"Hand over all your cash or prepare for some hurt!""Really?"
It had been a bit over a month since the convoy of AEHWP"s entered the less monster infested kingdom of Detas, and so Terra, Iris, Lux, Lilly and their pa.s.senger Abel had spend their relatively peaceful days traveling from town to town heading south towards the sea. But had more irritating pattern had started to form, whenever they would visit a larger town they would somehow always run into some sort of bandits or street thugs, and that was also the case this time when Lux, Lilly and Abel was out shopping for food and spices the demihuman child could handle in a relatively large city close to the capital. The bandits this time were a group of about 20 young street thugs that even Lux had second reservations about just straight up killing them and therefore was a bit lost on how to deal with them.
"Are you girls deaf!? Hurry up!"
Being in a lower traffic area near the central market the leader of the street thugs was understandably on edge as they could easily be discovered by guards.
"Just go home kids, this is not going to end well for any of you."
"If you scare this child any more I"ll rip you all to tiny little pieces without mercy."
Showing slightly different responses Lux and Lilly both prepared for combat as Lux started her unusual breathing technique as she took a martial art stance while Lilly started slightly floating in the air as she channelled ma.s.sive amounts of mana trough her tiny body while s.h.i.+elding Abel that clutched the helm of her dress while shaking slightly in fear. In response to their targets taking defensive stances the thugs also drew their weapons as they spread out in a half circle around their targets and prepared to strike, there was nothing more to say.
"Then don"t blame us for this!"
Perhaps not able to handle the tension one of the thugs near Lux started to move, quickly he drew a poorly maintained shordsword as he closed range without any sense of technique or martial prowers.
(This really makes it hard to take seriously…)
Looking at the sloppy swordsmans.h.i.+p her opponent was displaying Lux found it hard to get into a proper fighting mood but alas she still scanned the area and then engaged without any mercy.
"Wha!?-"
Snapping the sword in half with her bare hands Lux ruthlessly rushed in as she proceeded to stab the poor soul in the face with his own broken sword.
"That"s one, anyone else want to entertain me?"
Speaking in a determined tone overpowering the scream of the thug that was bleeding on the ground Lux beckoned the next bandit closer as she formed a bloodthirsty smile on her face.
"T-this is bad.."
"N-no one told me that they would be fighting back!"
"L-lets run for it!?"
Understandably shaken by one of their comrades being killed in such a brutal fas.h.i.+on some of the less brave thugs started slowly backing off and Lilly didn"t waste that opportunity.
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"Oh come on Lux leave some of them for me~ I just perfected this new spell I want to test out."
Mimicking Lux"s smile, Lilly started floating slightly above the ground as she released a huge amount of bloodl.u.s.t and mana into the air.
"Sorry about that Lilly, who do you want to ma.s.sacre?~"
Playing along with Lilly"s ruse Lux also started releasing a lot of bloodl.u.s.t as she looked around at the street thugs trying to find someone that could start a cascade.
"Let"s see…. That one~"
"HIII!!!"
Finding a somewhat mana sensitive target Lilly channelled bloodl.u.s.t and mana at one of the more timid thugs he predictively lost all will to fight and started running for his life, with one more following right after.
"I"m out of here!"
"I-idiots! Don"t-"
"Screw you, you said this would be an easy job!"
"I don"t want to die!"
"Run for it!"
Working as intended soon only the bandit leader remained as he himself lost his own chance to escape as he was more occupied with his comrades.
"Now this can either be relatively painless or the worst experience of your life, it"s completely up to you."
"W-wait a second."
"Nah, Lilly."
As the scruffy looking bandit tried to flee Lux copied one of Dax"s signature phrases as she called out to Lilly that then instantly used earth magic to block off the bandit"s avenue of escape by binding his legs.
"I will only ask once, who put you up to this?"
Putting on some sort of glove that the bandit a.s.sumed to be some sort of torture device Lux"s smile completely disappeared as she started oozing a sort of professionalism that told the street thug that this was not the first time she interrogated someone, and that she had no notion of the word "mercy".
"I-it was some sort of cloaked person that approached me and several others in the capital at some bar! He said that some n.o.bles were traveling through the kingdom using strange machines as transport and they carried a bunch of valuables!"
"Hmm~ That"s very interesting… Continue."
Sensing correctly that he had not yet brought his freedom and life back from Lux the street thug desperately told everything he knew about his mysterious employer.
"He told us that if we brought some of those valuables back to him he would buy them at several times the black market value, and he also mentioned that kid!"
Pointing at Abel as he told everything he spilled every detail that the bandit thought could buy mercy, the unfortunate bandit unknowingly dug his own grave deeper and deeper.
"What about little Abel?"
"He didn"t tell us that brat"s name but after describing him to us he showed a large pouch filled with s.h.i.+ning gemstones he told us he would give 20 times that amount to whoever captured that kid for him!-"
As the bandit spilled all the beans Lux zoned out from his seemingly endless explanation as she connected to an emergency contact through her ICI unit.
["What"s up? It"s unusual for you to call me like this out of nowhere."]
Hearing Dax"s voice on the other side of the voice channel Lux gathered her thoughts as she made a quick and precise report in her native tongue.
"Confirmed movement of hostile elements, please advise."
"- He wore this strange- Wait did you just say?"
Sopping his seemingly endless explanation when his interrogator suddenly started speaking a strange language right in his face but at the same time not addressed at him the bandit started getting increasingly nervous.
["Give me a sec to look over the data….. It seems like a trap."]
"It is definitely some sort of trap, chances are the local government is also involved."
["Obviously. Sadly for whoever is dumb enough to pick a fight with us we need intel. Lieutenant general Lux Jameson show them the might of the 125th combined ops...o...b..tal drop troopers, divert from your current mission to the capital of Detas and perform reconnaissance by fire. At the same time I"m moving operational command to condition black, MAD is on the table."]
"MAD!? Is that really necessary?"
Hearing something quite unexpected from Dax Lux was momentarily confused, something the bandit didn"t miss.
"This is my chan-"
["We don"t know what we"re dealing with Lux, this is not some backwater planet with possible Iron cooperation involvement. If the walking WMD elver right besides you should be an indication, magic is a possibly deadly uncertainty that I would rather not have sneak up on us. I"m moving up my own timetable at the same time as I have a sneaking suspicion that current events are connected, thanks for the report, you have your directives, any questions?"]
"None, in accordance with operational condition black I will deliver a scheduled update in 4 hours."
["Good~ I"ll look forward to that."]
Feeling the connection being cut off from Dax"s side Lux breathed a deep sigh to let some of the tension escape from her body.
"Did you talk to Dax?"
Sensing she was done with her comunitiation Lilly called out to Lux as soon as she saw tension leaving her body.
"Yeah it was, we"re dealing with whatever keeps hara.s.sing us immediately, let"s get back to the AEHWP"s, we"re leaving immediately."
"Okay…"
"What?"
Sensing some sort of hesitation from Lilly"s response Lux urged her to tell her.
"Are you going to drop that guy anytime soon? He already stopped twitching.."
Lilly was talking about the former street thug that had tried to escape when Lux had been fl.u.s.tered a minute ago. I response to the futile and sloopy attempt Lux had grabbed his head with her gloved hand, and for a solid minute after that he had been screaming and thras.h.i.+ng as Lux"s ICI unit had completely scanned his cerebral cortex, frying it in the process.
"Ah, I kinda forgot."