The next two weeks of travel went by without incident. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to heal Jun's hand so he was stuck as the one-handed warrior, or at least that's what Sasaki started calling him.
I thought it was in poor taste but Jun seemed to think it was funny, at the very least he was adjusting well. Argo was beating herself up pretty bad over it, I can't say I blame her but it didn't seem like Jun regretted the decision at all.
"So that's Valiheim?" Yuna asked as she gazed at the port of the city.
"The name of the city is actually Leorio, it's the biggest trading hub and port city in the entire country," Jun explained as he leaned against the railing of the ship, his left wrist now sporting a bandage.
After a few more minutes the ship had been docked and we were finally ready to go. Christa seemed ecstatic to be off the ship, it was understandable considering she threw up 9 times from seasickness.
Sasaki and Arin were the next two off, they had offered to help the crew unload some supplies they were carrying here so their hands were full with a crate each.
Yuna and I also got off pretty quickly with Jun just behind us.
"So I guess this is goodbye," Erwin said and his brother smacked him on the back of the head.
"This ain't goodbye, this is a see ya later kinda moment," Edward argued and Argo quickly darted down the ramp and wrapped Jun in a hug.
"I'll miss you," she said and Jun smiled at the girl.
"I'll miss you as well," Jun said and Christa handed him something. A prosthetic with a knife on it.
"So instead of a hook, you got a knife for a hand," I joked and he smiled.
"This is for you," Argo said and Jun took the prosthetic and smiled at the girl, grabbing one of his two daggers and handed it to her.
"Something to remember me by," he said and the girl brightly smiled before waving goodbye with the rest of the crew.
We would see them again someday, I was sure of it.
"So what should we do now," Arin asked and we all turned to Jun.
"If we're trying to gather allies we should head for the capital, the city of Villia," Jun suggested and Sasaki nodded.
"And how far away is this city?" he asked and Jun sighed.
"It's about a seven-day walk from here," Jun said sadly and everyone seemed a little annoyed by how long the walk would be.
"Well then we should get going as soon as possible," I suggested "We'll stay here for one day, we leave tomorrow,"
Everyone nodded and we split into groups.
Jun and Yuna would purchase some food for the night, Sasaki and Arin would find us an inn to sleep in and Christa and I would gather information on the kingdom as a whole and where we could find allies sympathetic to our cause.
"So where should we start?" Christa asked and I looked around.
"We should consider stopping by the guildhall," I started and Christa frowned at me.
"We're gonna ask the thieves guild for help?" she asked and I quickly shook my head.
"No, the thieves guild doesn't have a guildhall. I'm referring to the Adventurers Guild," I explained and Christa looked at me confused.
"I thought they were from Aria," she said and I quickly explained again.
"There's a branch in each kingdom, they're not tied to any specific kingdom either. If we can convince this branch that we're trying to help the other branches will likely join our cause as well. It's a long shot but it's worth a try," I explained and the red-haired girl nodded as we walked down the street towards the guildhall.
I pushed open the doors and was greeted by a room that didn't seem to capture the energy of adventure. A few men were lying motionless on the ground and even more, men lying passed out on the tables.
I noticed one girl that was still conscious in the corner, she had black hair and black eyes and wore a simple yellow cotton dress.
"Are you alright miss?" I asked as I ran to her side, Christa acted fast and cast a spell to help her condition.
"Heilen," she muttered and light surrounded the injured lady and she slowly climbed to her feet.
"What happened here?" I asked as Christa helped the girl stand.
"We were attacked by desert bandits, Gunther and his team tried to hold them back but there were too many, they were all taken prisoner," the girl explained and I nodded.
"Do you know where they were taken?" I asked and she nodded.
"The desert bandit camp is outside of the city, if you head northeast you'll find a small oasis after you see it head north," the girl explained and I nodded towards Christa and she stood up.
"Will you be alright by yourself?" she asked and the girl nodded.
"You don't plan on going to rescue them do you, it's suicide, even the top team in the Adventurers Guild couldn't beat them," the girl said, her eyes begging us not to go.
"Don't worry, we have a pretty great team of our own," I said and I left the hall and went with Christa to the agreed-upon meeting spot to wait for the others.
After a few more minutes they all arrived and we explained the situation to them.
"Well we have to do something," Yuna agreed and Arin nodded.
"Agreed, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I left those men to their fate," he said and Sasaki nodded.
"If my master believes this is a cause worth fighting for then I will lend my sword to the conflict as well," Sasaki said, his usual lighthearted demeanor replaced by a far more serious expression and tone.
"I agree but we have something to take care of first," Jun said and we all turned to him.
"And what is that?" I asked and he gestured to his outfit.
"This is a desert nation, we'll have a heat stroke if we go into the desert dressed like this," Jun said and Sasaki nodded.
"That would make sense," he agreed and we headed over to a shop, we were given some coin by Edward and his crew so we had money to spend.
After a minute of browsing all of us had changed into clothes that fit our environment better.
I ditched my usual royal gowns for a black short-sleeved tunic, my lower half attire remained unchanged, however.
Christa ditched her leggings and was wearing a sleeveless pink vest with a short-sleeved white shirt underneath, instead of leggings under her skirt she opted to wear shorts instead.
Arin had a complete overhaul. He wore a tight black bodysuit and strapped various pieces of armor over it. He wore a chest plate, shoulder guards, forearm guards, knee guards, and shin guards. Every piece was made of fine steel as well
Sasaki had ditched his yukata and wore a simple short-sleeved shirt and long black drawstring pants. His haori however stayed on.
Jun simply ditched his jacket and purchased a pair of goggles to protect his eyes from sand storms.
And Yuna didn't purchase anything new. She did however ditch her animal fur top and was now wearing nothing but her bandage wrappings to cover her chest, a skirt, and her shorts.
