"Take this, sir,"
Pochi drives her sword into the thief's boss's leg, but the man barely flinches despite the blood pouring from his wound. He grows and tries to hit Pochi with his axe as she withdraws, but she is too fast for him to keep up.
"Don't underestimate me, girly,"
He brings his axe crashing down where Pochi once stood, only to miss. His axe digs into the ground cutting open the mud and sending dirt flying as Pochi successfully retreats out of his reach. He grunts in frustration shooting a glare and Pochi as she prepares her next attack.
"Mrrr,"
Mia shoots an arrow from her bow, hitting the boss in the shoulder and drawing his attention. Like before, he barely reacts to the pain and storms toward Mia as she prepares to fire a second arrow. Then a stone thrown by Tama hits the man's arm, nearly causing him to drop his axe.
"Just you wait when I get my hands on...."
The man still marched toward Mia, only to stop and collapse after Arisa used a Physic Magic spell, Mind Blow. The man went down in the blink of an eye, collapsing into a heap. There are still plenty of other thieves out there, so even with the boss dealt with, we can't relax just yet.
Liza, Nana and Pearl battle against four other thieves, but they have the upper hand, so I am not worried about them as they back the thieves into the corner. Lulu is hiding in the carriage behind everyone else, perfectly safe from attack. At the same time, Satou forms our back line, sneakily supporting everyone with his magical spells while monitoring the surrounding area.
As for me, I formed the frontline driving the thieves into two groups so the others could deal with them while taking care of three of the thieves myself. These guys weren't so tough, with levels ranging from five to nine, but they had some cursed weapons that could deal some nasty wounds. It only took us a few minutes to defeat them. It may have taken us longer to tie them up after the fight than it did to defeat them.
We tie them up, and Arisa uses her Physic Magic to make sure they don't wake up any time soon as Pochi and Tama strip the thieves of their weapons. But as we assemble the thieves in the middle of a meadow next to the road, we have an important decision to make.
"So, what are we going to do with these fellows?" Arisa asks, circling the thieves.
"What do people normally do in this situation?" Satou asks, looking at the thieves.
I'm not sure what the correct way to handle the situation is. Still, from what I have seen of this world's version of justice, I can make a guess. But I am not sure I can carry out the act and end their lives. Even after hearing Satou list the crimes the thieves have committed, I don't think I could kill a defenceless person.
It would have been easier if these guys were like the others. So far, we have been attacked a total of seven times by bandits. Before, it was only starving villagers, so we let them go and gave them enough food to feed their village and seeds and fertiliser. But these guys are the first professional bandits we came across. There we were well equipped with steel weapons and leather armour. They were well organised, too, with a chain of command until Arisa used her Physic Magic to knock out their officers. If they had run into anyone but us, they could have easily defeated them.
"Master, if the criminals have caused trouble, the standard procedure is to behead them," Liza approaches, answering in Arisa's place. "If you take their head to a town or city guard, you will receive a reward for their extermination."
So, it was a violent way to handle this situation. I really don't want to go through with it, and from the looks of things, Satou doesn't either.
"What if they haven't caused any trouble?" Satou asks, and I hope it means there won't be a deadly fate I would have to grant them.
