Maylia and I ran down the main road and it seemed kind of deserted for being a main road. We had thought we would have to duck into the trees or hide from any passersby that might be around, and we didn't have to. We didn't even have to slow down our run. I even used the Presence technique to draw far away sounds to my ears in case we encountered something that wouldn't show up in our detection ranges. I heard a rustle of leaves and slowed down to look at a weird raccoon-like thing as it crawled over something.

“Maylia, just a second.” I said and we came to a stop and walked off the road and over to the curiously odd creature. “What in the world is it eating?” I asked and looked at what it had in its mouth “Is that part of a horse?”

“Yes.” Maylia said as she looked at the partially eaten leather straps and followed them to the wood and metal bar they were tied to. “It looks like a carriage.”

“What's left of it, anyway.” I said. “What could have...”

“NOO-OOOO-OOOOO!” A woman's bellow cut through the air and I winced.

“Ow.” I said and slowed the flow of Presence to my ears.

“That came from the other side of the road.” Maylia said. “Do you think we should...”

“That wasn't a friendly yell. If you made that sound, I wouldn't hesitate to go after and kill whoever made you scream like that.” I said and took her hand and let my energy flow over her. “Be wary. If they can take out a carriage and leave almost nothing left...”

Maylia nodded and we flipped up our hoods as we activated Mana Presence Run at full strength. We shot across the road in an instant and our detection range reached out further as we ran and it covered more ground. If we hadn't been paying attention and intentionally looked for people, both hiding and not, we might have missed the fluctuation of mana at the edge of our range as we passed by it. We exchanged glances and ran out and around to approach it from a different direction and didn't slow down at all.

At the instant my detection range crossed the mana fluctuation, I activated the mental technique I had to analyze the types of mana and their effects. I knew it was something similar to a barrier that blocked things, so it could be either for sight or sound, or even both. I could also see through it, thanks to my Detect Mana Presence technique. I counted eight standing people, one of which was high up in a nearby tree. I glanced at Maylia to see if she saw the same thing, and she glanced at me and nodded.

“Use me like a tree and go high.” I said and she slowed only a fraction to be slightly behind me. I reinforced my body with Presence and mana and took an extra long stride to made the perfect set of steps for her to run up. Time seemed to slow down as she switched hands with me in an instant, pulled on my hand to give herself a bit more momentum, then stepped on my calf, my hip, my back and then my shoulder and launched herself up into the air. Since we were still running really fast, we crossed a huge amount of distance as she jumped.

I didn't have time to be careful as I used an absurd amount of Presence and mana to slice through whatever the barrier was. It disappeared just before we were going to hit it and I ignored the dark cloaked figure that yelled. I jumped myself at the last second and slammed my feet into a man that looked at the people on the ground with lust and hunger.

I heard a satisfying crack as his head snapped to the side and broke his neck, then he was flung away as I transferred most of my momentum to his now dead body and it slammed into a tree nearly thirty feet away with the sound of a lot more bones breaking. I landed on the ground and slid about ten feet before coming to a stop and I was met with complete silence.

*

Maylia had been completely surprised that Hunter would suggest using him like a tree, then she saw the mana seep into his muscles and bones and knew he was serious. She shifted back slightly, then somehow knew when he made a long stride that it was time. It was ridiculously easy for her to use him as steps, because he had made it so, and since she was running so fast, it took her the same amount of steps to run up him as it would have if she had kept running.

He's amazing! Maylia thought as she jumped from his shoulders like a launching pad. Because of the speed she travelled at, it sent her on a long arcing trajectory towards her target. She drew her sword and flipped over in the air, used both mana and skill to guide her actions, then she swiped her sword across the woman's neck and decapitated her, her cloak, and the top of her bow in one motion.

Maylia flipped over again to slow herself, reached out with her hand and smacked the next tree to give herself another spin and slowed down some more, then the next, and used a mana cushion spell normally used to soften a fall as she approached a tree that she couldn't avoid. Her feet hit the tree and the spell caught her, absorbed all of her momentum, and she pushed off and dropped towards the ground.

*

I held in my laugh as a woman's bloody head dropped into the clear area in the middle of everyone and they all jumped, even the big green guy. A few seconds later, her whole body dropped and landed in the same spot. I saw Maylia as she handled landing from that move like a pro and I didn't have to catch her with the Presence Hand I had hung onto her cloak.

