The Princess and The Bandit

ELEVEN

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Her first instinct was to pull Laura away to safety. And that's exactly what she did.

There wasn't an ideal safe place in a tavern full of short tempered miscreants but as soon as Camila saw Tyrone the Nightmare throw the first punch at some random bearded guy while cackling, she immediately pulled Laura in her arms and down under the bar counter. The girl may be a skilled archer but Camila couldn't risk to find out if she's any good at close contact combat.

Things like this happen occasionally in the tavern. Sometimes it's some group of bandits crossing it out with another group of bandits. Other times, it's some mercenary showing off their fancy killing techniques at some random drunk person. And in other occasions, it's the drunkards fighting over some whore who's already doing the horizontal greased-weasel tango with somebody else.

But most times, it's the pirates.

Pirates of every kind. Human or otherwise. Easterners or Westerners. Northmen or the Southern seafarers. Drunk or sober.

Isla de los Muertos is, afterall, an island in the midst of the wide open ocean. The common playground for every sailor.

"What the hell just happened?!" The girl exclaimed.

There was a lot of noise going around the tavern. It comprises mostly of grunts and yells and cursing and clashing metals and smashing bottles and tables overturned. There was the occasional trash talk but was always quickly replaced by a pronounced smacking sound.

The tavern is quickly becoming a nice little warzone for the delinquents. There'll be dead bodies to be burned by the end of the daylight. And it's nothing new to the boss herself.

But for the guest, let's just say it's quite an enlightening experience.

Camila was both amused and a little bit surprised when Laura pulled out a shiny altair short blade as soon as they ducked themselves underneath the safety of the bar counter.

"Do you even know how to use that?"

"Of course I know how to use it! Just stick it at someone's throat, duh!!" Laura replied, offended by Camila's remark.

And as soon as Laura finished her words, a tall hulky pirate jumped right in front of them, each hand holding a scimitar.

Camila knew instantly that Laura was about to prove herself to her but she quickly decided she won't let her. She won't allow her to fight this much bigger guy, risk anything terrible happening to this pretty girl. She'd rather be the one to challenge this seven foot tall moron screaming at their faces and make sure that Laura will remain unscathed. She won't risk any harm to befall on the girl at any cost.

She doesn't know how or when or why exactly she cared this much for the Arcadian but she really can't think about that right now.

Besides, breaking someone's bones is quite an effective way to release the tension that's been bothering her lately.

So, with impossibly quick movements, Camila maneuvered herself to stand, kicking the much bigger man hard on his shin as she did so, making him lose his balance and focus. The crack of bone echoed clearly on impact, and as Camila stood, she threw a quick punch on his throat, cutting off his airway. Then, she easily took the scimitars out of his grasp.

Then, she swung around, pivoting on the inner ball of her foot. Very swift and smooth, she slashed the much bigger opponent's throat with his own weapon, the force of the blow almost chopping his head off of his shoulders, blood was oozing, dripping like honey but with the rich color of rubies.