The death of the slant-eyed man served as the final piece that completed the gradual shift of momentum from the bandit's side to that of the villagers. The former had already advanced quite far from the village entrance almost reaching the inn, leaving behind an open plaza filled with mutilated dead bodies. They resembled a lawnmower, cutting down the tall wild grass that was the poor villagers. But that situation has finally overturned now, with the bandits getting pushed back due to the appearance of a single person.

The perpetrator of this entire reversal finally revealed herself at this point. Atop the roof of the village inn, stood the heroic silhouette of the huntress, holding a unique silver longbow whose carved patterns were brightly illuminated under the moonlight, portraying a beautiful picture.

Her luscious black ponytail fluttered with the wind and her eyes glowed bright under the dark sky like that of a beast, giving people the impression that they could gaze through anything. However contrary to the excited and joyous faces of the villagers, her eyebrows were furrowed with a deep frown, as she peered into the hills outlining the horizon.

"Shreya!"

"Ah, Ah Ahahahaha!!"

"You finally came..!"

"Thank the gods! Thank the gods!"

"Aunt Shreya!"

Shreya had arrived at the plaza right after hearing the village gate getting breached, and ever since she assessed the invading bandit's strength, a stifling feeling had drowned her heart, telling her to abandon the fight. Almost over a hundred men had gathered together to resist the bandits, but she knew very well that it was a lost battle from the beginning. The thoughts of running away with her children had surfaced many times in her hesitant mind.

What had moved her heart was the villager's selfless struggle. The fact that it was a futile attempt was probably within their knowledge from the start, still, not a single one of them had a tinge of hesitation when they threw themselves at death's door. At that moment the only thing they cared about was the safety of their families hiding behind them.

Witnessing such a scene, Shreya had felt that she would lose out on a precious fragment of herself as a conscious being if she decides to run away. With that thought wiped out of her mind she had frantically planned for the safest path to victory, targeting the three most dangerous individuals among the bandits that needed the element of surprise to be hunted. She showed herself to the battlefield only after accomplishing the said task.

The villagers crowded near the inn exclaimed with tears of joy. Their biggest source of despair was taken care of in a matter of seconds. The sheer relief they felt, could be imagined if only one experienced the moment in their shoes. With the immense tension and pressure leaving their minds, they eyed atop the inn with gazes of anticipation.

"Brave men fighting for this village!" Shreya roared, her voice piercing the ears of every man present. "Do not cower from these savages and fight to your heart's content, for I have got your back! We shall hang their severed heads in front of our gate for the world to witness our courage and strength!"

HUAAAA!!

Shreya's words, which sounded no different than from that of veteran general, invoked heavy war cries from the villager's throats that shook the skies. The men could feel the blood boiling in their bodies as strength was suddenly infused into the muscles, their eyes getting bloodshot as they glared at the invaders in front of them.

The bandits were equally flustered under the vicious gazes of the village folk. All of them present were weaker than their friends who now lay dead on the ground, and also their bodies were not in the best shapes, laced with fatigue and exhaustion with wounds all over them. On top of that, adding into account the master archer assisting the villagers, it made for a disadvantageous battle.

A few of them had also considered running away to save their lives but immediately buried such thoughts, as they glanced back into the distance from the corner of their eyes with fear. It was a fact that they might survive if they pushed forward holding the ground for some time, but all of them knew there was a zero percent chance of making it out if they ever flee from the battle. Converting that fear into desperation, the bandits charged forth into the mob with renewed determination.

The two forces who had momentarily halted once again resumed the bloody battle. Shreya immediately provided cover fire, with her arrows curving all over the plaza, attacking the bandits who fought placing themselves far and wide from each other, in hopes to widen the range of the archer's targets. All of their focus was on the seemingly omnipotent arrows, while they slowly and steadily held their grounds against the villager's assault.

"All of them can use Aura." the huntress muttered while continuing her arrow barrage. "Each one of them has strength far surpassing common ranked adventurers. Those three could even use skills, one being a high-grade movement skill at that."

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Shreya pondered hard as she accurately assessed the bandit's strength. She had lived the life of an adventurer with Rogers for a time, and from her travels, she exactly knew how unusually strong this bandit brigade was, which was the reason that perplexed her the most. What would the lot possibly gain from raiding a poor village in these desolate lands?

And that's where worry and fear surfaced in her heart. She could see the bandit's taking a defensive style, more inclined on surviving it through the skirmish, contrary to their previous aggressive slaughter. And then, there was the interference of her vision skill, with something making it blurry and disarrayed when concentrated on one of the hills in the distance.