"You're not leaving much to the imagination huh?" Jun asked while Arin blushed at the bold choice of attire.
"Well I'm certainly not complaining," Sasaki said and Yuna punched the samurai in the gut.
Christa didn't react to Yuna's attire and I noticed it but was more distracted by Christa. I had never fully realized it before but she was stunningly beautiful.
"You look good," I complimented and she smiled with a small blush.
"Thanks, you look good as well," she replied and I blushed in return.
"Look you two I hate to kill the moment but we have desert bandits to beat up and adventurers to save," Jun said as he motioned for us to get going and I nodded.
We stepped out the gates and we quickly were taken aback by the landscape. It was, like Jun said, nothing but desert.
Jun grabbed his compass and turned to us.
"You said northeast right?" he asked and I nodded, he looked to his compass and began to lead us northeast. My main hope was that the oasis wasn't too far away, I was probably gonna jump into it the second I saw it.
The sun was beating down on us and sweat was already rolling down my forehead. Jun and Yuna didn't seem to mind but that was likely because of their attire. Well, that was probably the case for Yuna, that girl needed to find herself a shirt, Jun was probably just used to the heat having grown up in this kingdom and all.
Then again to call it a kingdom wasn't accurate. This place wasn't a kingdom from what I'd heard. Valiheim was mostly a lawless land where the Adventurers Guild served as the closest thing it had to defense. It had a royal family but they were mostly just figureheads, the real ones who ran this country were the Thieves Guild from what I'd heard.
"There it is, that's the oasis," Arin said as we arrived at the pool of water in the middle of the desert. I was tempted to jump in but chose not to, it would be hard to fight if I was wet.
"So it's north from here?" Yuna asked and I nodded before Jun attached his new prosthetic.
"Let's move then," he said and we began to make our way north towards the bandit camp.
After a few minutes of walking through the harsh desert, we had arrived at a fortress in the desert. We had found the hideout.
"Alright here's the plan," I started and everyone looked at me. "Sasaki, Arin, and I will rush in and make as much noise as possible, we'll be a decoy. Christa, you focus on supporting and healing us from the rear,"
Sasaki, Arin, and Christa nodded and I turned to Yuna and Jun.
"I want you two to use the distraction we cause to sneak into the dungeon and free the adventurers, we'll need their help too," I explained and the two of them nodded.
We all got into position and Christa started the assault.
"Explodieren!" she shouted as the wall exploded and we rushed in, a horn blared and the bandits began to charge at us.
One bandit brought his axe down towards Arin but Arin easily parried with his shield and drove his sword through the bandit's chest. Sasaki also ran in and began to methodically cut down each bandit he could, his sword elegantly slashing through them in a single motion.
More bandits continued rushing out after that, I stabbed through them one by one. My sword flashing by in a flurry of strikes. Suddenly a small group of them was sent flying and I looked back to see Christa with her spellbook ready, I had assumed she had cast a wind spell.
"Get behind me!" she shouted and the three of us listened without question. "I can only do this once and then I'm spent, so don't waste this opportunity!"
I was confused by that, did Christa have a spell that was that powerful. She had never used it before. Perhaps the collateral damage would have been too great.
"Erdbeben!" she cried and suddenly the ground began to shake and I started to lose my balance a bit. I fell into Arin who caught me and Sasaki's face looked completely dumbstruck. Arin and I took note of this and followed his gaze to see what he was so astonished by.
The wall of the bandit's fortress had completely collapsed and the entire thing was in ruins but I was mode focused on the ground. Or rather the lack of ground. It was almost as if the shaking had caused the earth to split itself in two.
"Christa?" Sasaki asked, finally composing himself enough to speak.
"That wasn't me," she said as she collapsed to the ground. "the shaking was me but that wasn't,"
"Then who did that?" Arin asked and a voice rang out from the wall.
"That was me!" a young man yelled. He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore what looked to be mage robes and baggy white pants. "we appreciate the help"
"Hey guys," Jun greeted as he and Yuna made their way over to us.
"Wait a second?" I asked, "that's the guy we were here to save?"
A few more people walked out, three of them to be exact.
"We appreciate the help, but it was unneeded, we could have handled that on our own," a muscular man said. He had dark brown hair, onyx eyes and wore a black tunic and brown pants, he also had a battle axe on his back. "the names Gunther"
"Are you all that strong?" Arin asked, signaling to the massive hole created by the young man.
"Nah, Niko's in a league of his own, but we're not exactly weak," a girl said, she had long brown hair and green eyes. She wore a tight-fitting black sleeveless shirt and a red skirt with leather boots. She also had a dagger strapped to her thigh.
"You're very kind Kate," Niko offered as he began fixing the ground and another man came out. He was short and skinny, he had long black hair and black eyes as well as a Warhammer that was taller than him. He wore a thick brown coat and baggy black pants.
"I still don't see why we needed to wait so long to attack," he said and Kate turned to him.
"It was funny to see them act as they had done something, you need to let loose a bit more Kuro," she said and I was still confused
"Hey so, if you guys are this strong then how did you get captured?" I asked and Gunther laughed.
"We wanted to take the bandits out but we didn't know where their base was, so we let them take us right to it," he explained and I frowned at that.
"Yes you did," Yuna said and Gunther stopped laughing.
"Huh?" he asked and Yuna continued.
"Your secretary told us where their base was, that's how we got here," she said and everyone looked at Gunther.
"What?" Niko asked, clearly annoyed with his leader.
"Well let this serve as a lesson, never follow every order given to you-" Gunther tried to say and Kate quickly cut him off
"Kill him!" she yelled and the three adventurers all pounced on him.
I could already tell that these guys were gonna be a headache.