Chapter 16

Teamwork

After receiving the details of a rather large bounty nearby, Erin and Ryle had left the town in the hopes of claiming the prize. Based on the information that Zeke had provided them, there was a rather notorious bandit leader camped rather close, most likely hoping to ambush traveling merchants that were either leaving or arriving to the town.

The way Ryle’s brother had managed to get this information was through some rather impressive equipment he had built in his home. Zeke was a natural when it came to working with computers and other machinery, which had led to him building his own computer from discarded parts that he managed to get his hands on. Through this, he could look into websites that provided information in regards to bounties and other such information. The sickly boy had even learned to hack, which allowed him to gather even more info for his bounty hunter sister. By using all the sources available to him, he had been able to find out that the bounty they were looking at was in the nearby area. To make sure this was true, Zeke had even managed to get hold of transmissions between the members of the bandit group communicating with each other. With this, finding where the group was located at was an easy task.

Erin was greatly amazed by Zeke’s skills. While doing such things was possible in the game itself back when she was simply playing it, a lot of players didn’t bother with it. The reason was that it required a lot from the player to accomplish with not only acquiring the necessary components to build the machinery, but also the skills to fully utilize it. The fact that Zeke had accomplished this all on his own through his own ingenuity and hard work was nothing to scoff at in the least.

With the location of their target, Erin and Ryle soon headed out of the town looking towards claiming the bounty. From what Zeke had told them, the bandit leader was an ogre by the name of Balrus that had once served in the military. However, due to an argument between him and his superior over dividing their “spoils of war” he had ended up killing his commander. This was not something that was exactly taken well by the other higher-ups, which led to the ogre becoming a wanted criminal and being forced to run away.

With most of Western Continent now chasing after him, one would think that him getting caught was only a matter of time, but Balrus was a surprisingly crafty person. It didn’t take him long to gather a gang of criminals around him to become his personal guards to either help him in robbing people, killing those that chased after him or to even become his shields and sacrificial pawns. Due to his greater physical strength, Balrus was able to keep most of his underlings in line with nothing more than the threat of physical violence alone. Anybody else could just be bribed through the money and goods he had managed to get his hands on as a bandit. This also helped him avoid capture, as the ogre knew who to bribe in order to keep himself safe.

However, now Balrus had two bounty hunters coming for him that wouldn’t take any of his bribes. Both Erin and Ryle were certain that they would be able to claim the bounty on the bandit leader. Unfortunately, they seemed to have a different idea on how that was going to be done.

“You know this is some bullshit, right? I mean, I could TOTALLY handle this on my own! No need for some bum that got her ass handed to herself by yours truly to come and assist ME of all people! I’d take this whole idea as an insult, had my brother not agreed to this!”

This type of ranting had been coming out of Ryle’s mouth for some time now, as she was voicing her displeasure over being stuck with a partner for the first time in her bounty hunting business. The person this was all directed to, Erin, was doing her best to ignore the blonde woman’s unhinged meltdown, but it was starting to wear her down little by little. Even the most benevolent of people had a limit to such things, and the redhead’s limit was just about to be filled.

It wasn’t that Erin didn’t understand Ryle’s situation. The blonde woman had important expenses that she needed to cover with her bounty hunting business, particularly her brother’s treatment. Being forced into a situation where you had to give away even a part of your possible salary to someone else would displease practically anyone.

However, considering how the redhead was willing to take only a small cut of the bounty for herself, she had trouble seeing why Ryle was this worked up over having a partner for the first time. Especially when the bounty they were going after was very large.

“OKAY! You have made it VERY clear that you don’t like the idea of working together!” Erin finally yelled angrily, having grown tired of the older woman’s complaining. “What I don’t get is why this is such a big deal! You have to give a small amount of the bounty to me? Big deal! You are still left with a big pile of cash that you can use to help your brother! Why isn’t that enough for you!?”

