A friend finds her

[Mia point-of-view]

When I left home nine months ago to become and adventurer, I thought being an adventurer would be as simple as joining a guild and going on quests. Who’d have thought things would get so much more complicated. Back then I knew nothing about guild alliances, or creative ways to collect loot. I even underestimated how much effort the monsters would put into trying to kill me.

Now, my family that I left behind when I was so naïve is gone, and I am part of a multi guild raid to avenge both them and so many others. I would have gone with my own party, but we didn’t have the numbers for something so big. So, I asked Mimizu if she had some friends in her guild, the Kedamono brigade, if they could join us. She did us a solid and found 4 of them.

First is a rat beastkind called Mariko. She is a C rank fighter who has some pretty good with multiple weapons. While I am quite proud of my sword skills, I fear I have to admit Mariko is better. Based on the scars she has, I’d say she has most certainly earned them.

The second is Kenji. He is a C rank spellsword like me, except his magic element is earth, making him a sentinel while I am a crusader. He is quite good looking and a rabbit beastkind. So, very similar to Leonora. At least similar enough that Craig is getting a bit jealous. He needn’t worry though. I have a feeling Kenji is more interested in Mimizu.

The next two are quite a pair. First there is Tom. He is a C rank mage with fire and water magic and he is also a cat beastkind. He is a bit too arrogant to my liking. Always acting like he doesn’t care. Even now when we are liberating villages that have been attacked by monsters. The least he could do is care a little.

Fortunately, the new cleric, a C rank fox girl called Jenny sometimes makes him seem like he has emotions. She at least manages to poke his ego enough to get him so frustrated at her that he ends up chasing her around a bit. He never manages to catch her though. That girl is slippery.

Yesterday, the nine of us took part in liberating one of our villages. The place had been completely overrun by goblins. There were a lot of those little critters, but there were many of us as well. Some A rank party from Dark Dragons went in first and drew the attention of the goblins. My party then flanked them while some D rank parties prepared ambushes at the escape route we had left for the goblins. Once those green brats realized they were no match for us they ran straight into that ambush and were flushed out. It was almost like herding sheep.

Today we are on our way to the next village. We don’t know what kind of monsters we will face there, but I assume the same tactic will apply. It went so well the first time, so why not do it again?

But then we come across a part of the forest that has been badly burned. The trees are still standing, all singed and without leaves, but all the shrubbery has been turned to ash. Why on earth would there be a fire here of all places? There were no elementals in the rampage. Only monsters from the wild. Or has some adventurer messed around with a fire skill? No, that can’t be it either. The other adventurers are not supposed to be so far ahead of us that they can both put a forest on fire and let the fire burn enough for it to get out already. What is going on?

“Jenny, can you make any of this?” I ask, hoping that maybe she can pick something up from the wind.

Jenny stands still and takes in her surroundings for a moment. “The scent of fire is fresh and the air still feels hot. These are not the remnants of a fire from several days ago. This part of the forest burned down earlier today.”

“Well, it’s not like we can do anything about it?” Toms says as he walks past Jenny. "Like, we don’t have a druid with us who can grow it all back or something. Besides, this is nature. It’ll grow back on its own.”

Jenny, a little annoyed at cat boy’s words, tries to trip Tom with her staff as he walks by. She manages to pull his foot away and bring him out of balance. But after stumbling on one leg for a bit, Tom finds his balance again and doesn’t fall.

Tom looks over at Jenny with a triumphant smile and says, “Hah, can’t trip me over that easily.” After which Jenny aims her hand to the ground in front of Tom and casts [Gale]. A powerful air current hits the ground and blows all the ash up and all over Tom.

Tom was able to close his eyes on time to not get any ashes in there, but he was not happy with the fox girl. He wipes the ash from his face, which only makes him look even dirtier, then says, “Oh, I am so getting you for this.” To the bratty fox girl and starts running to her. Jenny in turn, runs away and weaves between the trees, giggling as she’s getting chased by Tom. I swear these two have a crush on each other. If only they were not too stubborn at admitting their feelings to each other and just got a room already like normal people.

Since the fire is already out, we decide to continue crossing this burned-out part of the forest. As we walk, I notice that Craig is not quite himself. He has been for a few days. I remember his own village being similar to the ones that got affected by the monster rampage. He’s lucky his village was north from Riledo, instead of south like mine. He is probably thinking what would have happened if the attack happened somewhere else.

Leonora noticed as well as she gets close to him and asks, “Hey, you alright?”

“I’m not hearing any animals.” Craig says. “Normally there’s squirrels scurrying under the bushes, or birds singing from a few trees away. Now there is absolutely nothing. It’s unnatural, Leonora. And it’s freaking me out.”

