Chapter Forty-Seven - Culling

So busy today that I almost didn't have time to post a chapter! smh.

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There was a moment where Rosario genuinely considered taking all of the extra effort to avoid killing the bandits. They were people. Four men, all of them... a little dischevelled, but they were still, fundamentally, people. 

Then she threw the bolt one of them had fired at Cricket--with clear intent to kill--back at one of the men, and instead of the projectile knocking the man back as she expected, it blew a hole clear through his torso.

“Oops,” she said.

She didn’t have too much time to handle the jolt of... she wasn’t sure what that emotion was, but it left her mouth tasting like ash for a moment.

“Bitch!” one of the bandits called out. He was still cranking the windlass of his heavy crossbow, however, and was far too preoccupied to do anything to stop her.

Rosario flew forwards, skimming over the ground even as she unsheathed her sword. She moderated her strength, heavily, and cracked the back of it across the [Highwayman]’s knees.

He hissed, then flicked out an arm with a sap, trying to smash the heavy weapon into her face. 

Too moderate. She ducked under the swing, flicked his elbow with considerably more force than she’d use on Cricket’s forehead, and promptly dislocated his elbow. Then, while he was reeling, she pressed a hand over his chest and shoved. 

The [Highwayman] went flying backwards, though only about ten metres or so. His landing was a little short of back-breaking as he crashed into the stones behind.

“Dammit! Go tell the boss!” one of the men snapped even as he rose and brought his crossbow up. The heavy machine twanged and a tiny bolt, significantly shorter than what Rosario imagined when she thought of any sort of arrow, flicked forwards so fast it would have been a blur to a normal person.

She parried it. 

Then both men gasped as she was suddenly between them, a quick-movement skill allowing her to move faster than they could perceive. She spun, and they crashed to the ground. She may have broken a few ankles, but they’d live. 

Just in case, she started to grab weapons, tossing them away with a distinct lack of delicacy, which wasn’t how a weapon like a crossbow wanted to be treated. The knives and shortswords caught on their belts were ripped off, as were any pouches, and for good measure, she quickly removed them from their gambesons and leather coats.

Stripping them was like shucking corn, but with more screaming.

Rosario stood once she had both men nearly-naked. The third was still dead, on account of the hole where his heart was.

She decided not to focus on that as she grabbed both and tossed them closer to the [Highwayman]. As she did so, her attention switched to the girls.

The nearest zombie, one that looked like a merchant or caravaneer judging by the remains of clothes clinging to him, didn’t seem particularly strong.

[Zombie] - Level 9

A few of them were in the mid double-digits. She counted nine zombies in total. 

This was... a strange ambush, but looking around, she could piece together how it would work. A group passing through here was unlikely to be on carts, though they might have mounts. 

Te [Highwayman] would stop them, and possibly lower their guard or convince some people to surrender with his higher Charisma and some skills.

Then the crossbows and the zombies. 

The weaker zombies were just fodder and a distraction, but those in the upper-teens were likely strong enough to be a problem for unprepared non-combatants. For a prepared combatant, someone below the third tier, they’d have to divide their attention between the undead and the three bandits firing at them with crossbow bolts.

Cricket and Lucky, being both combatants...oh a sort, were proving capable enough.

Cricket was doing the bulk of the work. She was flitting to one side, diving in, cutting, then bouncing backwards to rejoin Lucky. As she approached the horsegirl, she’d stab and cut the zombies ahead of Lucky, then retreat behind her and repeat the whole process off of Lucky’s other side.

That meant that the zombies couldn’t spread out, and therefore couldn’t surround Lucky.

She was handling herself pretty well. She was in a mid-stance, slashing out with her sword at the edge of its reach and cutting at reaching hands and sometimes delivering a quick jab into the chest of a zombie.

The enemy were resilient. That’s what they had going for them. They simply didn’t go down to cuts that would have incapacitated a normal person. For that matter, they didn’t bleed very much.

