I started casting a fireball and an elemental blast at the same time. Anger took over every emotion within me and I didn’t bother to hold back.

As the fireball grew in size before me, the face of the human on horseback grew pale. It was then I knew for certain he had spoken without getting a good look at what I was. Unfortunately for him, his shock was not to last long, as both of my spells hit him in the chest, knocking him off his horse as the elemental blast spell exploded.

You have killed a Human Raider: No experience was awarded.

“No shit, Elysa,” I said softly in reaction to the blue square before me. At least the message had given me confirmation that these people were the scum I expected them to be, meaning going all out was justified in my eyes.

I quickly disregarded the message as the horse the human had been riding, reared up and started running out of what I assumed was pure fear.

I stopped its movements by firing a quick paralytic venom bolt that, after a few seconds, slowed the horse down, and eventually forced it to collapse in the field not too far out. Within those few seconds, the bandits that still remained directed their horses to flee the scene.

I was faster.

I’d fired a flurry of venom bolts to paralyze the horses. From there on out, the rest was child’s play.

Ice lances flew left and right, as did elemental blasts as I chased down the remaining raiders who were screaming as they ran for their lives. Cellestra held on to me as tight as she could while I chased them down and finished them off.

The other messages that popped up before me were ignored and filtered out. The bit where it said they were all bandits was relieving, but that was all I needed to know. I finished off the last bandit by summoning two smaller earthen spikes that impaled his feet and immobilized him, causing him to scream in terror, and then firing an ice lance through his heart. After that, I immediately turned my attention to the burning building.

“Are there any people still inside?” I yelled to the townsfolk who had observed the skirmish in the human language.

When I didn’t receive an immediate answer, I asked the question again, even louder than before. I was about to ask again, in the elven language before somebody replied.

“None.” Came an answer.

That was a relief to know. Nonetheless, I walked closer to the sea of flames where I felt the effects of the intense heat all too clearly.

“Are you okay?” I asked Cellestra, who was still holding on to me behind me. “If the heat is too much, tell me. I’ll try to save what can be saved… if I can get my spell to work that is.”

“I’ll be okay.”

I nodded and tried casting the water summoning spell, except I used far more mana than I otherwise would. I wanted to see just how much I could summon at once and how far I could reach.

A jet of water erupted from my hand, summoning large amounts of water, but at an extreme mana cost. I knew I couldn’t keep this spell up for long. I guessed a minute or so would be enough to completely drain my reserves.

The spell was utterly useless. The stream of water only reached about three, maybe four yards away. It was nowhere near enough to reach the flames. I had to concede that I could simply not get close enough to do anything in this situation. Even if I could, it would only do very little.

I was glad to know that there were no people left inside. I would have probably cursed at myself for being so useless in this situation. It made me wonder if there was some kind of spell out there that I could learn.

Being able to extinguish fires would never be a bad thing in my book.

I walked away from the fire and turned to the carnage that was left after the short battle. I counted nine bodies of deceased humans. I left them in the grass as I shifted my attention to the horses who had suffered minor injuries due to the paralytic venom bolt spell. I had already planned for this and would heal every single one of these noble creatures with my healing light spell.

“Why did you do that?” Cellestra asked. “Paralyzing them, I mean.”

“Two reasons,” I stated as I continued healing a horse beneath me. At the same time, I was trying to calm it down by softly stroking its head. It seemed that my soft voice and gentle hand movements had the desired effect as they stopped struggling to get up and instead allowed me to pet them without issues.

“First, I didn’t want to hit them by accident. The first of my kills was impossible to miss, but when they started running… I wasn’t going to risk it.”

“And the second?”

“I have no idea who owns these creatures. They should still be unable to move for a while in which we can figure out with the locals what to do with them. If they choose to let them roam free, that’s fine too.”

The building groaned. Seconds later, the wood gave out and the entire storage building collapsed into a burning pile of wood. Sparks and dust were sent everywhere in the process and a wave of heat was sent in our direction. The horse beneath me reacted to it in fear, but I was quick to soothe it back into relaxation with my healing spell and hands.

“You know…” Cellestra said softly. “You really are good with horses. I can’t believe it’s so calm at the sight of you.”

“Yeah. Although, I don’t know how much of that is the paralytic effect.”

I patted the horse’s side twice before moving over to the next to heal its wounds and calm it down, when one of the villagers walked up to me. He was a short man, with a small beard and a groomed mustache. I could see that he was well dressed too. He wore a tailored black suit and held a wooden staff with some kind of silver orb on top. He clearly was a figure of importance.

“Greetings,” He spoke, a bit shaky, but confident nonetheless. “I’m the mayor of this town. I’ve come to thank you…”

He seemed to be looking for his words. “I don’t know what to call you…” He admitted.

I smiled at him. “Kealyna. You can just call me Kealyna. Behind me is Cellestra, my traveling companion. We’re headed to Len Asari and saw a bright light in the distance and decided to investigate.”

“I can’t be thankful enough that you did. These brigands have been bothering us for long enough.”

“You couldn’t do anything against them?” I asked, without even thinking twice.

The mayor shook his head. “We possess no cavalry. They would just raid farms and take their riches before hightailing it out of there before the guards would even get anywhere close.”

“That sounds… harsh.”

“They have never been brazen enough to commit arson, though. Hopefully, when word gets out, we will finally be sent some reinforcements for the future.”

“Well,” I said as I slowly petted the horse I had healed. “Seems you got nine fine horses to work with as well. After I finish healing them that is.”

“I…” The short man, who barely reached my chest, even when I was seated like this, let out. “I don’t know what to say.”

“No need to say anything,” I said warmly. “As a knight… well, former knight, it was my duty to help out.”

“Knight?” He asked, confused.

“Long story. Something involving Elysa… personally.”

“I see…”

I went to the next horse and noticed the first one I’d hit was starting to move slightly again.

“Do you have anyone that can take care of these creatures?” I asked.

“We most certainly do. I think the family who owns this place would love to take care of them after their most recent loss. Then, when we have some of the guards trained into riding horseback, I’d happily buy them with the next round of taxes.”

The man before me, even though he was a human, struck me as an exceptional person. The selflessness in his proposal was one of a kind. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen it before. He was in a position to keep the horses for himself, yet he would rather give them away to a family that needed them and then later, buy them.

I was at a loss for words.

“That’s… very noble of you,” I finally managed to say. “How are they doing anyway. The people that own this place?”

“They are… coping. The one piece of good news is that the warehouse was pretty much empty, save for stocked-up hay. Replacing that isn’t the worst thing.”

I nodded. “That’s true.”

“Is there anything we can do to thank you for your actions?” He asked.

“I’m not actually sure. We didn’t plan to stay here for long, but I’ll try to think of something while I take care of the horses.”

“Please do. I’d hate to have a debt unpaid.”

I was starting to like this mayor more and more.

“The name’s Muck, by the way. Muck Presley.”

“Nice to meet you, Muck,” I said with a smile.