Scratch marks were covering their body. Ragged breathing was all they were capable of. The prisoners looked at us with almost lifeless eyes, only when we told them that we were the rescue team, we knew they were definitively alive. Of the twenty prisoners we found, maybe half of them were in a good enough state to walk, the others weren’t dead, but they were far too weak to walk alone. Getting them out of here was bound to be a challenge. 

“Can you heal them?” I asked Phyralia.

“A little more than they are right now? Yes, but their wounds are mostly internal. Broken bones, severed muscle, damaged organs, blood loss, we can’t heal any of these with the spell we know. At best, we cauterize what we can and hope it’s enough for the time being.”

“Isn’t there any way to heal them more? If we need to make a run for it, I doubt they can make it.”

“Without a competent medical specialist, we can only launch the flare and hope the raid team makes it here before the bandits do.” Reylia said. 

“Unless…” Phyralia said. “If we can somehow snatch that healer girl we saw earlier, she could heal them more than we can. That might be a better option than staying here and hoping they don’t find us.”

“Perfect!” I said. “I was hatching for a fight.”

“No, not this time.” Phyralia said. “There is no point in fighting the whole group we saw earlier. That would be pointless. We just need their healer. Once we kidnapped her, we get back here.”

“Fine,” I yielded. “So, who’s going?”

“You both go.” Reylia said. “I stay here with Mizuko and make sure everything is clear.”

“Okay, Gnash and Hybry will stay here too. Just to be safe.”

We left the room behind and made our way back to the training ground. The whole group of bandits was still there doing their drill, with the healer healing them endlessly. Exposed to the open air, the training ground had no way for us to approach without being seen immediately. 

It would have been a problem, but fortunately, Phyralia and I both had a shadow affinity. Even if I only knew one spell that could obstruct someone's view, Phyralia's spell library was much bigger than mine. She took a moment to devise a plan and then we were ready to act. To my surprise, Phyralia opted to scratch the idea of stealth altogether. Our target was way too overprotected to allow such luxury, and there were too many enemies to simply approach without notice. The fact that the training ground was flat with no cover also didn’t help. 

At Phyry signal, I sprung into action with Tara behind me. Leaving the corner of the hallway, Phyralia created a small black hole in her hand and fired it at the sky above the training ground. When reaching around ten metres in the sky, the sphere then expanded into a dome, sealing the area with a thin transparent black barrier. It wasn’t anything physical, the spell only did one singular thing, albeit extremely helpful even if the spell was mana-expensive. It blocked sound from both entering and exiting the dome. 

With the dome of darkness, we didn’t have to worry about anyone screaming loud enough to wake the entire fortress. We only had to deal with the people inside, as they could still exit the dome without problems. 

Using thick shots of webs, Tara's aim was perfect as she blocked the two exits with enough webs that even a sharp sword would need time to cut through. The bandit took a moment to understand what was happening, but their captain was quick-witted and it wasn’t long before he ordered his scrubs into a defensive position. 

For the time being, I ignored him. Phyralia was already showering him with arrows that he masterfully dodged when I reached the first bandit that stood between me and the healer. Freshly healed from his fight with his captain, he had a nasty grin on his face as he readied his sword. Except nasty thought, I doubted there was anything going on in his head. 

“This is going to be so fun!” He said, his grin only growing bigger. 

Not even bothering to dodge the trash in my way, I clashed Flashbang against his sharp stick and snapped the metal in half like it was buttery wood. The guy didn’t register what happened and it was only when my sword was giving some fresh air to his chest that he noticed. Half a second later, he was on the ground with a fatal wound spreading across his torso. 

The scrubs in my way were an even split of cocky and careful. One half saw what I could do and were on guard for the moment we would inevitably clash, while the other half thought themselves better than the garbage I left on the ground. 

Meeting one of the careful scrubs, I fainted a downward strike into a spinning slash as I dodged him. The next two cocky guys rushed at me, thinking they were enough to overwhelm me and the rest of the bandits soon follow behind them wanting to take advantage of their superior number. 

Unable to hide my grin, I splashed them with some of my brand-new acid cola. As soon as the liquid touched them, they screamed in pain, desperately trying to hold the part that was hit by the acid. The splash attack I did wasn’t very precise and aimed at using as little as possible of my acid over a spread area to flinch the enemies with pain. It worked for the scrubs that were hit and in a quick motion, I was able to dispatch them without any effort. The acid must really be painful if they couldn’t even focus on the imminent threat in front of them. 

Honestly, I felt bad throwing away some of my perfectly drinkable acids just to finish them right afterwards. Even if I could literally change water into my favourite personal wine without limit, I was guilty of wasting it all into the garbage. They didn’t even pose a real danger, although the screams they made were S-tier voice actor quality. Ten out of ten would make them scream again. 

On the other part of the training ground, Tara was an absolute nightmare to the archers as they desperately tried to hit her with their arrows. Unfortunately for them, Tara had eight superfast and agile legs that made her able to move and jump around without being hit. Also, her eight eyes weren’t just for show, as long as something wasn’t directly under or behind her, there was no way for anything to catch her by surprise. She made me feel like she had a spider sense, but no matter how much searched in her head, I never found the source of her overpowered sense. 

