7?

After the meeting with Commander Rosen, Mari left in search of Lea, and Sami went to visit Fiona at the practice field. As expected, she was only being put through some standard, low-level drills, but she seemed to be handling it well.

What she clearly lacked the most at this point was confidence. She was athletic and dexterous despite her small frame—and actually surprisingly toned under her clothes, Sami recalled with a blush.

If she really put her mind to it and didn’t panic, her movements could be very quick and precise. She also had seemingly boundless stamina, though she clearly didn’t know how to make use of it, or rather, she didn’t seem used to the fact that she had it.

Beyond that, her technique would also need a lot of work. Aside from a few days of training with Jackson and fending off the small and weak monsters in the forest around her home, she had very little experience.

At a lull in the exercise, Sami approached Fiona and greeted her. The beastfolk girl was flushed and sweating, but didn’t seem to be out of breath; there was that stamina of hers at work. At this sight, Sami had a few embarrassing thoughts, but quickly pushed them out of her mind.

“How’re things going so far? Learn anything?” Sami asked.

Fiona shrugged, “It’s hard to say, it’s been less than a day after all.”

Although she said this, she was in fact using weapons that Sami hadn’t seen her with before: a pair of gauntlets with long, bladed claws attached to the knuckles. Rather fitting, given her cat-like features.

“Oh, these?” Fiona said, looking at the claws herself and toying with their retraction function, blades sliding up and down the back of the gauntlet, “Well, they told me that something like this would suit me more than a dagger would. Only lending it to me though, getting a pair of my own might be kinda expensive.”

Sami would be more than willing to buy anything this girl’s heart desired, claw-gauntlets or otherwise. Moving on from that, Sami joined in on an exercise herself. It was nice to just let loose and show off for the first time in a while, without any lives on the line.

* * *

Mari found Lea sitting precariously on a rocky ledge, one the cliffs overlooking the base camp. The quiet woman didn’t turn her head or seem to notice the other’s approach at all, but regardless she started talking as Mari drew near.

“Every time I look down from a height like this, I feel like I am just on the cusp of remembering something,” Lea spoke, her voice nearly lost among the whistling of the wind.

“I suppose that would make sense,” Mari said as she sat down as well, thinking back to the day they met, “Has your body been feeling alright, no aches or pains?”

“None,” a simple, one word reply.

Lea rose one arm straight up into the air, then brought it down in front of her with a flat-palmed chop. A simple gesture, but her hand moved so fast it became a barely-visible blur, and it made a sound as if it had sliced through the air. “I still can’t help but wonder if I was always this able-bodied,” she mumbled.

“It’s possible a new strength was awakened in you because of the strain you endured, it does happen on rare occasions,” Mari reached over and took hold of a few strands of her rough, but bright silver hair, “The color of your hair changed so drastically, after all.”

* * *

Time passed, and by this point the four of them had become mostly accustomed to daily life at the base. In fact, as each of them stood out quite a lot for a variety of reasons, they gained some degree of a reputation among the other members of the Alliance. Now, however, was the time to get serious.

Commander Rosen spoke to the small group in the command center; another simply-built hut like the rest of them. “Normally, we only have to deal with Loma infantry approaching from this area,” she pointed at a spot on the map laid in front of them, which was not far from the location of the base.

“They’re persistent, if nothing else, always aiming for the same location. If I were them I might try varying my strategy, but I’m not them, and I’m just grateful we don’t have to deal with any more of a severe threat than we do already.

“However,” she continued, leaning back in her chair as far as it would go, “that’s not what I’ve brought you here to talk about. As you can see, we’re not too far from a town called Mateu, a plucky little frontier place. We’ve received messages from people there, reporting harassment from Loma bandits.

“Most of us need to remain to concentrate on dealing with the regular attacks here, so you lot can help us out by taking care of this before the situation escalates any. Any questions?”

There were none. It was a simple, straightforward task. Let’s hope this one doesn’t come with any nasty complications, Sami thought to herself, remembering the first ill-fated request that had set this whole spiral of events into motion.

* * *

Now this is what we'd been missing, both Sami and Fiona thought in unison. When traveling with Jackson they could be assured that they would be traveling in safety, but the hot, dry air and sand of the desert were lousy for those who weren’t used to it. Namely, the two of them. But now they had Mari by their side, a mage adept in healing and utility magic.

For her, the spells that could make traveling through a sun-scorched wasteland feel like a skip through a cool and breezy meadow were child’s play. No heat, no dryness, no sinking into the sand with every step! It was a shame they couldn’t relish the sensation for longer, because before they knew it the town of Mateu had already come into sight.

