Hiding was easier than she expected, the few guards that remained here instead of going towards the fight or outright running away were distracted and made for easy pickings.

She didn't kill all of them but when she had two separated that she could take out with a single Twin Kinetic Strike she took the opportunity. She didn't feel much gratification from killing them, she expected herself to feel cathartic but it just left a sour feeling in her mouth.

They'd captured her, wanted to sell her off as a slave or something like that and their boss tortured her but in the end, they died so easily. So pathetic and weak, a part of her felt pity for them but she was disgusted by that part of her for the previous reasons.

It was a complicated feeling not made much better by the smell of blood, gore and other bodily excrements assailing her sensitive nose. She didn't let that stop her from killing them, they were bandits, parasites, and not even their fellow humans will miss them.

Though from what she knew humans were far less empathetic towards other humans than elves were with their kin, but then again the different elven races weren't the best of friends either. Winter Elves still held grudges from the old Civil War almost two thousand years ago and his father still loathed Spring and Autumn Elves for their treachery even though he wasn't even alive back then.

That was a sad part of elven history, the war brought the end of an empire and pave the way for the rise of humans and that deplorable empire she found herself in now. She thought her father was an ass but he at least was a good ruler, which arguably was the reason for him also being a shitty father but it was more a fact than her opinion.

On the other hand, the human empire was a parasite living off of its provinces which fed the extravagance of the imperial Core and its nobles. That was the reason she even decided to come here at all, the northern Water Province as they called it was a group of oppressed and stunted towns at the edge of an untamed jungle.

While she ruminated over politics she reached the half-demolished 'manor' of the bandit boss and snuck inside, searching for any place he might have hidden her knife. She found his 'work' room which had an unused table and some shelves mostly filled with skulls, very tasteful decoration. At least he keeps to his theme of being a sadistic waste of air.

She rummaged through the drawers and the shelves but all she found were some magical trinkets and papers and ink. Her eyes widened at that, not expecting the brute to know how to write but it seemed she had some misconceptions about bandits.

The trinkets were useful but overall she could do the same they could with one or two Runes. Collecting water or lighting a small flame was far from the epitome of magic, still, she pocketed them. Who knew how much she could get for them if she sold them?

She went through all the rooms and she found some hidden alcohol and a hidden magical artifact, though she was unsure what the small beadlike thing was used for it made her instincts crawl so she crushed it under her boot.

Huh? That was weird, I just did that without thinking.

She let out an annoyed huff, knowing that the boss most likely had it on himself or he might even have a spatial storage artifact, though she doubted that based on the shitty quality of the trinkets she found.

"Let's see how they are doing," she whispered and reapplied her Cloak before slipping out into the moonlit night, she sneaked out of the almost deserted camp without much trouble through a large hole in the palisades. She could hear them fighting in the distance with her normal hearing if she focused so she headed in that direction.

They left a trail of broken trees and upturned dirt in their wake so she didn't even need to rely on her hearing to follow them, as she closed in on them the sounds of their clashes grew louder and soon they were once again inside her range.

She hid in the tall undergrowth and observed the fight, the sneaky intruder wasn't invisible by now and she could see him in all his glory. He was a towering beast of a man eclipsing even his opponent, he had dark brown skin reminiscent of Summer Elves and he had dreadlocks extending halfway to his waist.

The man fought more like an animal than any human she saw, he stalked his opponent with deliberate steps with his gaze locked on to the now tiring bandit. He reminded her of how wolves stalked their prey and when he attacked that feeling intensified.

His hand was covered in some sort of clawed gauntlet and he snapped it out at his opponent he looked like he'd try biting his face off but he pulled back just before his foe could ravage his throat with his saber.

Kali's gaze quested over the sadist, searching for any sign of her knife and she found it strapped onto his belt, in her own holder no less. Her brows furrowed in irritation but she stayed hidden, she wasn't sure she could intervene in the fight as it seemed the two were beyond level 200 at least.

It was supposedly challenging to hurt people a breakthrough above yourself with magic and she didn't have any weapons that could close the gap. She could annoy him though, which might help the beast finally end him not that it looked like he needed help.

Unlike his opponent the dark-skinned man was the picture of vigor, his face stuck in a permanent growl and his movements never shoving any sign of exhaustion.

Her eyes widened as she felt her torturer ready his favorite spell, she almost screamed in alarm to alert the other man but she held herself back. The spell struck him soon after without fault but the man just gritted his teeth and the spell matrix was banished not a second after it entered his body.

Huh, that's crazy pain tolerance, I could barely think after that hit me.

He growled in fury and his opponent was starting to panic, most likely because he was clearly losing the battle of attrition and his favorite toy wasn't working.

