"Hearie dearie!" Cries the dryad as she waltzes about the waterfall as looks around randomly. "Come on, don't be afraid, dear one. It's me and I got some friends along."
"Are you sure, it's not afraid of us?" Princess Fusui asks as she holds onto her holstered sword as she made a smirk. "It perhaps doesn't like our aura since we slew dragons before."
"Ohh, that's terrible." The queen of dryad says as she covers her mouth in slight disbelieve. "Perhaps, maybe that's why it isn't responding. If I remember his house is around here, hmm, where could it be."
"You mean that burrowed hole over there?" I pointed towards the obvious hole under the bark of a dead tree as the small hole lead somewhere in its dark presence.
"Why, yes, that's the one Mr Conundrum. I was kind of looking for it. Sorry, I haven't left my forest circle for quite a while." As she skipped away towards the hole, she knocks the bark of the dead tree a few times before dipping her head into the hole.
"Nature one, are you home?" She asks in a rather strange sweet way as she bends over exposing her rather delicate skin and lower side of her body.
"Wow...." I sighed out as Princess Fusui facepalm herself as the others either stayed aloof in their scene or reacted towards it in their way. "I guess it's true when Dryads are known to be el' natural."
"Hahaha...." Fusui sarcastically laughs as she makes a bland and nonchalant face. "Either quit looking or make use of her ostrich head-sticking problem."
As I turned towards Fusui as I raised my eyebrows, I smiled at her a little sly-ly as I tapped my bat on my shoulder-side. "You sure you want me to, heck if she likes, I might as well be the king of the Dryads soon, since I know they are rather open from my studies."
As we teased about the queen of dryads, Nia and Kisuen tugged onto me rougher than usual when I heard a strange rhythmic sound of soft clicks and taps.
Turning around, I noticed the arachnid looked at me with her four pair of eyes with a strange discerned look. "Boy, could you not be so vulgar please?" She asks kindly as deeply into her iris, I could sense a look of displeasure.
"Right, right. My apologies... I didn't mean to escalate it that quickly. Come on girls, it was just an act of casual surprise. Normal stuff, you know?"
"Yeah, yeah we get it. You are a human teenager who is hard to hold onto yourself when you are on heat, unlike us who lived for aeons and tried not to do much." Princess Fusui snickered as her ears twitched, turning her towards the dryad who then pops her head out from the ditch.
Since her ears were directed into that muddy hole, she was muffled from the sounds of outside, which made her not realize what her newly-founded friends conversed about her rather scantily dressed self in leaves or why her buttocks were rather more revealing than a peasant covered in rags.
"He is not here, unfortunately. He probably is sneaking about trying to catch some food." The dryad turns around and replies as she makes a sad look.
"If he was sneaking, we could have probably seen his full form somewhere, usually a shock wave or some sort of loud indication," I replied as I sighed and started counting probabilities in my head.
"I mean, he sometimes prefers staying in his smaller form so it makes sense, he would try to stay hidden from potential hunters such as yourselves.
Perhaps he may have become scared when you guys passed by here during his little expedition for food.
"Don't worry, if you want to do some extra clean-up work and get those currencies human uses, you might as well help me clear those bad guys that made a so-called sanctuary in my forest."
The dryad explains as she smiles sweetly before showing her bland green eyes that burned through the lens of hell.
"Bandits?" I asked before turning towards Fusui and The Black Witch.
"Probably, it wouldn't be so hard, to be honest, well unless they have some sort of drug that may or may not interact with us "poor" females, yeah?" The Black Witch snarled as she makes an evil smile.
"Hey, hey don't act so cocky. You know we had that incident before which almost got Nia captured. Remember that, witch?" Princess Fusui looks at the witch in a stern and nominative look as she makes an angry smile.
"Ahh yeah, I remember that. Laced weapons..." The Black Witch chuckles softly as she scratches her cheeks in embarrassment. "If only Ryuu was there to help us."
"What happened when I was gone?" I ask as I made a curious yet worried look. "Were you guys hurt or something?"
As the dryad listens in our small conversation of bandit experience, she took the time to pluck some flowers and herbs she found around and forms them into a special amulet of sorts with her nature magic.
After some time, she holds onto a spare string of yarn she found on the floor and knots up a pendant out of it for a way to relax her mind.
"Well, let's just say, we kind of ... ugh, fucked up. Yeah, that's about it." The Black Witch replies as she gestures a manipulative stopping movement.
"Language..." I muttered to her as I then turned to the arachnid who shook her head that it was fine.
"Well, at least Nia is still with us. If she has captured thanks to you two, I would have been pissed." I cheekily scared them as I grinned. I knew this would happen one way or another, and it's only by a bare minimum of a percentage that Nia was ever caught.
Petting Nia who was hugging me behind my back for quite a while, I rubbed her shoulder as if a typical cat-back rub before looking back at the dryad.
"Well, I guess we may do what you want. Just let me put up most of the leading and fighting because I don't want you guys to get trapped in one of those incidents."
"I understand what you mean, Mr Conundrum, but if that is what you choose to do, so be it. Sometimes, a monster girl just like us wouldn't mind a company of a human man's protection once in a while."
