Chapter 20: Bandits

Due to Dravisha’s rather vigorous nightly activity with Jenny, they had woken up later than they would’ve liked. The Witch delicately stretched her sore limbs. She groaned quietly as she got up and donned her clothes. The one small curtained window provided barely enough light to see in the dingy old room. Once dressed, they pulled back the table and unlocked the door. No unwanted visitors had come, a small relief to Jenny. Still, she knew the inn's patrons would likely accost her again, and the thought made her weary. She sighed as she made her way down the creaky old stairs to the common hall where breakfast was to be served.

By some stroke of fortune, the inn was mostly empty during noon, likely due to patrons rising early for their daily business. Therefore, the pair settled into the common hall unperturbed and ate breakfast. The Innkeeper, though somewhat off-putting, did not accost them, and Jenny was grateful for this small mercy

After a breakfast of rye bread, spiced liver sausage, cheeses and boiled eggs, they set off again on Chestnut. Dappled sunlight gleamed through the canopies as they made their way through the forest path. The Iskander Rivers streamed in the distance, providing constant background noise to their journey. Before long, they came across the villager’s wagon from yesterday. It was empty, and the metallic scent of blood wafted through the air.

Jenny drew her Dussack at once and looked about warily. As their horse trotted forward, the grizzly scene unfolded before them. The front of the wagon was splotched with blood, a trail of it leading up to a nearby tree. There, they saw the villager with ragged breath clutching a wound in his gut, blood seeping through his fingers. His glassy eyes turned to stare at them helplessly.

Jenny hissed through her teeth and dismounted. She barely knew the man, but she had broken bread with him, and now he lay dying in the forest with his daughter nowhere in sight.

“P—Please,” He choked.

Jenny approached him and kneeled beside him, “What happened? Who did this?”

“T—They took her,” He wheezed.

Jenny had to strain to hear what he said. “Took her? Who took her?”

With his last strength, he pointed at another corpse. A final, ragged sigh escaped his parched lips, and the light in his eyes dimmed. Jenny knew he was dead, and she would get no more information out of him. She looked over at the other corpse, its shoulder blown off, likely by the villager’s blunderbuss. Approaching, she saw the same tattoo on its wrist as on the scoundrel from yesterday. Dravisha came up behind her.

“It’s those scoundrels from yesterday, they did this,” Jenny said through clenched teeth. Her eyes burned with fury, and a dizzying red haze boiled behind them. Even though she had only spent a brief amount of time with them, she knew she had to take vengeance for this injustice and rescue the girl. She couldn’t live with herself if she let this kind of senseless violence be left unanswered. Men who did such animalistic violence needed to be put down like the animals they were.

Dravisha was indifferent. She did not care for mortal life beyond dominating it, and there was no use in dominating the dead. However, she sensed her Witch’s burning anger and was intrigued. She could sense they were about to embark on another quest of bloody carnage, and Dravisha had been quite bored with riding for so long and holding back. A little bloodshed could lift her spirits.

“Did the death of that mortal upset you, my Witch? You know, mortals like him die every second. You barely knew him, and yet you seem to be absolutely seething with rage,” Dravisha said with a light chuckle, taking amusement in her witch's overbearing rage.

Jenny clenched her fist. “Yes, it did, because even if I only knew them a little bit, I still knew them. I know the girl they kidnapped, and I know what they will likely do with her if I don’t save her. I’m going to kill the men that did this.”

Dravisha shrugged. “Sounds fun, let’s do it.”

Jenny whirled on the Demoness and spat, “This isn’t fun!” She sighed and took a deep breath to calm herself. Being angry at Dravisha was useless; the Demoness was who she was. Jenny had grown used to her antics. Her anger belonged to the bandits, and she needed to save her energy for them.

Dravisha laughed sensually, not holding Jenny’s outburst against her. “Oh, Jenny, I do love it when you are angry,” She purred. “It does send shivers down my demonic spine.” She leaned against Jenny, rubbing her shoulders against the Witch.

Jenny groaned in frustration at how oblivious to the moment Dravisha was and pushed her aside.

“By the nine circles of hell, Dravisha, why are you like this?” Jenny cursed under her breath. She got on Chestnut and said, “Let’s return to the Inn. We should be able to learn more there.”

Dravisha nodded and got on behind her, placing her hand possessively on Jenny’s torso for support, and pressed her ample bosom deliberately against Jenny’s back. The Witch spurred on her horse. They headed back to the Inn and arrived a while later.

After dismounting and tying Chestnut to the tree, they knocked again, and the tall Innkeeper opened.

"Back again? So soon? And here I thought I’d never see your beautiful faces again,” the man said wryly.

Jenny was not in the mood to mince words and so grabbed the scruff of his shirt and tried to push him inside, but the innkeeper was strong, even stronger than he appeared, and stood solid as oak, refusing to budge. To Jenny’s surprise, his fist shot out in an arc, nearly connecting with her temple. She ducked just in time, her wide-brimmed hat blowing off from the rush of air that accompanied the strike.

