The trek up the mountain got more difficult, the road became steeper and the ground got muddier,

Things continued peacefully, for hours as the troupe continued their trek higher into the mountain, their speed got slower as the roads got steeper and the winds blew colder.

"Push!"

"Gah!"

Isaiah, Hugo, and Iska pushed with all their might as Hannibal pulled the horse onwards, the tire having sunk three inches deep. Normally Isaiah would have used his magic to push them out but the thin air meant that breathing was more difficult, and here Isaiah learned a major weakness with mages.

"Mana is present in the air and a mage needs to breathe properly to recover mana."

And so to avoid having less mana when one needs it resulted in Isaiah used physical force to push the carriage instead.

"Push!"

"Aaah..."

The wheels began to budge and finally freed itself after twenty minutes of pushing. Fei and Senzuki, who kept a close eye on their surroundings, then rejoined the formation and the troupe resumed its slow trek upwards. Isaiah rubbed his shoulders to maintain his warmth when Senzuki approached him,

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah... Just cold. How about you?"

"Good. Just a bit cold but I am used to it."

Senzuki went closer to Isaiah to the point their shoulder was touching each other. Isaiah became silent for a while, finding himself more and more conscious of Senzuki before he started a conversation

"Still, to think I need to breathe normally to recover mana, didn't know that."

"Have you ever climbed a mountain?"

"Before, but never used magic back then."

"Well, now you know." She then looked at the top, then at their rear, before turning to him repeating the whole process now and then.

"Couldn't help but notice that you are very cautious."

"Hmm?" She turned her eyes to Isaiah but kept her head at the roads,

"You keep looking around."

She smiled, "Ahh, we are being chased after all."

"Like right now?"

"Indeed," She stopped and looked back, "I just confirmed roughly twelve people following us, all armed."

Isaiah paused and looked back but could not find the people she talked about, it also wasn't helping that the mist was getting thicker making it harder to see.

"It's good that you didn't use your mana back then..."

Suddenly there was a sound as what appeared to be bundles of hay covered in tar tumbled down,

"Enemy!" Hugo quickly ran to protect the front carriage and their battle lines were formed,

"Isaiah!" Hannibal called out and Isaiah dispersed the smoke, to their shock they found more bundles falling from the top mixed with a couple of bolts and arrows. "Get down!"

They quickly hid underneath the carriages as the missiles struck their general location, most hit the carriages but none of the burning bundles did and so there was little damage. Once more smoke filled the area, which Isaiah dispersed with wind magic

"Above!" Iska shouted, "I see seven, no ten!"

Senzuki then took her bow and aimed at the mountain, finding the bandits she quickly fired her arrow, wounding one. Hugo followed up the shot and though he missed, his arrow exploded. The bandits retaliated with more missles.

"Let's go!" Hannibal lurched the horses onwards but quickly stopped when a group of armed men blocked their path,

"Isaiah..." Senzuki turned to the back, "They are here."

"Would you look at that... Fancy seeing spices this route yeah? And cute girls too..." A big pot-bellied man went ahead of the group and gave a massive grin, his axe resting on his shoulder. "Hehehehe..."

Hannibal gulped, "How much?"

"For what?"

"The toll, how much is it?"

"The toll? What toll, we ask no toll hehehe, we are no barbaric bandits please." He then gestured for them to move ahead, his group then separated themselves giving enough space for them to walk through, but it was a tight corridor and the smiles on their faces did not instill sincerity "By all means go ahead..."

"I doubt that you guys attacked us after all?"

"Attack? That smoke thing? That was not us though."

"Huh?"

The man then looked up, "Fucking hippies. You see them everywhere!"

Hannibal turned his head up and at this instant, the man swung his axe, had it not been for Hugo's quick action Hannibal would have lost his head then and there. The man's axe struck Hugo's wooden shield, shattering it into two and lightly grazing Hugo's forearm.

"Damn..." Hugo hissed as he retreated, blood dripping down his fingers. "You'll pay for that!"

"Good one... This will be fun!"

