Lucas and Ashly look around and see that the men are all armed. "What do you want from us?" Ashly says as Lucas seems to be shaking a bit. "Don't tell me you are here to rob us aren't you?"
"Well what a smart girl we have here." Said another one. "What should we do Ivan?" Said one of the men to the man who is presumably the boss.
Ashly tries to stand up, but another man runs behind her and pins her to the ground. "Not so fast lady, you shouldn't test men. Specially with how cute you look." Said the man, Ashly's face is in the dirt, and his left hand is on the back of her head while his right hand has her arms in place.
"Well then, I guess we are getting to the point right away." Said Ivan, "My boys aren't as patient as I am, but there's nothing I can do about it." Ivan smiles even brighter. "You know why we are here so hand us your valuables great sir." Ivan then points his gun right at Lucas face. "I'm not playing around kid."
"A-a-alright." Lucas manages to say, he is very nervous and he can't really speak up. He slowly walks to his bag, he tries to open it but his hands are shaking so he fails. After a few tries he manages to open it, and takes out his sack of money. "H-here." he says. "Let her go p-please." Lucas throws the money at Ivan.
Ivan catches the money, and he is surprised by how much it weighs. "Wow that's one heavy pouch we have." He opens it and sees more money than he expected. "So many coins in here, I can estimate that there are almost 173 silver coins in here. Are you the son of a businessman?" He asked.
"Of course you're not, if you were then you wouldn't be alone out here. Why do you have so much of these coins out here in a dangerous place. Do you want to get robbed?" Ivan says as he hands the money to another man who puts it away. "Now hand us everything that you own, things we can sell and no cheap shit."
Lucas grabs their bags and empties them. The men see all of their things and feel disappointed. "Oh so they must have robbed someone else then, why have so much money yet have no other valuables." Said one of the men.
"Let go of me you asshole, don't touch me with your filthy hands." Ashly says in anger to the man who has pinned her down. "I swear I will make you pay for doing this to me."
All of the men began to laugh at Ashly. "Of course I'm not young lady." Said Ivan who couldn't stop laughing. "A woman shouldn't speak to a man like that, specially when she wasn't given permission to talk."
"Let go of her please." Lucas says with uncertainty in his voice. "W-we gave you a-all of our stuff already."
"What an insult to every man in existence." said Ivan as the other men begin to laugh harder. "If I was blindfolded, I would of thought you were a woman. Now why are you two acting so abnormal, honestly I'm surprised."
"Yeah I know right, what does he think he is. We will take whatever we want, you can't do anything about it because we will kill you if you try." Said another man. "Boss, we should take the lady with us. She might have a bad attitude, but her looks are too darn irresistible to leave behind."
"What do you mean? Let her go." Lucas says but Ivan shots at Lucas feet, he misses on purpose. "You already took everything from us, that's being petty at this point." Lucas says but his feet are shaking. He hasn't been this scared in a while, and he feels like his heart will pop out. He might even pass out if this goes on for much longer.
"For a pussy like you, you're such a big talker." Said a man named Joe. "Well it's honestly pathetic that your words have no weight behind them. You aren't scaring anyone, you should be ashamed to be born a male."
"If you're so tough then I guess you wouldn't mind a fight." Ivan asked and Lucas nods, he is going to stand his ground even if he is scared. "Well then, you all know what to do then." Joe runs to Lucas, and punches him on the face, Lucas falls down as he instantly covers his face.
"What a coward." yelled one of the men, Lucas stands ,up and tries to throw a punch but he misses. Another man punches Lucas in the stomach hard, Lucas vomits and falls to the ground. "He can't even take a punch, what's next? Is he going to cry?" Said the man as they begin to kick Lucas who is down.
"Maybe he is a girl disguised as a man, I've never seen such a weak man before." Joe says as he begins to kick Lucas in the head hard. Thankfully Lucas is covering his head so his arms are the only ones getting kicked. They all are laughing at Lucas, he can't protect his body as there are too many of them.
Lucas's whole body is in pain. "That hurts." he says which was a bad move as the men begin to kick him harder than before. Lucas begins to tear up as it's too much, the pain is unbearable.