“Who in the seven hells are you?” A dark cloaked man with a mangled face asked and I felt a very strong mental probe try to break through my mental barriers.

“Don't do that.” I said and created a Presence Hand to grab him around the neck and squeezed as I picked him up. The man choked and tried to pry the invisible hand off of his neck.

“What are you doing?” A man asked and tried to help the choking one. “Let him go!”

“HYAHH!” The big dark green skinned guy yelled and swung an unwieldy hammer at me. I shook my head and caught it with a Presence Hand and pulled it out of his hand, turned it around, then whacked him across the face with it. It shattered his cheekbone, his nose, burst his eye, and caved half of his face in. The green guy dropped to the ground, unconscious.

“Hunter! To the right!” Maylia exclaimed as she cut a woman down, and I turned my head to the right just in time. A blood red arrow hit the blast shield over my eyes and deflected up into the hood of my cloak and tore through it, just missing my ear.

“You can have this.” I said and threw the warhammer at her. The surprise on her face was quite satisfying as the warhammer slammed into her chest and caved it in as it killed her. She flew back about fifteen feet before she landed in a heap and her body hugged the warhammer as if it didn't want to let it go, even in death.

“Ah, ah, ah!” A man's voice said and I turned to see that he had a sword against a woman's neck. It was the guy that had flinched when I broke the barrier. “Move and I'll kill her!”

I looked down at the woman and saw that she was tied to the same tree that the other two people that were still alive were tied, and looked back at the guy.

“Try to kill her and you die.” I said without moving.

The man didn't respond and only looked past me. A second later, he flinched and I heard a man's gurgled moan.

“How many is that now?” I asked. “Five? Six?” I chuckled. “How many more of you want to die?”

“Kill them all.” The woman said, her voice without any inflection. “They're evil now and only want...”

“Sh-shut... up!” The mangled face man managed to say through my choke hold and the woman stopped talking mid-sentence.

“Will killing him stop your compulsion to follow his orders?” I asked her, and she shrugged her shoulders. The man with the sword to her throat didn't like that and he moved to shove the sword into her neck... and it didn't move. He looked at his hand and at the sword, then at her neck.

“What's going on?” He asked, confused.

“That's what I'd like to know.” I said and plucked the sword out of his hand, turned the sword around, then cut off his hand.

“AHHH!” The man screamed and dropped to his knees. He tried to put a hand over the stump to stop the blood from gushing out, so I covered it with Presence and made it solid. He stared at the stump and touched it with his remaining hand. “What is this?”

“Tell me what I want to know.” I said and dragged the mangled faced man over.

“You can... go to... hell.” The mangled face man said.

“I've heard there's seven of them.” I said. “Which one do you recommend?”

Both men stared at me in surprise without saying anything and Maylia came over to us as well.

“I don't think they are going to tell us anything.” Maylia said. “The fighter wouldn't say anything before I killed him and even that magic user over there asked to die before he would reveal their plans.”

Maylia's really efficient. I thought and looked at the mangled face man as I leaned in close. “Do you want to tell me why you attacked and killed these people?”

The man didn't say anything, so I covered his mouth with Presence to keep him quiet and turned to the other man. He didn't say anything either, so I looked down at the woman. Or I should say what I thought was a woman. The other woman that was tied there had her legs in the way when I was farther away, and now that I was right next to the tree, I could see that she was actually a half-snake woman.

Good god, what is up with this world? I thought and stared at her.

“Hunter.” Maylia said. “HUNTER!”

I shook my head and looked at her.

“I can feel him trying to get by my mental defenses.” Maylia said, her face slightly disgusted.

“Oh, right. I'm sorry.” I said and squeezed the Presence Hand until it closed. The mangled face man's neck snapped and I popped the head off of his body and tossed it aside. The other man stared at me with a wide open mouth as the mangled face man's body dropped to the ground.

“He was too dangerous to let live.” I said. “I can't have someone poking around in our minds and fiddling with things. He'd eventually find someone to coerce and try to escape.” I knelt and looked into the lamia's eyes. “Hey, there. How do you feel?”

She opened her mouth to speak and nothing came out.