Not too far away, Phyralia was in melee combat against the rest of the bandit and their captain. When they initially saw her, they had in mind that taking out the back liner would have been easy as soon as they got close, but they had been incredibly wrong. Not only did she take out more than half of them before they reached her, but she was holding her ground against multiple swords and spears using only her shadow bow. 

We quickly tested the bow before just to be sure, but the thing was practically unbreakable, just like the other weapons made by Tarek. When I brought Flashbang, he affirmed to me that no sword was truly unbreakable, but I didn’t care. Everything thing he made felt like it was forged with a special, indestructible metal that only appeared in fairy tails and legends. 

Equipped with her bow, Phyralia deflected any strike aiming for her, only to counterattack by stabbing anyone too close with an arrow between the eyes. The bandits didn’t have any real helmets to protect their faces, but I was sure that would have made no difference. Her strikes would have found the holes in their helmet anyway. 

Whenever her bow was too inconvenient to deflect a strike, Phyralia simply tossed it into her shadow and resummoned it right afterward using her feet when she got the chance. The bandits never knew when she would make such a move. I was honestly surprised she got used to her bow so fast.

When the last of the bandits in my way was bleeding on the ground, I approached the healer. She looked scared, but she also kept glancing at the dead men behind me as if she was expecting something to happen. 

When I was about to grab her, I heard a step behind me and my instinct screamed at me to get away. With a dive roll, I dodged at the last moment a sword strike. The bandits I previously took down were one by one starting to get up. Their clothes were still drenched in blood, but the place where I wounded them was either close or in the process of closing like they were being healed. 

The bandits formed a wall between me and the healer as soon as they got up. A confident smug replaced the scared face on the healer's. That bitch magic was truly something if she could bring them back from the brink of death. From the dozen scrubs I wounded, only four of them were dead for good. That meant she had eight bodyguards that I would need to take down all over again. What a bother. 

“I thought I saw you somewhere,” The healer said, a hand on her chin as if she recalled something. “You’re that new girl everyone talking about. Normally I don’t bother about rumours, but everyone talking about you like you’re a monster to be feared or something. I always knew the adventurers in town were stupid, but I never thought they were fool enough to think that a kid could be A-rank!” She laughed. 

“Uh?” Was all I could let out. There were rumours about me being a monster? I already knew about some rumour going around since my familiars rarely go unseen, but I never heard anyone call me a monster. 

“Anyway, if you surrender now, I'm sure we can get a pretty penny out of you. I heard that noble prick often pays handsomely for a little lady like you. Your weapon looks pretty good too, I’m sure I could get a good price for it.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked her. 

“Oh, sorry, I was lost in my thought!” She said arrogantly. “You got two choices, you surrender gently, we enslave you and your friend and we all get to live happily ever after. Me with money and you in the bed of some rich guy. I’m sure they would treat you nicely and maybe even let you keep your familiars if you’re a good girl. Second, we beat you up so badly that I won’t have any other choice than to sell you to the closest brothel. Of course that would be after, these guys got tired of you.” She pointed to her bodyguards. 

A part of me wanted to murder immediately, but healers were rare and we could use her alive rather than dead. Tough, the scrubs that protected her were all as good as dead meat. There was no way I would let them live with all the nasty thoughts she put into their mind. It was time to purify them in every way I knew. 

“Just before I murder all of you,” I said. “Can I know why you think I’m gonna lose? I just took them all out in like ten seconds. I can and will do it again.” 

She burst out into a big laugh, with some of the bandits laughing with her. “Are you kidding me?! You took them by surprise, while they were unprepared and underestimating you. There no way a girl barely out of her teen can win against eight grown men!”

If she was talking about a normal girl, then it would have made sense. Unfortunately for them, Tenta who was serving as my bodysuit under my clothes, greatly enhanced my physical strength. I snapped a sword in half for god’s sake, underestimating me was not a good idea. 

Okay, I had enough, it was time to take out the trash, purify it and get done with it. For good this time. 

As if they sensed that I wouldn’t go down without a fight, the bandit dashed at me, weapon in hand.

A few seconds before they reached me, I thought I would twist the knife into their wound before even putting it in. Taking the flash at my belt, I took a big swig of my homemade acid and let out a big satisfied sigh, just to let them know how good it truly was. Maybe I could have given them a taste after all. 

Flask and sword in hand, I blocked the first sword strike and slid my blade along the enemy sword. When it reached the cross guard, the guy couldn’t believe it when Flashbang cut through it like it wasn’t there at all. If he had been paying attention, he could have saved himself, but it was too late when he noticed and his arm was sent flying away. He screamed in pain right before I launched a Flash fire straight in his face. His lifeless body was left on the ground, engulfed in burning fire. 

