Chapter 44

Rhordan trudged sluggishly through the forest, she and Aurelia collected together any branch or bunch of leaves they could. She didn't like the idea of poisoning people to death, even if they were fiendish bandits. She was growing fearful of what Gideon was becoming in this new world, though she couldn't blame him, she wasn't far behind him.

Aurelia chirruped and landed on her shoulder, nuzzling against her neck in an attempt to comfort her. Rhordan smiled and petted the bird, trying to rid herself of the horrible thoughts plaguing her mind. This new world held no punches nor was it forgiving, if they wanted to survive then they had to become the very things that despised the most.

Rhordan hated the idea of killing another living being, even if it were Slade, she still would not have been able to take his life. After managing to break free from the prophecy, she had found herself believing that all life is worth sparing, that people deserved a second chance no matter what they did, but part of her knew that was wishful thinking, that some people are beyond hope.

Stopping to pick up some large flat leaves from a plant, she heard Aurelia chirrup softly in her ear, alerting her to something she hadn't seen. Turning her head, she noticed a large dark brown rat like creature drinking from a small river not far from her.

It was at least three metres tall and had three long spindly pinkish tails lazily resting behind it, the most notable feature was that it didn't have four legs, rather its front paws were large trunk like arms, it used its fists as front legs. The rat creature stopped its drinking to sniff the air, turning on the spot, it rounded on Rhordan, its dark crimson beady eyes glaring at her with hunger.

Before Rhordan had a chance to react, the magical beast stormed its way towards her, its mouth open and greenish clear drool spitting from its mouth. Rhordan couldn't stop herself from screaming, the sight of the terrifying rat beast rampaging towards her chilled her to the bone, she couldn't move nor could she even think about dodging. Falling onto her backside with her arms behind her, she stared wide eyed at the blood thirsty beast.

Then the rat beast halted in its tracks, clawing at its neck before collapsing onto the ground before her. Twitching somewhat, it laid there showing no signs of life. She could hear a sudden rush of footsteps behind her, approaching her position rapidly, but her focus was on the lifeless creature before her.

Gideon had rounded around the line of trees and found Rhordan seconds away from being crushed by the rat beast before it fell, he couldn't stop himself from frantically rushing to Rhordan's side, collecting her into his arms and pulling her close to him. He could only whisper apologies and promises of never being that reckless again.

Rhordan was shocked at Gideon's arrive, though she could guess from his words that whatever happened to the rat beast was his doing. She didn't know what to think, rather her mind was still reeling from the shock of seeing the colossal fiend.

"What just happened?" Pavel abruptly startled the brothers, breaking them apart and standing awkwardly. Pavel wasn't paying attention to them to their luck as his eyes were glued to the monster behind them, his eyes wide and full of shock.

"It's my fault, I was testing my poison with a group of goblins when Rhordan cried out, I thought I had poisoned him, but it seems that I got this beast instead." Gideon sullenly replied, casting an apologetic gaze towards Rhordan. Though she was alright, Gideon couldn't rid himself of the blinding fear and despair constricting his heart. The thought of hurting her twisted his insides badly, but actually killing her because of his foolishness, he doubted he could have lived with himself.

"Your poison did that!" Pavel stared wide eyed at Gideon, shifting his gaze frantically between him and the dead monster. Gideon didn't think much of the magical beast, he was more concerned with Rhordan's safety than it.

"Well, yeah. It takes a few minutes for it to kick in, but once it does it kills within seconds… and they clutch their throats in agony." Gideon relayed his findings, somewhat ashamed of his ability to create a poison like this. Pavel went wide eyed at him, staring incredulously at him as if he had grown a second head.

"Death Scream poison…" Pavel uttered aloud, his face draining of colour as he uttered those words. Then a light appeared in his eyes, one that restored the colour he lost. "Can you make an antidote? Or something to prevent the poison?"

"Umm… maybe, but I'd need time and resources." Gideon was surprised at Pavel's reaction, he was expecting him to yell or berate him for creating something he could name, especially after watching the colour drain from his face. From that expression alone, "Wait, why?"

