Testing My Luck in the New World

A thick blanket of midnight had once again fallen over Villeverdure. The streets were empty, the taverns quiet and the city was bathed in routine darkness that only grew the more the minutes ticked on. Our room, too, should have given into night and gone dark as well, had we not kept a couple candles burning as we waited out the hours.

Normally, laying in bed chatting with three exceptionally beautiful girls as the warm lights of the candle flickered across their bodies would have felt relaxing, romantic even, but I chose not to let myself get too complacent.

"How's that?" I asked. Lifting the hem of her shorts with a finger, I ran the back of my knuckles over her flesh towards her inner thigh. "Is it loose enough?"

"Mmm. It's better than before, but…"

"You still have to wear it."

"Hmph!"

Pouting beneath her mask, Mana whipped her face away from mine. Since we were going to be moving about in the dark again, the girls and I had once more donned our ninja-wear.

Elane sat herself on the edge of the bed, arms crossed and tapping her finger on her bicep as she waited. Yua, on the other hand, continued to peek through the curtains she kept just wide enough to not let out any candlelight. Both were already dressed out, it was only Mana that struggled.

Per her own request, I let Mana remove the panties that were somehow always too snug on her, but only on the condition that she keep herself covered with a pair of shorts. However, after last night's stealthy romp through the city, she discovered that she, shockingly, didn't like shorts either.

Because of this, I've been using Material Creation to alter how her shorts fit to try and give her some comfort. And I've done this five times already. I could say for certain that the leg holes were now as loose as a skirt, just with the added protection of not showing off the goods every time she moved.

Sadly, this was somehow still too confining for her.

"Sorry, Mana. You're just going to have to deal with it."

"Mmn… Fine. But I'm taking this thing off as soon as we're done."

As she tugged at the waistband of her shorts and stared down at the bare flesh we needed to cover, I withheld a sigh. Choosing not to point out how we were likely headed straight to bed after this anyways, I helped her into the rest of her clothes.

Standing to admire my work as my cutest wife sported a kimono-style hoodie and loose short-shorts, I clapped my hands and nodded to myself.

Yup. My taste in fashion is as broken as my abilities.

"Hey, Husband. I was thinking, instead of just scouting the fort, why not raid it? I understand the need for caution, but all this waiting when the answer is staring us in the face is tiring."

"I know, but whether or not we end up just scouting tonight depends entirely on what we find there."

We'd waited until the night was full specifically so we could head to the fort under the cover of darkness. Giulio purposefully circling around it earlier more or less cemented the fact that there was something there that we weren't meant to see. However, we couldn't forget that the man himself and at least one other bandit were in the city.

Attacking one and not the other runs the risk of the survivor noticing before we can follow through. However…

"If we find the rest of the bandits Lucielle mentioned, then we can do this. If not, or if we learn more, then we need to wait and rethink our strategy."

As we speak, Giulio is either in the guard's barracks or with Elara, and Nerissa is locked up in the church, but Lucielle's account of what happened isn't necessarily as iron-clad as she thinks – there could be more bandits we haven't found yet in the city.

That being said, if, after a little bandit mind reading, we learn the correct number of bandits, then the gloves are off.

"We'll scout the fort as planned and see what happens."

At this point, that was still a necessity, but imagining us repeating yesterday's search had me sighing.

"Besides… I'm more concerned about why the people believe the lies about the victims randomly choosing to leave the city."

Giulio didn't seem all that concerned about us finding the fort, not even after Elane brought it up directly, so it could very well be a nothing burger. If the bandits were in the city and if they were influencing the people with lies, that'd be one thing, but they actually believed their nonsense.

And, for a religious people that were supposedly so okay with the concept of death being an inevitability, and even a personal end goal of sorts, it made no sense for them to cling to the lies so earnestly.

"It is strange," Elane said, finally letting her arms unfold themselves as she stood.

I combed my fingers through my hair.

"Well, we can sit here and speculate, or we can get moving. You girls ready?"

With an image of the marked tree and the muddy footprints in mind, I raised a hand to cast Dimensional Step, but Yua beat me to it.

"Wait, Alex. Come look at this. Hurry."

She waved me over without pulling her gaze from the window, so I crouched beside her. Pressing my cheek to hers, she opened the curtain a little further and pointed past the garden and down the street. Only, the night was too thick for me to see what she wanted me to.

"What am I looking at, here?"

"You can't see? There's five people running around out there. Four of them have weapons."

"What?" I cupped my hands around my eyes to block out any excess light and looked again. I could faintly see a few figures in the dark, but they weren't clear enough to count them.

"Five of them?" Elane echoed. "That would make seven. Looks like your luck might finally be starting to rub off on this place."

"But are they bandits?"

"I don't know. Let me borrow your eyes for a minute."

Tearing my gaze off the window, I quickly cast the Mind Vision spell on Yua and closed my eyes. A moment later, I was granted the cat-kin's ability to see in the dark as she focused on the figures for me.

Four men, all with varying body types and with swords either on their hips or backs walked tall in the dark. At their front was a smaller, cloaked figure, either a woman or someone younger than the rest. Regardless of whether or not they were Bandits, Thieves, or just your average everyday ne'er-do-wells, they showed no signs of caution as they made their way through the city.

They were too far to see their info boxes, but one thing was clear, the men followed the smaller figure's every movement to the T up until they dipped into an alley and we lost sight of them.

I cut the spell and jumped to my feet.

"Is it them?"

"Can't tell yet. Let's go have a look."

I threw open a portal connecting our room to the roof of the building closest to where I last saw them and slipped through. My feet hit the hard, shingled roof at the same time the cool night breeze lapped at the nape of my neck.

