As soon as they left the dank basement, the boys found that they were back in the house of that man who had tricked them. The old cottage was the way they have seen before except now there were bodies of men dressed in bandit’s clothes lying about in some quite uncomfortable ways.
“You sure gave them a good beating,” Sasuke commented.
Viktor grinned, “They were nothing. Just a couple of swindlers who thought too highly of themselves.”
The group stood by to marvel at the handy-work of Viktor and Flik. Luc wanted to thank the two, but then he felt it would be easier to just show his appreciation. Besides, it could prevent him from speaking and ending up saying something that might embarrass himself later on.
So the boy found his way through the litter of bodies until he was beside the one of a man, whom he believed was the one who had tricked them before. He couldn’t be sure since all the bandits’ faces were puffy with bruises, but it didn’t matter anyways since they were all involved with tricking them.
Luc raised his left foot and was prepared to kick the man in the ribs, but stopped and decided to give it a second thought. The foot was connected to the ankle, which he had twisted before. Even though it wasn’t hurting anymore and is working quite well so far, he wouldn’t want to risk damaging it again.
Luc set his foot back down, gently, and raised his staff instead. The small magician swung it down with all his might, as a golfer would with his golf club. The blow caught the man right in the ribs, but the small boy’s power was limited. It only served to nudge the body a bit. In fact, the bandit, who has been lying face down, didn’t even get turned over.
At this, Sasuke, who has been watching with the others, had to smack his forehead.
“That’s not how you do it.”
He skipped over and was beside the magician in a flash. Not that he had intended to do it so fast, but just that he was accustomed to his high ninja speed.
“Here, let me show you,” Sasuke offered in a generous manner. The shinobi raised a tight fist and skillfully let it swing down until it was below the man’s back, but never touching the ground. Once his hand connected to the body’s side, Sasuke pushed his arm and body up, forming a perfect uppercut. All this was done very quickly. The bandit flipped over and did several somersaults before landing with a thud.
“Was that cool or what,” Sasuke said in a proud voice, but
when he turned around, Luc has already left his side and was walking out the
door.
“Aw come on. I did that to show you. You’re just wasting my time.”
Being used to Luc’s personality, or more correctly it takes Sasuke longer for the rudeness of the situation to sink in, Sasuke indifferently strode out after Luc while showing no signs of being irritated. Flik and Viktor, who have been silent during the whole time, remained silent as they followed Sasuke out through the door.
Futch had to stay behind and blink at the poor man before carrying Bright out with him. His Bright was safely returned to him so he no longer had a grudge against the bandits. He was free to feel pity for them, well, at least for a slight second.
It wasn’t until the group had completely emptied out of the room that the bandits started moving about and groaning out their pains. They felt lucky to be alive and able to have played dead long enough to fool their attackers out of the house, but little did they know, Viktor and Flik had intended to keep them alive out of nobleness.
The three boys and the two men walked back out to the main path from the bandit’s house. As they were walking, Flik began to ponder on what Luc had said before. He finally let out what he had on his mind.
“You know what,” he told Luc, who was walking beside him, “this journey of yours, it reminds me of…”
“Riou and his journey?”
Luc quickly finished for him, but doesn’t answer the question. They kept on walking and continued thinking to themselves again.
‘Our journey like Riou’s journey? It’s impossible. His journey was of much more importance than ours. Besides, as Lady Leknaat had predicted, the stars of destiny will not be gathering together anytime soon…so our group will probably remain as Futch, Sasuke, and me.’
“Hey Luc!” Futch’s call to him broke the magician’s chain of thoughts. “Do you need any help?” the boy with the baby dragon asked.
The offer was not unreasonable since his pace was incredibly slow. Getting lost in his thoughts didn’t help him realize that this was the fastest his injured ankle permitted. Now he was lagging behind when the others were already at the edge of the main mountain path. Flik had stuck by him and was walking very slowly with him.
When the whole group was on the path, Flik and Viktor had to go south, towards the headquarters, and the boys had to head west, towards Muse, so the two men separated from the three boys and bid each other farwell. But before they were completely away from each other, Viktor turned back to the boys and shouted,
“Hey, if you kids ever start an army, remember to call us too!”
Both Viktor and Flik had a smile on their face as they turned back to their path. The boys were left bewildered, wondering if this journey of theirs will end up as great as Riou’s, all except for Luc of course. Still, even if it was not possible, the words did leave a good feeling inside of Luc and he intended to keep it that way so he started walking again without thinking anymore about it.