The little marten he keeps in his backpack crawls out and takes place on his shoulder. Craig brings his hand up and starts petting little Mira.

“I know. It troubles me too.” Leonora says. “On our way back, maybe we can grab some plants and carry them here. We can plant a couple of them and help this place heal faster.”

Then Leonora looks up and turns her head to the left.

“Something wrong?” Craig asks.

“I’m hearing something. Not animals but … people?” Leonora says.

“I hear it too.” Kenji confirms. “So, did we move so close out of position that were are getting too close to them? Or is it the other way around?”

“We have a better way of finding out if we go talk to them.” I sigh. “Let’s go meet them.”

We let ourselves be guided by Leonora and Kenji ears and get closer to the other party. What we see is a group of 4 adventurers but they immediately raise some red flags for me. First, they are heading in the wrong direction. Towards the village we have already liberated, instead of the one we still need to liberate. Second, one of them is carrying a girl over his shoulders.

“Ahoy there, friends.” Roland greets the other party. “Any chance we can help you?”

One of the other adventurers looks at Roland and says, “Be careful up there. We just came across some trolls. We lost one of our party members and another is gravely injured. So, we are heading back to recuperate.”

“If your friend needs medical attention, we’ve got 2 good healers with us. We can help her.” Roland offers.

The guy doesn’t even bother to look at Jenny and Mimizu and says, “I think it would be better if we find a healer in the village.”

“The village is a long way out of here.” Roland replies, sounding a little annoyed. “Your friend might not make it in time. Meanwhile we have two good clerics that can save her life.”

The guy then draws his sword and says, “I think you better go on your way now.”

Why in Imris’ name is the guy so insistent on the girl not being healed. Does he not care about her injuries? Or is she perhaps not even hurt? I study the girl some more and notice she’s got pink hair. Well, I’ve seen several girls with pink hair. There was one in the Merton, and several in Riledo. So, that’s not much to go on. I think I’ve seen her clothes somewhere before though. They seem oddly familiar for some reason. But why? When I figure it out, I connect all the dots and realize who it is.

I snap my fingers and announce to everyone, “That’s one of Darx’s friends.”

Another guy in that party proves that I am right by brandishing his weapons and getting into combat position.

“Are you sure?” Roland asks.

“Yeah. That Asian girl. I forget her name … starts with an S.”

“We are on a special mission for a count.” The first guy says. “You do not want to be on the bad side of nobility. I strongly suggest you to let us be on our way.”

“Mia? I don’t think it’s such a good idea to screw with some count.” Craig says.

“If this count wants to speak to the pinky over there, he can easily go to the Dark dragon guild and chat with her. Or ask Aelbrecht to have her and her party travel to him.” I tell Craig as I draw my sword. “This here is nothing more than a basic **** and I am not going to allow it.”

Mariko draws her sword as well and says, “Mia has a point. Good people don’t have a tendency of **** people from respectable guilds. We should save her from these lowlifes.”

As the rest of my party draw their weapons, I slide my hand across the blade of my sword. I place multiple [Fire Glyph]’s along the blade, preparing a surprise for whatever guy I will end up fighting. The guy carrying the kidnapped girl puts her down and draws out two daggers while the last guy raises a wand that looks like a mace. I sure hope these guys are not A ranks. But even if they are, we couldn’t just let them take her.

Kenji and Roland start by both charging at the enemy with Mariko and myself following behind them. Most of the time, the people charging are the first to be attacked, so it makes sense to have our knights go first with their shields up. This group however had different ideas. Their mage decided to throw some [Fire Orb] spells directly at our clerics. Fortunately, Jenny has them covered. She quickly casts a [Vortex], an air spell that looks like a small hurricane, and places it in the path of the [Fire Orbs]. The [Vortex] is powerful enough to change the direction of the incoming spells and makes them miss. If she had more time to build up her spell, she would have been able to extinguish those [Fire Orb] spells.

Tom decides to respond with his own fire magic. But instead of [Fire Orb], he decides to cast [Fire Bolt] instead. It is a spell that Tom invented himself. This spell is similar to [Fire Orb], except it takes less mana to cast. This way his mana supply runs out slower then that of other mages. I asked him to teach it to me, but apparently it has been decided for this spell to be for the Kedamono Brigade only.

Their 2 fighters clash with Roland and Kenji. Mariko runs past Kenji’s left side and attacks the guy clashing with Roland’s shield, while I run past Roland’s right and attack the kidnapper’s other fighter. He successfully blocks my sword with his, but in doing so, he triggers one of the [Fire Glyph]’s on the blade and it spews fire at him.

