Chapter 12: Chap. 10 : Unwanted Guests

Zoemie woke up the next day with a bit of pep, and promptly got her breakfast and routine done, before moving to the bathroom to take her bath. "Today will be more gaming", Zoemie had decided, and so it would be so.

However, Zoemie's gaming session was quickly interrupted by the one thing she did not want to happen. "COME ON ! People ! Already ! Who the hell are these dickheads, anyway !" she swore in rage as she observed the small group of men, dressed in makeshift gambesons and wielding smithed metal weapons.

Zoemie teleported her mask to her, and put it on her head, before activating the anti-jerkface curse. What happened next surprised her, as the mask heated up, almost charring her cheeks and giving her a very clear impression of the kinds of fellow she was dealing with. Bandits, huh ? Zoemie thought, swearing again, as she considered.

She could simply let them go, ignore the whole mess and return to her gaming. But a part of her just couldn't. These fuckers are bandits. If I let them go, they'll rape, pillage and murder more people. Zoemie sighed. She had nurtured hate for her classmates in no small part because of their refusal to do anything about Rickard, while explicitedly knowing the type of man he was.

"I'm not gonna be like them, like these fuckers who did nothing." Zoemie growled, in rage and hate. Zoemie utterly refused the idea of letting them go, of being no better than those who looked the other way, even if she failed to fully comprehend it herself.

She didn't care why anyone would look the other way – in her mind, anyone who did so was either a coward or tacitly supported foul behavior and actions. And Zoemie, for her many flaws, tended to avoid hypocritical behavior when possible, a tendency she learned from her father.

Zoemie sighed. "Fine." She looked at the men. "How am I gonna do this ?" One thing Zoemie knew instinctively is that when outnumbered, an upfront assault was a bad idea. Therefore, she needed to take a different approach.

"I might be able to take 'em on, but... Let's be clever about it." Zoemie thought about it. "I can use my darkness spells to cover and annihilate them, while also disorienting them further inwards... but they might instead stop moving and assume a defensive formation."

No plan survives contact with the enemy. Zoemie's gaming experience had taught her that well. She however had learned two ways to deal with that : prevent the enemy from interfering as much as possible, either through trickery, lockdown or simply one-hit-killing them first chance possible, and designing the simplest strategy possible.

Keeping that in mind, Zoemie considered various approaches. "Ideally, I want a strat with no counterplay... Like killing them while they're aslee... Haha ! I know !" Wait for the night, then murder them with AoE magic, Zoemie decided. A simple, rapid, blunt, brutal approach that left no room for ambiguity. It guaranteed a total wipeout with no stragglers, as well.

If the men were if not necessarily great, but at least decent people, Zoemie might have considered sparing some of them. If they had legitimate reasons for doing what they did, she might have considered hearing them out. But to Zoemie, their purely evil nature as wandering bandits who committed various atrocities and war crimes meant none of that was necessary.

Her plan in mind, Zoemie simply needed to wait. So she did, doing her best to hide her distaste. Feeling the fuckers wander through her territory was unpleasant, like pins-and-needles or unpleasant bowel movements, that wouldn't go away and distracted her thoroughly.

Zoemie grumbled in frustration, as she wasn't going to be able to do a lot while she was waiting for the night. When Zoemie was expecting something, she couldn't do anything until the expected thing was over with. It's a real fucking pain, not helped by the unpleasant, migraine-like feeling she felt, like whispers in her skull, when looking at the bandits.

She did decide to spy on the men's conversations, however. Who knows. Might end up gaining useful info. Thanks to her dungeon, this was actually relatively easy to do, so Zoemie started listening in. That said, the men were mostly quiet and had relatively little of interest, mostly just chitchatting like one would doing cubicle work.

"This place is empty as fuck. Is that even a dungeon ?" grumbled one of the men after a while, behind the one Zoemie suspected to be the leader, a creepy-looking fellow with red... No, crimson hair and a ethereal quality to him.

"Seems like my idea to use the monsters to our advantage won't work. Hmph. Fine. We'll proceed according to the original plan." he said, as the men behind him nodded. "Keep an eye on the flanks ! We don't want to get caught out of position." he barked.

