Carola on the ground looks at the back of his savior, he never even guessed that she could possibly be there, this must be a mistake. No, she leers at the mountainous bandit who defeated Caorla, her body moves to block the two’s view, she is actively separating the big bandit from Carola.
“Well, if it isn’t the little demon girl, finally showing your face?” The large bandit leader decides to speak snarkily, not just to intimidate her, but mostly out of spite. “You think we didn’t notice you attacking our runners? You thought that’s all the fire stones we got? It sure took a day or two to outsmart you, but in the end it all came down to this. I didn’t think I’d get the chance to repay you in kind though, how lucky for me.”
“Soon you’ll find how lucky you are, to find an early grave at such a pleasant meadow.” Ruby answers him, she’s trying to intimidate him as well, at least until Carola can escape.
“Ha! You think we’re afraid of you? Demon girl? We were never afraid of you, even when you used to work with us. Real bandits don’t fear demons, we use them, and discard them when we’re done! Your new purple eye doesn't make a difference, demon.”
“I’m not-” Ruby finds this insulting conversation enough, if words can’t intimidate him, actions will. “-a Demon!” She launches herself up with a backflip and scratches the bandit leader’s face, and would have taken an eye if he hadn’t stepped back. She lands just in and transitions to a shooting stance, with her bow sideways and her arrow in place, both her eyes locked on the bandit. She landed just behind Carola who’s just coming out of shock. He looks to his side to find again his broken spear, he has no choice but to get up. “Run” Ruby tells him, keeping the posture against the large bandit, he wants to ask her if what the bandit said was true, but instead he listens to her and falls back.
“You’ll pay for that, demon!” The bandit leader wipes his face to make sure it isn’t bleeding, he won’t let that happen again.
Meanwhile with Fren, he is busy with too many bandits. The village's forces are sparse and him taking on several bandits at once is the only thing stopping the bandits from advancing on that front. Still, he looks wary, he glances at Ruby several times, she dodges, but her movements are getting slower and she can’t land a good hit. He’d love to help her but is preoccupied.
“He can’t take all six of us!” The bandits surrounding him agree on that and attack him together.
Fren uses everything he can, his shield and his sword, the power that comes form the blade and armor and… his own mana. He manages to deflect two and stab one, then release the blade and return to overpower one, another thinks he can land a hit in when Fren isn’t looking, but that ends up killing him. A quick finish on two others and the last one stands frozen, unwilling to fight or flee and is stabbed by a village guard in the back.
“Fren! You're hurt!” Gregory caught up to Fren, the bandit who thought he could land a hit was correct, shortly before receiving a worse one. Gregory prays quickly, he remembers the chant by heart now.
“Thanks, we need to go help Ruby.”
“Ruby? That archer girl you mean?”
The battle ground is not a place for small talk, the two are swiftly reminded.
“Let’s get ‘em ‘ere! These guys over ‘ere!” four new bandits find the two chatting in the middle of the field without an opponent. Fren stands and blocks them from reaching Gregory, back at his battle pose.
“We can’t help here, we need to help ourselves first.” Gregory might be right, their hands are full at the moment.
“No…” Fren thinks, he glimpses again and can see, Ruby is reeling back, she just got a punch in the shoulder from the bandit leader. “Grey, you go help her, I’ll deal with these guys.”
“Fren, you can’t be serious.”
“He’s not, it’s us who’ll be dealing with him!” One of the bandits charges with this line only to take Fren’s sword to the face.
“I can deal with these, Ruby needs the help.”
“Fren, but if she’s a demon… even if I try to heal or bless her it’s not-”
“She’s not a demon! She needs help, I can do this!” Fren interrupts Gregory, he’s right, she isn’t a demon, and at the moment, she’s slowly losing to the hulking bandit.
Gregory is conflicted… he doesn’t want to lose Fren, but he can probably trust him to beat these guys… probably. “Grey, quickly!” Fren rushes him again, he has to make a decision.
“Fine, but don’t die, alright?”
“You can trust me.”
Back with Ruby and the bandit leader things were not looking very good. Her attacks left only superficial wounds on his armor, the first strike was probably just a one time thing due to the sucker punch element. Now she can only try to scratch him, while his huge range is leaving little leeway for her to land a serious blow. Even when she tries to get in after his attacks he shoves her away with his other arm or his shoulder, and sometimes breaks her arrow too with his mace. He did manage to hurt her, she can feel it in her shoulder bones… actually it feels a bit better now when she remembers it. No, this is more than just feeling better.
Stolen story; please report.
“Ruby, right? You remember me, don’t you? You called me stupid.” Ruby turns her head to find a priest casting a healing prayer on her. “I didn’t think this would work, so I guess I might be a bit stupid.”
“Focus here!” The bandit leader yells as he swings down his mace, he thinks he yelled too late for her to dodge, but she manages to evade it. The swing does strike something, he bow didn’t get out unscathed. She tries to stab him with an arrow but he pulls his hand back before she can do it.
“Thanks for the help, Priest-”
“It’s Gregory.”
