Hera killed about 40 invaders before things started to slow down. It didn't seem like they understood the difference in strength between the volcano tribe and themselves, but it was as if they had forgotten their objective, and now everybody was confused about what they should be doing. This allowed the volcano tribe to overpower most enemies and kill or restrain them. Hera was now starting to cool off, focusing on stopping the people from attacking instead of killing them. She knew this went against the whole plan, but she had done enough. Right now, she was going around the outskirts of the village trying to take care of all the invaders that the logistics team was too far away to notice.

From what she could tell, she was right now at the back entrance of the volcano, near the road directly opposite the one the army's main force took. By the looks of it, this place was probably the remnants of the redirection of the lava flow that Releon mentioned earlier.

"Why would they have tents so close to the outside of the village?" Hera asked no one in particular.

"To warn them of attacks?" Lurize suggested.

"That would be a good idea. That way, there's a family here who's more interested in protecting the city. It's a bit scummy but effective in my opinion," Daskka looked around, trying to see if there was anyone there.

"If you say so," Hera nodded. She honestly didn't care about why the tent was there. It was just a hassle to come to this secluded area just to be sure there was no one around.

As she started to get close, still mounted on Nimbus, she heard some noise coming from inside the tent, "Who is there? Get out slowly."

The noise stopped, and after a few moments, a human came out with his hands up, " I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We were just told to come here and make a mess. I don't know what's going on."

The men looked haggard and way too skinny. It was clear that it's been a while since he had a decent meal, and yet he came here to attack the volcano tribe for some reason.

"Are you alone here?" Hera asked while pointing his glaive at him.

The man's eyes quickly darted back to the tent and towards Hera, "I… I am.."

"Ok, who else is here? You're not fooling anyone."

"No one. I promise," the man insisted, but his eyes kept darting back to the tent.

Hera let out a long sigh, "Ok, step away from the tent, please," she gestured with her glaive towards an empty spot of land. The man obeyed her, and she came down from Nimbus, "Just be honest with me so I don't have to smack you. Is there anyone else here?"

"No! I don't think so. They left already."

"Where are they?" Hera rubbed her temple while approaching the tent

"They grabbed the child and ran."

That phrase made Hera stop and pay attention, "What do you mean they grabbed the child? What child? Where did they go?"

"They… they just…" the man looked around and walked closer to the tent and her as if he was looking at something beyond it, "That way," he pointed at the igneous rock path behind the tent.

"Stay there," Hera barked before turning to nimbus. At the same time, the men pulled a dagger and lunged at Hera, aiming the blade at her exposed neck.

'Empress, left!' Lurize screamed in her mind, allowing Hera to barely evade the attack, but she spun around at the same time, causing the dagger to cut the side of her face. In response, her entire court came crashing down at the man, slicing him to pieces before he could even say anything.

"Mum!" Daskka gasped and started humming the Luminous Light Litany to heal Hera.

"Fuck! Fucking shit. What about the kid? Was that a real thing?" Hera asked, and a few of her blades shot up to the sky to get a better point of view before searching for anyone who could be running away. Ooze, who was on the top of the link, sent back the information that two people were running down the mountain from the igneous rock path.

"Shit!" Hera yelled and jumped back on Nimbus, telling her mount to follow them quickly.

She was seeing red, and if those people really had kidnapped a child, she wanted to kill them. Not just to finish the dungeon, but because those truly deserve to die. Whoever they were, they were nowhere near as fast a cloud griffon that could run as fast as some older cars. In less than a minute, Hera managed to see the two of them. One was a human, and the other was a dwarf carrying a volcano tribe child over his shoulder. Without thinking twice, Hera sent out a few poison needles at them. She was trying to avoid the kid, and that's why she didn't try anything that could deal damage in an area or that could potentially hit the child.

When the two of them saw her getting close, they left the igneous path and started climbing down the mountain itself, trying to go somewhere where her mount might have some trouble. Even if it was a smart idea, Nimbus wouldn't have any trouble going down any path. The griffon could simply jump and glide down, only using the jagged rocks as small platforms to redirect itself.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The two men jumped over one of the spikier rocks, trying to evade the sight of the woman chasing them. Unfortunately, Nimbus was too fast, and Hera managed to catch up to them in less than a minute. That only happened due to a collaboration between her court and her mount. While Ooze was still providing information, Nimbus jumped from the mountain and glided around the makeshift path the man took at Hera's orders. She was hoping to cut them off and block their attempted escape.

At first, her plan worked flawlessly. She managed to keep herself hidden from the men while going around them, and the moment she appeared, the two of them were surprised by the cloud griffon and its rider. Because of the scare, the human slipped and pushed the dwarf, who was carrying the child, to the side. The human simply hit his head against the rocky mountain and passed out. The dwarf, however, lost his balance and went tumbling down the mountain, taking the kid along with him. Hera screamed and told Nimbus to go after them, hoping that she could at least save the child, but her mount was unable to go down at a fast speed. She watched while this small lava tribe kid slammed against the rocks again and again until it fell on a cluster of jagged rocks that pierced their entire body.

