With formal attire packed, the band of four set out once more on the road to Mirador. Athaliah and Rhiara sat in the back of the wagon once more while Erika and Herbert sat together in the front of the wagon. The two snuggled together, sharing a large blanket to keep out the cold as Herbert drove. The first snows of winter had fallen and the road was covered in a fresh sheet of pristine, untouched white. Indeed, the snow was so picturesque that it almost seemed a shame to disturb it with the horses' hooves and  the wagon's wheels.

A few hours into their journey, they ran into what appeared to be an obstacle. The bridge they had intended to cross was blocked by a dozen unscrupulous-looking men brandishing weapons in a decidedly unsubtle attempt to appear menacing. Herbert sighed and lightly tugged at the reins to get the horses to stop before reaching for a bag. "Good afternoon gentlemen." He called out in a rather neutral tone of voice.

"Is it?" questioned the tallest of the bunch, a dark-haired man wearing a shirt of boiled leather and a light blue cloak.  "My friends and I were just talking about the weather.  In my home, the sky is always blue, the seas clear as glass, and the trees are young and pretty." He smirked roguishly, raising his chin to look towards Erika.  "Just like our women.  I will say, in all my time in this muddy land, I have not seen a girl so beautiful."

Erika stiffened, sensing danger in the man's praise. She kept quiet with a stony expression but mentally prepared herself for the possibility of a transformation being necessary. Meanwhile, Herbert really didn't like where this was going, but perhaps he could stall the man and keep him talking for a while. Sure, it wouldn't compare to proper preparation and planning, but he'd like to at least size them up a bit. "I find that I'm fond of the cold and snow. Gray skies might not appeal to many, but to me, they feel like home. What are you doing so far away from your home with its wondrous weather?" The sea near Viarosa was often rather clear, as was the sky often blue, but Herbert wasn't particularly inclined to be truthful with this fellow.

The man looked to his companions, laughing haughtily with them in response.  "I am Benito Aquilinus Caelinus, third son of Severus Aquilinus Caelinus, the wealthiest noble in all of Momosessuale.  I was levied like a [i]commoner[/i], and sent to the godsforsaken east."  He shook his head.  "As much as I despise these lands, at least the locals don't set things on fire.  I took the men that rightfully followed me, and we left that pointless quest to pursue our noble right, as heroes of the forest and road.  We protect the weak, uphold the laws of the Aesernian Empire, and drink our fair share of whisky!" 

A cheer went up from the men, but Benito calmed them with a wave of his hand.  "Now.  We must ask for a small favour of your support to our righteous cause, in exchange for your safe travel through these lands free of villainy.  You are bringing goods in that carriage?  We will take a share, and send you on your way."  He turned his attention to Erika once again, raising an eyebrow.  His men began to circle the wagon, spotting Rhiara and Athaliah in the back.  "I see you have more than one lovely companion.  Perhaps your women would like to display their appreciation more...  Personally?  I'm sure my men would all love some time with them."

“You’re not my type,” Athaliah said in the friendliest voice she could muster. Hidden next to her was her sword, and she held it with a grip that turned her knuckles white. “but surely such staunch, gallant heroes like yourselves could find any woman you wanted.” She purposefully made herself seem meek, more as an attempt to put the gang into a false sense of security than anything else. “You must let us fair ladies through; you wouldn’t insult the honours of maidens like us, would you?” she let out a forced giggle, which she swore she would hate herself forever for doing.

Rhiara, meanwhile, avoided eye contact with anyone except Athaliah. She wrapped a big fur cloak tightly around herself partly because she was cold, but mostly because she held a dagger in one of her hands. She had never used a dagger on a person before and she hoped she wouldn’t have to, but she saw Athaliah’s grip on her blade and knew full well what was going to happen.

Erika eyed the encroaching bandits with an icy frown. Her displeasure clear, she spoke. "Alas, good sirs, I cannot indulge you in such a manner as I am already in love with another. Surely, noble soldiers of Aesernia such as yourselves would not ask a woman to be unfaithful?" She'd only killed animals and a werewolf before, but these men were certainly acting like animals.

Herbert tossed a burlap bag to Benito. "My wagon primarily contains the tools of my trade, supplies for our journey and what's left of my last project. I offer you this instead as proof that I too help to protect the weak, make the roads safe for travel and keep these lands free of villainy." With the bag tossed, Herbert drew his swords and quickly applied basilisk poison to their edges. There was no point in being subtle now. The threat of violence filled the air and he could feel bloodshed coming.