“Gregory. But I don’t know if I can hurt him. Even like this.” She can’t find an opening big enough, she’ll only end up taking more damage than she dishes out if she tries to get in.
Gregory looks at his book of prayers, he knows she struggled even without injuries, he has a plan. “This was just to make sure… ummm… you we’re…”
“Not a demon? Yeah, I told you I’m not.”
“Sorry… but it is important to know.” Gregory opens his book, he prepared to the battle too, not so much as a fighter but his book of prayers allows him to contribute in other ways. “I was hoping to use this on Fren.” He opens a marked chapter, rain droplets fall on the chapter but he doens’t mind, he just reads.
“What is he up to? I don’t like it one bit!” The bandit leader disregards Ruby now, and instead focuses on Greogory who mumbles some words of prayer. The bandit leader might have pretended to not be afraid of anything, and demons are certainly not on his list of phobias ever since Damian took control, but magic is rather high on that list. It’s so strong and unpredictable, firestones for example, it’s a weapon he never wants to be on the other side of. He walks toward the priests who’s focused on his reading. “Hey, I say stop! Sto-Ahh” he stops when a sharp pain pierces his arm, it’s two of Ruby’s last arrows, she didn’t dare walk in on him, and her bow is broken, but she’s pretty good at throwing.
“You little!” The bandit leader takes out the arrows and breaks them. “There! Now you don’t have anything.”
That’s bad, she didn’t think he’d take it with such little effect, now she really has nothing to attack him with. She searches around for something, quickly!
“You’re done! Priest.” The bandit leader turns back around to Gregory, planning to tear him apart, only a few steps from reducing him to a sack of crushed bones.
“Actually, I am done.” Gregory smiles and takes a few steps back while he’s at it. “With the blessing I mean.” The bandit leader checks Gregory’s surroundings for traps. What did he do?
“Ahck!” The bandit leader feels a stab at his back. He turns around to find Ruby again, glowing in a white light around her like a halo, her special eyes glow with a radiant color, her brown hair floating slightly, and in her hand the weapon she used to stab him, the broken spearhead part of Carola’s spear.
“You don’t give up?” He swings his mace horizontally, to strike her hip, but she ducks. Then he followers up with a kick, but she’s too quick, she steps aside and plunges the spearhead into his thigh. He tries to grab her but she moves out of the way, taking her improvised weapon with her. “You stupid demon girl! How dare you?!” he roars and downswings his mace at her, dropping it with full force, it makes a huge thud when it hits the ground. He does it again, and again, before he does it a fourth time he finds a fist uppercutting his jaw. He never fought anyone who’s fists hurt him like that. He stumbles backward.
“You’ll pay for what you’ve done!” Ruby screams, people around who hear it stop and look, even the rain dies down. she blasts past the bandit and slashes at his side. “You won’t hurt anyone anymore!” She jumps on his back and stands on his shoulders, displaying her acrobatic skill to everyone. The battle pauses, the bandits and guards both know that this will be the strike that seals the battle. “DIe!” She drives the spearhead deep into his skull. As he falls down like a rag doll she jumps off his shoulders with a backflip, looking at the field on her way down. The field is quiet, the bandits turn to flee, by the time she lands her victory is already understood by everyone around. The fighting stops and the bandits run back into the forest. The sun pierces through the clouds and hits her warmly, the glow that surrounded her slowly dissipates and leaves her, and now it’s time for her to leave as well.
“Where are you going?” A hand grabs her shoulder from behind. It’s Carola, she turns to him and he looks her right in the eyes.
“I’ll leave.”
“You’re a part of the village, you need to stay for the winning party!” She’s befuddled at this. She looks around and the village guards are coming near her.
“I’m sorry, I’m not…”
“Don’t worry, miss. You saved me, and you saved my men, and the whole battle probably. Even if you are a demon, I know you can’t be evil.” The cranky loud voice of the guard captain Carola along with his serious frown are his trademark in the village, he lets it go for a quick hug with the person who just saved his life. Ruby doesn’t know what to do with her arms, luckily it only lasts a moment and he then returns to his signature attitude. “And if anyone disagrees, they’ll have to take it up with me!” He loudly exclaims, but nobody around him questions this decision. In fact, people gather around her to thank her. They always thought of her as a demon, but just now she looked like the very opposite.
“Fren! She did it, you were right!” In the meantime Gregory revisits Fren who now sits down exhausted from the battle.
“Yeah, whew. You did that buff, didn’t you? She couldn’t have done it without you.” Fren sighs with relief, the battle is over.
“Buff? No, that’s a blessing, it empowered her.” Gregory is unfamiliar with Fren’s language
“Yeah… anyway. Let’s go back, I’m tired, and I feel like everyone else is too.” Fren stands back up on the wet grass, he sheaths his sword and returns his shield to his belt.
“I couldn’t have said it back then, but I have a few jokes about the battle… I’ll tell you later.” Gregory pats him on the shoulder with a smile which quickly turns a bit sour when Fren doesn’t notice. Fren trusts Ruby, he worries about her and… does he trust Gregory too? It runs through his mind, but that’s something he’ll deal with after the victory celebration.