Chapter 1:
On a cool, starry night a small campfire shone through the trees, deep in an old forest with a diverse group of women gathered around it. A medusa was standing with her back to the fire, using it as a light source for studying the map of the local area she held. A centauress sat a little away from the fire sharpening her massive Guandao, her tail twitching as she kept glancing out into the darkness past the campfire’s glow. A short, lithe dark-skinned wood elf was crouched down on one knee at the edge of the camp, finishing up cleaning and deboning a few hares that she had hunted with her bow. The fourth member of the group, a blonde-haired high elf was watching carrots and potatoes cook in a small stew pot hanging over the fire while she was chopping some freshly picked herbs and slid them into the pot when she was done.
“Zinreth, I’ll be ready to add the meat in a couple of minutes.” She stated.
“Coming right up Ilyana! Just finishing up.” Zinreth replied, and a minute later gathered up the cut-up hare meat and put it in the pot.
"At least we don’t have to eat those MRE things tonight. They all taste terrible… When is the stew going to be ready??” Daeila, the centauress asked gruffly.
“MRE’s are definitely something I’d never thought I see in Trivium…” Ilyana thought to herself then replied, “Should only take a half hour or so. Is something wrong? You keep glancing into the woods.” Ilyana asked.
“There’s something out there watching us. I just know it! I feel it’s eyes on me.” She snarled as she scanned the area around her again.
“Of course, there is.” Zinreth said, “A large wolf followed me back to the camp when I was done with my hunt.” The diminutive ranger said nonchalantly.
“WHAT?? You let a wolf follow you back here??” Daeila exclaimed, dropping her sharpening stone and grasping her polearm in both hands as she came to her hooves, looking around nervously.
“Hey, it’s OK. I promise you he won’t hurt us. He’s waiting for the scraps from the hares once I was done dressing them. He has been waiting very politely. Your fear of wolves is a little irrational you know.” Zinreth said calmly.
“It’s close? Where??” Daeila asked, looking around fervently and ignoring Zinreth’s comment.
Without even looking up from stirring the stew Ilyana replied in an offhand manner, “About 10 paces out in the darkness just past Zinreth.”
“You knew it was here too?!” Was the irritated query from Daeila.
Ilyana glanced to where she said the wolf was and said, “Yep, he’s sitting on his haunches and has his tongue out in anticipation of his meal.”
“Bah! We would have already eaten had you not been looking at flowers while we marched this afternoon!” The centauress retorted, trying to deflect the attention away from her fear of the wolf and irritated at Ilyana’s offhand way of letting her know what the wolf was doing.
One of Ilyana’s eyebrows shot up and she looked at Daeila and said pointedly, “I was up with the rest of you the whole time and I was gathering the carrots, potatoes, and herbs for our meal that’s cooking right now.”
“Whatever, you had most if not all of those provisions already.” Was the retort.
“True, but fresh veggies and herbs are tastier. Are you mad at me or yourself right now for being afraid of the wolf?” Ilyana asked bluntly.
“Why you…” Daeila started to say but was interrupted by the visor wearing medusa, who looked up from her map and with irritation in her voice said, “Ladies… Are you done yet? The bickering is getting old…”
“Sorry Valmoria!” Ilyana and Daeila said in unison.
Valmoria looked at the two of them for a moment and then satisfied that the situation would calm down, turned back to studying the map.
During their exchange, Zinreth had slipped into the tree line with the promised treats for the wolf and had just come back. She went to her combat partner and talked quietly with her for a couple of minutes then sat down next to her as the centauress sat back down too.
After some awkwardly silent time had passed, Ilyana checked the meat and with a satisfied nod, started ladling the piping hot, savory smelling stew into bowls and handed the bowls and spoons out to her teammates. They all took the bowls from Ilyana readily and started eating.
Halfway through the meal, Daeila spoke up, “I’m… sorry, Ilyana. I shouldn't have snapped at you like I did.”
Ilyana finished chewing the spoonful of stew she had just put in her mouth and said, “It’s OK. I wasn’t offended. I’m sorry too. I wasn’t being very sympathetic to your fear of the wolf.”