"No way, he is actually crying." Said the man who has pinned Ashly. "Oh I feel so bad for this young lady, Ivan I can't believe what I'm seeing." While the man looks up at Ivan Ashly takes the opportunity, and begins to push herself upright. "Wh-" Ashly easily overpowers the man, and covers his mouth before he can warn the others.
"Shhh." Ashly says with a gentle and soft voice. "You don't want to ruin the fun now don't you?" Ashly smiles at the man, and then she slams his face onto her knee. The man falls unconscious. "Don't you ever get near me again you asshole."
Ivan turns and sees Ashly holding the unconscious head of his subordinate. "Wow, they really did switch up everything." He turns his gun to Ashly, but Ashly has already ran up and tackled him to the ground. He accidentally shots his gun, and it catches the attention of the other men. They all stop beating Lucas, and are shocked by what they are seeing.
Ashly has Ivan in the ground and they all take their guns out, but Ashly has taken the gun off of Ivan. She shots one of the men killing them instantly, she then points the gun at Ivan. She made sure he in front of her, acting as a living shield to her. "Not one fo you move, or else I'll make a new hole his head."
"I can't let a woman out beat me like this." Ivan says as he begins to try to break free from Ashly. "I won't let a woman humiliate me in front of my men." They are in a scuffle, but Ashly is clearly winning. "I will kill you."
"Don't shoot just yet." Joe yells at the others who were going to pull their triggers. "We can't let Ivan die, let him beat some sense into that woman." He says as they keep their guns pointed at them.
Ivan then grabs Ashly's hand that had the gun, and tries to point the gun at her. Ivan is much stronger than he looks, and the tide is becoming much more even now. "Show me what you've got, show me why you have such a big ego." Ashly says but another man runs up to her and tries to shoot her.
"Don't you dare kill her!" Yelled Ivan which the man obeys. "I'll be the one to kill her, I'll be dammed if I needed help to kill a woman." The men all back off, and lower their guns down. "What kind of woman is strong enough to make me struggle like this, what a monster." he says.
"Whatever you say, you're not as strong as you think you are." Ashly says with a smug look on her face, she darts her right eye for a bit. Ashly then puts up a smile, and all of the sudden lets go of the gun. Ivan smiles and calls Ashly stupid, and he hits Ashly with the gun. Ashly's cheek bleeds a bit, but she doesn't scream at all which angers Ivan.
"Why don't you act normal?" He says as he points his gun at her, Henry then calms himself down. "Alright, I might have gotten a tad too exited. That's my fault, and I should of never have hit a woman, I'm in the wrong."
"Put your gun away." Lucas says, Ivan turns and sees Lucas holding his rifle. He is pointing it at him, but Henry isn't scared at all. Lucas's hands are shaking so he believes Lucas will miss even if he shots. "I'm not going to ask again, I won't." Lucas says, the other men just mockingly raise their hands, and give off fake apologies to him.
"You know, if you acted this way at first I would be scared." Ivan said with a calm voice. "But since I saw who you really are, it's comedic to me. You're shaking too much to be serious, why would I ever take you serious?" He then turns to Ashly. "Killing you would be a blessing as you won't be dealing with this guy. I want you t-."
A few drops of blood splatter onto Ashly's face, she makes no reaction unlike the other men. Ivan has been shot on his chest, he instinctively clutches the area he got shot at. Ashly then turns, and sees Lucas who has shot Henry. "So it seems you finally man up Lucas." She says with a hint of pride.
"Ha…ha..hahaha." Lucas is breathing heavily and he drops his gun, the other men turn to Lucas. "I-I." he then drops to the ground, he starts crying more. "Why-why am I crying? I shouldn't feel sorry for it." He then vomits more, he covers his mouth with his hand. "Useless, why did I hesitate when she was in danger." Lucas begins cry even harder now as he hears Ivan's body fall to the ground with a heavy thud.
