The boys, unaware, kept up their methodical pace only occasionally snapping twigs, bending branches, and otherwise announcing their location to everything nearby. Sweat was beading on their foreheads, walking for half a day in thick leather armor and plate on guard was draining even their endless energy. As they walked deeper, the cat at first kept pace with them, staying deep in the trees to their side out of sight. Then it slowly crept closer silently, painfully slowly, until it was basically on top of the twins from its perch on a tree.

Adrest considered pushing Belle into action, but it turned out to be unnecessary. As soon as the big black cat leaned forward and tensed its hind legs to pounce down, Belle was on the move.

In a single action, Belle drew her old blades, a smokey grey pair of C rank swords. She took a long stride forward, her foot meeting the ground halfway as she used earth magic to propel her up and forward, now soaring through the air and into the car that hadn’t even completely left the tree yet, one back leg still pushing off to attack.

The commotion was finally enough for the fledgling adventurers to look up, paling in wide eyed fright at the beast just two dozen or so feet away looking down at them.

What shocked the boys even more though, was the little demi-human girl that had been accompanying Rin the entire time. Though Rin said she was already C rank, there was no way they would believe that. A girl young enough to be mistaken for one of the children their orphanage could never be C rank already, it was ridiculous. This way of thinking couldn’t entirely be blamed on the boys though. It was true unless one was born into an ultra-wealthy family or the most talented, it was almost impossible to grow so fast.

Then Belle’s pale, almost white, leg made first contact with the beast. The boys meters below couldn’t help but wince hearing a wet and rough cracking noise from the beast. Then let their eyes hang in shock seeing the big cat go flying through the air, just barely able to scramble onto a branch.

Belle allowed the monster to rest for but a moment as she re-positioned herself on the ground in front of the twins, ready for the next stage of the fight.

The woman and cat made eye contact, seeing who would break first. It was a tense moment that seemed to stretch endlessly, they broke into the real battle with no warning.

Meeting just a few paces in front of the cat’s targets, the twins’ ears rang from the impact of sword and claw, the two embroiled in a fight to the death moving almost too fast for them to keep track of. Roy had never seen earth magic used so fluidly, he noticed the earth under Belle shifted with every step, removing any possible obstacles that she may face while doing the opposite for her opponent. If an attack slipped past her guard, without fail an earthen wall of bullet would appear to knock the strike off track just enough.

What shocked and made Rodge wince was the brutality with which Belle treated herself, arguably more that her enemies. Each time her small frame would draw back a blade, her arms would go unnaturally far back, joints twisting, more than he imagined possible. Every kick snapped like a whip, he was sure he heard actual cracking and tearing when she prepared particularly vicious strikes. She would strike from weird angles as she constantly danced and jumped around the deadly beast, slowly getting cuts off on the thick hide as it was slowly forced on the back-foot.

Roy and Rodge returned from their momentary stupor just seconds after the ambush, looked each other in the eyes, and with shaking hands took up their weapons to help Belle. Rin might’ve said she was a C rank already, but at the end of the day it was still a child and they couldn’t risk her getting hurt trying to protect them.

They were only able to lift a single foot off the ground when an enormous weight appeared on their shoulders. Adrenaline still rushing, they thought it was another attack and wanted to break free, until they thought to look over their shoulders at the beast that was impeding them.

Rin had a firm grip on both of the boys’ shoulders, not letting them move another inch. She knew Belle could handle an average C rank with no issues, she didn’t know if Belle could do it while protecting two others though. Adrest never took his eyes off the fight ahead as he caught up to the others.

“No need to get so worked up, Belle is a big girl and has fought a lot nastier than that. She might not be as freakish as Rin with the sword, but she’s still been soaking up everything a certain hero has to offer.”

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Even though he said to relax to the boys, he was ready to intervene at a moment’s notice just in case something went wrong.

Calm enough to think again, the twins relaxed their tense muscles and let their weapons hang limp at their sides. Rin nodded her head, turning her attention to Adrest.

With a sweet smile that didn’t reach her eyes Rin spoke, “Freakish is not a very nice way to describe me, but other than that, he’s right.”

Adrest knew that look and also knew he’d get an earful later. He swore in his head, sure that Rin had spent too much time with Alissa.