...Ha ! Up yours, jubilated Zoemie internally. "Although he seems actuall pretty clever. Waiting for the night really seems the best approach. Why are they moving nonstop, though ? Are they on the run ?" Zoemie considered as she kept overwatching the men's conversations from her room in the mountain.

The bandits were vaguely aware that Wardens could watch and hear most happenings in their territory, for it was common knowledge, but the lack of threats had led them to assume the Warden wouldn't interfere, and they didn't want to camp in the dungeon because of the risk of monsters. They, however, hadn't considered the possibility the Warden might follow them out.

Zoemie realized that if they were indeed on the run, they would end up leaving her dungeon before setting up camp, which would make it all pointless. To prevent that, she cursed one of the men with a curse that would indicate his position to her at all time, and also that couldn't be detected by anyone other than Zoemie herself.

She then teleported to Xajymzia, who looked at her expectantly. "You noticed the bandits too ?", to which the maid nodded. Convenient. "Yeah, uh, so I'm gonna murder them all." Zoemie continued. Xajymzia cocked her head to the side.

"I'm a little surprised you'd not just ignore them outright." the maid said, surprised. I would have expected Zoemie to just keep going at her business. Not that Xajymzia had any sympathy for bandits. She's had to deal with some in the past, and they were nuisances despite their relative weakness.

"It's just... I don't wanna be one that did nothing, that said "None of my business." or "Just ignore them" or "Come on ! He's a good friend. He'd never do something like that", like..." Zoemie swallowed. "Like the adults, like my classmates. I don't wanna be like them.", Zoemie continued, her voice and resolve, hardening to which Xajymzia nodded in turn.

"I'll be gone for a part of the night – my plan is to wait until they go to sleep then kill'em all with magic", to which Xajymzia nodded. "But I might need your help." Zoemie continued. "I'm gonna need you to loot the camp when I'm done with the lot of them.", Zoemie explained. "I... probably won't be in any shape to do that.".

"I understand.", Xajymzia answered with a nod. "In fact, if you didn't eliminate them, I would have. Although I must admit your approach is much cleverer than what I would have come up with." Zoemie emitted with a curious grunt. "Really, it would just have been "frontal assault" using my resilience and range advantage.", which made Zoemie chuckle a bit.

---

It was late, now, around 11 PM. Zoemie had waited patiently, playing a bit and eating a light dinner of mashed greens and a chicken leg that nevertheless felt really heavy. The bandits had left her dungeon – and she could once again have washed her hands of it, but she once again had refused to. Instead, she was tracking her prey during the night.

Zoemie looked at the night sky filtering through the trees. The weak, ethereal silver light of the moon didn't beat the dark, the whole forest shrouded in dark blue and black. But with her enchanted mask, the darkness was no problem.

For most people, including the bandits, moving at night was a bad idea. Sleepiness, monsters and animals hiding in the dark were only a few of the threasts that lied at night, and the risk of getting lost or separated outweighed the benefits. But Zoemie was a through-and-through night owl, and for her being active that late was natural.

Zoemie proceeded throughout the forest, using the cursed man as a beacon to direct herself towards the bandits' camp. She was fairly certain they had set up camp, for the cursed man wasn't moving anymore.

Alternatively, they might have found him out and killed him to cover their tracks, but Zoemie was dubious they were powerful enough to detect her interference, and she didn't know if the curse would've kept functioning if the man died. And indeed, after a bit more walking, Zoemie found the camp. It was a simple, hastily-built camp, made with ragged tents.

Zoemie looked at the camp with a murderous glare. She was wearing her full equipment, and through a combination of a magic spell and the cover of nightfall, was essentially invisible. Good. Zoemie had looked around and did notice they had a guy keeping watch, but... he was much more focused on possible monsters.

Monsters weren't exactly quiet creatures overall, particularly when on the hunt. Maybe they have something to keep them away ? Zoemie considered. I'll check among their corpses, she decided with a determined nod. She swallowed, nervous, and focused.