"Hanni!" Fei rushed to her husband as Hannibal brushed her off gently,

"I'm fine, I'm fine, stay back we'll cover you."

Fei took a step back before turning her eyes over at the bandit and without warning began conjuring up her mana,

"I will avenge you."

"I'm still alive you know." Hannibal chuckled as he looked around, and to his horror found roughly fourteen men in front and an unknown number above them.

"Isaiah." Hannibal turned to him, if he wanted to bring his troupe out of this problem then he needed to rely on Isaiah. "I hope you wont abandon us Isaiah, we need your strenght."

"Right on it." Isaiah smiled, "Leave it to me."

"Good, make sure to protect Senzuki, if she gets injured or dies it's game over for all of us. We'll deal with the front."

"Against fourteen?" Isaiah raised his brow, he was wondering why he was given rearguard when he would do better at the front but then...

"Shit!" Senzuki suddenly cursed as she nooked her bow, "Cavalry at the rear, incoming!"

Hannibal and Isaiah looked at where she was looking and found the horseman rapidly approaching them, the bandits cheered them on and charged at Hugo and Iska, Hannibal rushed to fortify the lines. Senzuki fired shot after shot but the strong drafts pushed all her arrows away, as the horsemen rapidly approached they were suddenly struck by bolts of lightning.

"What the!"

"A mage, they have a mage!"

"But I never heard that their mage could use lightning magic."

Their horses panicked for a bit as the booming sound of lightning whirred passed them however they were quick to return to their senses as they hid on the rocks. Isaiah fired bolt after bolt but did little effect on them as the explosion only sent pebbles and broken rocks their way, barely injuring any of them. He was about to launch a more powerful attack but stopped when he remembered where they were.

The bandits all dismounted and let their horses run wild to confuse Isaiah who directed the wind to whip the horses forcing them to turn around and flee. Isaiah then crushed the rocks that they hid behind on and pelted them resulting in the deaths of two. Three were injured while one hid behind the bodies of the others.

"This ain't working." Isaiah wiped his forehead as he looked around, here he saw the group in dire straits. Though he was winning on their side the front was collapsing quickly, they were outnumbered and outgunned, with only Hannibal, Hugo, Iska, Senzuki, and Fei against fourteen individuals, one of whom was taller than the rest with a large body and belly armored from top to bottom with a hodgepodge of various equipment of differing colors and make.

He was engaged in a one-on-one against Hannibal who he had surrounded by four others, however Hannibal, though quite capable in the sword, was no match against the large bandit who used his massive reach and powerful axe to full use. Hugo, who tried to help Hannibal was pinned down by a tall bandit who pushed him on the ground by his stomach and held his head to watch the battle.

Iska was faring fine, leading two bandits around in a wild chase with her nimble reflex but she was unable to do any damage. Fei and Senzuki were busy protecting their carriage against six bandits. It seems that they had given up protecting the foremost wagon as the bandits are using it as a shield against Fei's fire attacks,

Isaiah clicked his tongue when suddenly an arrow flew past him, he held his hand out, caught the arrow, and threw it back though it did nothing as the feather-tipped rear bounced off from a rock. Not too far the bandit who fired his bow ran away. With the rear now clear Isaiah turned his attention towards the front.

One bandit broke off from attacking the wagons and rushed towards him, Isaiah simply pointed his index finger which caused a pillar to extend from the ground hitting him in the face and knocking him out. The others saw him approaching and fired off their arrows but Isaiah stretched his left hand and stopped their missiles, he turned them back but they bounced off the wagon. Isaiah raised his right hand and a sheet of snow followed after crashing into the wagon and burying the bandits. He raised both his fingers which caused the snow and the bandits to rise but this was instantly stopped when a flash of pain struck his head,

'It's the damn weakness again...'

One of the bandits ran towards Isaiah, seeing him in pain but was shot in the head by Fei. Senzuki ran towards Isaiah but the four remaining bandits saw their opportunity and ran towards her, Senzuki fought back but was overwhelmed by the four and with a knife on her throat used her as hostage.

