Entering the cave were six knights, and the rest were Dune’s party, and Bertos. The other knights were left outside to help secure the area.

The cave from the entrance went downward, going underground. Not one in the team knew what exactly was in there. But they would find out soon enough, there must be only more bandits. Still, how big was the place?

Given the size of the passageway, the assault team would find it difficult to stay in a widespread formation. The adventurers, however, have been to caves many times in their lifetime, to hunt monsters or to rest. And thus, Tina and her friends were made to take point, with the knights following behind them.

Tina specifically was at the center of it all, where she could easily come to aid and reach everyone in this cave, where an ambush was highly likely.

Tina felt a bit anxious, no other bandits had attempted to run out of the cave. They were definitely setting up a defensive line or an ambush further within. But Tina was ready.

The path was surprisingly decent, you won’t even easily trip in anything. The bandits seemed to have been pretty cozy for years in this base of theirs. With that thought in mind, Tina felt a bit bitter that only now did they manage to hunt these lows of humanity.

If the palace willed it, the Church would have been willing to exterminate them. It would not have been difficult.

They walked further in, and it was still unusually quiet, disturbingly so.

Just then, the lighting in the passageway grew brighter. Dune at the head of the formation stopped to look at the stonewall filled with blazing torches, a surprised expression on his face. Strings were hung on the wall, dozens of them, and more further in. All of them were pierced and tied into parts of ears.

A curtain of butchery.

Half of ears on strings. Human ears. Some seemed recent, while some were rotting. It smelled bad, making Tina winced in disgust.

Dune looked at his surroundings and came to a realization. “Are they the bandits that cut off the ears of their victims?”

“Shit, I didn’t expect they would be here,” said Derin.

Tina knew about those notorious bandits. The cruelest of them all. With every civilian group they attack, they at least let one man go, but half of their ears would be cut off. And seeing the number of ears here, it only further proved they take not only the ears of the free man.

There have been quests that hunt these bandits. They were successful of course. But it would appear they haven’t rooted them out completely.

“Creepy…” Anita remarked.

Seeing that these bandits proudly show their cruelty made Tina feel more repulsed than ever. It almost made her want to vomit.

“Continue.” Ayana said, as if unbothered by the gruesome sight.

Dune faintly nodded and they went further down. Gradually, both the sight and the foul smell of the ears fell behind. Tina breathed in the better air with relief.

Just then, Dune stopped and the group instantly followed suit. Bandits were waiting ahead, swords, bows, and magic at the ready, using furniture and other wooden objects as shields and barriers.

“Open fire!” one bandit shouted.

Arrows and spells immediately shot towards the group. As it happened, the knights swiftly moved forward and held out their hands. Translucent magical barriers immediately appeared, protecting the entire group.

With the number of knights casting their barrier, it was trivial to block all those incoming attacks, even the magic spells. They walked forward. Once they were close enough, the knights made a small gap in their magical barriers and allowed the adventurers to charge through.

Iruyu bashed through the enemies’ wooden barrier, sending debris all over the place, and he attacked the enemy head on relentlessly. Bertos likewise didn’t miss a beat and charged forward with an amused smile on his face. Dune and the rest of the party followed behind him, aiming to take out the range attackers as soon as possible.

From then thereafter, the knights removed their magic shields and engaged the enemies.

Amidst the battle, while Dune was fighting a bandit, an arrow struck the gap between his armor by the shoulders. “Ugh!” his face contorted. As he bore through the pain, the bandit, with a sword in hand, charged at him.

Their blades clashed, but the bandit gained the upper hand and slashed half an inch into Dune’s throat.

“Dune!” Tina exclaimed. She watched as blood spurted out of his throat, his hand pressing into the wound. Tina took a step forward, but she stopped. The way through was filled with enemies, and a chaotic battle was still taking place. She shouldn’t break formation just yet. If she goes in without support, she might only endanger herself, making it harder for everyone else.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dune kneeled to the ground, choking out of his own blood. The bandit walked closer, preparing to deliver the finishing blow. The thought of using her main healing spell came to mind. Should she reveal here and now that she actually possessed powerful abilities than she had shown them all this time? With just a few of her steps, Dune would be in range.

The bandit raised his sword. Tina gritted her teeth. Many times something like this had happened during their adventurers. And many times she deliberated to use her main abilities. However, in all those times, she didn’t have to, for good things happen in the end.

A wide slash of light suddenly struck the bandit, causing his torn up body to blast away. Tina turned towards the woman who saved her friend.

“Quickly, priestess! I’ll cover you!” Ayana shouted.

Tina sprinted towards Dune, and the moment he was in front of her, she cast her healing magic right next to his bleeding throat. “Just a moment, Dune. You’ll be alright.”

She looked into his eyes, they showed signs of panic, utter fear. It must be a very painful experience. But as the moment passed, and the healing magic took effect, he closed his eyes in relief. Tina was thankful to the gods he wasn’t struck by a fatal blow, or healing magic would have been useless.

The slit on Dune’s throat completely closed. And he huffed. “Hah, Hah…” he lifted his eyes and smiled. “Thanks, Tina…”

Tina smiled back with great relief. “You’re welcome, as long as you’re fine.”

He forced a chuckle. “Honestly, we couldn’t have survived this far without you.”

