"Show yourself!" Max said, slowly taking his steps one after another. The wooden handle of the axe turned as his fingers shifted it slightly.
A small round container rolled from the side of the tree in front of him to their center, hissing. They moved, departing swiftly from the container.
Psshhh. Green gas burst out, clouding the air in seconds.
"Gas!" someone from behind Max shouted, coughing violently. "I can't see!"
Footsteps echoed, circling the haze – fast, sharp, and unpredictable.
"Hold your breaths! Don't inhale even from your mouth, else you're a dead man!" Max said, covering his face with his left elbow. He scanned around, following the direction of the footsteps, but saw no one at the time he thought he'd seen someone there.
He swung the axe countless times, cutting dwarf-sized trees until a flicker of light surged straight into his eye.
As the force of the light reduced, he saw three men looming over the road ahead of them.
…
"See how mad they are, inhaling the poisonous mixture you did. Didn't you say when it enters the lungs, the person would collapse and die in an instant? What is this?!" Denis, the man with four marks on each side of his cheek, said, pointing one hand at the haze of soldiers before him and resting the other on the shoulder of a man with long white hair.
"Let me see the ones left in the bag," the white-haired man said, unzipping the bag at Denis's waist and peeking his head into it.
"Fuck! You changed it! That's not the one I did. You threw the one that failed us on our last operation."
"Are you sure of what you're saying? You handed them to me."
"Yeah, fuck! We have to go our old ways."
"You two, why bother using poisonous gas against these weak soldiers? Didn't you see their leader moving out of the city with the few people we feared? Let's keep these ones as slaves. I'd love to have the lady among them for myself. She'll look good when I lay on top of her on my bed," the third person said, casting a shocked expression on the two.
He closed the gap between them, drawing his swords from both sides of his waist, and began walking toward the soldiers, his eyes glowing with a dim yellowish light.
The two exchanged glances and followed suit, drawing their swords as well.
…
"Hold your position!" Max said, noticing the men drawing closer at high speed. He gritted his teeth, held the axe tightly, and stood on guard, tearing the tip of his shirt and tying it to his mouth.
Little by little, the other soldiers followed his reaction, tearing and tying the tip of their clothes on their mouths when the gas cleared. But the lady among them didn't.
The formation changed from 'V' to a straight horizontal queue, followed by sharp breaths.
Max surged into high speed, slamming the axe through the air and into the thug with the yellow eyes, but missed, getting blocked and pulled to the side, followed by a metal crashing sound.
He lifted the axe and ducked under the thug's armpit, noticing the 'X' sword coming for his head. Pieces of his hair floated in the air as the sword hovered only an inch above Max's head.
He slammed his right elbow into the thug's stomach, pushing him sliding backward.
Max rushed toward the junior soldier, blocked a strike that could have torn him in two, and threw the handle of the axe, slamming the cheek of the white-haired thug and sending him backward.
He held the junior soldier's hand, helped him up, pulled out a dagger from his waist, and handed it to him.
The junior soldier gripped his fingers around the brown handle, gazed at his broken spear, and breathed heavily before using the same dagger to block a strike meant for Max's neck.
…
The yellow-eyed thug slammed both swords into the ground and wiped the tiny drop of blood from his lip with his index finger, and grinned.
He whistled, sending countless birds to a run from the canopies of the trees they stood under fighting.
The night's silent calm changed and got replaced by the sounds of swords and screams.
Sweat beaded on all thirteen soldiers, including Max, who was now engaged in a one-on-one fight against the yellow-eyed thug.
They kept on fighting even when both soldiers and the two remaining thugs paused for breaths.
With only one four-foot axe, Max managed to injure the thug but felt pain at every angle the thug's sword touched his arms and waist.
…
"What's that sound?" Kai said, turning his head slightly toward the direction he heard the whistle from while walking between unlighted tents.
One after another, lights began to shimmer in the tents behind him and made him run to a nearby tree, crouching down and hiding himself.
"We're under attack!" a loud voice broke the stillness around him, letting every thug in the tents dash out. Some stood there dressed, while the rest stood there with nothing covering them but had swords and knives in their hands.
When they all dashed toward one direction – the very direction Kai had heard the whistle – gorgeous women sneaked out of the tents, halfway dressed. They all walked in the opposite direction the bandits had, hugging themselves and shedding tears when their eyes fell on the others' torn clothes.
'The team!' Kai's thoughts screamed as he realized the path the bandits took was the same path he and his group were on before he took the lead.
He pulled his daggers instinctively, tightening his grip on their handles until it felt as if the daggers were one with his bones.
He looked at the ladies escaping for the last time, closed his eyes when he saw one lady resembling his mother. He cracked his eyes open and surged at full speed toward the same direction as the bandits.
…
"More are coming, don't give up yet!" Max shouted, swinging the axe at the thug he had been finding difficult to kill, but got blocked and pushed back with a kick in the stomach.
He crouched on one knee, gesturing toward the thirteen soldiers and letting them form an unbreakable circle.
The circle was formed, but not all of them were finding it easy to stand on both feet. Three of the thirteen had their left feet torn in two – but were still alive, while two of them had also sustained deep cuts on their shoulders and faces.
"General Kang, are you okay?" Denis said, moving toward the yellow-eyed man.
"Yeah," he said, turning his gaze from Denis and onto the now circled soldiers.
"Why risk your life when you can just do one act and continue living the life you want? Look how tired and injured you are; just accept joining us, and you'll be free."
"I don't think you really wanted to become a soldier. Save them by devoting yourself to me," he said, pointing toward the lady among the soldiers.
…
Kai saw countless lights circularly burning through the night.
He sneaked for a better look when he noticed the bandits' backs facing him but stopped when he saw his group standing in a circle inside the bandits' circle.