Chapter 24: Bar Fight
Thaw gestured for Bandit to approach as the dwarf sat down on a rock and imbibed two small bottles, most likely to counteract poison and heal her.
As Bandit stepped past the five victims of her own poison, she noticed they were all still incapacitated. Even so, she kept her guard up. Who’s to say one of them didn’t receive an antidote from the male dwarf previously? If the guy pretended to be out of it while secretly recovering from Bandit’s poison, he could launch a devastating surprise attack later. Ideally, she and Thaw would tie everyone up, but Thaw did not seem ready for that.
“How are you?” Thaw asked, not yet standing up.
“Okay.”
“That was some good stuff. I have to ask, though. What would you have done if I wasn’t around?”
“I… I don’t know…”
“Well, you kept calm under pressure and took, basically, the ideal actions, so I won’t complain. Still, I need to explain to you why you needed my help.”
Bandit nodded.
“As y’might’ve guessed, this was a test, of sorts. I’ll be needing to go back to the capital for a while, and I wanted to see your progress. Your methods’r a bit rough, but you did what you were supposed to.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Yep. I wouldn’t go so far as to say you’re fully trained, but you’re at a level now where I can leave you for a while to gain experience. Still, the reason why you ended up face to face with that bastard over there is because you lacked specific training.” Thaw gestured towards the deceased male dwarf.
Bandit couldn’t see herself defeating a guy like that any time soon. Her eyes could hardly even keep up with all those dagger movements. “I’ll be able to beat a guy like that?”
“Eventually? I think so. But that’s not what I mean. Your lack of training limited your options in dealing with these five idiots.” Thaw now gestured towards Bandit’s handiwork.
“What should I have done?”
Thaw smirked. “The reason why you needed to let them lead you all the way here, where they had strong reinforcements waiting for them, was because you had no way to get them to talk.”
“Like, control them?”
“Control, eh? Not my style, but I won’t say it’s impossible. No, what I’m talking about is, once again, interrogation.”
“Oh…”
“In addition to control, which you mentioned, there are several ways to get people to talk. The one I specialize in is interrogation. Another is manipulation, but you’ll need to develop that one on your own. Judging from your interaction with your target, that’s the one you’re best suited for, honestly.”
Bandit suspected she’d have unusual access to control methods in the future, but she kept that to herself.
“Nina, you had enough to go off of before crossing the border to corner these bastards, force a confession, and complete your mission. When you’re a little older, I plan to teach you my methods to supplement your own.”
“You won’t teach me now?”
“Hah!” Thaw swung one of her arms around in a forward circle, loosening up her shoulder and perhaps checking her condition. “When I was your age, I was ready. Not just for killing. I learned nice and early about how to torment others. That’s why I’m the way I am.”
Bandit wasn’t sure if Thaw was bragging or not, but Thaw soon clarified.
“You’re not as dark or demented as I was. You’re not ready to learn that part of my craft yet, but it’s all right.” Thaw hopped up and stepped over to the closest of the five incapacitated young men. “I’ll teach you when you’re older. If I’m still around.” Thaw placed her foot over the guy’s wound and slowly leaned on it, causing him to regain some alertness and thrash meaninglessly.
“What should I do now?” said Bandit.
“Nina, when you’re back, focus on getting stronger. With time, you’ll probably become a better-rounded agent than I am.”
“Just get stronger?”
“Yeah. I won’t be there, so you’ll be listening to that damn Guild Master. Just remember, I trained you, and you really work for the capital branch, even if that fool doesn’t realize it. We’ll communicate just like I taught you.”
“What will you do with these guys?”
“Obviously, I’m going to question them. That dwarf over there was, shall I say, fully trained? Even I would struggle to get any useful information out of him. These five are not so fortunate. I’ll send word to you later if there’s anything you need to know.”
“What will you do after you, uh, interrogate them?”
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“So many questions. You really should keep that in check.”
“I’m—“
“Nina, I’m headed back to the capital after this. When I get what I need out of them, I’ll bring them with me. You hurry on back to the Twin Cities now. Like I said, you’re not ready to see what’s going to happen here.”
Suddenly, Bandit felt just the tiniest bit of sympathy for these guys. Not wanting to anger Thaw, she turned on her heel and begin the solo journey home.
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DM was fairly sure Thaw hadn’t noticed, but he surreptitiously spawned a tentacle and applied infect to one of the guys Bandit defeated during the high-paced dagger battle. As Bandit departed the area DM decided, against his better judgment, to observe Thaw’s activities. He suspected she wasn’t being entirely truthful.
Unlike the male dwarf, these guys were so pathetic that Thaw didn’t even need to do much to them. They sang like birds. Honestly, it was so pathetic Bandit probably could have stuck around without being traumatized. All Thaw needed to do was suggest some of the awful things she was going to do to them and they broke down.
That was better for DM as well. He felt a little less concerned that witnessing disturbing things would negatively impact him when compared to Thaw’s young apprentice, but he still didn’t really want to witness extended sessions of enhanced interrogation techniques in use. Or screaming. He didn’t like screaming.
