"Ohh, I missed this," I said while walking in the direction of the obvious conflict. It had been a long time since I had enjoyed the scent of a forest during the night. My tails twitched when the full moon broke through the canopy, bathed everything in a mysterious glow, and unveiled—to my delight—that ahead of me stood lots and lots of dwarf beeches.

Why was I so excited about this? Well, most people who heard that name wouldn't even know that they existed or how rare they were. Those trees were something special...even in the world where I came from. A large collection of them was called 'Maerchen-', 'Zauber-,' or 'Hexenwald'. It wasn't because they were magical or anything, but because of how they grew and looked with the right environmental influences.

When the fog started to rise, oblivious folks wandered into the misty forest and saw their shadowy forms behind the blurry cover; they often mistook them for dancing witches or demons performing a shady ritual.

But even in broad daylight, the scenery was breathtaking. It was all about the form of the trees. Some might call them ugly, but for me, they were stunning. They were so twisted, so kinked that their roots, trunk, and branches looked like a masterpiece of some famous artist or artisan. Some parts were too thick, others too thin—they looked odd but well-shaped at the same time. Yes, depending on their form, you might think that some fairies live inside them, and well, they sometimes did… at least in this world.

Yes, those dwarf beeches were truly magical, even if most normal folks didn't realize that. Those who did steered clear. A really, really wise decision, if someone would ask me, because those magnificent trees mainly belonged to the domain of a Grey Dryad. And trust me, you didn't want to meet one of them—as long as you didn’t have a death wish, or were an elf. But even they had to be careful and prepare an offering to soothe the dryad, which mostly consisted of some kind of animal or something with a life force. Because this was what those Grey Dryads did, eating off of life forces from every creature that came around.

Their home trees were called 'Succubus Trees' because, like them, they lured poor souls in and slowly ate them away. Fucking illusionary trees. Grey Dryads were nothing more than a tortured plant that somehow got a soul and now harbors and hungers for life forever. Urg, they remind me of those disgusting Ash Titans.

Anyway, a fight between dwarf beeches could only mean that at least one side of the participants were elves. Hadn't seen any of those in a long time...hopefully, there weren't any high elves around.

I sighed. Nothing against most elves, but high elves were the worst—I never got along with them. Moon and wood elves on the other side... let's just say that I had a complicated history with them- in a good way!

While I thought all about these things, I finally reached the origin of the noise. And indeed, in a small glade fought different kinds of elves against a pack of human bandits. I watched them.

In the middle of the grassy area the elves had set up a camp, surrounded by their wagons. I could feel a magic barrier around it. Only the armed elves were outside of it. In the rearguard was an elf in really heavy looking armor, with two sword fighters on either side. Behind them stood a lancer with a mage, followed by archers and what I thought was a healer.

The bandits on the other side were way more numerous, but seemed less trained and equipped. They attacked them again and again, but couldn’t break through. The vanguard elves alone had no problem stopping them, even as they got attacked by a pumped up bulky guy who looked like the leader of the bandits and swung around a heavy greatsword. Then I noticed that some of the bandits were sneaking through an opening between the wagon, behind a bunch of kids which were hiding in what was supposedly the safest spot. I was quite impressed, not gonna lie.

Then everything happened really fast. As soon as they took the kids as hostages, they started to cry, and then humans yelled in a language that I'd never heard of before which was answered by moon elvish that sounded so wrong that it also could've been some gibberish. After some more yelling at each other, the elves laid down their arms.

Slowly, the bandits approached them. As a precautionary measure, some of the human archers still had their arrows aimed at them. After a few moments they had tightly bound the elves with ropes. Then they were roughly herded together in the middle of their camp. Some of the bandits' eyes were filled with greed, others with satisfaction and one had lust in his eyes. Disgusting!

The kids were the only ones that weren’t tied up. They sobbingly hugged their mothers whilst those tried to calm them down. A few kids seemed unfazed, but I could tell that they only didn’t want to show any kind of weakness to them. This scene was heartbreaking, even for me. I gritted my teeth at this sight. I should kill those bastards.

"Heey, wait a second!" I said to myself, "Isn't that a common trope to come into a 'new world' and save them...or something like that.” But somehow, I didn’t only want to do just that.

‘TeAr thEm ApArT!’

‘RiP oUt ThEiR hEaRtS, fEaSt On ThEm’ cried out a chorus in my mind. I tried to not mind them, but the voices were right this time. Why I heard them outside of my domain was something I could worry about later after I—

"Or wait," I smiled as a plan formed in my head, and one of my hands slowly emitted a thick black mist. "A little test to see if my shadow beasts still work as well as before should be fine. Also, they’ll probably be pretty hungry after all this time. Yes, let this vixen here play a little game and show what garbage like them truly deserve."

