This Time, I Will Live For Myself

The tranquil environment of the village was suddenly disrupted by a man's screaming voice. It started near the eastern gate but grew louder as he approached the center.

Hearing the screams, the villagers began to come out of their homes and saw a man running wildly and screaming while heading toward the village center.

His face was full of terror while an arrow was stuck in his left shoulder, while he repeatedly shouted a single line, over and over, with all the strength he could muster:

"Bandits are attacking!"

"Bandits are attacking!"

"Bandits are attacking!"

At first, the villagers were confused, but as soon as those words sunk in, panic started to grip their hearts.

For some, the words struck like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, while there were some who had dreaded this possibility for a long time, which had finally come true.

Regardless of what their initial reactions were, every one of them understood one grim reality: this was a time of crisis, and not everyone would make it out alive.

The reason was simple.

For some of them to even escape from this current situation and survive, others would have to stay put and try to hold off the bandits, essentially sacrificing their lives.

As these thoughts were going through their minds, they noticed three fiery streaks suddenly falling from the sky towards the village. Two of those struck the ground creating explosions while the last one landed on a house's roof, setting it on fire.

The resulting explosions were not very powerful, but were enough to throw the whole village into complete chaos.

People started screaming and running like headless flies, making the situation even worse.

Just before the explosions, some of them had the thought that if a few fighters stood their ground, they might be able to hold the bandits off for a bit, while the rest of the villagers escape, but now it seemed nothing but fantasy.

Some of the villagers scrambled to put out the flames consuming the house so that the people still trapped inside the house could escape.

On the other hand some of them grabbed their loved ones and headed straight to the opposite side of the village, essentially towards the western gate in a desperate attempt to escape.

While all of this was happening, the people who were stationed at the western gate as guards were now running toward the source of the explosions, trying to find the reason behind it.

But when they saw the people fleeing in panic, they were shocked, but when they heard the cries of those people that "Bandits are attacking!" their shock turned into panic.

Now, instead of running towards where the explosion happened to provide backup and support, they scattered in all directions, each of them were not heading toward their own families in a desperate attempt to protect their own as the panic was now turning into fear.

Even though they were part of the village militia tasked with protecting everyone, in this current situation they didn't even try to find what actually was happening, nor were they in any mood to find out.

Because fear of losing their families had already taken over their thoughts. So, instead of standing their ground to fight the bandits, they were now running towards their loved ones.

Suddenly, four more fiery streaks fell from the sky, but this time, they landed and exploded among the villagers who were fleeing toward the western gate.