There was only one entrance to the cave. Until about a day ago it was apparently the home of the bandits but the hunters determined that they had already left. The guard group were the ones to go in and search the cave and they found a few women captives, a couple men captives, and a lot of loot that included most of what they had come to retrieve. There was a discussion about whether to go after the bandits or not among the leaders with many others listening in.

One side of the argument was that hunting them down was part of the job and it would be wiser to get rid of them before they become a bigger problem. The other side proclaimed that it would make the job extend for an indeterminate amount of time, risk deaths and injuries, and may not even be entirely legal as the bandits could have made it into a different territory by the time everyone caught up to them. The argument might have gone on for hours until it would have been too late to try and chase them down anyway had some of the captives not started exclaiming in shouts about the children that the bandits had taken with them as hostages or worse. That made the decision in overwhelming favor to go after them as quickly as possible.

Most of the guard group stayed behind to take care of the captives and reclaim the loot. Everyone else followed the directions of the hunters, who had all started following the trails as quickly as possible. According to the hunters they were rapidly gaining on the bandits due to them having brought along not just hostages but some loot as well, which slowed them down to near walking speed. With all the mercs and hunters moving at almost more than double the speed of the bandits it only took until evening for one of the forward scouts to report that they had seen what looked to be like the tail of the bandit group ahead.

As everyone slowed their approach slightly, a quick strategy discussion was had. The occasional pause in people's speeches due to having to move around trees or other obstacles might have been more entertaining had the situation where the lives of children were at stake not been what was being discussed. The final decision was to follow as carefully and quietly as possible for a little longer and hope that the bandits would decide to set up for the night. Most of the hunters would take a merc or two to circle around to the front and sides and when the signal was given by the higher ranked mercs and hunters, whether the bandits had stopped to rest or not, then everyone would commence the attack. Everyone had also agreed to pitch in slightly and give a very small amount of their pay over to whoever managed to secure the children, adding up to a nice little bonus as incentive for everyone to make them the priority.

One young hunter tried to make Sai the one he was in charge of leading but decided to finally give up after Marik convinced him that he and Sai would not separate. Another hunter came shortly after and led them both off to be one of the side attackers. Evening changed to night and the moon steadily rose higher. Marik kind of wished it had been a full moon since that just made the night feel better but he was also glad in a way that it wasn't so that they could stay hidden easier and for longer. After some brief thinking he realized that no matter what the attack would begin soon, and he still had their luggage strapped to his back, so he started pulling the bags off so he could drop them as soon as he was close enough to see the bandits after the attack was announced. He didn't want to fight while wearing or holding the bags but he still wanted to be able to find them after everything was over.

Just as he managed to get the bags off and into his hands there was sharp whistling in the surroundings and their hunter guide whispered "it's time" as he started moving in the direction of the bandits. Marik and Sai followed after him and as soon as they caught sight of what looked like one of their targets Marik dropped the bags and started sprinting on all fours. He had learned from D long ago how things like this went and knew that there would be little to no more coordination until the bandits were dealt with.

Back when he had been with D and Mer he had usually been somewhat reserved with his actions and would hang back some to defer to his mentors during fights. This time he used his old memory of the first time he had taken down some bandits by himself with the experiences he had gained in the years since and stayed as low and quiet as possible in his charge. Luckily the dark fur he was covered in while in beast form helped almost as much as the sorcery he once used and the bandit didn't even realize Marik was there until a split second too late. Marik leapt and tore through the man's throat then looked towards the next one.

The whistling signal followed by the attacks from all directions had set the bandits closer to the middle of their groups on high alert. A rock bullet from a sling slammed into his shoulder as he tried to dodge and an arrow or bolt, he wasn't sure which, flew past his face. Doing his best to ignore the pain in his shoulder he tried to move in a zigzag pattern to avoid more incoming projectiles as he headed in their direction to try and take down the ranged attackers. A foot suddenly flew out from behind a tree the was passing and he opened his mouth to bite at it since he was using his arms to run, which gave him the fleeting thought that he might be turning more and more feral in physical fights. The bandit who got his leg caught in Marik's mouth made a kind of leap forward with his remaining leg to swing a punch at Marik's face, forcing Marik to open his mouth to let the leg go and dodge backwards.

Suddenly a line appeared over Marik's right shoulder and pierced into the bandit's throat for a split second before retreating again and Marik looked back to see Sai holding her rope-sash with an excited look on her face right behind him.

"Nice shot."

"Thanks."