"Death Scream poison is used by the number one assassin clan in the world , it's a rare type of poison that if given to anyone at the Baron rank or below, can kill if they don't reinforce themselves with mana." Pavel explained, pacing back and forth with excitement. "No one has ever discovered the recipe to the poison but supposedly it was only simple ingredients found in any forest, and its practically undetectable until it's too late… wait how did you discover it."

"I don't know… I found this red star flower with a blue centre, and the bark of a red tree high up on the hill." Gideon thought over Pavel's words, though there was a risk of incurring the wrath of the number one assassin clan, they could sell an antidote to the major powers for a high price. It sounded horrible in his mind as he thought about it, that he would become like some of the megacorporation that over sell a lifesaving drug, but assassins wouldn't target weak people with a poison like this, especially if its highly coveted by them. "That said, this poison isn't complete yet, there is a part I am missing… I think. I don't know how my nature ability works, but its telling me that I'm not finished with it yet."

"If you can make an antidote for it, we could make a fortune. The rich snobs would hand over every gold coin they have just for a chance to be safe from the Darkbane Deathflower's most notorious poison." Pavel ignored Gideon explaining he hadn't finished making it yet, rather his mind was on coin, so much so that the brothers were sure that his eyes changed to actual gold coins. A light blinked into Pavel's eyes as he brought himself back to reality, turning to the rat monster with intrigue. "That is a Rock Striker, they aren't usually around this area, but they will travel miles for water… kinda surprised that one would fall to Death Scream poison…"

"Well, I did amplify the effects of the poison. It only took a single drop to do this." Gideon pointed to the dead magical beast, he was surprised the poison made it this far, he had expected it to dissolve in the water, especially with how little he put in. "Though, I doubt it would have taken much to kill a low ranked magical beast."

"Low ranked? This is a Rock Striker." Pavel looked at them as if they had lost their minds, then he remembered how little they knew of the magical world and sighed. "A Rock Striker's average rank is around Baron."

"What!" The brothers exclaimed, snapping their gazes between Pavel and the rat beast, wondering if Pavel was pulling their leg.

"Yep! Death Scream poison is powerful… though not against magical beasts…" Pavel looked at the Rock Striker, the Death Scream poison mainly targets humans, magical beasts' have a different construct and normal poisons wouldn't work on them. "Anyway, we should grab the bones in its arms, they sell for a lot."

Gideon sent Rhordan back to watch over the village while he and Pavel carved out the bones and the magical core of the Rock Striker, though she was used to gutting magical beasts, she was still startled by her run in with the magical beast. He didn't want her to leave his side after what had happened, he was so terrified of what could happen to her that he nearly cut his hand while carving out the magical beast's core.

Pavel took to removing the bones as his Apprentice ranked physical strength helped him get passed the tough skin, though Gideon wasn't having any issue cutting the tough skin, or breaking the beast's rib cage. He had been constantly pouring his mana into his body every moment he could, even being able to do so while working or trekking, it was like second nature to him now.

Gideon was sure that he was on the cusp of Novice rank physical strength, despite Pavel constantly telling them to be patient as most couldn't make it to Novice rank in ten years, let alone one. He had wanted to say something to Pavel, though he decided to keep quiet on the matter, especially now that he was keeping up with Pavel working through the Rock Striker's skin and bones. Gideon knew that he and Rhordan were breaking all norms regarding magic, but until they can figure out why, it would be better to keep it to themselves.

As they were making their way back to Rhordan with the collected items, Gideon veered off to grab his cantina filled with the poison after he had left it behind when he ran to Rhordan's side. Just as he saw his cantina and was making his way to pick it up, a mysterious feeling froze him in place. His body, though disconnected from his magical core, felt instantly revitalised, power flooding through him like a tidal wave. The rush of mana coursing through his veins was almost euphoric, as if he could feel the power surging through his body.

He stood there for several moments, revelling in the feeling of power he now possessed. Every breath felt stronger, his lungs taking in greater amounts of air, even his mana channels allowed greater amounts of mana to flow through them. Gideon turned to a nearby boulder, focusing on it for a moment before slamming his fist into it as hard as he could, watching in awe as his fist was perfectly fine while the small boulder cracked into pieces.