“Hm. Okay.” I said. “I'll need to think about this for a while.”

The lamia reached out and took my hand, and she pointed to the man on the other side of the woman between them. I glanced at him and saw his lethargic state and looked back at her. She sighed and opened her mouth and a set of two inch fangs dropped down. A green liquid dripped from one of the tips and I understood.

“Would a minor potion of healing help?” I asked, and she had to think about it. After a minute, she shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't know and retracted her fangs and closed her mouth. I stood up and looked at the last man alive. “Any chance you or headless guy here has lamia antivenom?”

“Auntie-what?” The man asked.

“Cure poison? Antidote? Full healing potion? Anything?” I said instead.

“He might have something in his bag of holding; but, he's dead. You can't get anything out of it now.”

“Then what happens to all of his things?” I asked.

“Who knows.” The man said, then he sneered. “You should have asked him before you killed him.”

“Like what you were doing to these people?” I asked and waved at the bodies, and his sneer disappeared. “I'm sure you were being considerate of their stored items while you killed them, too.” I said and looked over at the big green guy. “Maylia, what do you think of him?”

“It's very odd that an orc would associate with any race, let alone humans.” Maylia said. “It's possible that he has a bounty on his head.”

“I think they all might.” I said and saw the man's reaction to that statement. “So, you are wanted criminals.” I smiled and used a Presence Hand on his collar to stop him from running, if he chose to try.

“I have to assume we get the reward if we bring in your head.”

“No, please.” The man snivelled. “I... I hate pain.”

I felt the Presence waver and sighed. “You're just going to give me trouble and grief, aren't you?”

“No! I'll be the perfect prisoner! I won't make a fuss and...”

I was almost dizzy as the Presence swayed more than ever, so I picked up the man's sword and shoved it through his neck. He choked and blood poured out of his mouth and neck in equal measure. I kept hold of his collar with a Presence Hand and pulled the sword to the side, making sure I pushed the blade between the vertebra of his spine and severed his neck. I moved the sword back to cut the rest of the skin and the head popped right off and fell to the ground.

“Maylia, get the orc's head.” I said, and she nodded as I went to the female elf and cut off her head. “We might as well strip them of anything valuable, too.”

I took out the bundle of cheap sheets and took one out, and we piled all eight of the heads onto it and I tied it up, then put that and the sheets back into my bag of holding. We went to the headless bodies and stripped them of their coin pouches, weapons, belts, armor, clothing, boots, bags, and one backpack. The lamia just stared at us as we did it and she visibly shook when we walked back over to the tree towards her.

“Ah, feeling guilty?” I asked and her eyes widened. I checked the bags and backpack and they were half full of normal items of food, rations, and extra clothes. I knelt by the mangled face man's body and looked at the lamia. “I've been curious about something. I was given a previously used bag of holding, so I know they can change owners. It was emptied first, though. Now I wonder if that is always the case. Do the bags have to be empty to change owners?”

I looked at the body and the bag tied to his waist. Before I moved to take it, I took a deep breath and spoke. I had confidence that it would work, so I spoke as if it already had.

“In the name of god, I hereby claim this executed criminal's current physical belongings as my own.” I said and untied the bag of holding. “I only hope the contents will help the victims in front of me in some way.”

“I couldn't find anything on the elf.” Maylia said, sadly. “Her forbidden blood arrow poison will claim another victim soon.”

I looked down at the woman tied between the tanned man and the lamia and heard her laboured breathing. “Cross your fingers.” I said and opened the bag and my hand met a solid barrier. “Dammit.”

“Hunter, what if... can you... what about...” Maylia stammered.

“I doubt whatever you say will surprise me, so just say it.” I said.

“Try using his hand.” Maylia said and pointed to the corpse. “It was his bag. If only he can reach in, maybe if you manipulate the hand, you can take things out.”

I barked a laugh and stood up. “I take back what I just said.” I turned to her and looked into her eyes. “That was a very smart thing to suggest.”

Maylia's face turned bright red at the compliment.

“I know how much you dislike witnesses, so I'll kiss you later.” I said, and she nodded. I used a Presence Blade to sever the arm at the shoulder, then used a Presence Hand to pick it up. It was at this moment that I did something that I never would have thought of doing on my own. Since Presence was in everything, I formed a Presence Hand inside the mangled face man's hand and squeezed. The hand squeezed the same and I chuckled.

