A few seconds before she set her plans in motion, Leona prepared herself. Even knowing fully well just how dangerous it would be and having an idea what was the best way she could execute it, she was on edge, her muscles stiffened with an ever growing cold feeling from the bottom of her stomach.

Upon extending her open left palm encased in ice, she began to chant, trying her best to shake off the nervousness with a firm and loud voice.

"Winds of time, grant thy power upon myself, Windshot!"

In no time, a solid pebble of ice formed from her gauntlet speeding up with rotational force before being shot at an incredible speed from the wind spell.

The crossbowman only had time to turn around at the sound of Leona’s voice as the ice projectile hit dead center against his stomach making him hunch his head forward from the impact.

“Gah!”

He dropped the crossbow on the ground while trying to yell, but the pebble hit his diaphragm, rendering him unable to breathe. On the other side of the cage, the marksman turned towards his fallen comrade only to see Leona charging towards them wielding the longsword with both hands behind her body.

“Shit! We got an intruder!”

He rapidly raised the rifle to aim at her, but his weapon was knocked to the right side as the woman inside the cage had thrown a rock that served as a distraction as Leona rushed in with a wide overhead swing of her sword.

The man jumped back, dodging the attack entirely while drawing a dagger from a sheath in his belt, the other bandits stood up from their seats around the gold piles, there was a total of eight of them, three of which were women in their late twenties while the rest of the men seemed to be in their thirties or so, physically, they were stronger than Leona, but with the help of magic, she was sure there was a chance to win.

Leona’s opponent was ready to attack her when an arrow pierced through the right side of his rib cage, the flash of pain was obvious as his face frowned in agony while the screaming filled the cavern, nevertheless it was an opening for her to exploit. From the long point stance, she thrust the longsword forward horizontally, embedding the metal inside the left side of the man’s chest.

‘Die quickly please!’

She thought, but even though she had pierced his left lung, he was very much alive and in great pain showed by just how desperately he tried to slash her, fortunately for Leona her blade had much more reach than his dagger, keeping her outside of immediate danger.

From her left, a red haired woman was charging towards her with a steel handaxe, she wore pretty much the same attire as everyone else, only the right side of her arm had no sleeve and was exposed to the cold environment of the cave.

“Die!”

She shouted as she got closer to the tactician, who had her hands full trying to keep the man she stabbed from slashing her.

‘Dammit! I won’t be able to-!’

Leona considered letting go of her left grip in order to cast a spell to render her attacker incapacitated, but before the woman could get close enough to strike, she heard a faint whistle cutting the air before an arrow shaft sprouted from the woman’s back.

In a span of three seconds, other four bandits behind the charging red headed woman fell on the ground with arrows protruding out of different parts of their bodies. Shortly thereafter their mouths began to foam while spasming uncontrollably on the ground.

“Archer in the entrance!”

One female voice echoed from somewhere to Leona’s left, apparently there were more people other than the ones in the center of the room. However she had barely no time to worry about other possible assailants as the man she stabbed tried to throw the dagger against her face.

“Ngh!”

She leaned to the right just barely dodging the incoming blade which nicked her in the left cheek, leaving a trace of blood dripping from the cut. In that moment of distraction, the man rotated to her left to try and pick up the handaxe from the ground but Leona managed to get a firm hold of the sword handle and swing the blade and eventually his body to the left, causing the man to lose his balance and fall sideways against the cavern floor.

“DAMMIT MY RIBS! YOU BITCH!”

He screamed while grasping the blade with his bare hands, bleeding both palms while trying to desperately pull the steel longsword out of his ribcage but Leona couldn’t suffer to let him attack her after Phoebe had knocked most of the bandits down.

“Grr!” In a contest of raw strength, she could easily be overwhelmed, but seeing how he was unarmed and down on the ground made her take the initiative lest let him recover. “Die already!”

She changed both her left and right hand to a reverse grip and used the brief moment the man managed to raise the blade out of his body to her advantage before using all her strength to plummet the tip of the weapon through where the clavicle and sternum meet.

“GAH!”

A dying gasp left his lungs as the blade sank inside his body, the unimaginable pain sent chills down Leona’s spine as this time, she had both felt and seen the result of her actions. Blood began to quickly stain his clothing as well as irregular splutters of crimson from his mouth before his hands stopped its futile struggle, sliding through the blade’s edge until collapsing beside his chest, motionless.

“Aah… haa…”

Only after being certain that he was dead Leona let go of the sword’s handle, reaching for both her knees from exhaustion.

‘I did it…’

She thought, though it was but a mere respite from what was coming next.

“Leona!”

“Phoe-”

The high elf’s voice came from her left and the moment Leona turned around to look at her a blade suddenly appeared dangerously close to her throat from behind, the bandit previously holding the crossbow was now holding her at daggerpoint. Panic started to overcome the tactician’s senses as she slowly raised her hands.

Seemingly still in pain from the pebble shot against his diaphragm, he spoke just a few words, winded by his own voice.

“Come no closer…!”

