"Ugh…"

Kayla let out yet another groan, and Pale scowled as they continued to walk through the plains.

"I warned you that you needed to eat the ration bar slowly," Pale reminded her without looking back.

"You did… haah… it was just so good that I didn't listen…" Kayla let out another groan, then shook her head as she clutched at her stomach. "I feel horrible…"

"Unfortunately, I can't afford to waste any medicine on a simple stomach ache. You'll have to deal with it."

"I know, I know… urgh… can this get any worse?"

As if on cue, there was a sudden rumble of thunder from the clouds above. A moment later, and Pale felt the first drops of rain begin to fall. Kayla heaved an apologetic sigh.

"Sorry… I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's not your fault. You don't control the weather." Pale looked around, her eyes narrowing when she saw a thicket of trees off in the distance. "We will need to find cover and wait out the storm."

"We do? I would have thought that you'd want to keep moving."

"I do, but in an open space like this, lightning is a concern, not to mention that this is going to be a heavier rainfall than yesterday. I think we should head

for those trees over there, and hope the storm dissipates soon."

"Is that wise?" Kayla asked, fear creeping into her voice. "I mean… what if there are bandits-"

"Then we will deal with them ourselves." Pale hefted her shotgun, quickly checking the chamber to make sure it was loaded. Once she'd confirmed it was, she motioned for Kayla to follow her, and the two of them began moving towards the trees.

–

The heavens truly opened by the time they reached the edge of the treeline. Rain poured onto them, and lightning cracked across the sky. Kayla jumped a bit at every clap of thunder, but Pale continued on, scanning the area for any threats. Initially, she saw nothing, and they pushed into the small forest, but they'd only made it a few steps before she held up a hand, stopping Kayla.

"What is it-"

Pale hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth, silencing her. She brought a finger up to her own lips, signaling that they both needed to be quiet, and then motioned for Kayla to follow her, which she did. Leaves crunched underfoot as they walked, but the storm drowned out any noise they were making, allowing the two of them to get further into the forest.

As they drew deeper into it, Pale was able to hear it more clearly – laughter, echoing through the trees even over the storm. They kept walking, eventually coming to the edge of a small clearing. Pale peered through the trees, trying to get a better look at what she was hearing.

In the center of the clearing, there were several men gathered, all of them dressed similarly to the people who had assaulted Kayla's town – furs, leather, and bladed weapons. Next to her, Kayla gave a small whimper, which confirmed Pale's initial suspicions.

In addition to them, there was another person there, on their knees and dressed in a green cloak; underneath it, Pale was just able to make out a pair of black pants and a brown vest. Their front was flecked with blood, though it didn't appear to be from them. Pale could smell it in the air, however, which told her there were likely bodies nearby.

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"Well, well," one of the men, no doubt the leader of the bandits, said with a sneer. "What do we have here?"

"P-please…" the person on the ground said softly, their voice giving them away as female. "I'm just a merchant-"

"Yeah, we know. Why do you think we targeted your caravan?"

The woman fell silent. The man speaking to her hefted a battleax onto his shoulder, and a scowl crossed Pale's face.

"Merchants like to make deals, don't they?" the man said. "Then let's make a deal. Tell us where the rest of your caravan is, and we'll let you live."

The woman flinched. "I-I can't do that! I'd be condemning them all to death-"

"Damn right, you would."

The other bandits began to laugh at that, and Pale had to resist the urge to shoulder her weapon and start firing then and there. She held herself back, ultimately – saving this woman wasn't part of her mission, after all.

With that in mind, Pale went to turn and walk away, only for Kayla to suddenly reach out and grab her by the shoulder.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Away from here," Pale answered. "This isn't part of our mission. It makes no sense to risk our lives fighting these men to save her."

"We can't just leave her here! We have to do something!"

"Every minute we waste here is another minute we'll need to spend finding your father-"

"My father would never forgive me if he knew I let someone be murdered like this," Kayla growled. "If you don't want to help, then fine, I'll… do it myself."

Pale did not miss the tinge of fear that entered Kayla's tone. She frowned, her brow furrowing as she considered her options. She needed Kayla, at least at this stage; she couldn't let her get herself killed this easily.

Like it or not, she was going to have to step in.