“It’s OK… Um… This stew is REALLY good by the way.” Daeila said, and the others echoed the compliment in agreement.
Ilyana smiled, “Thank you. Cooking has always been a hobby of mine. I find it relaxing.”
Once everyone had eaten their fill and had cleaned up their dishes Valmoria gathered everyone around the fire to talk about the plans for the next day.
“As you all know, we’ve been on the trail of a small group of around ten bandits that have been plaguing this area and thanks to the people in the last village we now know where the bandit’s base of operations is. They’ve been attacking the villages in the area and any trade caravans they have come across. They are a ruthless bunch that tortures and then beheads their victim’s when they are done having their fun with them. The last caravan they attacked was one of Mistress Lilly’s caravans. Fortunately, the caravan was able to defend against the attack, but they had to fall back and couldn’t get to their destination. The caravan needs to get through this area, but Mistress doesn’t want the bandits to get a second chance at harming the caravan. That’s where we come in.” Valmoria finished with a sudden and intense anger.
“We need to capture the bandit leader alive if at all possible so Ilyana, your job, in addition to being our tank, I’ll need to use your healing expertise to keep the bandit leader alive if it comes to that OK?” Valmoria instructed.
“Will do.” Ilyana replied with a nod and a somber expression.
Valmoria then looked at the other two and continued with an arch look, “That means the two of you need to keep your arrows and that giant polearm out of the leader’s vitals, understood??”
“Yes, Valmoria.” They replied in unison.
“Good, the two of you need to stay along the edges of the battle as much as possible but stay close enough to support Ilyana and I as we go in from the front. Between my summoned creatures and Ilyana’s defensive spells we should be OK, but you never know. Remember to keep an eye out for your teammates and be ready to change plans on the fly. Is everyone good with the plan?” She asked looking at her team proudly.
“Yes Valmoria!” the three of them replied.
“Good! Let’s turn in for the night then. We’ll follow our regular watch schedule. Ilyana are your perimeter wards in place?” She asked.
“Yes, ma’am” she nodded.
“Excellent, good night everyone.” Valmoria said.
As Ilyana and Zinreth got their bedrolls and blankets out Daeila strode to the edge of the clearing and peer nervously in to the dark, still nervous about the wolf to begin the first watch.
As she got settled into her own bedroll Valmoria smiled, “Even though Ilyana is the newest member of the squad she’s picked up on the team’s preferred tactics quickly and is fitting in nicely, despite the occasional bickering like happened earlier. Too bad Daeila won’t let anyone else but Zinreth ride her. It might be interesting to see how effective an armored figure with a lance would be in combat with her…” She thought to herself, reflecting on Ilyana’s addition to the team a couple of months ago and the idiosyncrasies of the team as she started to drift off to sleep.
Chapter 2:
The night was uneventful, and the team woke up at dawn with Zinreth, who had the last watch roused everyone from their slumber. They broke camp and had a quick, cold breakfast. They all started to don their armor. Daeila threw her armored barding over her front legs and strapped it into place as best she could. She then grabbed Zinreth’s saddle with a look of distaste and waited impatiently while the wood elf was sheathing her short sword and dagger that she used if she was too close to the enemy to bring her bow to bear. She had already donned her leather and cloth armor before waking the others.
Zinreth caught the look, “Hold on, hold on, I’m almost ready to help you.” She said calmly.
“Grr. I hate this saddle. The only reason I allow it is because Mistress ordered me to...” Daeila said sullenly.
“So, you say every time. I understand how you feel.” The elf replied neutrally as she laid the saddle blanket across her partners back and then accepted the saddle and cinched it in place. As she cinched down the barding straps that Daeila couldn’t reach on her own she asked, “Is that comfortable? None of the straps are pinching, are they?”
Daeila moved around and for a few seconds and replied, “No. They’re good.” She then hefted her Guandao and trotted around the perimeter of the camp to limber up.
Valmoria’s armor was mainly a metal and cloth bikini bottom and a metal and cloth halter. With her gaze, most opponents almost always avoided getting in melee range of her, so the armor ward that her amour had was usually more than enough. All but Ilyana’s armor had that ward in place on them. Valmoria’s armor also had quartz crystals built in, so she could store extra mana for use later. Her visor, in addition to protecting others from her gaze until she was ready to inflict it on someone, had a HUD that shows her where her team is always in relation to her when she activates the enchantment.
