It didn't take more than a few minutes for a third of Woodrow's people to fall.
In that time about 20 of Coco's men were also slain, but now, Raqm'El and Reon arrived at the gate.
When Raqm'El got within 10 meters of the battle he use the Raise Body Heat technique, bolting faster than before, far outpacing Reon even in his old body.
As Reon ran harder to catch up, Raqm'El grabbed 8 kunai from within his red vest, throwing them each towards one of Coco's men.
Each of Raqm'El's Kunai hit their mark, killing 8 men immediately. Raqm'El then pulled out a thin blade that was sheathed on his back, entering the fray.
Every time Raqm'El passed one of Coco's men they were swiftly slashed in a critical area allowing the Woodrow fighters to deal with them much more easily. This happened a dozen times until one of Coco's men blocked Raqm'El's blade.
The one who blocked Raqm'El's strike pushed him back slightly, stopping his assault. Raqm'El deactivated his Raise Body Heat Technique.
After years of using the technique, it had taken its toll. Now he could only use it in short bursts to its maximum potential. Still he knew when to use it and when not to for maximum efficiency.
The man in front of Raqm'El had on full body black and red armor. His helmet which covered his face looked like a knight's helmet with a horn on his forehead.
Raqm'El knew this man must have been at least 4-Star from his short display of strength.
"Who knew someone so strong was protecting this little hamlet. Let's have a little fun." said the armored man.
Meanwhile, Reon started to run into the fray too.
His first victim was a bald warrior with light studded armor who was about to finish off one of Woodrow's people. He ran up to the man from the side, slashing the left side of his lower torso before stabbing his neck to finish him off.
Reon looked at the fisherman and saw he could hardly fight. Reon told him to get to safety and carried on to the next fight. His plan was to team up and have an easier time eliminating the enemy.
With his combat ability, it wasn't too hard for Reon to do well in this setting of battle, however when he ran into a 3-Star fighter it was a different story.
Reon and this blonde haired female warrior who also used dual blades ran into each other.
They both attacked each other with their blade skills and Reon kept up at first with his defense, but still got sliced deeply while he could only manage to slash the blade woman quite shallowly.
This happened again and again, five times in quick succession. Reon quickly realized that he couldn't outclass her and started to retreat to save himself, but the blonde woman wouldn't let him go. She wanted to kill him.
Her speed and power was greater than Reon's so she caught up to him in seconds, but before she could finish Reon off, a fisherman some distance away, quickly attacked the blonde woman from behind, making a deep cut in her leg.
Reon knew this was his opportunity.
Reon rushed towards the blonde warrior, slashing at her again. She defended his strikes quite easily but when the fisherman who just attacked her right before, did so again on her other leg, she fell over, giving Reon the leeway he needed.
She desperately looked up before Reon sliced her neck with a powerful slash, beheading the blonde woman.
Reon felt for a second, like he did something wrong, but then he remembered that she was trying her best to kill him.
Looking up, Reon saw that the one who helped him was the fisherman that Reon had saved earlier. They continued on and killed 10 enemy warriors back to back, all the while recruiting each fisherman they could to their small group.
Coco's forces realized what was going on and started to group up together, while focusing on defense. Coco saw the losses of his troops and yelled out to them all to retreat.
Those that were still on horseback were few but they ran away and picked up those that they could. The others who weren't on horseback sprinted away at top speed behind Coco.
The fishermen ran after Coco's forces for a short while to avenge their fallen comrades but eventually stopped to regroup.
Reon, who had been taking a knee to recover, got up and took a deep breath, relieved that he had survived the battle.
Over a hundred bodies laid on the battlefield. The leader of Woodrow was injured as most of the survivors were, but he walked around to account for the survivors and the fallen.
They all regrouped and discussed who the people who attacked them were. All they knew was that they were trying to take control of Woodrow by force for some time, and that is how the fight started.
Reon found Raqm'El laying on the ground injured but still alive.
"They got you pretty good, my disciple." Master El said, happy to see his pupil was still alive, even after he himself almost died to one of enemy warriors.
"Look who's talking." said Reon, helping his latest teacher off the ground.
Reon saw the fisherman who had saved him from the blonde bladeswoman, and thanked him.
"Hey you saved my life, I was just repaying the favor." Journi said.
Everyone started to head inside to recover and get medical treatment.
"Master El, I'm surprised that you almost died even with the Raise Body Heat Technique, you must have fought someone pretty strong." said Reon.
"Yes, well, in my prime I could have easily defeated them, but the technique takes its toll when you overuse it over the yeats. That's why I want to train you to only use it sparingly." Master El explained.
They both walked to the leader of Woodrow, Gideon.
"I saw what you each did in the battle, thank you, both of you." said Gideon.
"Of course, it was the right thing to do, those men tried to take over your home out of nowhere, that wasn't going to happen while I was around." said Raqm'El.