Making sure not to disturb the quiet of the night, I dropped to my knees and, the moment the girls joined me, I got rid of the portal so its light didn't attract attention.

The moment she realized how high up we were, Mana's eyes shot open and Elane's hand flew to cover her mouth. Not that she tried to scream – the roof we were on was plenty low enough to the ground to not trigger her fear of heights – but that was the point. Even a loud gasp could have given us away.

Quietly, Yua and I tip-toed over to the edge of the roof and peered into the alley beneath it, only to find it empty. I pointed to Yua's ears and, lifting her chin to the sky, she took over the search. Thankfully, she came back down with an answer within seconds, but not before scrunching up her face in confusion.

"How odd," she whispered, ears flicking. "I know I saw five of them, but I can only hear four sets of footsteps."

"One might have broken off from the rest and stopped moving," Elane said. "They could be acting as a scout."

"Maybe. Yua, where are they?"

Assuming they were far enough now for them to not be able to hear us since she barely concealed her voice, we needed to move closer before she lost them all together.

"That way," she said, pointing east. "About four houses down."

Scanning the rooftops, this time with a great deal of moonlight for help, I opened another, smaller portal to the roof opposite the one she pointed to. I ducked and slipped through the door of light the moment it formed.

Heart pounding, the end of this quest finally feeling as though it was near, I forced myself to be quiet again as the girls joined me. With all our weapons still stowed away in my item box, the four of us crawled up to the highest point on the roof and peered over.

There on the other side of the street, lit only by moonlight, were the four men we'd spotted. They stood gathered in a circle, a majority of their collective gazes fixated on the front door to a small, stone house – one I happen to remember from last night. It was the humble home of an elderly couple.

The same moment I took all this in and realized the fifth person we saw wasn't standing with them, I started to look around. Almost immediately, I pushed the girl's heads down and out of sight.

The cloaked figure that'd been leading the party had been staring listlessly up into the night sky. Her gaze was aimed only a few inches away from us.

We waited and listened, expecting to hear them shout that they'd spotted something on the roof, but no such declaration came.

"Can we get on with this?" said one of the men, impatience boiling over in his whispering. "You sure this is the one?"

"Of course, I'm sure… It's the only house on this street that you fools haven't touched yet."

Surprised by the vaguely haughty tone that tied itself to a very feminine voice, I pulled the Two-Way Mirror out of my item box and angled its glass over the roof's ridge to take another look. At the same time, the cloaked figure walked out of the mirror's frame before I could look into their info box.

Suppressing a click of my tongue, I angled the mirror further, only to capture the sight of two of the men huddling together. One, a bald, fat man named Maurice Disson, held out a lamp enclosed in a transparent cage. The second, a man thick with muscle named simply Petrus, struck flint and rock together to light its wick.

A small flickering flame burst through the darkness, illuminating them all before the lamp holder shielded most of the excess light with his hand. He aimed the light at the door, but turned to Petrus.

"Can you handle the lock?"

Turning the mirror to follow, I watched as Petrus stepped up to the door as if it were his own and gave the handle a jiggle. He then pulled a thin, needle-like object from under his headband and pressed it into the keyhole. He jimmied it around for barely a second before he stood again.

"Can't. The locks on these new houses are too tough to crack."

"The hell did you bother for, then? Wha-What about you?"

With a sudden tremor shaking his voice, he took a step back and shifted his gaze to the cloaked figure. Now illuminated by flame, her femininity was made clear by how oddly her clothes fit her. Beneath a black, hooded cloak, she wore a plain grey dress that would have been all around unappealing, were it not so tight that it looked painted on.

She stared at him a moment, then started towards the group. Her expression was hidden by her hood, but I could practically feel the annoyance in the silence she let continue until the reluctance in her sigh made itself known.

"If I must…"

Despite her reluctance, her footsteps were so smooth, it almost looked as though she glided across the cobblestones. Now encompassed by the pair of wide-set men, her exceedingly-thin body looked lithe, almost malnourished as she brushed past them towards the door. And yet, all four of the men were quick to give her a wide berth the moment she was within arm's reach.

Paying them no mind, she stopped before the door. A heavy breeze rustled her clothing just enough to reveal a pair of thin, ghastly pale legs. She showed no signs of a chill as her bare feet pressed against the cobblestone.

"All five of them are there, right?" Yua asked in a low whisper, her brow arched in open confusion. "I can hear the four males breathing now, but all I can hear of the fifth was her voice."

"You can't hear her footsteps?"

Yua shook her head, calling my own eyes into question as I clearly saw the girl's feet touching the ground. She may have looked like she was gliding, but she was definitely walking.

Questioning the reflection I saw myself, and deciding we were safe for now, I stashed the mirror back in my item box. I waved the girls up and we all laid flat on cooled shingles. Together, we peered over the ridge again.

The male bandits were all dressed in regular clothing. Nothing too flashy, nothing that would stand out in a crowd, which only gave credence to the idea that they were hiding within the city itself.

One of them, a tall and lanky man named Ludovigo, whose crooked, gangrenous teeth and whose apparent fascination with an itch on his elbow screamed drug addict, was the first to catch my eye. He was a level 6 Swordsman, which wasn't all that concerning, but the greatsword he wore on his back looked well-used.

Maurice, Petrus and the last man, Jacom, all held regular, everyday craft and tradesmen classes, all of which were under level 4. Additionally, each of them had the Bandit class and were all between levels 8 and 10, as promised by the guild.

Clearly, they'd been at this for a while, but their lack of a regular secondary class led me to believe they'd decided on living this life of crime early on before they found something better.

