“I’m not short! I’m a half-halfling! I’m a perfectly normal height!”

“So… you’re a quarterling then?”

“The half-in halfling comes from size! If anything I’m a three-fourthsling!”

‘It’s weird seeing her get worked up, and at this of all things.’ “Duck.” I brought my sword down fast and it stopped just above her, knocking the man behind her out cold. “Eyes up three-fourthsling” ‘I should stay alert too, Although I think he was the only one on this side of my rune traps.’

“MY NAME IS MOCHI!” She yelled, covering her head with her hands as she ducked down, shaking like a puppy that just heard lightning for the first time.

‘What is someone like her even doing with these guys in the first place?’ I knelt down next to her and patted her on the head my lightning runes dealing with anyone who got too close in the meantime. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Uh… Uhuh.”

“You aren’t much of a fighter are you Mochi?”

She shook her head. “No, I can fight.” She looked around frantically before pulling out two shoddy iron daggers from under her shirt that looked more like unrefined rocks than actual weapons.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ “Are you low on mana? How are you with staves?”

She’d probably freeze up using a bladed weapon.’

Her eyes were still fixated solely on me, completely oblivious to what was happening around us as more people got totally fried by my lightning. Her bright beaming smile seemed almost out of place there. “Oo, oo Yeah, I can use those too!”

I pulled my spear from out of storage and broke the spearhead off so she wouldn’t accidentally kill someone. “Here, take this. Just try to stay safe till it all blows over alright?”

She put her daggers back in their sheaths and grabbed the staff.

“It’ll be safer for you to stay back, but if somehow you do end up in trouble just holler ok?”

She nodded, timidly stepping away until her back was to the massive door that led to the outside.

I stabbed my blade into the ground and stepped forward. ‘It’s going to be hard not to kill people with that thing I’m more likely to cut them in half... It's a shame…’ Cracking my knuckles I raised my voice. “Listen up! You can either give me the key to this door! Or you can fight me, get your butt whooped, and then I can take my sweet time picking the lock. One of those ways is a lot less painful!”

“You think we're afraid of a little girl!” One of them yelled.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Little girls can be scary you know!”

He laughed but I didn’t care, I just started pointing at them, counting up how many there were in total, and doing some quick math. ‘That’s 36, counting the ones that are already fried by lightning. Let's see, the average price per head would probably be something like 300 talons.

They all braced themselves like I was about to use magic, showing fear on their faces that made me more than confident there wasn’t a single tier 4 mage among them. “Hey Mochi! What’s 36 times 300!”

‘I think it’s it’s like 10,800 right? So if I count the leader as double then that’s 11,100. Not a bad payout I guess. Not worth what I went through, although if I can get Mochi out of here I’ll just say that makes up the difference so I feel better.’

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One of the other ones on the side was actually counting it out on his fingers for me, doing the math. “It’s like 11k right?”

‘Eh, close enough.’ I shrugged. “So, what’s it going to be? Lift the lockdown or take a beating.”

“She’s right. I’m sick of it here! How much longer!”

I paused. ‘Wait what?’

“Yeah, let us out already would you?”

‘What is this, in fighting now? I guess to them it looks like I’m starting a riot, not breaking out of jail. I could probably spin this.’ “COME ON THEN!” I shouted. “GIVE US THE KEY! I was better on the streets than in this nasty cave!”

A devilish grin overtook the leader's face. “I’ve been waiting for a good brawl! Fine then! You want this key! Come and get it! But if you lose you’re rations go to the winners!”

‘Well that was easy…’

Just like that the groups divided into two mobs in a massive brawl that I didn’t even have to take part in, making my job way easier than it should have been. ‘I love it when things just kind of work out.’

By the end of it, they were all battered, but only a few of them were completely taken out. Magnus stood atop a few of them, breathing heavily with an even bigger smile, blood dripping from his lip. “No, that that’s settled! Go take out the girl! 5 silver for the one that brings her to her knees!”

When no one moved the boss got angry, throwing one of his men forward and letting him get fried by the lightning, then he did it again, and again, eventually spending up all four of the traps I had left. It was a bit short-sighted of him though… As lightning had a natural chaining effect… Since I had to dum it down to not kill, I gave that chaining effect a little enhancement too, and well… when coupled with the brawl their numbers suddenly weren’t looking too good.

