It took Maxine more than an hour to get the bandit stronghold in sight since her Shadow Wolves weren't as fast as she was. Fortunately that just made the conditions for her assault easier as more of the bandits had fallen asleep. Now that she was closer, Maxine scanned the stronghold more carefully to get an exact count of the bandits. There were 228 bandits in total, but that didn't account for the entire population. There were forty women inside. Some of which were having sex with the bandits. She doubted that they were given much choice in the matter. Maxine could feel her rage explosively rising. However she forced herself to remain calm. She was confident that she could decimate these bandits, but not if she fought all of them at once. She would need to do this right and thin out their numbers considerably before she fought them in an upfront manner. Otherwise if she couldn't finish this in one night, they may seek retribution on the villagers when they couldn't find Maxine.
Maxine formed her essence armor and stripped. Even as dark as it was, the color on her clothes would draw attention like a torch at midnight if she got any closer. She lamented that she didn't have any black clothing, but those were normally reserved for funerals. The white mask that was part of her essence armor might draw attention, but not as strongly as her colorful clothes would. After getting all of her clothes off, she placed them into her dimensional pouch and lashed it to her waist using her shadow essence before ordering her Shadow Wolves to merge into the three headed variety. There were thirteen of the Three-Headed Shadow Wolves and one normal one after they merged.
Maxine did her best to conceal her essence as she slowly approached the bandit stronghold walls. She looked up and saw torch bearing patrols along the top of the walls. They were walking in pairs, but the gaps between them were more than enough for Maxine to slip inbetween them using her greater speed. She immediately hid in some of the darker areas near the wall and stabbed several exploding essence darts into the stronghold wall. However she didn't detonate them. She was doing this in preparation for when the bandits discovered her. It would create an opening for her Shadow Wolves to enter the stronghold without having to force their way in through the front gate.
Maxine stealthily made her way to the baracks where the majority of the bandits were sleeping. Fortunately she noticed that none of the women were currently inside of it. She carefully placed more exploding essence darts around the whole thing and drilled holes into the walls using her essence. She placed several fragmentation essence darts into them. They were the same kind of essence darts that one of her students made by accident that had exploded like fragmentation grenade. She was planning on detonating all of the planted essence darts after getting into position. However she couldn't let them sit for very long before they lost their potency.
Maxine made her way towards the iron stage bandit leader. It would be best if she could perform a sneak attack on him and immediately detonate all of the essence darts that she placed earlier. She carefully used her spiritual sense to scan inside the room he was in. Unfortunately he wasn't alone and it wasn't with a woman either. He was having a meeting of some kind with his lieutenants. She couldn't understand what was said, but he sounded angry as he yelled at his men.
Maxine carefully used her essence to drill a hole near the floor that led into that room. She created alot of the fragmentation essence darts and shoved them carefully into that small opening that she made. Luck was with her as no one noticed her actions and she immediately found a nice hiding spot next to some water barrels. The bandit leader was still yelling at his men when she detonated all of the essence darts behind him and she started detonating the other ones that she had placed one after the other. Simultaneously she ordered her Shadow Wolves to charge through the gap in the stronghold walls and attack the bandits inside of them.
Maxine stayed hidden as she had no intention of coming out and fighting directly herself unless she had to. However she did create a shadow clone to make an appearance when her Shadow Wolves made it inside of the bandit stronghold and had it jump on the back of a Three-Headed Shadow Wolf. She didn't want them to search for her and thought it would serve as a good distraction while Maxine sniped a few of the less vigilent bandits.
The bandits that didn't get caught in the explosions were quickly gathering into a group and charged at her Shadow Wolves. She saw that three of them were giving orders and slowly formed some essence darts. She had her shadow clone mirror her actions. Maxine took careful aim and threw the essence darts at the three bandits coordinating the other bandits as her shadow clone did the same. To the untrained eye, it would look like her shadow clone had killed them when infact it was Maxine that dealt the killing blow. These actions were heavily draining on her essence, but it was worth it when she saw that the bandits were in disarray. They weren't a match for her Shadow Wolves without a capable leader to coordinate them.
Suddenly, the heavily injured bandit leader tore through the wreckage that used to be his dwelling. Maxine was surprised that he had survived the shredding effect of her fragmentation essence darts. He charged into the fight and Maxine ordered three of her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves to fight him while keeping her shadow clone away from him. She wanted to reinforce the idea that her shadow clone was the real attacker. However he apparently wasn't convinced as he ignored her shadow clone and he started looking all around himself as if he expected a sneak attack. Maxine knew that she couldn't snipe him now since he clearly that it was coming and would probably be able to dodge it if she tried.