Benito opened the bag, his smile fading as he reached inside.  When his hand emerged, it was grasping a tooth the size of a dagger.  He dropped it with disgust, throwing the bag to the ground.  "Trinkets?  You [i]savages[/i] think that you can win your passage with trinkets?"  He snorted, waving his bandits forward.  "I will not be insulted so!  I am the third son of Severus Aquilinus Caelinus, did you not hear!  You will pay with your blood!"

At their leader’s order, two bandits climbed into Herbert’s wagon with what looked like well-forged daggers in their hands. One of the men tried to grab Athaliah by the throat, causing her to shout. “Now, Weiss!” she simply said, an instant before the sword in her hand drove into his gut. Rhiara followed her friend’s lead, burying her dagger to the hilt into the second man’s chest. They both let out horrible screams of pain which prompted their comrades to spur into action themselves.

As five of the deserters drew near, Erika and Herbert exchanged a look and a nod. Each then leaped into action. Erika lunged towards one of the bandits, seemingly unarmed and with a death wish. When she landed however, she was no longer human. Instead, she had transformed into a massive lion-like beast with a scorpion-like tail and the wings of a gigantic bat. With her new manticore form, she batted away the man's sword with a clawed paw before biting his head off and spitting it at one of his comrades. Upon being struck with his friend's head, the man - quite understandably - chose to run away. The normally gentle healer then roared a challenge at the remaining nearby bandits. Surprisingly enough, the horses did not panic. It seemed they were used to Erika's manticore form.

Meanwhile, Herbert was having a bit more difficulty fighting another pair of bandits who were each armed with sword and shield. Herbert was fast and years of hunting monsters had gifted him with good reflexes but he had little experience fighting people. These men, on the other hand, were trained soldiers with the advantage of numbers, even if they were deserters. He'd never win a fair fight against them. Of course, that was why he didn't fight fair.

Herbert parried a blow from the man on his left and was promptly bashed in the shoulder with Left's shield for his efforts. He dropped his broadsword and grabbed a metal flask from his hip, causing the bandits to laugh as he chugged it rapidly. "Liquid courage won't save you boy!" Called Right. The bandits stopped laughing when they saw some of the flask's contents dripping down his face due to his haste to imbibe it. It was clearly blood. Herbert swallowed, tossed the flask to the side, took a deep breath, and spat liquid fire in Left's face. Left fell back shrieking and clutching at his face. His end was not a pleasant one.

With the bandit no longer near his fallen blade, Herbert picked up his sword and wheeled to face his second adversary. The remaining bandit was keeping his shield near his face after his comrade's fate. Herbert advanced, taking another deep breath. He didn't actually have enough magic for another trick like that, but the bandit didn't know that and lifted his shield to protect his face. As the shield rose, Herbert lunged forward and swiped at the man's legs. He managed to draw a thin line of red on the man's thigh before the bandit realized his mistake and bashed his shield into Herbert's head. With the monster hunter stunned and disoriented, the bandit stabbed him in the torso and kicked him away, thinking him dead. A few moments passed as the bandit went for another of the group and the bandit doubled over, coughing up discolored blood and sweating profusely. The basilisk poison on Herbert's blade had kicked in. The deserter turned a deathly pale shade and collapsed, dead. Meanwhile, Herbert laid there on the ground, putting pressure on his wound and trying not to draw attention to himself. He was still alive, but he wouldn't be much more help in this fight.

Athaliah looked at Rhiara, who was staring in disbelief and shock at the body of the person she just killed. “Hey, Rhiara, look at me.” Athaliah said, forcefully grabbing her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “We can talk about this later, but we all need you focused right now if we’re going to live; do you understand?”
“Y-yeah,” she replied, taking in several deep breaths. “What’s the plan?”
Athaliah picked up her shield from under a blanket. “You stay in here and use your bow to pick people off.” Athaliah stated while attaching her shield to her wrist with some straps. “I’ll fight them out there; make sure you don’t get swamped.”

Athaliah jumped out of the wagon to come fact-to-face with three more bandits; two of which carried simple swords, but the last one – pretty much a giant of a man – carried a huge double-headed axe almost as tall as Athaliah was. They didn’t even wait for Ath to think of a proper plan before the two swordsmen charged in. One of the men gave out a gasp of pain as an arrow flew into the side of his chest, right where one of his lungs would be. Despite having what many would consider a life-threatening injury, he continued to advance for a few seconds.

