His mind is empty, stunned by his own revelation, it takes him a moment before he starts to bolt back to where his house is. The joy of the hunt and gaining new strength is now lost, only pangs of fear gripping his heart as he pushes through the bushes in force. His mind slowly starts to race through the possible scenes, from unlikely a monster attack to most likely just some simple accident.

It is a lot worse than what he expected when he sees the two guards lying motionless on the ground in pools of blood, an unknown man is crouching beside them with his back facing James and searching through the bodies.

James' body moves before he can even think of what to do, thanks to Alex's father Eugene's constant droning when the boy was beside his son during his training.

"Don't think, just act."

The man has already noticed James charging towards him and tries to pick up the sword next to him, only for James to shove his heel straight at the centre of his back, pushing the crouching man further back and away from James, the man did not get back up even as James rushes through the gate after seeing the states of the two guards, one is facing skywards and has multiple wounds on his entire front, arms mangled as though blows are raining down on the poor man while the other is facing down with deep gashes on his neck and stomach. James had to stop his shivering knees by grabbing onto them as the deaths of the two slowly sink in, he ended up just focusing on running towards his home in order to not lapse back into the fear itself.

"Urgh!" A shout of pain pulls James out of his single track mind as he runs past the fields, only to see Ben getting stabbed in the field with a sword through his stomach by one of the bandits. A snap reaction was made as he rushed to try and aid the older man. A chill was felt behind him and he immediately ducked forward as a swish passed where his head was at.

"So we got ourselves a runner! Hey guys, we got some-" the arrogant thug stops and clicks his tongue as he notices he is the only one who is still free to take a swing at James as there are now some villagers armed with swords and spears clashing with three of his buddies as they pillage the huts. 

His other buddy behind the lad is now struggling to get his sword out of the old bastard, who is gripping hard even as he screams at the frozen lad stuck in the middle. "RUN!"

Reinvigorated by the show, the thug cracks a laugh and face warped, "hehe. How about you start running now? Run away to your momma like that little fuck that got away just now? RUN LITTLE PIGGY!" He swings his sword wildly with one hand as he mocks James whose head is lowered, "or you can die pathetically like a little bit-" his words cut short as his victim flung a skinned rabbit to his face. The bandit quickly swipes the sword to deflect the carcass only to leave his front open and James comes running headfirst into his chest hard, knocking the air out of him. The thug is now in a tight hug and soon choked by a sharp pain on his stomach.

James wasted no time and proceeded to pull open the wound and twist the knife while roaring out, out of anger, out of frustration and maybe out of fear.

"This bastard…!" The thug did not go down silently as he repeatedly hit James' back and head with the pommel and fist, prompting him to slit the knife in and out vigorously as he continued until the blows on him and curses from the man weakened.

He did not have the time to relax as a shout from Ben warned him that the other bandit had decided to join the fight late by letting go of the stuck weapon and pulling out a knife to plunge into James' back.

He let go of the now limp bandit, grab him by the arm that is still holding the sword and swung the body to hit the thug behind him like a haystack. The thug got knocked back and James swung the sword, still held by the corpse, immediately towards the man's head.

The first blow was struck with the flat of the blade, stunning the thug further as he kneel, the subsequent blows had James clawing the sword off the already dead and swinging as though chopping wood, blood and matter scattered as the thug's head slowly splattered into pieces with every chop.

"AHHHHHH!" Ignoring that the near headless body that has chipped shoulders now, James hacks away in anger and stops to catch his breath as well as fighting back the tears welling, the fights with the other three bandits seems to still be ongoing but James can only focus on the dying man kneeling in the field.

"... James…" Every breath coming out from Ben's mouth is bloodied, James drops the crooked sword and tries to hold the older villager up, only for him to refuse and try to shoo the lad away. "... Go… home… go…" In the end, James is hugging Ben and moving him inwards to the village, crying for help all the way with no one responding, the soft taps on James becomes weaker and weaker as Ben speaks his last, "... go… save…" the man went limp just like the time when the bandit did, but unlike the relief he felt back then, all James can feel is cold, the usual fields that used to have some farmers are voided of the usual clamor, the crops that had grown and the huts around are damaged by fire and force, the tranquillity is lost with cries for help and screams of excitement.