“You think this is about the money!?” Ryle asked in return, still upset. “The cash is just a small part of this bullshit that I’m being forced to swallow! What really pisses me off is that Zeke has decided to trust some third-rate fighter like you over me!”

“What are you talking about!?” the redhead asked. “How is he supposedly trusting me over you!? And mind explaining what you mean by third-rate!?”

“The reason I’m calling you third-rate is because when we fought, I pretty much handed you your ass on a silver plate! You could barely put up any kind of a resistance at all! How you managed to become one of the biggest bounties ever is a complete freaking mystery to me!” the blonde woman explained angrily. “You think I like the idea of some no good loser that can barely fight joining up with me on a job!? Worst case scenario is that you get us both killed!”

“...You just caught me off-guard when we fought. That’s it,” Erin said in an attempt at making an excuse for herself. “Besides, wasn’t I basically the winner of our fight? I remember having you at my mercy.”

“YOU JUST GOT LUCKY! THAT’S IT!” Ryle yelled with an embarrassed blush on her face. After composing herself a bit, a serious look came over the blonde’s face as the tone of her voice also changed. “But what I can’t accept is that my brother has decided to trust you for no reason at all.”

“What do you mean by that?” the redhead asked.

“Zeke and I lost our parents when we were very young and we were forced to survive by ourselves. It was… tough, to say the least. Luckily we pretty much complimented each other perfectly. I was the brawn while Zeke was the brains. Thanks to this, we were able to survive in the slums no matter what was thrown at us,” the blonde explained. “However, it never really got any easier either. The moment we thought things were looking up for us, life would throw something new at us to bring us down. First we became such known thieves that we could no longer stay around the main part of town and had to move to the slums. Once we started to figure out our way as a bounty hunting duo, Zeke gets sick and I have to worry about him. It’s just one thing after the other. Nevertheless, we could make do because we had each other, and we would only trust ourselves and no one else.”

“I get that you’ve had it tough for both of you, but is it really a good enough reason to be so distrustful over me as well?” Erin asked. “Even if you have trust issues, don’t you think it’s a bit ridiculous to take them out on me? Especially when your brother is the one that trusts me?”

“You don’t get it. My brother is the one with the real trust issues here,” Ryle answered. “When we were still kids, we were still somewhat willing to trust people. I mean, could you blame us? We were just children that were on their own in a big and scary world. We obviously wanted someone to help us, which led to us getting into all sorts of sticky situations. That, however, changed one day.”

“What happened?”

“There was this one lady who was really nice to us. She would give us food and let us hide from the police at her house even. We thought that we could trust her no matter what, but that turned out to be a big mistake on our part,” the blonde explained. “While I don’t know of the full details of what exactly happened, she had invited Zeke to her home and gave him something that put him to sleep. By the time I realized that he was missing, she had already left the town. I chased after them and found her car crashed into a boulder not too far from town with Zeke walking away from it. He had knife in his hand and blood splattered all over him. But what was truly disturbing was the look on his face that was a mix of rage, horror and shock. When I investigated the car, I found the lady dead inside. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.”

“Did you ever find out why your brother was kidnapped?”

“Not really. He told me that she was going to sell him as a slave or something. There are a lot of sick bastards that are willing to pay large amounts of cash for kids, especially ones that have talents like Zeke,” Ryle answered. “But I doubt that’s all there was to it. Whatever that bitch did to my brother, it broke him. The look on his face when I found him was enough of a hint, but he also said without even looking at me that we were to never trust anyone in such a cold tone that I never thought he could muster. Even after we came back, he was still hurt by what happened, as for a few months he refused to be touched and he was acting all paranoid over everything.”

Upon hearing such a story, Erin went completely silent. She had no idea what she could say after hearing what the two siblings had gone through. It was no wonder that Ryle was having issues with this whole situation. Even if the redhead had saved her life, it didn’t mean that she trusted her. After all, the blonde had just been returning the favor by taking care of Erin’s injuries.