However before her Shadow Wolves could get close enough to attack him, the bandit leader formed a ball of essence in his hand and threw it at her shadow clone. Maxine ordered the Three-Headed Shadow Wolf to move quickly so that the essence ball wouldn't hit her shadow clone. The essence ball barely missed her shadow clone and hit the stronghold wall. It quickly expanded in size to be able to enclose an entire man within it and faded away. The part of the wall that was encased within that essence ball was now gone. HOLY SHIT! That attack vaporized a chunk of the damn stronghold walls! I can't let him throw any more of those! When she saw him making that same pose again, Maxine quickly rescinded the orders to the three Shadow Wolves she sent to attack him. Because if he destroyed enough of her Shadow Wolves using that attack, she would have to abandon her assault on the bandit stronghold due to lacking the strength to finish them off.
Maxine got out of her hiding spot and threw several volleys of essence darts at him while she charged at him. He dodged most of the essence darts and deflected the rest of them with his sword. Fortunately it disrupted his ability to form that essence ball again and she was close enough that it was impossible for him to try it again. Maxine retrieved her Twilight Iron Blades from the dimensional pouch and slashed at him with her blades. Maxine was surprised not by that he was able to block her attack, but by the fact that his sword wasn't damaged. She slashed at him again and watched the weapon as their weapons clashed. She detected a thin layer of essence encasing the sword. He is leagues above his minions when it comes to using essence and when it comes to combat.
Every time Maxine attacked he blocked and he didn't seem capable of retaliating. She knew due to his injuries that he couldn't fight back properly. However she saw that he was becoming increasingly more aggitated as the fight progressed. It was no doubt due to the fact that his men were getting slaughtered by her Shadow Wolves and couldn't come to back him up. Maxine was pleased with these turn of events. All she had to do was to keep this stalemate up until her wolves eliminated all of the bandits and the fight would be over. There was no way this guy could win against her Shadow Wolves attacking him all at the same time. Maxine smiled beneith her mask, but she didn't drop her guard. In fact she intensified it greatly. If he was going to try something desperate, now would be the time.
Just as she expected, the bandit leader ignored his defense and attacked her in a violent rush. That forced Maxine to dodge each of his wild attacks. However she noticed several deep gouges appearing on the ground and the buildings behind her after each of his attacks. He knows how to project his essence too. This guy would be a very nasty opponent if I were pressed to fight him on even terms. However she wasn't overly concerned as the bandits were quickly being overrun by her Shadow Wolves. There were less than thirty of them left. She just had to keep avoiding his attacks for a few more seconds and she could let her Shadow Wolves swarm him.
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Unfortunately the bandit leader wasn't done with his bag of tricks just yet as the speed of his attacks instantly tripled. He unleashed an attack at her head. FUCK! Maxine dodged backwards to get outside of his reach while trying to parry the blow, but she was too slow as she watched as the edge of the blade got closer to her face. Her mask was shallowly hit. The force of the impact threw her to the side as her mask shattered. Fortunately that diverted most of the force behind that attack and she only felt like a giant palm was shoved into her face. She twisted mid-air and landed on her feet and skidded to a stop. God damn that was close! I seriously need to figure out how to make my speed surge like that. It would make a great escape technique. Maybe I should ask Patrick next time I see him. Fortunately she no longer needed to fight since her Shadow Wolves had finished the last of the bandits a moment after she was hit by that attack and she watched as her wolves swarmed him. She quickly ordered them not to kill him, but to restrain him. She had something special in mind for the bandit leader that led this group of murderous rapists.
Four of her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves were clamping down with their jaws onto each of the bandit leader's arms and legs. It looked painful, but the vile bastard didn't make a sound. Maxine slowly approached and looked him in the eye. His eyes were filled with both fear and surprise. She saw the reflection of her face in his eyes and remembered that she hadn't bothered to reform the mask of her essence armor. Maxine walked up to him and stepped on his crotch. She twisted that foot back and forth. He grit his teeth and his eyes became teary eyed, but he didn't scream in pain. Oh? Have a high pain tolerance to physical pain do we? I guess I will just have to switch to soul rending pain instead.
Maxine removed her foot and walked around to his head. She placed her hand onto his forehead and slashed into his mind with her spiritual sense. He finally released a bloodcurdling scream, but Maxine wasn't going to show him any mercy for the cruelties he has unleashed on others. She was fully intent on destroying his mind while simultaneously pillaging his mind for language and reading skills. This method would give her incomplete language and reading skills because pillaging his mind often destroyed as many memories as it gained, but it was better than nothing. The memories she found in his mind were absolutely revolting. Memories of rape, murder and theft were prevalent in his mind. His childhood memories were so faded that they may as well not exist. However there was some useful information in his head besides what she wanted. They called themselves the Shade race. The area that Maxine was currently in was called the Fallen Goddess Forest. This forest was part of a territory called Kenta and it had a large capital city shared the same name. The leader of this territory is at the peak of iron stage and had been at that stage for nearly a decade. No surprise there. I doubt anyone can breach that wall. I was stuck at it for two years before I died last time and I still have no idea how to breakthrough it to the next stage. Finally Maxine tried to find the memory for how he created that wierd essence ball, but for some reason, she wasn't able to find it. She started cursing internally. That knowledge must have been part of the memories that she destroyed when she had first attacked his mind.
