The One Unworthy of Legends - V:1.1 - Maria's Ascension

~ Chapter 39 ~

The Broken Girl

A light breeze whispered softly through the trees, the moon gazed uninterestedly down at the treetops below. It was waning seemingly turning it's attention away from what was happening below it. It seemed to be aware of the human atrocities being committed beneath the leaves.

"Come on, this'll be easy." A voice spoke out.

"I don't know John this seems like a bad idea, why didn't we just take the request at the guild?" A female voice spoke up.

"Hey Jullie, it's just some bandits it'll be fine. We kill monsters for a living what's a human gonna do?" A third voice added in.

"Yeah, and we didn't take the guild request cause most the spoils would be claimed that merchany, greedy bastard." John replied flicking her on the head.

"Ow, hey I get that but what if we need help, the guild won't send anyone if they don't kno-." Julie began but was cut off as John put his finger to his lips.

"I can see a fire, we're getting close let's be quiet." He whispered, his companions nodded and they began creeping towards the fire. Julie approached the fire, stepping out from the trees with her sword drawn. But there was nothing, there were signs of people. Some Monster's meat was left half eaten, there was a bit of blood she couldn't tell if it was human or not.

Her eyes were dragged to something or Rather someone, a young Lithian was laying on the other side of the fire. She was naked and completely still, Julie gulped as she expected to find her to be dead. She approached the girl, the light and shadows created by the fire made it difficult to tell so she set her sword down as she crouched and turned the girl over.

She was a fox, her fur was yellowish white a kinda pretty creme color, though it was haunting watching a pretty young fox like her gaze with such fear filled eyes while mouthing "run!" Over and over with urgency.

"Um guys, something isn't right!" Julie reached for her sword but it wasn't there. She turned to look at John who had followed her over here, he wasn't there either. She was now looking up at a heavy built man with scars and a disgusting smile.

"Hey there girlie, your two friends were getting in the way of our alone time." He spoke with an almost palpable grease to it.

Julie stumbled back tripping on the fox who only whimpered in response, Julie panicked as she looked around before her eyes settled on the fox. "You don't wanna do this, I'm an adventurer there will be consequences unlike with the beast slaves you've already stolen. Besides that one seems quite fresh. If you let me walk out of here I'll tell the guild that you guys left already.

"Haha, that's a decent deal, but these pets are getting old. They have already been instilled with obedience they were slaves already afterall. You would be so much more fun." He kicked the fox to make his point, she just accepted it.

"Damn useless creature." Julie spat as she drew a short sword from her bag, it was a backup. She swung at the man, he dodged too the side and grabbed her wrist before breaking it with a snap. She clenched her teeth and lifted her leg before pulling off a spiral kick and smashing her heal into the man's cheek. It was such a sudden movement that he stumbled back and was dazed, she ripped her hand from his grip and leaped back, tossing her sword blade first at him she turned and bolted.

"Damnit!" He snarled as he dodged the blade, he watched her figure disappear into the forest with growing annoyance.

"You said you could take her, all we had to do was kill her two party members. Dang man, boss is gonna be unhappy." A voice spoke up behind him. He turned to look at the two bandits dragging two corpses towards the fire.