Chapter 21: Being Hero
When Leo arrived near the town's entrance, his second brain gave him the locations of Bolt, Mary, and Gary.
Bolt was watching pirates and townsmen facing each other from behind the house near them. Gary was watching from the roof of a two-story building, and Mary was in the same building peeking at the scene from the first floor's window. Coincidently both of them were hiding in the same building, without knowledge of each other.
Leo joined Bolt and started watching the scene.
Around sixty town's men were facing fifteen strong pirates.
Town's men were very poorly armed, most of them were holding farming tools, and some of them had kitchen knives. The fisherman had the best weapon, harpoon, and second-best weapon possessed by the innkeeper, the knife, especially used for killing.
As for pirates, all of them were carrying a sword, and a standard rifle similar to the ones carried by Marine infantrymen. Pirates' captain was carrying a revolver instead of a rifle.
When Leo saw all of them equipped with rifles, he felt odd because most pirates only carried swords
Until now they wasted enough time of pirates with nonsense talk to buy enough time for everyone to evacuate. Now they were feeling relieved because everyone should have already reached the hideout by this time.
The innkeeper collected all the money and valuables brought by the men and put them in front of the pirates' captain, Ben Harper.
Ben Harper was a light brown-skinned seven feet tall muscular man with black curly hair, a thin beard, and a slanted scar on his forehead. He wore an orange coat over a white shirt, black trousers, and leather boots. A sword and a revolver were strapped to the waist belt on the left and right sides respectively.
The strangest thing about him Leo felt was the red four-pointed star tattoo on the back of the index finger of his right hand. It looked red as blood, he could smell the scent of blood from it. This tattoo was giving him a very strange feeling as if it was alive.
"I like how sensible you people are. It really would be a hassle to go through the houses one by one, most pirates would have accepted this happily and left the island, but too bad – " Ben kicked the pile in front of him, sending money and valuables flying everywhere. " – I didn't come to this shitty town for these scraps."
Townsmen had a bad feeling when they heard him.
"Since you all didn't know, I will forgive you for handing me the money like some beggar. Now bring me all the beautiful women and children below the age of five, if you want us to leave peacefully," Ben said in a manner as if he was sure that they were going to accept his demand.
"What did you say?"
"Fuck you!"
"Filthy scum, watch your mouth!"
Everyone got angry at what Ben said.
"Do you think we are scared of you? We offered you money because we didn't want any senseless deaths, but you are taking it too far, asking for our women and children is the same as asking us for our lives," the innkeeper said angrily.
Pirates also got angry when they heard these stupid people cursing at the captain.
"You bastards, do you wanna die."
"Captain, can we start killing I can't control myself."
"These weaklings don't know how strong our captain is, that's why they are spouting such words."
"Let me tell you the bounty of our captain." He stopped for the dramatic effect. "It is 10 million bellies."
Ben had a proud smile on his face when his underling mentioned his bounty.
Hearing this everyone was shocked because the largest bounty pirate that came to their island was only had a bounty of 3 million, even that pirate felt too strong for them.
For a moment everyone felt scared, but soon they gathered themselves because if someone wants to hurt their family they would fight with anyone, it doesn't matter if the bounty was 10 million or 100 million.
"Do you think you can scare us with the bounty? If you want to touch our family you have to go through us," a man wearing a blue shirt said.
"Yeah, you can't scare us." Everyone was of the same thought.
"Too bad. I thought we could have ended things peacefully, oh well it doesn't matter, killing people is our specialty after all, unlike you all," Ben said while taking out his revolver. His men pointed their rifles at the townsmen.
"Fuck you, filthy pirates, we aren't afraid of your rifles. We have sixty men and you are just fifteen, we have an advantage in number, so I can guarantee that we can take many of you down with us before our death," the fisherman said fearlessly.
"Yeah, you scums, better leave with what we gave you, but if you want to touch our family, get ready to die," the bald man said fiercely.
Seeing how fierce these men looked Ben started hesitating, he thought after rifles pointed at them they will get scared, but it had an opposite effect, now they looked even more fierce. Pirates behind him were also hesitating because not a single one of them was ready to die like the crazy men standing in front of them.
"Calm down everyone. Calm down. I don't think we need to fight," the mayor said.
Hearing the mayor everyone looked at him because no one here wanted to fight if possible.