Phoebe raised both her hands as well, whilst letting go of the bloodied daggers in each hand, hitting the ground with a dry thud which echoed the now eerily silent cavern.

“Just know that you won’t survive for long if you try to flee on foot.”

The high elf said while slowly trying to approach him.

“Do not move! Or… I’ll kill her!”

He raised the blade that was now touching Leona’s skin, while not immediately bleeding, she felt the edge would cut her if she breathed any harder. He recklessly pulled her backwards as he took a step back, seemingly intimidated by the large marks of splattered blood across the high elf’s fur overcoat.

Eventually, he hit his left heel against an object, the distinct clang of small metallic bits echoed from his foot, Leona knew that familiar sound. Shortly after the click of a trigger followed by a deafening loud blast from her right while at the same time particles of blood and bits of bone hit the right side of her face.

As a reaction from the intense sound, she closed her eyes shut for a second, only to hear the agonizing scream taking place somewhere behind her left side.

Upon turning around she noticed the long red haired young woman finishing the job by shooting the man screaming on the ground in the head. However she wasn’t done there, she loaded another round in the chamber with the lever under the grip and shot again. Then one more time, then another, until the rifle had no more ammunition.

“Death is a mercy for savages like you.”

Her voice seemed younger than her appearance gave credit for. She ejected the last bullet out of the rifle and cleaned her right hand against her coat before letting out a tired sigh. Her tired light blue eyes seemed to wander around looking at Leona and Phoebe before turning to help the young man behind her. On closer inspection, her clothing seemed like a military uniform of some kind, a white buttoned black overcoat large enough to cover from her upper body down to the shins with a handkerchief tucked inside the collar of the coat, the pants were made of a thick fabric which seemed hot enough for the cold Londrian environment accompanied by a heavy pair of black leather boots.

The young man shared an uncanny physical appearance to the young woman. He seemed to notice Phoebe approaching the cage and began to cower in fear. Hugging his own body trembling without control.

“Calm down, Art. Everything will be fine now.”

She put both of her hands on each of his shoulders before giving a light squeeze to reassure him everything would be alright.

Outside the metallic cage, Phoebe reached out to the tactician to check if there were any visible wounds while asking.

“Are you alright?”

Leona nodded once in return.

“I’m fine thanks to her. In the end it’s my fault, I should’ve been more careful.”

She massaged her throat, checking if there were no wounds, Phoebe on the other hand moved past her and started to loot off the bandits just killed, turning over empty pockets searching for useful things.

Leona couldn’t help but stare blankly as the high elf went on as if it was another day in the job.

‘And in the end, she did everything…’

She felt slightly frustrated after looking around the room before her, about seven were dead lying on top of puddles of blood while another four were squirming like maggots on the ground whilst foaming from their mouths, a fitting end for them but an unsightly thing to behold.

“So how long are you going to stand there?”

Leona noticed the young woman was addressing as the moment she turned around, she was met with a stern look from her light blue eyes, as if she was tired of waiting for her to do something. Dumbfounded, the tactician blinked a few times before saying.

“Excuse me?”

The woman simply sighed whilst shaking her head, she then raised her hand motioning to Leona as to give her something.

“Give me the key, the bandit with the rifle, he had it on him.”

The tactician was taken aback, never once she met someone so conceited that after that life and death situation she’d be ordering her saviors.

Nevertheless, Leona decided to help out of goodwill, she was about to turn around when an object flew by the left side of her face.

“Here.” Phoebe said as she tossed the iron key to the young woman. “At least tell us who you are and why you were captured by bandits.”

The woman caught it midair and without wasting any time, she proceeded to unlock the cage from the outside.

“Name’s Athena Kaiser, that should explain why we were captured in the first place.” Without looking at either Leona or Phoebe, she rotated the key opening up the cage’s door. She went back and grabbed the rifle, strapping the leather sling over her right shoulder. “Come Art, let’s get out of here.”

She grabbed his arm by the wrist while also helping him stand up with her left hand.

“But sister, what about them?” He asked as he stood up. “Wasn’t they who helped us?”

“Hm? No, listen Art, we have to reach Londria by the next few days, if we take longer than that who knows what mother will tell everybody else.”

“And how exactly do you plan to go to Londria? On foot?”

Leona intervened, she knew it was hardly her place to put her nose in, but after the trouble both her and Phoebe went to save them, as accidental as it was, she wasn’t planning to see those two die outside that cave.

“That is none of your business.” Athena replied with no hesitation. “My family depends on this job and I intend to finish it.”

Phoebe picked up both of her daggers from the ground and used a nearby bandit who had just finished breathing his last to clean the blood off the blade while occasionally glancing at Leona conversing with the Kaiser siblings.

“Sister please…” His voice was full of fear, but even so he tried to reason with her. “They saved us, let us just take a moment of respite, I’m sure the people at Londria will understand if we explain what happened to us.”

Upon looking at his pleading light blue eyes, Athena couldn’t help but to sigh and give up.

“Very well.” She turned at the tactician with a stern glare. “I take it you have another option?”

Leona couldn’t help but smile.

“As long as you’re willing to listen.”