Smirking quietly to himself, Gideon collected his cantina and returned to the other two quickly, hiding his new strength for the time being. He wanted to confer with Rhordan first, to get her opinion on this matter as she knew magic better than he ever could.

"Anything yet?" Gideon asked as he sat down beside them, watching the quiet village below them while pulling out the nature element book. He wanted to read through about anything that could explain his abilities to extract the essence of the fauna without issue, though given how plain and generic the writer explained things, he doubted he would get far.

"Nothing, I think we will be sitting here for a while." Pavel grunted, he laid back against the tree, his legs outstretched and his hands behind his head. He was in for the long haul, relaxing as best as he could to wait for when the bandits arrive, though that was if the bandits even came.

They sat there for almost two days watching the village, taking turns to go off and stretch before returning to their post. It was during one of these switches that Gideon noticed Rhordan suddenly stop and freeze for a moment, he waited until she was moving once again and staring at her hands with intrigue.

Conferring with one another, neither of them knew how they managed to reach Novice rank physical strength in just a few months. Rhordan did have a theory that their mana differed from others as far into the element books it explains how a person's mana starts off in a mist like form before condensing down into a liquid over time and through the ranks. However, for them, their mana was already flowing as fluid as a river, something that shouldn't be possible until far into the higher ranks.

Although the books don't go into detail regarding the transformation of mana, other than explaining that it has to reach a certain stage in order to break through each rank and completely change to reach a new tier, it did state that a person has a limit at which they can condense their mana, and it was this limit that decided how high they could climb. The book never explains why, only that a person has a limit, and that limit cannot be broken through without serious help from magical items.

It was noon on the second day when the bandits came while they were talking about leaving as not a single person ever came to the village, a group of dark clothed individuals came storming into the village, yelling at anyone that tried to stand against them. Watching from afar, they witnessed the bandits tear the villagers out of their homes and beat them, laughing at their misery as they ransacked the place.

Pavel nearly leapt from his seated position to attack the bandits when Gideon held him back, reminding him what their plan was. Gideon himself wanted to stop the bandits as well, but if they attacked this small group then the possible larger one would descend onto the village and kill them. They had to bide their time and follow the bandits back to their camp, this way they would get all of them rather than a few grunts.

The bandits took items from the houses and laughed at the men on the ground, the three couldn't hear what they were saying, but the explosive rage erupting from the men once they heard it told them it wasn't anything good. About ten minutes in, a horrific scene nearly broke the three's resolve, the little girl from before was dragged out of a house by her hair, the bandits laughing and cheering as they dragged the girl with them as they left.

Taking the initiative, Gideon carefully lead the other two down the hillside, following behind the bandits that obliviously sauntered down the road the old man had told them led to the next town. They kept far enough back that they could see them without being noticed, keeping to the edge of the forest to shroud themselves.

They had quickly applied the leaves and branches to their outfits, concealing themselves to the extent that they would be invisible at a glance, but if someone were to look directly at them for more than a second, they would see through the disguises. Yet, for their purposes, they would do perfectly.

All they needed to do was find the bandit camp, wait till nightfall and poison the water supply. Gideon reckoned that the camp would have to be close to a lake or river, somewhere they would get their drinking water from without issue. Though they had to be cautious encase the plan failed, to be ready with an alternative.

The bandit group turned off of the road beside a massive hill, following it around to a cliff edge that had several caves dotted around, from some small ones on the ground to large cut outs near the top. The bandits travelled through towards a large patch of trees near a group of hills surrounding it. Following them through the barren patch of ground was difficult, but they managed as massive boulders littered the area providing them with some cover.

However, as they followed the bandits, the harder it became to rationalise their plan in their minds. They were going to kill a group of people through the use of poison, an indirect method that didn't give the bandits a fighting chance, or even one to surrender. The closer they got the more they wanted to turn away, even Pavel was having a difficult time trying to give reasons for their actions.

Their only other option was to go and use up the entire contents of the spatial ring just to pay for a group of mercenaries that had a greater chance of turning on them according to Pavel. Most mercenaries in the outer regions tend to turn on their employer rather than actually facing the danger, without the strength of a kingdom or any of the major clans, the mercenaries didn't face much in the way of punishment. As they were about to turn around and go find a guard post to report what they found, they heard the bandits thrashing the little girl around, laughing at her and taunting her.