Still, their combined lack of actual combat classes gave me a little hope that the fighting wouldn't be too rough.

However, and that is a big however, the cloaked woman's info box worried me. The more I read of her, the heavier my body felt.

Willomina DeBlanc, a Bandit in tag only, was nineteen years old and already a level 12 Mage. This number was somewhat of a surprise to see on someone so young, but it was her second class that had my breath catching in my throat.

"Well, that can't be good," I said, ducking a little lower.

"What?"

"… Their leader is a Hemomancer."

Calling her their leader seemed apt, seeing how she then shifted into issuing orders to the men. Two of which, Petrus and Jacom, then spread out to act as lookouts on either end of the street, while the others continued to keep her at arm's length.

Yua and Mana shared a look of confusion, but Elane clenched her teeth as her lips pulled into a sharp frown. At the news, she gestured a hand at me and I pulled her axe out of my item box.

"Big Bro, what's a Hemo… Hemmi… That thing you said?"

Remembering a little too late that my cat girls came from a people who not only preferred physical combat, but who were entirely incapable of magic due, I handed Mana her bow and explained.

"It's a type of mage that uses blood magic."

"Eh?"

At this, Mana stared harder at the back of Willomina's head, curiosity compelling her hips to sway back and forth.

"I'm surprised you even know that," Elane said.

"Believe it or not, blood magic exists in my world's video games, too. If anything, I should be surprised you know about it."

As a woman that gave up attempting to learn from the spell books she herself owned since they were too hard to master, I didn't expect her to be all that knowledgeable about the differing types of magic.

Elane, however, shrugged.

"When I was exploring the world for the king, we were told to avoid fighting any mage wielding one of the taboo schools of magic. Hemomancy, necromancy and pretty much anything considered dark magic. Although, I'm not exactly sure why blood magic is taboo."

"Well, I can guess."

My mind was already racing with the innumerable possibilities in how this Hemomancer could use our own blood against us, but I copied Mana by focusing harder on the woman in question.

I was about to cast the Thought Steal spell on her to see what they were up to, when she suddenly raised her arms high up over her head and started to speak.

"Let's just get this over with… O' sanguine dark, shield me with life blood's arc, let not the hands of malice leave their mark - Sanguine Mist."

The second she finished her incantation, I braced myself to divert an attack with a portal, but the spell was not aimed at us. It was not aimed at anything. Instead, it was her own health bar that dipped.

Willomina's body burst in a soundless explosion. Flesh and blood ruptured, shattered into a million droplets of vivid red gore, and yet, no body, no meat remained. It was as if a ticking time bomb made of pure silence chose that very moment to detonate.

All that was left of her was a thick crimson mist that filled the street with the scent of copper. This cloud of blood hovered there above the cobblestones before it started to move against the breeze, floating through the air towards the door.

The cloud condensed and stretched out towards the door's handle where it narrowed further into a point. Then like a chain-smoker inhaling their last smokey release for a second taste, the red mist silently poured itself into the keyhole until none remained outside.

None of the bandits were surprised by this, nor did they cower in the face of their leader vaporizing herself. If anything, they looked slightly unsettled as they waited. And they didn't have to wait long.

Before any of us could act on the killer magicking herself into a locked house whose occupants were defenselessly asleep, the metallic sound of a bolt sliding out of its protective sheath resounded in the silence. Slowly, the door pushed itself open with hardly a creak and there, standing in the doorway, was Willomina, made whole once again.

Beneath her hood, I caught a trace of a frown before she stepped back into the street, past the flame of the lantern, and her expression returned to shadow. By the time it had, the damage the spell had done to her health bar had already restored itself.

Apparently, blood magic seemed to cost one's own health instead of mana, but I guessed her maxed out health bar meant the cost was only temporary.

Regardless, the sight of her standing there filled me with a dreadful understanding.

"Remember," she said, seemingly to nobody, but the bandits all stiffened. "Only take their coin. And do not kill them. If you're spotted, just restrain and bring them to me."

"Yea, Yea," Maurice said. "W-We know the drill."

Speaking coolly, but with a tremor in his voice, Maurice led Ludovigo into the house. Willomina watched them go deeper into the unsuspecting abode until the flickering light of their lantern faded into darkness. She then turned her back to them to once more turn her gaze to the moon as it floated across the night sky.

Watching her stand there so eerily still as she waited, I gripped the shingles harder. I'd been waiting to see if she had more to offer, and now that she'd reformed, I confirmed that I did not receive any notification saying I'd learned her spell, despite both witnessing it and hearing its strangely long incantation.

I checked my list of spells just to be sure, but still found nothing.

That's twice now. Was my Easy Spell Copy trait on the fritz? Or did I already meet some unspecified limit to the number of spells I could copy? Deciding again to worry about it later, I shook my head.

"Shouldn't we do something?" I whispered.

"Wait," Elane whispered back. "If they are trying to avoid killing, we should be patient. This is a good chance to learn how they operate."

Seeing her point, but not liking having to sit on my hands when peoples' lives were clearly in danger, I looked to Yua. Her emerald eyes were focused on the empty doorway, but her ears were twitching.

"Yua, can you tell what they're doing in there?"

"Not much. They're just looking around and stuffing their pockets."

"… I think we should tail them after they finish up and attack."

At this, Elane pressed her hands against the roof to lift her torso – but not her breasts – off the roof to meet my eyes. Her mask hid her expression, but her eyes alone questioned my sanity.

"What happened to waiting until we found the last bandit? Why are you so impatient all of a sudden?"