Thaw also seemed to have a bit of a bad habit. When she interrogated people, she revealed some information herself. Some of it was strategic, but the rest was probably her guilty pleasure as she took advantage of the fact that she was alone. Maybe it was some type of a coping mechanism, but it backfired a bit in this case because DM was actually watching her.
In her questioning, she first focused on their prior activities. As suspected, this group had worked together, under that dwarf, to capture several girls from the Holy State and send them up into the Union. Thaw didn’t say it, but DM could tell she was a bit frustrated that there was no good way to recover the other victims. Slavery was legal in the Union, and the powers-that-be would look the other way if victims were obtained from over the border. Thaw likely couldn’t pursue the matter further without coordinating her efforts through the capital, where she was headed next.
Thaw asked the men why they were taking such a risk trying to capture multiple girls when it was obvious the Guild or others would catch on to them sooner or later. She was told they purposefully left the capital for that very reason, and they planned to retreat entirely after targeting a few girls from the Twin Cities and surrounding villages.
That made sense. They just underestimated how quickly the Guild would catch on and take action. Still, something was off. Why would they carry out such a risky mission? Were they suddenly desperate for money for some reason?
Of course, Thaw asked about it. These younger guys didn’t know much. Piecing together the small bits they had heard from their dwarf supervisor, the slave market was going to crash soon due to some big events, and they were rushing to capitalize while they still could. Thaw pressed further but they truly didn’t know anything else about it. Each member of this group had failed miserably in their prior pursuits and were all being given a second chance by the dwarf and his employer, whoever it was. They didn’t know.
After pressing them for more information and barely learning anything, Thaw seemed to be finished. “Thank you laddies for answering my questions.”
Having regained some strength, the five guys looked back and forth at one another, surprised to receive such a polite thank you from the woman who had been interrogating them and held their fates in her hands. One of them spoke for the group. “So we’ll follow you to Ereacht now?”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“B—But you told Nina that we were going to—“
“Yall saw my shadow-walk, didn’t you?”
The young man paused, not sure how best to answer the question.
“I doubt that’s something yall wouldn’t notice.”
The guys tensed up and readied themselves to turn and run, not that they were likely to get far given their current physical condition and the level of their opponent.
“Oh, and tell us all again how my apprentice’s tail felt.”
Bandit’s original target panicked and fled. The other four, not as clear on what had set him off, decided that was their cue to leave as well. At first Thaw didn’t even bother pursuing as she kept talking.
“Only an eight? Softness, was it?” She earned no reply. “I think I’ll actually enjoy this one…” she muttered under her breath.
DM lost sight of her for a few moments as the guy he had infected scattered in a different direction from the others. Soon, Thaw came back into view. The guy yelled over his shoulder that she had lied, to which she called back that there’s a first time for everything. Somehow, DM didn’t buy it. The guy didn’t make it much further.
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Lupy entered the assigned inn and approached the counter. She could hear a commotion coming from nearby as the clerk stepped away, returning with a middle-aged woman.
“You’re here! Go, put a stop to that!” She pointed in the direction of all the noise.
Not having time to ask for more information, Lupy stomped into the next room, annoyed that her snack was delayed. Turning a corner, she noticed a bunch of teenagers brawling. A quick scan with her secret sensing ability showed that none of them were particularly leveled. They seemed to be just local punks fighting over something stupid. Whatever it was, they were destroying the place in their violence.
She drew both of her axes. Of course, she knew she shouldn’t cut anyone down unless absolutely necessary. Probably, none of these guys could even defeat her in a hand-to-hand fight, no matter how much bigger than her they were. Still, she felt most comfortable using her axes.
Approaching the first of her dozen or so targets from behind, just the guy who happened to be closest, she pushed the eyes of her axes into the back of the guy’s knees, causing him to stumble. Pulling her axes back, she swung, just as he was standing up again, slamming the butt of her axes into the guy’s, well, butt. He actually rose off the floor a bit as he let out a shrill shriek.
Before he even landed, Lupy stepped over to her next target who still hadn’t noticed her. She repeated the same sequence. As things progressed, the unruly guys started to notice her and fight back. One swung at her with a wooden stool. Another attempted to tackle her in a big bear hug. In each case, she managed to avoid by leveraging her superior AGI stat. Then, the young men succumbed to her counterattacks which she had honed on the battlefield against real monsters.
After just a couple of minutes, she had every culprit lying on the floor, rubbing their behinds and whimpering. As one of the guys rolled onto his back, Lupy sat down on his chest cross-legged while holding both axes menacingly in front of his face.
“Why were you fighting?” she asked, sounding innocent enough.
“W—We weren’t fighting!” he denied.
“Really?” Lupy lowered her axes a bit closer to the guy’s face.
“Yes! We were just leaving! We wouldn’t fight here!”
The other guys, taking the hint, forced themselves to stand and made for the door. It seemed whatever disagreement they were having was settled because they were suddenly cooperating, at least to the extent necessary to make their exit.
As the last guy, other than the one Lupy was sitting on, left the room, Lupy asked another question. “Who’s going to pay for the damage?”