Because Ilyana was the only one that wore plate mail, she took the longest to get ready. After taking her travel clothes off she donned a skin-tight bodysuit. It was black and made of what looked like a heavy gauge latex and covered her from her toes to the base of her neck. It protected like Kevlar, had an enchantment that kept her body temperature regulated and had three mana ‘aether’ gills on each side, along the outside of Ilyana’s ribs. They pulled in ambient mana from their surrounding and powered the enchantments of the body-suit and the plate mail that Ilyana started putting on top of it with Valmoria’s help. Ilyana’s armor didn’t have the armor ward on it like the lighter armor the others wore, but was enchanted to be more durable than the steel it was made from and boosted Ilyana’s strength to the point that she could move around in the suit like it was almost as light as normal clothing and swing her giant mace as easily as she would have swung a broom. The mace had a long handle and weighed enough that she would be unable to wield it without the strength boost her armor gave her.“Ilyana, will you please ensure Daeila’s armor ward is fully charged while I do the same for Zinreth’s please?” Valmoria asked.
“Yes Ma’am!” She replied as she walked over to the centauress, rotating her arms at the shoulders and stomping her feet to help settle her armor in place. Ilyana drew mana from the mana gills instead of her own reserves to top of the armor ward so she would be at 100% for when the fighting began.
Soon after the group set off to go prepare the ambush they were planning for the bandits. They moved quietly through the woods as they made their way to an area that they were told the bandits passed through multiple times a day. They stopped about a mile away from their destination for Valmoria to instruct her team on what she wanted done.
“OK ladies, to expand on the strategy we talked about yesterday, we are going to sneak up to this clearing,” She said as she pointed to an area on the map she had laid out on the ground, “Ilyana and I will be a few paces apart here on the south side while I want you two on the east side of the clearing and I will cover the west side with my summoned Nabasu. Once in place, you all need to take one of Ilyana’s continuous healing potions. Zinreth, to spring the ambush I want you to take out the leader. She has a Mohawk and a large scar on her left cheek. After you drop her look for any mana users and drop them too. Try to keep them alive if possible understand?” She asked the wood elf.
“Yes, Valmoria.” She replied.
“Good. Daeila, keep the two of you concealed in the trees and brush as long as you can. Only break cover once the bandits are fully engaged. Got it?”
“Got it.” She replied while nodding.
“Ilyana, you stay hidden until Zinreth starts her surprise attack, then I want you to charge out and engage the bandits. Let’s give them more than one front to pay attention to. Hopefully that will keep them confused and give us the edge for a little while at least, OK?” She said.
“Will do.” Ilyana replied.
“OK, as soon as we start moving forward no talking. Hand signals only. Let move out!” Valmoria commanded as she rolled up her map and stowed it away.
They moved silently through the woods, keeping alert to their surroundings as they moved closer and closer to their destination. They were only a few hundred yards from the clearing they were going to set up in when Ilyana made a retching sound. At the same time, Valmoria sharply inhaled through her teeth. They both turned to look at one another, wide-eyed, Ilyana hissed, “That foulness! You feel that?”
Valmoria didn’t get a chance to respond as around twenty bandits, male and female sprang up from their camouflaged hiding spots all around the group! Bow and arrows pointed at the four with a high portion of those aimed at Valmoria. They were surrounded!!!
The girls formed a circle with their weapons at the ready and waited to see what the bandits were going to do.
A loud voice rang out in laughter as the bandit leader emerged from behind her followers but stayed at a safe distance from the team and with a wide smile said, “Well, well, well. Looks like our informant in the village was right. Looks like we’ve reeled in fresh prey.” She said expansively to the other bandits which drew raucous laughter from them, then under her breath said, “Gonna thrash our informant within an inch of his life for not letting us know there was a medusa in their group…”
“Your numbers are greater than we were lead to believe bandit.” Valmoria said in a deceptively cheerful voice.
“Psh, did you really think we needed everyone to take down caravans? Please…” The leader said in a voice heavy with disdain.
