Chapter 3: Lina and Gourry's Little Adventure

(Yes, I'm aware that's a really lame title)

"Hey Lina?"

"Yes Gourry?"

"Where are we going again?"

Lina whacked him on the head for the eighteenth time that day. "How many times do I have to explain it you jellyfish?!" she roared.

"Sorry," Gourry whimpered, "But I keep forgetting."

Lina grumbled under her breath. "Fine, I'll explain it ONE more time, but after that you have to REMEMBER it, ok?!" Gourry nodded, fearful. "We. Are. Going. To. The. Schwenkfelder. Mountains. Gourry," Lina said slowly through clenched teeth.

Gourry suddenly snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! Isn't that where those temples of lost trivialization are?" He looked pleased with himself for remembering.

Lina sighed. "Civilization, Gourry," she corrected. "Lost civilization. Still, I suppose that pretty good, considering it's you we're talking about."

"Hey!" She ignored him, and neither said anything for a few minutes.

"Hey Lina?"

Lina eyed him warily, prepared for another mind-bendingly idiotic question. "Yes Gourry?"

"Where are we going again?"

She twitched. "DIL BRANDO!" At least she could relieve some stress. She'd been getting really frustrated lately. This region seemed completely devoid of something Lina had thought existed everywhere. Namely, bandits. They hadn't seen a single highwayman, nor had they heard about any recent brigand activity for the past few days. So, without any bandits to vent her frustrations on, she turned to her dear protector for stress relief.

Lina paused in the middle of pounding the snot out of Gourry and frowned. Suddenly she sensed a large group of presences in the vicinity. A moment later, a large crowd of bandits appeared, grinning toothily. Lina felt a pit of uneasiness in her stomach. Something wasn't right. Usually, your average bandit gang would have twenty or thirty members. A large one might have fifty. But there were well over a hundred here. Something was very, very, wrong.

Looks like I was wrong about there being no bandits.

"Lina Inverse!" one of them barked. Lina supposed he was the leader. Behind her, she heard Gourry get up and quietly draw his blade. Lina did the same. "Prepare to die!" He gave a war cry and he and all the bandits charged at them. But Lina was ready for them.

"Mega Brando!" she released the spell she had started chanting as soon as she'd sensed the bandits' presence. Ka-BOOM! The resulting explosion wiped out a good chunk of the bandits. But there was still a large number remaining, and they kept on coming. She and Gourry frantically parried the oncoming attacks with theirs swords. Gourry was doing alright, but Lina had her work cut out for her just defending her self.

It's not that they're skilled or anything, she thought. There's just so darn many of em. If she could chant another big spell, like Mega Brando, the fight would easily be decided. But the onslaught was too rapid for her to get in any serious chanting.

"Fireball!" The was another much smaller explosion as Lina managed to dispatch another handful of bandits. But they still kept coming.

What I need, Lina thought, Is some breathing room. It hit her. Of course! Lina quickly chanted a spell. "Ray Wing!"

"Wha-?! Lina, where are you going?!" Gourry called up, startled, but Lina didn't answer. She was too busy thinking up a strategy. Gourry could take care of himself. None of the spells Lina knew that would finish the bandits off in one shot could be cast while maintaining a flight spell. But there might be a way around that… it was risky, but it might work. It was worth a shot. Lina flew higher and higher into the air. Soon, the bandit gang was nothing more than a speck on the ground below. This should be high enough, Lina thought. She released the Ray Wing spell.

Almost immediately, Lina began to fall. Faster and faster, she felt the wind in her face as the ground got closer, and the battle below got bigger. Already she was well into her chanting, though she could barely her own voice over the wind. "…by the power you and I possess!" Lina completed the spell, and paused just long enough to shriek "Gourry, move!" before releasing the spell.

"DRAGON SLAVE!" The resulting explosion not only dispatched most of the rest of the bandit, but it also buffeted Lina upwards a little, buying her the extra time she needed to chant a levitation spell. As Lina gently touched down in the smoking crater where a bandit gang used to be, she grinned and flashed the v-for-victory sign. "Another brilliant plan concocted by beautiful sorcery genius, Lina Inverse!"

Gourry stumbled over to her and coughed, slightly charred. "Hey Lina, mind giving me a little more warning next time?"

Morris sank into a chair and rubbed his temples. Today was turning into a really bad day.

"That many men," Duclis said, awestruck. "All with a single spell?"

Morris grimly and slammed his fist on the table angrily. "I told them not to do it! Not to attack Inverse prematurely like this!"

The man sitting across from him gave the sorcerer a resentful look. "Can't say that I blame them. You said if we all joined forces, we'd be able to destroy that little witch. Well, we've joined forces, why won't you let us go kill her?"

Morris sighed. "I've already told you why, Bailard. Sheer numbers won't be enough, not if we want to make her really suffer for all she's done to us. For that, we need to plan." He swiftly got up and left before Bailard could reply.

Perhaps a brief explanation is in order. Lina Inverse did not get a nickname like "bandit killer" for nothing. One can correctly infer from this that her enemies among the bandit population are numerous. But it's a well known fact that most bandits are morons, so for a long time they'd never been able to do anything about it. Until Morris came along. "Alone," he'd said to the bandit leaders, "You could never hope to defeat her. But together, along with my sorcery skills, she won't stand a chance." Thus, Operation Destroy Lina Inverse was born. That was 6 months ago.

Bailard is an idiot, Morris thought disgustedly. They all are. That fool thinks he's the one running things around here. He knows nothing about the subtle art of revenge.

A/N: Yeah, I know I've been updating fast. I wanna get this thing finished by Christmas so I can include appropriately Christmassy bits if I want to.

Something I forgot to mention about Duclis: Those of you who've read volume 5 of the Slayers novel series may remember a minor character named Duclis. There's no connection, I'm just borrowing the name.

Also, when Duclis said that Lina got all the bandits with a single spell, I'm aware that that's not how things really happened. He's just got really bad sources.

R&R please!