Still, when Lucky managed to swipe a few fingers off of one, that did make it less dangerous. 

She was concentrating hard on the foe just ahead, and Cricket was taking in the entire group. Her thrown knives kept stabbing into sides and into legs and once in one of the zombie’s necks.

That took one down.

“The necks!” Cricket said. “Aim there!”

Lucky swallowed, then did just that. She shifted her footwork, stepped forwards, and delivered a somewhat awkward sideway swipe at neck height. It cleaved partway through the zombie’s head and almost jerked her sword away, but it was enough of a blow to kill the monster.

Rosario sat back. She had several very quick spells on the tip of her tongue, ready to flick forwards and put an end to any one zombie in less time than it would take to blink, but...

“We did it!” Cricket cheered.

“We... did?” Lucky asked.

Both were covered in some blood, none of it their own.

They stood there, Cricket and Lucky panting, the living bandits groaning and in one crying in a rather unmanly fashion. 

Then Lucky gasped. “I leveled!”

“Congratulations,” Rosario said. She moved over to the bandits, eyed them, then lifted the healthiest up by the collar. “Go pile the bodies right there, in that clear spot.”

“Wh-aht?” he asked.

“Do it,” she snapped. She didn’t like letting her anger out, but her patience was frayed and she wasn’t exactly in the best of moods. Some of that may have leaked because the air around her thrummed and she could feel her magic coiling, as if she was about to cast a spell but without the formation, it was just the intent. 

The man shook like a leaf, cradling a broken wrist and hobbling on an ankle that was already swollen. Still, he hopped away awkwardly and started to do as she said.

She turned her attention back to her friends and discovered both staring at her with wide, terrified eyes.

Rosario took a deep breath and pulled in her magic. The thickness of the air receded. “Forgive me,” she said. “Lucky... you levelled?”

“T-to five, yeah,” Lucky said. She swallowed. “Um, I gained a skill?”

“Oh? Do tell?”

“It’s [Forced March]. The description says that it helps me endure long walks?” Lucky shrugged. “I suppose it’s alright, for the first skill. We certainly do a lot of walking.”

“It’s not bad,” Cricket said. She flicked her knife out, then grunted and walked over to the little rivulet in the middle of the gorge and knelt down to wash it clean. She left it on the ground, then moved over to the bodies and retrieved her other knives. 

“It’s a perfectly reasonable skill,” Rosario said. “I’m happy you’ve made it to level five. It’s a nice milestone.”

They were all very much ignoring the bodies, and the bandits.

Soon enough, Lucky grunted, then started moving them too. There were a lot of just... normal people.

They were stacked in a rough pile to one side, then Rosario came to stand before them. She didn’t want to stare too hard, but she swallowed her revulsion and did it anyway. These were caraveneers, merchants, merchant guards, and normal people. Maybe two families? She flicked her hand and the pile lit up, a simple [Burning Circle] cast on the ground burning the pile.

Rosario frowned, then cast another set of spells, [Create Water] each cast in so that they formed a circle around the area. Lucky blinked at the display of magic, but didn’t say anything.

“Lucky, Cricket, wash off,” she said.

The water would keep the fire from spreading to the rather dry forest. 

She stomped over to the bandits, grabbing the one who’d dragged the bodies and forcefully bringing him to his pals only to toss him on the ground.

“I need explanations,” she said. 

“We don’t have to--” the [Highwarman] started.

She stepped on his foot and pressed down. “These undead. Are they your making? You mentioned a boss? Where are they located? This trap, it was organized. This isn’t the first time you pull this, is it? But I can’t imagine it being all that profitable. So there has to be more to it. Come now. By now you have to know that I’m far beyond you. I decide what happens next to you and your friends.”

“We’re not talk--”

“I’ll tell you!” one of them shouted. “I’ll tell you, please don’t kill me!”

That was better. 

It still left her feeling dirty.

***