We were riding on the kitsune back when we started seeing glimpses of smoke escaping the trees. Mizuko was fast, and I mean real fast. It took her less than five minutes to cover the distance until we arrived at the village on fire. In that little time, I completely lost the ability to sense anything with my roots, as everything was far too burned for any plant life to survive.

I, Reylia and Phyralia dismounted Mizuko and soon after, she shrank back to her smaller form. We were hiding behind bushes where the flames hadn’t reached yet, and some people armed with swords, spears and bows still pillaging the village. There was no way for us to handle them without serious reinforcement, as we didn’t know how many of them there were.

“What do we do? We can’t just rush in.” Phyralia whispered.

“Our priority is to save who we can, but where are they?” Reylia noticed.

Looking around, there were a few villager corpses here and there but not enough to cover the entire population of the village. According to Phyralia, this village held around 300 people.

“Look!” I pointed at a small pathway between two houses. For a brief moment, we saw a few persons tied in rope being escorted by bandits toward the town centre.

Looking at the houses, most of them were burned to a crisp and their fire started to slowly die down. One strange thing was that there was no smoke coming from the town centre. Even if we didn’t have any direct line of sign with it, we looked at the sky and saw no smoke coming out of it. It has probably been spared for one reason or another.

“At least they take prisoners. They probably took them to the town centre for now.”

“We know where to look, but how do we get there? If even one of them sees us and calls for reinforcement, we be in trouble. Best case, we are able to run away. Worse, we either get killed or captured.”

“We need reinforcement, got it. Mizuko.” Phyralia said.

“Yes?”

“Can you go back to Dawnriver and get to the guild? It’s a big building in the town plaza, so you can’t miss it. Inside, tell the receptionist to send high-rank adventurers. We can’t take all of them on, but we might be able to shrink their number a little and buy the guild sometime. If you run fast, we can expect help in two hours or less if we’re lucky.”

“Sure, give me something to make sure they take me seriously. Otherwise, they might think I’m just a random monster speaking nonsense.”

I took my guild card and attached it to Hybry with a vine. “Here, take Hybry with you. There’s a wolf receptionist named Sophia. Ask for her, she will recognize Hybry.”

The little hydra kept protesting that he wanted to stay with me, and held tight on my shirt. I insisted that we really needed that help and this was the best way to get it. In the time it would take the guild to get here, it was possible that the bandits would be long gone with their hostage. If we stayed here, we could buy some time and maybe follow them to a potential hideout. In that mind, we required the three of us to stay here, do what we could and cover each other back.

When the hydra finally relented, I tied him up to Mizuko so that she could go at full speed without worrying about him.

“I will be back with help.” The kitsune said, before vanishing in the forest.

“It still gonna take some time. I’m going to try to call Gnash.”

“You can? How?”

“I can sense the mental state of my familiars and their location, meaning it probably goes both ways, and they can sense mine. Although I don’t really know how it works.”

“Then why not call your dragons and maybe even Tara?! You could also tell her to bring Lavanda and Mom to help us!”

“Sorry, but I’m pretty sure that's impossible. Lendwrek and Mendry are both way too far away to make it here in less than a day. As for Tara, I can’t send messages, only general feelings. There is no way I can transmit something as complex as that.”

“Can’t you tell her to come too? We need as much help as we can.”

“Gnash is a dog, he can track me with our bond and his flair, so he won’t get lost in the forest. He’s also fast, really fast. Tara is a spider, she can’t really run as fast as him, so there’s no way she can keep up with Gnash. I prefer if she stays in Dawnriver and protects the egg.”

“Got it, call Gnash then.”

“All of that is based on if I succeed. It's the first time I’m trying something like that so no promise.”

Focusing on my bond, I never tried to send emotion and feeling to my familiars before, it just sort of happened, whenever one of us had a strong feeling. I filled my mind with the specific thought that I needed Gnash's help, hoping to get a reaction from him through our bond.

Feeling absolutely no difference in his mental state, I knew that nothing happened. So I tried again. This time, I concentrated all my thoughts on Gnash without any emotion attached to them. If I was, at least, able to understand how to send him some thought, then I could probably figure out how the whole thing works based on that.

