40 Gains

Ki and Rashida sat down to go through their fight in their minds, any mistakes that they made or any enlightenment they received during the battle they began to think on how to improve on what they had already learnt.

For Ki her biggest fault was her lack of reach and her body size which could be solved after she grows older so most of her time was thinking on how to improve her palm and sword arts.

Rashida had gained a lot more familiarity with her scimitar, although she had been taught some sword forms suited for guarding, cutting and one for piercing she had yet to properly put them into practice.

This life and death battle helped her gain some familiarity with her own style of swordsmanship and help to correct some of her bad habits during combat.

Previously when she danced with a sword or sabre her movements were light and she moved in a certain rhythm as she controlled her weapon, now she felt that she could put to use some of those movements into her fighting style.

She could use different timing and strength in her attacks and change the rhythm of her attacks to confuse the enemy leading them to be unable to guess how her next strike would come.

Back when she was with her family she had already been able to grasp hold of the various changes of her families music in order to put on a performance best suited to their music which often was fast paced and unpredictable, now she could put that skill into her martial arts in reading and controlling the flow of battle.

Just like in Ki's previous life she was able to hone this skill in order to save many lives and in this life she walked down a path which pushed her skills further.

Ki and Rashida had two completely different styles of combat despite both of them practicing the same Blood Buddha Qi Art, mainly because Ki used the Extreme Noxious Qi Art which helped to influence her future path but also they walked a different path that best suited their personalities and the type of weapon they used.

The barn and other places were searched, there were no secret rooms or basements so it was quite easy for the group to collect everything.

They took one of the small carriages and the leaders horse and began to put everything they collected into the carriage.

Several boxes of stolen money, old damaged weapons, jewels, some herbs and a couple of martial arts scrolls which belonged to the stronger members were put into the carriage.

Ki checked the leaders room, she pinched her nose to block out the foul stench of the room and looked towards a corner of the room where a small cage containing a small white wolf with several whip marks on its body, she looked into its fierce eyes. "Hmm.. so you still won't submit to those people. You have some guts, I like it."

"Get a couple of you to carry the cage into the carriage and let's head back now. If you want to use anything else from here you can come back later and dismantle everything to bring to improve your living space behind the mansion." Ki quickly gave some orders after taking one more look at the wounded wolf pup.

Everyone began to clean up the dead bodies and burned all of the bodies on the fire, the remains were buried.

The group began to make their way back along with the carriage which they stopped using a little before entering the village and then they got out and followed the path back to their hideout behind the mansion carrying everything with them and coming back for the rest.

Back at the mansion, Ki instructed everyone. "Make a log of everything collected, if you wish to use any of the weapons then take them. As for the martial arts and herbs I will collect them for now to see if they are of some use. Money you can keep to support your training and food expenses. Please bring the cage to my room as quietly as possible to avoid disturbing my parents sleep."

Rashida raised her hand. "Young miss the man we captured before mentioned one more thing I forgot to mention so I don't know whether it is of much importance. He said that the unorthodox alliance are their supporters."

Ki's eyes flashed with surprise but then nodded. "It's to be expected since the unorthodox alliance is primarily based in the north east. Whether it's the north, the northeast or the eastern parts of the central lands they have a lot of influence over bandits, underground influences, dirty or immoral clans or sects. They may even be colluding with others in other places too, I would not put it past them to have some or a lot of influence over Wolfden city. We however do not need to worry over this because in their eyes a small group of bandits would be considered as grunts and not worth retaliating over. However just because we expect that they won't take revenge for this does not mean that we can relax our guard so from now on everyone will be undergoing hell training and put your best efforts into strengthening yourselves individually and as a group. The top 5 of the group once more slaves are brought in will be able to be in charge of a 9 others leading a 10 man team, try your best to train the team and recruit members based on the teams style of combat. Some may train swords while others in spear arts or daggers so try to have some kind of speciality for your team."

Back in her research room, Ki faced the fierce eyes of the wolf pup and smiled before pushing a small bowl of water into a gap in the bottom of the cage. "Drink up."

The wolf looked at her warily for a while but then Ki's patience won over the wolfs, the wolf pup began to drink from the bowl as if it had been kept from food and water for a period of time.

Soon the eyes of the wolf turned drowsy and it fell into a deep sleep, Ki opened the cage door and began to clean its wounds and then began to treat it.

After the treatment she shaved off some of its hair and collected some of its blood in a small glass jar. "This should be enough."

She then placed the wolf back into its cage before going to the food storage room to get a piece of raw meat, she mashed the meat up into smaller bits that were easier for the wolf to chew on.

A small dish of meat was placed into the cage of the frost wolf pup, Ki locked the door of her research room before heading to her room.