The rest of the afternoon went by without incident, and Anatheia stayed near Lilith for the majority of it. At the same time she learned about the rest of the party.

There was Tyan, the level 10 Elf Ice Mage. He was new, very capable and hardworking, but his use of ice magic was pretty standard. He focused on control spells and wasn't too creative with it.

Next was Syl, Tyan's sister, also new, and a level 10 Elf Windbow. This was an extremely mobile archer that does their best when strafing around and over the enemy. Anatheia was impressed, Windbow was a rare class to start out with, clearly the system saw Syl had a lot of potential.

Then there was the sword and shield wielding Nase. This human was a level 12 Warrior. Nothing particular made him stand out to Anatheia, but he seemed capable of holding his own.

Finally Olena, the human with a level 9 Spearman class rounded out the bunch. She was, like Nase, nothing that impressed Ana, but she did look pretty deadly for being a lower level than everyone else. Maybe she was using the Deceive skill? But that was not very common at low levels from what she could remember.

When they stopped for the night, she set about doing something she had learned a long time ago. When was that again? She shook her head to focus on the task at hand. She focused her Light magic into a string using the spell Light Thread. From there she ran it around trees all the way around the camp. It was just low enough so wolves would trip it, and just high enough so that most humanoids would think twice about stepping over it.

In order to be doubly sure she brought Tyan along to set small ice traps while she set shadow traps. Now there would be no one sneaking up on her.

“That was an impressive show Lady Anatheia. I would have never thought of that use for light magic,” Tyan complimented her. She liked how the elves referred to her as Lady. It felt almost right. She also found she enjoyed the twins company. Tyan wasn't nearly as dour as he seemed, and he was actually plenty creative, he just like to play it by the book. He picked up on new techniques in an instant.

But most importantly, they hadn't been defending their camp boundaries with magic? Marcos was a bigger idiot than she thought. At least they were setting a guard, so he didn't look completely inexperienced. Still, without boundary magic, that left a lot of the perimeter vulnerable at any given time.

Being an angel, she didn't technically need sleep. It didn't even pass the time for her, as she would feel every moment pass as normal. She volunteered to stand watch most of the night so that she wouldn't have to occupy it with anything else.

“You don't need sleep?” Lilith asked, cutting off Marcos. Ana smiled at her concern. It was honestly quite something to see someone so concerned about someone they just met.

“You sure you aren't an angel dear? I will be fine,”She teased the girl who blushed furiously. Then she furrowed her brow before suddenly her face lit up in a radiant smile. The rapid shift of emotions almost gave Ana whiplash from watching it.

“I'll stay up with Miss Anatheia for part of the watch to keep her company!” Lilith exclaimed, further angering Marcos. He was being ignored and he did not like that. Ana smiled at both his frustration and the enthusiasm showed by the girl.

“Alright, that sounds good. I'll stand watch, and young Lilith will keep me company until she needs some sleep,” Ana said, but this caused Lilith to pout cutely.

“I'm not young! I turn 18 next month! Why does everyone call me young, I'm practically an adult!” she ranted furiously. Though because of everything about her, it came off more cute than threatening.

Ana laughed melodically, “You're younger than me, therefore young.” She patted the girl on the head which simply led to an attempt by Lilith to bat at her hand.

Marcos, fed up with being ignored, stormed off. He was not used to someone in his own party who did not bow to his wishes completely. Lilith was bad enough. This new woman, this angel, she was a real pain. Even though it may cause problems down the line, he would do something about her. She had to be brought low, reminded which races ran the surface.

As she spoke with Lilith, Ana felt a chill down her back, and looked over to where the feeling came from. The bloodlust that Marcos was exuding was intense.

She smiled, clearly her plan was working. She would manipulate him into attacking her over the next couple of days as she leveled up, and she would eliminate him in self-defense. With that she went with Lilith to see what it was that Nase was cooking for dinner.

It turned out to be a surprisingly good rabbit stew cooked by Nase, the party settled in for the night. Lilith and Ana paced around the camp, keeping an eye on the outside and talking.

“How did someone like you end up in the party of someone like Marcos?” Lilith asked the swordswoman. The human girl frowned.

“Nobody wanted me. I was untrained, young, and naive. He said they needed an assassin, so I joined. I didn't even think about them being bad people. Though the rest of the party is nice, Marcos and Olena are horrible,” she elaborated sadly. As she saw this girl that was far too pure in such a state, Ana had an overwhelming urge to hug her, and she gave into it.

Lilith recoiled at first, confused, but then sank into the hug, still not understanding what was happening. There had not been anyone to hug her like this since she was little...she began to tear up, but just then she heard a branch breaking nearby.

“Shh, did you hear that?” she quietly asked the angel holding her.

“No, you probably have better hearing than me,” she whispered softly, right into Lilith's ear. A shiver went down her spine, but she had to focus. There, another sound.

She separated from Anatheia and told her, “Get ready, we have company.” She pointed the direction of the sounds and they quietly made their way towards it when suddenly-

“AAAGH!” Several traps went off at the same time, a flash popped off from the Light Thread, blinding those near it, and cries went up in multiple places on the same side of camp. These shouts woke the others as the two sentries began to engage the enemy. Anatheia threw a flare of light into the sky to illuminate the battlefield for the humans in the party, then she went to work.