"Because this Hemomancer is a threat I wasn't expecting. You saw what she just did. Think about it, she could break into our room while we're asleep."

With the cast of a single spell, she could disengage the lock on our door, let every single bandit hiding in the city into our room and, one by one, they could slit our throats before we could even defend ourselves.

I'd thought us relatively safe until now. Any skilled Thief could bypass the lock on our door with whatever lockpicking device they preferred, but Yua's ears were sensitive even while asleep. She'd hear them fiddling with the lock and wake up. This mage, this Willomina, however, could slip right through that flimsy defense without even trying.

Elane took this in with a grimace, as did Yua, though she kept her attention on the house. She seemed to be having trouble following along, but the way she pressed a hand to her throat suggested she got the message.

"Were you able to learn anything else about them?" Elane asked.

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"Not much. The men down there don't seem like they'd be much of a threat in a direct fight."

"What about the Hemomancer?"

"She's…"

Turning my attention back to her, intent on using Thought Steal, I froze when our eyes met.

Willomina was staring straight at us, at me. The deep crimson of her eyes was paramount under the yawning light of the moon.

Her hood had fallen back, revealing to all the fine porcelain white of her doll-like face and the equally white hair that framed it. There was a contemplative look to the way she raised her brow, but then her eyes widened and she yanked the hood back down over her eyes.

There was no room for doubt, or hope – she'd caught us.

"Alex, why's your heart so loud? They're just…"

"Shit…"

"O' sanguine dark, shield me with life blood's arc, let not the hands of malice leave their mark - Sanguine Mist."

Instead of launching an attack while our guard was down, Willomina burst into another cloud of blood mist and floated up into the sky before rushing off down the street.

The mist condensed onto the roof of the sixth house down from where we hid. There, the woman took shape once again, only to burst a second time without looking back. And seemingly without having to stop and incant her spell a second time. The red cloud fled towards the next building down the line and kept moving.

I jumped to my feet and cast Dimensional Step.

"Yua, we're chasing her. We can't let that one get away."

"Right."

Yua was on her feet before the portal even formed.

"Hey, what about us?"

"You and Mana stay here. If the bandits kill whoever's in that house, or if they drag them outside… take care of it. Otherwise, keep hidden."

"Got it," she answered easily. "Kitty, take over listening."

"Kay."

Pleased with their quick responses, Yua and I jumped through the portal and onto the same roof Willomina had flown to. After getting a good look at it, I followed with another to the next roof she touched down on. From there, the moonlight proved not to be enough help. I lost sight of her in the dark.

"That way," Yua said, pointing, her eyes fixed on something further in the city.

Unable to see our target myself, I opened a portal to a roof in the general direction she pointed to two streets over and she leapt through first. I followed and nearly fell off the side of the building before she grabbed the back of my collar and yanked me back.

Without a word for how close I'd accidentally placed the portal to the edge of the roof, she searched the night and quickly locked onto our target again. I opened another portal and we jumped through, repeating the process the second we touched down.

Always on her tail and unable to borrow Yua's eyes as we ran, we continued hopping from roof to roof like this until I finally managed to spot Willomina's slender form myself. Only, just as I locked onto her, she burst yet again and flew over the houses lining the streets of Villeverdure, only to land on another rooftop.

She paused there a moment, her lips vaguely moving in the moonlight, recasting her spell. She burst again and the chase resumed

Casting my own once more, moving on the assumption that hers could be recast any number of times within a certain time limit that was in constant need of being reset, I jumped through the portal. I was close enough to her now to see the bloody mist snaking through the air like a turbulent wave carried by the wind. I clenched my fist, watching her touch down and burst once more, waiting for the sound of Yua to step out of the portal.

The moment she did, I recast it, leap through and to where I last saw Willomina, only now, she was even further ahead. It only took Yua a second or two to jump through the portal and for me to lock onto the next roof, but the speed the mist moved kept Willomina well out of reach.

At this rate, we were either going to lose her or someone would notice the light of my spell and report us. I looked at Yua and the furrowed brow she turned to me said she understood this as well.

"Go on ahead."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm only slowing you down. Just go. I'll catch up."

I clenched my fist. Her plan was obvious to us both. Even if my line of sight was limited in the dark, I was close enough to no longer need her to guide me, meaning I no longer needed to wait for her.

"Be careful."

Knowing she'd be able to track me by scent, I cast my spell and jumped through, only to immediately recast it to the next roof. I found Willomina once more and leapt through the next portal after her. She, however, was always a step ahead of me.

Taking a moment, taking a breath to calm my heart and find the mist, I wished the moon was as full as it had been the night Yua and I fled Amoranth. If so, I could have just seen past her and headed her off. She didn't seem to be able to travel all that far as mist, but as it was, she was perfectly straddling the fine line between what I could and could not see.

Willomina touched down again and with her black cloak thinly veiled by the moonlight, it almost looked like she turned back to check on me before bursting and flying off again.

From roof to roof I chased her, but I knew my mana wasn't going to last forever. Not with me spamming spells like this. Hers, though, hers seemed like it could go on forever. Every time I got a glimpse of her health bar, the damage her last spell had done had already been restored and was ready for her to recast it all over again.

And each time she did, she stopped to look back at me before bursting and flying away.

"Is… Is she letting me follow her?"

The more I thought about it, the less it made sense. She'd already shown she could slip through gaps as small as keyholes and yet, she's sticking to flying out in the open. She could have given me the slip any number of times if she retreated to ground level and used her magic to cut directly through any building that landed itself in her way. If she did, I would have lost sight of her the moment the chase started.

"Is… she trying to lead me into a trap?"

