Lia crept towards the man with Ikari’s advice in mind, eyeing the man’s neck like what Kayd suggested, and gripped her blade tightly like how Quellin taught her.

The rest of the bandits walked off away from sight, leaving the man on his own.

Kayd stood closer than the others, his blade already half out of the sheath, half expecting something to go wrong and they needed to silence him.

Sweat draped on their eyebrows, eyes aimed straight at the single bandit and Lia.

Don’t mess this one up, kid.

As she made the last step, she raised both arms up while eyeing the exposed neck of the bandit.

She leaped onto the man’s back, a hand covering his mouth and the other driving the sharp blade into his neck. He twisted and turned while letting out muffled grunts of pain and anger-filled shouts, desperately grabbing at anything on Lia to get her off. But Lia continued her strikes, driving the knife into his neck over and over, making a mess around them.

In the muffled and drawn-out scuffle, the man managed to elbow Lia, striking her nose and throwing her down on the floor.

Mono and Kayd took a single step before Quellin grabbed their shoulders.

“The kill is almost complete, just wait and see if what she did was enough.” He spoke in that same emotionless voice with little concern. He just looked intently at the sight.

The man turned around, his life rapidly draining with each second. His hand struggled to grasp onto the mace stuck to his waist, slowly raising it upwards while crimson fluid gushed from the side of his neck. Lia tried to crawl away, raising a hand with absolute terror in her eyes, muttering curses as to how he remained alive. Quellin continued holding the two down and watched as the situation continued to unfold.

‘’Damn basta-’’ His speech slurred until he was incapable of muttering another word, falling forward and catching himself with his hands, directly on top of Lia.

In a panic, Lia began stabbing his already heavily wounded neck again, only stopping once the bandit fell silent and his body fell on hers, his vanishing corpse signaling the end of a slightly botched takedown attempt.

Finally, Quellin released the two who pushed the body aside and started to comfort the shocked healer. Her breathing slowed and her horrified expression went away upon seeing Mono, who she quickly held onto to calm down even further.

‘’Well done feathers,’’ Ikari congratulated with a pat on the back, ‘’Looks like you got what it takes for hunting.’’ She laughed.

‘’A similar remark to Ikari’s, now your main problem is with precision strikes at the weak points.’’ Quellin added, but sincerity and some emotion were present in his words, a shock to Kay and Lia.

‘’Now the greenhorn got her first taste of killing, well done kid. Consider yourself promoted from a greenhorn moving forward and as a full-fledged mercenary just like us.’’ Ishmael laughed. They surrounded her with smiles and cheers. But the celebration was cut short upon Ikari's warning of returning bandits. Everyone ran back to the dark.

The bandits yelled at one another in a hasty and fearful tone, looking around desperately as if trying to find something on the walls.

‘’What are they saying Ikari?’’ Ihsmael questioned. Their weapons were unsheathed, they held up odd gold bracelets, similar to the bracelets Lia had on her arms.

‘’They’re searching for something, they keep referring to it as the big one, some large creature it seems. And something about it eating the rats and fellow comrades.’’ She reported.

‘’Whatever it is, we need to make our move already before whatever they’re being hunted by.’’ Everyone was in agreement and they started making their move to head to where these bandits linger.

Kayd noted and advised the others on the weak points he could find on the bandit patrol. They held an odd amount of shining items on them, gleaming in the dark environment. Be it trinkets, lining on their clothes or weapons, or necklaces and other dangling idols They raised each one up as if pleading to something while yelling repeatedly.

Are they praying or something, wouldn’t be the first time I see something resembling that with these bandits

Kayd remembered the small shrine from the bandits before, a similar confusion hit him.

Apart from the armor looking bulkier than normal and the visible exhaustion they showed with labored walking, Kayd found multiple ways to dispatch them, be it quick and clean or slow and bloody, whatever was preferred.

—---

They slowly emerged from the dark, finally making their move forward and towards the next goal, the path to accomplishing this second objective has begun, and the thought of titles and liberating more people loomed over Kayd’s head, pushing him to continue forward and remain calm despite the uncertain area and the fear-inducing rumbling from beyond the rock walls.

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Everyone hid behind any cover they could find, moving ever closer to the bandits and tunnel, this time it was their turn to kill the bandits.

Ikari and Kayd were in position, closest to the bandits and awaiting Ishmael’s signal.

The quick whistle from her lips made Ikari release her arrow at the bandit, striking the unarmored neck. Kayd quickly followed suit, rushing at the next bandit who was more prepared, his sword cut through the underarm and sections of the legs, forcing him to kneel before delivering the final slice through the neck.

Much better than I thought, still have the speed with me, guess I don’t have to use my fist and handle butt again.

He chuckled to himself and looked at his emerging teammates. They stood at the foot of the dark tunnel, partially lit up by lines of torches. As the bodies vanished, he spotted one of the trinkets lying on the ground. He neared it to his face to study it.

