Nyle turned and stared into the captain’s eyes, his indifferent demeanor crumbled instantly. The captain didn’t budge. Instead, he smiled. He was right to assume the mercenary was highly invested in Wolf’s movements. Assuming the man that just landed was the leader of the garrison, phase three of his plan was working well.

Continuing to stare at the captain, Nyle threw a question at the Imurian, “Mr. Fortem. How would you like to proceed.”

“I’m willing to talk if you are,provided he can guarantee the safety of people he’s holding captive of course.” He stared, spear raised, at the captain.

The captain took his hands off the shoulders of the kid in front of him. He then raised them in a sign cooperation.

“Talk. Not...not kill.”

Mid-sentence, the captain saw the two men in front of him look up in confusion. Fearing it was a ploy to strike him when his guard was down, he refused to turn around. His men were of the same belief, they had seen many similar underhanded tricks over the years. That being said, the moment they turned towards each other as if looking for affirmation the captain began to wonder if they were being genuine. The Imurian’s face look particularly shocked. Speaking of Imurians.

What’s taking that idiot so long?

---------

Kain was grateful for the Mrs. Fidel. She was Imurian like his mother and her presence seemed to greatly calm her. They comforted one another. During a conversation about Imuria, the former capital of the Imuru Empire, a man rushed into the barn.

The man was frantic. The two malsirs he had just seen were vastly more powerful than anyone he could call on to protect him. The vice-captain might have been able to fight the Imurian, but he definitely couldn’t fight the other guy. A man like him sees a lot of cocky attitudes in his line of work. He had never seen someone so deserving of it.

Spotting a group of Imurians, the man shuffled through the other townsfolk to get to them. He hit a lot of the women resting on the ground, but the urgency of his task clouded his eyes to anything other than the woman he needed to get.

----------

Imurian culture was very militaristic. Combat strength was one of the most important qualities for a man. Be it a gun or a sword, if you were valuable on the battlefield you were valued by society. It didn’t stop with those who directly affected the battlefield on the ground either. Leading researchers and inventors in military technology, talented tacticians and military minds, skilled instructors; they were all lauded. The love for excellence on the battlefield was deeply ingrained into their culture. Imurian almost exclusively meant ‘warrior’. That is unless you were a woman. While they could be inventors, tacticians, and instructors; they were not allowed on the battlefield. They were to be kept safe, unharmed. Much of a married man’s worth came from how comfortable his wife was. In such a culture and to such people, a female hostage was a rather big deal. If a citizen of the empire was caught taking a woman hostage or even just committing a crime that directly harmed women, the death penalty was a rather likely outcome. To the outside world, that level of extremeness was confounding. To the Imurian people it made all the sense in the world. The highest seat in the kingdom, the throne, was only ever occupied by women. Empresses. While there was still an emperor and he still help quite a bit of power, it was the empress who ran the country. The concept of ‘man of the house’ still formed and men often still served as the head of households-their worth to their country as soldiers often outweighting their wives contributions-but women were treated with a much higher level of respect than most civilizations at the time.

Even though that part of their culture had softened somewhat since the fall of the Imuru Empire, there was still an above average need to protect their women.

—————

“You. Get up.”

The bandit reached an Imurian woman and grabbed her by the hand. She struggled, but she was never going to over power him. Her son and daughter were screaming to let her go. They held onto their mother, desperately trying to stop the bandit from taking her. Their efforts wouldn’t stop him, but it was slowing him down a little.The boy, realizing he couldn’t save his mother by pulling her, attacked the bandit. He kicked the man as hard as he could. It proved little more than an inconvenience. Not having the time to play with children, he kicked back at him. The young boy flew backwards and crashed into a woman holding a baby. The hit knocked him out cold. His sister, probably fearing the worst, ran up to him. Replacing her was another Imurian woman. She had considerably more strength behind her resistance than the children; she managed to help the woman in his grasp wrestle her arm free. They then quickly moving away from him. A boy about his height stood in front of them. He had, had enough. He pulled out his gun and pointed at the children that had just attacked him.

“Give me the woman, or I’ll put a bullet in them.”

The boy didn’t flinch, “You would kill your hostages? I don’t think your boss would be too happy about that.”

He sucked his teeth. The kid had a brain. At least enough of one to understand the situation he was in. He chuckled, “You’re a smart kid. But you don’t seem to get what kind of situation you’re in.”

He then walked over to the two kids. The women around them promptly dispersed. They weren’t going to die to protect a child that wasn’t their own. The girl screamed at him to leave her brother alone, but he was never his target. Grabbing the girl by her neck, he put his gun back on his waist and pulled out his dagger. She fought him vehemently, scratching and clawing his arm, but a quick squeeze by his hand squashed her resilience.

“Now. Give me the woman or she might have to lose a few body parts.”

He didn’t need to continue threatening them, there were other Imurian women in the barn. Being on a time crunch, he could have simply gone to take one of them. There was nothing special about either of the women behind the kid that would call for him to focus on them, it was merely a show of dominance. The kid had challenged him. Moreover, he challenged him is such a way that if he backed down the other hostages may have started to get unnecessary ideas. He was right when he insinuated that killing one of the hostages outright could ruin his boss’ plan, but letting those very hostages rebel would be even worse. He had to stand his ground.

Putting the unconscious girl next to her brother, he got on his knees and looked at her.

“Should I start with her fingers?”

He made a show of spreading out her fingers and lining the blade up just right. He was just about to mark her skin to denote that line when the boy yelled.

“Wait!”

He walked closer, “Just take me.”

The bandit smiled, “No can do. I asked for the woman.” He turned back to the child and realigned is blade, “Maybe after I remove a finger yo-”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Imurian boy tackled him. Completely stunned by the action he had let the dagger slip from his hand. The boy grabbed it immediately, slitting the man's throat with expert precision. Before he could grab his gun, however, a shot went off.

Krck!

“Kain!”