3 - Head On

The easiest way to do this would be just to get it over with as fast as possible. Not only would it prevent the bandits from organizing any sort of response or alert; it would also stop her from hesitating.

However she DID have a few ideas on just how to do this. She wasn't strong enough to say break down the wall ahead of her... at least not by her own limb strength. She turned to the small sprite on her shoulder.

"So I do need your help for this." the sprite started to open their mouth but Zaya continued, "I know I know, you said you wouldn't help me kill them. And I'm not asking you to get anywhere close. I just need you to tie something for me. I can tie it myself, it's a little more work but it'll get done anyway. Can you do that for me at least? Because they aren't walking away from this anyway."

"I..., can do that for you." Dalila muttered out before an frustrated look crossed her face, "BUT you have to let me go back to the others before you start! I don't wanna hear anything, got it!"

"I think I can do that. Now here's what I need you to tie up..."

It was a quiet night of planning. Nothing was set in stone as they had a couple ideas. The current winning idea was to knock off a Valar supply run. They were tough yeah, but they tended to send less personal on these runs. Besides they didn't need to actually fight them. All they had to do was get most of them to move away from their cart, wagon or whatever they used; and then jump the remaining guards. Or just send someone in to try and pilfer stuff in the chaos. Heck they could get those sprites to do...,

Their talk was interrupted when something odd was heard. Like something large and heavy was flying through the air. A loud 'THUD' was heard along with the splintering of wood. Their attention turned to the make shift wall they had thrown up. It was simply put up to stop some of the damn goats, wolves and other critters from snooping around their place when they weren't here so it wasn't a surprise to see that it was damaged.

The fact what damaged the wall was surprising though; a long jagged length of rock had punched it's way into the wall. Along with two odd round bundles of cloth that were tied near the front of it.

And they were...., hissing?

The twin blasts tore the wall open as the wood was split in half. Two more large rock shards flew in as the dust started to clear; one of the bandits catching one in the arm and falling to the ground, the other missing as it buried itself in the ground. The bandits went for their weapons only to hear another hissing sound. The third blast covered the area with a thick haze of green fog that sent the men coughing.

Acting quickly the leader barreled for the cabin, with another man fast on his heels. The others didn't have the chance. The sniper had something wrap around his leg and drag him to the ground and has his ally turned, he was met with a handful of daggers catching him in the chest. The man on the ground was able to grab his crossbow and fire at the dark figure, only for the sound of metal impacting metal was heard. Something heavy slammed into his body for the trouble.

The two inside had slammed the door shut and had their weapons out, back to back to better watch out for anything. That didn't help them much as the door was also blasted apart. The one man turned to face the door only for a second blast to rip through a window and distract him for just a moment. A series of fire and water spheres shot through the open door, tearing into the man.

He fell but the boss wasn't that easy to put down. He was ready for that second blast and had his shield up which deflected the blows. He took this time to get something out of a pouch around his waist. tossing it out through the destroyed door. A loud crack was heard as he brought his shield up to avoid the bright light.

"SON OF A-"

He was on the move the moment he heard that S start. He ran forward, turned the corner and swung his blade. Only for a Knife and Fire Lance to tear into him.

"Naughty Naughty..." Zaya said as she stood there with a grin. However that 'flashbang' was made was something she was interested in for later but she was immune to Blindness.

But not being tricked.

The attacker faded away like mist before his body even hit the ground. A sound from behind made her spin, holding up an arm to block a slash. The sound of metal on metal echoed in the forest as she was driven back, the larger more experienced man taking a step forward as he kept applying pressure on the blade.

"The fuck are you? Some kinda freaky tube demon thing?" he said as he pushed her back, "Or maybe those stupid bots are finally making their own bitches?"

She'd given up looking 'human' for this, hoping to use her strange appearance as a fear factor if it came to it but the others had gone down easily and the boss didn't seem that put off from it.

"Whatever I am, you won't live long enough to tell anyone." She shot back.

"Am I now? Think I can't take you? I got ways of dealing with stuff like you."

Something on him flashed and then.... pain. A lot of pain. A kind of pain that she hadn't felt since being 'reborn' by the Goddesses. She fought to keep from screaming as her arm started to crack. More lines appeared on her body as they shot through in crisscrossing webs. He took this time to slam his shield into her gut which sent her backwards. A memory of how a crushed can sounds like echo'd in her mind.

"Hoooo boy, you got my boys good. One woman wrecking crew ain't yah?" He put his sword away as he went for one of the goon's weapons, a one of the large mallets, "You seem cocky and honestly you have some rights to be."

Zaya rolled over on her side, going into a fetal position as he walked over. He brought the mallet up to her head, bringing it up and down a few times to get a good feel for the angle. As he brought it up, Zaya planted both hands into the ground and channeled. A large pillar of flame erupted around her body for just a split second but it was enough to torch the mallet's head. All he did was just hit her with soot in the shape of a mallet. He grumbled as he got his blade back out.

"FULL of fucking tricks ain't yeah?" he grumbled as he turned her over and mounted her, tearing at her clothes, "FINE then I'm gonna just tear..."