James had forgotten when he decided to place uncle Ben down, he closed the man's eyes after he gently laid him on the ground sideway, he did not remove the sword that punctured him and once more rushing towards his hut, tears wouldn't stop flowing out.

"Pa! Ma!" From afar, James sees his own house already crumbled, a bandit is in front of the wreckage, stomping on something, on someone.

Pa is lying face down, motionless with the bandit stomping and kicking his unconscious body, spitting on him as he turns to face the shouting lad with a smirk and brandishes his sword. James, as he was charging, failed to take note of his surroundings again and got tackled, the blade grazing his left torso as the last minute shifting did not allow him to dodge completely.

He manages to grip the sneaking bandit's wrist to prevent further hacking and grabs hold of the man by his shoulder. That is when the bandit who was kicking Pa rushes with the sword up high, intending to cleave him down.

'No!' Death becomes the only thought as James lacks both time and hand to block and dodging is impossible.

"Wooooaaaah!" A battle cry rings behind him and as James flinches when the sound of iron clashing explodes right next to his head, that is when he sees Billy, teeth gnashing as he pushes the assailant back.

James then felt a strong tug from his captee as the red faced bandit struggled, the sword that was pulled as far away as possible by James began to slap and nick on his left forearm. 

The lad promptly squeezed hard for the man to cry out in pain, adding to the pain is James driving his foot into his stomach, sending the man stumbling slightly back as his arm is still being held onto by him. A straight cross lands square on his face, breaking the nose as blood flows out and his head snaps back.

As the thug drops, James takes a look at the fighting duo, Billy is wounded on the arms while the bandit seems to be jovial, the smile on the bandit's face falters as by the time he noticed James, the lad has already tackled him down to the ground after the fat guard was knocked away by a flurry of strikes.

The downed man remains stunned as the lad's fists rained down, he tries to use the sword to no avail as James pulls himself closer to pin the arm down and continues to elbow his face without stopping. James only stopped as he felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Billy standing next to him with a glint of fear by the result.

"Pa!" A short pause that barely register the carnage he commited and James jumps towards his father lying close, his finger trembling as he moves it closer to pa's nostrils and breathes a choked relief when he feels breathing. 

Billy, now stoic once more, decides to check the pulse on Pa's neck, "it's faint, but it is there."

It only takes a brief moment as James carries his father's battered body as he witnesses the devastation of his home and all the questions in his mind boil down to one, "what happened?"

"I… I don't know," Billy can only look at his own feet, "one moment everything is normal and next, a bunch of guys start charging in yelling and hacking anyone in their way. There were too many for Da and I, he then asked me to run outside, to find the hunters and get help…"

"What?" James had been stunned before, but the idea that there are more currently in the centre of the village scares him, "where's Ma, Bro and Sis?" All he got was a shook head.

Lifting pa and piggybacking him up, James ensures that he is secured and ready to run to the healers or Mama for help. As much as he hates the idea, Ma and his siblings need to wait. 

Billy bid his goodbye as he continued to run outside after James told him about the gate and everything else, both of them now moving in different directions as James sprinted on the dirt road towards the healers.

Throughout the run, he noticed that Pa is lighter than the last time he tried to carry him to the healers, back then James could only sling his arm to his shoulder and both of them walked slowly. He can still recall how Pa commented to the boy to put on more weight, how he growled about the last time he went to the healers' and got cheated and finally at the last minute, had James stop at Mama's instead.

All that reminiscing to keep himself occupied is the first reason why he is reflexively at the place, the second reason that made him stop in front of the house is when he spots the two bodies on the ground sprawling on the ground. 

Then he heard a high pitched scream coming inside of Mama's hut.