Chapter 22: Knife Fight
Lupy’s new employer tested her combat abilities at length. She didn’t mind attacking inanimate objects with her axes, but sparring using training weapons was less comfortable. She only normally ever fought using her axes.
Still, she was told her combat strength was indeed impressive for her age. When asked how she had become strong so young, Lupy kept it vague and just pointed to the fact that she and her friends had been adventuring a lot. Her examiner mumbled that adventuring didn’t explain her wild and aggressive side, but Lupy didn’t think anything of it.
After the testing, Anne confirmed Lupy’s availability for the next day and then invited her back.
“When you get here, I’ll walk you around and introduce you to a buncha folks. These are places we want to keep safe from would-be thieves, thugs, or rivals. How you react should depend on what they’re doing and how many there are. Oh, and the taverns and other places with food will be happy to share snacks as you patrol around.
“Is there anything else I need to do?” asked Lupy, wanting to fully understand her responsibilities.
“For now, not really. After you’ve had a chance to learn the area and help keep it safe, more opportunities may come along. For now, you only need to focus on the areas I show you and making sure the locals and their businesses are able to go about their day safely.”
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Bandit managed to get some sleep despite the awkward situation she was in. If her target and his friends were going to make a move, it seemed they were going to wait until the party journeyed north. It made sense. Why capture her when they could trick her into walking with them on her own two feet?
After a light breakfast, the group of six departed. Along the way, they made a token effort to gather the local flora, but it seemed to Bandit like they were just going through the motions rather than seriously trying to maximize their profit for the mission.
Due to the risk of encountering more people at the border to the Nar Union, Bandit gave some serious thought to ambushing her traveling companions. Her nervousness was understandable, but she still didn’t have enough evidence to show that her target was guilty of anything serious. Also, she didn’t know what involvement these companions of his may have had in his alleged past crimes.
Relying on her superior level and training as well as her intent to remain vigilant, Bandit played dumb and followed along. As a Guild agent, even a fledgling one, she felt she needed to have confidence in her ability to pull off amazing feats, just as Thaw was apparently famous for.
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DM mostly alternated between watching Bandit and Lupy.
“What the heck has Lupy gotten herself into?” he wondered aloud but to himself. “She seems to have joined some type of organized crime family. Well, maybe that’s good.”
All the other girls had ended up associating themselves with organizations, groups, or people that DM wanted to spy on. Having Lupy participate in the activities of the local crime family or underground or whatever they were could be beneficial. Of course, DM would need to keep a close eye on her, like he does with Bandit, to make sure she doesn’t end up ‘in way over her head.’
That Anne woman with the eagle features was smooth, and she seemed to sweet talk Lupy into believing her work was every bit as altruistic as a traveling healer’s. Based on Anne’s recent comments about more opportunities becoming available in the future, DM suspected that the organization wanted to eventually use Lupy for more aggressive assignments than simply defending the neighborhood.
DM was most interested in what work Lupy would be provided, and why. Given the nature of Lupy’s new job, combined with the fact that she was so young, DM suspected that Lupy wouldn’t be provided much information on the ‘why’ of her future work. The way Anne used the offer of snacks to further entice Lupy into entering this line of work also ticked DM off a bit.
In his past life, DM always found movies involving gangs or the mafia to be scary because of how angering the wrong person could lead to a large number of people wanting you dead. The same thing could possibly happen to Lupy. Of course, he wasn’t going to let that happen.
Not wanting to leave Bandit isolated, he abruptly switched his attention to her party’s trek north towards the border. He wasn’t sure what Bandit’s plan was here. She seemed to be waiting to find proof that her target was responsible for the disappearances in the capital.
The only way she would find proof would be if her party suddenly turned on her and blabbed about everything or if they encountered other people. DM didn’t like either option. Her traveling companions would likely only reveal their true intentions once they had physically incapacitated her. DM could probably rescue her from that situation, but that was far from ideal, given her mission, the nature of her work, and the likelihood that Thaw was observing her from afar.
If they encountered other people, DM would need to step in if Thaw didn’t. Bandit was individually stronger than the people she was currently with, and she likely had the element of surprise since they thought her no more than a newbie adventurer, but she couldn’t take on a huge group all by herself.
Things were probably going to move quickly, and DM would need to make the right call.
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Along most of the border between the Holy State of Whites and the Nar Union, the line separating the two nations was not clearly marked. Bandit was familiar with where the border was along the route to the Upper Gordu Dungeon since Rufus’s party had pointed it out to them. Also, there was marker where the three nations, including the Zarakhelese Empire, met at a single point.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Here, much further west, they continued their northward journey without mentioning if and when they crossed the border. By Bandit’s estimation, they must have entered the Union by now. She refrained from asking for confirmation because she thought that risked giving away her intentions, or concerns, to an extent.
They passed through several plains before joining up with a road through a rougher patch of terrain. Shortly after, a man stepped out from behind cover. A rare sight from Bandit’s perspective, he was a dwarf.
“Just one?” The dwarf’s voice was deep and he spoke in a similar manner as Thaw.
“Y—Yes sir,” Bandit’s target replied.
“If you keep bringing them one-at-a-time we’ll be here all year.”
Bandit noticed that this dwarf’s level was similar to Thaw’s. She suddenly didn’t like her odds. Had her plan entirely backfired? She’d play along, at least for the moment.
