They got their horses back from the inn and galloped for several hours, it was getting darker and Ran preferred to stop for the night, they were already halfway to the village and nobody seemed to have followed them.

To prepare for any eventuality, Ran kept watch while Era went to rest. She quickly fell asleep on a cloth stretched on the ground, her little body rising at regular intervals. Ran watched her with a slight smile, he thought about their last night, when it was all over he planned to clear up his relationship with her, but for the moment darker matters clouded his mind.

Saving the good guys, killing the bad guys, simple and efficient, until now he had tried to live by this law, and this world was well suited to it... But rebelling against the Marquis, it was like kicking a hornet's nest, defying the established order with the risk of plunging the whole region into a civil war.

But he quickly remembered the state in which the village and its inhabitants were, then he looked at Era again. If it was for her, he wouldn’t mind destroying the common sense of this world.

For here and now, he had the strength necessary to do it.

And so the night passed, leaving Ran to his meditations.

The next day, as the sun was rising, Era woke up and found Ran dozing off, leaning against a tree. He hadn't had the heart to wake her up to switch and had been up all night.

They rode without stopping for most of the morning, and Coza appeared on the horizon before noon. Ran and Era exchanged delighted glances and sped up.

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Ran was thinking about what to do next, he needed to see how the defenses were progressing but also to find out about Gliver's movements, they still had to have time before things started to move.

As the village grew larger and larger, the sound of running was heard. Ran was on guard but quickly relaxed when he saw three of his wolves burst out of the thicket.

But something was wrong, they were barking and yapping at Ran, which frightened his horse.

"Something must have happened, let's hurry!"

When they arrived at the village gates, Ran was struck by the change that had taken place here, in just 2 days, the villagers had cleared a large area around the village and a large dung heap sat right next to it, Ran was already thinking of all the improvements he could make when time allowed it.

But reality rang.

The mayor came running in, panting, his expression suggesting nothing good. He told Ran and Era to follow him home. On the way he began to explain the situation:

"Welcome back kid, but the hugs will have to wait, the situation has gotten worse...Your beasts and a few villagers went scouting and just returned from Gliver's place, apparently he's already started gathering his men, it's only a matter of time before he gets here.

"How many ?"

"About 200, but more could join them on the road."

"And on our side, how are our defenses coming along?"

"We didn't have time to build the barricades, we have bows, but I doubt that they will be enough against such an army."

He was right, the village had only 60 inhabitants left, less than 20 of whom were men in fighting condition, not to mention the fact that they had not received any military training. 200 mercenaries against this small village was like chasing a rabbit with a rocket launcher. The Marquis' goal was clear...total annihilation.

"Do we know which way they will come from?"

The mayor took a map from a shelf and unfolded it on the table. "If they want to go as fast as possible, they'll go through the hills to the west, here."

Ran looked at the map for a long time, trying to find a solution to this thorny problem, there was no time to build defenses, let alone train soldiers.

"Did you extract the oil from the bones?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Ran smiled,

"Good, then... He placed his finger on the map, the showdown will be here."