The other bandits were too close to back off now, so they tried their luck. Using Flashbang light affinity, I flashed light right into their eye, which was enough to make them flinch. It took them a few seconds to get their sight back, and the last thing they saw was my beloved blade dissecting them open before a wave of Flash fire ate what was left of them.

Their sharp stick art was truly horrible. It was probably my level of swordsmanship when I arrived in this world, but if Lavanda ever saw me this weak again, she would drop her entire schedule and start my training all over again. Compared to her, these bandits were just monkey with wood sticks.

I could see that the healer was trying to heal the bandits, but she couldn’t keep up with the amount of damage I was doing. For every wound that closed, I inflicted a far worse injury in its stead. Trying to out-heal a burning corpse was not something she could do. Their scream was a cacophony of pain as the fire ate them alive, their scream only ended when there was nothing left of them. 

When not a single bandit was left between the healer and me, I approached slowly. Her face was one of pure terror. She was clutching her staff but didn’t make any attempt to use it to defend herself. She took a few steps back until she hit the wall behind her. Trembling with fear, she fell to the ground and a puddle of liquid appeared beneath her. The smell was unmistakable. 

“P-please, I-I don’t wanna die.” Her eyes flooded with tears, her legs were limp and I could have sworn she was on the brink of passing out. 

I took a small sip of my acid flask and let a droplet fall to the ground. She eyed the liquor with fear and it got even worse when she saw it eat through the stone.

Sheating my sword, I crouched, looked her dead in the eye and told her a simple fact. “Dare try to run away, and your fate will be far worse than anything you could imagine.”

A few seconds passed as I stared at her and finally, she nodded weakly.

“Follow me,” I ordered her. 

Trying to follow the simple directive, she tried to use the wall and her staff as support to stand up, but to no avail. She applied some heal to her leg, but they refused to move no matter what. When she noticed that they were useless, she had no other option than to crawl on the ground toward me, abandoning her staff.  

She was almost clawing the stone to follow me, some of her nails were leaving a bloody trail on their path. I let out an exasperated sigh. She must have thought I was disappointed because she tried even harder. 

“No choice, I guess,”

When I approached her, she didn’t dare to say a word and instead, tears doubled down on her cheeks. Having her crawl all the way to the prisoner cell would have been not only slow but an absolutely pitiful sight. I didn’t know if I was that cruel. 

In that mind, I scooped her into my arm with little difficulty. I didn’t know if she was heavy, Tenta was doing basically half the lifting under my clothes. The obvious way to carry a prisoner would have been on the shoulder or under the arm, but after what I showed her, I thought I could at least give her a princess carry. With how scared she was, I heavily doubted she would try anything funny. 

Seeing a girl smaller than average carrying a full-grown woman must have been a sight of a lifetime, but I wasn’t small enough to think it looked goofy. Yes, she was taller than me, about a head I would have guessed. Still, I had grown a little since I came to this world and I was reaching close to a 155 cm height. I never kept track of the months, but I thought I was only a few away from being 17 years old. That meant that all my hopes of gaining assets were basically dead. What a shame, I wanted Hybry to be able to enjoy bigger breasts than what I had. Even if he always looked happy snuggling them, I was sure he would have liked them slightly bigger. Well, I could always use the elf camouflage ability to make them grow, nobody would notice it if I did it slowly over time. Lavanda or Reylia would totally have called me out if they noticed that I cheated my natural growth that way. For Hybry's sake, I needed to increase them without anyone getting suspicious. 

Back to the healer girl, she smelled a little, but since it was my fault, I didn’t complain. I doubted she would be able to change panties anytime soon. Afraid, she kept her arm close to her chest and kept her head low. From time to time, she would look up to see my face, only to be scared away as soon as we made eye contact. Not a word or sound left her lips.

To her credit, her brown hair tied in a ponytail was well maintained. She must have used some kind of trick to make them this silky and soft. Of course, it was only by accident that I touched her hair.

Looking at how Phyralia and Tara were doing, the spider had already finished the archers and was helping Phyry take out the rest of the scrubs. By the lifeless bodies near the two exits, I guessed that some of the bandits did try to flee. Too bad for them, Tara's web was sturdier than one would think, especially when she didn’t have to be conservative with it. She probably took the bandit out right before going to help Phyralia. 

Currently, the last enemy left standing was the enemy captain. He didn’t look bothered by the death of his subordinate. Probably didn’t have the time to anyway. He was getting double-teamed by a girl with a bow and a giant spider.

“Phyry, can I let you handle him? I want to go heal the prisoner as soon as possible!”

Deflecting a strike, she looked at me with a smile. “Sure, we're good. With Tara and I, he won’t last long! Go ahead, we be right behind.”

“Okay, thank you!”

Hands full, Tenta was kind enough to use Flashbang in my place and cut open the web blocking the exit. Princess carrying the girl I just traumatized, I made my way back to the prisoners.

https://pixai.art/artwork/1704697580934697791?utm_source=copy_web

I apologize for the missing chapter these past few weeks. Publication should go back to one chapter every week going forward.