-30 Minutes before-

It was already deep in the night when we finally caught up with the caravan. We’d already followed that group of elves for days, but until now they were way too careful and didn't drop their guard once.

However, we used that time to get more information about those tree huggers and how many of them could fight, and whether there were any high elves with them. The marquis and the elf that was with him were clear that none of the high elves should be harmed or captured. So, there were only wood, ice, dark, and moon elves as far as we knew. Quite a group, if you asked me.

Anyway, our scouts counted some mages, a lancer, a priest, a few archers, four sword-fighters, and probably a paladin. They also were all clad in pretty neat stuff, so it was clear that they all were high-leveled. Especially that paladin gave me a headache—why the fuck was she with them?! Yet, if we caught her, we could sell that elf for a high price to the marquis.

When they began to set their camp for the night, I blessed our luck once again. A few weeks ago, we found a mage with one-eighth elven blood. Only because of him could we enter that horrible part of the forest. The elves thought they were safe here because of the advantage of soothing the monster that strove around in those parts, but now we had them where we wanted. And not only that, thanks to the barrier mage we hired—one hell of a bastard, if you asked me—they couldn't detect us. Good for us that he got kicked out of the Royal Academy for inappropriate behavior. Whatever it was he actually did.

The silent tap on my shoulder brought me back into reality. Everyone was ready. Alright, here we go.

"Attack!" I shouted out loud, and the first few fire arrows flew directly at a wooden carriage.

But as expected, even when relaxed, the elves were quick to respond. It didn't take long before the first countermeasures were taken. A barrier to block the arrows, a holy aura to strengthen everyone, and the paladin instantly charged forward.

The next few minutes were a mess and a back and forth between us. Yes, we were around thirty-five bandits, but god damn, those shitty elves were a hell of a well trained group. Regardless, my smile grew wide when I saw what my best thieves managed to do in the corner of my eye.

"What are you smiling for, you dirty human!" the paladin yelled at me when I blocked another of her heavy strikes.

But I didn't need to answer when the desperate voice of the kids echoed through the glade.

"No!" the paladin screamed and wanted to turn around, but I interrupted her when I raised my voice.

"Lay down your weapons, or we kill the kids!"

The paladin glared at me and gritted her teeth, "Never!"

"One more step, and we slice their throats!" I responded calmly.

"Don’t you hear the captain?! Down with your weapons!" one of the thieves shouted at them.

Honestly, I wasn't that proud to use the kids as hostages. Heck, before they set up the camp, I didn't even know they had some with them, but their false sense of security made them careless. When they walked out of the most armored wagon, we knew all if this shit went haywire; we had to use them...so we did. Well, still not proud, but we were bandits at the end of the day.

After some more yelling, an old woman stepped forward. "Lay your weapons down. Have you all forgotten that we will always protect our younglings?"

"B-but elder!" The paladin wanted to protest but was shut down.

"Silence, do as I say. There will be hope as long as we have our goddesses by our sides."

I rolled my eyes. Like their goddesses would care for a few elves. Taking kids as hostages always worked—elves were really too easy.

We gathered all of them in the middle and tied them up. I could see the barrier mage, whose name I never bothered to learn, was about to touch the paladin.

"No!" I commanded. He really looked displeased. "That one is over your pay grade! If you want someone to play with, go to a fucking brothel, we’re bandits and slavers, not rapists you retard."

He mumbled something but simply went to another elf.

Sighing, I rubbed my temples, “Kicked out of that Royal Academy for a reason, and I only thought it was a rumor.”

Greg looked disgusted at me, “At least he is not into men. We would’ve had a hard time otherwise.”

I stifled a laugh. Suddenly, I felt a shiver down my spine. Shocked, I instantly turned to the forest and raised my hand, and everyone went silent.

Nothing… too much nothing.

"Boss?" asked Parlo, the other thief.

"Don't you hear it?" I asked him.

"No?" he answered and looked confused at me.

"Exactly, the birds and insects are quiet. They aren't supposed to be that quiet. Something's wrong."

After I said this, the eyes of my men went wide and they looked carefully around.

Then, fog started to rise and wrap around the trees covering them behind a thick layer of mist. The moon emerged from behind a cloud and shone onto the rising fog, making it seem like everything around the glade was beginning to dance. Blurry shapes moved everywhere. They twisted and turned—like a creature with no joints.

"I don't like that, " I said, "I absolutely don't like that."

However, when the moon vanished behind another cloud the haunting atmosphere seemed to disappear and was replaced by pure darkness.

