Sam dresses Hilda’s wounds for a few more moments before she’s completely patched up, after which we start moving again.

“Their base is not that far off anymore, so keep your eyes open.” Hilda once again leads the way.

“Does Turn of Destiny also keep you so on edge, like this?” Sam walks next to me.

“Not really, it’s a lot more relaxed. But then again, maybe it’s because this is a new game which we all don’t really know.” I vault over a piece of rubble, helping my girlfriend get over it as well.

“Thanks babe.” She smiles.

“The nature of gun play also makes it feel a bit more stressy. Sword and shield is a lot more comfortable.” Élise manages to easily vault the rubble as well, despite her heavy weaponry.

“Combat is just a lot slower, although, that can really depend on the situation.” Nikki just goes wide around the rubble.

Hilda nods. “Bullets are a lot harder to stop or dodge than arrows and knives are, but melee can nonetheless get quite hectic.”

“Maybe this works a bit like a rhythm game…” I add hesitantly.

“How so?” Élise looks a bit confused.

“Well, you know how rhythm games feel ridiculously fast, even at very easy difficulty levels when you just started playing. But the more difficult songs you try and you get used to the speed, it appears to just slow down?”

“Oh! A bit like RR: Idol Bonanza!” Sam enthusiastically answers.

“I was thinking more something like USO, but that’ll do.” I giggle. “I didn’t know you played that game.”

“I like cute girls who sing cute songs in cute outfits. And it’s fun to have something to do during breaks at uni.” Sam pouts.

“Maybe I should cosplay as an idol then?” I tease her.

Sam enthusiastically nods. “Oh my Goddess, YES!!!”

“Super magical idol catgirl AmiAmi-chan.” Élise roars with laughter.

“I can make that happen.” Nikki’s eyes light up demonically.

-Oh no, I think my tease backfired.-

“Get her in a super frilly light blue dress, with a little ribbon on her tail and in her hair!”

Sam quickly shuffles to Nikki.

“Damn girl, that sounds perfect. I’ll get started on it when I get back home from work tomorrow.” Nikki shows her a thumbs up.

“Sounds like you will have to play some dress up.” Hilda slows her pace down a bit so she can walk next to me.

“I kind of brought it down on myself.” I smile, looking back at Sam and Nikki, still vigorously discussing the outfits I should wear. “And I don’t dislike it.”

“That’s good.” Hilda smiles. “At least I’ll be able to tease you a bit with it.”

“Would you come as well?”

“I wouldn’t want to miss it!”

“Even if I would sing as well?”

“Oh, ye, I might need to rethink it then.” She laughs.

“Rude!” I laugh as well.

“Have you tried singing?” Hilda calms herself down a bit, eyes back on the road with great attention.

“Actually, I haven’t. I haven’t really thought about it.”

“That’s fair, I do think you’d sound great though. Your voice has a very nice ring to it. And with ears as big as yours, it’ll be easy to adjust your own tone.” She pets my left ear with her free hand.

“Human singers can do that without those ears!”

“I know, I just wanted an excuse to pet them.” She winks.

“Buuu!” I pout. “You could just have asked.” Purring slightly because of the ear rub.

Without saying a word Hilda just smiles and takes back her hand before abruptly stopping and whispering: “I think we are there.”

In the distance we see a fortification taking shape, it very much looks like a makeshift but solid wall, manned by several bandits.

“Do you think they spotted us?” Élise asks through the headset while we all take cover.

“I don’t think so.” Hilda replies. “Otherwise they’d have started shooting already.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Nikki asks, crouching against a tree.

“I’ll climb a tree and take a look, ok?” Hilda looks out for the tallest tree in the area and stealthily heads towards it.

“Ok, just make sure you don’t fall, I might have to start charging you for my services.” Sam jokes, Hilda turns around and quickly shows her a thumbs up.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Sam’s huddled closely next to me behind a piece of debris, her tail brushing my back.

“Sam, that tickles.” I whisper in her ear.

“I know, that’s why I’m doing it.” She smirks.

Hilda interrupts Sam’s flirting, already having climbed high up and looking through her scope. “Okay, it looks like the wall goes around the entire complex, I can’t see an easy way in. It does look like they are only really manning the front gate though.”

Nikki laughs sinisterly through the earpiece. “How many can you see at the gate?”

“Like ten bandits… Oh, I see where you are going with this.”

“Hehe, then how about we go in with a bang?”

“We do need to clear out the entire compound…” Hilda sighs.

“Is that a yes?”

“...Yeah.”

“Sis, I think Nikki is enjoying this a little bit too much.” I look at my sister.

She shrugs. “It’s kinda funny to see her like this, as opposed to her controlled self.”

“Sometimes I just need to blow off some steam.” Nikki replies. “In this case, with explosives.”

“That’s valid.” I giggle. “So Nikki blows up the gate and then what?”

“I’d say you and Nikki take point, with Sam and Élise closely following you. Lise, try to take a vantage position once you are inside of the compound and lay down covering fire.”

“Roger that.”

