"Can't we take them on?" whispered Hoshi while following Hirishima and the guards through a northern muddy passageway between the dense forest.

"I can't risk you getting shot," replied Hirishima.

"Hey! Did you say something?" the lead guard walking right ahead of the formation inquired.

"I said move it you little brat!" Hirishima turned his face towards Hoshi and yelled.

A few steps later, Hirishima halted followed by Hoshi and the guards.

"What do you think you are doing? Keep moving!" the lead guard ordered.

"I don't take orders from that shitty excuse of a king! Subaru you're up!" Hirishima raised his voice.

"You idiot! You won't get away with that insult! Kill him!" the lead guard commanded.

As soon as the archers and swordsmen readied their weapons Hirishima quickly grabbed Hoshi's hand and threw him behind a widely barked tree to avoid the arrows.

"Sorry for this but you have to run and hide!"

The elite warrior faced the archers head on without hesitation and kept charging at them even after taking an arrow on his left chest plate. He successfully took out an archer right in front of him by a devastating punch on the face. The two archers exactly behind him were suddenly taken out by a mysterious figure about the same size as him. He swept his leg through their knees that immediately knocked them to have a hefty blow on the head by the firm ground which fainted them on the spot. This quick disarray gave Hirishima just enough window to grab the last archer by the head and give a forceful punch in the gut from which standing up afterwards was impossible.

"What the hell? Who is that?" the lead guard shuddered.

"Good work, old friend," Hirishima greeted the mysterious helper.

"I should have held back a little, I didn't know they were this frail."

A similarly aged and built man with a slightly lighter complexion than Hirishima wearing an orange gi top and the same dark grey pants as his friend walked in. He had a strange beard resembling a goatee and short dark black hair.

"Is he the friend he mentioned earlier? He looks equally strong." Instead of running, Hoshi peeked from behind the tree.

"Charge at them! Kill them both right now!"

On the lead guard's command, the remaining 8 swordsmen scurried at both warriors who decided to handle half of them each at the same time. Hirishima had a heavy and more close proximity fist based fighting style than Subaru who had a more swift and distant style by preferring a kicking approach more often. Hirishima clenched the back of a guard's head and pushed it into his flexed knee knocking him out cold while Subaru jumped and kicked a guard with immense force that threw him towards a nearby tree.

Hirishima took on the last three at the same time as he parried a sword slash by the back of his bare hand which startled the swordsman. This allowed him to grab his target and throw him towards the next guard right in front, knocking them both out. Subaru dodged each slash while he waited for a single inept swing which gave the perfect opportunity to kick the sword off from the hands of the guard and grab it from the air to use its hilt to hit his target in the head. He then followed up by a series of heavy leg strikes which knocked out the remaining guards quite easily. Hirishima took out the final guard by grabbing his sword by its two surfaces during a perfect vertical slash using both his hands before landing a solid headbutt.

Seeing all of his backup on the ground in an instant astonished the lead guard to a level that completely changed the look on his face. He now whimpered and tried to crawl out of the scene.

"How did you know the King's guard was after me?" Hirishima walked towards Subaru.

"I was taking a stroll around the forest gathering some berries and noticed these assholes marching towards your house so I followed them silently to find out whether there was an issue or not. Turns out your ass was in a pickle," Subaru explained.

"You two are dead! Bastards! Wait till the king hears of this!" The lead guard got back on his feet and made a run for it among the trees.

"Shit, we forgot about him. After him!" Hirishima exclaimed as both warriors made haste towards the direction of the fleeing coward.

Hoshi, filled with self-assurance and admiration, followed the two warriors instead of running away as he was told to.

"The passage divides here. Where could he possibly have gone?" Hirishima stammered as the two came across a diversion created by a large row of trees.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"At this point, we should split up to cover more ground," Subaru suggested.

"That won't be necessary. look here, his footsteps." Hoshi pointed out after coming out of hiding.

"That's a good observation, how did we not notice that?" Hirishima lifted his right hand and rubbed it on the back of his head.

"Wait, weren't you the one Hirishima ordered to run?" Subaru spoke.

"Wait, that's right! What the hell are you doing here?" Hirishima scolded as he walked towards Hoshi.

"Umm, you two totally had them. It's no need for me to run," responded Hoshi.

"Listen carefully, we don't have much time before that guard escapes so I am going to say this once. Yeah, they are no match for us but since they know that they might use you as a hostage to make us surrender. Like it or not, you will get in our way," Hirishima lectured.

"I can fight too! I have trained my entire life for this!" grumbled Hoshi.

"Look kid, the king wants you. He will use any desperate attempt. It's better if you hide somewhere until we find out why," Subaru clarified.

"I am sorry I don't know you. I only trust sir Hirishima for now." Hoshi turned his head away from Subaru who frowned upon hearing that.

"Say what you brat?