“I—It’s hard to get several at once without raising suspicion…”
“Oi, are you sure you’re not just lazy?”
“O—Of course not!”
“Tis impressive how you always get them to walk with you all the way here, but yer pace is way too slow,” said the dwarf.
“It’s the best we can do…”
“Well, yer eye for quality has been good, at least. Anyway, you’ll probably be suspected soon if ya aren’t already, so we’ll need to cut it off here. Restrain her.” The dwarf turned his back on Bandit’s group.
“I’m sorry about this,” Bandit was told, although she found it hard to believe. Just as the other guys moved in to grab her weapons and bind her with rope, they turned in the direction of a new voice.
“Crossing the border into the Holy State is understandable, but did you really think it was wise to target the Guild, laddy?”
The dwarf spun back around to see a female dwarf standing next to Bandit.
To everyone else’s eyes, Thaumaturge had literally climbed out of Bandit’s shadow. Even Bandit was shocked by this.
“The miracle woman…” the male dwarf muttered.
“Oh? You know me? Funny, I don’t know you.”
“That’s because I’m good at my job, bitch.”
Thaw did not look pleased but kept her tone even. “And who had the honor of giving you that job?”
“So the stupid ones end up hired by the Guild, do they? I’m obviously not telling ye shit.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Thaw replied. “You just revealed plenty.”
“Ye bitch…”
Thaw ambled towards the dwarf, completely ignoring Bandit and the guys she was still surrounded by.
“Just how stupid are ye?” he asked rhetorically. “You lot, take that lass hostage.”
Before the guys could react, Thaw added her own statement. “Nina, they’ve been selling our adventurers into slavery. They won’t hesitate to kill, if needed. Neither should you.”
“Hmph.” The male dwarf drew two daggers. Thaw did the same.
The five humans must not have taken Thaw’s warning seriously. Most of them didn’t even brandish their weapons, likely because they expected to simply surround and overpower her before tying her up and using her to threaten Thaw.
The moment Thaw lunged forward to engage the other dwarf, Bandit’s training kicked in and she sprang into action herself. Sliding her one-handed crossbows from her upper arms down to her wrists, she released one poisoned bolt each into the two attackers that were closest to her.
“What did she—“
The motion was so sudden and fluid that her opponents didn’t immediately figure out what had even happened. Practicing that technique thousands of times, as Thaw had required, finally paid off.
Bandit’s shots were aimed at the center-of-mass, so she knew the two who were struck by the bolts weren’t incapacitated yet. Soon, the poison would take effect and they’d be on the ground writhing in pain, but the bolts themselves didn’t actually do that much damage. The crossbows were quite miniaturized, after all.
Needing to take advantage of the confusion, Bandit drew her dagger, also poisoned, lowered her stance, and spun while crouched, passing through the open legs of the tall guy next to her. Although the tall guy had already been poisoned by a crossbow bolt, the tip of her dagger caught the inside of his leg as she passed through, applying additional poison.
Catching the next closest guy off guard, she raised her dagger with her right hand and launched a 45-degree descending cut from the right. As it screamed towards a gap in the guy’s chest armor, he drew his sword and frantically raised it to block. Succeeding in deflecting the dagger, his sword was left out of position to his side.
Meanwhile, Bandit swung her dagger to the left and up in one continuous motion, reversing its course for a backhanded descending 45 degree cut mirroring her first attack. Due to her smaller weapon, she was much quicker at getting into position than the guy was at bringing his sword over to block. This time, she drew some blood and, more important, applied some poison.
Remembering what Thaw had drilled into her, Bandit transitioned into a motion that would dodge an attack from behind. After all, her enemies would realize she was most susceptible just as she was finishing her attack against another. Lunging to her left, she landed on her hands, one an open palm and the other still closed around her dagger, and she completed her sideways gymnastic maneuver to land back on her feet. She heard the woosh of another bladed weapon cutting through the air she had just escaped.
The two guys who had been struck at the beginning by bolts were repositioning to assault along with the others, but they both stumbled, suddenly unsteady on their feet. Based on their surprise, they likely hadn’t even realized they’d been poisoned by Bandit’s attacks. Their impairment also came as a surprise to their allies, hampering the group’s synergy.
As the next combatant took a big horizontal swing with his sword, Bandit jumped back in a handspring, avoiding the slash. After pushing off the ground with her hands, while completing her backward flip, in a well-practiced motion, she pulled a hidden dagger up from a left ankle holster and threw it at the guy who was still out of position. He didn’t even realize he was being attacked until the dagger was buried into the front of his upper thigh.
Bandit sheathed her main dagger, likely confusing the few opponents who were still lucid. Little did they know she was simply re-applying poison to the blade.
Another opponent pointed his staff towards Bandit and began casting a spell, despite being isolated and unguarded due to the flow of battle. Remembering the mantra to rush casters when they’re unguarded, she charged and drew her dagger, plunging it up into his cheek to break his spellcasting.
The guy who took a 45 degree cut a few moments prior was suddenly down on one knee, reducing the number of opponents to two, although the remaining pair were both already poisoned as well. Not wanting to push her luck, Bandit spun and kicked the back of the mage’s knee and then fled further in that direction. The guy with the dagger wound in his upper thigh attempted to pursue but quickly fell victim to the poison as well. Then the mage collapsed to a crouch.
Turning her attention to Thaw, Bandit saw the two dwarves in one hell of a knife fight.