Doesn’t look like any religion from the other world, nor any god either. Who do they worship?

‘’I don’t recognize those designs.’’ Lia whispered from right beside him, startling Kayd.

‘’Do they resemble any from what you’re wearing, or at least familiar to any other religion, maybe local ones from your place?’’ Kayd asked, showing the necklace to her, but her she simply shook her head. He noticed her expression looked more blank, rather than full of anxiety and terror she looked blank, her hand still held onto the blade and her robes were covered in blood.

‘’I’m sorry, but from all religions I can remember be it from books or what I saw outside the cathedral or even from my fellow healers, this doesn’t look familiar. There’s an obnoxious amount of gold put into the design though.’’ Lia held the necklace before pocketing it in her bag, perhaps to study it later on.

Ishmael planned their next move, the risk was too high to just simply enter through the tunnel, the sounds made it clear that there may be far more than a handful of bandits on the other side. But as she contemplated, she looked upwards, towards the higher portion of the cave wall.

‘’The sound and shaking should mask what we’re going to do next.’’ She started to whistle, and from behind them, Pip charged onward, stabbing the ground beneath it with each stride before coming to a halt in front of them.

‘’Ikari, I hope you can recall the noise the rat made earlier, we’re going to need your help more than ever here.’’ Ishmael grinned, Ikari smiled with light in her eyes, a rush of excitement in her after giving her the order.’’

‘’Aye captain, rest assured as I have the ears of a bat! And shall lead us wherever you want!’’ She playfully saluted and got on the crab faster than the others, assuming the helm first alongside Ishmael while putting a hand near her ear to hear.

They grabbed on the wood as Pip climbed the wall, and with a joyous shout from Ishmael, dug its claws into the rock and began digging through it, sending chunks of rock to the ground. Before they knew it, Pip was forming its own tunnel, rapidly expanding it and clawing through the dense rock with ease. Rocks breaking and being tossed around were the only things he could hear.

It’d be a miracle if she can hear squat in this racket. But at this point, I won’t be surprised if she perfectly gets us to them.

Kayd sat next to Lia, she stared straight forward, no longer stuck with Quellin who was speaking with Mono at the moment, she held the blade with a concerning vigor, possibly thinking of the next person she could kill now.

While they moved forward, Pip suddenly jolted, catching everyone off guard and to stumble. Lia’s notebook slipped from her bag without her noticing, slipping next to Kayd.

It’s been a while since I saw her scribble down on that thing, did she add anything to it?

Without her knowledge and overcome by curiosity, he opened the notebook.

He expected more drawings, further detailed explanations, and sketches, but it stopped at the plant they came across before. The explanation was short and unfinished while the sketch was visibly rough. A quick comparison with past pages made Kayd see the drastic change in quality.

Odd, she always wanted to draw and note down things, but it just stopped. Wait, isn’t this the plant she tried to draw before getting taken?

The realization hit him suddenly and as hard as a brick, whatever happened when she was taken to that cell, and the constant conditioning of Quellin made her stop doing this. Although he agreed for her stop being focused on drawing especially in this environment, he felt saddened and guilty.

‘’Oh, I didn’t notice that fall out the bag, I need to be more observant.’’ Lia looked to Kayd with a hand extended. Kayd took a glance at a few other pages to admire the beauty of them before handing it back to her, feeling a pit in his stomach.

‘’You didn’t finish that drawing from before?’’ He asked, Lia’s eyes widened, staring blankly at Kayd for an awkward few seconds.

‘’No…I don’t see a reason to, we need to focus on the two important things at this moment, to fight and to help patch up wounds.’’ Lia’s voice started to sound just as emotionless as Quellin’s, only holding a small semblance of emotion, of fear.

‘’Hmm, we can go find a plant like that and you can finish that drawing of yours once this is over, what do you say?’’

‘’No’’ The answer surprised him.

‘’I see no reason to, there are better things to study, draw, and note down like patrol paths, weak points, and a general layout of the area. But I can remember it so notes are not necessary.’’ She continued, Kayd felt nervous just being near her, the shy but curious girl he connected well with before was gone. He was relieved that she was taking this more seriously and more willing to fight and take the reins to dirty her hands in combat. But now he just felt guilty, worried that Quellin’s training had gone too far, she was far too focused on this, and that curious healer from before was starting to fade away, being replaced by this new soldier identity.

Damn, how much of being a soldier and having discipline did Quellin teach you? I thought it’d just reach to being more confident and fighting….

Time will tell to see the outcome of the training, and how much Quellin imparted on her and is imparting to Mono at this moment.

He felt a mix of being glad for her improvement and being more hands-on and sad to see that curiosity was a sacrifice for this. He pondered if it could be returned, to have her confidence and keep the curiosity. Only time will tell, and he'll eventually see the extent of the change the further they go into this desert and kill the bandit leaders.