"Who sent you?" he shouted in agitation, "I'll pay you, whatever they are giving you I'l double it."

Kali had her doubts about that claim but she didn't know how lucrative smuggling and slave trade was so he might even be capable of holding up his promise, not that she expected him to.

"The only thing I want is your death," the beast-like man growled, launching himself again at his opponent.

She could agree with that sentiment, her mind spun on how she could bend the situation in her favor. The dark-skinned man was clearly stronger than her by quite a bit and she couldn't exactly steal his rightful loot if she didn't help even though the bastard stole it from her first.

The choice was taken out of her hand as the bandit was sent flying and crashed through a tree next to Kali, he landed barely three meters away from her and as he sprung back onto his feet he made eye contact with her shadowy form.

He blinked dumbly at the elf-shaped mass of shadows and Kali reacted before he could recollect himself. A twin Kinetic Strike smashed into him, one hopefully fracturing his right knee and another into his chest to send him back onto the ground.

Kali dispelled her Cloak and started dashing away from the bandit but he only stumbled from her assault, he coughed out a mouthful of blood but he glared at her in fury.

"YOU!?" he howled in rage, "how did you get out you slippery whore?!"

His distraction was awarded by a clawed gauntlet digging into his shoulder, it aimed to rend his chest apart but the bandit reacted just in time to shift his shoulder in the way of the attack.

She turned her attention to the massive man and saw him glance at her, he stilled for a moment when he saw her Kali bit her cheek as she felt his overbearing predatory stare. His eyes weren't human, his irises almost encompassed the whole of his eyes, barely showing any whiteness.

Just like a wolf's eyes.

He grunted and turned back towards the bandit, Kali didn't know what that meant but him not attacking her too at sight was a good start.

"I WILL SKIN BOTH OF YOU ALIVE AND WEAR YOU AS A CLOAK!" the human shouted in rage and rushed at her, he limped at his right leg but it didn't slow him down by much.

He was fast but Kali was faster, she easily sidestepped the man's wild swing and slipped by him to his left. As she passed she touched him with her palm and sent an overcharged Kinetic Hammer right into his body.

The man was thankfully sent flying away from her, he crashed through an old oak tree and rolled to a stop a few meters behind it. When he stood up he wasn't much worse for wear aside from the livid expression on his face. Kali gulped at the sight, if he managed to hit me with that swing I'd have been bisected.

She might have the superiority in speed and agility but the man was much tougher and stronger than her and that was further enhanced by his superior level.

That spell should have sent a man of his weight flying for a good fifty meters by her calculations but the weird phenomenon with the breakthrough weakened her spell enough to only launch him a fifth of the way. She remembered feeling the spell matrix dissolve as his mana touched it through her mana sense.

It was hard for her spell to take hold of him, she would have to rely on manifestation spells instead of spells directly affecting his body. Water Blade and Fireball along with Kinetic Strike were spells like that but she wasn't sure how much more effective those would be.

The beast in human skin reminded her that she didn't have to do the heavy lifting as he pounced on the slightly disoriented bandit. Kali decided that she'd aim to distract instead, her Spells could hurt him still, if much less than she would have liked.

She stuck to her tried and true Twin Kinetic Strikes, they didn't burst his head and body as they should have but they still hit him with enough strength to smash trees to shreds and it shoved.

Every impact made him stumble which was an easy opening to his enemy, wounds started to mount on the bandit quickly and he knew he didn't have long if it continued like this. His left arm was limp, his right leg was barely holding him up and he had several gashes along his chest.

The dark-skinned man would have won by himself in Kali's opinion, it was a battle of attrition really but with her addition to the fight the bandit was constantly on the back foot, receiving wounds one after another without giving any in return.

"Damned bastards," he growled as he ripped something out of his pocket, Kali instantly got alert as she saw a small amulet but the reason for her panic was that she felt a Spell activating.

"RUN," she shouted and quickly followed her own command, unlike the other man who just stared stoically at the bandit as he slowly activated his Amulet, a one-time-use artifact. She didn't know what kind of Spell it held but she could feel that its complexity and mana usage was several times that of her own Fireball.

"Damned mutt," the man said, "I wish I could have taken the little bitch too."

Saying so the dark forest was consumed by light and a shockwave followed a moment after with a thunderous explosion. Kali managed to get almost a hundred meters away from the epicenter but when the shockwave reached her she still got sent flying.

Her body flew through the air without control and impacted a large tree nearby like a rag-doll. Her breath getting knocked out of her lungs was the only reason she didn't scream at the pain of her back almost snapping at the impact.