“Don’t think you are the first bandit I dealt with, missy,” He growled furiously and followed up with another punch. This one Jenny could not dodge, and it connected with her stomach, driving the air out of her. Dravisha pushed Jenny aside and pulled the man out by the scruff of his shirt before kneeing him in the groin. He keeled over.

Jenny wiped the spit from her face, crouching and holding her stomach with a pained grimace. She picked up her hat and put it back on. A bruise would likely mar her supple alabaster skin, but it didn’t matter for now.

“Those bandits from yesterday, who were they?” She snarled.

“Who?” The man wheezed while holding his crotch.

“You know exactly who I mean. Those scoundrels, where are they from?”

Dravisha smacked the man across the face. “Answer her.”

The man spat blood and looked up intensely. “What business is it of mine where my clients are from?”

“They looked like regulars to me. You know them, don’t lie to me,” Jenny growled and pulled out her flamberge dagger, putting it to the man’s throat.

He stared up defiantly. “You don’t have it in you.”

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“I’ve killed before. Some of them were simple men doing their jobs. I killed them for standing in my way. Don’t test me,” Jenny whispered in a dangerous tone. She wasn’t particularly proud of the fact that she did kill them, but it was mostly a kill or be killed situation, and she knew from the outset her quest for revenge was going to be a messy affair. She made her bed and was ready to lie in it.

The man’s eyes burned slightly crimson. “If it weren’t for the bloody sun,” He hissed. “Very well. You want to know about those bandits? Just head down the Iskander River. They’ll likely find you. They are highwaymen who patrol the Iskander River.”

“Why did they respect you enough to lay down their arms yesterday?” Jenny asked. She was suspicious because this man was clearly not ordinary. There was a wrongness to him.

“Let’s just say they know better than to upset me?” He grinned, his pronounced canines glinting in the sun.

Dravisha had a faint feeling of familiarity about the Innkeeper, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “We should kill him. He is clearly suspicious and up to no good.”

Although Jenny agreed that he was suspicious, he hadn’t done them any wrong to deserve death, and so Jenny shook her head. “Leave him be.”

Dravisha let him go, and the Innkeeper got up with an unsettling smile as he patted himself.

“You two are the ones who killed the Feldhauptmann, aren’t you?” He guessed.

Jenny whirled around and drew her Dussack. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously and contemplated killing him after all.

“Your action confirms it,” He exclaimed and hastily moved behind his door, shutting the heavy iron-studded door swiftly.

“Shit.”

“Told you, we should have killed him. You are too soft. You made the same mistake with the Chauffeur,” Dravisha gloated.

“Shut up,” Jenny grumbled and got on her horse, and Dravisha got on behind her. They travelled through the marshy land until they arrived at an intersection. One led on to the path towards the Eisenlanze Zitadelle, and the other led down the Iskander River towards Flutfallhold. Jenny turned down the path towards Flutfallhold. The road was bigger than the one they had been travelling on, and Jenny felt more exposed.

Before long, they found themselves surrounded by bushes and thick reeds on either side. Men stepped out of the thicket and surrounded them from all sides, holding flint-lock pistols and muskets.

“Ho Ho, lookie here, lads. The two fair maidens of yesterday. Be this me lucky day?”

The men all chuckled and threw lecherous gazes her way. Jenny’s skin crawled.

“Aye, captain. Will ye let each of us have a turn with such fine buxom lasses?” One asked.

“Sure, once I tire of ‘em ye can have yer turn and then we’ll sell them to ta smugglers of Flutfallhold and make a tidy sum, ha ha,” The front man with a fancy hat laughed.

Jenny had heard enough and pulled out her sceptre wand and transformed it into a sceptre staff. She had no intention of hiding her magic now. For the past week, she had been studying shadow magic under Dravisha and was able to reduce the amount of time it took her to draw on the shadows from four seconds down to one second. Dravisha likewise gathered shadows into her hands.

The bandits, caught off guard, all hissed, “Witch.” They aimed their guns, and flint struck steel to ignite their powder charges. Flintlocks did not fire instantly once ignited but instead took around 0.03 to 0.04 seconds to fire, which gave Jenny and Dravisha time to prepare.

Dravisha put up a bubble of darkness that would dissipate all kinetic energy that passed through it. The black powder from guns finally exploded, hurling multiple metal balls into the shield, which lost their momentum instantly and plopped to the ground uselessly. A split second later, Jenny finished preparing her spell and shot three shadow needles, hitting the captain with all three projectiles. His body thudded multiple times from each strike before dropping to the ground like a puppet that had its strings cut.

