An ear piercing screech rings out as the four twiglings burst out of the hedge and lunge for the nearest person, which happens to be Shara. Grant immediately drops me and goes for the giant sword on his back, a folly that will cost him his kneecap. The moment I touch the ground I spin around while disabling blend. I swing for his unprotected left knee as hard as I can. The poor man never saw it coming, with a loud crunch Grant’s leg gave out as my full power swing struck its mark, shattering his knee. The loud blood curdling scream he let out would make you think he was dying. To be fair I did just break his knee cap out of nowhere.

Shara is fairing no better against the twiglings. caught off guard she tried to use her bow to block the incoming claws while backpedaling. The result was her bow getting shredded and her tripping backwards and falling on her ass in a panic. Durin was halfway through pulling his daggers out when Grant screamed, causing him to turn around. The sheer terror on his face was a little amusing, ah hell I’m turning evil arn’t I? Well, maybe more sadistic than evil, but still not cool. Well, it’s do or die so I don’t have a choice. If any of these guys get away I’ll have the whole town barreling down on my ass.

A fireball flies past Shara and sails right into the twig like torso of twigling one, causing the creation to blow in half in a hail of splinters and fire. oh come on, I just built that yesterday! I order the twiglings to to attack Alex and cast shield spell on myself. Durin charges at me while screaming all sorts of nice things at me, Alex and Shara decide to join in from over his shoulder despite having the twiglings to deal with.

“You evil bitch, I’ll kill you” Durin screams.

“I knew you were too good to be true! We should have listened to Shara!” Alex screams before having to duck a twiglings attempt to gouge out his eyes.

“I knew I should have turned you over to the church! Why did I let you idiots talk me out of it!” Shara screams.

“I never wanted this but you tried to kidnap me!” I scream back.

“Fuck you!” Durin screams while taking a swing at my neck.

I hold my shield up and block the first dagger going for my neck but Durin follows up with a stab at my right arm with his second. A light tink sounding like metal hitting glass indicates that the attack was blocked.

Effects: Shield(37): 14:53

Durin immediately jumps back while I return in kind by taking a swing at his head. He ducks under it, then while still crouched low he makes a lunge attack trying to stab both his daggers into my stomach. I can’t react in time, the first one bounces off with the familiar tink sound but is followed up by the sound of shattering glass and a sharp, burning pain in my stomach.

Health: 639/650

Honestly all that little stunt did was piss me off. I swing my shield as hard as I can, hitting him in his right hand, and making him drop the dagger in said hand.

“Fucker” he curses at me.

Alex and Shara are fairing little better, twigling two is currently locked in combat with Shara, despite the fact I ordered all of them to go after Alex. She probably stabbed it and took it’s agro, probably for the best honestly, I don’t need her stabbing me in the ass while Durin is trying to gut me. Alex on the other hand is getting chased around by twiglings three and four. He can’t get any kind of opening to cast a spell or even counter attack with the dinky little dagger he’s holding.

“Durin, need some help over here!” Alex yells as he runs through another set of bushes.

“Kinda busy!” Durin yells.

I recast the shield spell on myself and give my wound a look over. It’s bleeding but not heavily, I’ll deal with it later. I turn my attention back to Durin, only to find that he’s taken the opportunity to make a beeline to help Shara. I bolt after him, but as I’m about to give the order for two to turn around and defend itself I feel the network retract out from under it. It freezes for a moment when the network is pulled out from under it, and in that moment Shara and Durin tear the poor thing apart. I don’t know if that also happened to three and four because I can’t feel them on the network anymore but hopefully they didn’t get fireballed by Alex. Now I’m out two twiglings and have two angry people, both higher level than me and one actually competent in melee trying to murder my ass. I need to thin their numbers quick before I get turned into a prize worth shit tons of gold.

I change targets to Shara, but instead of swinging as I got closer I just straight up charged at her with my shield held in front. She doesn’t pick up my intentions until it’s too late and she is wide eyed with surprise as I slam into her full force. The impact manages to knock her over, making her drop her weapon and leaving her at my mercy, or lack thereof. Before she can recover I set upon her, swinging my mace as hard as I can repeatedly. The sound of Durin trying to attack me from behind rings out, so I jump to the other side so I turn around and take a swing at him, forcing him to make space. Then I turn my attention back to Shara and give her one more hard whack with the mace. A disgusting cracking sound and an extra loud scream from Shara indicates that I just hit something important, probably broke a bone.

“No!” Durin screams.

The bastard then gives me another hard jab from behind, which results in the sound of shattered glass and a sharp hot pain running through my back.