He was by no means in peak condition after that, however. The man stumbled and fell to one knee leaving Athaliah only one foe to deal with. Rhiara jumped out of the carriage as well, bow in hand, and approached the man. She didn’t intend to kill the man, but she had no intention of leaving him unsupervised either. She nocked an arrow and pointed it at the man, making sure he didn’t contribute anything more to the fight.

The axeman seemed to be hanging back for the moment; maybe he didn’t want to harm his comrades with his axe swings? Athaliah’s and her foe’s swords crossed two times, both testing each other’s defences. The fight began for real when Athaliah hid fully behind her shield and thrusted her sword directly at her adversary. He jumped back instinctively and began to circle Athaliah. She kept her shield facing her sword-wielding opponent in case he tried a futile attack. Unlikely for a man who fought in war, but she never knew.

“Athaliah!” Rhiara shouted, sounding extremely frightened. Athaliah suddenly remembered that there was another bandit lurking behind her and ducked as fast as she could. She felt a ‘whoosh’ of air just inches above her head and heard the sickening sound of hefty steel cutting into flesh and bone. The swordsman she was facing just a second earlier had been cleaved in two by the axeman, who looked at his fallen comrade with a brief expression of sorrow that really didn’t fit the man. It was soon replaced with one of fury. Athaliah turned to face her new enemy as quickly as she could, and tried to put some distance between him and herself.

Athaliah tried her best not so show it, but she was intimidated, to say the least. If just one of her foe’s swings connected then the fight would be over just like that. The deserter swung his axe once again; the blow slammed into her shield with enough force to send splinters flying across the snow. Athaliah concluded that the shield wouldn’t save her if it was hit directly, and it was slowing her down anyway. 

The shield found itself on the ground in short order. Soon enough, their fighting began again; Athaliah charged at the man and swung. Her attack was blocked by the man’s axe and was met with his own heavy swing. She stumbled back, avoiding being hit by mere inches. Not wanting to give her foe the upper hand, she thrusted her sword at him while his axe was out of the way. His reactions were faster than expected however, and he managed to snag the sword under one of the blades. Athaliah pulled her sword upwards, taking the man’s axe up with it. Seeing the best opportunity yet, she freed her sword and charged forward. 

The man was a fantastic fighter, and he’d probably danced like this dozens of times. He blocked every single one of Ath’s attacks and brought a powerful fist to her nose; blood fell onto the ground in large, steady drips. She fell backwards onto the ground. Surprisingly, he didn’t bring his axe down and end the fight immediately. Instead, he pounded at her face with his fists, turning much of her face red.

Not wanting to give her a chance to recover, he brought a boot to her head; her vision went black for a fraction of a second, followed by blurriness. He grabbed Athaliah by the throat, managing to lift her off the ground by sheer brute strength. Athaliah knew that she’d never escape from his grasp by force; instead, she opted for a less honourable approach. Plenty of blood and spit landed directly in the man’s eyes, distracting him enough to make him lose his grip on her neck.

She launched her own barrage with her fists, sending him staggering backwards. Using the moment’s respite, she picked her sword up off the floor and immediately ran it though his throat. Blood flew from the gaping wound when she withdrew her sword, quite a lot of it landing on Athaliah. The axeman covered his throat with both of his hands and he fell to the ground, squirming.

Seeing the majority of their comrades dead,  dying, or fleeing, the three remaining bandits began to falter.  Their  leader took a look at the bodies sprawled near the wagon, and another at  the ferocious manticore pacing near the fallen monster hunter.  Benito,  third son of Severus Aquilinus Caelinus, turned his tail and dove into  the rushing river behind him.  The Aesernian thrashed in the churning  water, carried away from the bridge and the wagon he had stopped.  Upon  seeing their leader flee, the final two bandits broke entirely, turning  and running as fast as their feet could carry them.

As the  surviving bandits broke and ran, Erika flung venomous spines from her  tail at them. Since she was more concerned by Herbert's wounds and not  trying too hard, it was more by chance than accuracy that one of the  fleeing brigands was struck in the leg. The blade-like spine stabbed  through his armor and deep into his flesh, making him fall. The  half-manticore paid him no mind however, and returned to human form.  Erika examined her lover's injuries and to her relief, she found that  the stab wound hadn't damaged any vital organs. The bottom half of  Herbert's face was covered in blood, but that was just from a nosebleed  rather than anything particularly serious. Despite the mask of red and  wooziness, Herbert smiled at Erika as she worked. He stayed still and  didn't speak, however. He knew from experience that it was best to just  let her focus on healing.