Wondering why she'd bother to set something like that up before getting caught red-handed, I opened my map menu and mentally plotted out the path the chase had taken us.

We'd started off zig-zagging almost haphazardly through the city, but right around where Yua and I parted, the path Willomina took was as straight as an arrow. Following the Hemomancer through another portal, further lengthening the tip of the arrow, I traced the direction we were headed on the map and clicked my tongue.

"The church, is it? Well, if you have a trap waiting for me there, then I should return the favor."

Closing the map, I stopped myself on another roof, waited for Willomina to cast her spell again and, the moment she burst, I cast Dimensional Step.

The church was hard to see in the dark from this distance, but the vagueness of its silhouette was not impossible to notice. Not with the bell in the bell tower reflecting the moonlight over the city.

Better yet, I'd been there yesterday.

My portal took shape and, when I rushed through it, I touched down on the same patch of grass where Lucy had cornered the mouse.

I spun on my heel, sure that my mask would keep my identity safe and ready to defend myself from the surprised strike of one of the church's guards, but luckily, nobody was there to intercept me. I'd slipped into a gap in their patrol without meaning to.

Instead, I turned my attention to the church's roof and, carefully choosing where to aim my next spell so it didn't alert the guards, I opened a portal beneath one of the church's flying buttresses and stepped out under it and onto the roof.

Bearing with my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest, I reopened the map menu, reconfirmed the path Willomina tried to put me on and dashed around to the other side of the building to meet her.

The sound of my tabi striking the clay tiles of the roof was nearly deafening, but there was no time to worry about noise. From here, for my own little ambush to work, I couldn't risk Willomina seeing the light of my portals, so I had to reposition on foot.

Pressing myself flat against a stone column, I waited.

Trying to reclaim the breath that'd become hastened as if I'd been running all night, I drew my sword. The metallic shing of it being pulled from its sheath was a little reassuring, but not by much.

This was it. Elane and Yua were right. There is no more running from the fact that I'd have to get my hands dirty. Letting this mage live would only put all of our lives at risk. We could just flee the city, but then the lives of everyone here would be in danger when the bandits inevitably started searching for us.

I could see it now. In a mad dash to keep their true purpose hidden from the people, they'd start interrogating anyone and everyone we'd ever spoken to here to learn all they could. The innkeepers, the people at church, Lucielle, even Elara. Giulio may be head over heels for her, but if the truth about him came to light, he might…

I slapped my cheek and let out a slow, controlled breath before my resolve could start to wane.

If the only options left to me was to leave the people here to their fates while we ran away with our tails between our legs, or to stand and fight, then fight I will.

"Still, why did my first have to be a woman…?"

Suddenly, my sword felt ten times heavier, but that feeling was momentarily overwhelmed by the even stupider thought of how what I'd just said could have been taken another way entirely if Elane were here to poke fun at me.

I peeked around the column and down towards the city in the direction her route was supposed to be leading me, and waited.

Teleporting half-way across the city in one go had given me a generous lead, but just before I could worry that I'd jumped the gun by teleporting past her or that she'd veered off in a different direction, I caught the sight of the red mist bounding over another roof. She was flying this way and she'd be here soon.

Setting Willomina aside for a moment, I used my rights as her master to check on Yua's position. The slave binding magic pulled my attention toward her, but she was still too far away to see her outline. She wouldn't make it in time.

I drew in another breath, squeezed the hilt of my sword and waited in silence.

It didn't take long. The crimson mist she'd become flew up over the church's roof and stopped barely twenty-feet from me. The shift from the cloud of blood condensing back into the shape of a woman was nearly instantaneous. And in the brief moment she hovered in the air before gravity could reclaim her, moonlight struck down the shadows she'd been hiding in, catching her and leaving her full visage in plain sight.

Beneath the pure black of her cloak, Willomina wore a dull grey dress that was cut low enough to show off the entirety of the cleavage inspired by her modest bust. No, I suppose it was better to say that she had no choice but to expose her skin as the dress was so tattered, it looked like a strong breeze could have ripped it clean off her body.

It was not something the leader of a so far successful group of bandits should be wearing. But more than that, now that I could see her from up close, the sheer tightness of her dress became unmistakable. So impossibly tight was it, that no curve on her body was left to imagination, not that she had many curves to show.

Willomina was painfully thin, almost like she'd hadn't eaten in months. Her arms and legs were like toothpicks even when compared to a girl as petite as Mana. And so, it was no surprise that, when her bare feet touched the clay tiles of the roof, she made no sound.

As I took in her appearance, she turned back towards the city and stood there. She just stood, waiting. Waiting and watching. She hadn't noticed me yet.

Unable to look away from her, I slowed my breathing, but my clenched jaw slowly turning my teeth to dust kept me from growing calm. But it didn't matter. I had a job to do.

Stepping out from behind the column, I gripped my sword in both hands and ran at her.

I crossed the roof in seconds, as if a magnetic force was propelling, pushing us closer and closer. And I let it pull me. I had to. I had no idea why, but I had to. And, when I was close enough, I launched my attack.

I swung my sword, aiming for her neck. Quick, clean and painless for everyone but me.

The sound of my feet clacking on the tiles gave me away and, startled, Willomina whipped around, her hood falling back and her crimson eyes widening.

Her hood fell back and long white hair spilled forth in the wind and my memorization trait forcefully seared into my brain the true beauty that stood before me. Gaunt as she was, surprised as she may be, there was not a single cell in my body that could deny the almost regal splendor of her porcelain features.

But my sword was swung, its blade crying through the night towards her throat. But, before it could ever make contact, she burst into another red mist without speaking so much as a gasp.

