Page 17 of A Soul to Touch

She continued her gruelling walk home.

She hadn’t long ago crossed the meadow that spanned the front of Colt’s Outpost, the city having long ago deliberately cut the surrounding trees, before she started traversing through the forest. Within minutes, she heard noises.

A deep huff of breath there, ashhhand the sound of crunching snow over here.

Damnit.She turned her head up to the sky, silently cursing some unknown, unmerciful deity.I’m tired and just wanted to go home.

Mayumi craned her head to the side so she could unloop one satchel bag from her neck and carefully place it on the ground before she bent it the other way to do the other. Her backpack was heavy, but otherwise fine for her to leave on – for now.

She placed her bow on top of her satchels.

“There is no point in hiding,” she said with a sigh underlying her tone. “I’ve already heard you.”

Two men, one wielding a dagger and the other a long sword, reared their heads over a mound of snow before standing to fully reveal themselves. Another man brandishing an axe came out from behind a tree.

The first thing she noticed was that the sword was dull and partially rusted from disuse. The axe was also nothing more than a small, crude wood chopping blade designed for small branches. The axe and sword holders were older, both sporting messy, unkempt beards, while the third man was young. The younger man was holding the dagger so tightly with both hands that the blade trembled slightly, like it was too heavy for his twig arms.

All their clothing was thin, dirty, filled with holes, and most likely smelly. The sword holder didn’t have two shoes on his feet. The left shoe he did wear had a hole in the big toe, and it stuck out as if the boot he wore was too small for him.

“If you want money,” Mayumi started as she unbuckled her coin pouch. “I don’t have much left. Maybe a silver and a couple pieces of bronze.”

“Give us the bags,” the man with the axe demanded. He wore a beanie on his head in a desperate attempt to keep warm. Then, thinking better of his singular demand, he added, “The coins too.”

Mayumi cocked one of her brows at that.

“Take the pieces I’m offering and leave,” she warned, finally removing her backpack. “Be thankful I’m offering them at all since I can see that you’re poor and desperate. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Listen here, girlie,” Mr Axe warned. She was calling him that for now since he seemed to be the most inclined to talk. “I don’tcare that you’re some silly ex-Demonslayer. There are three of us and one of you.”

“P-please just give us the bags, Miss Mayumi,” the trembling dagger holder begged. She wasn’t sure if he was shaking from the cold or fear. His eyes were open so fully she thought they might fall from his face. “We have families to feed.”

“Okay, you can have them.”

In her peripheral, she watched Mr Axe lower his weapon. It appeared they didn’t actually want to hurt her.

They weren’t truly malicious people. They weren’t going out of their way to rob her because they were arrogant bandits.

“R-really miss?” the dagger holder asked with hope in his voice.

“Yeah, sure,” she answered, before she darted her right hand to her sword hilt and pulled her blade out of its scabbard. A silver, glinting, and sharp short sword rang once it was freed and in position in front of her torso. She lifted her head with her bottom jaw jutting forward, aiding to give her lips a sneer. “If you can take it from me.”

Since they’d obviously come to corner her specifically, there was no point in trying to persuade them otherwise. Desperate people couldn’t be bargained with, not when their bellies were empty, and they would do anything just to survive another pitiful day.

This also wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to her, and it sure as shit wouldn’t be the last.

Mr Axe roared as he sprinted forward, crossing his arm over his torso to give a downward strike with his cutting axe.

Mayumi stepped back while lowering herself and raised the flat edge of her sword. She hooked it behind the axe’s shoulder and pushed it, and the man’s arm, to the side. The sword wielder charged while holding it with both hands above his head, the blunt blade like a sail fin through the air.

She lifted her leg and booted him in the gut.

“Blergh,” he gasped, holding his stomach as he keeled forward. She knew she’d hit his diaphragm when he heaved out a choke.

Unfortunately, that put her in a position where Mr Axe was right in front of her with his arm raised to slam his blade into either her skull or shoulder. Either way, he was pointing the blade at her rather than the blunt pole, which meant he truly meant to kill her. The weapon came for her swiftly.

Mayumi dropped to her stomach, narrowly missing the arc of his blade’s swing. The axe continued between his spread legs, luckily avoiding cutting his own body.

Leaving her sword for the moment, she pushed her hands against the ground to lift herself on her arms and twisted her body. She slipped across the ground and swiped both her legs against his.

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