Raine, the hybrid that was mentioned, was minding her own business in the cave. She was short for a hybrid, and though she had mysterious origins no one really minded her because she looked so unassuming. She never actually went over to the orc side of the cave because they were really condescending and domineering, wanting her to go on missions to pay for her keep. She spent most of her time in the slave section of the cave, only visited sparingly by orcs to look over the goblins that guard that part of the cave. This section consisted of humans that were captured by the orcs, so it was mostly regular people who were just unlucky, unfortunately. That said, there were some adventurers in there who tried to fight against these monsters alone and got captured. She's talking to an adventurer right now, in fact. Let's tune in. "Leave me be. If you try anything funny I'll kill you." The adventurer said, scowling as he withdrew. "I'm a friend!" Raine said, raising her hands. "What?! You can talk?!" The adventurer said, raising his defenses as he backed into a wall. "Yes. I am Raine." Raine said, slowly creeping a bit closer so as to not scare him. "...My name is Carter. I don't know what kind of monster you are… but leave me. I've been here for a month, I bet the Adventurer's Guild and my family probably think I'm dead, so if you really understand me, leave me be." Carter said angrily, balling his hands into fists as he watched Raine cautiously. "...I am sorry," Raine said, backing up. "...Wait. You came here for a reason, didn't you?" Carter said, still cautious. "Can you teach me human swordsmanship?" Raine said, materializing her magic sword. "You… You're a magic swordsman?!" Carter said, jumping to his feet and pressing back against the wall, clearly wanting to escape from the situation.
"Is that strange?" Raine asked, confused. "It's nothing. I don't have an actual sword but you and I can use… these." Carter said, looking around for a bit and picking up two relatively straight sticks. "Thank you," Raine said, smiling. "No need. Hold your sword like this." Carter said, smiling to himself a bit as he went into an offensive stance. Raine copied him. It was not an exact copy but for a first try, it was pretty good. He helped her with her stance and grip, and they worked on this stance for about three hours until they heard screaming. When Raine heard screams from goblins and the flood of footsteps of both goblins and orcs rushing towards their section of the cave, Raine knew what was happening. There was going to be a massacre. She grabbed Carter and a little girl near them and ran. "W-What's happening?!" The girl said. "Sh! Be quiet or they will hear us!" Raine whispered as they raced to her hiding place. It was a section of the cave that was very rocky and she would make a big rock wall at the end of the hallway-like part of the cave so that there would be a little space to hide things in. She put Carter and the girl in the space and she kept watch over it. No one usually came through this way but she kept watch just in case. An hour later she let them out but as she was doing that the adventurers saw her.
"Oh no! The hybrid has two of the slaves!" Hanna said, getting ready to fight again. "Well, at least they're not dead like the others," Lucy said, standing beside Hanna with her bow ready. "It's just like hybrids to use someone as a hostage instead of helping their comrades. They only think of themselves, after all." Joana said, stepping closer as the rest of the party followed close behind her. Raine materialized her sword, a skill she learned at a young age, but she couldn't even hold it steady because of how frightened she was. She was never comfortable with fighting humans, and her sword skills had only worked on orcs and goblins because of this weakness. Hanna and Carlos stepped up with Joana and Lucy close behind them. "So she's a magic swordsman, huh? I guess this will be more difficult than I had thought. Everybody, watch out! She can use magic!" Joana said. Raine went into an offensive stance, the only one she'd learned from Carter, and stepped in front of him and the girl. "We need to get those two, let's go!" Hanna said as her and Carlos rushed in. "Go back!" Raine said to Carter and the girl. They went into the hiding place. Raine just barely dodged Carlos' axe and she blocked Hanna's knives. She got hit in the back with a fireball from Joana and got hit in the shoulder by one of Lucy's arrows.
Raine thought that if she could withstand their attacks long enough, she'd win. She's never been in a fight with humans in this form so she just used what she learned from Carter. She withstood another bout of their attacks, dodging Joana's fireballs but getting slashed in the back by Hanna and hit with another arrow in the leg, and then she decided that it was a good time to start fighting back. She didn't want to change forms, as she knew that humans don't take very kindly to demons in their demon form. She used what Carter taught her and, though it was sloppy, it drove them back a bit. "Those were swings that only a knight would know. Be careful, it seems that she's been learning from someone." Carlos said to the group, raising his awe for another swing. The group was about to attack again but they got caught off guard by Raine. "W-Wait! What do you want? We have gold!" Raine yelled at them. It didn't sound as scary as the typical hybrid on account of her nerves. At this, Carlos stopped in his tracks. He noticed how small she was and he lowered his ax, thinking for a moment. He put his hand up to stop the group, lowering his ax fully. "W-What is it?" Raine said, glaring at him and clutching her sword. "Let's talk," Carlos said, trying to seem a bit less scary by removing his helmet. With this, Joana was about to curse him out but Lucy covered her mouth and held her back. "Um… yes, I'd like that.." Raine said, un-materializing her sword. Carlos then put away his ax.