Fei couldn't fire her weapon for fear of hitting Senzuki while Isaiah slowly stood up nursing his forehead.

"Don't move or we will kill her!"

"Don't... Don't mind m..." Senzuki tried to talk but was stopped by a slap from one of the bandits.

Isaiah glared at the group before nodding his head, suddenly the bandits floated in the air. Though there was pain in his head it was bearable and by connecting both his hands in a clap, they smashed into each other's bodies before Isaiah threw them over the cliff. Their screams echoed throughout the mountainside catching the attention of their leader,

He was shocked,

His group was among the very best in the clan and yet...

'Eight of mine, and...' He grabbed Hannibal's hand to stop him as he scanned the front, 'All ten from my brother is gone...'

This man just killed and defeated eighteen by himself...

"Interesting." He threw Hannibal and pointed at Isaiah, "Bring him to me."

The last remaining members of his team all rushed to Isaiah.

"Let me help you now..." Fei took a deep breath as her hands glowed white,

[Salamander's Breath]

With her incantation a magical circle appeared in front followed by a pillar of fire which headed straight for the bandits, they in turn countered with their magical enchantment as a wall of earth rose from the ground to block their path,

"Aay!"

Her Salamander's breath failed to destroy the wall and as the wall returned to the ground the bandits fired their ranged weapons. Iska grabbed a pouch in her bag but Isaiah moved faster, reaching his hand out a gust of wind blew the bolts back, but knowing that they couldn't reach the bandits Isaiah launched a second attack as bolts of lightning left his hands catching the bandits, who was still reloading, by surprise.

"Oh, what!"

"Shit!"

Their earth mage quickly raised a wall of rocks, but before it could rise Isaiah reached his free arm and closed it, crushing the wall to pieces before sending it back to its conjurer as thousands of tiny missles, it was instantly followed by the bolts of lightning exploding around their area creating confusion and concussions.

"Excellent... Ahahaha." Their leader took the front, still holding onto Hannibal, "Say, you... Why don't you joi-!" He was suddenly blinded by a flash of light and he released Hannibal in panic. Then lightning struck his head.

Fei and Senzuki fired their attacks as Iska ran to save Hannibal. The man shrugged off their missiles while swinging his massive axe towards Hugo who dove to the ground to avoid his attacks,

His eyes were filled with rage as he ran towards Isaiah at a slow but dangerous pace. Isaiah at first tried to directly control his body but when a stinging pain flashed on his head he gave up and then raised his left arm, a plate of earth with spikes sprung from the ground striking the bandit head-on.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The bandit was thrown back by the heavy weight of the attack and fell to the ground. Isaiah then lifted the plate and smashed it into his body. Then he covered the bandit's body with earth to disarm him.

"Wunderbar!" Hannibal grinned as he held onto his shoulder, "That hurts..."

Isaiah sighed and coughed, he liked what he managed to do here.

He defeated the entire group all by himself, except for one who Fei killed.

"If not for Isaiah we would have all died." Fei sighed,

"That is true, phew at least we have him." Iska agreed

"I hate to admit it but it's true... Glad to have you." Hugo added,

"Thank you..." Hannibal patted his shoulder as Isaiah smiled

Senzuki however did not offer any words but patted his shoulder as well. But Isaiah did not complain, he was happy about this.

"So... What do we do?" Isaiah turned to one of the wagons and found that his snow attack had de-wheeled it, with all four wheels crushed into pieces. The other was safe but was filled with many arrows. Thankfully the boxes were still safe and secured. "Do we kill them all? There were still those who ran at the back and the top..."

"No... I'd prefer to keep one of them alive so that we can atleast-"

"Hey, is that gunpowder?" Iska pointed to a spot where a black streak could be spotted, however, it was too late, a bandit who they thought was unconscious threw a lit match onto the powder before running as fast as he could

"Jump!"

Boom!