As she complimented me with a kind gesture, she then walks up to me and Princess Fusui before tying some strange pendants that she was fiddling about with her hands for quite some time.
"Here is a little gift, from the Queen Of The Forest to you. I bestow to your support of nature and the very blessings that mother nature has on hand."
"We are much in your honour, Queen," I reply as I accept the pendant by my neck.
As she reached over my height and ties up the pendant, I then hold it against my rising palm as I inspected the lovely and intricate nature of its making.
"Now, since you are considered a part of my forest, human and fox, you are permanently invited to rest upon my domain anytime soon in the future, from the time now and beyond."
"But how about the others?" Fusui asked as she points to the other part of their gang that was never bothered by the Queen for some reason.
"Ahah, about that... they are already given a permanent resident due to their rather rough nature of living." As the queen made a mild loof of shyness, she then clears her throat before entering the route towards the bandit's sanctuary.
"Rough living? I suppose it makes some sense." The now sober Yoko replied as she softly burps and rubs her chin with her knuckles. "I mean most of us were born in these forest's domain so I suppose we have some sort of sign only available for her to notice."
"Oh, so that's what she means." Fushi scratches her fuzzy wolf ears as she grooms her smooth hair perfectly straight. "I got another strange thought for some reason."
"We should just get going..." As I dragged the cat-girl and the Yoko with me as they gripped onto my shoulders hard, the others then shrugged themselves as they kept up as much as possible.
...
3:35 P.M.
"Oi, come on get going, idiot!" A man shouts as he commands a lanky thin boy to pull a rather weak and panting lady who was shackled from the waist down. "We can't let them gain their senses soon, the drugs will wear off, you know."
"I'm trying sir, I'm trying. She's so heavy and stumbles constantly to a fall." As the lanky boy weeps as he heaves his hoe, the slave master watched as he clicked his tongue.
"Oh boy, well ain't that a little pissy. Good job, you get a promotion, heavy lifting. From now, you help transport the slaves from the cart to our jail cells." Chuckling as he lit a cigar, he chewed on its leaves as he inhaled deeply the smoke that enveloped.
"Thank you, sir...." the boy grunts as he pushes the drugged lady into a cell before closing off its heavy iron cast cell door before keying up the lock pad.
From a bush nearby, I and my group watched over the many sleeping bandits and the two strange people that were transporting poor innocent peasants and monster girls.
"Yeesh..." I disgustedly spat on the ground as I grinned aggressively.
"Calm down, Ryuu. I know it hurts to see it." Princess Fusui calms me down as she gestures me her gauntleted paws onto my left shoulder.
"No, this looks good. How I wish to see them cry for their mothers after what will happen to them in punishment." As I evilly smile towards the sight, I gripped hard onto my bat as my other hand reached slowly to my small hip pouch of daggers.
My watch ready for time manipulation and nanobots fitted to my chip in my head for quick thinking, I have come prepared for the perfect moment of striking.
The queen of the forest, the only dryad of this place, felt a little eager to start using her magic to attack. As she looks at me, she was surprised to see how eager I am more than her to start the punishment.
"Is he...always like this?" The dryad curiously asked Nia who was sharpening her claws beside her.
"Yes, as typical as usual. He is quite a good person. But when the time comes when he notices something a little unusually problematic, he goes into this eagerly saddened state of madness." Nia whispered as she giggles softly.
"Aight' something to take note of. He is a wild animal with senses, check." The Black Witch replies as she was writing something on her personal spellbook.
Nodding and giving the same plans of the dragon's movement patterns, he then alters it a little for the execution and punishment of this lowly creature that feast on the bottom of. the human caste system.
Muffling his crazy chuckle under his palmed hand, his eyes widened in bloodshot irises as he then sprints onto the slave trader with his bat dragging along its muddy terrain. "Hahaha...haha"
"No, wai-" Princess Fusui was about to raise her voice as she then covers her mouth and proceeded with the given plan. "Let's go gals."
"What the fuck?!" The slave trader asked himself as he turned around only to see an insane fast running figure swinging his bat furiously.
Without a moment to. react, the slave master felt a concussion on his head before feeling a strike of intense pain waving about inside his brain.
Collapsing on the ground loudly, the pipsqueak that was caging up the slave was in shock and froze up upon seeing his manager dropped on the ground with a crushed skull and running drops of blood.
"Sir!" He mutters softly as he turns towards me in a state of intense fear.
"Please don't! I'm just working for money. Please!" As he squeaked for mercy, I sigh and point my bat towards his sets of keys that he was squeezing himself on tightly.
"Release the girls..." I grudge at him as my eyes were covered in a state of reddening madness. "Now..."
"On, it... sir..." As the lanky boy picks his way in a scurrying fashion to unlock the gates, I headed my way towards the campsite of skin hide tents and wooden stacks of huts that filled about the area.
As alerted heads popped out, in the curiosity of the commotion either naked or weapon ready, the sounds of mumbles and soft sounds of sadness filled their interiors as it maddened my sense of justice.
The reason why I was able to do all of this without getting hunted down by bounty hunters was thanks to my adventurer guild tag. If I didn't have that license, I wouldn't even be able to touch these freaks without getting noticed by unwanted souls.