Zoemie channeled magic within the ground, keeping it as stealthy as she could. Zoemie was not great at stealth – she had a talent for bumping into things or tripping over her feet whenever she tried to be quiet, and it got her in trouble no small amount of time.

Still, thanks to her magic, she could cover the magic that was moving from her fingertips and into the ground, creeping on the sides of the bandit camp. Zoemie felt her heart thumping loudly in her chest, worried of being found or messing up, which would alert the lot of them and made it a lot dicier.

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Although Zoemie was indeed capable of taking the lot of them on and winning, she wasn't quite aware of that just yet and preferred to stay hidden and not take any risks. Zoemie really liked being able to cleanly solve things rather than scramble in desperation.

The magic crept and advanced, tiny red lights forming a wave that went above and under the ground, hidden by magic. The bandit keeping watch didn't notice it, too on the lookout for monsters and incapable of piercing Zoemie's hiding of her spell. Some would say that Zoemie did qualify as a monster, but even if he were to look in her direction, he would fail to notice her.

The magic closed in, the loop closing. Zoemie almost let out a sigh of relief, and closed her eyes. "Doomsday", she whispered, rising her left hand. The dark red light rose just a little more with Zoemie's hand – and then she contracted her fingers, and everything exploded. A torrent of dark magic that came out of nowhere and brutally disintegrated the bandits, without them even seeing their killer.

The darkness shone, but in the night sky it was barely visible, and the canopy and trees covered it all, a fierce torrent of immense power and precise, confident, merciless intent. The bandits, all of them dead without even so much a warning, and no hope of being spared or saved.

That fateful day, the infamous bandit leader, the Crimson Wraith, died, not in a highly spectacular execution worthy of a man so notorious, nor in heroic battle against adventurers or knights, not slain in vengeance by a furious victim, but in the middle of the night, while on the run, killed by a angry girl who couldn't let him go because of his very own sins.

When Zoemie returned to the dungeon, Xajymzia looked at her. "Done ?" the maid asked, to which Zoemie nodded. Xajymzia teleported away as Zoemie returned to her room, exhausted and depressed. "They're dead.", Zoemie sighed to herself.

The plan had gone off without a hitch. Xajymzia started to return, dropping by quickly to confirm they were no stragglers. Zoemie sighed. She didn't look the other way. Thanks to her actions, the bandits wouldn't hurt anyone ever again. So why do I feel so fucking bad ?

Zoemie knew that if she did nothing she would feel much worse about herself, yet she was incapable of jubilating the way she expected herself to, instead feeling down and grim. Let's game a bit, then go to sleep, Zoemie decided before opening her computer.

The gaming sequence did wonders for calming Zoemie's nerves, who had been surprisingly frayed by her attack, but ultimately didn't make her feel much better. Let's go to sleep, I guess, she decided after a while.

---

Saeja woke up from her tent, and as she looked around, she saw both her companions Ruvarie and Tarac awoke only a short while before and were just preparing breakfast.

"Ah, you are awake.", said Tarac, the only male of the three, a mage, scholar, adventurer, and all-around gentleman. "Heya. I grabbed the grub." said Ruvarie, Saeja nodding in return, who meanwhile was a short-tempered, rather cynical spearwoman.

"Let's eat quick and get movin'." Ruvarie said, as the three adventurers started breaking the bread. The rations weren't great – it was mostly dried meat and hard bread, alongside whatever fruits they could forage, but since they were only three it wasn't too bad of a drain, despite the length of the hunt.

Their rations quickly eaten, the trio got on the move, their weapons in hand. Saeja carrying her axe, Ruvarie her spear, and Tarac keeping his spells at the ready. The trio opened their eyes and stayed on their guard, walking around the forest.

They couldn't afford to dawdle around – their target was the Crimson Wraith, and his elusiveness was helped by his and his men's speed. But carelessness could lead to a very quick death, the man a notoriously able ambusher. Ruvarie looked at Tarac, and asked "Hey. The trail's still fresh ?"