Suddenly, the redhead realized something odd about the story she had heard. If Zeke was the one who had truly been betrayed by someone he trusted, why was he so willing to trust her? Logically speaking, he should be the one to mistrust the new arrival in town, even if she had saved his sister’s life.

“...Has your brother been able to trust anyone?” Erin asked. “Anyone besides you?”

“Nah. I’m pretty much the only person he trusts at all. Hell, he doesn’t even trust the kids that we live with and he was completely against the idea of us helping them. It took a lot of convincing from my part to allow me to look after them,” Ryle answered. “I know that he has some serious trust issues, but there’s no reason to take it out on kids that are in the same position as we are. That’s going too far, right?”

“Back at the slum he seemed to be very kind and friendly. It’s kind of hard to believe that he would be like that,” the redhead said.

“He hides it the same way he hides his illness,” the blonde began to explain. “Zeke’s always been like that, hiding his true feelings from others. Even when he fell ill, he tried to hide it from me, not wanting to hold me back or some other crap like that. He might seem happy and well on the outside, but I know from experience that he is actually in pain. I just wish he wouldn’t do that, as I’d like it more if he was honest with me.”

This completely confused Erin. If Zeke had such reservations towards trusting other people, then why was he so ready to trust her? With his sister no less. It didn’t make sense.

“...Maybe he felt like he could begin trusting people again after I saved your life?” the redhead suggested hopefully. “I mean, that should prove to him that I’m trustworthy, right?”

“To a certain degree, I guess,” Ryle said with a shrug. “I mean, even if you saved my life, it doesn’t mean that you won’t betray us later on. You could be playing the long game for all I know. I’m honestly surprised that Zeke didn’t complain about me bringing you to our home to get treated.”

The fact that Zeke apparently had this darker side to himself that he wouldn’t show others was something that truly worried Erin. If he wasn’t supposed to act the way he had, then what could be the truth behind his friendly attitude? Did he have an ulterior motive or something?

Whatever the case might have been, the redhead shook those thoughts out of her head. It wouldn’t do her any good to think about things she wouldn’t be able to find answers for. Besides, she needed to focus on the bounty they were after right now.

“Come on. Let’s go,” Erin said as she resumed walking. “Nothing good will come from us speculating here. Let’s just go and get the bounty were looking for.”

Ryle didn’t say anything outside of some dissatisfied grumbling as she followed behind the redhead. The way Erin saw it, this was at least some improvement over how the blonde was before. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something.

After a bit more walking, the two bounty hunters made their way to Balrus’s camp. There were some large rocks nearby that Erin and Ryle were able to use as cover, as they scouted out the base of their target.

Much like most bandits and raiders of the Western Continent, Balrus’s group had a “moving base” of sorts, as they used vehicles they had gotten their hands on to move around and conduct their attacks on their targets. These vehicles were now parked in such a way that they formed a protected perimeter, with the largest trucks having been parked sideways at the edge of the camp, while the smaller vehicles were inside the makeshift circle. The only way in was to go between the gaps of the trucks, as crawling under or climbing over them would only make you an easy target, especially with guards stated on top. But even if you were to get inside, you would get into a firefight against opponents that would be hiding behind cover.

Erin had a pair of binoculars that she was using to scout the are more effectively, mostly to get an idea on the location of their target. In the middle of the camp, there was a large fire that was used to cook food that the bandits had either hunted or stolen. As Erin had suspected, Balrus himself was seated close to the fire, roasting a large piece of meat.

“So, got any ideas on how to get to the guy?” Ryle asked impatiently. “I’m getting sick of simply waiting, while you’re dicking around!”

“I’m not ‘dicking around’! I’m trying to find a way to our target!” Erin said with a frustrated sigh. “Have you never heard of planning before or something?”

“Yes I have! In fact, I have a plan!” the blonde said back. “It’s called ‘let’s just go in and kill the fat bastard!’ Do you want me to explain to you how it works?”