Ranked at a second to highest spot, it's was much easier for my access to bigger bloodsheds than how usual adventurers were able to go for.
Goblins? you want to hunt down goblins at rank silver. You must be mad. They're at most more vicious and dangerous than bandits. Bandits on the other hand are dumber and much much easier to kill as they have more feelings than goblins.
Why have I thought of this? Well, a former partner explained this before she ventured off to the secret ranks that existed. I didn't know what happened to her but I knew she was fine as I still received messages from her from time to time.
Laughing in a chattering way, a five-man team of bandits who were alerted by my laughter, tried to defend against my swing pre-hand as they didn't realise the blades that will sheer them from behind.
Grieving in pain, they tried to reach for their backs before collapsing in the quick loss of blood and shock.
Appearing out of their shadows, Nia and Princess Fusui pull out their projectile weapons from thee bandits back as they nod confidently to my presence.
Wiping off the blood and in quick sensing, the two then quickly turns and reflect on the incoming bandits as they fought through themselves through the rusty and badly-maintained weaponry of theirs.
Wishing they weren't overpowered by that many men, they shouted from assistance which somehow summoned balls of flame-fire which shot like sniper ammunition towards the faces of the bandits, enveloping and scaring them off with three-degree burns which burned ferociously.
"Fuck sakes! Where are these monster girls coming from! How were they notified of their presence?" A bandit shouted in question to his partner as he tried to use his sex slave as a meat shield.
"Who the fuck knows. Maybe one of our man who ditched snitched us. You know there are those Monster Girl Contractors lately who try are trying to promote alliances between the species."
One of the partners shouting back, he blocks an attack of strange white semi-liquid that spurted onto his blade, which felt rather sticky to remove.
"Is that...spider web?" His partner asked as he spills acid onto his partner's blade which melted off the substance.
"I am pretty sure. They have one of those eight-legs in their team. We have to watch outer flanks too." Cutting through long blades of blinding grass, they followed the sound of sparring blades, as they tried to help their other comrades.
"Wait. wait!" The partner shouted before noticing his partner get sprayed by fire. "No! Elliot!"
Sad to see his friend burn in front of him into ashes, he tried to hide his tears as he rages upon a stumbling run towards the black-latex for clothing maiden. "You will pay for this, you bitch!"
Surprised to see some random squirt running to her way, she takes a step back which causes the man to trip on a pebble and drop onto the ground face-first.
"Should have seen that coming, darling..." The witch cheekily replies as Princess Fusui was protecting her on their strongest guard. "Where's the spider and Ryuu?"
As she questioned Princess Fusui, they heard a strange hymn from afar before seeing a circle of wooden pikes appearing out of nowhere, piercing through the poor bandits caught in its vicinity to become penetrated.
"Probably taking over the main base with the dryad. Holy shit, that was close." Hopping backwards with a high alert, she dodged a close shot of the wooden pike which pierced through the grieving bandit who unfortunately dies in the most humiliating way.
"Well, no use worrying about the man. Come, let's go get the prisoners to safety and better health." Princess Fusui pats The Black Witch as she jogs her way through a few burned down trees.
"But where?" The Black Witch questions before noticing a fight which involved the Arachnid and the Yoko fighting against two burly men with very nasty look throughout their face. "Oh boy, they look pissed."
Watching the two fight alongside, Kisuen decides to sip onto her flask of alcohol before beginning her hold of defence.
Watching the man swing his blade towards her, Kisuen dances through the blade with an outstanding twirl before winking at him and summoning her orbs of blue flames.
Pissing the man even further, he tries to ignore her and tries to trust the back of the arachnid only clash accidentally upon his partner's own Harbeld.
"Goodness man, are you trying to kill me?" His partner grunts as he pulls his over the top axe from his partner's hold. "You watch the goddamn blondie fox and I go for this eight-legs, alright. Remember use the trick."
As he walks away from his partner, he then attacks the arachnid by swinging onto her web sac only to retort back to him due to its heavy protection. "Goddamn bitch, how strong's your ass?"
"Sorry deary for having a strong "ass", but that's not a kind way to compliment a woman's looks." As she sprays webs onto his legs, he was suddenly stuck in paralysis, only to be suddenly struck with a heavy knock up of a metallic blunt weapon.
"He shoots, he scores. We got "ahead"!" I shout in excitement as the man stood straight as his neck was slightly overturned. "Ooh, that's quite a drag. He has snapped his neck."
"Boy, not so loud, the child is sleeping..." The arachnid whispers as she gestures a finger to her jaw.
"Ooh sorry..." I whispered before sprinting away.
As we all had our ways of fighting throughout the place to call this sanctuary a proper home for the dryad's people, we then managed to lower their numbers one by one as the sun slowly started to set.
As we did our best, we then took a rest by a small lit campfire as we dined on our scavenged fruits with our pre-packed food.
The dryad who didn't need to eat, watched us enjoy ourselves as she pats on a baby fox who was separated from her mother during the whole fight. As it slept soundly in a wonderous playful dream, it took its rest as the smell of burned wood filled the area.