None of the three wanted this to be an excuse to carry out their plan, though it was enough to push them onwards towards the bandit camp. Inside the basin of hills, the camp was merely tents and groups of gruff men huddled around several individual fires dotted around the place chatting and drinking ale. There were carts and caravans littered all around the edges of the place, though from their distance they couldn't make out what was on them other than large dark grey objects.

Settling themselves on a hillside, they watched the camp from afar, trying to identify the leader. Gideon's magical sight picked out several items of interest throughout the camp, but only a tent at the far side beside most of the caravans shone the brightest.

"That large tent over there, I think that is the leader's." Gideon pointed at the large brown tent he spied the most magical power emanating from, the other two looked at him questioningly. "A high amount of magical power is emanating from that particular spot, if I was a leader of a bunch of thieves and crooks, I wouldn't want to leave anything valuable far from my side."

"Fair point, though I don't like that I can't see what's on the back of the carts. I'm going to move around and get a better look." Pavel stated as he snuck off, moving carefully through the bushes. Gideon surveyed the camp, looking for any way they could poison the bandits despite literally not moments ago debating if they should even be doing this.

"There." Rhordan pointed to a large cauldron in the centre of the camp, a large bulky man stood stirring a dark brown soup in it. If they wanted to take out the entire bandit camp, then poisoning this would get them all, though it was in the middle of the camp, in between all the groups of bandits. They wouldn't be able to get close to it without alerting the entire camp.

"We have a problem." Pavel whispered after he returned not minutes later, he seemed rattled by what he saw and nervously looked over his shoulder at the bandits in the camp. "These aren't bandits, they're slavers. They capture women, or other valuable people, and sell them to the three kingdoms or dark guilds, basically whoever pays them well."

"So, those dark grey objects are…" Rhordan asked in shock, unable to complete her sentence as the thought of what currently filled those objects terrified her.

"Yes, those are cages, except there are far fewer women than one would expect." Pavel sadly stated, knowing what he was about to say next may shock the brothers, but they needed to know. "I think they already sold more than half of the women they captured."

"Any estimate on how long ago?" Gideon sighed before asking his question, he wasn't as nearly as shocked as Rhordan who stared blankly at her feet in horror, these kinds of horrible things happen even in their own world, but to see it in person terrified her.

Gideon on the other hand, had been kept as a slave for most of his younger years, though he was disgusted at the sight before him, he had to focus on their goal. Pavel nodded approvingly at Gideon, respecting his demeanour to focus on the issue first rather than wallowing in emotions.

"Not sure, but if I had to guess from the condition of the slaves and how clean the cages are… I'd say not a few days ago." Pavel pondered aloud, slavers never took care of their charges, other than keeping them alive long enough to sell them. When the slavers were about to sell their captives, they usually clean the cages to make them presentable for the buyer, and those cages had been cleaned not more than a day or two ago.

"Then, is it possible to catch up to the other group?" Gideon asked, hoping they could save all of the women rather than only part of them. Pavel scratched his chin in thought, debating how far the other group have travelled in the few days lead they had, and what direction they were heading in.

"Maybe, but only if we know where the second group is going. Otherwise, we will never know where to start looking." Pavel admitted, they had to keep at least one of the bandits alive in order to interrogate them, otherwise they would be blindly searching for a group that was long gone in any direction.

"Are we going through with this?" Rhordan timidly asked, looking over the bandit camp as well as the metal cages, debating if she could still go through with killing them all. Though these evil fiends deserved to be imprisoned for their actions, killing them still didn't sit well with her.

Gideon and Pavel shared a look between them, both agreeing that they had to act now lest the second group was lost forever, and these girls didn't deserve the fate that awaits them. The two of them knew that despite Rhordan's brilliant mind and aptitude for complex thinking, she lacked the will to do what was necessary, though they couldn't really make that assessment as they themselves were debating if carrying this out was worth it.

"Rho, you can sit this one out, me and Pavel can take care of this." Gideon comforted her, smiling calmly in an attempt to reassure her. Rhordan looked at him for a second before shifting her gaze back to the cages, her mind creating images of her in those cages if she wasn't disguised as a boy. Turning to Gideon, she cemented her resolve.