“Even if this doesn't work, thank you for the fantastic idea.” I said to Maylia, then lowered the arm into the bag. Surprisingly, the Presence Hand disappeared from my Detect Presence technique. I could still feel with it, though. Since I knew it was just an extension of my Presence, I could use it as a conduit. I sent a little bit of Presence through the Presence Hand like a pulse and let it spread out, and I could 'see' the things inside the bag.

“This is so weird.” I said and did it again, so I would have some idea of what I would be grabbing, then closed the hand on what I thought was a book and pulled on the shoulder. The hand lifted out of the bag and it held a large black tome. The lamia screamed wordlessly and covered her face.

“That is apparently bad.” Maylia said and I nodded and put it back inside the bag and off to the side, then I started to take everything else out of it. When everything but the book was removed, I looked at the things I had scattered on the ground. There was a lot of junk, with miscellaneous items for every day living, and also a chest, several odd colored cloaks, three more books, another bag of holding that was empty, a huge pile of scrolls covered in writing, and a dozen potion bottles in four different colors. Red, green, blue, and purple.

“I can't leave the dark book in this one.” I said and pulled out the last item from the bag, then dismissed the Presence I had used inside the hand and dropped the arm. The lamia kept shaking her head and I held a hand out in front of her. “I won't touch it. I'm going to wrap it in one of the cloaks and store it in the unclaimed bag of holding, all right?”

The lamia nodded and I did exactly that. I used one of the normal cloaks we had taken from one of the bodies, wrapped it over and over around the book to cover it completely, then added a layer of Presence and mana and made it solid. The man and the lamia stared at the slightly green book and I put it into the new bag of holding and put that into my bag of holding.

“Now, these potions.” I said. “The red and green match the minor heal and minor mana potions I have. What are the blue and purple ones?”

“P-p-purple.... s-s-s-stasis.” The man managed to get out.

“That could be good or bad.” I said, and he nodded almost imperceptibly. “Maylia, any idea about the blue one?” I asked and she shook her head. “I can't just give a random potion to someone.” I said and took out a minor healing potion and held to the lips of the man. “I don't know if this will help or not.”

The man drank it eagerly and then he winced and his body started to tremble and twitch.

“Dammit!” I said and grabbed a purple stasis potion and let him drink it. He relaxed and stopped shaking after that. I looked at the blue-haired woman between them and gave her one, too. Her breathing was still heavy; but, she wasn't struggling like she had been.

“Hunter, if there are any more of these people around, we can't stay here.” Maylia said. “Also, some of those odd creatures that were eating the horses are creeping closer.”

“Well, we won't have to worry about cleaning up the bodies, then.” I said and used a sword to cut the ropes that held the prisoners. The lamia rolled over onto her belly and tried to slither away, so I grabbed her with a Presence Hand and dragged her back. “Sorry, we need answers and you seemed to know these people.” I said and waved at the bodies. “You're not going anywhere.”

The lamia started to cry and I didn't really have any sympathy for her, mainly because I had the feeling that she had caused it somehow. I used bits of the rope to tie her hands behind her, then looked at Maylia.

“Any ideas on how to transport three immobile people?” I asked.

“A stretcher.” Maylia said and looked around, then pointed to a tree with two good branches. “With the cheap sheets, we can easily make one large enough to hold them.”

“I'm really glad you came along.” I said and touched the side of her face tenderly. “Let's get to work.”

In less than ten minutes, we had a stretcher made that was big enough to hold the three of them. When we loaded them onto it, the man held a shaky hand out and pointed to the pile of bodies that used to be his friends.

“We can't take them, and they would be dug up and eaten if we buried them.” I said, and he pointed again. “You want their things?” I asked, and he nodded.

Maylia and I gathered their items and piled them onto the stretcher beside him and he hugged them with barely moving arms. With that done, Maylia and I lifted one end and I used Presence Hands to pick up the other end. It would be a constant drain on me to keep them manifested; but, there wasn't any other way to get them out of the woods. We walked at a slow and steady pace until we were out of the trees and onto the main road, then we started to jog. We needed to get to the next town as soon as possible, because two, and possibly three lives hung in the balance.