Mayor looked at Ben. "Even if you managed to kill all of us at the cost of your men, you will still return empty-handed because there is no one in the town except us, others had already gone into hiding. Even if you searched the whole island, I doubt you will find anyone. As for getting information from us, you can only dream about that," the Mayor was confident in his voice.
Hearing this Ben frowned, he didn't want to lose his men at the cost of nothing. As for getting information from these men after torturing was a gamble, and how crazy these men looked he was sure that he going to lose it.
Just to be sure, he asked two of his men, "Go search the town see if you can find anyone."
Two of them entered the town, nobody stopped them because they were sure that everyone was already in the underground hideout.
They started with a two-story building that was nearest to the entrance. Mary and Gary were hiding in this building. There wasn't much of a place to hide in the building, so they were easily found.
Hearing the commotion coming from inside, townsmen looked at each other in confusion and worry. "Who could be inside?" That was the question on everyone's mind.
As soon as they came out everyone saw a pirate trying to hold onto struggling Mary.
Gary suddenly escaped from another pirate's hand and pounced on the one who was struggling with Mary.
Gary yelled, "How dare you to touch my sister?" He bit fiercely onto the pirate's hand which was holding Mary.
Pirates screamed in pain. "Ahhhh…." He loosened his hold onto Mary, his hand was bleeding.
Another pirate kicked Gary away, and quickly caught Mary who was trying to run.
"Kappa, be gentle with her, are you going to compensate if her price decreased because of some damage," Ben yelled.
"Sorry, captain," Kappa apologized and then gently held onto Mary.
Seeing Mary and Gary, the innkeeper was frightened and shocked, he almost ran to them, but thankfully the fisherman stopped him.
Ben was pointing a revolver at him. "Do you want to die?" Ben said angrily.
The innkeeper clenched his teeth in anger for not being to help his kids. He looked at Mary and Gary in anger and said, "What are you two doing here? Didn't I tell you to go to the hideout?"
They didn't know how to answer, seeing how angry their father was they guiltily looked down at the ground.
"Why are you yelling at them, they are just kids, don't you see they are scared?" Mayor rebuked Gordon. "And you don't have right to be angry at them, if they aren't in the hideout, that is your fault."
Gorden became quiet at Mayor's scolding.
Seeing their reaction Ben knew these kids were just being kids, that's why they were still in the town, he was glad that he found them.
Until now Ben was hesitating to fight, but now he decided to get on with it because the information which was almost impossible to get from these men, now can easily be obtained from these kids.
"We can start with the fight. We will kill every single one of you, and as for the information about hideout I can obtain from these kids. Hahaha…" Ben's laughter echoed in everyone's ears.
Hearing this everyone's face turned dark, but nobody was angry at Mary and Gary, they just sighed at their fate.
"Fuck you!" Gary yelled at Ben. "Even if I die I will not tell you anything." He was resolute in his voice.
"I am also not going to tell you anything," Mary said with a firm voice.
Ben gently smiled at Mary and said, "Don't worry, I will not ask anything to you. How could I harm such a precious thing?"
Mary felt disgusted at his expression.
After that, he looked at Gary, "As for you not telling me - " He just smirked at him, as if he wanted to say, "What a joke?"
Seeing how he was looking down on him he wanted to argue with him, but he was stopped by his father. "You two just keep quiet, we are already in so much trouble because of you, don't add more to it. Just stand aside and don't meddle in whatever will happen now," he warned them.
Leo and Bolt were watching everything from behind the house. Leo was hoping for everything to resolve peacefully, and that almost happened because Ben wouldn't have decided to fight if he hadn't found Mary and Gary.
Both of them weren't worried about anything happening to them, because they could easily kill all those pirates.
"I guess it's time for us to show up," Leo said.
Both of them were very excited because for the first time they were going to use their powers to save someone. Especially Bolt because he very much liked to show off his power, even though they wouldn't know that he was the one who saved them, but just imagining how people's reaction would be after they saw his power in action, he felt extremely excited.
Saving the people and not taking the credit for it was just like the awesome heroes in the stories they liked to read when they were little. Just from imagining how they would feel after acting like those heroes they felt extreme excitement.
Leo gave Bolt instructions of what they were going to do.
The fight was about to start.
"If we want to protect our families, we can't die before every one of these filthy scums is dead," Gorden was motivating them.