Marik said no more and moved on to find the next target. He headed again for where the ones with ranged weapons were while keeping low again. This time he could hear Sai behind him better now that he knew she was staying near him. He charged into the middle of the remaining group of bandits that he could see while staying low and using his claws to take swipes at their legs and midsections in order to hinder or distract them. He had no kind of delusion that he would be able to take them out by himself but he thought it would be fine if he just went in to do a little damage and jumped back out again. Unfortunately for him several of them had already noticed that they would no longer be able to keep using their ranged weapons and had already started switching to their melee ones. He managed to nick one in the thigh and rake one across the stomach with his claws before realizing that he might have messed up and gotten too far in.

A sword swing was coming from someone to his right and slightly behind, possibly the guy who got a scratch on his leg, while a spear was being thrust from someone to the left and the guy in front of him was already mid swing with an axe coming down at Marik's head. Marik charged forward even harder while turning slightly with his hips, allowing him to dodge the spear and only take a light scratch from the tip of the sword, and used palm to his the hand holding the axe, adjusting it's trajectory to the side. Since his other hand was sort of behind him and his face was now relatively close to the axe bandit's he just used his jaws to bite at his throat.

He tasted fresh blood pouring into his mouth as he bit down and felt his forward momentum throw him into the now dead or dying bandit, making them both fall down with Marik landing on top of him. Afraid the spear or sword might be coming at him again he rolled over to the side and off the now dead body and saw Sai just landing on the ground near him at the end of a jumping spin. The sharp end of her rope-sash was still flying wide behind her with a small trail of blood leading from the sword guy's face while the blunt end was currently bouncing off of the smashed in face of the spear guy. Right after she landed she made another spin allowing herself to be wrapped up slightly before slipping out of it again which caused both ends to fly out towards her targets again at a speed that was hard to see. The sharp end found its way into spear guy's guts and the blunt end swung out wide a little further making it wrap around sword guy's neck. With her low stance after spinning giving her a solid base to hold her ground with she twisted her body to do a half spin while yanking on both ends to bring them back to her quickly. The sharp end removed itself from spear guy's guts to fly towards her while the blunt end brought the surprised sword guy with it. She caught the sharp end and held it like a dagger as she brought the sword guy in closer while dodging his swing by ducking under it and practically dancing to get behind him where she could stab him in the kidneys and slit his throat.

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Marik looked over and saw that the spear guy was still alive and getting ready to throw his spear in a last ditch effort to take someone with him. Marik shoved himself half up and leapt forward in a fluid motion to tackle the spear guy, causing his spear to be thrown in a completely different direction and miss hitting Sai. That he had tried to go after her kind of angered Marik slightly so he shoved one clawed hand into the guy's gut wound as they fell over. Feeling a little satisfaction after seeing the guy's face full of pain he bit and tore out his throat before standing up again. He took a brief look around and saw the few remaining bandits being taken down a little ways away by others and decided that the whole thing was pretty much over as he noticed his claws and hands were practically coated in blood. Without thinking about it, he started to lick them clean as he approached Sai to make sure she was fine.

Sai had just unwrapped her rope-sash and begun coiling it up when she noticed Marik's behavior. She looked at his eyes, then the claws he was licking, then at her own bloodied blade. A look of curiosity came across her face and she carefully stuck out her tongue and gave it the barest of licks as a test. Seeming to find it satisfying enough she began to give it a full lick with her tongue stretched out to get as much as she could off the blade at once. Marik was about to make an ashamed comment about his unknown new habit of licking his claws clean of blood but the sight of Sai licking her own blade in the way she was seemed somehow incredibly erotic to him and all the excuses and thoughts he had took their own journey elsewhere. Still mindlessly licking his claws he approached Sai and saw that she noticed him coming with that kind of look in his eyes.

"Somehow you look sexy as fuck right now..."

She smiled a little and glanced lower. Noticing that her lover was starting to get excited watching her brought a bigger and more mischievous smile to her face. She shifted into a more erotic pose and continued licking her blade clean but while doing it as erotically as she could now. In between licks she started to egg him on.

"Nn...that's okay...nn...the blood around...nn...isn't the only thing...nn...dripping wet..."

Marik was about half a second away from pouncing on her right then and there if another voice hadn't suddenly interrupted them.

"Wow! Okay then. Maybe I came at a bad time? Should the rest of us leave and come back later after you psychotic duo have calmed down to a more normal state? I mean, I gathered your wife wasn't completely normal in the head but I thought you were at least a decent sort."

""Huh?!""

Both Marik and Sai paused and looked over at the approaching man, Derek, and started coming back to their senses.

