They were expecting a predator of the night, but the next words completely broke those expectations as a calm uninterested voice reached their ears, as if coming from right next to them “What’s going on here?”

Of course, needless to say, the defenseless black haired girl froze in fear, despite the non-threatening attitude she heard.

Fuck, another weirdo showed up. Thought the girl bandit.

“It’s none of yer business, buzz off.”

Truelip simply looked down at the bodies in front of them and then back at the supposed perpetrators and started walking slowly towards them.

The bandits tense up their muscles, hands still on weapons, not knowing what to expect when suddenly three more mysterious projectiles were thrown out from the rooftops towards the blond girl. Just before they hit her though, the girl simply moved her right hand towards her left elbow without touching it and after that swept the projectiles with said hand. Instead of them falling to the ground though, which made the bandits even more uncertain of what’s going after which they tensed up more when they heard bodies hitting the rooftops above.

Tch, those guys are useless as ever…

“This is yer last warning. Fuck off or we’re gonna make sure ye can’t even lift a finger after we’re done with ye.”

The girl just stood there silent, which only made them more infuriated.;

“Listen ‘ere, even if ye pass here, behind us the boss and ye have no chance of dealing with him so stop wasting our time and scram! This is yer last warning-”

She tried to sound intimidating, but the trembling in her voice was evident even to the girl they laughed at earlier.

This girl managed to not only block, but redirect the projectiles so she obviously isn’t overestimating herself like the idiots before her, but she still has some nerve to think she can take us all on. Even if we take some hits from her, it doesn’t look like she can take us on. Sure the night patrols were all experienced adventurers, but everyone stronger is too busy with the stupid cultists so she should be no problem to us.

After setting her resolve in her mind, she quickly pulled up her crossbow.

Truelip suddenly jumping towards her with speeds as if she teleported, quickly slashing with the ice sword that had appeared in her hand just as quickly, disposing of the only left ranged fighter that was left. Of course the two bandits who were slightly in front and to the side of their artillery to be able to protect her, so when the blond blitz by them, by the time they turned around, their friend was already struck down, wounded and unconscious, but alive which instantly told them just how strong their opponent was – what the weaklings from earlier were to them, they are to her.

Of course, Truelip didn’t stop and used the momentum from the swing to sidestep, so that she’s further away from one of her opponents so that she doesn’t get overwhelmed by their attacks. Of course the one that was further away in case instantly recognised what she aimed, but couldn’t do anything about it since it was his companion that needed to go slightly backward so they have their advantage, but of course that’s not something you think about on spot unless you have years of experience and even if you did you wouldn’t think that such a tiny advantage would matter, but in their case even the smallest thing does and she isn’t even allowing them that generosity.

After pressing her foot firmly on the ground, she turned suddenly using the old and now the added momentum to renew her strike, taking out the second guard. The reason he could see his friend’s failure is because he always wanted to be like those cool guys that analyze everything and had masterful plans that took everything into account. To show them that he too was cool and strong. And thus in this world, he got just that special ability, but it only allowed him to see these small mistakes.

Of course, he was rushing towards her as he though all that and swing his weapon yelling [Decisive Strike] yet again. Her balance was off while pulling off that stunt. He couldn’t think ingenious plans or scenarios they can happen or what to do in them where his ability could come in handy. For him anything could happen so could he know what will.

She quickly pulled her sword in a reverse grip and placed the palm of her other hand next to the blade in order to block the attack, which pushed her back and towards the ground, instantaneously giving her the stable footing she needed, pushing her on one knee. She spent no time wasting the opportunity as she quickly reversed the way she was holding the sword yet again, while it was momentarily floating between the opponent’s bastard sword and her palm, this time in a proper grip.

She used her bent knee to spring herself forward, their sword sliding on one another, as his sword was too heavy and was now pushing him forward as there was nothing slow him down now. His was annoyed that he got what he always wanted, but was too incompetent to use it. But he was more annoyed at the strike he saw a mile away, zipping past his sword, aimed directly at his waist, but didn’t have the time to react. The pain itself was enough to knock him unconscious.

The last body fell on the floor behind the perpetrator, who launched herself with such force, she was a meter away from her target after his body had already (supposedly) slowed down her attack. The black haired girl who was watching all of this while hiding was frozen from fear. She saw her take out in 5 seconds an entire group of elite bandits who weren’t even phased by the beginner adventurers from earlier.

She couldn’t move a muscle even if she wanted to, but she was too busy being in shock to even begin to comprehend what just happened. After all the last attack was in her direction and now the glowing crimson eyes were staring at her as if directly looking at her soul. She didn’t have the strength to scream. The shock of what could happen to her next finally caught up to her body as she started to tremble visibly. As if to add to the already ominous scene she heard an uninterested “Who are you?”

She instantly remembered that she also asked such a question before she attacked earlier and a shiver went down her spine, but despite that, she tried her hardest to answer. She was forcing her voice out, but it was as if she had something stuck in her throat preventing sound from coming out. She tried swallowing but it only made her already dry throat only hoarser. The shivers didn’t help as they finally caught up to her and she felt the night’s cold air against her body, making it shiver more, while simultaneously feeling intense heat on the inside, enough to make her feel dizzy.