"Yeah!!" Everyone roared with raising their weapons.
Pirates were nervous because they knew even with how strong they were and how well they were armed some of them were going to die, they weren't resolute like the townsmen in front of them, and their number was too low compared to them.
But what could they, after all, their captain decided to fight, they feared him more than these men. They might be alive after the fight ends, but going against the captain's command was certain death. So pirates also got ready to fight.
When the fight was just about to start, they heard a loud voice. "Fuck, why did you push me?"
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice. They saw a boy lying on the cobblestone path.
"Are you crazy? Why did you yell so loudly? Now everyone knows that we are hiding here." Leo came out from behind the house.
Seeing those two, Mary and Gary were exploding with anger, they were in this situation because of them.
Ben wouldn't have stopped his men from starting the fight just because two kids appeared, but when he saw Bolt, he ordered his men to wait.
"If you hadn't pushed me, I wouldn't have yelled. This is all your fault," Bolt said while feeling wronged.
"That was just a mistake. If you hadn't yelled no one would have noticed us," Leo said in anger.
And with that, they started fighting while continuing to blame each other.
Seeing those two all the townsmen were frowning in anger. "What the hell are these two doing at such a serious moment?" This was the question on everyone's mind.
Very few of them knew about Bolt and Leo. "Who are them?" Someone asked.
"They just came yesterday in our town, as they didn't pay after eating in the inn, they are working there," the fisherman informed everyone.
Everyone was shocked hearing this, they thought, "How come they are still fine after not paying?"
Bobby, who was in the bed for almost a month because of the beating he got from Lyla, complained at the injustice, "Why did she beat me so much, and these two just have to work at the inn, this is unfair."
The bald man smacked on the back of Bobby's head. "Do you think it's time to compare yourself with these kids?"
"Ahh… Sorry," Bobby apologized foolishly.
Watching Bolt and Leo fighting Ben's heart ached, he was worried about Bolt getting hurt. "Bring those two over here," he commanded one of his men.
That pirate brought them to the captain. Leo and Bolt acted as if they were frightened.
Captain took a long careful look at Bolt. Because of his profession, he saw many beautiful men and women, but their beauty was nowhere near this pretty boy. He rated Bolt among the topmost goods. He was jumping in joy inwardly for finding Bolt. "This pretty boy can be sold for an unimaginable price, that girl couldn't even compare to him. If everything goes smoothly, I have a hundred percent chance of getting promoted." Ben was already imagining his bright future.
Ben looked at the townsmen and said, "I am not fighting anymore, it's not a good deal to lose my men over some women and children." He pushed Gary and Mary towards Gorden. "Take these two, I don't need them anymore."
Gorden and everyone else was overjoyed at this sudden change.
"But I am taking these two with me," Ben said while pointing at Leo and Bolt. "Does anyone have a problem with this?" He already heard them talking, and so he knew that these two weren't from this town.
Bolt and Leo were stunned hearing this, they thought, "What happened to the fighting? How are we going to save anyone?" Now they were the ones in the trouble, they felt their dreams being shattered.
Most of them didn't know about Leo and Bolt, just now, for the first time they saw them. So how could they risk their and their families' lives for them? They were just strangers to them.
Gorden was of the same thought, he wasn't going to put his family in danger for them.
Gary was also thinking similarly, he imagined saving them, but the result would be, he might lose his father, his sister, and his own life. So saving them was out of the question.
Mary very much wanted to save them, but she also knew the consequence of it, she wasn't brave enough to bear them.
As for Mayor, he was thankful that Leo opened up his wife's heart, but because of that, he wasn't going to risk everyone's life for them.
Seeing everyone become silent at Ben's question, Leo and Bolt, understood what their answer was. Their excitement to be a hero completely vanished, now there was only a hollow in place of that excitement, it was slowly being filled with sadness as the seconds passed.
They didn't want them to save them, they just wanted to see the intention.
Leo looked at the Mayor… Gary… Mary… Gordon… and everyone else, each of them avoided his eyes. He understood them, after all, they were just strangers, who would be foolish enough to save their lives.
"In this world, only idiots would risk their lives for some strangers."
A sad smile spread onto Leo's face, without saying anything he turned back and started walking silently towards the pirate's ship, Bolt also followed him without saying anything.
With a heavy heart, all of them watched their backs until they disappeared onto the pirates' ship.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone