"What the?! Sound the-"
Before the bandit was able to say the words, Defolta quickly shifted to her left side to throw her remaining dagger at the bandit. Before the second bandit was able to react whatsoever, she immediately summoned a Defolta Blade from above and stabbed the man's head all the way below.
"Motherfucker, that was close." Defolta sighed in relief as she picked up all her daggers. "If I did not react quickly, then they would no doubt screamed their ass out and alert the whole camp of my presence."
Now that the outside forces have been dealt with, it's time to tackle the hard part which is the interior of the camp.
"I believe I have the solution for your dilemma." Nekowa said with a confident look.
"A solution?" Defolta crossed her arms in anticipation, "Let's hear it."
"Aside from being a Magical Girl Administrator / Guide, my skills also involved subterfuge and espionage." Nekowa said, "I can turn myself invisible to the naked eye and share my vision among the Magical Girls who I guide. Such was the reason why I was able to evade Umbrina who was viciously on the hunt for me during my exile."
"Fascinating." Defolta was intrigued by the cat's abilities, "So you are saying that I can see what you see?"
"Yup, and the feeling is mutual by the way." Nekowa nodded, "With this ability, scouting ahead and planning for the next move is child's play for you. Allow me to demonstrate.
System Notification: Insight of the Neko, Unlocked.
Insight of the Neko: The Magical Girl and Nekowa perceive the world together as one. During this state, both share what they see, allowing them to anticipate enemy patrols and movements. This ability has a limit though, with a radius of 100 meters and a height of 20 meters. During the course of the Magical Girl's journey, this skill may be improved, allowing even greater distance, the marking of enemy's exact location, and many more.
True to her word, Nekowa flew off to the sky and activated her insight, showing Defolta a bird's eye-view of the entire camp from above.
"Woah, it's like having a second pair of eyes. Even my own vision is not impaired whatsoever." Defolta was truly impressed.
"That's not all. I can also speak with you telepathically, so we can share information discretely this way." The voice of Nekowa entered Defolta's mind and the Magical Girl nodded with an impressed look.
"Cool. Now let's get this show on the road then." Defolta eyed the camp with the cat's vision, spying bandits relaxing inside the camp. He then got a clear view of two bandits chatting with one another at the nearby campfire.
"Unfortunately, I cannot hear what they are saying." Defolta told the cat telepathically, "Are they saying something worth hearing, Nekowa?"
"You are not going to like this." Nekowa replied with a gloomy tone, "They talk about how they and many others violated some girl inside a carriage. And when they are done with her, they strangled her to death while still performing the deed. Wait, is that what you did not want to show me a while ago?"
"Yes." It took some willpower for Defolta to not give in to rage and charge blindly at the camp to massacre every bandit openly. "Those bastards, I'm going to give them hell."
"I'm no stranger to such terrible things, Defolta. Do not assume me of an innocent child that you must shield from whatever horrors that you see." Nekowa said with an unimpressed tone, "Rape among Magical Girls may be rare due to their strength, but it was still there, nonetheless. A Magical Girl is still susceptible to being violated against her will, especially when perverted villains catch her off guard and kidnap her, or even worse, some form of ravenous, uncanny freak of a monster assault her, leaving a traumatic scar for the rest of her life. Some Magical Girls fall into trauma and were never the same after that."
"I… see." Defolta clearly was in discomfort upon hearing that kind of information, "I shall take note of that, and I'm sorry for assuming."
"It's fine, don't worry." Nekowa assured the girl, "Let's just focus on the task at hand."
"Agreed." Defolta answered rather quickly, wanting to get rid of the subject.
As mentioned by Nekowa a while back, the camp consisted of tents that served as the bandits' household. At the north end of the camp was the biggest tent, no doubt its occupant being the leader of the filthy masses of goons.
"Wait." Nekowa said, all eyes on another group of bandits.
"What is it?" Defolta asked.
"Prisoners." Nekowa responded as she listened to their conversation, "There is an underground dungeon where they keep some people from a nearby village. We should save them."
"Of course." Defolta agreed in a heartbeat, "One more reason to dispose of the filthy trashes."