Isaiah was thrown from his location as his body rag-dolled in the air before landing hard on the ground nearby. The explosion blew away his hearing and replaced it with tinnitus while his sight pulsated like a beating heart. Isaiah coughed and coughed as he slowly got up, his arms throbbing in pain and his face blackened by the explosion, blood spurted from the back of his body where the rocks struck his flesh. His mind wandered about in his brain as he fell on all fours, suddenly his body was shaken, it shook violently and he started to feel nauseous.

"Isa-!" He could hear someone's voice echoey voice as if he was submerged in water,

"Isaiah!"

The voice started becoming clearer, moreover, he could tell it was from a woman,

"Isaiah-san!" Senzuki's face appeared in his eyes, blood poured from her forehead as her usually calm face was filled with worry and terror, because she was behind Isaiah during the explosion she was able to avoid much harm "Isaiah..." She wiped her blood-soaked forehead and sighed in relief "I thought you were cold, are you alright? Is there any problem on you?"

"Agh, h-how's everyone?" Isaiah coughed as he covered his cheeks, being held by Senzuki was way too stimulating. "Lets-!" Isaiah paused as he saw the leader bandit raise his mace behind Senzuki and bring it down with great force, "Senzuki!"

She turned around and found the weapon raised, knowing she could not dodge she tightly held Isaiah and protected him with her body,

"Gaah!"

The mace struck her in the back causing her to bend back, the bandit then grabbed her by the head, and upon seeing her fox ears he grinned,

"Hohoho, to think that a beastwoman is with them, she should sell for a pretty penny" The leader turned to Isaiah who was shaking in panic, "You really did a number on us... But thankfully you covered me from the explosion."

"Let-let her off!" Lightning erupted from Isaiah's hand as he punched the bandit in his leg, the bandit recoiled in pain, dropping the unconscious kitsune though Isaiah caught her just before she fell to the ground,

"You fucker, you're the one who buried my brothers!" The man raised his weapon, "Now di-!"

A gust of wind suddenly blew him away from his position throwing him off the cliff, his screams echoed throughout the valley. Seeing no further movement Isaiah then turned his attention to Senzuki,

"Senzuki, are you fine?"

"Waa, aaah." Senzuki moaned in pain as she held onto Isaiah like a toddler, here he could see blood pooling from the back of her head, "Aah."

'What to do, what to do?'

He had never had to treat an injury before, it was usually him being treated, and now faced with the dilemma of a bleeding woman he began to panic.

"No wait, calm yourself down... Calm down, let's think about this, this is just normal bleeding. Nothing too dangerous."

He looked around and found the pouch that Senzuki always carried, opening it he saw two bottles of some kind of liquid and clean clothes, he took them and found them to be very long, wrapped them around her head where the wound was, and he remembered that a bleeding wound must be stopped with some kind of pressure, he didn't know what else to do next but he must first stop the bleeding. Once finished he gently placed Senzuki at the ground, and it wasn't just because he didn't know what to do next but rather...

He looked around and found himself surrounded by chaos. The explosion blew the wheeless carriage out from the ground and into the canyon, its contents flying alongside while the other one was now up in flames the boxes and spices being cooked created a strange smell in the air, though both horses had broken free one was now lying still next to the road, a rock protruding from its neck while the other is nowhere to be found. Hannibal had been stabbed by the bandit who caused the explosion and was holding his stomach while Hugo was locked in combat by Hannibal's stabber, himself covered in wounds and bruises from the explosion hence why he was losing in the fight, while also trying to help Fei up who is hanging at the edge of the cliff. Iska was nowhere to be found and worse still more people started arriving.

'Twenty. Reinforcements, since when...' Isaiah counted, they were more than what was reported. Rocks started levitating around Isaiah as he sent them flying in the bandit's direction, the latter managed to notice the incoming missiles and dodge out of the way, this was enough for Hugo to lunge and with one strike strike the man down with his axe. With that out of the way, Hugo turned to Isaiah and gave him a nod before rushing to Fei's aid. Isaiah then carried Senzuki and was about to head for the troupe when fire struck down in front of him blowing away the rocks and snow around him, covering his vision.

"God!"

