West of Dorbank city, along the inner shore of the Sea-Shell Island had 4 village settlements to the south side that came under Lord Dorbank rule.
In one of these villages, a group of armed guards were sitting around a bonfire. These guards were in fact commanded by Lindon when he goes out to every village to collect tax. They are there not only for his safety but also to intimidate the villagers.
In front of the group, the village head of this particular village was kneeling on the ground with some of the villagers. He was pleading in front of a person garbed in black clothes, to give them some time as they were not able gather enough tax after it had been doubled this time for the upcoming war that may or may not happen.
"Lindon, please give us two more days, we only need 7 more gold coins to gather. I will come to the city to give you the money. We have known each other for so many years. Please take this gold coins for now." The village head took a bag full of silver and gold coins; mostly it was silver because gold coins are not circulated much in the villages.
Every village has to give different amount of tax based on their population and earning. This village needed to pay 35 gold coins every month which was less than pearl village and also it was a rich village compared to pearl village because of their savings. After the tax was doubled because of the upcoming war, this village could have easily collected the 70 gold coins and had done the same but an accident happened last night.
Half the money that was collected had been robbed from the village head house. If the village head did not have the habit of not keeping all the money together than all of it would have been swept clean.
Because of that he had to cover the remaining money from his own savings and borrow some from the villagers who had good relationship with him. Then there were his rivals or opposing faction who would do anything to make his life harder. He couldn't force or coerce some villagers because of them.
"No, I am sorry to say, I cannot allow that. Rules are rules, if are incompetent in collecting tax and keeping it safe then it's your own fault. Don't waste my time, if cannot give me the full amount in 10 minutes then your head will put on a stick and displayed to everyone at the entrance of the village."
"No, Lindon please" the village head comes a little closer and says in a low voice "Lindon, please don't do this to me, I have always given to you the extra money I collected before, anything you wanted I had done it for you. Please give me a chance, if you do not I will te…" before he could finish saying everything, his head has already been cut off from his body.
He couldn't even change his look before dying. The people that were subordinates of this village head were scared shitless.
"Hump, you don't have the strength to give me a threat like that." Lindon sheath his sword and look at the villagers gathered around and say "Anyone who can fill in the remaining money for the tax will be made the new village head. If not then all of you will be made slaves for not paying tax." after saying that he looks toward a person in the villagers group.
That person steps forward as it already has been planned and says "Mr.Lindon, I can take out the remaining money from my savings and help my fellow villagers."
"Good then you would be made the next village head. Take this body feed it to the dogs, and stick his head to the stick and place it on the entrance of the village." After saying that lindon went toward a house to rest for the night.
"The pirates should have done their work by now. Jon if your sister was not my little brother's wife then I wouldn't have made a risk of dealing with those filthy pirates again for you." Lindon was murmuring to himself after which he had gone to sleep.
A guard came in and said "Mr.Lindon this is the money that the new village head has sent. Also there's the extra 35 gold coins he robbed before."
"10 gold coins share it within yourselves. Go"
"Thank you sir, you are very generous"
"Hahaha,yes, yes, I am very generous. Hahahaha..."
…
…
Time passed and morning came.
Alex was already up and training with his everyone else in the backyard of Donald's house.
Maybe it was because of his motivational talk or something else but Hank and Anna were training extra hard today. Whereas, Meg and Julie were practicing their new archery technique which Alex had taught them today. Donald, Joe and Theo were training their body by swimming in pool artificially made in the backyard that was 10 feet deep and 60 feet long.
Swooosh
Thud Thud
"Hah, finally I got it right." Meg said. She was practicing how to fire 2 arrows together and make them accurate just like how else had taught her.
Alex came by her side and saw that 2 arrows that were simultaneously fired had accurately hit the spot on the wooden body shaped like human. In fact the arrows were too accurate just that they were not on the head or heart part of the body. Instead they embedded themselves to the important part that was just between the legs.
When men there saw that, everyone had a shiver down their own part.
"Meg how were you able to that in such a short time." Julie asked as she was not able to fire accurately like that. Alex had said it would take some days to be able to hit both arrows close to each other.
Even Alex was interested how she was able to that or was just a one time fluke.
Meg says something into the ear of Julie. After that everyone saw Julie getting really serious and took out the two arrows from the quiver. She held both the arrows steadily between three fingers.
She closed her eyes as if trying to remember something. She then opened her eyes in an instant with a cruel glint in her eyes and fired the arrows aiming right where meg had fired before.
Swooosh
Thud Thud
Just like Meg, Julie had also been accurate in firing the arrows at the body of the human dummy. Just at the part that any male enemy would not want to be fired at.
"Take that you scar faced pirate, next time if your people come back that's how they will all die." Julie said and fired another 3 rounds of dual arrows which passed as accurate or maybe too accurate.
Alex was able to guess what Aunt Meg had said in the ears of Aunt Julie. But he was dumfounded at fast they were able to complete the first part of firing dual arrows that being straight and also accurate.
Alex took 3 days in previous world when his grandfather had taught him to do that. That had already made him a genius. 'Women's becomes scary being when they get angry and stay like that for all eternity' Alex thought.
It might seem easy to shoot double arrows just like shooting a single arrow but actually it's not. The weight of both the arrows, how you place them between your fingers and also how they affect each other to deviate a little from their expected target because of other factors.
"Alright since both of you had completed the first part of the dual arrow traing, you can began practicing the second part. That is firing dual arrows at the still dummy body but both of them had to hit different part of the body. If one hits the head than second arrow had to hit other fatal points on the body." Alex explains the main points on how to do that.
Suddenly, Tom who was practicing boxing cried out loud and then punched hard on the thick wooden pole. The damage this punch has caused to the pole was that of a cultivator at 2nd grade of body tempering realm. That means Tom had finally become a real cultivator who can go to the forest to hunt with everyone else.
When Hank saw that, he hugged his best friend and after congratulating him, he started his own training again so that he is not left behind by his two brothers.
Everyone else also came to congratulate him; Alex then offered to have a match so that Tom can quickly become comfortable with his body changes.Like that everyone practiced in the morning.
Finally at some time around noon, Lindon and his group made their way to the entrance of the Pearl village that was situated at the outer shore on the south side of the Sea-shelled Island and also by the border of Swamp Marsh forest.
"Um, there's something wrong with the village" Lindon thought while looking at the passerby as this was not how a village that had been attacked by pirates should look like.