Okay. Who booby traps themselves?

"Fuck that was.... close there." Zaya muttered as she started to get up.

It was her last two bombs, both toxin; one poison and one paralyzing. Between the two the brigand leader was in the dirt but she still put a few more daggers into him. Maybe she was a little bitter over him being able to hurt her; the first one in fact so hopefully he had some pride in that in the afterlife.

His blade had started to cut into her skin even before she got hit with... whatever the hell that was. The flash had come from said blade looking back on it, so maybe it had some sort of 'buff' or 'enchantment' to it. The shield too felt weird; there were a few inscriptions of a small shield on the wooden back side. It looked like it was drawn to show the shield flickering from left to right in some sort of visual trick. One of them seemed to be faded while the other two copies of the image were brighter. Odd.

There was a pouch on him that had a couple dull looking crystals, some form of quartz maybe but that's what he had tossed at her. A mental nudge informed her that it was called Flare Gem; a stone that when broken emitted a large burst of light for just a moment. Something worth taking for later.

Besides that she elected to take one of the left over mallets, as perhaps that could be useful in the ruins, and the crossbow. Only ten shots to it, but would have to do. Along with the boss's identifying necklace, some sort of wolf chewing at a heart image(Lovely) she picked up some coins and a couple other things of value... or at least looked like what could be valuable. She even picked up two spare sets of clothes from inside the cabin... granted they were kinda grungy but the Pool should be able to clear that out.

But there was no way she was going to get all five bodies back to it in a reasonable manner. Maybe she could take one of them but even that was a bit of challenge. Maybe next time she would bring a couple Larva with her; they couldn't carry much but maybe a weapon each would be useful here.

The most valuable thing she picked up, or at least most useful, was a notebook. She'd have to sit down and try to learn the language better, but she could use it for record keeping with the charcoal strips that came with them. It was a bit messy to do but maybe the Pool could rig something up.

Speaking of herself, it was a good idea to give herself a look over. She pulled up her info screen.

[Stats]

• Empress Lv1 735/1000 EXP
• Sorcerer Lv1 432/1000 EXP
• Assassin Lv1 397/1000 EXP
• HP 100/250
• Mana 0/48
• Energy 42/100

That wasn't the JUMP she had wanted but it was clear that killing humans granted more EXP than grinding against the mindless monsters in the ruins or hunting goats. That or the leader was worth a lot more. Her 'Empress' seemed a bit higher than it should be given she had double growth on her class. Then again; it could be due to being split across two classes in the first place. The other idea was that by using her innate abilities like charming and corruption, maybe she could get some experience from that?

"I'll check that as I work with the girls." she mused as she flexed her body, reverting back to her hidden form.

Her skin looked bruised and battered in this mode. Whatever had hit her had hit her HARD, given she only took one slash and self immolation. Her body wasn't immune to Fire... but it was more immune to it than the bombs she had dug out while on the ground in pain. Speaking of, she had to use ALL her mana for this and ALL her bombs. She won but she had burnt through a lot of things to do so and even then she almost lost at the end.

The bandit was right; she was perhaps getting too cocky. This was a wake up call. Hopefully the Pool could heal her... or maybe Krea could. Hopefully a day of rest would get her back in shape. So that's how she was doing physically.

As for herself mentally...., she didn't feel BAD. She also didn't feel good about it either. It felt like... work? Not any harder than the goats from before. That was a bit worrying to realize she didn't feel anything about five humans just dying, by HER hand no less. Yes they had been evil or at least criminals but..., the lack of shock was unnerving. And if this was how she felt about bandits..., how easy would it be to just snap Krea's neck after a tryst, or Ryia's spine?

She shook her head about the idea. No she didn't want to be a mass murderer; commanding her minions into combat and fights sure. But she didn't want to just wipe the village off the map, taking only those that lived or she desired back to her nest. She wanted seduction and corruption, not burn it down and salt the earth.

"Well..., I suppose that's as 'good' as I'm going to be...., besides protecting those that eventually follow me or are close." she thought.

After all, while she did find Dalila cute, she didn't want something bad or foul to happen to her. Hypocritical sure; but she didn't want something like what she just did to the bandits to happen to someone inside her sphere of influence. Her moral questioning was starting to get to her now. Time to head out before she really got befuddled.

There was however one last problem she had to deal with. Not really a problem out right, but a bad lingering question. These were bandits, who had robbed a couple families, killed three people by now, and even hit a few of the outlying farms around the village. These were outright criminals that didn't care who got in their way of coin, booze and resources?

So where was their HAUL then?

She went over the entire place, twice already. But there was no chest with all their loot, no pile of goods they had stolen, no crates with their names carved into it; nothing at all. Even the notebook didn't mention anything about the haul, just more plans or random thoughts. That was odd, was there some other base they had? She'd have to bring this up to Ellyn when she got back.

For now, it might just be better to get out of here

Encounter Table(d20)

• 1-4: Time to Head for Home
• 5-8: Head back to the Guild
• 9-12: Visit someone(Krea, the Sprites?)
• 13-16: Try to find the loot anyway
• 17-20: Something else happens