"I should've been a baker" groaned Ramza.

He could be in a bakery right now kneading bread, feeling the warmth of the stone oven and smelling that yeasty delectable aroma.

Instead his here in the middle of dartwood forest running in the darkness of the night.His arms terribly bleeding and his ears ringing.

He can still hear the clicks and bangs from the magical metal sticks that shoots fast moving steel and giant metal beast's that has long snouts that spits exploding iron spheres.

In 5 years serving as a magician in the army, this is the first time he felt clueless and oblivious of what is happening.

He quickly scurries to a nearby boulder holding his bleeding arms. The mix of pain and frustration could be seen in his green emerald eyes.

Looking left and right he leaned and sat down.

The image of his comrades getting blown off and getting their head pierced was playing over and over inside his head. The smell of burned corpses and blood still lingers from his nostrils.

How could this happen?

Who are this masked monsters?

What kind of weapons are they using?

This question keep popping in his mind.

He was so ingrossed in his thoughts that the blood coming from his right arm is now dripping on the ground making a small puddle.

He lift his arm slowly, wincing from the pain. There was a small hole in his forearm about the size of a small nut.The mere sight of it almost made ramza throw up. The wound was worse than he thought, it went through skin muscle and bones.

He took out his staff from his back using his left arm and hover it beside the wound.

Chanting the basic spell in healing he knows.

"Mend"

The bones, skin, and muscles slowly regenerate until the wound completely closes.

The pain still lingers but it's better than getting an infection.

He breathes in deep, inhaling the combined smell of burning wood, blood and metal.

He could feel his fast beating heart from his neck and his hands was terribly shaking. Pretty normal after having a close encounter with death.

If he hadn't have conjured that barrier fast enough he would have been fertilizers for the grass and trees.

He closed his eyes and starts to breath slowly, trying to control his nerves.

After a steeling himself he stood up and scans the area if someone followed him.

The sudden snap of a nearby twig made ramzas body jolt.

Pressing his body closely to the boulder he waited. He can hear footsteps slowly closing in.

After that a moment of silence.

The only noise he can hear now is his own breath and rapidly beating heart.

Suddenly a sillhouete emerges from the trees and thick shrubbery. The figure was holding the dreaded weapon that almost wiped out their entire army.

Ramza quickly points his staff and gathers mana on the tip of it. "Fus!". A gust of concentrated wind hits the mysterious figure hurtling it towards a nearby tree. It let out a high pitched groan.

It immediately got up and tries to reach out for it's weapon which has been flown several inches from it.

Ramza gripped his staff tightly chanting another spell. He lifts up his left arm and points his open palm on the downed enemy.

"Spirits of the forest help me bind my enemies". Ramzas hands glowed green.

The nearby vines and tree roots starts shaking. It lashes out at the figure and start wrapping itself around it's body. It is wearing a helmet that completely covers its face. 

The more the  figure struggled the more the vines and roots wrapped around it.

Due to the sheer strength of the vines and roots it made the figure looses it's balance and fell head first into the ground.

After a few minutes of trashing about and shrieking the masked figure finally stopped moving.

Ramza released a sigh of relief and then lowered his hand.Casting two consecutive spells made his body feel heavy.

He starts walking slowly towards the motionless enemy. As he was about a few inches from the body.

The masked figure spoke.

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"Wait! Please don't kill me. "

Ramza was taken aback.

"You can speak? "

"Well duh" It answered.

"Anyways, please don't kill me, I'm not siding with them anymore."

"Hah!, and I'm just gonna believe you? You guys killed hundreds of us and besides you tried to kill me"

"You attacked me first!"

There was a brief silence. Ramza scratchs his head, the masked figure has a point he thought. The silence was broken by the sound of leather and vines rubbing each other.

"It's no use, Dartwood vines are the most strongest vine in all of Dosgard."

"Please just let me out, I don't want to fight this war no more. "

"And why is that? "

"I'll tell you if you let me go"

"Not gonna happen monster."

"I'm not a monster! If you don't believe me, just take off my helmet"

Ramza was still sceptical but theres no harm in knowing.

He walk closer to the downed opponent. Take a hold of the the helmet and slowly took it off.

Ramzas face turned from bewilderment to fear . Like if he saw an ogre dancing ballet.

"You're a woman?"

"Isn't it obvious."

"Now untie me."

Of all the creature in this vast universe why does it have to be a woman ramza thought.

The one weaknes of this wizard is a soft aromatic boobed creatures.

"uhmm.. Ah"

"Hey! I said untie me."

"oh right, R-release"

With a flick of his hand the vines untangled.

"Thank you"

The woman gave a sigh of relief and then she immediately stood up and dust herself off.

Now that ramza know that the creature was a woman he just now realize that she had the curves.

Her long red hair, now free, adds a sense of perkiness to her personality.

She has a medium sized breast not too big not to small, But her leathered costume barely contains her plump buttocks.

"Hey, What are you staring at?"

"N-nothing"

The woman moves closer to ramza.

Ramza steps back and grips his staff tightly expecting that the woman might attack at any moment.

The woman raises her hand and reach for ramza.

This made ramza jolt and made him do a defensive stance .

"Im Abigail, call me Abby for short"

She gave ramza a grin.

"Do you not know how to shake hands?" She asks

"Shake hands?" The mere tought of it made ramza confused.

Whats the point of making me "shake" her hand?

Wait. What if its a trap? What if i "shake" her hand and it burns my arm off.

What if she has a deadly disease and she wants to contaminate me.

Remember last time we trusted a woman a long time ago,

She took everything from us and left us for dead.

This thoughts swirled on ramzas mind and made his hand shake uncontrollably.

"Hey are you alright? You look like you have seen a ghost"

"Its just a handshake"

"Wha- Whats the purpose of this handshake?"

"Its a form of greeting in my world its a sign of trust"

Ramza stares at her hand.

He is still a bit Skeptical about all this but he realize that theres no harm in trying.

He clenches his fist and activates his mana shield incase something bad happens.

"Fine, but i still dont trust you"

Ramza takes her hand and then shakes it left to right.

This made abby snort, giggle and then laugh uncontrollably.

Ramza quickly thought that he might have fallen for a trap and he swiftly points his staff on abby.

"I knew it, I shouldnt have trusted you. What did you do?"

Abby is still laughing so hard that her laugh was echoing in the forest.

"Tell me now or ill blast you all the way to Tariv"

"Wait.haha.. Ha. Wait. No i didnt do anything to you" Abby said while wiping a tear on her eye.

"Then why are you laughing? Is it poison? Some sort of curse?"

"What? No. Its just that you dont have to literally shake my hand"

Ramza lowered his staff and gave abby a blank stare.

"But thats what you said. Shake your hand and thats what i did"

"What i mean is, thats not how you do it"

"Here, give me your hand"

Ramzas hesitantly lifts his hand but then Abby immediately grabs it.

His hands are soft Ramza thought to himself.

She then gently shakes his hands up and down.

"Nice to meet you.. Oops. I forgot to ask for your name.hehe"

"R-Ramza"

"Nice to meet you Ramza"