She tried to stand up quickly but she felt boiling agony spread from her back, she collapsed back with a whimper on the ground as she steadied her rapid breathing. I have to heal it quickly, I hope it didn't fracture too much. I don't think I have enough mana to heal a broken bone.

"You alright?" she heard a deep voice from close to her and she snapped her gaze up at the beastly man crouching over her fallen form. His dreadlocks were smoldering a bit and most of his clothes were scorched but the man seemed mostly fine.

She tried speaking but another wave of pain made her gasp in pain, "Just...a...second," she managed through gritted teeth as she guided her mana into the bracelet.

She didn't think at the surprisingly cordial human, no he is not, he must have some Faun blood in him with eyes like that.

The pain didn't abate for a few seconds as her fractured bones got pulled back into place and stitched back together, the bracelet didn't come with a pain-dampening function unfortunately so she had to bear with the disturbing and agonizing feeling of her insides stitching themselves back together.

Surprisingly a bit less than a tenth of her mana satisfied the bracelet, she took a trembling breath as the still lingering phantom pain slowly bled out of her body.

She pulled her legs under her and tried to stand with the tree as help but to her surprise she found the man extending his hand to her. She grabbed his large hand with an owlish blink at the gesture.

"Thanks?" she asked once she was standing, slowly shifting her weight from his arm to her own legs.

He nodded at her, observing her with a curious gaze instead of the previous predatory one that made her feel like a small animal in front of a vicious monster.

"Why did you help me?" he asked in his gruff voice as he glanced toward the previous explosion.

"He stole my knife," she admitted, starting to walk ahead but stumbling on the second step.

To her utter bafflement, the man caught her before she could fall and pulled her upright by the shoulder.

"Let me help then," he said as he let her lean on his arm to which she nodded.

She didn't know why he was helping her but for now, she was more thankful than suspicious. Her suspicion stemmed from the fact that humans liked to introduce other species into their bloodlines, the descendants of elves and fauns were called Halvyr and Daemons respectively were the cornerstones of the Imperial philosophy.

Unlike their enslaved ancestors these mixed-blooded people were the personification of the human's conquest and their victory over their enemies. Halvyr held more potential than humans for magic with some inheriting the elves' natural physiology too while Daemons were far superior to humans in pure combat.

She didn't know which of the hundreds of faun clans this man's bloodline originated from but she could tell it he was at least half human. People like him should be the most indoctrinated and loyal soldiers of the empire.

He was making her doubt those preconceptions with the way he acted but her doubts were bubbling under the surface. Knife first, then I can think about this more.

They closed in on the place the moron exploded himself without any actual result aside from making her lose a bunch of mana. A crater took the place of the lush forest with a diameter of twenty or so meters, nothing survived inside that.

The shockwave tore out some trees outside of the crater and the man grabbed Kali by the waist as he carried both of them over the fallen trees with a single leap. Kali's eyes widened in shock at the sudden movements but she held back her yelp with a considerable force of will.

She stumbled a bit as the man once again let her stand mostly on her own, don't glare at the dude who can cut you into pieces, doesn't glare-

She glared at him as he gave her a funny look, as she took deep, calming breaths.

She turned her gaze towards the center of the crater where she hoped to find her knife. She kneeled around there and felt around the ground with her mana sense, the knife was hard to sense but she could feel the dormant enchantments on it due to her mana being suffused into it.

She dug into the ground with her hands and only a few centimeters down she grabbed ahold of the handle of her knife. She pulled it out with a sigh of relief, the loss of its holder was a pain but it was just enchanted leather to withstand its sharpness, nothing more.

"Nice knife," the man intoned, eyeing the knife she was hugging to her chest.

She tightened her hold on it, "Can I keep it please?" she asked.

"Wasn't it yours?" he asked, clearly confused which in turn made Kali confused.

"You killed him so shouldn't the loot be yours?" she asked with a tilt of her head, the adventurer guidebooks were clear on the usual distribution of loot.

"Oh," he chuckled, "I'm not an adventurer," he smiled a bit which looked quite terrifying with the large scar cutting through his face from his left cheek to his chin, "You can keep it, I didn't kill him for 'loot'."

Kali tried to hide her relief but she wasn't sure she managed, seeing his amusement so instead she asked back, "Why did you kill him then?"

That wiped the smile off of his face in an instant, "He caught you and the other three elves, yes?" he stated, rather than asked.

Kali nodded, "He managed to hit me with that Spell of his when I was distracted," she felt a need to defend herself.

She averted her gaze awkwardly, it wasn't her fault, oh well it was in a sense but she could have defended herself if she had a better handle on her spatial hearing back then. Okay, it was my fault, fuck.

"I wasn't in a much different situation not too long ago so I feel obligated to help," the man admitted, grimacing while probably thinking back on his own experience.