"It only takes a drop, right?" Rhordan asked, causing Gideon to flinch before nodding, wondering where she was going with this. Removing her bow from her backpack, she pulled out one of her arrows and surveyed the tip. "I think I can nail the cauldron from this distance, and if it only takes a drop then I can coat the tip of the arrow."

Gideon and Pavel shared a look, her plan was far better than any they could think up, and it reduced the chances of being seen by the bandits, unless she misses then they will definitely be looking for them. Turning to the Rhordan, they were worried that she wouldn't be able to live with herself after killing so many people in one go, but from the look in her eye they knew she made her mind up.

Handing over the cantina, they let Rhordan take her time to dip the arrow in and coat it in the glowing dark purple liquid. Notching the arrow, she watched and waited for the cook to turn his back on the cauldron, pulling the string back on the bow. The cook was adamant about preparing a decent meal and never turned away from his cauldron, even when he was adding ingredients.

Though, this was a bandit camp, and a disturbance was soon to draw his attention away. That distraction came in the form of two bandits harassing the little girl they had captured from the village, the cook turned around to yell at them not to mess with the leader's prize when he heard a plop behind him. Turning around, he saw his stew still in perfect order, shaking his head he finished up the food by adding in the last ingredients.

Gideon and Pavel were fearful when Rhordan had leased the arrow, but it sailed true and landed in the cauldron without fault. They would've congratulated her on her successful shot had it been any case other than poisoning an entire group of bandits, though they deserved what they were about to get, it still didn't sit well in their stomachs.

"DINNER TIME MAGGOTS!" The cook roared out loud, drawing in a collective cry of joy from all of the bandits. They rushed forward to get a bowl of the stew, pushing and shoving one another to be at the front of the line.

Minutes into dinner being served, the leader appeared from his tent. He was a tall man with shock white hair and pitch black clothes, he stalked through the camp with two scantily clad women submissively following behind him, they had metal collars with short chains attached to them that the leader tugged on any time they lagged behind.

Reaching the cauldron, he threw the women to the ground before snatching a bowl from a nearby bandit, sneering at him when he tried to complain, before collecting himself almost a double sized portion than the other bandits were getting. He taunted the women with the food, holding it in front of their faces before dashing it away when they tried to reach for it.

All the bandits got their share of food while the leader laughed and toyed with his captives, when the little girl was brought forward, he cheered with happiness. One of the two women beside him screamed in shock at seeing the little girl, she began begging and pleading with the leader. From the actions of the little girl, it was reasonable to conclude that the woman was the girl's mother, and they guessed that the leader got her for the purpose of breaking the mother.

As the leader started taunting the mother, roughly shaking her daughter in front of her, screams of anguish started erupting from the bandits. One by one they fell to the ground writhing in agony, the leader whipped around, confused at what was happening.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!?" The leader roared, spinning in circles as his people died around him. He turned his eyes to the bowl beside him and exploded in rage, turning to kill the cook for poisoning them when he found the cook dead on the ground. "Death Scream poison, to think the Darkbane Deathflower clan would betray us like that… hahaha you idiots think you can kill me!"

The leader started to glow a light red colour, his fire element burning the air around him. The three were worried that they would have to face off against the leader when that red aura suddenly burst, and he dropped to the ground convulsing drastically. The effects seemed far deadlier when a person activates their mana, something Pavel wanted to ask Gideon about as that should have neutralised the poison instantly.

It took several minutes before the last bandit stopped moving, leaving only the confused women in the camp unable to understand what was happening. After waiting a few more moments encase a bandit may have survived the ordeal, they headed down from their perch. Approaching the two women, they surveyed the sea of dead bodies, a chill running down their spines.

"Don't worry, we are the good guys." Pavel calmed the women when they freaked out at their sudden appearance, he set about undoing the chains and collars from them before offering a set of their spare clean clothes to both of them. Gideon left Rhordan to stand in the middle of the camp with Aurelia trying her best to comfort her, he went around the cages and unlocked them one by one after finding a set of keys on the leader.