“No need for that. I only have one question,” the redhead said back with a hint of anger in her voice. “Are you going to use the version where we get slaughtered right at the start or the one where we get taken prisoner?”

“I’ll have you know that my plan is guaranteed to work!” Ryle said angrily.

“Yeah. In their favor. That’s for certain,” Erin said as she rolled her eyes before going back to observing the camp. “Now if you would mind, I’d like to avoid a complete disaster. For that, we need something a bit better.”

Ignoring the complaints from her partner, the redhead looked at the camp, hoping to figure out a way in. Considering the number of bandits they were up against, a straight up battle was the last thing they wanted. For them to make this work, they needed to be quick, silent and efficient. Erin knew that she herself had those qualities thanks to her training as an assassin, but Ryle was a different matter. The blonde was more of a “charge in and bash your enemies as hard as you can” type of person. She did have at least some amount of trickery to herself, like when she disguised herself as a child, but that was most likely it.

Suddenly, Erin had an idea. She had seen the files on Balrus that shared his criminal activity and other important details. In those files was something that the redhead was sure could be used to their advantage. She just needed one more thing.

Using her binoculars again, Erin spotted just what she needed. A lone female guard. It was time to put her plan into motion.

A bit later, Erin and Ryle were back at their hiding spot, except this time the blonde was carrying the body of the guard the redhead had spotted. Having become accustomed to never being attacked while their group had set up a camp had made the guards somewhat lax and not really pay attention to their surroundings. As soon as the guard had looked the other way, Ryle had quickly come up from behind her and snapped her neck in one swift motion. With their first target taken down, the two bounty hunters went returned to their original spot to plan their next step.

“Okay, so what exactly do you need this for?” Ryle asked as she dropped the dead guard on the ground. “I mean, we can take her stuff, but I doubt she has anything that’s all that useful.”

Erin ignored the blonde’s question and started to inspect the corpse in front of her. Once her inspection was done, she began to undress the dead female guard, shocking her partner.

“Woah! Look, I get that we all have our kinks and everything and I’m not really in a position to judge, but isn’t getting freaky with a corpse just a bit too messed up!?” Ryle said with a horrified look on her face. “Seriously, there are better ways to get your needs met! I can show you some places where-”

“Would you shut the hell up!? This isn’t about anything like that!” Erin said angrily with a red face. “Look, there is no way for us to get close to our target without getting spotted. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer not getting killed, so I have an idea. I’ll dress up as one of the bandits and use that to sneak us in.”

“I guess that could work, but what about me?” the blonde asked. “I don’t think I can just walk in without causing some kind of a ruckus.”

“No need to worry about that. In fact, you will be our key in getting right up to the big boss himself.”

Some time later, one of the guards looking out for any possible intruders spotted two figures walking towards him. He instinctively grabbed his rifle, but soon relaxed upon the two coming close enough for him to see who they were. One was part of the bandit group, judging by her clothes. The other one was a little girl walking behind her with her hands tied together and the bandit was holding the end of the rope in her hand.

“Hey, who is that kid?” the guard asked as he walked up to check on the two arrivals.

“I was doing my job, when I heard someone sneaking around,” The bandit answered. She pulled on the rope she was holding a bit roughly, causing the girl to stumble a bit. “Thought the boss would like her.”

The guard took one look at the prisoner and gave a nod.

“Yeah, she looks like something he would enjoy greatly,” the guard said as he stepped out of the way. “The boss is at the campfire.”

The bandit nodded in response and walked past the guard into the encampment. Most of the other bandits didn’t seem to give them much attention, outside of a few glances. They were either too tired or drunk to really care about the new arrivals.

“Hey! Do that rope thing again and I’ll twist your neck, like with that guard earlier!” the girl whispered angrily. “I might have agreed to do this plan of yours, but it doesn’t mean that you get to treat me like some damn cattle!”

“Oh, grow up, will you? It’s not like I hurt you all that much anyways,” the bandit whispered back. “Besides, we need to keep up the appearance of being captor and captive, if we want to get close to Balrus.”

