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After finding a 5,000 florin ransom note, I guided the injured Gennaro toward safety until the bandit leader, Messina, blocked our path. I engaged Messina in a tough fist-and-knife duel, enduring blinding sand tricks and brutal hits before finally killing him.
With the immediate threat cleared, it was time to get out of the area. Ezio instructed Gennaro to stay close and follow right behind him, warning that more bandits could be waiting further along the path.
As we began moving forward with Gennaro in tow, I discovered a ransom note left behind on a surface. The message revealed that the bandits were demanding 5,000 florins to release the boy alive. With the details confirmed, we pressed on to find an exit.
Gennaro was clearly in rough shape, moving slowly after suffering severe beatings and torture while held captive. Suddenly, Messina, the bandit leader, stepped out to block our path.
He declared that the kid was staying with him because he still intended to collect his payment. Enzo replied that Messina should not count that gold just yet, drawing his blade to challenge him to a duel.
Messina pulled out his own knife with a confident smile, fully expecting an easy victory. And I see Enzo's trick worked really well there as he'd be overpowered cause Messina had his shotgun pointed at them.
Messina immediately began overpowering me, largely because it had been a long time since I had engaged in a hand-to-hand fight. I focused on timing my parries and countering his strikes whenever an opening appeared, though he remained remarkably fast.
Just as I started landing solid hits, Messina caught me off guard during a sudden grapple and tried to pin me down. I managed to overpower him in the struggle, regaining a bit of my health in the process.
Messina went back on the offensive, draining a large portion of my health bar with heavy attacks. Refusing to give up, I kept fighting back through the damage. In a desperate move, Messina threw a handful of sand directly into Ezio's eyes, blinding and slowing me down temporarily.
Despite the dirty trick, he failed to finish me off. With my health nearly fully depleted, I landed a final counter-strike, dropping Messina to the dirt and ending the bandit leader for good.
Gennaro walked over, admitting he had genuinely believed Ezio was a dead man during the duel, and thanked him for saving his life.
Ezio suggested they should locate some horses and head back immediately. Leaving Messina's corpse behind alongside the rest of his fallen crew, the two of them turned and left the area.
To be continued.