The tall, muscular woman looked at the team with a flinty gaze and gave them an ultimatum with a humorless smile, “Now, you four are going to throw down your weapons and surrender without a fight or you will all die a slow, painful death. If your medusa even so much as twitches you’re all dead regardless. Savvy?” She finished ominously.
The team had trained for just this sort of contingency and after a quick glance to one another, they responded with quick, brutal violence!
“Raaaagh!!!” Daeila roared as she galloped forward, using her large size to barrel through the circle of bandits to get some maneuvering room.
“<GREATER SHIELD!!>” Ilyana shouted her spell, invoking one of the defensive abilities stored in the focus bracelet she wore on her left wrist as she also sprinted forward causing her green mana shield to manifest on the same arm as she swung her mace at the nearest bandit, connecting with her ribs with a bone shattering crunch which sent her flying into the bandits next to her.
Valmoria spun around, to face away from her team as her visor became transparent, paralyzing four of the bandits immediately in front of where her gaze went as she sprinted through the group of slowly petrifying bandits, so she could get some cover to start summoning her imps.
At the same time, the bandits all loosed their arrows on the four swiftly moving women. The few arrows that found their mark on Zinreth and Daeila all bounced harmlessly off their armor wards, causing the air around the arrow impacts to shimmer. Valmoria, who wasn’t as fast as the other three lost her armor ward as it made a shattering sound as it failed from the onslaught and one arrow bit deeply into her shoulder.
Ilyana heard Valmoria cry out in pain and immediately turned and ran to go support her team leader, ignoring the arrows that clanged uselessly off her shield and armor. Throwing her mace at the head of the bandit that was closest to her leader. The mace flew true and with a sickening crunch caved the bandit’s head in. Ilyana kept running to Valmoria with her hand stretched out as her mace flew back to her hand, ready to be used on another target.
The leader of the bandit’s looked on in horror as she witnessed her band of twenty bandits being taken down right in front of her as they slowly reacted to the change in the situation. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! There are only four of them!!! KILL THEM!!!!!!” She roared.
Daeila galloped around the outskirts of the circle of bandits swinging and stabbing her Guandao at every target within range, electricity arcing along its blade adding that damage to the deep wounds she was inflicting on her foes. While Zinreth was letting her own arrows fly at an impossible speed, taking down targets that were in between her and the bandit leader. Her arrows were normal but on the grip of the bow were three small crystals. Depending which one she pressed the arrows flying from her bow would also inflict fire, poison or cold damage to her targets. Poison was her choice of because of how outnumbered they were.
Ilyana made it to Valmoria’s side just as the medusa reached up and yanked the arrow out of her flesh with a guttural growl causing Ilyana to wince at the damage she was causing to herself by doing so.
“No time for spells, drink the continuous healing potion I made, I’ll cover us!!!!” Ilyana said as she let the shield on her arm dissipate and shouted, “<SHIELD DOME!!>” with her left arm straight up in the air. A green dome flickered to life over the two as arrows bounced harmlessly off it.
Meanwhile, Valmoria chugged the potion and her wound started to close seconds later. She threw the bottle down and started summoning her Nabasu instead of her imps now that she had some breathing room.
During this, Daeila’s armor ward was finally depleted and she was taking wounds. Zinreth tore the cork stopper from one of Ilyana’s potions and gave it to her partner to drink, then covered the centauress while she did so, continuing her deadly rain of arrows.
Two black holes, crackling with energy formed on the ground just outside of the shield dome that Ilyana had conjured as Valmoria finished her summoning incantation as two human-sized, leathery skinned, bat-winged demons emerged from within and surged forward to engage the startled bandits that were all around them. A bandit statue that was at the edge of one of the portals toppled and fell in just before it closed.
“Ilyana! My Nabasu can cover me while I summon my imps! Go support the others!” Valmoria ordered as her visor went transparent again, petrifying a couple of bandits that had been staring at her and her summoned demons.
Ilyana dropped her arm and the dome faded away, “I don’t think that will be necessary. The bandits are running away.” She replied while surveying the surroundings.