“Somehow I just think you’re taking enjoyment out of humiliating me…”

In truth, these two were not what they appeared to be. The bandit was actually Erin, now dressed in the clothes of the guard she had Ryle take out earlier. Said blonde herself was actually the little girl, as she was using the potion made by Zeke to change her appearance.

With the facade of them being a bandit and a prisoner, the two bounty hunters were hoping to get close to the leader of the bandits. Ryle’s role was especially important in this operation, as Erin had read on their target’s history and found out that he had a “taste” for little girls. She hoped that by bringing a girl to Balrus as an offering of sorts, they would be able to get more than close enough to their target.

It didn’t take long for the two bounty hunters to find Balrus. The ogre was still sitting by the fire, devouring food and drinks like a living black hole. Both Erin and Ryle had to hold back the desire to vomit at the sight, as Balrus didn’t exactly have the best table manners.

As an ogre, Balrus looked like a mix of orc and human. He had pointy ears, sharp teeth and a more muscular build, like an orc. However, unlike orcs, his skin was similar to that of a human’s. A long, black beard stretched from the lower half of his face that reached his very big and round belly. His hair was long and tied into a ponytail. His clothing consisted mostly out of his old military uniform, which was now quite tattered and torn from all the battles he’d been through, with some added armor pieces here and there. It seemed like the big guy liked to think of himself as some sort of an army commander, despite his current profession.

“Boss, I’ve got something for you,” Erin called out to the ogre, making her voice sound a bit gruffer than normal. Balrus stopped eating and turned his attention to the disguised bounty hunters. “I found her sneaking around nearby. Thought you’d like her.”

Standing up, the ogre made his way to the two of them, while keeping his eyes on the blonde girl. Ryle herself was doing her best to act the part of a scared and helpless little girl. Her acting seemed to be working, as a perverse grin spread over Balrus’s face upon looking over the supposed captive.

“Would ya look at that? A pretty little thing came right over to my camp,” the ogre said with a bit of a slur, his breath reeking of alcohol. The smell was so bad that both Erin and Ryle had to hold back the urge to cover their noses. “Seems I’ve gotten a bit lucky here. And ya say she was just sneaking around, huh?”

“That’s right. I think she might have gotten separated from her family,” Erin answered. “She probably saw the smoke of our campfire and then came here.”

Balrus looked at one of his underlings and gave him a nod. The bandit nodded back before getting up and walking away. The ogre then turned his attention back to Erin.

“I’m guessing ya want something in return then, right?” Balrus asked to which the redhead nodded. “Well, follow me to my personal quarters and we’ll see what kind of a deal we can make.”

Erin let out a silent sigh of relief as she followed the bandit leader. Truth be told, she had been quite nervous from the moment she and Ryle had entered the camp, due to being surrounded by enemies. This feeling had only become worse upon meeting their target, as his large and strong build told her that this was no easy opponent. Had the redhead blown her cover, things would have turned quite messy, but it seemed like it was all going according to plan.

Balrus led the two disguised bounty hunters to a large and powerful-looking truck that had a massive trailer behind it. He opened a door to the trailer and walked inside with Erin and Ryle following behind him. The inside looked a lot better than the outside, as the ogre had brought a lot of quality furniture and art pieces to decorate it. Golden statues and jewels were practically everywhere, and the walls had expensive looking weapons covering them.

“So, since ya brought me such a lovely present, I was thinking ya should get something equally nice in return,” Balrus explained as he closed the door and turned to his two guests. “Now, what might be to yer liking in here? Ya can pick one object out of this here lot.”

“That is a really generous prize. Thank you,” Erin said and gave a small bow, before turning her attention to the goods that were spread around. She was mostly just playing along, hoping to keep the bandit leader’s attention on her for now. “This is a bit tough, though. There are so many things to choose from.”

