Xander stood hidden behind a tree. He clutched the shovel in his hands hard as if someone would take it from him. He didn't look at the light yet, instead watched Sam.

Sam was crouching behind a bush on the ground. He had a clear view of the two men on the horses. Both of them looked strong and muscular. Both of them held a torch in one hand and the reins for the horses in the other.

Sam watched as the person in front stopped. He looked around himself, trying to figure out what was wrong.

Sam saw a hand raise from behind the two men. It was sticking out of a tree. Neither of the two men saw it. The raised hand stretched out all five of its fingers. Every few seconds, a finger went down.

Sam realized what was going to happen when the hand ran out of fingers. The six men would rush the two men on the horse.

He held up his own hand for Xander to see. When the other hand was at three, Sam started his at four. When that hand reached zero, he would still stay at one.

It would give Xander and Sam a higher chance of not getting hurt. They would be behind the other village men, and they would be the second to get hurt. If things turned messy really quick, they could also escape the fastest.

When the finger finally hit zero, things happened that Sam didn't expect. One was that none of the village men started running towards the horses. Instead, large rocks started to fly towards the heads of the two men. The other one was that Xander was the one that started to run when Sam was still holding up one finger.

Xander thought that they were supposed to go on one. So when he saw Sam going to one, he started to blindly run forward.

"Ahhhhh!" Xander shouted as he rushed towards the two men. Stratus did as it was told and started where it was, watching everything.

Of the six rocks that were thrown, only four of them hit the two men. The other two either missed or hit the horse that the second man was riding.

Three of the rocks hit the man behind the first one. One hit his head, causing him to be extremely startled. He let go of the torch and the reins for the horse and put his hands around his head. The other two hit his side and back. They made him more unbalanced than he already was.

The last rock was about to hit the head of the man on the front when he used the torch to make it miss.

The second man fell off of his horse. The rock that hit his horse had caused it to suddenly move. He wasn't holding the horse very hard and that caused him to slide off to the side. He might have fallen on the torch if he had slid to the right instead of left.

The two men heard a loud shout coming from in front of them. The second man got off of the ground and pulled his sword out. The first man grabbed the torch with his left hand and grabbed out his own sword with his right.

Sam, who had been watching all of this, sighed. He started sprinting towards the two men. Sam was a little scared after he saw that the two men had swords, but he couldn't just sit here and let Xander go in on his own.

The six village men started to run towards the two men right after they threw their rocks, so Xander wasn't completely alone.

Xander ran until the man on the horse was within the striking distance with his shovel. He then stopped running and swung his shovel towards the body of the first man.

The man clearly saw it coming and held up his sword to defend.

Xander, realizing that his life was on the line, swung the shovel as hard as he could.

The last time that he used all of his strength was on the Carbo. At that time, he was very scared and couldn't really concentrate on using his full strength. He hit it as hard as he could, but he could have hit it harder.

This time was a little bit different, his eyes weren't close and fear didn't cloud his thoughts.

The shovel hit the sword and almost caused the man to fly off of his horse. The only reason that he was still on was that he was squeezing his legs very tightly. Even the horse was caused to take a few steps to the side.

The man couldn't figure out how this was happening. The young man in front of him didn't look strong at all. 'There was no possible way that he could have this strength,' he thought to himself.

He could barely keep the shovel away from him with his sword. Even though only a second passed, the man knew that he couldn't keep going anymore.

He used his legs to kick the horse.

Xander, who was right in front of the horse, was about to be trampled when Sam caught up to him.

Sam shifted his hands lower on the scythe to get a longer ranger. When he saw the man kick the horse, Sam swung the scythe like a baseball bat.

Sam played baseball when he was younger, so he still remembered the best way to swing.

The blade part of the scythe landed between the man and the horse, with the sharp end facing the horse.

Sam had a sudden idea. He pulled his hands back, trying to cut the horse's head clean off. He thought that if he pulled hard enough, the scythe could cut off the neck of the horse.

Sadly, Sam failed. The horse's neck was too thick, and the blade of the scythe was not sharp enough to cut it. But, Sam did cause the horse to be pulled towards him. The horse missed Xander entirely and started to gallop towards where Sam was.