Gideon wanted to examine the leader, to see how his poison managed to do something the version the Darkbane Deathflower clan had could not. If he was going to make an antidote to this poison, he had to know the difference between the two versions, otherwise the antidote might not cure the assassin's version of the poison.

In most of the cages were the women from the village as they all corralled around the two women that had been chained by the leader, there was one oddity in the among the slaves, one that was hidden away under a tarp. A large man with dark hair and gruff features, he wore scraps of black clothes and a pair of bracers eerily similar to the ones the brothers' were currently wearing.

The man wasn't awake, he seemed to be in a deep sleep though one that wasn't normal by any standards. Gideon debated releasing the man, pondering if he was friend or foe before remembering what it was like being inside a cage with no way out. Opening the cage, he hesitated before removing the bracers from his arms.

Stepping back, he watched the man sluggishly wake up and cast his vision around before settling onto Gideon. A look of confusion crossed his face before he slowly extricated himself from the cage, his movements slow and weak from being contain for such a long time. Standing up for the first time in ages, he stretched slowly and cracked about every bone in his body.

Casting his eyes around the camp, he seemed startled by the dead bodies littering the place, returning his gaze to Gideon. He seemed perplexed by how a young boy could have killed so many bandits, but when he took another look at the bandits, he realised what had happened. Exploding into a gruff laughter, the man merrily enjoyed the thought that the bandits had gotten themselves killed by the weapon they coveted most.

"Never thought I'd see the day the Crimson Snake Bandits would be killed by poison, HAHAHAHAHHA" The man merrily laughed, clasping his chest as he coughed harshly from laughing too soon after waking up. He turned to Gideon once he stopped his coughing fit. "What's your name, boy?"

"Emerald, that's my brother Amethyst." Gideon pointed to Rhordan who was now helping the women collect themselves, he then pointed towards Pavel who was now looting through the pockets of the leader. "And that's Cobalt. What about you?"

"Drake Flamestar, and I am in your debt." Drake bowed slightly to Gideon, he seemed genuine in his actions to portray respect to him, though Gideon held some reserve just encase, he didn't want to put his team in danger. Speaking of his team.

"Hey, Cobalt! What are you doing rifling through his pockets?" Gideon asked rather confused, he was fairly certain that Pavel had a reason behind his actions. Pavel took a second to respond to his new codename, they hadn't used it while they were travelling, a fact that Gideon wanted to rectify quickly.

"Oh, the guy has a chest in his tent, though the key wasn't on the keyring. Thought he had it hidden somewhere else." Pavel responded happily, he pulled another pocket outward with a defeated sigh, standing up when he checked everywhere. "Nope, never mind."

"I didn't think Adventurer's Guild would sign a contract for the Crimson Snake Bandits." Drake pondered aloud, causing the three adventurers to look at him funnily. "Valra's Adventurer's Guild is in the pocket of the Darkbane Deathflower clan, the most notorious and evilest group on the landmass. And Crimson Snake Bandits are a minor group under their command."

"Well, we weren't sent by the guild. We were passing by the village they took these women from and decided to help out." Gideon sighed as he watched Pavel try to search over the camp for anything valuable. It was difficult to portray themselves as good natured with him hunting for treasure. "We couldn't fight the bandits outright, so we poisoned their food… don't eat anything around here just encase. We don't know how powerful the poison we bought is."

"Huh, don't see to many charitable adventurers." Drake's comment would have been great to hear if he wasn't currently staring at Pavel cry out in triumph at finding the key in the leader's boots after he returned to try once again. "Anyway, what are your intentions from here on?"

Gideon looked at him with slight suspicion, wondering what Drake was asking. He didn't like the thought that the bandits had to put the bracers on him, it meant he was powerful and someone that they needed to keep contained.

"You're a cautious type, huh?" Drake chuckled, he sauntered over to a nearby bandit and started removing his clothes, trying on their shirt and trousers before moving onto the next one, trying to see what fit him while discarding anything that didn't. "Look, I want to get the person who put me in that cage, and I want to know if you guys are going after the rest of the Crimson Bandits or not."

"We aren't, but we want to get the other group of bandits that left here a few days ago, they are holding the rest of the village's women." Gideon admitted, he could understand wanting revenge, and having a few allies didn't hurt. "Though, we don't know where to start looking… we should have left one alive."