My sword slipped through the mist, catching nothing more than a few spare droplets that sizzled against the flame enchanted metal.

Shit! Can she cast spells without incanting, too?

The mist swam around me, chilling me like icicles scraping at my bones as the droplet brushed my arm, and reformed back into the woman behind me.

She aimed a palm at me, her eyes still wide with fright and her lips pulling open to speak, but I was already lunging for her again. Before she could cast a spell, I was on her, swinging again.

My blade cut down a vertical slash, but again, before I could make contact, she burst. The mist swept across the roof and didn't stop until she reached the tail end of the church and reformed. She put a great spell-casting distance between us, and did so again without saying a word.

Remembering how she bothered with the incantation after she first noticed us watching her, I was sure now that her spell could be recast any number of times within a certain limit before she'd need to chant again. So, I just had to figure out that limit and keep her from casting any other spells in the meantime.

Raising my palm back at her as she once more raised her own, I silently cast the Ice Arrow spell. A thin, pointed rod of ice appeared in front of me and rocketed towards her.

Her eyes widened further, momentarily stunned as the projectile sped through the air, but she snapped out of her stupor and burst yet again. This time, the mist cascaded down the side of the building, falling out of sight.

"Dammit!"

Refusing to let her get away, I jumped through another portal straight to the edge of the roof and, when I saw her aiming a palm up at me, I cast a Water Ball down at her and, instead of falling back on her mist form, she side-stepped it, leaving it to splash harmlessly against the grass.

"Got you!"

She'd stayed put. Refusing her a chance to utter so much as a single syllable, I threw open another portal and lunged through. Jumping out onto the grass, I'd already pulled my blade back and swung the second I was through, but she was no longer there to swing at. Leave it to someone smart enough to learn this world's magic, she'd seen through mine and leapt away to put more distance between herself and the portal before I made it through.

My sword struck nothing, leaving me to stagger forward under my own momentum. However, I pulled myself back up and immediately launched another Ice Arrow at her.

Surprised again by the sudden attack, Willomina failed to dodge, but succeeded in falling backward onto her ass, leaving the arrow to fly over her head. The arrow shattered into a dozen pieces against a wall and scattered across the grass.

"What was that? Who goes there?!"

To the tune of this new voice, we both turned to the source where the shaking light of a lantern was quickly rounding the corner behind me. Drawn by the sound, a woman clad in a more plated version of a city guard's armor appeared.

Her raven black hair a stark contrast to Willomina's, she took one look at me, furrowed her brow in confusion, then spotted the sword in my hand. Then she noticed the collapsed mage I was pointing it at.

Coming to her own conclusion, Lucielle drew her own sword and ran to put herself beside me.

"Who's that?"

I said nothing – I was too busy clenching my teeth, trying not to call this woman an idiot.

Willomina was silent as she slowly rose back to her feet. I watched, sweat pouring down my face as her crimson irises turned from me to Lucielle. She touched an index finger to her lip and held it there, thinking. There was no emotion in her face, save for what might have been a slight curiosity.

The gesture lasted for only a single heartbeat as she then raised a palm at us. Moving in front of Lucielle, I put up my sword to block, expecting a new spell to come flying at us.

Instead, Willomina's hand then shot away from us and up towards the church and…

"Lightning Bolt!"

A streak of blue lightning erupted from her fingertips and arced through the sky in crackling, jagged bolts of raw power. The spell struck the side wall of one of the church's upper floors. Electricity met wood and burst into a burning blaze that quickly started to spread, spewing embers everywhere that only added to the problem.

In seconds, they became a beacon the whole city would be able to see as the smoke starting to further blacken the sky slowly blotted out the moon.

Lucielle's jaw fell slack at the flames as they grew brighter, but I lowered my gaze back down to Willomina.

"… Sanguine Mist."

Catching just the tail-end of her incantation, I watched as she once again turned into mist and flew up over the wall of the church's yard. She continued on, flying over buildings and quickly putting distance between us.

"Oh no, you're not getting away that…"

I readied another cast of Dimensional Step, only to be suddenly overcome with fatigue. I staggered, nearly dropping my sword and forcing Lucielle to break her attention off the fire to catch me before I could collapse into her.

In her arms, I was forced to watch as Willomina the Hemomancer made her escape.

"What's… Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Wondering that myself, I checked my status page for irregularities and quickly found only one.

" I'm almost out of mana," I said, pushing myself off of her to grab her by the collar. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Wh-What? How was I supposed to stop her?"

"Not that, you idiot! That woman is likely the leader of the bandits. She saw your face. And you just showed her we knew each other!"

Not only was our relationship supposed to remain unknown to literally everyone, but to the bandits and the people of Villeverdure, we weren't even supposed to know each other. Her saddling up next to me with her sword, instead of turning it on me, was proof enough that we did. And she did this right after I tried to kill their leader!

"Dammit… They might come after you now."

And if they learn she's the one that asked the guild for help…

"How was I supposed to know that?"

Pushing her back, I crammed a hand into my belt pouch. I was about to pull a mana potion out of my item box so I could give chase, when the chaotic clammer of dozens of footsteps and voices started in on us. Every single one of their voices were filled with dread as their beloved church burned.

"Shit… Shield me for a second."

"What do you mean? I can't… Wah!"

Refusing to acknowledge her complaints, I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to put her between me and the oncoming crowd. Hidden somewhat behind her small back so she didn't notice my brief nudity, I used my item box to swap out my ninja gear for my regular clothes. I'd look less guilty without all the dark colors.

"What are you doing?" she asked, shaking off my hands and turning back to me. "Hey, how did you change so fast?"

