What we learn from the bandit leader is that the castles that are put on the board are meant to portray bandit strongholds in the area. Big enough to pose a veritable threat but somehow still having the possibility to pack up and leave fast enough when the Vinavian army assembles nearby. The smaller camps like this one are not marked though.

“How up to date are these maps?” Sam asks.

“We get a messenger bird every couple of days with updates. The situation has been relatively stable for a while though.” He then glances over to me. “Are you… going to remove the poison yet?”

Sam gives me a nod.

I cast a heal on the guy, but as expected there’s no poison in the bandit’s body at all. I do not say that though and just play along with the game.

“If you start to think helping us is off the table, we can always readminister it.” Sam threatens.

“Y-yes, that’s understood.”

“Alright.” Sam crosses her arms. “Then we should move on to the subject of the goblin cooperation.”

“Goblin cooperation?” The bandit leader squints his eyes.

“Didn’t we just state that we would readminister the potion?”

“Hold on, Sam, I’m pretty sure he really doesn’t know what you are talking about.” Carol interject.

“I think so too.” I add.

Sam squints her eyes slightly herself and turns back towards the bandit leader. “You’ve not heard about this?”

“If I had, I would tell you.” He replies. “I do not fancy that poison after all…” He looks down at the flask that’s bangling on Sam’s belt.

“So it’s not possible at all that there are bandit groups working together with goblins?” Sam continues. “There’s nothing strange you noticed?”

“Well… If it’s possible or not, I wouldn’t really know. I’ve not heard about goblins being very cooperative towards us humans. But I have noticed a couple of strange things the last couple of weeks.”

“Like?”

“That map, for one.” He nods back inside of the cabin. “We used to be a lot more independent, but all the sudden we got orders from the bigger groups to start coordinating attacks. It raised a couple of eyebrows, that's for sure. But we quickly stopped complaining when our actions started to pay back a lot more in return.”

“Hmmm.”

“Maybe it’s only the strongholds that have the goblin reinforcements?” I propose. “Would that be a possibility.” I look towards the bandit leader.

He shrugs, as much as he’s able too, being pinned still with arrows against the wall. “I got to admit, I’ve not been to the strongholds myself. Neither has anyone of the smaller groups as far as I know.”

“Then how do you even know who is in charge?”

“Listen here, little miss. As I said, as long as we were getting results. We really didn’t care much. I honestly couldn’t care much if my boss was an Ulusu or a fucking donkey.”

“So, in the matter of fact, you don’t even know if your boss is even another bandit or not.” Carol replies.

“I’d be surprised if they weren’t, but just so, yes.” He nods.

Sam nods back, scratching her chin. “Okay, I think we know enough then. Let’s grab whatever we can that may look useful and then get this guy to a prison?”

“Alrighty.” I smile.

“And what about the camp?” Max asks. “Are we just going to leave it like this?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We don’t really have anything to clean it up with, do we?” Sam replies. “If we had Nikki with us we could at least burn it to the ground.”

“I can try blasting it.” I raise my hand “I can keep that up for quite a while.”

“Blasting?” Carol asks.

“With her holy form.” Sam replies. “At least, that’s what I think you were insinuating.”

I nod. “Yeah. At least that way another bandit group can’t easily set up again.”

Sam sighs but then gives me a nod. “Okay, if you are sure about it then I’m not going to stop you. But let’s keep the blasting for after we get our stuff.”

We quickly collect most documents that are laying around in the cabin, folding up the big map and putting it in one of our backpacks. In the meantime Max guards the bandit captain. All by all it only takes us five minutes to collect everything which looks remotely useful.

“I’ll get on top of the cabin so I have a clear line of sight of the entire camp.” I say, preparing myself mentally to change forms.

“How exactly is that little girl going to level the entire camp?” The bandit leader asks.

Sam smirks and crosses her arms. “You’ll see in just a bit.”

I move a couple of meters away from the party and put my staff aside. I then close my eyes. Folding my hand in front of me. After a moment of focus I feel the hilt of sword resting in the palm of my hands and my wings folding open behind me.

When I open my eyes again, everyone apart from Sam, even including the direwolves, look completely perplexed.

“Aaaand that’s how.” Sam grins.

“Holy shit, Ami! You look epic.” Carol comes close to me and starts inspecting my armor.

“Ah right, this is the first time you see me like this, isn’t it?”

“Mhmm!” Carol nods. “You look like an angel from the movies!”

I start blushing a little.

“She had a dark side too, right?” Max asks.

“Yeah, that one is a lot more intimidating.” Sam nods.

Max scratches the back of her head. “Even more than this… Holy cow….”

I give my doggie a pet on the head after which I fly up to the roof of the building with one swoop of my wings. “Can you make sure the dogs stay close to the cabin?”

“Will do!” Max’s voice rings out from out of my line of sight.

“Okay, let’s make short work of this.” I point the tip of my sword towards the tents and palisades closest to the forest line and then I just start blasting. Leveling everything in its path within moments. Like that I just methodically work around the entire camp. It takes me around ten minutes to have leveled everything apart from the cabin I’m standing on top of. But I do make sure to call down a blast from the heavens to incinerate most of the corpses as well.

With that done I hop back down to Earth. “It’s just the cabin left now.”

“Ami, that was veritably scary as fuck.” Max comments, putting her hand on my shoulder. “I’m really happy you are our friend.”

“And because she’s fluffy to pet!” Carol ads.

“That too, but so are you.” Max winks, making Carol blush.

My friends then move away from the cabin, making sure to pick the bandit captain from the wall first, tying him up and throwing him on the back of Sam’s wolf.

When everyone is at a safe distance, I blast cabin down. It takes just a fraction longer than a normal tent. But against my holy flame, nothing really lasts that long. I kick a slightly smoldering piece of wood around as I look at my handiwork. Hopefully thanks to the ashes, this part of the wood will soon start blooming and growing once more.

I close my eyes, exhale, and focus back on my normal form. When I open my eyes back up again, I’m back to my usual self.

“Should we head back now? It’s getting hard for you to see isn’t it, Max.”

“Yep.” She nods. “Without your blasts of light, pretty darn hard now.”

“So we just teleport ourselves to the center of Ribaquen?” Sam comes to stand next to me. “We can find a prison starting from there.”

“If you think it’s not going to be too crowded.” I reply.

“Should be fine, right? A city without street lights at night?”

“Alright then.” I beckon my friends and our wolfies to come closer to me.

“But what if we want to come back to go to the military camp?” Max stops me for just a second.

“Ah, don’t worry. I remember what the bridge looks like so I can teleport us back over there. If we do it like this at least we can sleep in a bed instead of in a bedroll.”

“Oh… well… I’m not saying no to that.” She chuckles. “Let’s do this.”

As everyone is close enough to my liking I close my eyes again, for the third time in a very short timeframe. I picture the Ribaquen town square in my mind. A gust of wind later and the loss of the forrest’s nice odor means that the teleportation is a success.

“Holy shit!” I hear someone calling out, making me open my eyes. Right in front of us is a pair of guards holding their torches. Both looking as pale as a ghost. “Where in the blazes did you come from? That’s not where the teleportation stone is! And why is that man bound on top of your… Wait!? Is that a fucking wolf!?”

“Well… at least we didn’t teleport on top of them…” Sam mutters beneath her breath. Apart from them, the rest of the market square is empty though. Luckily enough, guaging from their reaction.