Chapter 249 - Helplessness

Shen Tao, the bandit who beat up the youngster screamed at the top of his lungs. When the arrows started to leave their bows, he was already on his feet to avoid the sea of raging arrows shooting towards their directions. 

Among the mountain bandits, Shen Tao grew up in the mountain surrounded by trees, thus he was able to detect the shift of the tension. But because he was no match against Qu Xing Xu's trained men because when he finally realized that the arrows were flying towards their way, he had not noticed their presence following and lurking around them from the very beginning.

What was going on here? Shen Tao turned his head from side to side. From every direction, men garbed in black and black masked covering their eyes were pouring out from the tall trees that covered the entirety of the forest. 

"Get your swords and prepare for battle!" The leader of their group shouted.

Shen Tao glanced at the nearest weapon he could get and drew his sword. At that moment, an arrow flew towards him and almost pierced his head. Shit! He waved his sword, letting the sharp end of the arrow met the flatness of his sword and bounced back after struggling for a second over the impact of the force that came with the arrow.

"Be careful! They are not ordinary men!" Shen Tao quickly said as soon as he felt the force of the arrow. He knew that only the most rained bowmen would be able to make him force his knees to bend like this.

The other bandits who heard his words quickly turned ferocious. They wanted to grab these enemy and crush their neck with their hand! 

The arrows that continued to rain on them were starting to slowly decrease. The bandits took that as a sign that the enemy were replenishing their arrow or have already wasted all of them so the bandits started to gain their confidence.

The bandits nodded at each other. Understanding crossed their eyes and their feet started to shift towards the oncoming men in black. Since the men garbed in black used arrows to strike at them, they should be hired mercenaries or assassins who were used to using bows and arrows as their primary weapon. If it was not the case, why would they start the fight with an arrow and make a lot of noise to alarm their targets?

With these thoughts in their heads, the bandits faced these so-called mercenary bowmen while screaming for moral support. 

Amidst the loud screams of men trying to attract Guan Yu (God of War) to support their cause, the other hostages they tied up together behind them were shaking and already in panic. Some covered their ears, eyes, mouths. Some rubbed their wrists against the rope tied around their wrists and ankles in hopes of escaping the fight that was going on before their eyes. And some gave the earth and plants a favor to have more nourishments after peeing themselves.

The only people who were quite relaxed and calm as if already expecting this battle to happen were the two main character earlier, Chu Chu and the injured, Kael.

As his eyes were already swollen after being punched straight in the eye, Kael could only use his other eye to see what was going on.

Like rain, blood splattered around as the bandits who mistook their enemies as train bowmen soon realized that they were wrong. 

The so-called bowmen who shouldn't be a master in the way of swords and waste their lives sharpening the edges of their arrows were now waving their swords with ruthless techniques. Everywhere they go, blood would soon follow them and splatter everywhere. It was as if the blood were an extension of their swords.

Kael tapped his fingers on the hand that was wrapped around him. 

"We're saved!" 

Someone suddenly shouted in great relief making the others turn to look at the person.

It was the lady who were begging for the bandit to stop beating the youngster.

"What are you talking about?" A thin and sickly looking man said then pointed towards the ongoing bloody battle for them. "Can't you see we're still in danger?"

"Yeah! Who knows whether those men in black clothes were here to save us!" another said, agreeing to what the first guy said.

The two of them already gave up the hope of being saved. They frequently heard of the rumors going around about a group of mountain bandit taking travelers with them as hostages. Who knows what they were going to do to the people they captured, but knowing that no one returned after being taken, it was definitely not a good thing.

Thus, the two did not expect anything.

When these two men finished speaking, the slight relief that shot through the rest of the hostages like a blazing fire in the middle of a winter were soon extinguished. They quickly agreed with them. Anyway, who would save a poor citizen like them from bandits? Even those richer nobles who fell prey to the bandits did not return successfully even after paying a lot of money to the governing official watching over their provinces and villages.

Seeing the light from their eyes diminishing and they stopped trying to get out of the ropes tying the up, Chu Chu was angered by their lack of determination to live and survive this ordeal.

As someone who experienced that kind of helplessness, Chu Chu did not know if she wanted to scream at them or pity them. But she knew inside her that she felt disgusted by her past self for being so weak and easy to give up just like how these people easily gave up their lives.

Just watching them lowering their heads as if they were criminals and an executioner was about to bring down his sword to cut off their heads, Chu Chu saw herself in them.

"You fools!" she loudly said as she pushed herself to a half-stand position.