"No no. She's absolutely crazy, sure, but do you think anyone could marry or live with crazy without being at least one paw in the door themselves? Putting that aside..."

"*sigh* Don't just put that aside. Look, we're pretty much done here so we're gathering up over there to make sure and get an injury count and all that. I was also going to mention that I was actually somewhat impressed with that weapon but that whole moment go kind of ruined by you two going into heat almost immediately..."

"What are you talking about? We're almost perpetually in heat around each other."

"You know, you could at least try and deny some these things. It feels all sorts of awkward to hear you admitting to be crazy and in heat when I was halfway trying to be insulting with it."

"Meh. It's kind of like calling you a tigerkin or a merc. No matter how insulting I try to sound while saying it, it's still true and you wouldn't ever really feel it as an insult."

"How is...no, you know what? I'm old enough to know when to not touch on crazy. Come on over, let everyone know you're still unfortunately alive, and get the plans of 'what now' after that. Then you guys can run off and do whatever for all I care."

Marik sighed as he went to go grab their bags and Sai pouted a little while she finished coiling up and putting away her rope-sash as she had started to do earlier. After that they headed to where everyone was gathering to hear about how things went in general as well as what to do next. The children had been secured by one of the ninth ranks and it was determined that looting the bodies was okay as long as whoever was looting it made the kill but the treasure they were hauling around would go back with the guard group since it was part of what was claimed in the contract. Sai had a scraped forearm and Marik's cut on his side wasn't bad enough to worry about but many others had worse injuries and three people had died, two mercs and one hunter. Everyone was free to head back to the cave or camping spot once they had finished in the area but the convoy was expected to leave from the camp by around noon of the next day.

Marik had to chase after Sai a bit once the debriefing was over since she seemed to be in a hurry to get the loot from their kills. They rummaged the pockets and checked over them carefully but other than the weapons and a few coins there wasn't much that either of them felt was worth the effort to try and bring back. Once they had finished with putting what they could in their bags and creating makeshift straps from ripping up the bandits clothes to tie together the weapons, they both headed off to the most out of the way direction they could without feeling like they were getting lost and took care of their recently reignited sexual urges. By the time the morning light started filtering through the trees they realized that they still needed to make the long journey back to the campsite.

In a hurry, they strapped the bags and weapons to their beast forms' backs and started running at as fast a pace as they dared while realizing it may take them a whole day to catch up. Marik led due to his ability to better notice the tracks that everyone had made and they made it back to the cave a little before noon. Since they knew they wouldn't be able to make it all the way back to the campsite before the convoy left they decided to take a quick break and look around to see what got left behind, if anything. There wasn't anything left of value in the bandit's hideout but they did find some things they could use to clean themselves up a bit as well as some food that wouldn't last much longer and some water. They took about an hours rest refreshing themselves and then started running again in hopes they could catch up to the convoy before it got too far.

It was early evening when they caught up again and saw Derek trailing behind everyone else. He noticed their arrival and smirked slightly before shaking his head and then ignoring them. It seemed the convoy was moving a little slower now with everyone loaded down and the wagons now holding the main loot and captives from the cave. As they came up to Derek they slowed down to match his stride and walked next to him for a while. Marik figured that there would be complaints so he was trying to think of some way to make sure he didn't receive too severe a punishment but it seemed that Derek had caught on to what he was thinking about.

"No, you're not the only ones who didn't make it back in time. Nobody said you even have to go back with everyone. As far as our guys go it should be okay according to the contract as long as they make it back in the next four days or so."

"I see. So, why are you back here? Just waiting for late guys like us or trying to catch the bandits' informant?"

Derek looked like he almost tripped over something for a second upon hearing the question.

"What makes you think they had an informant?"

"Huh? I thought it was kind of obvious. How else would they know to leave when they did? And to not bring most of their loot or captives while only taking some easy to handle ones as hostages? Either they can see the future or someone tipped them off."

"That...well, all I can say is it ain't our job to try and deal with it."

"Fair enough. So, new question. You still going to teach the lovely vixen next to us some rope tricks?"

"Honestly? I kind of don't wanna after seeing the crazy. I'm a little scared of what might happen someday. That said, I did make a deal and it won't really cost me, so I guess I can at least show a thing or two."

"Great!"

"Wait, what? Are you that happy about her being able to tie you up? You're crazy just keeps growing..."

"No no. That's not really my thing. I'm just happy that she'll get to learn something new that could come in handy someday."

"Uh huh. If that's the story you wanna go with, then whatever."