It was pretty much just as the Commander had described; a collection of rough and low-set but charming buildings, with plenty of people out and about despite the heat. It was such a lively town that one could easily forget that it currently was dealing with a situation that could soon become a serious threat.

The group checked in with the mayor, who led them to the front of a building in a noticeably less lively part of town before hurrying away. It looked like it might have once been a fairly successful tavern, but now there was no one around, and it was in a bit of a state of disrepair.

According to the explanation given to them in hushed tones, this is where the Loma bandits had forcibly made their headquarters. Nothing for it now but to step inside, and be ready for negotiations or a fight, with a significantly higher chance of the latter.

* * *

There were only three bandits in the building. For some this might be something to be relieved about, but thinking rationally: either there were others hiding somewhere, or these three were tough enough to have strongarmed half a town by themselves. Both prospects were equally frightening.

Sami felt a strange sense of deja vu as she stepped into the building, but didn’t spare it a second thought. At the far end of the room was a table, sitting in a chair was a man with pale skin and white hair, on the table itself was a woman with heavy boots and a short jacket, and leaning against the wall was a tanned man with jet-black hair. They fell silent as the door opened.

Against all their expectations, recognition dawned on the face of the woman and she laughed aloud. “Hey, hey, I recognize you, with the blue hair, fancy meeting you all the way out here. Saw you hangin’ around while we were scouting out the Locke mansion, the pampered rich kid. Sure is too bad you never saw us though, huh?”

Sami had never seen these three before in her life, but a brief few moments of connecting the dots was all it took before she completely lost her cool.

The other three had barely even registered the fact that Sami was being taunted as if she was an old rival, when she had already rushed across the room with her rapier drawn.

Sadie, the assassin from Loma who had orchestrated the poisoning of Duke James Locke, was far quicker to react. Showing off her flexibility, she lifted her leg all the way up, her knee nearly level with her head, and deflected Sami’s first wild swing with the plate armor strapped to her calves.

With a blur of movement, Sadie had already struck her target several times with that same leg, but Sami didn’t falter back. Her rapier traced lines of reflected light through the air as she swept and thrust, her usual elegance with the blade forgotten.

Finally having the time to react to the rapidly escalating situation, both Sami’s and Sadie’s companions started to move.

Fiona tried to rush to Sami’s side, but she was smoothly stopped by the dark-haired Patrick, who stepped away from the wall with his sword drawn. He wasn’t even looking at her, however, his head was turned in Sadie’s direction, “You really shouldn’t have taunted her, Sadie. It’s on you if this ends up going badly.”

Sadie just laughed again and deflected another strike from Sami’s blade, “You kidding? This girl’s moves are so sloppy, you guys just focus on the others.”

Unsure about attacking another living person, but fully sure about her desire to protect Sami, Fiona swiped her gauntlet’s claws at the man in front of her—but he caught the blow easily on his sword… And, only now did he turn to look towards her. “Sorry about this,” he said, as if she would even consider accepting his apology.

Matthew, the pale man at the chair, quickly ducked down to the side of the fray that had erupted in front of him, and flicked a hand towards the two women who had yet to move from the entrance of the building. A long and sharp-looking bolt of light sizzled rapidly through the air from out of his fingertips, heading straight for Mari’s head.

One second, Lea was standing about a step behind Mari, and in the next, her longsword was drawn and she was already in front of her. A glowing spot of heat lingered on the blade, where she had somehow bisected the magical projectile itself. The fringes of Mari’s wavy hair fluttered gently from the rush of air caused by the two split halves as they flew by harmlessly.

“You are getting rather quick indeed, Lea,” Mari hefted her mace-staff and moved forward, the other woman staying beside her with her sword held in a defensive position.

Matthew didn’t like his odds in this situation. It was time to try to even them. Always the more resourceful member of the trio, he quickly reached into his pouch for a circular piece of paper inscribed with what looked like a spell-circle.

He could surmise that the woman with the staff was a magic-user, and while he didn’t know what type of magic she used, he didn’t care to find out. He threw the paper out in front of him and infused it with magic of his own.

Just as quickly as before, Lea moved to slash this next projectile as well, but her sword cut through ordinary paper. With a flash of light, the inscription disappeared from the paper and reappeared in glowing lines around Mari. She suddenly felt the feeling of numbness that she recognized as a magic-sealing effect.

She clicked her tongue. There was no telling how long this would last, but it might be safe to assume that the group was going to have to make do without any of her healing spells for the rest of the fight.