Health: 593/650

I reflexively stumble forwards to get away, ultimately tripping over the now disabled Shara and falling to the ground. I immediately flip over, ignoring the pain in my back and throw my shield up just in time to block another stab by Durin. Oh boy this dude looks pissed, maybe I should have gone for him first after all. I give him a good kick to the shin, which makes him shout in surprise and jump back, giving me just enough room to get to my feet before having to block another slash with my shield. I return the favor by swinging for his ribs. He tries to parry but instead has his daggers knocked from his hand by the force of my swing. Almost instantly the dude does a roll to the side and takes off running into the woods. I don’t follow after three steps. He’s trying to draw my attention, with no weapons he can’t hurt me, for now.

I turn around and start running towards the shrieking of the remaining twiglings. If I can finish Alex off I can get out of here scot free, if Durin is running back to town it will take him at least five minutes of running there and five back. Plenty of time for the pod to finish packing and me to skip out as long as Alex can’t keep me pinned here. Before I can break the final layer of bushes between me and the fighting a large arm comes out from behind a tree and clotheslines my ass at full speed. Before I can fully register what just happened Grant grabs me by the neck with his left hand, picks me up, and slams me into the tree while squeezing as hard as he can.

Health: 583/650

The wound on my back explodes in pain and I try to cry out, only I can’t because he’s strangling me. In his right hand I see his giant ass sword, trying to line up to skewer me to the tree. I don’t know when or how Grant got up but I’m pissed off enough to kick his ass now either way. I drop my shield and mace and reach up to grab his fingers. I yank them apart, freeing myself and dropping back to the ground. Major problem now is I’m unarmed and this dude is within easy strike distance, all I have left are my teeth. So I give him a huge toothy grin, showing off my razors in all their pearly white glory. He immediately jumps back, clearly not to keen on the idea of me trying to take a chunk out of him, I wonder what people taste like? No, bad thoughts!

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I shake my head to clear away that line of thinking, then return my attention to Grant while recasting shield spell on myself.

Mana: 1608/2958

Thank god I had full mana going into this fight, because those shield spells are fucking expensive. Grant stands there, sizing me up as I pick my shield and mace back up, but he doesn’t move. Instead he takes the opportunity to start talking.

“My whole career I saved up for that health potion, didn’t think I’d need to use it so soon.” Grant says.

“Yea well, life comes at you fast. One minute you're minding your own business trying to get by, the next some jackboots are trying to haul you off to participate in a witch hunt for yourself.” I say.

“Yea, one second you are trying to help the new girl keep out of trouble, the next she’s revealed she is a monster and is trying to slaughter your whole team.” Grant says.

“Hey, none of your friends are dead.”

“Not for your lack of trying.”

“Please, I could have kept clubbing Shara until she was a fine red mist. What does it matter anyway, all you want is that jackpot for bringing in my head.”

“Hard to disagree that it’s a nice temptation, but I’d have to say my motives mainly revolve around keeping my team alive.”

“So, why are you standing there talking while your friends are laying around in agony or getting chased by angry bushes with legs?”

“Alex can handle himself, Shara won’t die that easily, and I trust Durin to make the right call.”

“So you’re just stalling for time? Ironic, that’s what we’re both after.”

That comment made him scowl and contemplate for a second, then he opened his mouth again. I take the opportunity to start healing the wounds on my chest and back. The back one is hard to reach but I can manage it just barely.

“Shit, you’re trying to heal.” Grant says.

“Nice guess captain Einstein, but try again.” I say.

“Grant help!” Alex yells.

Alex comes crashing through the bushes behind me, still being chased by the twiglings. He stumbles but recovers and runs straight for Grant, apparently not noticing me between him and his team mate. So I kindly inform him of my presence by punching him in the gut as hard as I can when gets close enough. He immediately folds over my fist like a piece of paper, then I give him a follow up to the jaw just to be safe. The cracking of his jaw was satisfying and watching him collapse out cold a moment later was even better.

“No!” Grant screams.

Grant then charges at me, angry looking as all hell and getting ready to dice me to ribbons with his sword. I think I’ll let the twiglings deal with him for a second, I have an idea.

“Deal with him.” I say while pointing at Grant.

The twiglings both jump on him, literally in twigling three’s case. I grab Alex by the collar and slap his ass across the face to wake him up. He gasps as he seems to partially come to but seems dazed, so I slap him across the face again. That gets him to focus and realize his situation, so he starts to struggle. I grab him by the neck and squeeze a little to make my point, then I bend down and whisper into his ear.

