The team Malakaus had gathered had become quite big before the day he decided to leave the city. It was incredible how many adventurers he had gathered for his mission to defend a village in the borders of the Lugnicia kingdom. Presumably the crystal that used to protect the village had broken or run out of energy making it able for the monsters outside the village to enter the premise. It was not the first time to happen to any village so it was the natural duty for the royal guards to help the villagers of Lugnicia. Every time something like this happened it took a few days before the villagers got help from the kingdom soldiers due to the long travel time so it was only luck if the village was still intact now. It seems the team of Malakaus had a lot to deal with for now.
Team Tani had ventured with Malakaus for quite a bit on their road to the village after coming to know both their missions were partly the same way, after 5 days they both parted ways with Tani taking a slight road towards the north of the village. There wasn't a lot of traveling distance in between the two points yet it still took half a day of running. They both decided to meet up again at the crossing point back towards the city in a few days.
Tani had set down camp on higher ground, the camp overlooked empty grassland with farmland in the distance, nearby was quite a huge forest presumably with their target walking in between the trees, he likely had a hiding spot somewhere in the forest in a cave of some sorts so it would take some time to find him presumably. They were gonna find him whatever to costs to defeat this foul beast.
Meanwhile in the heart of the kingdom the city had not moved away from its peace yet. Everyday was still the same with three of the royal guard gone from home. The tavern had died down from its hectic past days quite a bit and the celestial mansion wasn't any different either, the adventure guild was overflown with small guests no one cared to take on and the slums finally started getting back on their feet again after the hefty fighting last week. There was however one new individual in the slums.
Aya
She was quietly staring forwards with her arms lightly hugging her legs. She was wearing what was to presume a old bag that was holding potatoes back in the day. It had a few chunks ripped off of it to fit her head and arms through. It was long enough to cover her bum which was needed since she had nothing underneath. Her old clothes lied next to her ripped to pieces acting as a pillow for the night. She had had it rough the past few days, she hadn't eaten for the past two days and had maybe died once or twice but she clearly didn't want to be reminded about it.
Her clothes had been ripped apart by a crew of vigorous men and had done quite gross things to her that can't be spoken off. She felt absolutely horrified, people walking by had tried speaking to her but she had only sat and slept there for the past day on a cloth without uttering a single word. Her eyes having a faded look in them. All kind of things went through her mind to where she could go but she was scared, scared of finding others again that would harass her.
She was thinking back about what Avery, Vesta and Dante said, it was rough outside and she could stay there, it didn't seem like a bad deal after having gone through all this, her body was aching, her mouth tasted gross from not having been able to brush the last days, she was smelly, her hair was a mess, everything was looking down, she wanted to go home. She wanted to eat normally, sleep in a warm bed, take baths and brush her teeth properly. Tears dripped down past her cheeks with her face not crunching up one bit, was she already broken? What was happening to her. Her body was trembling.
A sudden explosion inside a small tower above the resident houses made smoke puff out of the small windows. The smoke rose up towards the blue sky but was quick to fade again, a sweet looking witch girl stumbled out of the front door of the house coughing and gasping for air as smoke followed past her out of the door. Her newest experiment had let up on her and exploded. The effects were luckily not as showing as all her other experiments, big watery pox were all over her body luckily without much of a harm but still looking gross, only the ones on her face and hands could be seen for now.
Elendor was gasping for air for a moment before she let out a hefty sigh, she was trying to find a cure for smallpox but it wasn't much of a use yet, it only made them bigger or grosser. Once Elendor opened her eyes she saw the couple of catgirl and human on the street in front of her. Her eyes widened once she got a closer look and almost immediately her voice made anyone startle for a moment.
"Absolutely unforgivable! Anyone should offer their help to these two and yet you only think about yourselfs! Hurry boy! Get her inside!"
Elendor rushed inside again waving the smoke away a little and ventured the stairs to the top floor as quickly as possible, she shoved everything away from her experiment table and readied some of the needed potions and bandages.
"Hurry!"
Yoshinobu and Kondo
The past week has been rather hectic but like any other week it died down again after the storm, Tani had passed by to gather some adventurers and had taken some of the louder guests away from the tavern letting Yoshinobu her heart beat a little slower from all the things happening and stress from impatient guests. Ease had taken two cute twin cat girls in for some food but Yoshinobu found them so cute they could stay for a while till they found their older sister. Letting them stay by some slum dweller would only raise problems with money for that dweller. Eventually Emi and Eli would still end up on the street after that so this was for the better.
They ate the same as rats and didn't drink much either, they only took one bed to sleep in so it was all find with Kondo as well, Yoshinobu would often dress them up or make cute costumes for them when she had the time too and they enjoyed pretty clothes too so it was a good deal for everybody. Kondo would walk with them to find the older sister who was still gone for some reason, to be honest Kondo though the worst of it yet refrained from telling them just yet. He didn't want their effort to go to waste. It was about time for them to go again so with a quick gulp Kondo drunk his coffee empty and placed his newspaper aside.
"Shall we try again?"
After the camp of Tani had settled down they had some time to relax but to be honest Shiina had been relaxing for the past few days, she could quietly nap in the cart or sit at the back or in it as she liked and eat the food she wanted. The others tried making her walk next to the car or let her ride a horse for a bit but it appeared she already got blisters on her feet after a ten minute walk and was pretty much afraid of riding a horse so she was stuck in this position for the past 7 days. Shiina did not mind however, she had been either drawing eating or sleeping the past few days, she only came with them to train her a little, it appeared she had great potential in magic and with this trip they hoped she would advance her magic a bit yet the only thing she was able to do was make a small ball of her element in her hand which appeared to be fire. At least she practiced with one of the knights each day so it had some effect at least. Her lazy behaviour put everyone off from interacting with her so it was more like a task to teach her then it was fun.
Shiina was quietly crouched down by a small pond close by the camp looking interested towards the water. She could see her own reflection in the water looking with an agape mouth at herself and the fishes in the water. Her finger lightly reached out towards the water slowly dipping it in. The fish hastily moved out of the way making her look even more interested. The fish softly moved back towards what they thought was food but before they could get to her finger she pulled it out of the water. Shiina could get amused by anything at the moment. She was at least happy she could come with Maria, she really adored Maria after the sweet words she gave Shiina. Maria had offered her food and shelter and not even lacking it was pure luxurious. While Shiina was distracted for a moment it went a little less slacking at Tani place.
Tani
"We need more defense around the perimeter come on hurry! Why are the weapons still in the cart! Where is that goddamned blond this time!"
Everyone moved around her while she commanded them to do things, it was all a little commanding of her to let everyone do things for her but most of them knew she would pay them back in the fight. It was to see from her previous wounds she had gained during battle, she was always the one to go full into battle so they trusted her with leadership.
"We will be moving out in half an hour so get your gear together! Make sure you have plenty of drinks and food at your disposal for if you get separated from the group."
sillykins,
Fallenreaper,
Naw,
Savo,
Burger
