Soon enough, pillars of flame started rising in the distance; it had begun.

Following the plan, the men set off with water buckets, feigning ignorance as they rushed to douse the flames.

Upon arriving in the field, they found the bandits waiting for them—most of them on horseback, except for the one who had set the fire; a torch was still in his hand.

"Put out the fire! Stop it from spreading!"

"Protect the crops!"

Seeing the farmers rushing to salvage their field, the bandits smirked at them and blocked their efforts to extinguish the flames, running a few of them down with their horses and leaving them groaning in pain.

"What are you doing this for? Let us quench the flames!"

"If the flames spread, we will all starve! It's only weeks before harvest season ends!"

"What do you want from us?"

The rush of feeling in control—these bandits loved that feeling. It gave them a high and made them believe their miserable lives were not in vain. As long as they could stomp on someone else, they wouldn't mind being stomped on. They were happy not to be at the bottom of the food chain, and this reminded them of that joy.

And so, they started engaging in their sadistic activities. They grouped up all the men who rushed out and forced them to watch their fields burn as they began questioning them.

First, they dragged out the biggest of them and ganged up on him. He crawled into a fetal position and tried to protect the back of his head as a hail of kicks and fists descended upon him.

They made sure everyone's gaze was focused on him; perhaps they felt what they were doing was a piece of art to be admired.

After beating the poor man within an inch of his life, one of them stepped forward, breathing heavily.

"Now, if you don't want to end up like this son of a bitch here," while swinging back for one last hard kick to the stomach that clearly dealt some damage, "you better answer our questions!"

Another one of them stepped up, the grin on his face revealing a row of rotten and missing teeth.

"Boss, you're letting them off with just that?"

"You hear that, you maggots? You better be thankful to our boss!"

The boss continued:

"We are looking for a convoy that passed by here. We saw the tracks leading to the village, so don't try to lie!"

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"Is that all this is about?" screamed one of the farmers. "Couldn't you have just asked? Did you need to burn down my field?"

"Oh, so this was your field we picked? So that's why you were shooting me those looks," he said while approaching him. When face-to-face, he put his hand on his shoulder and said, "I was wondering what gave you such confidence. I guess losing all this grain's gotta hurt, ain't it?" He punched him across the face, causing a few of his teeth to come out.

"Last time I'm warning you! Don't look at me like that again. Now let's go back to the convoy," he asserted while walking back to where he was sitting near a pile of stones.

"Wagon, location, speak!"

"'Tis true that a wagon came in the morning, but it was riddled with holes and looked like trouble. We told them to be on their way."

"They tried to offer us money, but we refused, and they continued fleeing, afraid they'd be caught."

Glancing at the village from a distance, he saw no signs of wagons. Their shacks were so tiny and miserable that even wagons towered over most of them. The only thing remarkable about the village was the brick inn it housed.

The simple-minded bandit's mind quickly veered off as his underlings continued beating on the gathered peasants.

"Boss! Aren't these people kinda rude towards ya?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"You graced their shithole with your presence, and they didn't even offer you a drop of water."

"Yeah, you're right! Boys! We're all tired from the long ride, aren't we? Let's drink our fill before we continue chasing after those merchants later."

He cried out as he roused his group. "You would treat us as guests, won't you, kind residents?"

The rest of the bandits shouted in agreement, and they finally let go of their bloodied victims as they guided their horses to the village center, thrashing the fields as they went.

When they got near the inn, they spotted a group of women leaving hurriedly. It seemed they were trying to hide themselves before the bandits arrived.

They quickly rushed off to grab them and dragged them out. "You will drink with us, ladies! You ain't got nothing better to do anyway!" They raided the cellar and took out all the barrels. Some of them even undressed the women in the courtyard in sight of everyone and wanted to start violating them there, but the women kept on struggling until they entered the inn.

"What you got to be ashamed of?"

"Maybe she wants to take her time with you, hehe!"

The leader glanced to the side as he was making his way through and saw the tracks of the wagons continuing up the road. It seemed what the residents said was true, so he let his guard down.

As time passed and the sound of moaning died down, most of the bandits were too intoxicated and exhausted after they finished their rapine and chugging all the liquor they could. Soon, most of them were slumped over, defenseless.

That was the moment to strike. All the women who pretended to hide were the widows who volunteered for this task. Now that the trap was sprung, they took out the small knives they had hidden in their clothes and stabbed their assaulters in the chest.

They managed to get most of them before the sound of agonizing screams alerted the rest. The three bandits who remained alive tried to reach for their weapons, but most were struggling to even stand up straight.

"Help!" cried out one of the women in distress, a signal for the merchant guards to come to their aid. They quickly subdued the rest of the bandits and dragged them outside.

Two people stayed alive: the boss and the rotten-mouthed fellow. They were guided outside and surrounded by an angry mob that couldn't wait to rip them to shreds.

The long-awaited retribution was soon coming...