Prof was not entirely sure that, normally, the definition of a prisoner ever included any of the above words, but from the point of view of a mentally challenged bloodsucker, it probably fit.

The bandit lay somewhat beaten up and tied up like a ham under a nearby tree. To Prof he looked somehow familiar until he realized that weeks ago, he was one of the bad guys in the “white” guest house.

“Wake up, Breakfast!” Mini kicked the bad guy in the side. It was unclear whether Mini called the bandit breakfast or tried to wake him up with the promise of breakfast. After a bit of slapping and kicking and still no reaction, Prof poured a glass of water into his face, which finally brought the desired result about.

“You're going to die!” was the bandit's first reaction “I’ll fuck your corpses!”

“Hehehe, I'm officially dead, so we can start right away!” Mini glowed. She immediately began to unbuckle the bandit's belt as she muttered something about someone finally appreciating her greatness.

“Ehem, Mini. Could the play and food wait? We should interrogate him while he is still useful.” Foxy held her back.

“Do you see what envious peoples I'm surrounded with? You finally appreciate me and promise to have an orgy, they won't allow it! Well good, then first the excitement, the secrets!”

The bandit's eyes had been starting to fall out at this time. It was understandable, it was no every day that a guy was kidnapped by a two-legged werewolf and then almost got raped by a lightly dressed crazy woman. And the best part was yet to come. Mini practically leaned into the prisoner's face, looked into his eyes without any species-specific illusions, and began to speak in a voice dripping with hatred, contempt, and general evil.

“Little maggot. You’ll answer my questions, and if you’re a good little maggot, maybe you wouldn’t suffer for too long. I hope you won't be a good little maggot.”

“This is the [Intimidation] Skill at Work, and in addition, Stern Look” Foxy poked Prof in the side “If I'm not mistaken, she also uses her blood magic to temporarily increase the effect of the Skill. Ewwww, that's disgusting!”

The latter was meant for the bandit, who was now really seriously intimidated going after the puddle that began to spread between his legs, and from the smell, a muscle in the back also let go. The bandit, trembling, pale, and in tears, begged Mini not to hurt him.

The interrogation went along quickly under these circumstances: the bandit gave an exhaustive answer to all their questions. Their gang consisted of five people, one Level 7, one Level 6, and three Level 4 were in the camp; the camp itself was about half an hour away from the point where Foxy caught him, in a ravine between two smaller hills. The prisoner was heading to the border town in Wanderberg to find out if there would be a more interesting merchant from there in the near future.

The gang broke away from a larger group about three weeks ago - hearing the latter information, Foxy raised her brows and quickly found out that it was that gang had destroyed Shinead's clan. Although the prisoner did not know the exact purpose of the attack or the client, he repeatedly saw a half-blood elf in the camp talking to a wizard. In his opinion, the half-blood could have been the boss, but he did not know if he was the contractor or just the contractors agent.

Foxy jotted the half-elf’s description down, so she could talk to Shinead. At the end of the interrogation, Mini turned away from the bandit in disgust.

“It got dirty, so I don't want it anymore. Foxy, will you get me a new one? Or you, Prof? You won’t regret it!” She winked at them with a clear hint. She looked back at the prisoners briefly, then shrugged, “However I'll have breakfast. Hehe.”

Prof suddenly had very important things to do in their camp, somehow he wasn’t overly curious about Mini’s eating habits. He also vowed never to infuriate the vampire enough to get applied this kind of intimidation on him. He was soon joined by the grimacing Foxy.

“She's overdoing it a bit. It could have been done less spectacularly.”

“Anyway, how does this blood magic thing work? I didn't see a Skill for it on her character parchment.”

“It’s not a Skill, but a racial knowledge or trait, just like the limited illusion that covers her teeth and eyes. As long as she have a blood supply, she will be able to apply the knowledge in every case. For them, it's like walking, or rather digestion. There’s no special Skill for them either, and yet they work. Not everything is regulated by Skills here, don't forget it! There are Perks and racial traits too!”

Mini finished the bandit a few minutes later and began searching him. Being careful not to touch his pants.

“Foxy, he has nothing! I'm unpacking and there's nothing in it! Where is the game part of the surprise?”

“On the one hand, you were the only one waiting for a toy, and on the other hand, you just wanted to play with his as a toy…”

“Yes, but it got dirty! I deserve a clean one!”