Valmoria looked around and saw the bandits were indeed fleeing, more than half of their numbers were down, and the bandit’s leader was standing next to a large tree at the edge of the impromptu battle ground, yelling and screaming futilely at her people to have them stand their ground.
Standing up straight, Valmoria shouted out, “Bandit leader! Come forward and surrender! You have no hope of… AGH!!” She never finished as she recoiled from that feeling of utter foulness and evil that her and Ilyana had felt earlier. Valmoria heard a retching sound and saw Ilyana had fallen to her hands and knees and was throwing up from the strength of the force they both felt. Zinreth and Daeila looked at the two with concern.
An evil laugh came from behind the tree that the bandit leader was standing next to and another figure emerged from behind it.
“Are these meddlesome adventurers troubling you fearless leader?” the figure asked.
The group saw a short, pudgy middle-aged woman wearing a dark robe move slowly out from behind the tree. The power coming off her was so strong Valmoria and Ilyana didn’t even have to concentrate to see the inky black aura clinging to her. The aura was strongest at a talisman the woman was holding in her right hand.
The look of frustration on the leader’s face was replaced with a strange mixture of triumph and fear as she turned to the other woman and said, “Indeed, I’ll leave the rest to you!” She said and turned and ran away too, leaving the newly revealed foe alone with Valmoria’s team.
A wary Daeila trotted over to her team leader and Zinreth jumped down from the centauress’ back and helped Ilyana to her feet.
Valmoria said to the team in a low voice, “I know what she is holding in her hand. The fact that Ilyana and I can feel the power coming off it means the summoning incantation is already cast. This is bad. Very, very bad.”
The woman spoke up again, “I hope you weren’t expecting another call for your surrender… <ELDER BEAST Come forth!!!!>” she shouted in a triumphant voice.
“NOOO!!!!!!” Valmoria screamed as a twenty-foot-wide hole opened in the air, revealing a hellish landscape and a very large, three-legged tentacled horror walked out from its realm into ours!
Its torso was eight feet tall with tree trunk sized tentacles sprouting from its wide, headless torso. It had no eyes and was vaguely three sided with a large gaping mouth with very large, pointed teeth in them on each side of its torso.
“Hahahahahaha!!!!!!! BEAST!! Kill them!! Render them from Limb to… AHHH!!!!” The woman in the robe shouting was cut short by one of Zinreth’s arrows piercing her high in the chest on her right side, and another sunk deep into her left thigh knocking the woman flat on her back, screaming in pain.
“They summoned an Elder Beast somehow! It’s going to grow to three times its current height! We can’t beat it! Our only chance against it is for me to banish it and we don’t have a lot of time before it’s too powerful even for that!! Zinreth, Daeila! Keep it occupied! Ilyana! Keep it from getting close to me until I can finish my Incantation!!!” She shouted as she held her arms out in front of her, palms out and her index fingers and thumbs touching. Two bright spirals of energy burst out from the ground as started slowly swirling around her.
“Consider it done Valmoria!!!!! <Greater Shield!!>” Ilyana said as she positioned herself in between Valmoria and the beast shaking off the nausea the beast was inducing.
“Aye!!! Back you foul abomination!!!” Zinreth said as she leapt onto Daeila’s back and let a fire arrow fly at the beast and had already notched another.
“RAAAHHHHH!!!” Daeila roared as she galloped to the side to flank the beast. 
The beast didn’t seem to notice the arrow impacts or Daeila’s battle cry. It was heading straight for Valmoria!
Ilyana gauged the distance between the beast and Valmoria to be about 30 meters, “Damn! At the rate this thing is moving Valmoria won’t have time to finish her incantation!” she thought to herself as she dropped her shield, deciding to go on the offensive and charged the remaining distance between her and the beast and with a massive two-handed grip on her mace and started raining blows on one of its knees!
Zinreth stopped her barrage of flaming arrows, seeing what Ilyana had done.
“Ilyana! What are you…. OH!!” Zinreth then realized how quickly the gap was closing between the beast and Valmoria and then shouted to Daeila, “Move behind it and try to take out one of its knees Daeila!!!” and then executed a smooth backflip off her partner, hit the ground running and resumed firing flaming arrows.