"Yes," nodded Tarac. "Following it will be easy, still." he continued, as he drove his teammates forward, follwing forth a magical current that should lead them right to the Wraith himself. Of course, the trio was expecting an ambush of some form – one does not gain a reputation equal to the Wraith's the easy way.

As the trio advanced warily through the dense, deafeningly silent forest, however, Tarac stopped. "There is a dungeon here". Saeja's eyes snapped open. "Right there.", he elaborated, casting a light spell. The two women extended their own mana as well, confirming that there was in fact a dungeon in the forest.

"A dungeon ? In the Seaguard Greatwoods ?" Saeja said in surprise before shaking her head, reassessing her priorities. "Did the Wraith move through it ?", to which Tarac nodded affirmatively. "Swears. Can we follow the track without entering the dungeon's territory ?" she asked.

"Only so much." answered Tarac. "But this dungeon's territory is noticeably circular, so we can follow the perimeter, like a boat following the coast. The problem instead will be the range limitation, but as the trail get fresher, this will be less of an issue." he elaborated, keeping his voice down, the two women nodding in turn.

Ruvarie nodded. "Lessgo, then. Can't afford to dawdle.", the other two following the forceful speawoman and they followed the trail, circling the dungeon's perimeter carefully. The reason they refused to enter the dungeon was to spare their strength for a potential fight against the dungeon's monsters, or worse, the Wraith and his men.

Dealing with dungeon monsters and the Wraith at the same time was a terrible decision. Ruvarie grumbled. "I'm betchin' ya the bastard's hidin' in the dungeon.". Ruvarie's logic here was that the Wraith was intending to use the dungeon's monsters as cover and decoys, to weaken or eliminate them, with the Warden either approving or not caring.

Such a tactic was... or, well, would have been definitely in-character for the bandit, diminishing his enemies' strength at no cost to himself. But the track kept going, instead, until it left the dungeon outright, "Huh." said Ruvarie. "I'm legit surprised, but hey, gift, horse, mouth, all that.", to which her two friends nodded and the trio recentered on the track, using vegetation as a cover as much they could.

Yeah. Not having to deal with monsters or worse the Warden is very appreciated, Saeja agreed internally. It means more of our power for the battle... but I have a bad feeling about this. She couldn't quite shake it off, like an unpleasant pressure on her shoulders.

The trio reached the bandit camp a short while later, weapons at the ready. Saeja walked in front, jumping out of cover with magical buffs and barriers from Tarac. She looked left and right. "Seems empty." she said as her two friends jumped out as well, the trio nevertheless staying on guard.

The adventurers advanced carefully, looked around at the ruined camp, no sign of life or items remaining. "Where are they ?" asked Ruvarie. "... Wait. Did they leave ?", she said, looking around more carefully, Ruvarie cynically expecting the Wraith to have laid an ambush of some form. Bastards like that don't ever fight fair.

The mage looked around for a while. "No. There is no track that lead outside." He turned to his teammates. "The camp hasn't been broken. It was looted." he continued, clearly uneasy. And following another spell, his face turned into surprise. "...The Crimson Wraith and his men died here." he confirmed after recovering his composure.

"Are you sure of this ?" asked Saeja, although both Tarac and her knew what she was actually asking for was clarification for his logic. For indeed, such dismissive confirmations, if wrong, would be in the Wraith's favor, as faking his own death would allow him to continue his looting and pillaging. All three of the adventurers well were aware of this fact.

"Observe the magical charges." he simply answered. Both of the women did so, and where promptly shocked speechless as well, the charge of dark magic in the wake of Zoemie's spell leaving an impression.

"Gods friggin' smite me, that is a lot of dark magic." said Ruvarie, while Saeja simply watched slackjawed. "Welp." Ruvarie sighed. "Guess that's that, nah ? ...Wait, no.", as both of the women looked at eachother, and at Tarac, then they both looked at Saeja in turn.

All three of them understood exactly who killed the Wraith. There was only one being in the area able to cast magic that powerful. "I didn't want to do this..." said Saeja, hoisting her axe on her shoulder, the feeling of pressure intensifying. "But we'll have to confirm with the Warden."

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