Isaiah looked back and found himself face-to-face with the bandits, ten of them to be precise all with their weapons and teeth in full display,

"He's a mage. Kill him quickly,"

A robed individual pointed at Isaiah as balls of flame appeared from behind him, he began to chant rapidly before sending both missiles towards Isaiah. Isaiah gritted his teeth as he got down on his knees and raised a wall of earth to protect them both. Once the missiles struck the wall they exploded but dealt no further damage, Isaiah then destroyed the wall and the chunks created were turned into weapons striking at the bandits waiting,

"What the!"

The mage disintegrated upon contact with the hail of bullets, not even the shielded bandits remained unscathed as their wooden shields broke from the fury of Isaiah's magic. The level and power it displayed were far more than what they could even cope with.

"This guy..." Another bandit whose armor was an amalgamation of various equipment stood by, holding the metal shield as tightly as he could one could see the many bends it now had. "Kill him, kill him quickly! He has no more mana, there is no way he still has mana after those attacks!"

At once the surviving bandits rushed towards Isaiah, however, instead of feeling despair as many of their victims had when met with their charge the mage simply smiled. As if this was what he wanted all along.

"Sonicboom baby, let's do this thing.." Isaiah carefully placed Senzuki on the ground as he stood up, some of the bandits began to charge

The bandits attacked as one but suddenly they stopped mid-air, like puppets suspended in the air they were unable to move, try as they might not an ounce of strength emerged from their bodies.

"What the?"

"Hey!"

"Let me! Go!"

However they were not alone, even the other bandits who had gone to attack the other members were also suspended, and the cause of it all...

"The mage! It's the mage!"

Isaiah's hands were raised as if he was giving praise then he closed and connected both his fists, the suspended bandits were suddenly smashed against each other like a human meatball. Screams and shouts emerged as their blood, sweat, piss, and mucous came out from the unholy abomination Isaiah created. He however was too angry to even think about the morality of what he had done as he squished them some more before throwing them away like a giant basketball, a concoction of their bodily fluids trailing behind like a meteor's tail.

Isaiah chuckled before vomiting, the gruesome sight of their deaths only struck him now. He took deep breaths to calm himself and when he heard a soft pinging noise,

*Beep

[You have leveled up!]

He sighed as he turned around only to find a man holding the unconscious Senzuki hostage, Hugo, the sole remaining fighter was too injured but he was confronting the bandit.

"Now, now... I do not want to hurt anybody."

"Let her go now!"

"No, why would I? I would be dead if I did so."

"I promise you... You know what, never mind." With a flick of his fingers the man's knife was suddenly thrown away then pointing the same finger at him the man was thrown straight to the ground,

"Gaa!"

Isaiah rushed over to catch Senzuki before she fell, and when the man leaped at Isaiah, with the weight of two people Isaiah struggled and fought back, during this melee the bandit had struck Isaiah over his old wounds, opening the infected bump causing so much pain that Isaiah keeled over.

"Aah!"

The bandit didn't know what happened but he used the opportunity and started punching Isaiah's head. Isaiah started to turtle up shielding Senzuki with his body as he ate blow after blow. The bandit however grabbed him by the hip and turned him around before restarting his strikes, Isaiah fought back but he did not have the necessary strength to even do anything. He desperately refreshed his stats just to survive the onslaught.

"Ahahaha, I was worried for nothing!" The bandit continued his onslaught but was suddenly caught unawares when lightning enveloped his hands, "Waa, whaaa!"

The volt struck him down tensing his muscles causing him to spasm uncontrollably. Isaiah bit his lip to calm himself then stood up, bruised and battered for the millionth time, he wanted to end this charade. He reached his hand out causing the knife to fly straight into his palm, then holding it tight he was about to stab the bandit down when Senzuki grabbed his hand,

"Let go, Senzuki." Isaiah pleaded but his voice was stern,

"No, Isaiah-san." Senzuki replied, She was still reeling in pain but she held onto his arm "Let him live."

"Live, why he almost killed you!"

"I understand but..." Her fingers wrapped themselves around his hand, "Him alive would be a better outcome than him dead, look around us, you see that the carriage has been consumed by fire and its cargo gone... I'm afraid that our quest is dead, and this will not end well for all of us."