The men dropped their flintlocks and pulled out new ones from their flintlock braces to fire again. Jenny spurred forth her horse, drawing her Dussack with her other hand. She thought that if she rode into the bandits, the bandits would hopefully be less likely to fire upon her out of fear of hitting their own.

Dravisha’s bubble of darkness faded as Chestnut rammed into the first bandit. The man screamed as he was trampled under the horse’s hoofs. Jenny’s sword swung in a wild arc, nearly completely severing the head of another assailant. Two bandits fired their shots, hitting Jenny on the side of her arm and hitting Dravisha square in the middle of her back. For Jenny, it was a light flesh wound as the bullet had merely skimmed her. Dravisha, meanwhile, was flung off her horse, black ichor exploded from her chest, but the bullet was not enough to take down a Greater Demon.

Jenny jumped off her horse with a snarl and lodged her sword into another assailant, who howled as she crashed into him. She used his dead body to couch her fall. As she lay momentarily sprawled out on the ground, another bandit drew his backsword and was about to stab her. She hastily hurled herself to the side and parried the sword with her Dussack. With her sceptre staff, she jabbed him, making him keel over before delivering the finishing blow with her Dussack. Her Dussack pitched a tent through his clothes, and she used his body as a temporary shield as another bandit shot at her. The bullet impacted the corpse, spraying another fresh sprout of blood.

Jenny pulled off one of the flintlocks from the deadman’s bracers and shot it at the bandit. The flint struck the metal plate but failed to make a spark to ignite the primer. She looked at the pistol, disgusted.

“Tch, useless piece of crap,” She muttered and flung the pistol at the bandit. The heavy weapon impacted with a wet crunch. She pulled free her Dussack as three more bandits charged at her, swords in hand.

“Yarrgh, come here ya heathen hussy,” one of them growled.

She used her sceptre staff as a parrying staff, walling off her left flank as she engaged the assailant with precise finesse. Two swords impacted on her staff, and one she managed to parry with her sabre. She danced back, putting distance between them so that not all of them could get at her at once. She circled them and pressed them with feints, making sure to keep out of range of multiple assailants at once. As she danced back and forth with advances and retreats she focused shadows into her staff.

“Hark, she be using witchery,” One of them growled.

“Aye, don’t let her,” another growled and charged at her recklessly to stop her. She had anticipated this and used her sceptre staff to parry the attack so that the bandit was left open for a vicious slash with her Dussack. She disembowled him cleanly. He looked at her wide-eyed and disbelieving before sinking to his knees while clutching at his intestines.

“Garrgh, pox on ye. I’ll skin ya bloody hide fer that, cunt,” The other man shouted in a blood-curdling rage. He, much like the man before him, charged at her recklessly. Basic tactical considerations seemed to have left the man in his maddened state.

Jenny had, in that split second, managed to gather the shadows she needed and unleashed another spell. Three black needles shot at the man repeatedly, thudding into him before sinking to his knees, coughing blood. That left only one assailant, who, unlike his companion, had an inkling of how outmatched he was. He backed away slowly, his face blanched.

“Quarter!” He shouted pleadingly.

In the meantime, Dravisha had picked herself back up. The hole in her chest had knitted itself back together. With the Feldhauptmann’s Ice Runeblade, she quickly dispatched the other attackers. The blade froze and shattered steel upon impact, sending frozen shards flying through the air. Her fighting style was basic, lacking any form of finesse. Jenny had taught her a few basic stances, cuts, and parries, but with only a week of training, she didn’t progress far. Still, she compensated for her lack of training with sheer demonic might and speed. Furthermore, her millennia of combat in Hell had honed her instinctual grasp of how to use any weapon, making her more than capable of slaughtering the bandits with ease. When she was finished, the road was strewn with their dismembered and frozen corpses.

Jenny advanced on the man, the pleading bandit. “Quarter, ey? Tell me where the girl is and I’ll consider it,” She said as she pressed her sword tip against the man’s throat.

“Girl? Which one?”

This enraged Jenny, for it implied they had more than one girl, but she quickly calmed herself. “All of them,” she hissed. “I want to know where all of them are, but especially the one with ginger hair and speckles on her face. You killed her father today. Where is she?”

“Ahh, aye, she be on her way to the Baron Rudolf von Radelberg, wherefore me knowst not. Ye promised quarter,” The man said.

“You want quarter? Did you give your victims quarter? Did you give those girls quarter? I’ll give you quarter, alright, when I hack you to quarters you miserable wretch,” She shouted as anger overwhelmed her to such a degree that it made her dizzy. She cleaved into him with wild abandon. Fountains of blood sprayed as the man was chopped into pieces. Only after there was nothing left but a loose pile of flesh did Jenny’s fury abate, and she composed herself.

“Well, that… was so sexy,” Dravisha swooned as she glided towards Jenny on the ball of her feet. “I never knew you had such a side to you, my lovely witch.”

Jenny sheathed her sword. “I need a bath.”