Truelip seeing all of this she made her ice sword disappear and closed her eyes, looking down as she sighed loudly.

That sequence of actions already made her feel at ease, but the other shock still had a grip over her body. The next words only aided in that regard.

“I can’t help you if you don’t let me.”

As if a rock fell off her chest, hearing the words she wanted to hear the most, she came a bit back to her senses.

“It’s okay. Take a moment to relax. I’ll quickly give everyone first aid while you do that. Okay?”

It took a moment before the girl realised she was waiting for her response and quickly nodded.

Truelip proceeded to the adventurers first, but not to the supposedly poisoned one, but rather the warriors. She bent one knee next to them and pointed her palm against them.

“[Heal].”

The blood suddenly started faintly evaporating as the wound itself simply closed itself after a few seconds. She continued to the next one. The scared girl, on the other hand, sat on the cold cobblestone road, pressing her back between the crate she was hiding this entire time and the wall the crate is sitting against, as she hugged her knees to both help her relax and assist with the cold.

After the blond finished with the warriors from the adventurers she moved on to the bandits which grabbed the other girl’s attention and she finally mustered her voice, though still trembling.

“A-a-aren’t you going to h-help the others…?”

“They don’t need healing. They have small wounds.”

“B-but the poison!”

“This is a heal spell, not a cure one. It closes wounds, not cure poisons.”

“T-then we need to t-take them to a hospital!”

“It’s only a sleeping poison. Don’t worry.”

“How do you know that?!”

“Magic sense.”

“…

But how can you be so certain…?”

“…

Magic sense…”

“…But-“

“Besides, reinforcements will arrive in a few minutes and check up on them and if something’s wrong they’ll call for help and considering what they’ll stumble upon they’re gonna call for it anyway.”

“…” not knowing how to respond the scared girl simply stood there awkwardly, visibly not content with the decision, but unable to think of an argument to convince her otherwise.

“So who are you?” Despite her voice and expression sounding neutral a hint of annoyance could be heard at the end of her sentence.

“I… I’m Tiara…”

“So what happened here?”

She was uncertain whether to answer honestly, but if this girl could really sense the poison type in the adventurers she definitely doesn’t want to find out if she can detect lies…

“I-I-I a-asked them to h-help me…” despite her going with the idea, she was still too nervous to speak properly.

“Help you with what?”

“To meet Dryan…”

“Who’s that?”

She was about to think how these questions are getting too much but scrapped the thought since she knew that she basically hasn’t told her anything yet.

“He’s from the Rusty Cockroaches…”

“Why do you want to meet him?”

“…

Because he took care of me…”

The questions stopped for a moment as the blond thought for a moment before slightly raising an eyebrow briefly before lowering it again and continuing “Why would you want to do that?”

“Be-because!” she said as she passionately held her hands together and pressed them against her chest “He… he helped me out… And-and he suddenly left! And the gangs suddenly started acting weirdly…” she looked down lowering her hands slightly. ”An-and I couldn’t find him…”

Truelip wasted no time in her response “So you were worried about him?”

She hit the nail on the head so girl shyly nodded twice.

“So you asked them to help you find him?”

She shook her head.

“Then?”

“…

They came up to me to ask me what’s wrong… and from one thing to the next they decided to help me out… Though they said to keep it a secret since the city is on high alert and they’re too low ranked to be allowed at night…”

“So why are you telling me this…”

“…

Because you probably already know…”

“Hmm, true.”

“Please! Please don’t tell anyone…”

“Even if I don’t they’re still gonna get found out when the reinforcements arrive.”

“…”

“So why did you think Dryan is here?”

“I… They heard about it when listening in on the gang members talking…”

Truelip assumed they meant the adventurers laying on the ground beside them.

“So where is he?”

“…

In the building at the end of this road…”

“I see.”

The girl felt quite awkward from this conversation, especially when she realised she was averting her gaze this entire time and even though the blond before her gave off a terrifying aura she forced herself to look at her as she didn’t want her to thinks he was disrespectful, plus she was more scared if the girl would do something if she did think that of her so one fear gradually won over the other. As she lifted her gaze bit by bit, she was surprised to see that the aura she earlier was completely gone and could finally see the girls face clearly.

“Wait you’re that girl…!”

“Hmm?”

“The one that saved me two weeks ago…”

“Oh, right.”

She felt a bit disheartened at that reply as if it was no big deal…

“Do you enjoy being molested by gangs or something?”

Tiara suddenly turned red and moved her hands in front of her shaking them in denial.

“No, no, no, no, no, no! It wasn’t like that!”

Truelip simply smiled at her before she calmed her down “Down worry I was only joking. You were looking for Dryan, no?”

“Yes…” She gulped. The moonlight gently illuminating her silky skin and her long soft hair. Even her eyes now that the aura was gone lost their glow and looked almost like a serene blue in this light.

”Then let’s go find Dryan.”

Her voice soothing and let her feel warmth in this cold night before she realised what she said.

“Wait, WHAT?!”