Tina blushed a little. “Enough, you still need to fight. Get up.” she extended her hand.

“R-Right.” he held her hand and Tina pulled him up. They looked at each other, and Tina nodded. She stepped away and returned to the rear, while Dune went back to fight.

A minute later, all the enemies were felled. Tina quickly healed everyone that was hurt, bad or not.

She subtly sighed in relief, that battle was a bit worrying. She looked at the surrounding area. There were three diverging paths — to the left, right, then to the middle.

Ayana stepped forward. “There may be escape paths on every single one. We’ll waste too much time if we go in one first before the other. Let’s split up.”

Dune nodded. “Agreed. I would like to take my party with me, and Bertos. With a healer, there’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“Very well.” She glanced at the knights. “Knights, three members each.” She pointed towards two. “Let’s take the middle path. The rest, you take the right. Adventurers, the left.”

And with that, the knights left and entered the other paths. They were more powerful than the party, so they should do just fine without Tina being present. The adventurer’s party, on the other hand, even with Bertos, they would need her.

“Let’s go, team,” Dune said with a grin.

“Don’t order me around.” Bertos growled and walked ahead of everyone.

Dune shook his head and followed with the rest of the team.

“Dude, you almost died,” Derin teased.

Dune sighed. “Yeah, it was terrible.” He caressed his throat. “Hope I don’t experience that again.”

“You scared me out there. You were going ‘ogh-gah-gg’,” as he said that, Derin placed a hand on his throat, his face all goofy, as if replicating what happened to Dune.

Dune with a chuckle, punched him on the shoulder. “Stop that!”

“Heh, gotta be careful next time. Can’t believe that guy got you in the throat.”

“Yeah… I really thought I was gonna die.”

“As if. As long as we’re together,” he extended his arms outwards. “Nothing can really threaten us.”

“Sure, sure.”

Tina smiled as she watched them. She felt a hand placed on her back, it was Anita’s.

“Great job,” she said.

“Yeah.”

I could have done better.

But at least it all ended well, as always.

They walked further into the passageway until ahead they saw a couple of bandits guarding a door behind them. The two quickly raised their swords. But without waiting for his allies, Bertos charged ahead and quickly dealt with the enemy. They put up a good fight, but not good enough.

He scoffed. “Hmph, pathetic. And I was expecting more.” he turned to look at the door. “Someone seems to be inside. I sense movement.”

“Go inside first, you always want that.” Dune said.

With a smirk, Bertos kicked the door open and rushed inside. The rest of the team quickly followed, moving into formation. The room was wide, cabinets and drawers placed by the walls, and a long table at the center. Still, the chamber had plenty of space to walk around. As if they used this room as a meeting place.

And there were two people here. One was clearly a bandit, and the other covered himself in a cloak from head to feet. They dropped sheets of paper into a small hole of fire.

“Boss.”

“Yes, just in time.”

“No papers left, I think.”

“Good.” In what seemed like a flash, the cloaked man pulled out his beautiful blade, and the bandit’s head flew. His eyes were still wide open.

Tina gasped in surprise. Why did that man just kill his friend?

“Dude, you’re fucked up,” said Derin as the head dropped to the ground with an audible thud.

The cloaked man slowly turned towards them. “Nothing but a pest with no other purpose left.” His voice was deep and calm. Not even a tiny shiver. Nor sign of regret.

Tina narrowed her eyes.

“You must be the bandit leader, then?” asked Dune, his sword at the ready.

“Yes. Well, I was.”

“Then we’ll be killing you!”

Bertos charged forward and swung his sword down, but the bandit leader nonchalantly dodged him. The latter gripped his sword tightly and was about to strike down, but Derin fired his frost sword magic at him, forcing the bandit leader to retract and jump back.

But as he did so, Anita sent a ball of fire towards him. Still, even that, the man dodged it. Bertos fired his armament magic, sending a slash of light heading for him, but again the man dodged it quickly — the slash moving past him by an inch. However, the moment he dodged and landed, his hood was pushed by the passing wind from the attack.

What revealed was a beautiful man with a light complexion. His hair was of gold, and eyes were a pretty pair of emeralds. An appearance so unexpected as a man involved in banditry. Still, the moment Tina saw him unveiled, nervousness struck in her heart, her eyes widened in horror. Her lips immediately trembled. She felt cold.

“Woah, guy has pointy ears.” Derin casually commented. It was meant to be humorous.

However, it was absolutely not humorous to Tina at all.

Why was someone like that here?

When she had processed a little of what she had seen, she panicked. “GET AWAY!”

Everyone turned towards her in confusion.

Anita asked with concern. “W-What’s wrong —”

“Get away from him! Now!”

“What are you so panicked about, little girl?” Bertos shook his head.

“Damn fool!” Tina shouted in anger. “Do as I say!”

Suddenly, sharp winds ripped through the air. No one saw it, they were not prepared. And thus, Bertos, Dune, Derin, Anita, bled at their torso.

But Tina cast a personal barrier on herself the moment she saw that wind coming towards her. She was safe. Only, she was unable to shield the others.

“Oh? You are unscathed.”

Tina looked at her friends. They were dumbstruck by the wound they abruptly received, and they slowly kneeled and collapsed to the floor, still oblivious to what exactly happened.

Tina, with a shaking breath, looked at the stranger. “W-Why are you h-here, elf?”