As the words left Leo's mouth everyone, including Iris was shocked.
"Wha-"
"Wha-"
"Wha-"
The three said one right after another. By this time they had already talked about moving to the village, which all three didn't have any arguments about. If they were going to be living there, then learning some type of magic would be good for them because they would be able to apply it to their work in some way. Leo was calmly looking at the three of them before explaining.
"At the village, everyone uses magic in some way. Blacksmithing could be improved by learning chi or mana, and tailoring would be enhanced with energy to enchant like the dwarves. I'm not too sure with a stablehand, but say if you want to tame seem beasts up north then chi would defiantly be a benefit to you." The three looked thoughtful at Leo's suggestion, as they never had the option to learn magic before.
"Go ahead and sleep on it, I know it's probably a lot to take in at the moment. If you want to learn, I'll be willing to help you out even though I'm a beginner myself, or Iris might help you learn like she taught me." Leo didn't mention it, but he also had the thought to turn them into werewolves in the future, but they didn't know about that yet so he thought it would be best to wait until things get settled in the north. So it's the idea planted in their heads, they all went to sleep for the night before Leo and Iris went to kill some bandits in the morning.
The next morning Leo and Iris woke earlier than they had the day before. The boys were getting ready for their day at work, and Hilda started making breakfast in the kitchen. When they walked in, Iris surprised everyone by saying,
"Morning mother." When she heard it Hilda looked as if she was going to cry, and the boys just looked at her in shock, while Iris looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole at their stares. Leo just beamed at her, since just a couple days ago she was more inclined to hit her mother than saying good morning.
After breakfast, the boys left for work and Leo and Iris were about to leave for the bounty hunting. Hilda looked worried as she didn't want her daughter to do something so dangerous, but apparently it didn't hit her yet that Iris grew up killing animals that would tear apart a normal bandits nest on a daily basis. With her warnings at their backs, the two set off.
Once they left the city, they got away from the roads and set off like Leo did the day before. After a couple hours of traveling, they came accords the sight of an attack. Since they were in the same area of the bandit nest they were supposed to take care of it wasn't too surprising. The attack was fresh,can't Leo and Iris both smelled blood in the air. They traced the smell back to the camp and found a cave with several bandits hanging around.
It didn't take long for them to notice the carriages from the attack, and the men and women tied up near them. One good thing that they saw, was that the women didn't look as if they'd been touched yet. Leo focused his hearing, and learned that may not be the case for much longer as the bandits were waiting to see if they would get a decent ransom for them or not. If they couldn't, then they would be given to the men later. For once, the savage thoughts he had towards what he was going to do to the bandits didn't repulse him.
Leo looked at Iris, and she nodded at what he wanted. One benefit of hunting together was that the two had developed perfect teamwork. As they would have to be quiet in order not to spook the prey, they had learned how to communicate without words.
One of the bandits approached the captives, and went down a moment later from an arrow in his eye. When the rest turned to see what the noise was, Leo rushed forward and was already slicing. As he wasn't making a whole lot of noise, he had already dispatched three bandits before the rest of the ones outside noticed him. By that time Iris herself had already removed several more as well. By the time they finished clearing the bandits outside the cave, they had already killed fifteen of them.
Leo then untied the captured people, and indicated that they should hide behind the carriages until they killed the rest of the bandits, which they were glad to do. Leo then went back to the entrance of the cave, the poster said that ere were fifty bandits and they already removed fifteen, so there were thirty-five left. Leo searched the ones they already killed until he found a horn. He walked back to the entrance of the cave, and blew the horn.
When the ones in the cave realized what was happening, they rushed out and tried to overwhelm Leo with numbers to kill him. However, they lined themselves up nice and neatly as they ran out of the cave. Iris was having a hay day as each of her arrows carried more power than a normal arrow, and since they were lined up neatly she would kill two, or even sometime three with just one shot.
Then the last several people came out, the self taught chi users. Leo could tell it was them since they carried an aura like they were the most badass thing in the area. Which was why they were completely surprised when one tried to attack Leo with a sword, and he not only caught it, but overpowered them at the same time. Suddenly there was a shout,
"Surround him, the archer can't do anything if we're too close to him!" Leo snickered at their stupidity, as while he was dodging to the side an arrow passed within an inch of his neck to hit the one behind him. He and Iris had perfect harmony while fighting, they were dead the moment they set their sights on them.
Only a few minutes later, all of the bandits were dead and Leo had collected the Chiefs head for the bounty. He looked around the camp, and said to himself,
"Isn't this way too easy?"
Thanks for reading!