout echoed through the air, we could pinpoint the direction it came from.
"Help! Someone help!!" Thankfully, the girl's voice didn't stop calling for help deep within the woods. Whatever was happening to her was an immediate threat, judging by the urgency in her frightened voice.
"This way!" I called Sarah, pointing toward where the high-pitched voice was coming from. Finally, we found her.
Right in the middle of the forest, surrounded by trees, there was a crater, and at the bottom of it, the woman who was crying for help was cornered by three men, each one carrying a sword in their respective sheaths. Her back was against a rock wall, too straight to climb.
The girl had her body covered by an old, tattered hood, so I could only see her face. Even then, she seemed shorter than me, and of course shorter than her pursuers. All of them were taller than her, with muscular bodies and tanned skin. Bandits, maybe slave dealers? I didn't know what their deal was, but one thing I knew for sure: they had combat experience, and killing was not a problem for them.
"Someone help!" she cried once more, begging for someone to save her.
"Shut up, you bitch!" The man on the left shouted at her, trying to silence her. "You put us in a lot of trouble, but you have no escape now!"
"Please let me go!" She begged in a shaky voice.
When Sarah heard that last plea, she almost jumped into the crater to rescue her, but I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into the nearest bush.
"Eh? Huh, huh!" She got bewildered for a moment, but I covered her mouth before one of the criminals down there spotted us.
"Shh, keep quiet! Do you want to get caught?" I whispered to her.
"What are you doing?" she asked me in an urgent tone. "We have to save her!"
"Are you nuts? Don't just barge into a fight against unknown enemies." I reprimanded her. "I know how you're feeling, but we need to think before we go rescue her."
Sarah seemed frustrated at first, being incapable of helping in that instant, but she understood the situation and nodded to me.
Thankfully, the attackers were human, so I could look up their stats. 'Lover's Appraisal.' I activated my skill, and that was the result from left to right.
[
Name: Bandit 1
Class: Thief
Health: 40 points
Mana: 10 points
Strength: 3 point
Defense: 1 point
Magic: 0 point
Agility: 2 point
]
[
Name: Bandit Leader
Class: Swordsman
Health: 75 points
Mana: 15 points
Strength: 5 point
Defense: 3 point
Magic: 0 point
Agility: 3 point
]
[
Name: Bandit 2
Class: Thief
Health: 40 points
Mana: 10 points
Strength: 3 point
Defense: 1 point
Magic: 0 point
Agility: 2 point
]
Two of them were weaker than Sarah, based on their status alone, but the man in the middle, even from this height, was obviously the major threat. The Bandit Leader was much more muscular than his underlings and was about 2m tall (6'7''). He was a monster made out of muscles.
He had short dark hair, and a scar that cut his face diagonally, passing through the middle of it. He certainly appeared to be someone more accustomed to combat than the others, therefore he was our strongest foe right now.
But I had the feeling that I had already seen this scene before. I searched my memory for what part of SCRL this moment could be, but before that, a manly, imposing voice cut through the atmosphere.
"Well, this is the end of the line, miss. Where is your friend?" The Bandit Leader finally spoke up.
The girl in the tattered hood didn't say a thing in response.
"Hey, the boss is talking to you!" Bandit 1 yelled impatiently at her, but his own boss intervened, raising his hand in Bandit 1's direction. A clear sign to shut up.
"Oi, oi! The girl must be scared to hell." He said with feigned concern. "Miss, no… Your Highness, I'll ask you one more time, where is she?"
But the woman stood there in silence, motionless as a stone.
"So you are going to protect the other girl until the end, huh. What an honorable gesture, truly. But our employer is as inflexible as you are, and he wants your friend, dead or alive." The Bandit Leader said. His words might have sounded gentle, but he couldn't conceal his hostility. "If you give her to us, we promise to leave you alone. We could even bring you to a safer place, somewhere much better than the middle of the trees."
'Wait! I know this scene!' I finally remembered the identity of this girl. She was one of the protagonists in SCRL. In this scene was being attacked by those bandits when Leo was around. He fought then and won against the three, but the bandit leader escaped. But now Leo was far away from here, and we stepped into this main event.
"So what do you say, Your Highness?" The pursuer asked.
His proposal was a lie. From their talk it was obvious that they aren't usual bandits. They are mercenaries, and he didn't have any intention to leave her out of here alive.
As he said, his employer wanted the other one dead or alive, but what he didn't say was that everyone that made contact was supposed to be silenced. After she gave in her friend, they would assault her and dispose of her body right after.
The other two bandits were ready for this, their eyes shining with malevolence. This guy, the Bandit 1, was licking his chops in excitement for what was going to happen.
He thought that she was fool enough to believe in his lies, thinking that her family status would protect her in any circumstance, but to their surprise, she wouldn't do that. I knew exactly what she would say. She put her hand in her chest, as if her heart was pounding hard in fear. But even this way, she brought the courage to step up.
"That woman protected me with her own life." She said in a shaky voice. "How could I just turn her in? I would be spitting on my family's name with such dishonor."
"Phweee!" The Bandit Leader whistled in disdain. "I didn't expect such courage coming from such a small girl. But we might have a problem with this. Maybe I should stop being polite."
"So do you call chasing two women for days non-stop politeness?" she asked indignantly.
"Well, I asked you to surrender, right? That's what I call politeness." A malicious smile spread across the man's face. "But you know, my men are way more savage than I am."
"You are pretty cruel to us, boss." Bandit 2 said.
"We didn't have the opportunity to visit a brothel. You would threaten to kill us if we did." Bandit 1 joined the conversation.
"I should apologize to you guys, but I got a good idea." He didn't bother to conceal his own malice at this point. "Why bother with a used-up hooker when you guys could enjoy the pleasure of a distinguished member of royalty."
"Eh?" The woman let out a surprised sound.
"Are you serious, boss?!" Bandit 2 asked in shock.
"Of course. You two worked really hard. I would be a monster if I didn't reward your efforts. Right, Your Highness?" the Bandit Leader asked her perversely.
But the girl didn't move a finger. She froze, paralyzed by fear, still in disbelief at the naturality with which they spoke such cruelties.
"Boss, you're the best!" Bandit 1 praised his leader. "I was almost going crazy, craving a warm woman's body."
"No…" the woman said, starting to be dragged back into her desperate reality.
"But you can't keep her. Our employer said that both have to die, so clean your mess afterwards."
"What a waste."
"No!" the woman in the hood cried, trying to run from them, only to be effortlessly grabbed by her arms. Bandit 1 smiled at the girl struggling to break free from him.
'Not on my watch!' I thought inwardly, with genuine disgust toward those mercenaries.
I had already explained to Sarah what my plan was to rescue the girl down there. There was no way to challenge all three and win. In my current state, I would be dead weight to Sarah, and the bigger bandit would just crush me and overwhelm her with numbers.
But if we could separate the group and ambush them, it would be a different story. I picked up a big rock right beside where I was hiding, hoping that my plan would work.
"Are you ready, Sarah?" I asked the red-haired woman by my side, and she nodded.
With her signal, I threw the rock in my hands as strongly as I could.