"Magic. Don't worry about it. Now, hurry, we need to come up with a reason for why we're here."

"Huh? O-Oh, uh… Oh, I got it! I'll tell them I spotted the person skulking around the church last night. They were the one that started the fire. They fled when I caught them, then you showed up to help put out the fire."

"Right. Can't exactly let this spread to the rest of the city… Let's go with that."

Feeling that the story was a little too hard to believe, I reached again into my pouch and pulled out a mana potion anyways. Figuring we might as well make the lie believable, I downed it in a single gulp. Once my mana bar had refilled a bit, I glanced in the direction I'd last seen Willomina, but she was already long gone.

Clicking my tongue, and wondering if she fled in the opposite direction of the fort on purpose, I cast the Water Ball spell and fired at the growing flames just as more city guards showed up to witness the mess we made.

Seeing us directly beneath the inferno, the first of them looked about ready to draw his sword when Lucielle rushed over to him and explained her side of the story. After hearing it, he ran off, presumably into the church as he came back later with Father Werner, who was still dressed in his nightwear.

The priest looked at me for only a moment before gawking up at the flames.

"By Tallow, what happened here?"

His question went unanswered as many of the guards and the others that showed up to help started drawing water from a nearby well. The strongest amongst them tossed it as high as they could, which was barely high enough to even begin to make a difference. Fear and determination hastening them, they hurried back for more the moment their buckets emptied themselves.

As they did, I continued repeatedly casting Water Balls into the blaze, hitting its edge to try and keep it from spreading.

However, it quickly became obvious that, while my magic was helping, the little soft-ball-sized bursts of water could only do so much. On top of that, I was starting to feel a little light-headed again.

I reached into my pouch for another potion when a hand thumped down on my shoulder. Turning, expecting to find Yua after she finally caught up, I couldn't stop myself from jumping when I was met with Giulio's stern gaze.

"Alex, mio amico. What are you doing here so late? And why's the church on fire?"

"I, uh… I don't know about the church, but…" I paused, thinking on my feet by making a show of looking embarrassed before continuing. "I just… I needed some time away from my women, you know? Figured that, if I wasn't going to be allowed to sleep anyways, I might as well go out for a walk."

"And you stumbled on the fire and decided to help?" he smirked knowingly.

Seems he took what I said as me having trouble fulfilling the lusty desires of three women at the same time, as I hoped. I silently apologized to my girls for throwing them under the bus.

"No matter," he said, waving a bunch of other guards carrying a long ladder over. "Thanks for the help, but you can let us handle the rest. We're prepared for things like this."

The guards propped the ladder up against the wall surrounding the yard, instead of the church itself, and held it firm. Giulio reached behind his back and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment – a scroll. Tearing the wax seal on it, he hurried up the ladder.

At the top, he aimed the scroll up at the roaring flames and incanted a spell.

"Cascading Tides!"

At his beck and call, the scroll glowed with a brilliant light and a mass of water the equivalent of a small swimming pool appeared hovering above the flames. Almost as soon as it appeared, gravity reminded all of its existence by dumping the water over the fire like some short-lived waterfall. I had to shake off my surprise and jump back to avoid the rush of water that shot off the roof towards us.

Beneath the massive wall of water, the flames were snuffed out instantly, turning the once roaring blaze to black smoke that did little more harm than floated up to temporarily blot out the stars. However, as the wind helped the smoke dissipate, the true damage done to the building became clear.

Not only were the surrounding walls and stone reliefs burned black, but a large chunk of it was missing. At a glance, the damage looked similar to the aftermath of a precision airstrike.

Despite this, or perhaps not even noticing yet, Giulio wore a very self-satisfied look on his face. Depleted of the mana it once contained, the scroll disintegrated and he smiled as he brushed off the dust it left in his hand.

[New Spell Acquired: Cascading Tides]

Briefly taken aback, both by the return of my spell copying trait, and the fact that it apparently worked on scrolls too, The crowd erupted into cheers as Giulio slid down the ladder and onto the now very squishy grass. He smiled and waved to them, but quickly lost interest and rejoined me.

Patting me on the back as though I were the one who put out the fire, he then grabbed my wrist and raised it high in the air.

"Let's hear it for Alex! Without his magic, the entire church might have been destroyed!"

"What? But I barely…"

"Let's hear it for both of them!" Father Werner added. "Thanks to you boy's efforts, Tallow's house still stands!"

At this, the crowd's cheers grew even more heated. Normally, when faced with a crowd cheering me on, I most likely would have been overwhelmed with embarrassment, but something else claimed my attention before any heat could enter my cheeks. Or rather, it was a lack of a certain something that should have been here. Someone whose presence couldn't go unnoticed.

Where's Lady Nerissa?

I scanned the crowd, doing my due diligence to see if any present in the crowd were Bandits, but I found no sign of the priestess who supposedly lived here.

"Uh-oh," Giulio said, though his tone was playful as he elbowed my arm. "Mio amico, looks like your sweet managed to track you down."

I followed the finger he pointed into the crowd and found Yua, trying to shove her way through the crowd of guards and men. Still dressed in her ninja gear save for the missing mask she likely discarded to avoid suspicion, she didn't stand out too terribly. Though, that seemed to be part of why she struggled to make a path through the crowd.

Remembering my little lie, I pretended to be embarrassed. He laughed as I ran over to her. Her eyes flew open in confusion when she noticed the outfit change I was wearing, but she was grateful for the hand when I pulled her free of the cheering mob.

Pulling her close, pretending to make amends for ditching her, I whispered in her ear.