However Maxine was satisfied since she had gotten some of the language and reading skills that she had wanted originally. Maxine looked at him. Amazingly the bandit leader was still alive, but he was now a drooling idiot. He had soiled himself as well. She had already destroyed him as a person, but still felt unsatisfied with his punishment. However it would serve no purpose to torment an idiot and Maxine simply beheaded him. She grabbed the dimensional pouch that was tied to his waist.
Maxine created shadow tendrils from her shadow and had them harvast all of the essence cores from the bandits as well as any dimensional pouches that they might have. That's more dimensional pouches than I expected these guys to have. They must have alot more people that know how to make these things. It only took a few minutes to retrieve them all. It seemed that only two other people had dimensional pouches. There were 213 bronze essence cores and one iron essence core. Huh? Why am I short twenty essence cores? Maxine searched again with her spiritual sense, but didn't find any more essence cores. However she did find over 20 bandits fleeing in different directions and the dead bodies of seven young women. Maxine immediately felt horrible. Killing evil bandits was one thing. Killing innocents that happened to be in her way was another. She knew it was bound to happen, but she had anticipated that no more than one or two getting killed in her attack. However she had killed seven innocents and it made her disgusted with herself for her carelessness.
Maxine ordered her shadow clone to help her gather the dead women. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she carefully laid them on the ground next to each other. These poor girls didn't deserve to suffer and die like this. She intended to bury them before heading back to the cave. However after gathering them all, Maxine felt eyes on her and looked towards the source of that feeling. There were 33 women of varying ages. They all looked terrified at first, but when they saw her face they all collapsed. They were crying tears of relief. She heard them call her by a title of some kind, but didn't understand it. She would ask the villagers about it another day if she could find the time.
Maxine turned back towards the dead girls. Maxine emptied out a dimensional pouch of everything except for books or medicinal herbs. Afterwards she placed the bodies of the dead girls inside of it. She didn't want to bury them anywhere near the place where they suffered so much.
Maxine looked back towards the weeping Shade women and ordered all, but one, of her Three-Headed Shadow Wolves to separate since she could tell they weren't in any condition to run the distance to the village that she was looking after. She banished all of her shadow clones. She got their attention and gestured to them to mount up onto her Shadow Wolves. As they got onto her Shadow Wolves, Maxine ran towards the storehouse. As she walked there, she looked through the dimensional pouches that she had retrieved from the dead bandits and removed anything that she couldn't use. She emptied one out entirely by putting it's contents into the other dimensional pouches, so that she could fill it with food. Inside of the warehouse was preserved meats and sacks of grain. Maxine put as much as she could into the emptied dimensional pouch.
Afterwards Maxine ran back outside and mounted onto the Three-Headed Shadow Wolf. She ordered all of her Shadow Wolves to head back towards the village. When the village was insight, Maxine had all of the women got off the Shadow Wolves and she threw one of them the dimensional pouch filled with food. She relayed how to get the items inside of it and made certain that at least one of them could do it. However before she could go back to the cave, Maxine needed to find a spot to bury those seven women. She ran into the woods and found a nice quiet spot. She dug the graves almost ten feet down since she didn't want anything to dig them up and placed each of the women in one. After filling up their graves with dirt, she said a quick prayer for their souls and headed towards the cave where she left the portal open at.
Silky hug tackled Maxine as soon as she came into the cave. She wondered why Silky hadn't come out of the cave to do that and noticed that the opening into the cave was only about two feet wide. However with her legs included, she was nearly three and a half feet wide and the abdomen of the spider portion of her body was a foot and a half wide. The cave entrance was just too narrow for Silky to get through it with any kind of speed. Maxine estimated that it would take Silky almost five minutes to squeeze through it. Maxine knew that Silky wouldn't be able to live inside her house for much more than a year before they had to have some double doors installed. Otherwise Silky would have too much trouble getting in and out of the house.
Maxine smiled and hugged Silky back before taking both of them back through the portal. She went over her gains from destroying that bandit stronghold. She gained 2 dimensional pouches, 213 bronze essence cores, 1 iron essence core, 12 strange medicinal herbs and two more books. She was going to try translating her collection of books using the incomplete knowledge she pillaged from the bandit leader when she had more time. However Maxine was happy that she finally had some breathing room now as she looked at all of the essence cores that she had. If she turned all of the bronze essence cores into Shadow Wolves, facing the next essence beast horde wouldn't be too tough of an ordeal as long as the military deals with the copper stage essence beasts. Fortunately all that she had to worry about now was completing that bow for Meagan and meeting up with Patrick and everyone else on thursday. She wondered if Emily or Amanda would want to come with her to see them.