As if to prove their confidence, Belle attacked even more fiercely than before, now having a feel for the opponents style. She closed the already small gap between them and never let up, strike after strike cutting deeper across the large gray body, she even was able to half blind the tiger by slicing across an eye in exchange for a deep cut on the back of a hand to deflect an incoming paw.

As the blood flowed freely down the snow white skin, the boys jumped and were ready to intervene, just to be slapped on the back of their heads by an annoyed Rin.

“She’s fine, if you would pay attention you’d see it’s already scabbing over. There won’t even be a scar in a minute or so.”

True to her word, Belle was better than fine as a predatory smirk slid on her face in the heat of the moment, the intensity of gaining an advantage. She wanted to impress her audience and knew she could safely finish the practice session. Belle continued to charge the injured beast as she concentrated as much strength in her arms as her body would allow, blood vessels burst like fireworks across her skin, leaving thin trails of crimson webs just under the surface.

Belle winced at the stinging pain, but she could ignore this much just fine by now. She took a breath as she got into the proper stance and forced all the muscles in her back, shoulders, and arms to tense to the absolute limit. Then, like a spring, she released the tension in one arm. She let one blade meet the creature’s throat, ripping in until it was stopped by it’s spine in the center. But that wasn’t all, as soon as she met resistance, Belle let go of the blade and she used her momentum to follow through the strike empty handed and spin in place. when realigned, she kept gaining momentum using the stuck sword as a step, lightly jumping up on the beast’s back and steadied herself as it tried to buck her off and retreat, blood splattering everywhere . Belle had no mercy as she used her other arm, so far behind her back the twins thought her shoulder would dislocate, then snapped it down with her entire body behind it.

The result was Belle standing over her slain beast, splattered in the same crimson as her eyes, smiling proudly at the rest of the group.

Adrest was the first to move after the brutal display, walking up with a handkerchief. He carefully cleaned the rabbit’s face while admonishing with a playful grin, “You’re lucky Ali isn’t here, you’d never hear the end of it for how messy you got just fighting a C rank house cat. But great job Belle.”

Belle was happy for the praise and smiled at the imagined scene knowing that was exactly how it would play out, Big sis Ali has very high standards. She was also happy to see the awestruck and slightly embarrassed looks on the boys’ faces as they approached.

Roy was the first to speak, “Ahem, thank you for saving us, and we’re sorry we underestimated you.”

Rodge was feeling dour and self deprecating seeing how a girl 4 or 5 years younger than them was already so far ahead, but still spoke, “Sorry.”

“No problem!” Belle was easy to please and her mood was always quick to shift back to happiness.

Rin said some words of congratulations to the small girl as she rubbed her head, then turned to the boys. “Field dress this guy and dig out the core, if you perform up to my standards, you can keep everything.”

The twins forgot their lowered self worth when Rin said that, pulling their sharpest knives from their belt and jumped at the task. It was probably the fastest they’d ever worked before, bleeding, gutting, and skinning the cat in just under a quarter of an hour.

Rin looked over the pelt that was mostly ruined around the chest and throat, but that couldn’t be blamed on the boys and found a few spots on the back where they’d cut a little too thin and poked holes in the fur. Overall, it wasn’t the best she’d seen, but it could’ve been done worse. Happy, she stored the valuables from the corpse and laughed at the visible disappointment across their face.

“Don’t worry, I’ll give it back when we leave. You two don’t have spacial storages and the fresh blood and core would make you look like even tastier snacks to whatever’s nearby.”

Rin once again made the boys take point as they walked deeper. This time, when a group of curious D rank iron rats came investigating, the twins were ready. They heard the loud scurrying and prepared their weapons in response, blowing away a vanguard rat that leaped in the air for Roy’s face. Before they even had time to acknowledge the nice shot, almost a dozen were on them.

It was a chaotic battlefield as more rats slowly filtered in. It was easy enough for the twins to handle a few D ranks, especially these ones that were the perfect sized targets, about the size of a medium sized dog, but soon with the blood soaking the dirt floor below, bodies piling up, and adrenaline in overdrive, the twins made some mistakes.

First, Roy raised his Mace overhead to defend one running for Rodge’s unguarded calf, but he didn’t notice that one foot had sunk in the mud to nearly ankle, falling forward on a single knee, watching in horror as a rat was about to take a huge bite from his brother’s leg.