“Good luck.”

With those words from Roy, he jumped up to the rooftop of a nearby house along with Robb. The two then sat down and watched the two young boys facing the green ogre.

“Roar!”

The ogre, mad with rage, charged at the first thing he could see in front of him. Unfortunately, that was Lorenz. The young boy looked with horror at the wrathful beast before turning around and running with all his might.

Hearing the sound of the ogre’s footsteps right behind him, Lorenz jumped out of the way. The beast smashed the ground on which he stood just an instant ago. Looking at the small crater that the monster’s giant club left, Lorenz almost fell into a panic attack.

His feet turned light as a feather and he ran in a zigzag motion so that the beast couldn’t predict where he would be. After thirty seconds of running through the street, they reached a cross junction. Lorenz took a left turn and waited in ambush for the beast to follow him.

“You fucker, I’m gonna kill you,” The young boy muttered under his breath while clenching hard on the grip of his sword.

Just as the ogre rushed through the crossing junction, Lorenz pounced at the beast. He immediately slashed its legs before blocking its counterattack. Lorenz's feet dug into the soft ground as he was pushed back multiple steps away from the ogre.

Seeing that his body was able to somehow withstand the monster’s assault, Lorenz’s confidence flared up. He dashed at the beast once again and clashed with its gargantuan club.

The size difference between the two combatants was comical, but Lorenz stood his own. Now that things had come down to a brawl, his only choice was to get down and dirty with it.

Lorenz and the ogre clashed several more times with the beast pushing the young boy back one strike at a time. By their tenth clash, they were a couple of dozens of meters away from the junction.

Lorenz let out a war cry and dashed in once again toward the colossal beast. Even though his arms and shoulders were numbing, he knew that he could not stop. The ogre also roared and charged at the young boy, its eyes were gleaming with the intent to kill.

However, just as the two clashed for the eleventh time, a small silhouette jumped out of the shadows and dashed toward the beast. Neither Lorenz nor the ogre had a chance to react, as Jaimie pounced and plunged his dagger into the beast’s neck. With a quick yank, he slashed through its skin and flesh.

Blood burst out of the beast’s throat as it lost its balance like a drunkard. Its pupils went up its eyelid before it fell on the ground with a thud.

“Good job,” Roy jumped down from a rooftop with a smile on his face. “I knew that you guys could do it.”

“You knew my ass!” Lorenz pounced at Roy’s collar almost choking him. “You wanted to kill me, right? You were too jealous of my handsome looks and you wanted to kill me!”

Roy laughed while having his whole body jerked back and forth, “Well, things turned out alright, didn’t they? Plus you still need to claim your rewards.”

“Huh, what rewards?” Lorenz raised an eyebrow and let go of his collar.

Finally free, Roy tucked in his jacket before rolling over the body of the ogre. “Pass me your sword.”

Lorenz gave his sword to Roy who slashed open the beast’s solar plexus. The red monster gem was tightly placed in there.

“What’s that?” Lorenz walked in closer with an intrigued look and took out the gem.

“We don’t know,” Roy shrugged his shoulders. “But they’re in all the ogres we killed. And since you and Jaimie killed this one, you two decide who takes it.”

“It’s okay, you can have it,” Jaimie chuckled. “I already have seven of them.”

Lorenz looked at the red gem and Jaimie’s grinning face, before tucking the gem inside his pocket with a satisfied expression, “Thank you.”

With the discussion now over, Robb looked at Roy, “Well, you had your fun now. Let’s go back to Roger’s place; it’s gonna be midnight soon.”

Roy smiled at Robb before looking at the two young boys, “Well, you heard him. Let’s go grab those swords and go back.”

As such, the group of four made their way back to Roger’s house. Fortunately, most of the villagers were already asleep and they did not have to go through a reenactment of the viper situation.

However, as was usual, Mr. Jacob was sitting on his bench smoking his pipe, “Are you guys starting an army? What do you need that many swords for?”

“Isn’t that what we’re basically doing?” Roy laughed. “Plus, it seemed like a waste to leave them on the ground all the time.”

“Where are you going to be putting them though?” Jacob asked.

“In the backyard,” Roy responded while walking to the back of the house, where the young kids were training earlier in the afternoon.

As the group of four put down all the weapons that they amassed, a pile of steel was formed in front of them.

“Wow, that’s at least a hundred swords in there,” Jacob’s eyes grew wide at the fortune in front of him. “Aren’t you afraid that someone would steal it at night?”

“Steal it and run where?” Roy shrugged. “At least here we have our men keeping an eye on things, and there isn’t really a good place to put these many swords inside. Just the clacking would not let anyone sleep.”

“Fair enough,” Jacob nodded. “It’s almost midnight, the other groups should be coming back soon, right?”

“Yeah, they should be,” Robb nodded before looking at the doctor with a concerned expression. “How about Derek, how is he?”

“He is already out hunting,” Jacob laughed. “He woke up an hour ago and went out with Alfonse. He said he couldn’t be wasting any more time.”

Hearing about Derek’s reaction, Roy couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “It’s good that he wasn’t hurt too bad.”

“Well, he has a son and a wife,” Jacob laughed. “I’m sure he is doing his best for them.”

Roy nodded at Jacob’s words before remembering the task he had given him yesterday. “Oh, I forgot to ask you. How is the viper poison coming along? Did you get it out?”

“Almost,” Jacob responded. “I had to put that pile in the pantry and extract their poison in the kitchen. It’s not the best place, but it’s all we got now.”

Hearing Jacob’s explanation, Roy’s heart almost skipped a beat, “In the kitchen? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Yeah, can’t that poison get into the food?” Robb also raised an eyebrow.

“No, don’t worry about that,” Jacob shook his head. “I’ve been doing this stuff for decades, I know how to keep things clean. No drop of poison would reach your food.”

Even though Roy was not fully convinced, he decided to drop the matter, “Well, you’re the doctor. You know this stuff best.”

“I should be done with making it tomorrow,” Jacob said. “Would you need it before then?”

“No, that should be okay,” Roy shook his head. He then looked at Lorenz before asking, “You should be done with the last spikes tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, that shouldn’t take me too long,” Lorenz responded with confidence.

“Good,” Roy’s thoughts wandered off as the pieces of the puzzle were slowly fitting together.

After a few seconds, Robb looked at Roy with a grin, “It’s finally coming, right? The big fight.”

“Yeah, it is,” Roy nodded. “We’re finally gonna fight that big bear.”