“Do as I say or I’ll rip what’s left of your throat out after turning it into paste.”

He freezes and I yank him to his feet. Then I put my right arm around his neck and use my left hand to pin his arms behind his back, the strength difference between man and monsters is quite frankly ridiculous. I should have done something like this from the start, but hindsight is always twenty twenty.

I turn and bring Alex to face Grant, using Alex as a shield between myself and the fighting. To my surprise Shara has gotten up and wandered over here, but for now is staying out of the fighting. Her left forearm is dangling at an angle it probably shouldn't be. Grant finally manages to make an opening against the onslaught of claws and strikes twigling three in the leg, causing it to collapse, but not die. I order twigling four back to me while Grant delivers a finishing strike to the downed twigling.

“Back to me, now!” I yell.

Twigling four immediately abandons combat and runs back over to my side. Thank god they take verbal commands, otherwise my ass might be grass right now. Shara shuffles her way up next to Grant and proceeds to give me a glare so fierce you’d think she was trying to burn my soul away, probably is. I don’t know how much longer I need but it can’t be more than five minutes. So I’ll buy that much time then get the hell out of here.

“So, it should go without saying, but you idiots seem to have a track record of stupid so I’ll say it anyways. No funny business, or else.” I declare while giving Alex a little shake.

Grant and Shara seem unsure of what to do. I’m sure they want to save him, but are in no position to do so. Only thing I think I need to worry about is Durin, he is a rogue after all.

“So, what do you want?” Grant asks.

“Didn’t we already discuss this? You can’t have that short a memory can you?” I ask.

“Let him go you fucking cunt!” Shara screams.

“Well aren't you just wonderful to talk to, maybe let the one in your group with the brain cells to rub together do the talking Shara.” I say.

“Alright Nina, you win. Now what are you after?” Grant asks.

“Fine, I just want to mind my own business and live my life.” I say.

“Bullshit, all you want to do is get loose so you can get more opportunities to kill people!” Shara says.

“Alright Shara, name one person I’ve killed so far. Come on, give at least a vague description.” I say.

The resulting silence is very telling. Then she opens her mouth again.

“You attacked us first fucker, lured us right into an ambush.” Shara says.

“I only attacked you after you tried to kidnap me.” I say.

“And your puppets just happened to be waiting?”

“Yea, because this is the equivalent of my house. You fucking asshat for brain!” I scream at Shara.

“Fuck you!”

How mature, the good news is that Shara is out of the fight. The bad news is she is still managing to piss me off. The problem is Grant, he will definitely kill me, or at least try if I let Alex go. I think I can out run him, unless he has another trick up his sleeve like the healing potion bullshit. I didn’t even notice he stopped screaming, just surprise ass kicking. I inspect his leg and posture more thoroughly, the leg seems to be fine, like I never even smashed it with a mace. Yea I don’t want to fight him and find out he has another healing potion stashed away.

“Alright Nina, I’ll make you a deal. You let Alex go, we let you leave” Grant says.

Does this guy think I’m stupid? Why the hell would I give up my only leverage.

“Um no, why would I agree to that right now?” I ask.

My question is met with silence for a few moments, then he speaks again.

“You're not giving me much to work with here Nina.” Grant says,

Wow, the lion, the witch, and the audacity of this bitch. This guy seriously wants to play me like I’m stupid, and why has he started calling Nina again? He should clearly see my name as Petal right now. Trying to communicate with my human side maybe, or something like that? I don’t know, I not a physiologist or whatever deals with that. I look over to twigling four to order it to go look for Durin when Grant calls out to me again.

“Alright Nina, if you let Alex go we’ll give you a five minute head start before calling for help.”

Temping but I think I’ll keep my current insurance policy for the time being. I turn my head again to order twigling four but Grant interrupts me again.

“Alright, fifteen minutes, and we’ll let your pet bush thing watch us.”

OK, something is off here. He’s desperate, is Alex more injured that I thought? He has some nasty cuts from the twiglings and his jaw is definitely broken, but he seemed stable even after I broke his jaw. Maybe adrenaline is wearing off finally? But why would he start trying to get Alex back now if that was the case? No, something else is wrong, this dude needs attention like a needy child. It’s almost as if he wants me looking at him. Wait, where's the rogue!?

I pivot in place and spin around in a moment of panic, dragging Alex along and keeping him pinned in front. Just in time to see a dagger sheathed in a dark ominous coating coming down. It happened so fast, one moment the dagger was coming down, the next Alex let out a gasp then went limp in my arms.

Defeated: Human(Level: 27, Fire mage - Level: 26)