"You can trust him. He is my oldest friend, Subaru. Me and him go way back."

"Well he doesn't need to. You have a lot of explaining to do Hirishima but for now let's get that cowardly bastard." Subaru proceeded forward.

"Alright, you run and hide somewhere far in the deep woods. Also make sure you don't go back to my house otherwise Sharon will be put in unnecessary danger. Can I trust you for that?" Hirishima kneeled down and placed his right arm on Hoshi's left shoulder and stressed.

"Fine," Hoshi agreed and ran into the lush forest where he first emerged from.

"Are you sure he will be fine on his own?" Subaru spoke once Hirishima caught up with him.

"Who knows? But where we are going, there will be an ambush waiting for us. The King's guard is crazy, he might get injured in the crossfire," Hirishima answered.

"Is he really an outsider like the guards were talking about?" Subaru asked while the two carefully observed the pattern of the footsteps.

"Hold on to that question, right now we have a prey to hunt." Hirishima picked up the pace while Subaru took a brief pause before quickly joining him.

The lead guard's footsteps travelled into a small abandoned farm with a wooden cottage and a couple broken carts. The mud was much harder because of the dried up crops and water sparsity. The footsteps became much more faint but the two warriors faced no difficulty deducing that their target was hiding in the small cottage with a fairly large chimney on top.

"I can bet all the money in Pandara that he's not alone in there, we should handle this carefully," Hirishima proposed.

"No shit, but I have an idea. I will climb up the cottage while you lure them out. Then I can attack from the behind and divide them out," Subaru laid out.

"Good thinking, let's do this," Hirishima agreed.

As planned, Hirishima rushed at the front door and yelled, "I know you are in there! Grow a pair and come face me you little bitch!"

Subaru silently walked to the left of the cottage where there were a bunch of stacked crates that he could use to climb up but he stood by as the sound would give away his location. Currently, There was no response from the inside.

"I loved killing your stupid friends that you left behind! Oh I can still hear their screams when I severed their bodies limb by limb and created a pool of blood! Your mothers must be so disappointed giving birth to such weak ass toddlers!" Hirishima mocked.

Even this didn't stir up any response from the inside. After waiting and trying mocking the guard out using creative words for some time, not a single counter was attracted.

"Hey Subaru! I am getting impatient. You think he faked these footsteps and escaped from somewhere else?" Hirishima speculated.

"That's not possible, I have scouted the entire cottage from the outside and didn't notice any other set of footprints. He must be cowering up inside," Subaru stated.

"Forget this, use that window to jump in from the attic while I will barge in from the front. This way we will surround him and his backup," Hirishima suggested.

Subaru nodded and used the large window in the front of the cottage to climb inside while Hirishima kicked the front door open and entered as well. The interior was much more cramped than envisioned, with disorganised wooden chairs and a roughened dining table brimming with bottles of wine and dirty plates implying a prior carouse. The place was reeking of alcohol and tobacco.

"(Hmm, the guards must've spent the night here, but why?)" Hirishima wondered.

There was a single bedroom just left of the living room and upon carefully checking it, the elite warrior didn't find a single presence. The bedroom had a single hay bed among a pile of portable mats. Meanwhile, Subaru surveyed the attic which was a dusty, webbed up place with nothing but old sacs and tools lying around. The two warriors were united once he headed down using an old flight of stairs which were just about to crumble.

"Judging from your face, I assume you found nothing," spoke Subaru after he took a seat.

"Nothing up there as well?" Hirishima walked out of the bedroom and inquired.

"Make a guess," replied Subaru.

"Guess he really fooled us huh?" Hirishima conversed.

"Damn it, this is embarrassing." Subaru laid back on the chair and one of its back legs broke, making him fall on his back.

"Stop screwing around, Subaru."

"Wait a second, look at that edge on the side of that wooden rack." Subaru pointed his finger through his legs.

"Nice eye, there is a hidden basement."

Hirishima pushed the rack away and it revealed a thin door. Just as he began to pull the door open, a brute wearing the same royal armor quickly broke out with a knife in his hand. He grabbed Hirishima from the throat and dragged him towards the table. Then the brute swiftly switched his hand arrangement to hold the knife at his throat and to cover his mouth and nose. Hirishima was locked in and struggled to breathe.

Subaru got up and grabbed the same chair to smash it on the brute's head. This startled him to release the knife which gave Hirishima the opportunity to grab that knife and stab him in the left thigh. The brute flinched but regained his composure just before Subaru was about to punch him from the behind. He grabbed his attacker's hand and knocked him on the table, breaking it. Hirishima recovered after taking a few deep breaths and picked up two bottles of wine from the floor and smashed them both on the Brute's head to knock him down. The force at which he fell made him lose consciousness.

"That was close, he just made me owe you one," Hirishima jeered.

Subaru chuckled as his friend helped him up before they began to enter the dark basement.

End of chapter five.