"Then-then we just have to tell the guild what happened." Isaiah started to stiffen when he felt Senzuki's fingers around his hand.

"Would they believe us so? Even if they did we'd still lose our commission and no one would hire us anymore because of this, reputation is everything for adventuring troupes Isaiah-san."

"So you want him alive then so that we can bring him with us."

"Yes... So lower your weapon, please." Isaiah looked at her for a while before he relented and allowed her to lower his arm, then she took the knife away from him before throwing it away at the cliff, never breaking eye contact. "I know you are angry, but it is over, it is over..."

Isaiah remained silent for a while as Senzuki waited intensely, and then he replied, "I-If you say so."

"Thank you." She nodded and then picked up a jar from her pouch, she then applied a soothing cream on Isaiah's face, "That should work for now, I have to fix you up later."

"It's fine, I'm used to this... My face is already hardened from all this nonsense. But you should rest first, your back..."

"I can still move, years of sleeping on hard surfaces trained me."

"..." Isaiah looked at her unconvinced, in this Senzuki blushed,

"It's nice to know you are so worried about me."

"I..." Isaiah looked away.

"Fufu... Right, we need a rope."

Isaiah reached his hand out and a rope flew straight into his arm, "Here you go, you know how to tie him tightly? I only know a few ties you see."

"Well certainly, let me..."

After tying the bandit up both Senzuki and Isaiah approached the troupe, Hugo found Iska who was unconscious from the explosion, the left side of her face blackened from the powder, he then collapsed to the ground from exhaustion after Isaiah approached him. Meanwhile, Fei was busy treating Hannibal as best as she could, upon seeing Senzuki relief washed over her face,

"My... Senki-chan, your face."

"It's fine... They only hit the back of my head so I'm still alright."

"No, but like... Eeh."

"There is nothing to worry about, more importantly." Senzuki removed Hannibal's shirt to examine his wound only for Hannibal to stop her

"Senzuki-san..."

"Stay down, you're not yet okay."

"No... The carriage,"

Senzuki shook her head,

"I see." Tears pooled up in his eyes, "That's it then..."

"There is no need to worry..." Isaiah said, "Senzuki here told me that if we can surrender this bandit we caught to the merchant guild they might forgive us or something."

"But..."

Senzuki then explained her position, "I believe a conspiracy is behind this attack... Just as you said bandits have been increasingly targetting us commissioned adventurers of Orkellion, especially those who are aligned with master Ephillus. If we can return the bandit with us they should be able to gain some useful information which should vindicate us from this issue, or at the least give us a strong position to negotiate."

"Oh that might work, but what if we surrender the man to the wrong person."

"Then it is what it is."

"Senki-chan!"

"I was just joking Fei-chan, it's important to laugh in times of hardships you see..." She then cleared her throat, "That said, I doubt we will hand over the bandit to the wrong person, considering that master Ephillus's base of operations is around Germania, there should be no shortage of allies and definitely no considerable amount of enemies within the guild. So long as we are careful I doubt anything wrong happens to us."

"Right..." Hannibal thought long about the proposition before turning to the troupe, "I believe we should try that out, the prospect of failing a commissioned quest is too terrifying to think about." He then looked at every other member, "Let's do it then?"

"Yeah,"

"Definitely better than losing the commission, we should try that."

Was the replies,

"Good..." Fei clapped her hand, "That said, Senki-chan, can you treat Hannibal?"

"No problems."

"No, you first Senzuki... Your face." Hannibal protested which Isaiah supported.

"I'm fine, Isaiah here did a pretty good job might I say."

"Well, it was only a simple wound," He replied shyly

"It is... And you used too much, but no problem. You did your best, you should be proud of that."

"Ye... Yes." Isaiah nodded,

Senzuki then went to the burning wreck of the carriage to search for something, though most of her belongings had burnt down, she had kept some important medicines and tools in a fireproof container, she found it unharmed and slightly hinged, opened up the container and took out the things she needed. Once her tools were ready, she laid him down and quickly went to work.

