Ever After

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear! Two

Unaware, Yuna the adventurer made it to the capital, delivered her charge and settled in to enjoy the royal birthday celebrations.

"It was a really quiet trip," Fina noted.

"Probably another group of adventurers drew all the monster encounters to them," the very genre savy Yuna mused.

"That happens?" Lady Noa asked, the other little girl blinking.

"Hmm," Yuna nodded, "I sort of feel bad for them."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"MORE OGRES?!" Lilith growled, annoyed.

The nearly nine foot tall humanoids charged out of the woods, clearly thinking they had the advantage in numbers.

"SHIELD," Quill ordered, putting up a barrier around the carriage.

"Wow!" Lady Misa cried, enchanted by the glowing sphere.

"I wish I could do that," Elle sighed, then cast magic arrow against an attacker.

"Miss Hazuki, you don't have to...," Marina started then Hazuki just CASUALLY chopped a Ogre in two.

"Damn," Iria muttered, as she, Marina and Marika attacked the other monsters.

"Hmph," Lilith grunted, quite willing to stay out of it.

Marika swung her huge sword, cutting down her own ogre. "Miss Quill, you okay?' she checked on the mage.

(They tended to worry about magic users in this world, as most had poor defense and limited attacks. They, obviously, hadn't met Yuna yet either.)

"I'm fine," Quill smiled sweetly, using multiple shields to fend off three ogres while everyone else was occupied.

"Wow," Marika muttered, then killed one of Quill's attackers.

The adventurers had to work together, mostly, as they needed two to take down one ogre. Meanwhile, Hazuki was cutting them down with a single strike, her odd curved blade glowing eerily.

"That has GOT to be a mythril sword," Iria sighed as the battle wound down.

"I've seen mythril swords, even THEY don't do that," Marika noted as everyone took care of wounds and harvested the monsters.

"I still can't believe you harvest monsters for meat and hides," Hazuki noted, clearly icked by the whole process.

"That and proof to the Guild we killed them," Marina nodded. "You're sure you don't want a share? You DID kill several."

"No, no, we're fine," Quill said firmly.

"Thank you," Lord Gran bowed, "there usually isn't THAT many monsters in these woods, especially near the capital."

"That was SO COOL," Lady Misa cheered.

As Misa was fangirling over Hazuki Quill addressed Gran, "Do you think there's something going on?"

"I fear so," Gran admitted.

"We can try to run to the Capital the rest of the way, but racing through the night is...," Marina said dubiously.

"We'd be that much more likely being jumped." Lilith agreed.

"I think it's best we rush, but not excessively," Gran sighed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Meanwhile, the group of robbers that had been shadowing the group had their own problems.

"WHY ARE THERE ALL THESE MONSTERS!" one yelled as they were mobbed.

"NO AMOUNT OF LOOT IS WORTH THIS!"

"Form up! They're just monsters!" the leader yelled desperately.

The Zamon Bandits had had a good plan, really. They were going to wait until the Guards were exhausted, then jump them, take the lord and lady then hold them for ransom. All simple and direct.

THEN those three women showed up.

Quill and Lilith were bad enough.. both seemed to be freakishly powerful mages. Then there was Hazuki, who's sword skills were frightening to see. She didn't seem to have THAT much finesse, but her power was incredible.

So they decided to wait, and hopefully jump them at night or something.

THEN the monsters started coming out of the woods in waves.

"Where are all these coming from?" one of his few mages asked.

"It's not normally this bad near the Capital! The Adventurers and the City Guard prune them back!"

"WELL THEY'RE NOT PRUNED NOW."

"Is that a WYVERN!" a warrior yelped, pointing above them.

"We are SO screwed," another whimpered.

Then soft laughter came from the woods.

"Who...?" a bandit yelled.

The man was in magician robes, but looked ragged, and interestingly he only had one arm. "Well, well," he murmured, "I am the former Court Mage, Ghoulzam."

"Ah crap, we're caught up in another villain's scheme," a genre savvy goon groaned.

"Indeed," Ghoulzam nodded, "monsters! Kill them for my magic!"

Then another wave of monsters swept in.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Unaware the evil Sorcerer was 'eating' the band of bandits miles away from them, the adventurers made camp.

"We're about a day from the Capital," Marina noted, having taken this route before.

"I'm still sensing Eve's energies from around there, too," Lilith added, looking distastefully at the Orc meat that was grilling.

"Cooking monsters," Quill shook her head.

Hazuki was struck by the differences between the Quill she first met and the TSAB version of Quill. The cavegirl version, she was certain, would have had NO problem eating grilled whatever...

"Hmm?" Quill noticed her looking.

"Nothing," Hazuki smiled back. She added, "We should at least try it."

"I suppose," Lilith made a face.

Marika the heavy Swordswoman teased, "Why not try it, Miss Hazuki?"

"Sure," Hazuki took the meat on a stick and, admittedly hesitantly, took a bite.

Lilith blinked as Hazuki eagerly look another bite. "It's good?" she asked.

"It's pork, pretty much," Hazuki agreed once she swallowed. "Could use some spices but...,"

"Campfire cooking," Iria, the cook that night, shrugged. "But yeah, orc actually cooks up pretty tender, usually."

"Are all monsters edible?" Quill had to ask.

"God no," Elle jumped in, laughing. "Golems, obviously, are a no."

"And Goblin is nasty," Marina added. "We HAD to eat some when we were rock bottom adventurers starting out... never again."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lilith agreed.

"This IS good," Quill agreed, chowing down.

Even the lord and lady ate, though he at least looked nearly as uncomfortable. Probably used to plates and such. Though Hazuki remembered something about European Royals in the middle ages eating food by hand.

Once they were done dinner Marina sighed, "Okay, we'll dive upo watches then..."

A loud crashing through the bush made Hazuki leap up, drawing her sword as everone else took up battle positions.

The blood splattered man ran at them, armor torn and looking like he'd been beaten. "RUN!" he yelled.

"What..?" Elle blinked.

He ran right buy them, sprinting up the road as he moaned, "There's at least a thousand monsters coming!"

"THOUSAND?" Lord Gran echoed, stunned as they heard loud roars off in the distance.

"Shit," Hazuki muttered as the sounds QUICKLY got louder.

To be continued...

Notes: Yeah, mean to end there. Big fight coming next chapter. I am LOOSELY following the Light Novel version, NOT the anime, that skips over most of these side characters.

Not sure if I want Yuna in the final battle. It'll depend on how the chapter comes together.