“Actually, when we caught him, we searched him to be on the safe side and took everything away. He didn't have much, roughly a silver worth of pocket change, a small knife, and a mace.” Foxy handed the loot to Prof with a grin. “I think his other belongings are at the camp.”

After everyone other had breakfast too, they set off for the bandit base. Prof had an idea or two of how they could attack the camp, but he wanted to make the final decision based on an accurate knowledge of the location.

After a few hours of comfortable walking, they reached the hills described by the eaten bandit. The party crawled carefully closer, and Prof was able to inspect the camp and its surroundings. The hill opposite them, and one end of the valley – or rather just a larger ravine – was quite steep, though it wasn’t quite unclimbable, anyone who wanted to go there could face some serious difficulties.

The hill they were on at the moment was much more gentle, but in return it was densely overgrown with some prickly bush. The tops of the hills and the other end of the valley were covered with dense forest. At the bottom of the valley, the bandits cleared the bush in a token effort, leaving enough room for half a dozen tents, a campfire, and some covered piles that Prof assumed were the looted goods.

Below one of the more rocky parts of the hillside opposite, some tethered animals were visible, a mixture of horses, mules, and donkeys. Only three bandits could be seen in the camp, two sitting around the campfire snacking, the third chopping wood a little further away. After Prof surveyed the place, they retreated cautiously.

“My idea is this” Prof began after settling in the trees, “Mini and Ainmire will start shooting at the camp from the opposite hillside, while Foxy and I wait on this side. If the bandits seem to want to flee or prepare to counterattack, we will attack them in the back. No need to overcomplicate things.”

The others just nodded, there was no objection – either they had no better idea or they trusted Prof's plan. Mini, her scorpionlizard, and the elf archer immediately set off for their ambush, while Prof and Foxy crawled back to the top of the hill. After a short wait, they carefully descended halfway. Prof didn't want to risk going any closer because of his low [Stealth] and [Climbing] Skills, and he was almost certain that the Heavenly Game Master was already preparing the dice in his hand, waiting for Prof to do something that would justify rolling them.

Fortunately, Prof did not need to climb down a cliff, the situation would have been much more embarrassing there. About a quarter of an hour after they reached their chosen point, the bandit cutting the tree collapsed, with an arrow in his throat and two crossbow bolts protruding from his chest. The other two bandits sitting by the fire didn't even notice at first that the number of criminals present had dropped by twenty percent – and then they didn't have time to react.

One was shot by Mini and the other by Ainmire. The victim of the elf archer did not die immediately, he still had time to cry out painfully and throw himself behind a prepared pile of logs. He wasn't completely covered, his legs were sticking out from behind the pile, which Ainmire took advantage of: after several unsuccessful shots, one finally nailed one of the bandit's legs to the ground.

The first shout have alarmed the two remaining bandits who rushed out of their tents in underwear with weapons in hand. They had enough common sense to jump behind cover almost immediately, so the arrows and bolts coming toward them soon enough could not hurt them. To resolve the stalemate, Prof gestured to Foxy and they began to approach the camp carefully.

“Can you tell me from here what level they are?” Prof asked in a whisper

“No, I haven’t seen them for long enough. We need to get closer.”

“All right. I will take the one with higher level, please indicate which one you are attacking.”

Foxy just nodded. They were already on the edge of the camp when the half-blood was finally able to take a close look at the two cowering bandits. Foxy pointed to the left one, then inched toward him. Prof waited for a few moments, then started in the direction of the other bandit, sneaking to the best of his ability.

36% [Sneaking] was enough to approach Butch Cassidy’s local (not very talented) apprentice to about four meters. The bandit looked at Prof with widening eyes for a moment, but immediately jumped up and assaulted Prof, waving his two short swords. Unfortunately, this prevented the archers from shooting him bravely in the back. Prof immediately saw that he would not be able to handle his opponent alone – he was too good (or too high Level).

On the other hand, the bandit did not have too many options either: if he were to defeat Prof or try to escape, the two archers would have shot him dead in short order. Prof did not even try to attack, but only defended to buy time. A few minutes later, Foxy finished the other bandit – her spell accidentally did not fizzle this time and vines burst from the ground, fixing Prof's opponent in place. The highwayman (Prof would have rather call him a bywayman at this point) immediately realized he had lost.

Throwing his swords far, he raised his hands.

“I surrender! Take the loot, just let me go!”