These two pieces were enough evidence for Shreya to deduce that probably the most powerful opponent had yet to present himself. Taking each of the individual bandit's abilities into account, their leader's prowess could only be imagined. With uncertainty gnawing on her mind, she finally decided after pondering for a long time.

"Beti!"

The bossy inn waitress who had been witnessing the turnaround of the battle with excitement had an expression of awe seeing the beautiful, painting-like archery displayed. With her name being suddenly roared out amidst the battle, the girl flinched hard, almost falling to the ground. Glancing upwards at the rooftop of the inn, she found Shreya staring at her with glowing eyes, and almost backed out in fear.

"Ye-Yes!"

"Gather all women and children from the village and go hide in the forests!" 

"Eeh-eh, but..."

"Don't worry! Ask Legas to come along with you. He will be in charge of guiding the group. If he refuses, tell him it is my order!"

Beti was bewildered at the abrupt words of Shreya as she glanced around at the crowd, finally landing her eyes on the village chief. Go into the forests? They, who had never left the walls of the settlement, venture into the monster dwelling forests? Why? Weren't they winning now?

The old man who had wanted to voice an opinion closed his mouth after observing Shreya's serious expression. He decided to trust her, thinking that there must be a heavy reason for this abrupt order. The men all knew about her prowess and with her being the most powerful individual in the village, they didn't have any qualms against the decision, thinking along the same lines as the old chief.

"Yes, Beti follow Shreya's words and go inform the women inside. Legas has been hunting in the woods daily for a long time. He has the ability to guide you through the safe paths in the forest."

"O-Okay, but how do we get out of the village. W-We can't jump past the walls....also,", Beti agreed after the chief's affirmative on the situation, but still had a hesitant expression glancing towards the inn door.

"Legas will take care of that. There's a small pathway through which you can slip through the walls behind my house. And....", Shreya said, and just as she was about to speak noticing the girl's reluctant frown,

"Don't worry girl! We will protect your father here! Those bandits' definitely can't reach this place!"

"Yes, yes. Rather than that, you better be prepared for the massive feast that is to come!"

"Hahaha, we are gonna finish off your brewery in one go!"

The villagers combined reassurance put up a slightly annoyed smile at the girl's face. All this time, she had felt utterly useless. Not being able to do a single thing, only witnessing the grievous deaths of her uncles and grandpas had left a massive scar in her cheerful heart. With such an important task being now handed over, a gleam of determination finally flashed past her eyes.

"Alright! Stay safe everyone and...win!" Beti left behind a few words of goodwill as she trotted away before taking a long and wistful glance at the inn.

Shreya sighed, watching the back of the young girl disappearing into the village pathways. It did not come as an easy decision for her. Even now there was a trace of hesitation in her movements and she had purposefully made this choice to close out on any back door that could hinder her determination.

With this newfound resolve, Shreya increased the pace by a level, her hands getting blurred as arrows rapidly poured out of the silver longbow. With her deadly arrows being the prime focus of the savage lot, the village folk could freely attack them without any fear of counters. Against such a combination, the bandits could only defend with their lives, slowly and steadily succumbing to their injuries due to excessive blood loss.

The number of bandits had been cut down by a large margin and only eight of them were still desperately hanging onto their bruised and battered bodies. The villagers held ecstatic expressions throughout this interval with a victory right in their grasps. 'One push! Just one more final push and they would be free from this nightmare!' or so they had thought.

Shudder!

Shreya's entire body suddenly convulsed hard just as she was about to release the bowstring. Frantically gazing above into the sky, her pupils constricted to dots before goosebumps instantly appeared all over her body

"E-Everyone fall back!" she barely managed to shout out a few words, her anxiety not hidden in the slightest.

Contrary to the villager's confused looks, the bandit's heaved a sigh of relief and they entirely disengaged from battle, hastily retreating from the plaza. Some of the men gave chase under excitement, ignoring Shreya's words, while the majority pulled back with perplexed faces.

"Come back here!" Shreya roared again, this time firing another batch of arrows that accurately pierced three of the bloodied bandits who had let their guard down while retreating.

whoosh!!

Only now could the villagers sense the incoming danger as they glanced above to a crimson dot, approaching them with tremendous speeds from the sky. A massive, overbearing and tyrannical presence assaulted their senses, as many of them plopped to their butts, their legs going weak.

The ones who had given chase were too late to notice the danger and couldn't retreat in time because of the heavy aura weighing down on them. They remained rooted at their spots with trembling physiques and could only helplessly stare at the massive crimson ball that impacted the ground like a meteor. Only Shreya could distinctly see the burly human figure within the mist, that swung down a massive sword just an instant before he landed.

KABOOOM!!!