Unfortunately, I sensed no reaction from that either.

Seeing me stare at nothing but the ground, Reylia tilted her head, wondering how I was doing. “So, did you do it?”

“Still trying.”

“It's okay if you can’t. Your bond with your familiars is still young, so don’t push yourself too hard.”

“If I don’t push myself, who will?”

“You think too much.” Phyralia said. “Do it or don’t, at least you tried!”

I stopped my attempt for a moment. Maybe she was right. Until now, all these exchanges of thought between me and my familiars were spontaneous and involuntary. We just glimpse at each other mind whenever we feel the other thinking about something.

If I could make them search my mind themselves instead of forcing my thoughts on them, maybe Gnash could see that I needed his help. The problem still remained, how do I do it?

The answer was simple. I can feel when one of them is looking at my thoughts and vice versa. We never really did it, because we never really had the need for it, since we generally spend most of our day with each other anyway. Now that we were separated, it was the perfect time to do it.

Concentrating on the presence of Gnash in my soul, I let his sense flow through me and override my own. The ground at my feet vanished abruptly, and all sound became none as my vision blacked out. When the light appeared again, I was not in the forest anymore, but in my room. I could see Tara on the bed, with me lying on the ground.

The most disturbing part was that I wasn’t the one moving my head. Instead, I began looking around as if something disturbed me, even if nothing disturbed the peace in the room.

It was only when I noticed a small gooey dark green liquid dripping near my eye that I realized that I was looking through Gnash's eyes. His body was always in a decomposition-looking state, even when he was perfectly fed and healthy, probably an effect of being a plague dog. At least now I knew that he still had eyes. His eye sockets were always hidden in perfect darkness even in broad daylight, making them unseeable, so I was never sure until that moment.

When Gnash realized that it was me probing his senses, he began looking at my mind to make sure that everything was fine. When he felt that something was off about me needing help with enemies nearby. He jumped on his paws and rushed to the door. He tried to twist the door handle, without success. No wonder, since as a dog, he had no fingers.

Entering his field of view, Tara used her sticky leg to easily do what Gnash couldn’t. After a small lick of thanks, Gnash rushed at high speed through the inn corridor, leaving my room far behind. When he reached the stairs, he completely jumped each set with haste.

Still looking through his eyes, the experience was far too much for my normal sense, and before I knew it, I was back in my body, forcing the content of my stomach to stay inside.

I was being held in Phyralia arms, when I asked them what had happened.

“It looked like you lost consciousness for a minute as if you were asleep. Since you looked fine, we waited until you woke up, which didn’t take long.”

“Did you succeed?” The other sister asked as she made sure I was truly fine. Verifying my face with more vigour than necessary.

“Yeah, it was strange, but Gnash is on his way. Should be here in less than an hour!”

“Perfect!” They whispered in unison.

Reylia unsheathed her sword with a smile, admiring the reflecting character of the blue of her blade. “My Sharpspray is finally gonna taste some blood. About time. Why buy a sword if never to use it!”

We brought our magic sword at the same time, so it makes sense both of us never used it in a real fight. Something that we knew was about to change.

“Let keep the killing to a low,” Phyralia interjected. “To both villagers and scrubs, we never know, they might drop names. The guild would want them to pay for their crimes, so please try to limit the bloodshed.”

Although it wasn’t night yet, it started to get darker and darker with each passing minute.

Putting on black cloaks that we took before Mizuko left, we approached a carbonized house with precaution. When we were sure that nobody was in sight, we moved from house to house, getting closer to the village centre as we avoided crowded lines of sight and patrolling groups.

Some bandits were searching houses, breaking furniture and doors in search of valuable items they could sell. We heard little bits of banter about how there wasn’t much loot to find around. Normal since this is a small village. Being relatively close to the dungeon didn’t make this place very flourishing, contrary to what someone might think.

From what I understood, the dungeons in this world were more like an underground cave system that ran deep within multiple layers of different biomes. Even if monsters were roaming it, it wasn’t that common to encounter one, as the upper layer have been hunter dry of any regular monster that once populated them. Only the lower levels contained monsters actually worth something, but due to the lack of maps, few adventurers dare to search them. Especially considering the amount of travelling rations and equipment required for such exploration.