"Y-you killed him, Ivan is fucking dead." Joe said, he then points his gun, and shots Lucas right on his right shoulder. Lucas screams in pain and he shots him again on his right arm. "You shouldn't have done that." He says as Lucas is grabbing onto his arm. Joe then shots him again, but this time on his right ear, then again but he misses. He can't believe it, Ivan has died but he couldn't shot again as Ashly has shot his hand.
Lucas is scared, and Ashly points the gun at Joe. "He can't die right now, he is mine." She says but a continuous sound of gunfire is heard on her left. The men all fall one after another, Ashly runs and grabs Ivan's body as a shield. She looks to where the gun was fired and it's a tall man. It's Robert and he seems sad, no it isn't sadness but something else that she can't describe.
"He seems to be in shock, that's why he isn't reacting to his hand being blown off." Robert says as he puts his gun away. "Don't point that thing at me." He says as he looks at Ashly who is about to shot him. "Your friend over there knows me, well sort of at least." Ashly then lowers the gun.
"What a mess." Robert approaches Lucas who has now payed attention to him. "It's me Lucas, you should be careful. You almost died there, you shouldn't be traveling alone around these parts."
"Yeah Lucas, you should of shot them while they were in shock. That was your mistake, they were sitting ducks waiting to die." Ashly said as she dropped the gun.
"Well Lady, I wouldn't drop that at this moment. What if more dangerous men appear? You're vulnerable." Robert says as he smiles at her.
"Well it's empty and if it wasn't, you would be a part of this pile of bodies" Robert drops his smile "Don't you think I wasn't going to shoot you, you just got lucky and so did I. The chances you weren't a friend was too low to trust."
Robert crouches and checks Lucas's wounds. "It's you, th-thank you for saving us." Lucas says but Robert says nothing, he is more focused on checking out his wounds. "I'm sorry I cowered in the worst moment. It almost costed us our life's." He says as he tries to not scream from the pain.
"Listen to me well Lucas" Robert says as he took out some bandages and other equipment. "There are times where a man must make a hard decision. No matter what you do, a man will always have to challenge themselves. When your life is in danger sometimes killing is your only option. It might not have been the only option, but it sure is the best one. When it comes to protecting others you must be ready to kill, that's the way a man should be." Robert then begins to try to patch his wounds.
"I had a relative that studied medicine and other practices. That's not important as I'm trying to tell you that you must not be afraid to kill those that threaten you, drill that into your skull. I don't care how long it take, but make sure it's not too late when you do. Trust me, there are many men who I knew who died early because they didn't follow this. Life isn't what it might seem, and you should embrace it because of it."
Lucas stops crying and he looks up at Robert. "I'm such a mess, how can I call myself a man when I did this. I-" Robert then pats his back, this makes Lucas reassure himself a bit, but the pain is still there, he killed somebody. "I really can't do this, help us Robert. There are bad people after my friend, and I just showed that I can't protect her. What am I supposed to do? I wasn't prepared at all."
"Well you just have to deal with it, I don't know how but that's how life goes. You can't stop, and expect the world to wait for you. That's unrealistic and you will have to forget about it. If you want to help your friend then you must be ready to suffer. When you suffer you learn many things, and one of them is enduring. You mustn't let this moment beat you up, use this as the reason to why you have to kill." And with that Robert has made Lucas's bleeding slow down. "Go to the east, the nearest town is there. Don't you die just yet, not until you fulfill your duty."
"Well then, I agree with this guy Lucas. Don't let this stop you from being useful." Ashly says.
"If he doesn't listen then I guess you should just leave him behind." Robert says.
"Yeah I think I will consider that." She says. "Come on Lucas, we are just joking, don't put up that face. It's annoying and makes me look like an asshole."
"You know, I used to have a friend that was just like you." Robert says to Ashly as he puts his things away. "He died at an early age because he did many selfish decisions. I hope you don't drive him into suicide, my friend sure did that to a man." He looks back at Lucas who is attempting to stand up. "Well then, I guess I will take my leave. Don't waste your time, and leave right now or else you might die." He says as Ashly walks to Lucas, and helps him onto the horse. Robert can't help but let out a smirk, as he is out of Lucas's and Ashly's sight. "So that is the woman that I was asked to kill then, much cuter than the drawing."