“Well, I hope ya make it fast,” the ogre said with a hint of impatience. “I’m kind of hoping to get to sample the gift ya brought.”

Both Erin and Ryle had to hold back their shivers of disgust over Balrus’s comment. Knowing that she couldn’t keep playing her part infinitely, the redhead secretly let go of the rope that she had been holding. This was a signal to Ryle to get ready to act. The blonde began to move back, so that she was behind their target. To keep Balrus’s attention as far away from Ryle as possible, Erin headed to one of the golden statues that decorated the inside of the trailer. This one depicted a dragon with its wings spread out and had small rubies for eyes. The statue was sitting on a shelf with other such treasures.

“If I may ask for it, I would like this to be my prize,” Erin said as she went to grab the statue in order to inspect it closer. “I really like it and would love to have it for myself.”

“I see. Ya really have eye for the good stuff, don’t ya?” Balrus said as he stepped closer to the redhead. “Though I hate to say it, ya might want to reconsider. After all, it’s about to get broken.”

“Wha-?”

Erin couldn’t even finish her question, before a massive fist collided to her back, causing her body to hit the wall before her. The dragon statue she had been holding fell out of her hands and broke on the floor with one of its wings snapping off. The redhead tried to get back up, but the ogre was too fast for her. He was soon on top of her with both hands around her throat, squeezing the life out of her.

“I gotta say, ya bounty hunters just can’t seem to come up with any new ideas at all. I’ve already lost count of how many of ya have tried to disguise yourselves as one of my crew and then try to get close to me. Pretty much all of my closest subordinates can recognize and obvious outsider now,” Balrus said with a big grin on his face as he continued to strangle Eris. “Although, I guess I have to thank ya for one thing at least. Ya brought me a little girl to play with for tonight. That’s something no other bounty hunter has ever done before.”

“Too bad for you, I play a very rough game, fatso!”

The ogre turned to where the unfamiliar voice had come from, only to receive a powerful blow to the throat. While he had been too occupied with Erin, Ryle had transformed back to her actual form and had prepared herself to strike at Balrus. This had been the plan of the two bounty hunters all along. Erin would distract their target and then Ryle would strike at him when the opportunity came.

At first, Balrus simply held his throat as he coughed up blood. His eyes were wide from shock and he was struggling to breathe. The damage to his throat was causing blood to get into his windpipe and thus made it difficult for him to breathe. If the two bounty hunters’ plan worked the way they hoped, then the ogre would choke to death without any further issues.

However, much to their shock, Balrus proved to be far more tenacious than they had thought, as the ogre charged at Ryle with burning rage in his eyes. The blonde responded by giving her opponent a swift kick to the face. The blow was powerful enough to kill most average people, while leaving tougher fighters staggered. Unfortunately, Balrus was the furthest thing from your average fighter, as he simply brushed off the hit he took like it was nothing and went on to grab Ryle in a bearhug.

With the ogre’s powerful arms around her, Ryle was lifted up from the floor and she felt how the hold around her was getting tighter and tighter with each second. The blonde could feel her bones creaking under the immense pressure and she had to grit her teeth to hold back her screams. She knew that people like Balrus took immense pleasure from hearing the cries of their victims and she refused to let him have the satisfaction.

Ryle managed to free her arms and started punching at Balrus’s face with all her might. But despite all the hits she threw at him that managed to even break his nose, the ogre’s hold didn’t falter one bit. Balrus was so engulfed by his own fury that nothing seemed to even faze him. Not even his own struggle to breathe, as he kept coughing up blood even now. Nothing outside of death would even hinder him in destroying the one who had just hurt him.

Just when things seemed to be hopeless for Ryle, Erin came to her rescue. With Balrus’s attention on her blonde partner, the redhead had been able to sneak up on him from behind and use one of her knives to drive the blade in the back of the ogre’s neck.

In an instant, Ryle was freed from the crushing grasp, as Balrus was now reaching for the knife stuck on his neck. With shaking hands, he touched the blade a bit, before falling to the floor dead.