Item boxes, spatial bags or magic storage weren’t really common or even rare, but I did hear that they did exist, although not for most people. For example, magic storage requires someone to have an affinity with spatial magic, something that I heard is almost as rare as my plant affinity. I did meet the goddess of spatial magic, Anastasia, but she didn’t bless me with such overpowering magic. Honestly, I was grateful enough to be in this world that I wouldn’t have asked her even if I had known at the time.

I already have storage summoning if I ever need to store something for later. The capacity was limited but enough for me, not that I used it much in the first place. It required both material and a summoning ritual, making it impractical for abusive use. Still, just the fact that I have it gives me an advantage compared to others. I have Lavanda and the book she gave me to thank for that. Summoning was more versatile than I initially thought. With some luck, I hoped to someday use it to actually summon a creature instead of just inventory space. Maybe after dealing with the bandit, I could give it a try, I thought.

Sticking to the shadows, We didn’t find a lot of villagers on our path, unfortunately, those we found were long past saving.

After slowly making our way, we reached the outskirts of the village centre.

Burned remains of what once were humans litter the plaza, their lifeless corpses being left to nothing as even the crows couldn’t eat them. Multiple scraps of stalls and their content were spread around, showing that at some point, this was the place to go to buy fruits and vegetables.

There, a group of bandits was escorting a few tied-up villagers toward what I thought was the village community hall. This one dwelling was a lot bigger than the other regular house, being made of solid stone instead of wood like the other houses and having a double door instead of a simple one. Traces of burn marks could be seen on the stone of the hall, its superior material having protected it from the gigantic fire spell that marked this place forever.

The hostages let out some tears at the sight of their loved one being left to cinders.

Knocking on the door, a man appeared and took the prisoners by the rope binding them, he dragged them inside. Watching from our hiding spot, before the door could fully close, we were able to spot more prisoners inside. Free of their burden, the bandit group walked away in search of more potential prisoners. With them gone, the centre was now empty of life.

“We need to get inside and free them.”

“What do you suggest?” I asked Phyralia.

“We knock on the door and as soon as that chump opens it, we force our way inside, closing the door behind us. If there’s more of them, we handle them. As long as there’s not a whole army hiding inside, a few bandits shouldn’t be a problem for us.”

“Fine by me. They won’t expect resistance at this point. Reylia?”

“No problem with me either. If all the prisoners are there, that makes the whole thing easy. They might deliver more villagers to us since this is where they keep them.”

Making sure that there was truly nobody else, we rushed to the double door and Phyralia knocked on it. As soon as it was slightly opened, she kicked it, and it took the guard by surprise. Phyralia used this advantage to splatter the flat of her sword on the man's face, sending him to her feet, knocked out cold.

Reylia and I rushed inside, and I closed the door behind us as she ran straight at one of the bandits coming at us. There were 9 bandits inside, 8 if I didn’t count the one we already dealt with. Surprised and spread, they scrambled trying to reach their comrade. With the only door behind us, they didn’t have the option of running away and calling for help.

With all the hostages packed into a corner, I put myself between them and the bandits. With four of them going after Reylia and Phyralia, the other four came straight at me and the hostage.

It was time to use my newly learned shadow spell. I fuelled the mana in my hand and when it was ready, I let it all go around me. The dark magic spread until it reached the thugs, creating a zone of complete darkness where nothing could be seen inside.

The spell was named sightless void. It created an area of pure pitch black, where not even night vision or the caster could see through the darkness. Only light affinity spells add a chance against it, but they didn’t know that.

The four bandits inside my spell began walking carefully toward the hostage. The spell didn’t alter their sense of direction after all, it only blocked their sight.

Ready with his sword, the closest of the four saw a small glimmer of light just ahead. He probably thought this was me because he didn’t waste a second and charged at the light, trying to stab it as if he were aiming at my chest. Unfortunately for him, the only thing he hit was Flashbang, the tip of the sword emanating a faint glow that could be seen even in the darkness of sightless void. True be told, I wasn’t even close to where he thought I was, having used the length of my blade to my advantage.