"I leave myself to you then..." Hannibal replied as he removed his clothes, just below his finely-tuned abdomen was a nasty red-purplish wound where the knife struck. Senzuki quickly applied a soothing ointment around the wound to numb the pain before applying a concoction of herbs as a powerful disinfectant.

Hannibal seethed his tongue in pain but endured it as Fei embraced him, Senzuki began to clean the wound properly. Isaiah was curious, he wondered what the level of surgical technology was in this era, but what he saw was more than what he anticipated, for she used modern techniques, methods, and even tools that Isaiah thought shouldn't exist as of yet. However it wasn't just those but also her work speed, though the wound was simple and not too complex, her workmanship was top-class even when she herself was injured with one eye blocked by the bandage.

After properly cleaning and disinfecting the area, she then sutured the wound closing it up with remarkable accuracy as if she was a human-sewing machine. With a tie, she was done.

"A job well done." She told herself as Hannibal took deep breaths, "Be careful not to walk too much as that might open up again."

"I still can't stand being stabbed by small needles."

"Oh Hanni, you must get used to it since accupunctures are very prominent in our places."

"I might as well not get acupuncture."

While the troupe was busy teasing and laughing with Hannibal, Senzuki was keeping her stuff. Isaiah decided to help out, after seeing her staggard multiple times.

"Oh thank you. I am rather exhausted from all the work even when it was only a couple of minutes"

"I understand, precision work of any kind is exhausting, having to focus and do something so critical just puts too much pressure on the mind. That said it was very impressive, I didn't know you guys do suturing already."

"Suturing?"

"That's what we call tying up a person's body, or wounds depends."

"Mmm, well a human priest taught me how to su-suture. That said, my abilities pale in comparison to healers who could regrow lost limbs or bring a person close to dying back to normal."

"Be proud of your work, if you were not here I doubt Hannibal can live long enough for us to reach a healer." Isaiah was about to pat her head but managed to resist the temptation and instead patted her shoulder,

"Thank you, and also you did well, despite the odds you easily dealt with the enemy. If you were not there I wonder if we could even survive."

"Oh, don't mention it I just did my part. We made a deal after all."

"Ah." She then combed her hair which revealed an earless cheek, "You remembered that?"

"Well, it's not that hard to think about. That said what now?"

Senzuki was quiet for a while as nodded multiple times, "Ah right, we-we uh, we still head for Heins, and with that man as our prisoner we should be able to continue working our commissions."

"Should be, it's not yet guaranteed."

"You make a good point." Senzuki nodded before changing the topic, "That said, will you still work with us afterward?"

"Why yes, no reason why not. Plus if you think about it, if I solve this conspiracy wouldn't I earn a lot of money?"

"I see that is good!" Her face glowed up upon hearing his reply even her tail began to wag, "I'm glad you're staying with us."

Isaiah was happy seeing the affection she was showing and was pleased with his progress on raising her flag.

It took hours but soon Hugo and Iska opened their eyes after resting and after gathering all that they could salvage, they tied the bandit onto what remained of the cart and turned it into a small sled. There was little they could find and most of their gear and cargo had burnt down so the sled was light enough for a man to carry. Ahead of them was the daunting task of climbing down the Capsico mountain and making their way to Heinz, though it was only a day's travel it is estimated that they would arrive very late. For this reason, Hannibal took out a pigeon that had miraculously survived the ordeal and wrote a letter to Heinz telling them about their situation. The guild had provided such pigeons for these kinds of scenarios.

Then they started the trek down the mountain. It was cold, not too cold to create snow and ice but cold enough for a man like Isaiah who lived his whole life in the tropics to shiver. Fei was the first to notice and handed Isaiah a warm jacket, though much to his embarrassment as Senzuki kept teasing him all the way to Heinz for this incident.

"Isaiah, a man who could slay dragons defeated by cold." She would say,

However Isaiah did not stop her or them from laughing at his expense, the situation was tense so a moment to laugh like this was always welcome.