The bandits that were attacking them were around level 5-8, well within her ability to fight. She darted from enemy to enemy spinning and slashing. Occasionally, when she needed extra power, she would use the spell Light Bomb behind the scythe to propel it forward through the enemy.

As she looked across the battlefield she saw Olena cutting a swath of destruction from behind the safety of the shield wall. When an arrow struck Tyan in the chest, she darted to him. The wound was deep, but she was able to force it to heal partially, pushing out the arrow.

“Thank you Lady Anatheia,” Tyan expressed his gratitude before they both jumped back into the fight. Seeing the fight going badly, some of the enemy began to flee, and one of the backline started shouting at them to get back in the fight.

“Lilith, that's the leader!” She shouted to the assassin. To this point she had been demonically cutting down enemies with single slices of her sword. Using light bombs to propel herself forward, she reached the boss at the same time as Lilith. They swung from opposite sides, simultaneously decapitating the man, and sending the remaining bandits into a full on route.

Ana laughed as she patted Lilith on the back, “That was impressive! You may have the personality of an angel, but you're a real demon in battle aren't you?” Being praised by an angel, even in that manner made the girl blush deeply. Luckily for her it was dark enough that it was difficult to see.

“All right Lilith, let's check what kind of goodies they left for us,” she said with a lick of her lips. Lilith let out a musical giggle and followed.

During the looting, Anatheia found a [Gray]<Flight of the Thief Ring> to take up the other spot for rings. You did not want more than 2 rings, pairs of earrings, or necklaces with magical properties. After that they drained significantly more magic to operate. This was how the system limited your ability to stack item buffs.

Luckily in the gear she also found a travel cloak that was large enough to comfortably cover her wings and hide her face. It barely qualified as a gear item, but she put it on anyways. It was a [White] <Shadowcloak> which gave negligible bonuses. Finally she saved a few pieces that might do well with the party members she like, and scrapped the rest for the money and materials.

Luckily the rarity system seemed the same as she remembered, or at least from what she could remember. Why wouldn't it be the same? She shook her head to get back on track.

The colors ran [White-Gray-Green-Black-Blue-Purple-Red-Gold-Rainbow] from what she remembered. Once she finished up, she walked back to the rest of the party, but when she reunited with the group, they looked dour. Suddenly Marcos was upon her.

“Just what the hell was that? They managed to sneak right up on us before you noticed them. You're an angel aren't you? How could they get that close?” He berated her, eyes full of fire, voice full of fury. She simply stared at him blankly for a moment.

Then her eyes widened in fake shock, “OH! Marcos, you were berating ME? I'm sorry, I figured you would be on your knees thanking me for the idea of placing magical protections around the camp before we slept. Something you haven't been doing, and that saved the lives of your entire party. So I recommend you remain quiet while I heal your party, then if you manage that, I may heal you.” Her completely undressing of his failure before meeting her was enough to shut him up. Olena grinded her teeth seeing Marcos, Her Marcos, treated like that. She was almost ready to grab her spear and shove it through the damnable divine being, but then she remembered Marcos asking her to wait for that.

The rest of the party was amazed once again as this short, fiery angel and her ability to cow the much larger party leader. Especially in the presence of Olena, who Anatheia seemingly just ignored completely. As she healed them, she handed each party member an item she had found for them. All except for Olena, and eventually Marcos.

Lilith in particular seemed excited to receive the [Green] <Swiftstrike Ring> from Anatheia.

Once she had finished healing everyone else, she distributed the attribute points she got from leveling up to level 5, and then she finally moved on to Marcos. He had remained quiet after all, and she kept her word.

“There, see how easy that was, good boy Marcos,” she humiliated him once more and could see the rage just beneath the surface. She could feel the bloodlust roil off him in waves. However it also came from Olena. They really wanted to kill her. That was good, and just what she wanted. She was undermining his authority little by little. Before they got back to town, these two wouldn't have a single bit of control.

And then little miss Lilith will be mine, maybe the Elf twins too, she thought with a smile.

============================================================

Name: Anatheia

Race: Angel - Fallen

Class: Angelic Healer

Level: 6

Titles: Fallen Angel (Civilized Races Killed: 9/10) (Monsters Killed: 0) , Punished – Light Goddess

Funds:

Silver: 22

Bronze: 96

Stats(Added) [Equipment Bonus]:

HP: 420

Mana: 780

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Toughness: 25(+5) [+10]

Agility: 25 (+5) [+15]

Mind: 45 (+15) [+20]

Perception: 15(+5)[+5]

Magical Affinities: Shadow, Light, Ice(Sealed), Fire(Sealed), Earth(Sealed), Wind(Sealed), Water(Sealed), Blood(Sealed), Life

Abilities: Evaluate, Shadow Sight(Angelic ability), Angelic Recovery(Angelic Ability), Deceive(item)

Bonuses/Penalties: Divine Punishment - Self-defense