"No need to worry, I know the Crimson Snake Bandit's base, it's not too far from here actually." Drake grinned, picking up a sword and swinging it a few times before tossing it aside. "Was contracted by some rich bloke to find his ward, though pretty sure she is dead now."

"Well, if the bandits took the women to the base, then we'll head there, but I don't know if we will be effective against them." Gideon admitted, they couldn't fight on the front lines like Drake could from the looks of him swinging a large claymore with practised ease. "Best we can do is poison either their food or water, the rest is out of our hands."

"That'll be more than enough, the leader of the Crimson Snake Bandits ain't tough, her bodyguard is though, however her true strength comes from how many she has under her control." Drake grumbled about the bodyguard in a darker tone, suggesting that it was this bodyguard that had put him in the cage. "If you can take out as many of them as possible, I can do the rest."

"I'd have to discuss it with my team first, but it sounds like a reasonable plan." Gideon didn't want to tackle an entire base filled with bandits, but if they wanted to complete their personal mission to save these women, then they had no choice. Drake merely nodded while a glint of respect twinkling in his eyes, he moved off to grab whatever he could from the fallen bandits.

Gideon made his way over to Rhordan who was still helping the women, providing them with clothes and food from the spatial ring, he wanted to complain but couldn't as she looked happy to have the distraction, so Gideon let her continue. Casting a cautious eye towards Drake, a powerful warrior like him would be interested in the items they had in their spatial ring, and he didn't know if the man would fight them for it.

"Thank you, I don't know if we can ever repay you." The little girl's mother spoke with a smile, she had been conversing with Rhordan and corralling the other women as if she was the leader of them. Gideon thought she must be the village chief's daughter, their looks were uncannily similar.

"No need, anything in the bandit camp is yours, though I doubt I can persuade Cobalt to give up that chest…" Gideon didn't want to take any of the items from the bandit camp as it might remind Rhordan of the horrific act they had just committed, but Pavel was sat outside the leader's tent with the chest in his hands, he had tried to get it open with the key to no avail, and now sat there trying to pry the lid off it with intense vigour.

"You are very generous, thank you." The woman set about ordering the others to collect armour and weapons, grabbing crates of food and other miscellaneous items. They couldn't carry them any length of distance, so they piled it up by one of the empty carts, loading it in as best as they could. They wanted out of the camp quickly, but the chief's daughter reminded them of all the things the bandits stole from their village. "Don't worry about your friend, that fiend barely puts anything in there unless it was precious. Though I don't know how that chest opens, I do know he always spoke an incantation every time he opened it."

"Oi! Cobalt, that chest's magically sealed, you ain't getting in there with just your teeth!" Gideon called out, Pavel had lost his patience and was now using his teeth to pry open the lid, he looked up then at the chest before sheepishly scratching the back of his neck and putting it down. Returning to the chief's daughter, he bowed slightly. "Sorry about him, he's been going through a rough patch recently and acting slightly strange."

"Please, if it wasn't for you three saving us, the only good day we would have would be one where those monsters forgot about us." The chief's daughter grimly stated, smiling somewhat at Gideon to reassure him. "I did overhear you speaking to that man over there, you are going after the other women aren't you?"

"Yes… well we'll try to, but I don't know if we can tackle an entire bandit base camp." Gideon reluctantly stated, he'd rather tell her the truth than give her false hope, he noticed a dark look cross Rhordan's eyes, and he placed a hand on her shoulder that didn't have a yellow fluff ball, offering a small smile to comfort her. "I would suggest moving your village out of here, if we fail or are unable to defeat the entire group then they will be looking for revenge, and I doubt they care who they inflict it upon."

"Agreed, if you do manage to save them, send them to Crossroads, they will know where that is." The chief's daughter nodded to them one last time before departing with the rest of the women, her daughter trailing close behind her. They watched them leave before Gideon motioned for Pavel to join him and Rhordan.

"That man over there is Drake Flamestar, he says he knows the location of the bandits main base, and that that is where the women would have been taken to." Gideon stated, he didn't want to believe Drake, nor did he trust him either, but if he was telling the truth then he could lead them directly to the enemy camp and they can save the rest of the women.