Daeila altered course and at a full gallop and activated the enchantment on the blade of her Guandao and executed a move by, striking the beast on its rear facing leg, electricity arcing up and down the beast’s body.
The beast still hadn’t slowed down.
Ilyana was backtracking to stay in front of the beast as she continued striking the beast’s knee, still with no discernable effect. She looked back and saw they were only 20 meters from Valmoria, “We have to do something else!!! It’s not slowing down!!” she shouted.
Daeila spun around, getting close to the beast’s leg, facing away from it and leaned forward on her forelegs, “RAAAAARRGHH!!!!!” She shouted as she bucked, unloosing a powerful kick right to the beast’s knee.
The crunch of breaking bones echoed in the clearing and the beast faltered, screeching loudly as Daeila let out a cry of pain and limped away from the beast, unable to put any weight on her right rear hoof!
Zinreth looked at Daeila in horror as the beast stopped moving and whipped two of its mighty tentacles around striking the wounded centauress broadside, sending her tumbling away.
“No!!!” Zinreth screamed and fired an ice arrow right in the beast’s closest mouth!
The screech from the beast was almost deafening this time as it tried to smash the wood elf into the ground with its tentacles, but the diminutive elf deftly dogged the wild attack, shooting arrows in mid-jump.
Meanwhile, the beast had been steadily growing and had gained another 10 feet in height.
Ilyana gave up trying to slow the beast down and sprinted back to Valmoria, dropped her mace and thrust both arms up into the air and cast a spell, “<GREATER SHIELD DOME!!>” and a brightly glowing ten-foot-wide and ten-foot-high green mana dome flashed into existence sheltering Ilyana and Valmoria within.
The beast took a final lumbering step and it was at the edge of the shield. Ilyana shuddered from the feel of the beast’s foul energy as its tentacles groped the dome, looking for a way inside.
“SSSCCRREECCHHH!!!!!!!” it roared in rage as it gave up and started pummeling the glowing green dome with all its strength of its many tentacles.
“Nnngghhh!” Ilyana groaned as she fell to her knees from the strain the force of the blows was putting on her and the shield dome.
Daeila had managed get her wits about her again and get back on her hooves and galloped to the creature, no longer favoring her rear hoof, to stab at it with her Guandao as Zinreth, now out of arrows sliced at the beast with her short sword and dagger.
Large cracks were forming in Ilyana’s mana dome and despite the enchantment that kept her body temperature regulated in her armor, she had large beads of sweat running down her helmeted face. Another blow from a tentacle finally opened a hole in the dome and the beast screeched in triumph now that it sensed that its target was within reach!!
A bright white glow erupted from within the dome as Valmoria finished her banishment incantation! “<ELDER!!! BEAST!!! BEGONE!!!!>” She screamed at the top of her lungs as that same white light lanced into the beast causing it to shriek in pain and panic!
The beast back-pedaled frantically away from the searing light as it thrashed about ineffectually with its tentacles! It finally froze and with an ear-piercing shriek, exploded into thousands of brightly glowing pieces as it faded from Trivium and back to its own infernal realm!
Chapter 3:
The clearing was almost unnaturally quiet now that the violence was over. The girls all looked around the clearing and at each other, glad that the nightmare of dealing with the elder beast was over. Valmoria spoke first, “Huh. It worked after all.”
Zinreth, Daeila and Ilyana all turned to look at the medusa incredulously…
“Well, I mean I was pretty sure it would work…” She said with a small smile at her team’s reaction then asked, “Is everyone alright?”
Ilyana said, “I am but Daeila took a big hit, I’m going to check her out right now!” she said as she ran to the shaky looking centauress.
Zinreth started to go to her teammate when Valmoria interrupter her, “Zinreth! Ilyana has that under control. You and I need to secure the battle field and restrain the survivors. When Ilyana is done with Daeila then she’ll stabilize any of the bandits that need it.” She said in a firm but gentle voice, understanding the elf’s concern for her teammate.
Zinreth’s gaze lingered on Daeila as the centauress was trying to convince a dubious looking Ilyana that she was OK and sighed, “OK, I’ll get on it Valmoria.”