"For now, just play along with everything I say. I'll get us out of here as soon as I can."

"Why? What's going on? What happened to the Hemomancer?"

"Giulio's here, so I'll explain later. For now, if he asks why you're here, just say exactly this: I got tired of waiting for him."

"Um… Okay?"

Clearly confused, Yua let me lead her back over to the man in question, who happened to be all smirks now. Thankfully, I assumed in his attempt to show a little politeness in front of a woman, he put his teasing behind him to refocus on me.

"Mio amico, setting aside the midnight stroll, I have to say, I think I understand why your skills with the blade are a little lacking."

Pressing my lips into a very forced smile, I took that one on the chin. My explicit failure tonight didn't allow me to contradict him.

"Yea, and why's that?"

"Because you wasted time learning magic. You could have been practicing the sword."

"Oh, well, you know. As an Adventurer, there's times when you're out and about on a quest and you're nowhere near a source of water. So, I figured being able to make my own would be helpful."

This was not entirely a lie. Back home, be it for cooking or washing the floors, most of our daily water needs were met by my magic. Except on the occasion when Yua would purposefully trek through the forest to the nearest river to collect as much water as she could carry before hauling it back as part of her training, but that is neither here nor there.

If anything, I ought to thank this man for gifting me a new spell that would make filling our bathtub much faster.

He nodded at this with the smallest of smiles.

"Fair enough," he said, his eyes then flicking over to Yua before turning to leave. "Well, I won't keep you. Seems you're needed elsewhere. Though, I must say I don't know why you thought you could escape a beast-kin's nose, right, Yua? You tracked him down good and quick."

Her ears flicking to attention, Yua nodded sharply and replied with the only answer I'd given her.

"Yup. I got tired of waiting for him."

"Hahaha! I bet you did! I'll leave him to you, then. Goodnight."

Laughing to himself as Yua tilted her head in confusion, Giulio barely made it a few steps towards Father Werner before he stopped and snapped his fingers.

"Ah, right. Alex, I heard one of the guards patrolling the church mentioned she spotted someone suspicious before the fire broke out. Did you happen to see them?"

"No, sorry. I got here after it started."

"I see. That's a shame… Oh, but don't worry. We of the city guard will catch this evil doer soon enough. Whoever would defile a place of worship like this deserves a punishment most foul."

"R-Right."

With that, finally, Giulio left us. Ignoring Yua's continued impatient confusion, I slipped a hand into my pocket and worked Material Creation to create a small slip of paper with some instructions on it. These, however, were not for Yua.

We made our way over to Lucielle, who looked to be giving her report all over again to a man who's overly-stern expression only grew harder as she gestured her way through her made-up story. Clearly, he was one of her superiors.

Cutting into their conversation like a tourist who proudly pretended not to know any better, I clasped Lucielle's hand with both of mine and shook it.

As I did, the man she was speaking to crossed his arms in an annoyed huff over the interruption, but I ignored him and made sure she felt me slipping the note into her palm.

"Thanks for letting me help out with the fire," I said. "Hope I didn't get in your way."

"N-Not at all. Thank you for your help."

I let go, shifted my hand to holding Yua's and tried not to make it look like we were hurrying away from the church.

As soon as we parted the crowd and found ourselves in a secluded alley, Yua pressed me with a question I'd been expecting as I worked on opening a portal.

"What was on that note?"

"Instructions. The Hemomancer saw us together. She's not safe anymore. I told her to come to the inn at the end of her patrol and that we'd hide her until all this blows over."

"Wait, then the Hemomancer's still alive?"

"Yes. Long story short, we fought, but she managed to run away."

Bearing the worried look Yua shot at me, no doubt thinking I'd chickened out, and with no proof otherwise, I chose to focus on my spell.

My mana hadn't recovered much, so once the swirling blue lights of my spell took shape, I pulled Yua through to save her questions for later.

I'd aimed my portal for the roof we'd left Elane and Mana on, but they weren't there. The bandits were gone and the house they'd broken into looked otherwise unmolested. There also didn't seem to be any signs of a fight, so after a quick check for their outlines, I found them down below in front of the building.

Rushing down there via a portal, we found Elane sitting on the cold sidewalk and leaned against the building. Mana sat atop her lap, looking only mildly annoyed at being forced into enduring Elane's boob-pillow once more.

Elane took one look at me, shrugged and explained before I could say anything.

"Nothing happened. They stole some things, waited around for that woman to come back, then left. We tried to follow them, but it took us too long to find a way off the roof without your magic."

"I could still track them," Mana huffed. "But Booby-Lady isn't quiet enough. And she wouldn't let me go by myself."

Elane shrugged again, only this time, it was more of a what can I say, sort of shrug.

"Hey, I didn't want to put Kitty in danger by letting her go alone and, well… battleaxes aren't exactly made to be covert, you know?"

She threw a thumb over her shoulder at the axe leaning against the wall beside her. Sure enough, the unwieldy thing would make it all that much harder to sneak around.

"Figured you'd come back here first, so we came back to wait for you after they gave us the slip."

Eyeing the bow set beside the axe, knowing that their leader got away, it might have been best if I told them to just finish off the bandits however they could. Mana, at least, could have picked a few of them off with her bow before they even noticed.

Then, at least, we'd have fewer bandits to worry about if and when they choose to retaliate.

"Big Bro?"

"… It's nothing. Let's get out of here. We have a lot to talk about."

Helping the girls to their feet, I handed them their weapons. It was no longer safe enough to hide them away in my item box for the sake of convenience.

Trying not to replay the fight on top of the church in my head just yet so I could focus, I opened another portal back to our room.