"Drake Flamestar… why have I heard that name before…" Pavel muttered aloud, he scratched his head in thought, trying to remember why he knew that name. Shaking his head as if he were trying to shake cobwebs from his mind, though his actions proved futile as he shrugged after a few minutes.

"Well, he says that all we have to do is take out the vast majority of the enemy with the poison, he can take care of the rest." Gideon moved on, he needed them to understand that although Drake's idea could work, they had to trust him. "I don't know if we can trust him, he was chained up with Full Binding Bracers."

"They needed those for him!" Pavel looked shocked, though he had been travelling with them for a while know, he hadn't seen the bracers on their arms. The brothers had always made it a point to never reveal the bracers on their arms, if people knew how powerful they really were they would make ideal targets as their rank was too low to be of a threat. "He has to be powerful for them to need to use those… I can understand why you don't trust him."

"Yeah, I fear that he is too dangerous to work with, but at the same time we don't have many options unless we decide to not go forward with saving those women." Gideon reluctantly stated, he had to give all of the options to the team first before he could state his own, though from the look of Rhordan's stare, he was certain that he didn't need to worry about their next course of action.

"Let's just go along for now, we can ditch him quickly if we have to." Rhordan stated, casting a slight glance his way in suspicion though she wouldn't let those women suffer if she could help.

"Alright. We should get going soon, its nearly dusk and I don't want to be around here anymore than we have to." Gideon sighed, he motioned towards Drake who merely nodded to followed him to the edge of the camp. Pavel dashed back before joining the three of them at the edge of the camp, the chest under his arm and a massive grin on his face.

Author's Note: This chapter was a bit difficult to write, not because of actually writing it, but because I am worried that it might be too dark to post. However, I will go forward with it, if it is too dark then I will take it down and write another version, but for now this is the way the story goes.

Comments:

Eris – Thank you for the comment. Pavel grew up training hard everyday and pushing himself to the limit, travelling wouldn't do much in the way of hampering his spirits or being uncomfortable. However he hadn't ever had need to travel by foot, or without a guard or guide that knew the way there. To him, this is a new experience, though not one that would taxing on him, rather one where he would have to learn new societal norms.

Gideon is a nature mystic, someone that commands the life force of the forest. He has the ability to literally pull the life force out of anything belonging to nature, so he can in a sense pull the poison out of the plants, though I am not sure how best to explain this. Nature magic is difficult to come up with spells that aren't massive vines, poison, or healing, so I wanted to extent his abilities somewhat.

I can't say what he will make next, I don't know myself but that mana flower may be the next item on the list of things to create. His alchemist ability has the limit of the power of his nature element, so he can't make anything to great, however he can infuse it heavily with mana which would greaten its effects.

Glad you like the alchemist process, it will be useful later but I can't go to much into detail about it. However, I can say that he will be able to use it to dissect not just plants or flowers, but also potions as well.

I really like the idea of integrating the poison into weapons, it sounds awesome! I already have a main set of weapons for him and a secondary set as well, though I think I can make something like coating the edge of a katana with poison, though the claws will be a bit difficult with what I have planned with them. It's still a good idea and one I will keep note of, thank you!

As for Rhordan's screaming, I was trying to make it seem like Rhordan had been poisoned by Gideon when he put a drop of it in the water, like she had stopped to take a drink. Though, I am not sure if that came across well.

Chapter 1

Given-Inside – Thank you for the comment. I'm glad you are liking it, though I do apologise about my grammar in my earlier chapters, I know its alright and can be read but there are grammatical errors and missing words that I need to fix. (I think its around midway through chapter 20 to 30 that I start editing my work, but I'll have to go back and fix them).

Raven's personally is a bit tricky to do, either it comes off as too gothic, or she seems cold and heartless. I've always felt that my opening chapter made her a bit too OOC, but I feel like Raven hasn't had too much in the way of personal interaction with many people and thus cannot fully express herself or know what to do in given situations.

As for her vulnerability, I think she subconsciously wants it, not because its Garfield, rather because she wants to be loved. That she has spent her entire life being given the cold shoulder, and finally there is someone that wants her for her. So, in a sense she isn't really weak to Garfield, rather she wants to be.