My eyes fixated on the elf that the paladin called elder, "Is it the Grey Dryad?!"

I didn't expect her to answer, but she did. "No, it isn't. This...is something else."

Before I could ask another question, the sound of sweet female laughter could be heard, and my eyes went back to the now completely dark forest.

"What the..." said one of my bandits and pointed his finger at something.

Then I saw it—a pair of the most beautiful red eyes I'd ever seen. Staring. Right. At. Us.

Their glow pierced the night. And when they blinked, it felt like we were left in oblivion for a moment.

Growling dragged me back into the here and now, and from between the trees, a pack of wolves arose, literally. It seemed like they absorbed the darkness around them to form themselves. Their eyes shone in a deadly violet light.

"Draw your weapons!" I yelled.

Hurriedly, my men followed my command whilst the shadowy wolves began to encircle us. The elder behind me began to pray. Some of my bandits also did the same to muster courage.

When the moon cast its light back on the glade, a stunningly tall woman slowly walked out of the woods, one beast on either side of her. Her aura radiated a majesty that made me tremble with awe and terror. She wore some kind of dark blue luxurious militia uniform, one I had never seen before. She had long silver hair and pointed ears, and my first thought was that she was also an elf—if it weren't for the twelve long graceful foxtails which peeked out from behind her militia dress and moved wildly back and forth.

"Is it a fox-kin?" asked the barrier mage.

"No, they only have one tail and fox ears," answered Greg, not averting his gaze from the beasts that flanked the woman. "And it's also not a vixen; they only have nine tails at most, and a pair of fox ears."

"So, what is it?" I asked Greg—that guy was way too into bestiality. What was wrong with good old human women?

"I-I have no idea. I don't know of any creature like this that also controls shadows!"

The vixen-like woman stopped and started to talk.

"What?" I said, not understanding a word.

"Was this elvish?" one of my men mumbled.

I looked to the elder again, but she seemed utterly aghast.

Well, fuck it. "Attack!" I screamed, not wanting to give her the advantage of the first strike.

I dashed to her, but the beasts were faster. I barely dodged their attack taking a few steps back. The girl only smiled, then disappeared.

A scream to my left made me turn my head, and I saw the hand of the girly monster holding the heart of the barrier mage. He simply slumped to the ground.

More and more screams filled the air, and I was forced to watch how my group got slowly massacred by the pack of shadowy wolves. We never had a chance. Every time someone tried to hit them, they vanished into the ground and popped out somewhere else—even from behind our own shadows! Spells and steel simply bounced off them when we actually managed to land a strike.

But when they got you, they simply tore an arm, leg, or head off like it was nothing. Some of them didn't even do that.

Greg's scream completely stunned me as one wolf turned into a dark mist and entered his lungs like air. He had no chance to defend himself. Black goo began to run out of his openings; an eye popped out, and slimy tentacles formed out of his mouth until they had attached themselves to his limbs. Then, in one swoop they pulled them all together into his own mouth. It looked like he was eating himself. Disgusting cracks as his bones snapped and flesh was torn could be heard. His screams—muffled. In the end, he was nothing more than a compressed flesh ball. I wanted to look away, but something forced me to watch until all I could do was vomit.

Yes, we were bandits, but did we truly deserve something like that!? Then I noticed that it was silent again. I slowly looked around. Everyone was dead... wholly gone. No corpses, no remains.

No, the elves were alive. They weren't harmed.

A laugh left my mouth, and then I shouted at them, "Is this what prayer to your goddesses is supposed to look like?! How, how are you better than us!? TO SUMMON SUCH A MONSTER INTO THIS WORLD!"

My rant got silenced by the demon that grabbed me by my mouth and lifted me up in the air. Her fox eyes bore deep into my soul, and I felt nothing but despair.

For a moment, I felt the world moving around me, and only the pain made me realize that she had thrown me. I was between the elves, who looked at me with eyes of fury. Then, everything went black.

Honestly, this was pretty disappointing. My shadow beasts were not that strong, yet they weren’t even grazed. Did I run into the weakest bandits out here, or did the System cause some regress in this world?

Well, I know that my power level still seems pretty high… but I shouldn't be too overconfident. At least my wolves had eaten something, and they were happy again. Did they really have to play with their prey like that, though? Even the elves were shocked. So much about a good first impression. Hahh, whatever, they didn't understand me anyway.

I looked at the group and took a step forward. The elf in the heaviest armor was about to reach for her sword, but the oldest-looking elf stopped her and walked to me.

Her eyes weren't filled with fear but rather with childlike curiosity. Then she said to me with a very barely comprehensible accent,

"E-Elden Witch?"