“Let’s stop and set up camp here,” Marcus suggested, surveying the somewhat large clearing.

The entire group readily agreed with some of them slumping to the ground and releasing exhausted breaths.

Kaylee watched the women who were panting hard on the ground. They were the ones that her group had rescued from the bandits. The fact that they had been marching since the first break of dawn had definitely been tough on them but she, Marcus and the others had no choice.

The memory of being attacked by wolves at night was still fresh in their minds. To the four of them the attacks had been nothing more than an annoyance that deprived them of sleep. However, now that they were had been joined by the seventeen surviving victims of the bandits they had to be even more vigilant.

These women did not know how to defend themselves. If another pack attacked, some of them would not make it. That was why they had walked nonstop since dawn. The greater the ground they covered the sooner the freed captives could return to the safety of their village.

“I’ll go look for food,” Kaylee said, turning to leave the clearing.

In the corner of her eye she saw Arletta and Zachary tending to the rescued victims. These women had gone through some traumatising experiences at the hands of the bandits. Most of them had haunted looks. There was one who seemed to have lost her ability to speak. While they were marching Kaylee had listened to some of them trying to stifle their whimpers.

Her heart went out to them. She had wanted to console them, but in the end decided to stay her hand. She was a horrible consoler. If she tried it she would probably make them feel worse. That was why she left it to Arletta and Zachary who were actually good at it. As for her, she kept her distance and decided to be the lookout. She watched them closely to see if any of them were deceiving them.

Like that little harlot from the previous day.

Just the thought of her brought Kaylee’s blood close to boiling point. They had all bought her victim act and welcomed her, showering with as much compassion as they could muster. In the end the little bitch robbed them of their money.

Arletta and Zachary were pretty upset because the deceitful bitch took their books as well. The short mage was the most pissed off among them all because she spent so much effort trying to console her and got backstabbed in return.

That girl had seriously screwed them over, especially considering the fact that they did not find money in the bandit hideout.

She better hope we never meet again, Kaylee thought venomously.

After leaving the clearing she began to search for signs of animals. Because of the fact that their travelling group was large and noisy the animals seemed to have fled. However, she was a skilled hunter. Within a few minutes she found Trenton Gazelle hoof prints and decided to follow them. Now that they numbered twenty-one, a creature of that size was the only one that could fill all their bellies.

It took roughly half a dozen minutes to find the herd. She crept as close as she could without being discovered and unslung her bow. Fitting an arrow to her bowstring, she pointed it at one of the gazelles and let the arrow fly. In the blink an eye the arrow arrived at her target and pierced its eye, making it drop without a struggle. This caused the other gazelles to suddenly look up in alarm. However, Kaylee was too well hidden for them to find. That seemed to frighten the creatures, sending them careening in the opposite direction.

It was only after they were completely gone that she came out of hiding to collect her prize.

When she got back to the clearing she found that a makeshift camp had been set up and a fire had already been lit. Nodding in satisfaction, she dropped the deer at Marcus’ feet and walked over to a tree and sat down.

Since she was the one who found the food it was not her job to prepare it. That honour belonged to Marcus, the one who was not doing anything right now.

Her eyes shot to her other two companions who were doing their best to help the women deal with their traumatic experiences. Arletta spoke to them in a calm and patient tone that Kaylee herself would probably never pick up even if she lived for a century while Zachary preached about the magnanimity of the Life Goddess and how if they placed their faith in her she would help them through this difficult time of their lives.

She turned away and was about to shut her eyes and take a short nap when a change occurred in the area. A rip in space appeared just metres from them, tearing wider until it became large enough for even someone as tall as Marcus to pass through without ducking. Kaylee knew this spell, [Dimension Door].

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It was among the most difficult spells to master in the 4th Order. Both Arletta who was in that Order and Zachary who was in the 5th Order failed to learn it. If they had actually been able to master the spell their journey would have been significantly shorter.

Of course the fact that a [Dimension Door] had appeared here meant that someone had conjured it and they would be coming through any time soon.

Kaylee quickly jumped to her feet and ran to stand with her comrades; took up her bow and fitted an arrow to the string. She saw the others take action as well. Marcus had drawn his sword, Zachary had gotten hold of his sceptre and Arletta raised her hands to the Door. The four of them stood protectively in front of the group of women who started shying away from the Door.

Then they all waited.