While Zinreth was following her orders, Valmoria strode to where the bandit’s mana user had fallen. She was still where she had fallen and unconscious now, blood seeping from around the arrow shafts that were still piecing her. She looked around and found the talisman the woman had used to summon that foul beast. She picked it up by its chain and slipped it into a small hex box that she had in her travel pack. The hex box would keep the foul aura the talisman emits contained. She then turned the pudgy woman on her side and bound her hands and feet, so she could not get away once she woke up, “I think Mistress Lilly will be interested in you my dear.” She said under her breath as she finished securing her.
After everything was said and done the four had rounded up and bound the bandits that had survived they had 7 bandits including the mana user and 5 statues, the 6th one gone, lost in another realm as Valmoria had summoned her Nabasu. The bandit that took Ilyana’s mace to his head did not survive. Ilyana only used her healing magic on the bandits that had life-threatening injuries because the battle with the beast had all but exhausted her mana reserves. She performed first aid on the rest of them.
Valmoria gathered the team together after the clearing was secure, “OK, keep your guard up. We still have bandits to capture if they stuck around and we need to capture their leader. It’s too dangerous to not clear out the bandit camp at this point. It’s too close. Then we need to get everyone back to the tower for our Mistress or one of the head slaves to deal with them. Ilyana, you stay here and guard the prisoners. Do you have any mana left at all?” Valmoria asked.
“Yep, I’m pretty much exhausted of my mana but my armor has most of its reserves still. I’ll be fine here.” She said as she hefted her mace.
“Good, and you Daeila? How your injuries?” Valmoria asked.
“Like they never happened.” She replied.
“Daeila? Truth?” Valmoria asked, skeptical of the stubborn centauress.
Daeila’s face flushed a bit at the pushback to her claim, “Truth. That potion of Ilyana’s did what she said it would. I was almost back to 100% by the time she got to me after the battle.”
“OK, good. Zinreth and Daeila, lets round up the rest. Our priority is on capturing the leader. Ignore the rest if you must. Let’s go!” Valmoria instructed and the three headed off to clear the camp.
A couple of hours passed and the three came back to find food cooking on a fire and Ilyana was applying a poultice to one of the unconscious bandits’ wounds.
“You’re back! How’d it go?” Ilyana asked.
Valmoria jerked her thumb behind her and replied, “Pretty well I think.”
Ilyana stood up from tending the bandit and saw the bandit’s leader and five more prisoners being lead, chain gang style, with Daeila having a firm grip on the lead rope. Ilyana nodded her head in approval, “Looks like some got a way then?” she asked.
“They did. Based on the size of their camp, they could have had up to forty people there. Once their ‘fearless’ leader retreated to camp to try to rally them they must have run away once they saw that we defeated their conjured horror.” Valmoria said.
“Oh, my… I’m glad they didn’t stick around if there were more there. That could have gone very badly after we had to use so much mana in the first fight.” Ilyana replied as she started walking back to the fire.
Valmoria nodded grimly in agreement and said, “Alright, Daeila, secure those six and come get a bite to eat.” She instructed as Ilyana started portioning the food she had prepared then Valmoria continued, “We have a long trip in front of us. I’ll double check the map and contact the tower with my communications mirror, but I think one of Mistress’s railroads isn’t too far away. We’ll head there and transport the prisoners the rest of the way via train unless I’m told to proceed differently. I want to get rid of that foul talisman I confiscated off their mana user as fast as I can.” she finished.
The others nodded in acknowledgment and eagerly accepted the food that Ilyana was offering. Once they were done eating Valmoria said, “Double watches tonight, let’s not let anyone escape on us and be watchful of anyone that ran away coming back to rescue their friends. We will leave the petrified bandits here and bury them to make them harder to be found by any of their companions that might be lurking around after we leave. I’ve marked the map, so they can be retrieved later.”
The team all nodded and Valmoria continued, “Ladies, I just want to say that this was a much bigger job than it was expected it would be and you all did an excellent job! Thank you for having each other’s back and for protecting me until I could banish that beast. I’ll see if Mistress will let us go to her resort Island for a few days relaxation when we get back. You all deserve it!”
End.