We followed the path that the village head had shown to us. We were all completely silent, everybody in thought and preparing themselves for the coming fight. I was not sure what exactly to expect but I felt excitement and dread rise up. An actual fight against another human was something I had never imagined in my entire life. It had felt like a completely separate world from the one I was living in, and now I would also step into that world. I was glad that I would fight to protect others, while I didn’t want it to matter, it did make it easier to move towards the danger.

  I knew that I was not emotionless, at least not yet. So, my thoughts inevitably started to wander to the bandit leader. He was just another human. And I would kill him. My mind begun to spin stories about how his life might have been for him to end up a bandit. I knew that this would not help me and was actively undermining my determination to fight, but I could not stop it from happening.

  My mind finally stopped racing when we saw the glint of torches shining through the forest. We sneaked closer and saw the bandit camp. It was at the base of a particularly thick tree. They just had a bunch of tents set up and four guards were looking into the forest guarding the camp. While the camps were not uniform, it was still impossible to determine which one belonged to the bandit leader, or which one housed the prisoners. The tents were all dirty and had gotten patch jobs. Some were slightly crooked, but it didn’t look intentional.

  We snuck a bit deeper back into the forest to discuss how exactly we wanted to approach this. After we were out of earshot, did Estella propose, “Since there are four guards and four of us. How about each of us takes one of them? We just need to make sure that we do it at the same time and it should be fine.” I was unsure if splitting up would be a good idea, but at the same time it would be a lot worse to allow one of the guards to warn the others.

  So instead of disagreeing did I ask Devi something that would determine how all of us fought, “How much can you heal? I would prefer it if we could hand them over to the city or something like that.” Devi thought for a moment before he said, “Since they are just mortals, I think I could heal broken bones and flesh wounds for all of them, as long as it is not too extreme of a wound of course.” I nodded and we began to split off slightly to line up with each of our targets. We had decided to wait for three minutes.

  As soon as the time was up, did I sprint forward to reach the guard I was supposed to take down. It turned out we had underestimated how fast they could respond as I heard a yell come from one of the other guards. Still, I didn’t stop and reached the guard before he could get his spear ready. As I barrelled into the man, did I realize how thin he was. It was something I had ignored at the village, but the mortals all had been extremely underfed.

  My thoughts got interrupted by the sound of his ribcage breaking as I slammed into him. I felt my shoulder sink into his upper body and for a moment did I feel a cold fear course through my body, that I had actually killed him. Luckily, did I see him still breathing. I heard movements coming from inside of the tents and rushed towards the nearest one. Another man was coming out still looking tired and I punched him in the face as I arrived. I felt his nose break under my fist and even felt some of the bones around his eye cracking.

  In return, I only felt some pain in my fist. The man I had punched fell backwards into the tent and I heard somebody else curse as the body landed on them. Since I could not reach inside properly, did I simply kick the supporting stick causing the tent to collapse on the two. By now the rest of the camp had woken up and had assembled into a line. In the middle of the line was a slightly smaller man with a metal sword. I also realized that pretty much all of the bandits didn’t have proper weapons, most wielding spears out of wood.

  The man with the sword, who I presumed to be the bandit leader, addressed us, as we also joined up again, “With what do I owe the pleasure, immortals?” He practically spat out the word immortals while one of the bandits left the line and began moving towards a tent in the back. I also noticed that there were none of the prisoners were here.

  So, ignoring the bandit leader did I yell at the others, “We got to attack before they get to the prisoners.” With these words did I just begin sprinting at the line of bandits. I saw that the leader wanted to say something, but he decided against it due to my rapid approach. Instead, did he reach behind and pulled someone in front of his body.

  It was a small girl who looked utterly terrified. The bandit leader put his sword against the neck of the girl, and I felt hesitation spread through my body. I remember what I had said before the fight had begun, I knew what I needed to do to follow the path I had chosen, but still, I wanted to stop. I saw the tears in the girl’s eyes, I saw the small line of red forming as my legs betrayed me and carried me forward.

  He dropped her to the side as the blood sprayed out of her throat onto my clothes and I reached him. I just tackled him to the ground and put my knee on his sword hand, before I began to wail on him. I broke his nose, some of his ribs and generally bruised his body. I then put my hands on his head and began smashing it into the ground. I felt it crack after the third time. Then I felt it shatter open by the fifth, but I still continued as my hands became drenched in blood and grey matter.

  I saw something wet fall onto the backside of my hands and took a moment to realize that it was my tears. I felt bile rise up my throat and wanted to lean to the side to vomit, when I saw a pair of cheap shoes approach me. I just barely had enough clarity to realize that I was about to be attacked and turned to the side. The spear just barely missed my lungs and heart and instead bore into my right shoulder. I felt pain shoot through my body, but I felt clear headed.

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  I pressed my body against the spear and lunged for the legs of the assailant. I felt the spear getting pushed deeper into my shoulder, but through the pain did I manage to grab one of the legs. My right hand also found the target and my fist landed on the side of the knee of the man. I felt him falling down and quickly pushed myself to stand again. I saw chaos around me. The others were all fighting against multiple bandits at once and were quickly gaining the upper hand, either through just being stronger or Qi techniques.

  I also found myself surrounded by three more bandits. I saw the spear tips pointed at me shake slightly and broke the spear stuck in my right shoulder. That almost caused me to pass out from the sheer pain, and I stumbled a step forward before I caught myself. I saw the one in my line of vision preparing to attack and shot towards him. The spear shot towards me, but it was poorly aimed and I manage to mostly dodge it outside of being cut on the upper parts of my shoulder.