Erika closed her eyes, put her hand  over the wound and mouthed an incantation. Soft white light emanated  from her hand and beneath her touch, Herbert's flesh wove itself back  together. Within moments, the wound was gone and she helped Herbert up.  He'd have a bruise or two, but he'd be fine. The pair embraced, knowing  how close they'd come to losing each other. "I'm glad you're alright."  They said, near-simultaneously. With a quick smile at that, they turned  their attention to Athaliah and Rhiara. "Any injuries or wounds?"  Herbert called out to the two Hoffen women.

Rhiara jumped out of the wagon herself when she was certain that the fight was over, and immediately ran to Athaliah to give her a crushing hug. “Please, never do that again. Okay?” she begged, a tear running down her cheek. 
“I won’t.” Athaliah replied weakly; she was obviously out of breath and bleeding heavily out of her head. “You might want to let go; I’m covered in blood here.” Rhiara let her friend go, and looked down at her black leather tunic to see some red smears.
“I’ll clean it out later. Now, you need to sit down; you really, really need to rest.” Athaliah took her advice and sat on a step at the back of the wagon. She had a colossal headache, blurry vision and she was horribly dizzy – a result of getting punched and kicked in the head by a man that big. “Erika!” Rhiara shouted. “Could you come over here and take a look at Ath, please? She looks horrible…"

Erika moved quickly as time was precious when  treating wounds. The medic took one look at Athaliah's head and leaped into action. Once again, she channeled her healing magic and  the light emanated from her touch. While it was not so visible as Herbert's torso pulling itself together, the pain, blurred vision, and dizziness quickly  faded away. The half-manticore gave her another quick check over and  then looked over Rhiara just to be sure she was uninjured. Content that  everyone was safe and in one piece, she glanced at the corpses near  Rhiara and Athaliah and let out a low whistle. "No offense, but I didn't  expect you two to kill so many." Now curious, Herbert also took a look  and raised an eyebrow. "Neither did I. Let's get going, shall we?"

Rhiara climbed into the back of the carriage first, and gave Athaliah a hand in getting inside too. “How are you so calm about this?” Rhiara asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice that surprised even herself. “Yes, they were bad people, but… they were still people. They had childhoods, like us. They had dreams, and we robbed them of those.” She was mainly talking to herself by that point. The carriage had begun to move, and by the time she finished what she was saying she and Athaliah finally saw the destruction caused by Herbert and Erika. They both stared at the bodies wordlessly, shocked by what their comrades were capable of doing.

Herbert stroked his chin. "Well, look at it this way. Remember how I said I hunted all sorts of magical creatures so long as they preyed upon people? As such, I prefer to say I hunt monsters since it's implied that my targets act in a way that makes them monsters. Some of those monsters are sapient. They have childhoods and dreams just like us, that I take from them, don't they? Problem is, they kill innocents. If I don't slay them, they'll keep robbing folks of [i]their[/i] childhoods and dreams, and all that. Killing these folks is like that. We've ended a threat posed by human monsters and kept them from robbing weaker travellers of [i]their[/i] childhoods, dreams, lives, goods and maidenhoods. In other words, this isn't so different from my normal work and all of are okay, so why not be calm?" With that, he casually flicked the reins to get the horses moving.

Erika on the other hand, winced. "I don't know why I'm so calm, but it just feels... natural? I'm a little uncomfortable now that you've made me think about it, but that's more because I don't feel uncomfortable about having killed someone, you know?" She suspected that her comfort with biting a man's head off came from her mother's side, but that was unlikely to reassure the girl. Nor would the fact that she had enjoyed the taste.

Rhiara looked down at her feet and sighed. “I guess you’re right, it’s just… I’ve never killed anyone before. Besides, I didn’t think it would be so... brutal.” Athaliah changed seats, so she could squeeze in next to Rhiara. “I know, okay?” she said as she wrapped an arm around Rhi’s shoulder, pulling her close. “But Herbert has a point. If we hadn’t dealt with those people then we’d be in serious trouble. We’d either be dead ourselves, or the playthings of whomever those men were. We did a good thing today, and it’s the good things that are hard.”

As they spoke, Herbert stopped the wagon and hopped down. The man that had been hit with Erika's projectile was still alive and whimpering as the monster hunter jumped down. "Mercy?" Asked the bandit pitifully. "Aye." Replied Herbert, drawing his hunting knife and approaching with a grim expression. The man didn't resist and Herbert slit the brigand's throat as quickly and neatly as butcher might kill a hog. After quickly wiping off his knife, he sheathed it and climbed back aboard the wagon, setting off once more.