“Sam, try to stay a few meters behind Nikki and your girlfriend, they have better close range weapons, just try to take out targets that are a bit further away.”

“Allright ma’am.”

“I’ll try to take out people who try to outflank you or that are in a difficult position. Everyone okay with that?”

“Yep.” We all say in unison.

“Just try to get a bit closer and then let’s go on my mark.”

When Hilda says this we all start moving from cover to cover, inching closer to the gate and the approaching fight.

“Let’s do this, Sam.” I quickly take her hand in between the moves.

She nods. “Just try not to get hit.”

“It’ll be fine.” I smile.

“Nikki, now!” We hear Hilda call out over our headsets.

Nikki takes her grenade launcher from her back and immediately fires a grenade at the gate.

Direct hit! The gate gets blown open and the guards besides it die instantly from the blast.

“Okay girls, let’s go.” Nikki quickly switches back to her shotgun as we make a run for the gaping hole in their defences.

A bandit comes running out through the smoke, immediately getting answered by a blast of buckshot from Nikki’s shotgun. Another one follows suit, that one getting mowed down by my tommy gun.

We storm through the smoke, finding the rest of the bandit encampment in pure chaos, already a couple of bodies decorating the floor next to several of the compounds.

“No problem.” Hilda says over the radio.

We immediately run towards the nearest cover and start laying down fire. Once my sister has set up and started spraying the area with suppressive fire I lay out a plan.

“Sam, can you stay here with Élise while me and Nikki clear the buildings one by one?”

“Allright.” She answers while gunning down a bandit who wanted to throw a molotov cocktail at us, causing the poor guy to set himself on fire instead.

I give Nikki a nod as we run towards the closest building and start clearing it out. It doesn’t offer much of a challenge as most bandits are still dazed by the sudden assault. The next buildings also follow the same pattern, only a couple of bandits offering barely any resistance. Only when we get closer to the main building their resistance starts mounting up considerably.

“I think there’s like 15 people inside.” Hilda says while a shot rings out close to us. “Make that 14.”

Sam and Élise have also rejoined us as it appears that no one outside of the main building remains.

When we try to push open the door a blast of gunfire rings through it.

“This is going to be tough.” I sigh, changing the magazine of my Tommy gun.

“Not necessarily.” Nikki, again with a devilish laugh, showing two grenades.

“Flashbang and a regular one?” I whisper.

She nods. “They’ll never see the first one coming, and then they literally can’t see the second one.”

“Watch your fire when you are deeper inside of the building though, they might have some prisoners.” Élise comments.

We all nod and Nikki goes ahead, throwing a flashbang through the broken window on her right, followed by the fragmentation grenade after the first one explodes.

Me and Nikki storm in after the bigger explosion blasts out the windows and start clearing the first room. The grenades definitely had their effect, as noone is able to put any kind of response up against us entering. We clear the first floor and start clearing the others. Room by room, encountering less resistance the further we go.

“Do you think we got them all?” Sam says, following me while Élise and Nikki check other rooms.

“We might have.”

The last room of the second floor corridor appears in sight, but before we enter we can clearly hear movement inside.

I nod at Sam as we stack up on the door.

“Ready?”

“Mhmm.”

I open the door and quickly scan the room, there’s a girl, approximately 16 years old, tied up in the corner. She’s whimpering in panic.

When I enter to approach her I get jumped from behind, knocking me down on the floor.

Luckily I manage to get my weapon between me and the guy who jumped me, only just stopping a knife from reaching my throat. A shot rings out as the guy on top of me goes limp.

Sam quickly rolls him off me.

“Thanks sweetie.” I say while she helps me up.

“That’s why I’m here.”

I smile at her but immediately turn my attention back at the girl in the corner.

“You might want to check on her.” I point at the girl and Sam immediately rushes over.

I take a bunch of keys from the dead bandit after which I join Sam and take off the duct tape that’s covering the girl’s mouth.

While I go to work on her restraints Sam checks her health. As far as I can see a large part of her body is bruised, with even some burn marks here and there.

“It’s fine, you are okay now, we are here to help.” Sam tries to calm the girl, who is avoiding Sam’s touch. “What’s your name?”

“Ch-Charlie.” She coughs a bit, relaxing somewhat to Sam.

When I remove her hand restraints I see she’s holding on to a necklace in her right hand, so hard that she had started bleeding.

“Is your dad a guardsman in a city?” I ask her, loosening the last of her shackles.

She nods.

I softly smile at her “Do you know if there are any other prisoners?”

“They killed them all.” She starts crying.

“Oh no, poor thing.” I hear my sister from behind me with Nikki in tow.

The girl panics, hearing these new voices.

“Don’t worry they are here to help as well.” I assure her. “We’re going to take you back to your dad, ok?”

She lightens up a bit, but is still crying very heavily.

“I don’t want to know what she had to go through…” I can hear Nikki whisper to Élise.

-Me neither…-

I start helping Sam dress up some of the girl’s wounds.

At least it doesn’t take that long for wounds to heal after getting treated, although psychologically that might not be so true...