  I closed the distance and punched the man in the stomach with all the strength I could muster with my left arm. I felt something getting destroyed inside of his body but didn’t stop to think about it before I rammed my knee into his private area. Seeing him collapse did I turn to the other two and began circling them, in the hopes of forcing one of them blocking the other. To my surprise did the right bandit turn around and sprinted away, dropping his weapon in the process.

  Seeing that he was no threat to anybody, did I focus on the remaining one and lunged forward again. He didn’t have a spear like the others and instead had an old looking sword. But his hands were shaking too much to even properly do a strike, allowing me to close the distance without getting any further injuries. I grabbed one of the two arms that were holding the sword and pushed against the elbow. I had only hoped to hurt him enough to let go, but to my surprise did I completely break his arm. This caused him to drop the sword, and I used the chance to hit him in the face.

  I looked around ready for the next fight and only saw the rest of my team standing. Everybody else was either unconscious or groaning in pain. Pargo was the one who was the most hurt besides myself. It looked like someone had managed to break his nose in a fight and he also had a few shallow cuts. Devi quickly spotted me and ran over. When he was by my side, did he channel water into my wound slowly pulling out the rest of the spear while healing the wound as he went.

  It didn’t even take a minute until I was healed up and he said, “This will leave a scar, since I am not good enough to prevent that yet. Maybe ask Elder Garlou when we get back, if she has something for it.” I almost laughed at the comment, considering how scarred Master was. He didn’t realize his mistake and began healing the others. Estella had found the hostages in the meantime, doing a headcount.

  Everybody was here, except one girl. She was lying on the ground. I looked at her corpse, but no tears wanted to come out. I didn’t even feel guilt. Instead, I still felt the high of the battle. I could not remember the last time anything had felt this exciting. I knew that it was probably some sort of coping mechanism to distract me from what I had caused, but I didn’t care.

  It took thirty minutes until Devi had healed every bandit, while Pargo and I had found ropes to tie their hands with. The leader, three additional bandits and the girl remained on the ground when Devi rejoined us. He looked slightly down and said, “I couldn’t save them. I am sorry.” He looked awful. I checked who they were and recognized one of them as the guard I had taken care of. I was responsible for the death of three humans tonight.

  We began walking back to the village with Estella in the front with the rescued villagers, me on the left side, Devi in the back and Pargo to the right. The captured bandits were between us. The village looked overjoyed when we returned although the old village head broke down crying when she was handed the corpse of the girl. They thanked us and the village head gathered herself and asked, “Thank you for saving them. I wish to ask for one last favour of you. Could you leave these bandits here? I fear that they won’t get the proper punishment in the city. And wouldn’t that waste less time for you as well, since you would not need to travel with them.”

  I was certain that these bandits would die if we left them here, but what she had said was also true. I could not waste days travelling with these bandits, without any reward to balance out the time loss. I certainly could not take them with me, just to save their lives. I turned to the others and asked them, “What do you guys think? Should we leave them here or take them to the city?”

  Devi was about to protest when Estella spoke up first, “I am for leaving them here.” Devi looked shocked and muttered a shocked, “Estella….” Before she interrupted him, “They will get executed if we take them to the city. The cultivators handling the public security won’t waste prison space for mortals. And if they are going to die either way, why not let the families get some proper closure?”

  Pargo thought for a moment before he agreed. I also voiced my agreement, although I didn’t explain my reasons further. Devi looked disgusted but still said, “I understand your reasoning Estella, I really do. But still, I don’t want them to sentence them to their deaths. I just can’t.” He broke down into tears while he said this, and I realized that he was still just a child. He was not someone who should ever need to make these kinds of decisions.

  The village head came over and put her hand on Devi’s shoulder. She then promised in a calming voice, “We won’t kill them. We could use all the hands we can get, also they would make for great guards for us with their fighting experience. So, don’t be burdened by their lives, especially if they will not even end up on your consciousness.” Devi sniffed and looked up to the woman. He then asked weakly, “Really?” to which she just reaffirmed her promise. He then slowly got up and also agreed to leave them here.

  We left the village shortly after making our back the same we had come. After around an hour of travelling did, we set up camp for the night. I stayed up for nightwatch like usual. Surprisingly Estella joined me as well. She sat down next to me and stayed quiet. I ignored her presence and replayed the fight in my head again. I could have killed the bandit leader faster and not gotten injured as a result. In general, I had underestimated how strong exactly I had been. I had just assumed that my actual strength would have been similar to before, but that was clearly wrong.

  Estella interrupted my thoughts, “Do you think the village will kill the bandits?” I turned to face her and saw hope in her eyes. I began thinking. I was guessing that the village head would kill the remaining bandits, since the child had died. She had looked really broken up about it. Still, I was unsure if I should share my theory with Estella. I still planned to work with them as a team, since they should get stronger at a similar rate and it would be better to have a proper team. After a bit of consideration did, I say, “Yes, I think it was her grandchild that died. I would be surprised if she didn’t take revenge.”

  Tears began to roll down Estella’s cheeks as I spoke and she curled up slightly. Her silent sobbing. She stopped after a while and interrupted my push ups, that I had started with a raspy voice, “How do you do it? How do you seem fine with all of this?” I continued my push ups and thought. After a few moments, did I answer, “Because my goal is more important to me. I feel the pain as well, but I push past it because there is something driving me. Something that does not allow for a moment of rest.”

  With this, did we continue our nightwatch in silence.