To get from the arena to the border of Zhong Zhou, it would take nine days to get there on foot, eight days on a regular horse and six days on a trained horse. After reaching the border of Zhong Zhou, to get to the estate of the 100-man general Er Hong, it would take two days of walking to get there. Everybody, including the guards, sighed, the scenery while walking the road to Zhong Zhou has been filled with nothing but trees and some occasional merchants that pass. Plus with bandits roaming the lands it might take even longer to get to Zhong Zhou. "Maybe staying in the arena wasn't so bad, at least we get to have a roof over us," Andreas grumbled as they walked. It has been two days since they had left the arena and just last night they had to sleep in the rain. One of the fighters was slowly starting to get sick.
"We have to persevere on; it's not like these guards are going to let us go anyways. Plus, if we tried to escape the Arena Master and that general Er Hong would probably hunt us down." Charles sighed sadly. This journey to the border Zhong Zhou was the first time since he entered the arena that he had been able to walk around outside. But instead of happily walking where ever he wanted to he had to follow a long road with a bunch of guards looking at their every move. "Have you spoken to any of the guards before?" Andreas asks "No, never bothered to. I don't want to say something wrong and get gutted for it accidentally." Charles replied "Alright, we are stopping at this point for today! Everybody set up camp!" The head guard shouted as the two horses pulling the wagon stopped.
After an hour of setting up everyone could finally rest. The guards sat with each other and talked amongst each other while the young fighters fell asleep on the floor exhausted. Andreas who still had energy due to his Emperor's Spirit went up to a resting Charles and said: "Hey Charles since we got some time right now, why not a little practice!" Charles looked at him in shock "You still have the energy to practice?!" "A walk like that won't make me tired! Though being uncomfortable is horrible. Now come on! Let's duel for a bit!" Andreas said as he takes out a long wooden staff from the wagon. "I'll use this while you use that stick of yours!" Andreas said as he positioned himself in a fighting stance.
Charles sighs as he picks up his katana, no one other than him and the Arena master knew that under the stick is a sword. Charles decided not to reveal the katana and leave it as a stick. "Alright, let's do this, but I won't hold back!" Charles said as he goes into a running stance while holding the katana in his left hand. Andreas smiled as he grips the wooden staff harder. "Alright, Charles, let's see what you can do!" as soon as Andreas shouted that Charles immediately kicks the ground with his right leg and flies rushing towards Andreas.
Andreas shocked by Charles's speed quickly lifts his staff to try and stab at Charles while his rushing towards him. Charles sees what Andreas was trying to do and quickly kicks to the left dodging the staff and swings the sheathed katana towards Andreas's neck, but he grabs the katana with his left hand before it could hit him. "Alright, I'll count that one as me losing, what was that speed you came at me with?! It was crazy!" Andreas exclaimed as he lets go of the katana. Charles started breathing heavily after using most of his stamina trying to use "Dashing Rabbit Strikes." "You ok Charles? You look like you're about to collapse!" Andreas asks as he sees the condition Charles is in.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine, using that technique takes quite a toll on me. I think I'll rest for now." Charles says as sits down and relaxes on the grass. Andreas then looks back at where Charles started and when he dodged the stab and sees two small craters at both points. Andreas shakes his head and nervously laughs after seeing the two craters "Thank god he didn't kick me." Andreas then walks back next to the wagon to rest beside it. While the both of them rested, the eight other young fighters started talking about the duel. "Hey, did you even see how that Charles guy moves?" "Don't know, all I saw was just that Andreas guy catching the stick!" "Those guys are way too scary!". The rest of the day goes past without much happening and the group continue to Zhong Zhou.
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Another four days past and there was nothing that happened on the road to Zhong Zhou. The guards have started to relax more, and the young fighters have started to think that bandits would never attack. Night fell while everyone is asleep Andreas and Charles were sitting in the middle of the camp round a campfire. "Today is the 8th day, right?" Andreas asks as he pokes the fire with a stick. "Yes, we should reach the border of Zhong Zhou tomorrow, according to what the guards said. Though the fact that no bandits have attacked is rather odd." Charles commented as he stared at the fire with his katana right beside him. "Hmph, we should not be like those other 8! We must be alert at all times, losing our lives in some unknown place would be laughable!"
But just as Andreas said that the both of them suddenly heard the sound of blades unsheathing and a sudden shout "Men! Attack!" Suddenly, 30 to 40 men wearing dirty hemp clothing ran out of the forest and charged into the camp with some wielding small farming scythes and some wielding pitchforks. Most of the attackers ran into the supply cart where the five guards and eight young fighters were sleeping at while 10 of them ran at Andreas and Charles. Immediately Charles unsheathes his sword extremely fast and cuts the first attacker in front of him. Andreas kicks away another attacker and grabs a pitchfork from another one and punch him. Charles uses the attackers attacking them inexperience in fighting and kills 4 of them quickly with his katana by aiming for their weak points.
Andreas using his brute strength uses the pitchfork he has to smash the four weak attackers with the pole of the pitchfork knocking them out. "Andreas go grab a weapon from the supply wagon, I'll try to stop the attackers from killing the rest!" After telling Andreas what to do Charles started running towards where everyone was resting at. "Hmph, I was going to do that anyways!" Andreas shouted as he ran towards the wagon. When Charles arrived, he saw the head guard and three young fighters trying to fight off the attackers. Charles immediately uses "Dashing Rabbit Strike" to kick off the ground and kill the five attackers that were fighting with the head guard slashing necks open. He kicked the ground again to change direction and helped the two young fighters in killing four more of the attackers in the same way.
The rest of the attackers seeing their allies die so quickly immediately tried to run, but couldn't escape Charles's "Dashing Rabbit Strike" and one by one they died while trying to run. Charles looked at the head guard and two young fighters and saw that none had any injuries on them, but the four dead guards and six dead young fighters on the ground had each been stabbed multiple times and bled out to lead to their deaths. "The attackers weren't bandits, but seemed to be villagers!" Charles shouted in anger. Once a farmer himself Charles knew the weapons the attackers were wielding weren't weapons but farming tools. "Why in the world would ordinary farmers attack us like this?!" Charles couldn't understand what was going on.
"So they were villagers, to think that they would do something like this. The situation in Zhong Zhou must be terrible." the head guard commented as he looked at the dead bodies around them. "We should move from this place as quickly as possible! The dead bodies around here will attract the beasts around this area!" The head guard advised. "Yeah, we should get out of here!" Andreas shouted as he walked over to them empty-handed. "The bastards stole the damn wagon as we were getting attacked! By the time I got to where the wagon was supposed to be, I found nothing! The two horses also seemed to have run away too!"
"It is fine; when we reach the border, we will be able to contact general Er Hong from there. And since my life isn't in danger yet, I will escort you. Now quickly take the armors of the guards, they won't be using it anymore now that they're dead. They were quite stupid not to heed my words to wear their armors even while they're sleeping, but it is great for the 4 of you left!" The head guard said as he pointed to the four full sets of armor. Charles, Andreas, and the two young fighters quickly wore the complete sets of leather armor and the small group of 5 set out to continue the walk to the border of Zhong Zhou!