Erin and Ryle stared at their dead opponent for a moment, fearing that he would still get up and attack the again. After a few seconds of waiting, Erin went to check for a pulse and was relieved to find none in the ogre’s body. Their target was now dead.

“It’s okay, he’s dead now,” Erin said with a deep sigh. “That could have gone better…”

“No kidding,” Ryle grumbled angrily as she got up from the floor. “I almost had my internal organs turn into mush thanks to your shit plan! You’re lucky I’m not kicking your ass for this.”

“It’s not my fault that this went south! How could I know that he would-!?” the redhead began to argue back, but stopped herself. Getting caught in bickering with each other wasn’t going to be of any help. “Forget about it. What do we do now? Don’t we need some type of proof in order to prove that we took him down?”

“Well duh! Obviously we are going to need proof! Otherwise anyone could claim the bounty whenever they wanted!” the blonde explained as she walked up to one of the walls that had a bunch of weapons hanging on it. A lot of them seemed to be more for decoration than combat, as they were made from flashy materials like gold and had a bunch of gems in them. “Just hang on a second. I’ll get us the proof we need.”

Ryle picked up one of the axes that was one the wall and walked back to Balrus’s body. Without any hesitation, she decapitated the ogre’s corpse and picked up the severed head by the hair.

“Ryle, what the hell!?” Erin yelled, shocked by her partner’s barbaric actions. “Why did you do that!?”

“Ummm… To get proof of our kill? Isn’t that obvious?” the blonde said in a sarcastic tone. “Do you have a better method in mind or something?”

“I get that we need proof, but can’t it be done in a cleaner manner? Couldn’t we just take a picture of his body or something?” the redhead asked.

“Stuff like that can be faked. When dealing with bounties, the people handling them want some reliable physical evidence of the bounty’s death,” Ryle explained. “Bringing them a decapitated head is the best way to do this. Other things can work, but there have been cases that they weren’t accepted and I’d rather not risk it.”

Erin felt sick about having to carry a person’s head with them, but couldn’t find a way to argue against it. Like it or not, they needed proof and Ryle had experience in this business. Still, the redhead couldn’t help but think how much nicer this had been back when it all was just a game she played on her computer.

“Anyways, we should get ready to leave. Hopefully our fight didn’t cause too much noise, so we can get out of here without any issues,” Erin said as she walked up to the trailer’s door. She opened it a bit and peeked outside. “Well, this isn’t good.”

“What’s the matter?” Ryle asked as she walked up to the redhead and looked outside as well. “Oh crap…”

Right outside the trailer, a large group of bandits was waiting with their weapons at the ready. Balrus had most likely prepared this in case intruders came into the camp and they tried to escape.

“What are we gonna do now? I doubt we can exactly talk these guys out of killing us or intimidate them to back away,” Ryle asked as she looked at the opposition they had ahead of them. Judging by the numbers they were facing, their chances weren’t good. “If nothing else, I guess we can try to bust through them.”

“I doubt that’s going to work out for us all that well,” Erin said, as she looked at the group of bandits waiting outside. It seemed like they didn’t think their leader would lose, as they seemed to be quite easygoing at the moment. “While we sort of have the element of surprise on our hands, it won’t take long until this whole place is going to be crawling with these guys. It would be better to avoid confrontation as much as possible.”

Ignoring her partner’s displeased cursing, the redhead went on to look for a way for them to escape. Unfortunately, their options seemed to be quite limited, as there didn’t seem to be any alternatives to simply fighting their way through. Erin looked through the weapons gathered at the trailer, but couldn’t find anything that offered a solution to their problem. There were a couple of explosives, but they would be nowhere near enough to mount an escape from the camp.

As she was beginning to lose hope, the redhead noticed something on the ceiling. There was a hatch that led to the roof of the trailer. This led to an idea.

“Hey, I think I have something,” Erin called out to her partner. “It’s a bit risky, but I’d say it’s the best option we have so far.”