"Very well," Pale conceded. "You take the two on the right, I've got the two on the left. Then we'll both take on the big one harassing the woman."

Kayla swallowed nervously, but nodded. Pale shouldered her weapon and clicked off the safety, then aligned the sights at the nearest bandit, a tall man with twin swords at his hips. Her finger began to pull through the trigger, and just before it broke, she called out to Kayla.

"Move."

Then the first shot rang out. The payload of buckshot screamed downrange, impacting against the man's head and bursting it with little resistance. The newly-headless body fell to the ground, dead, in a puddle of blood and gray matter.

Pale wasted no time. She pumped her shotgun to chamber a round, then took aim at the next man and fired again. Another wall of pellets made impact, and another head exploded. She racked her weapon again, but was completely unprepared for twin bolts of lightning to suddenly come arcing out of the forest and connect with the two men on Kayla's side of the forest. Both men fell like puppets with their strings cut, their rain-soaked bodies now blackened and burned beyond recognition.

The entire fight lasted just a few seconds. By the end of it, there was only one bandit left, the leader with the battleax. Kayla and Pale emerged from the treeline, both of them steadily closing in on the bandit. He grit his teeth, then darted behind the merchant girl and wrapped his hand around her neck to hold her head in place. His ax came clattering to the ground, replaced by a dagger, which he held to the side of her throat, just over her carotid artery.

"Don't fucking come any closer, or else," he threatened.

"Let her go," Pale demanded. "Unless you want to join the rest of your men."

The bandit barked out a laugh. "You really expect me to believe that you wouldn't just kill me anyway? I'm not an idiot. If I let her go, you'll have no reason to keep me alive anymore."

"And if you kill her, we'll have no reason to keep you alive, either. So it seems we're at an impasse."

"So it would seem." The bandit leader smirked. "But unfortunately for you two, these weren't my only men. The rest should be back from hunting in just a few minutes. So, the way I see it, you both can leave now and save yourselves, or if you're willing to gamble, stay and try to save her. But if I were you, I would think hard about those odds, because if you're wrong and you're not able to rescue her in time, then my men and I-"

Pale suddenly let her shotgun dangle and ripped her pistol out of its holster. Before the bandit leader could react, she pulled the trigger, sending a single .45 caliber slug downrange. The bullet made impact with his hand, forcing him to drop the knife. The man howled in agony as several of his fingers were destroyed by the hard-cast projectile, but Pale didn't give any time to dwell on it.

She hurriedly holstered her pistol, then raised her shotgun as the merchant girl scrambled away. The bandit leader glared at her, his hostage now gone, before Pale put several more 12 gauge shells into his head. The bandit staggered, but as Pale expected, that same red glow from the first bandit she'd killed enveloped him, keeping him upright. He began to lurch forwards, but only made it a few steps before Pale began to open up on him once more. She fired her shotgun until it was empty, then dropped it and drew her pistol, firing the rest of the .45 caliber bullets she had loaded in her weapon into the man, going for headshots; by the end of it, his head was little more than a few chunks of bone held together by thin strands of sinew.

The body finally fell to the ground and ceased all movement. Pale stared at it for a moment, just to confirm it was truly dead, but then began to reload her weapon. Next to her, Kayla suddenly fell to her knees and vomited.

"Take it easy," Pale said.

"Gods…" Kayla managed to gasp out between dry-heaves. "That's… eugh… I can't look…"

Pale finished reloading, then looked around for the girl. She seemed to have disappeared, however; there was no trace of her anywhere. A frown crossed her face.

"It would seem the girl has run off," she surmised.

"Yeah, I figured she would," Kayla muttered, rising to her feet. "That was the smart thing to do, to her credit."

"Agreed." Pale looked up, taking note of the fact that the thunder and lightning had ceased. "The rain appears to be tapering off. We should get moving

once more."

"Yeah, just… let me catch my breath."

"No time." Pale reached out and took Kayla by the hand, then began to lead her out of the forest. "We need to move now before the rest of the bandits come back."

Kayla didn't argue, even though Pale could tell the last thing she wanted was to move past the dead bodies they'd both just left behind.

The two of them made it out of the forest just in time, as they soon heard panicked shouting erupt from deeper within it. Without missing a beat, they both took off running as fast as they could in the opposite direction.