"Why do you have those two humans with you?" Carlos said. "To save them," Raine said. "From what?" Carlos asked. "The guards," Raine said, looking towards the slave section of the cave. "What were the guards going to do?" Carlos asked. "Kill everyone," Raine said. Carlos then smiled. "Can we bring them with us?" Carlos said, inching closer to Raine. "N-No! You're dangerous!" Raine said, stepping back and starting to materialize her sword again. "We'll take them to a town. They'll be able to go to their family and their friends." Carlos said. "... Are family and friends good things to humans?'' Raine said, unsure what family or friends meant. "Yes, those are people you enjoy being around. I'm sure they'd be glad to be with their families." Carlos said. "Do you guys want to go with them?" Raine said, turning to look at Carter and the girl. They nodded and Raine moved aside. "Actually, would you like to come with us too?" Carlos said, reaching out a hand to Raine. "Now wait just a minute!!!" Joana said, breaking free from Lucy. "Are you serious?! You expect us to just take her in like some fucking fairytale?! Well no, we can't do that! What would we do with her anyways?!" Joana yelled at Carlos, breaking the carefree attitude in the cave. "We'd let her into our party. Anyways, everyone here is dead so you can't exactly stay here either way, so let's go." Carlos said, grabbing Raine's hand and walking to the group.
"Hey, I'm your leader! You can't just ignore me! She's a hybrid for Christ's sake!!!" Joana yelled, ready to fight. Tina and Lucy restrained Joana and walked with everyone to the town, going along with Carlos' whim because they simply had nothing else to do. Once they were in the town, Carter and the girl went to the village leader while the group went to their rooms. Raine went to Joana's room because Joana couldn't trust her. "...Hello," Raine said. "Shut up." Joana hissed scornfully, still quite angry. Raine nodded and went beside the bed and sat down. "What are you doing?" Joana said. "Going to sleep," Raine said, patting the floor. "...On the floor?" Joana said, dumbfounded. "Yes. You sleep on the bed, right?." Raine said rather matter-of-factly. "I need to watch you so I'm not going to sleep," Joana said, turning back to what she was working on. "Oh… sorry," Raine said. "Just shut up and sleep on the bed," Joana said, waving an aggravated hand at her. Raine nodded as she laid down and drifted to sleep. The next morning Raine woke up to see Joana sleeping at her desk. Raine saw that there was a paper on her desk that said to wake everyone up right about then so she covered Joana with a blanket and woke everyone up.
They were all kinda mad at her, which made her a bit scared, but she remembered another note on her desk that said that they should get the reward from the mayor of the town today. "We need to get a reward from the leader of the town. Your leader is tired so do you want me to wake her?" Raine asked the group, looking towards her room. "Aw, aren't you just the cutest little thing! Don't worry, we'll wake her up. Let's go, guys!" Tina said, smiling dubiously. The whole group went into the room quietly and gathered around Joana. "Three… two… one!" Lucy whispered. "RAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" The whole group shouted at the top of their lungs in unison as Tina jumped on Joana. "AAAAHHHH!!!" Joana screamed, kicking Tina off and falling out of her chair. Everyone started laughing and even Raine smiled. "What the heck?!" Joana yelled, catching her breath. "Well, a little somebody wanted to let you sleep a little longer, but she made the mistake of telling us about it," Tina said, snickering and putting her hand on Raine's shoulder. "I'm sorry," Raine said, looking down in embarrassment. "It's fine. Anyways, we need to properly introduce ourselves to you since I have a feeling you'll be staying a while." Joana said, standing up and regaining her composure.
"I'm Joana. That's Carlos, Tina, Lucy, and Hanna. Remember that." Joana said sternly. "Okay," Raine said. "Well, we've got the first distress call done with. Let's get the reward so we can go on to the next..." Joana said.