Reon noticed the people around were happy to hear Master El's words. It also made Reon happy to know Raqm'El was an honorable warrior, exactly like Reon wanted to be.
Raqm'El made a request to Gideon for a small boat to head to the nearby Redekai. Gideon happily heeded the request, after all the help Raqm'El gave Woodrow in the previous battle.
Both Reon and Raqm'El got patched up in Woodrow, then boarded the boat.
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There were major duels in which victory decided if a person or their faction could overtake a settlement, but these duels were meant to be sanctioned. In other words the Grand Marshalate must oversee them.
Coco and his men were trying to take over Woodrow under the table by force for their own purposes, but unexpectedly, they failed and lost almost half of their troop.
After retreating, Coco's forces regrouped in the woods south of Woodrow, where they arrived from. Coco and one of his men went away from the rest to plan the next move.
"How the fuck did this happen!? We've got elite warriors in our group and we still lost to some damn fishermen!" Coco yelled, punching a tree.
The person with him was Coco's right hand man, Slater. He was the full armored warrior who almost killed Raqm'El during the battle. He would have most likely finished the job had Coco not called for a retreat.
"I know what happened, Coco, I saw it all from the battlefield." said Slater. "We were winning the battle until an old man and a brat showed up out of nowhere. I saw the old man take out more than ten of our men in mere seconds so I went to stop him, but I couldn't finish him off." Slater told Coco, squeezing his fists.
"Slayter, you couldn't kill one old man!?" Coco said with frustration.
"Like I said, the old man was strong, but it was strange. Like he was stronger in some moments, but weaker in others. When he was weakened, I almost killed him." Slayter calmly explained.
"None of that matters now Slayter! This isn't good for us at all. We lost nearly 70 men in that fight. If we go back to the guild now, we'll lose our ranks, for sure." Coco said.
"Well, we were ill prepared for that battle, and we lost. It's expected. We didn't necessarily lose the war though. Now that we know how the fishermen fight and their strongest fighters are not at full capacity, we could go back in a few days to finish what we started." said Slater.
"But Coco, let's remember why we took this mission in the first place! It was so we could get merit points, so that we would be top members of Raider Corps before the Trial of 10." Slayter explained.
"Even if we realistically lose our ranks, and can't earn a spot through that method anymore, we can still always earn a spot through a duel. We're still some of the strongest in any Raider Corps branch."
"I say we take our loss as warriors and let it go. Let's get through our punishment as soon as possible. Then we can find out what's the next best step from there."
Coco looked at his comrade and then looked at the floor, taking a deep breath.
"You know what, Slayter? Although I'm stubborn sometimes, and don't listen to you, you always give good advice." Coco smiled.
"That's why you're my right hand man. I'll take your advice this time, let's assemble everyone and head back to Gale as soon as possible." said Coco.
Coco and Slayter walked back to their troops, they noticed that something was off. It was the noise, or rather the lack of it. They didn't go too far away, and should have heard the sound of some men talking by now.
Coco was the first to notice that, unexpectedly, there was blood on a tree. Not just a little bit of blood, but what looked like the aftermath of a fountain of blood splashing on the tree's brown bark.
Coco and Slayter ran to where their people were and found them.
Each and everyone of the men was dead. Their bloody corpses looked as though they were slashed by the large claw of a beast.
Slayter gulped, feeling anxious.
He wondered how it was possible for dozens of men to be killed so fast, only a few dozen meters away from him. How he didn't hear a thing the entire time.
Coco and Slayter looked at each other and had a similar instinct. To run for their lives.
Both men went separate ways, increasing the chances of one of them escaping whatever killed over 60 men in less than 3 minutes.
They ran at breakneck speeds, using their inner power to boost how fast they could run and jump.
A dark colored lion, or rather something similar to one, was crouched on its back legs high up on a large tree branch. It had been chewing on a piece of a man's arm that it held in its right claw, when it noticed Coco and Slayter arrive.
It then saw Coco and Slayter's Decisive Retreat. It immediately chose to chase the prey which seemed stronger, Coco.
Coco's long black hair flowed in the wind, as if trying to catch up to his body's movements. All a normal warrior would see from this is a black flash passing by, however, they would also see a brown flash seemingly chasing the black flash from above in the trees.
Coco felt an impending, looming sense of dread. He couldn't help but turn to peak at what was chasing him.
That's when he saw it, dark brown, with its maw like a lion covered with a black mane. It's muscular body manlike, except more beastly than any man he'd seen. The most clear thing by far however, were sharp claws that shined like white jade.
As he saw the claws close in on his face, he briefly remembered how he and his right hand man had split off from each other.
"Slayter, you son of a-"
—------------
Nearly a mile and a half away by now, Slayter continued to run for his life. He just wanted to get out of the forest by emerald cove and get back to Gale Town quickly.