Hera screamed again while the body of the child dissolved. The dwarf took a bit longer to be considered dead, but when he did, a notification appeared in front of Hera.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have completed the dungeon quest.

All of Bonpei's forces were destroyed. The Volcano Tribe is the winner of the war.

Rewards: 80 000 gold. Volcano Tribe gift

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nimbus stopped, and Hera slammed her fist against the mountain repeatedly. She never wanted to hurt the kid, her idea was to save her, but she was too slow and too weak for that. The kid had died because of her. Even if she didn't deal the killing blow, that was the absolute truth. Looking down, Hera couldn't see the kid or the dwarf anymore, and she had no intention of helping the human get back up now that he was passed out. With a bloody hand, she told Nimbus to return to the igneous path and the village. She was going to wait for Blue and Alex up there since they would probably have to leave through the same place they entered the dungeon.

During the climb, Daskka and her court members tried to see if Hera was okay, but the explorer didn't want to talk. She just got back to the volcano village and waited for her friends. About 20 minutes or so went by when Alex and Blue arrived on a small platform created by Releon to bring them back. When they arrived, they all met by the command tent where they had first arrived.

Blue noticed Hera's dark expression, "Are you ok?"

"No. I Don't want to talk about it," Hera replied while still staring at the ground.

"Can we help?" Alex asked.

"No."

Knowing that there was nothing they could do, the two of them just turned back to Releon, who seemed to be waiting to say something, " Humans. I thank you for your help during our moments of struggle. as a token of gratitude, we would like to share some of the spoils of war," he gestured to the side. A group of four volcano warriors came carrying a large chest.

Blue waited for a moment, and when no one seemed to be moving towards the chest, she stepped forward. When she opened it, the chest itself was mostly empty. Inside was a single gold piece, two arrows that seemed to be just regular arrows, and a red scarf. The gold was worth ten thousand, and it went directly to her bank account when she touched it, but the rest was very underwhelming. Even after using [Inspect], the arrows were just normal arrows, but the scarf had a difference. It would increase the fire resistance of anyone who was wearing it. The problem was that the scarf itself was very hot, and the resistance wouldn't interfere with the possible heat stroke that one could get by using it in a place that was too warm. She showed the loot to the rest of the party.

Alex felt like it was a very small reward compared to the rest, while Hera didn't care. Her mind was filled with the events of the dungeon. She didn't want to take time to process what happened. Instead, she wanted to occupy her mind, "We are going again, right?"

"I think we should rest a bit, Hera. This was tiring," Blue suggested.

"We could also eat. I'm starving. I didn't expect this to take so long," Alex could see that Hera was struggling with something, and she should take time to process things instead of just keep going.

"Fine. I'm going to take a shower then," Hera turned around to leave the dungeon, and her friends followed along.

Instead of eating out, they stopped by a fast food place and got some fried chicken for them and the two in Helena's laboratory. There was a good chance that they had forgotten to eat. Hera just helped them get the food to the lab, but she went back to the house they would be staying at. Helena had set them up to stay in a place for the next two months. At first, everyone just assumed the mage got a good deal. However, when they returned to the lab, they realized there was a real chance that packing everything up would take longer than those two months. Bonnie and Helena didn't even finish a single box. Whenever one of them found a book they considered interesting, they would stop and start talking about it, forgetting completely what they were supposed to be doing.

Hera didn't mind. It was more time she would have to try to overcome her issues. When she arrived at the house, she went to take a bath and talk to her court to discuss what they could do better next time.

"Mum, I know you are going through some stuff, but you need to be careful," Daskka was floating in the water.

"I know. I'm trying not to get hurt during those fights," Hera touched the point on her face where the man had cut her, then looked down at the several bruise marks all around her body. It was good that her armor was very sturdy, but even so, all those were hits she took, and if it wasn't for her gear, they would have pierced her body.

"I'm not talking about that. I mean, you have to control your emotions a bit better," Daskka explained.

"What do you mean?"

"If your emotions are too intense, it may affect your blades. Especially if they are not receiving the full strength of your current stats. And since you have so many that are not on par with your level, the effect of your emotions might increase," Daskka continued swimming.

"So you're saying that I have to swap my blades?"

"I mean if you want. If you don't want to change them, just be careful."

"Well… I guess we could change them," Hera got out of the bath and started to dry herself. After putting on her clothes, she walked to the bed where there was a rapier with a red handle and a charred black wrist guard, and a blade with some glowing orange cracks resting on top of the sheets with the rest of her court around it, "We did get something as a reward that could work as a substitute."