The man on the horse was able to move away from Xander's shovel. He was about to be relieved when he realized how strong the person with the scythe was.

'Both of them are insane,' he thought to himself. The horse was headed straight towards the other man. It was going closer and closer to him.

The man thought that he would be killed if he stayed close to both of them. He got off of the horse, away from Sam and Xander, and started to run.

He had completely forgotten about the other people. He forgot about his partner and the people that threw the rocks at him.

Xander saw him trying to run away. He threw his shovel at the back of the man's head. It flew in the air like a spear, and it missed, by a lot. The closest it got was three feet.

Sam also threw his scythe. He dodged the horse that was headed his way and threw the scythe like an ax. It hit the man, on his leg. It caused him to trip and head straight into a tree.

The six men from the village were dealing with the second man. He was close to them and they saw Xander attacking the other man with a shovel. The second man had fallen off of his horse, so he was easier to deal with, but he still had a sword. He was still dangerous.

The six men circled him, trying to get behind him so that they could attack him without the sword coming in their way.

The villagers didn't really need to fight anyone, so no one really knew how to fight, other than the basics. They knew that the man couldn't defend his back, so that's what they were aiming for.

The second man kept the sword in front of him, and he constantly turned around to keep everyone away.

"Stay back!" he shouted, shoving his sword into the air.

Right then, one of the men jumped into the air. He hit the second man from the back, causing him to fall forward.

That was the end of that fight. The six men kicked and punched the fallen man. He couldn't defend himself anymore and gave up.

Sam and Xander carefully approached their target. He was still on the ground, not moving. The wood part of the scythe ended up hitting the man, so he didn't have a cut.

"I think that he's knocked out. Quickly take the sword away," said Sam. He didn't know how long he would stay out, but it was better to face him if he didn't have a weapon.

Xander bend down and got up with the sword in his hand. The sword was roughly the same weight as the shovel. Its blade was around two feet long with a pointed end. The hilt was made of wood and cloth.

Sam and Xander waited to see if the man got up. After a few seconds of just staring at him, he still didn't move.

"Is he pretending to be dead, or is he actually dead?" asked Xander. The man did fall pretty hard, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he died.

"Let's find out," said Sam as he was getting down. He turned the man over. His eyes were closed, and Sam could see blood trickling down from the top of his head.

Sam grabbed the man's hand and looked for a heartbeat. He couldn't find one. Just being careful, Sam put his finger to the man's nose to see if he was still breathing. As expected, he wasn't.

"He's dead," said Sam. "I just killed someone."

"How do you feel?" asked Xander. Xander remembered when someone killed someone else for the first time, they would be sad, depressed, and shocked. They could also look down at their hands and see imaginary blood. At least, that's how it happens in manga.

"I feel normal," said Sam, wondering why Xander was asking.

Sam didn't feel any remorse for the one that he killed. He did something wrong and knew that it was wrong. Sam felt like he did the right thing. Sam didn't purposefully kill him but didn't regret it.

Sam was feeling a little bad since they couldn't capture the man and question him, but the other man was still here. They could always get their answers from him. It looked like they were partners in crime, so he should know everything that the dead man knew.

Sam turned around and picked up his scythe. Xander followed him and picked up his shovel. They both headed towards where the villagers were.

When Sam saw what the men were doing, he started to panic. They were beating the second man dead. He was already bleeding all over, and he couldn't even defend himself anymore.

"STOP. STOP," shouted Sam as he ran forward.

The six men looked towards Sam and stopped what they were doing. They were surprised that they were able to take the first man down. He had a sword, and he was on a horse.

Sam pushed past the men and looked at the man on the ground. Sam certainly wasn't a doctor, but even he knew that it was too late. There was a small puddle of blood that formed underneath the man. Several of his ribs were broken, and his heart definitely wasn't beating.

Sam sighed and got up. 'There goes our hope of finding out what they wanted,' he thought to himself.

Sam thought that they had a greater goal in their mind. One that was bigger than theft or revenge, but it looked like they would never know.

Sam went back to where Stratus was still sitting. He sat down and decided to take a break. Xander went to the body of the first man to see if he could find anything.

When he was looking through the man's pockets, he found something. Something very good.