The first to come through the Door was an old man in black robes, followed by a scarred girl and lastly a skeleton. Kaylee’s eyes immediately fell on the scarred girl and sensed her companions do so as well. This because they all remembered her and not in a good way.

“You!” she snarled, moving the tip of her arrow towards her.

The bitch who stole their money. She looked better dressed than last time, however her condition seemed worse. The most obvious reason for this was because her right shoulder ended with a stump. The arm that was supposed to be there was held in her other arm.

Kaylee’s kept her bow trained on the deceitful girl as her eyes travelled to her companions, studying them.

The old man too seemed to be missing a limb. One of his legs was gone, which was why he hovered instead of walking. As for the last member, there was nothing wrong with it; except for the fact that it was a walking skeleton. The sight of it caused some of the women behind them to cry out in fear.

“Necromancer!” Zachary shouted in alarm, pointing his sceptre at the old man.

At this moment the scarred girl spoke up.

“Yes! It was him I told you about, the one who destroyed my village. He forced me to rob you earlier. Threatened to do horrible things to me if I didn’t!”

In response to this the old man looked puzzled. He turned a scrutinising gaze at the scarred girl, who ignored him and kept looking at them, particularly Arletta, with pleading eyes. Tears spilled from her eyes as she did so.

The sight caused Kaylee’s anger to rise. What a shameless bitch!

“He was the one that killed everyone in your village?” Arletta asked. Her angry face seemed to soften when she posed this question.

“Don’t be so gullible,” Kaylee yelled her. “You can see from the old man’s confusion that she’s clearly lying. Bedside’s look at her arm.”

It was something she had noticed a while back. The arm that had been separated from Sage’s body was still bleeding and the blood was not red but pitch black. Considering the fact that she was in the company of a necromancer, it did not take a genius to figure what was wrong with her.

“Undead,” Zachary spat in disgust.

“Okay, you got me,” the girl said, ditching her crying act. She wiped away her false tears and gave them a smile which looked creepy with all the stitches in her face. “Don’t mind us, we were just passing through.”

This caused Kaylee to look at her in incredulity. Was she really asking them to turn the other way and allow them to pass?

“Impossible,” Marcus said. “Do you really think we’d let you go after you stole from us?”

It seemed the necromancer had truly been unaware of that fact because when it was mentioned he looked at Sage in disbelief. The girl in response chose to completely ignore him, after which he palmed his face in exasperation.

“There is no need for this to get out of hand friends,” he spoke up, reaching into his pocket. “How about I compensate you for your loss?”

“Shut up vile life-defiler!” Zachary yelled at him. “We will never accept anything from one such as you!” He then turned an angry glare on the scarred girl. “As for you dirty creature, your fate is to be purified here.” His face seemed to contort in disgust as he said the next part. “The fact that I spent hours in the company of a filthy creature like yourself without realising it is my greatest shame.”

In the corner of her vision Kaylee saw Arletta stiffen. Her expression turned sick as she the fact that she had spent most of the previous day touching and consoling an undead sunk in. She looked like she was about to vomit.

The reaction did not seem to affect the girl in any way, which was just what one would expect from an undead. After all they were vile aberrations of life so how could they have feelings?

“Where is our stuff?” Kaylee asked her, arrow still pointed at Sage.

Now that it was clear the girl was undead she realised the act was probably not that threatening to her. The damage arrows caused to undead was minimal unless they were imbued with Light Magic. Unfortunately she had no talent in Light Magic and Zachary had yet to learn [Enchant] so he could imbue her bow with the light element.

“It’s gone,” the girl replied, raising her severed arm for them to look at. “Lost it to the guy who did this.”

When Kaylee heard the undead’s reply her heart began pounding rapidly as she felt the veins on her temple tighten and her vision redden. This fucking bitch! She cried on the inside. She went and lost their hard earned money?

“Fuck it, let’s kill them,” Marcus suggested. He sounded as angry as she felt.

The other two seemed to be pretty pissed off as well because they took immediate action after hearing their leader. All the Scarlet Quartet had decided to send this thieving corpse of a bitch and her master to hell.

However, just before they fired off their attacks the undead girl spoke.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked. There was a hint of a threat in her voice. “Especially with those women behind you?”

These words caused them to halt their actions.

If they tried to kill the undead bitch and her master they would most certainly resist and the freed captives would be put in danger.

“Shit,” Kaylee cursed under her breath. “This is why I hate escort missions.”