With a devilish smile, I slid the tip of Flashbang along his blade and smashed his arm with the flat. The impact made him lose hold of his sword, his only weapon now lost to the void.

Now that I knew where he was, I didn’t let him go and immediately followed with a hit in his face. The man lost consciousness and stumbled backward, directly into one of his comrades.

“What the fuck is that?!” The man yelled, revealing his location to my good earring. A moment later, he kissed my sword and joined his friend on the ground.

The last two only heard their comrade yell and with the sound that followed, they correctly deduced that he bit the dust.

I heard their unsure footstep as they tried to leave the void. In a quick motion, I smashed the head of the first one and made the other lose balance by sweeping him off his feet. When he was on the ground, still conscious, I kicked him in the face multiple times, until he wasn’t anymore. Whether his face was recognizable or not wasn’t my problem.

Now that my bandits were handled, I cancelled my spell. Even if the whole exchange took less than 30 seconds, it still used about a full third of my mana. At least I had some spare mana leaves with me.

When the sightless void disappeared, I saw that both sisters were already finished with their share. The poor scrubs were littered with contusions and bloody scars that wouldn’t allow them to walk for a while. At least not without healing, something we weren’t trill to provide.

Phyralia smiled at me as she stepped on one of the bandit faces. “So how’s your new toy?”

“Thirsty and effective!”

Walking to the hostages, there must have been a hundred of them at most. Their teary eyes looked relieved as we freed them from their binds.

“Thank you!” They kept showering us with praise and thanks until we were able to calm them. The women and children were in tears but otherwise fine, having surrendered without a fight to the thugs. The lack of elderly left a bitter taste in the sight, it wasn’t hard to imagine what happened to them.

The men were a bit worse for wear. They numbered less than the women, the fate of most of them being leaving their widows behind. Those who were alive were covered in injuries, leaving some of them in critical state. I doubted they be able to walk alone if we wanted to leave the city hall right now. Even if they were a liability, they gave their best against their attacker to protect their loved ones. We would leave this place with them or not at all.

Without wasting more time, the sisters and I began cauterizing the men's injuries to the best of our abilities. We couldn’t go all out, since we needed to keep some mana in case we needed to fight more bandits. The women in nun uniforms and others volunteered to help the healing process, allowing us to stabilize the men’s conditions rather quickly.

Those with fire and light affinities were in charge of mending the biggest wounds. Water was useful in disinfecting and preventing infection of the wounds, so it helped a lot. The others fetched simple ointment and suture kits from the storage room to treat smaller trauma.

One of the men forcibly stood up despite his injuries, he was helped by one of the nuns. “Please, my brother isn’t here. He must still be out there with his wife. Their house is near the outskirts of the village. There a chance these bastards haven’t reached there yet!”

“Calm down, if his house is near the forest, maybe he already left with his wife,” Phyralia said.

“I doubt it. She is heavily sick and can’t leave her bed! His son is here too, he was playing with my daughter when they attacked. There is no way he left without knowing his son is safe, but he also can’t leave his wife alone!”

“Please, please! I want my dad!” A kid not older than five years old cried as he gripped my shirt.

“Where is the house?” I asked.

“In the west part of the village, almost at the forest. It is rather isolated from others and it's far enough that I’m sure it’s been spared from the flames! Please!”

“Got it, Phyry, how long until help arrives?”

“An hour, I say. Be careful out there, Emery. If you can’t make it back here, hide in the forest. As soon as they’re able to walk, we are leaving this place. It’s a matter of time before a patrol arrives and finds us. We can’t risk it.”

“There’s a basement,” a nun interjected. “We could hide in it if we can’t leave, the trap door is sturdy and there tons of stuff to block the entrance!”

“Don’t get caught, Emery. I would hate to have to free you too.” Reylia said with a smirk.

“Don’t worry, I have Tenta with me, I be just fine.”

Holding up my hand, a green tentacle came out of my sleeve and high-fived it. Tenta retracted to its hiding spot a second later.

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