“What is it?” Ryle asked and followed the redhead’s gaze. “I don’t see how going through there is going to help us all that much. I mean, we’re still going to end up fighting.”

“I wasn’t thinking of fighting. I’m thinking of switching places,” Erin explained as she went to Balrus’s body and picked something out of his pocket. “Help me up there and then follow after me. And try to be as quiet as possible.”

The blonde had the redhead climb on her shoulders, which allowed Erin to reach the hatch. She then carefully pushed it open as to not make a sound before climbing through it to the roof. Erin then helped Ryle get there as well. Without making a sound, the two bounty hunters climbed down from the trailer to the other side where there were no bandits waiting. The duo then proceeded to the front of the trailer, where it was attached to a large truck. Erin, who had just taken the key from Balrus, opened the door, allowing them to get it.

“Fasten your seat belt, because this is going to be a rough ride,” Erin said as she put the key in the ignition.

“Wait… Hold on… You’re not going to-?” Ryle began to ask with a pale face as she was beginning to see what her partner was planning.

“Here we go!” the redhead exclaimed as she turned the engine on, which practically roared. As soon as this happened, she pressed her foot on the accelerator and drove through the camp, catching the bandits that had been waiting completely off-guard.

“YOU CRAZY ASSHOLE!” the blonde screamed in terror, as the truck smashed through bodies and smaller vehicles.

Thanks to the initial surprise, the two bounty hunters were able to drive out of the bandit camp with relative ease. As one would have expected of their leader, his truck was the most powerful vehicle in the whole group. The truck was practically a metallic beast that tore trough flesh and steel, leaving only destruction behind.

However, it didn’t take long for the bandits to get out of their shock and begin chasing after the two infiltrators. Soon a small army of engines roared behind the two bounty hunters, as they were being chased after.

“We need more speed! Get rid of the trailer!” Erin said.

“Got it!” Ryle said back as she used a control panel on the inside to detach the load they were dragging behind them. The massive trailer crashed into some of the bandits that were behind them. “Ha! We got a few of the bastard as well! Shame about the stuff though. Could have gotten some nice cash from that.”

“Money is no good once you’re dead. Besides, we got our bounty already,” the redhead said as she began to make some preparations. “Not to mention, it was necessary for our escape.”

“What do you-?” the blonde began to ask, only to realize what her partner was planning. “Oh no…”

“HOLD ON TIGHT!”

With a simple flick of a switch, Erin activated the nitro boost that was on the truck, causing the vehicle to launch like a rocket and speed away from their pursuers. In just a matter of seconds, the bandits that were chasing after them disappeared beyond the horizon.

“Look at that! We lost them!” Erin exclaimed happily upon seeing their pursuers get left in the dust. “If we keep this up, we’ll back at the town in no time!”

“Yeah… That’s great,” Ryle said as she was still in shock of the sudden increase in speed. “I guess I owe you an apology, though.”

“What for?” the redhead asked.

“For… not being exactly a nice partner through this whole thing,” the blonde answered. “I’m just… I’m just not used to working with others, you know? And the fact that Zeke was so ready to trust pretty much from the beginning might have made me a bit jealous in a way. At the end of the day, it was thanks to you that we were able to pull this off. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Erin said with a smile, happy that her partner was finally warming up to her. “I should thank you as well. If you hadn’t been there, I don’t think I could have made it out alive either. Now let’s get back and collect our reward. I’m sure Zeke will be happy to see us return.”

Ryle simply nodded and smiled in response. It looked like things were finally turning for the better for both of them.

Unfortunately, Erin failed to notice a pothole ahead of them. One of the truck’s wheels sank into it and was damaged so badly that the truck went out of control and crashed into a large boulder. The two bounty hunters were lucky to not get hurt, but the vehicle itself was now unusable, forcing them to walk back the rest of the way.

“...Maybe we shouldn’t work together anymore,” Ryle said in a deadpan tone.