Just then do I notice their rogue disappear in a puff of smoke. Then close to Mimizu, another puff of smoke appears with the enemy rogue appearing from it. Normally I would not be concerned, as Mimizu has some water magic she can call upon. But this part of the forest has just been through a fire. There is no water around for her magic to affect. In this specific situation, she should be defenseless. Yet, Mimizu surprises even me by aiming her left palm to the attacking rogue, then she slaps her palm with her quarterstaff. All of a sudden, a geyser of water sprays from her palm and into her opponent’s face. That must be her [Water Glyph]. Very clever. Must have been something she learned from me.

Leonora is quick to come to Mimizu’s aid and uses [Dual Shot] to fire two arrows at the enemy rogue. Since Mimizu is blinding him with her [Water Glyph], he is unable to defend himself from Leonora’s arrows. One bounces off his armor, but the other digs into his skin. Craig runs over to the rogue with his short sword drawn, but the guy teleports away in a puff of smoke again, reappearing next to his mage friend.

Meanwhile, Roland took down the guy we were fighting with a [Shield Bash] to the face and I finish him off with [Dual Strike].

Kenji manages to distract his opponent by casting a [Earth Bolt] to his chest, after which Mariko finishes him off with a [Focused Strike].

“Leave the girl.” I hear the rogue say. “We have to go.”

“Guys! They are bailing!” I call out to my party.

Leonora is the first to act and shoots the mage in his leg. The rogue, having pulled out the arrow Leonora previously shot into him, abandons his mage friend and starts running.

“Trackers! Chase him down!” I command my party members.

Kenji, Leonora and craig all start chasing after the rogue. It’s easier to just call them ‘trackers’ then call all 3 of them by name. The rogue does his smoke trick again, but I’m sure they’ll get him.

Mariko, Roland and myself corner the mage and make sure he can’t escape any more.

“You guys have made a mistake.” He says. “The count we work for is not going to take this lightly. He will send more adventurers until he takes you down. Your entire guild if needs be. He’s sure got the money to make that happen.”

I fear he is right. I have heard enough stories of arrogant nobility perceiving themselves to be above the law. If this count ever learns that we prevented this girl from being brought to him, it’ll be bad.

“If this count of yours really wants this girl, he should send more capable adventurers.” I say as I look into his eyes. “I mean, what kind of kidnappers are you even when you let a bunch of monsters take you down before you can even capture your target to begin with.”

The mage looks at me confused, but I’m sure he understands when I plunge my sword into his chest. As I do so, another [Fire Glyph] on it gets activated and burns his face.

After the fight, Jenny walks up to the mage and bends down to muck him some more.

“Too bad you didn’t have some better fire spells. Cause my spell totally ‘blew yours away’.” She says with a big grin.

As Jenny was mocking the other mage, Tom sneaks up on her like a cat. Then surprises her by putting his hand on the back of her head and pushing her face into the ash covered ground after which he says, “Gotcha.”

Jenny starts panicking and screams as she tries to get out of Tom’s grasp but only manages to get out when he lets her go. An ash covered Jenny then gets up and starts chasing after Tom, but the cat boy has already run off.

I leave the two beastkind to their mating ritual and walk over to Darx’s friend. She is still **** and also bound and gagged. Those bastards. Those bastards. I start by removing the gag and as I am untying her hands she starts waking up. She starts panicking and screams for help, but I manage to calm her down.

“Easy there. We already took out the guys who kidnapped you. I was just undoing your restraints.” I tell her. “You are one of Darx’s friends, right? Shay-…-something?”

“My name is Shalia.” She says as she stops screaming, but still looks scared. She looks around and notices all the burnt vegetation around is. “Is the forest fire over?”

“You saw the fire?” I ask as I start cutting the ropes around her legs.

“Yeah, it **** us to leave the forest and expose ourselves.” Shalia explains. “The place was filled with trolls. We had a strong team, but there were just too many of them. I just hope everyone is still alive.”

All of a sudden, my heart sinks. This is not Darx’s first encounter with a troll. Last time he fought one, he almost died. All my feelings from back then start flooding back to me. The worry for Darx’s life, the anger for Amelia, the frustration of not being able to do anything about it.

“We need to get there, and quickly.” I say.

Mariko suddenly stomps her foot on the ground and says, “We’re waiting until our party members get back.”

Fuck, our trackers are still out. Ugh, I really hope they get back quickly. I finish untying Shalia and we wait a few more agonizing moments, until eventually our 3 trackers come back with news of their triumph.

Kenji throws the rogue’s daggers on the ground, as evidence that they caught him.

“I figured it’d be best if he didn’t report to his employer.” Kenji says. I can read the disappointment on his face. He would have preferred to let him live, but that would have caused a lot of issues for both our guilds.

“Left’s leave then, and be quick about it.” I announce. “Darx’s team is in trouble and we need to save them.