‘Assuming the ones that got knocked down earlier stay down, there’s less than 20 left.’

“Alright, I’ll take you on.”

as he ordered the charge and the minions surrounded me. None of them were brave enough to launch the first strike though, likely because of my perceived confidence…And the massive number of magic runes that had already been decimating them. Even though I was sweating bullets on the inside they didn’t know I was all out of traps.

‘Ok, let's think here… What can I do with tier-two magic that will give me the edge against a mob… No, maybe I’m thinking about this wrong, what if I create a funnel? And change it into several 1 v 1 battles.’

Before even drawing my weapons, I slowly raised my hands high into the air, and with them a wall of thorns sprouted up from the ground like caltrops, just tall enough they couldn’t climb over them easily.

‘And now for the finishing touch.’ I conjured three boulders, holding them in the air ready to throw at any given moment. ‘I’m overdoing it… I don’t have much magic left after this…’ I felt my legs start to shake under the tension, and just hoped they didn’t notice. “Last chance to give me the keys and let me walk out of here.”

The large man threw one of his minions over the thorns and ordered a charge again, leading it himself as he kicked and shattered the vines on one end of the wall.

‘Guess we're fighting…’ One boulder was sent directly at the largest man there, and another was sent to take out three more climbing over the wall to my left. Finally, the third boulder cleared out five men who were plugging the hole that was made in the wall.

Having used up the spells I grabbed my axe, flipped it to the blunt side, and slammed it into the helmet of the man that was thrown over, knocking him out cold as he frantically tried to regain his footing. ‘What is that like 12 left? I already lost count.’

I threw my ax, logging it into someone's leg ‘11’ before going hand to hand, dislocating a man's elbow and shoulder ‘10’ and flipping him into the next man ‘9’, before spin kicking the man with the ax in his leg.

‘I’ve only got one spell left in me so let's make it a good one. I need to not overdo it though or I’ll lose feeling in my body.’

Everyone left inside the wall of thorns I had created and surrounded me, so any large area spells were pretty much a bust. Fire breath might have worked, but it also made me vulnerable to the people I wasn’t torching and ruined my breathing.

‘Here we go.’

‘It hasn’t let me down yet…’ I closed my eyes, covering them with one hand while I lifted my other high into the air. ‘Blinding flash.’

Even shut tight as they were I could still see a flicker of light as the ringing from the magic filled the air with the scent of dust. ‘Now!’

I pulled my knife and my dagger and quickly got to work, carving up 5 of the remaining guards with nonfatal slashing, covering the ground in blood. ‘4’

The 6th man put up a fight as he was coming out of the daze, but I still took care of him quickly. ‘3’ Finally they had regained their bearings, and as strange as it was to say after taking out 20 of them, I was at a disadvantage.

Out of mana, and against three human opponents at once, I wasn’t sure what the best course of action was, or even what weapon I should try and use. The tension between us was so thick I could almost see it with my eyes.

‘An ax, a dagger, and a sword… The dagger is by far the most dangerous, it’s going to be the easiest to lose track of. Ok… Well, what if I just do this then.’ I picked up the great blade and lifted it onto my shoulder, still holding onto my throwing knife in my other hand. “Come on then.”

They charged at me before I could even finish speaking. ‘Perfect.’ My muscles twitched and jerked as I sent the great blade cutting through the air and severing one of their legs before pulling it up to block the strike from the ax, completely concealing my presence behind the thick blade.

The man with the knife appeared, trying to stab me from around the blade, but I paired it with my own knife and socked him in the face, breaking his nose and making him stagger back in another daze.

Coming out from around the blade I pulled my sword and slit the ax wielder's wrist before bashing him with the pommel and knocking him out as well. ‘And that’s 0’

Chills ran through my body as I heard the sound of wood thunking against someone's skull and turned to see Mochi taking out one last guy.

‘So it was 13? I guess my math was off after all…’

My breathing was steady… Or at least it was there. But as I looked down at my blood-soaked hands they began to shake, and the numbness from all the strikes and ratling blade handles finally caught up I nearly lost feeling in my palms. I tried thinking of what I was going to do first to calm myself, take a bath, and eat a nice meal, but my thoughts just blurred together into an incoherent background of ideas as I began searching for the key.