Thankfully, it was already dusk, and the duo did not wait long until nighttime hit the skies for them to infiltrate the camp unseen.
Unfortunately, the gate was still lock and they needed to act fast before the changing of guards, which the bandits would realize that something was amiss since no one was guarding the outside perimeter.
But a Magical Girl's strength is not to be underestimated. Even the weakest of the bunch was a whole lot stronger than a physically gifted athlete in their prime. As a result, Defolta was able to muster her leg strength and jump above the wall with ease, landing on an area where no bandits were present thanks to Nekowa's gift of insight.
There was the option of simply burning the whole encampment and be done with it, but as Nekowa said, there are prisoners below, and Defolta did not want to unnecessarily risk their lives like that.
Besides, Defolta savored the look of her enemy's final moments before their demise, the product of her Sadist skill, no question.
With her inside, Defolta looked around for any bandits who were basically isolated from any group, assassinating them with ease while hiding their corpse so as not to attract any attention. She also instructed Nekowa to search inside each tent to check if they were already asleep. Naturally, she sneaked her way first inside the tents of the sleeping bandits and silently slit each of their throats, their spilled blood stirring the sadistic streak of the Magical Girl who was responsible for it.
Even with 10… 20 Dexterity rather, it was enough to perform basic stealth maneuvers. After her failure to throw two daggers with both hands at once, it served as a lesson, unless absolutely necessary, for Defolta to never risk doing stupid shit beyond her capabilities like some crazy assassination moves that she played from those hitman games and a certain Assassin game franchise. (i.e. Assassinating from above, Chain Assassination, etc.)
If she's going to experiment, better to do so without the factors of real time risk. In layman's term… Practice.
Better stick to the basics of shadows. Assassinate one bastard at a time, hide their body, and wait for the right opportunity or move on. It was a sheer stroke of luck that she was permitted to perform a single dagger throwing motion despite only possessing minimal Dexterity.
Or scratch that, she actually had 20 Dexterity as per doubled by her Avenger skill. Perhaps the requirement to throw weapons as a sneak attack met somewhere below that value.
Of course, she could increase her Dexterity right here and then, up to 15, turning it to 30 max. But the basics still serve her well here, and it would be best to save her attributes to the situation that she needed the most.
Patience was her friend, and it rewarded her with the blood of almost every bandit on this encampment. Now the only thing that stood between her revenge was the large tent situated in front of her.
"I look like piss, but in red." Defolta commented on her appearance as her white attire was covered with the blood of the bandits she had murdered. "Alright, onward to the final boss, then."
As per Defolta's mental instruction, Nekowa first checked the inside of the large tent to see if there was anyone around. Much to their surprise, there was none.
"No one inside?" Defolta mentally said with a frown, "Huh, maybe I already killed their leader somewhere along the way?"
With seemingly no one around now, Defolta turned at ease and made her way inside the large tent, hoping to find information about the prisoner's exact whereabouts and how to access the underground dungeons.
Just when she was about to do so though, something suddenly struck her, an overwhelming force that sent her kneeling to the ground as her mental faculties went out of her control. Defolta clutched her head while screaming in sheer pain.
"Well, well, are you lost, little lamb?"
Defolta's blurring vision met with a sinister woman who greeted her with a cruel smile.
System Notification: Mind Check (10), Failed.
Avenger: Mind Check (20)
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Failed
Mind Deteriorating…. Risk of Dementia…
Mana: 190 / 200 (- 10 / s)
Note: Once Mana reaches 0, the Magical Girl will enter a state of Dementia and her Mana will continue to reduce to negative values. Normally, spells affecting the Mind only cause damage to an individual's Mana. But during Dementia, it also affects their Health as well. In addition, the Magical Girl is incapable of clear thought, coherent speech, and decision-making which overall impairs her cognitive functions. Once the negative value of her current Mana reaches half her negative Maximum Mana value, then her mind is now in a state of utter decay, rendering her completely obsolete who is devoid of almost every humanly function. In this case, the sweet embrace of Death is her only option of release.
"Fuck." Was the only word that Defolta muttered while she witnessed every drop of her Mana pool reducing to dangerous levels of low.