The five stepped outside only to be greeted by a small group of armed men and women of varying ages and races. Each of them wore a rugged facemask and a poorly made leather cloak.
Bellas reached into his coat and held his wand in a firm grip, then he stepped forward. "I don't know why you've all gathered here, but you must have mistaken us for other people."
A larger bandit carrying a chipped and rusty greatsword spoke up. "Enough of your chatter. This goes one of two ways: you part with the envelope you got along with all of your belongings, or we take them from your corpses."
The elf shook his head. "Ah, I had feared as much. Well, I clearly don't want to die, and seeing as there's, what? About fifteen of you, I doubt we'd win the fight..."
One of the bandits in the crowd spoke up. "Exactly, so just drop your stuff and scram!"
Bellas slowly pulled his wand from his coat pocket. "I wasn't done speaking. If you'd allow me, I still have one last thing to say..."
Frustrated by the mage's stalling, the large bandit stepped forward with an outstretched hand, reaching for his throat. "I've had enough; you should've just cooperated!"
Bellas sighed and flicked his wand towards the group. "Fall over."
Suddenly, ten of the fifteen bandits began to feel a sharp pain in their chests that quickly spread to their extremities. Slowly, they lost all the strength in their legs and began dropping to their knees one by one, incapable of movement.
Kedra's eyes widened at the scene. 'What in the world is that spell? Is that what "physical interference" means?'
However, she was quickly snapped back to reality by Mia's shouting. "Godsdamn you Bellas, you always miss a few!"
The mage fell back and allowed the rest of the group to step forward. "Yes, and this is where you take over; I need to cool off before firing another spell."
Mia, Gretta, and Kedra prepared to take on one bandit each while Lionel rushed forward to occupy the remaining two.
The first bandit ran towards Mia with a splitting axe held high; the pathfinder drew her hunting sword and intercepted her attacker's weapon before driving a firm fist into his jaw. As the bandit lost consciousness, she quickly kicked his legs out from under him and knelt down, bashing him in the head with her sword's pommel for good measure.
While they exchanged blows, another bandit prepared to attack Gretta, a short woman wielding two skinning knives. Seeing this, the alchemist grabbed a hold of an engraved pocket watch hanging from her hip.
As Gretta squeezed the watch, the chain began growing in length and thickness while the watch itself changed into a more circular shape and became adorned with dozens of vicious spikes. The sight of this brutal weapon made the bandit falter in her step. Gretta used the moment of hesitation to gather her weapon's momentum, hurling it into the bandit's chest.
Upon impact, the bandit's chest seemed to cave in with a loud thud accompanied by the cracking of bone. She promptly fell backwards and began writhing in pain; it was unsure if she would survive much longer.
Kedra couldn't help but admire the quick and efficient ways in which the two had dispatched their opponents, but the sound of a sword slashing through the air quickly brought her back to her senses.
She quickly pivoted and reached for her saber; however, she felt nothing but an empty sheath. 'Shit! My sword's at the engraver's right now!"
With a quick sidestep she managed to narrowly avoid the strike; however, the bandit did not give her a second to recuperate and immediately kicked her while she was off balance.
Kedra blocked the kick with both of her arms; however, the force of the blow sent her backwards and onto her rear.
The bandit quickly rushed to utilize the opening, but as he tried to take a step, he fell onto his face, dropping his shortsword. He quickly turned to look at his leg, only to realize that his Achilles tendon had been slashed. As he looked over to Kedra, he noticed a particularly sharp-looking knife in her hand made of pure ice.
Kedra quickly jumped up, grabbed his shortsword, and knocked him over the head with the pommel. After she made sure that the bandit was knocked out, she turned over to see how Lionel was doing, only to see him standing atop two unconscious bandits with barely a single bead of sweat dripping down his brow.
Kedra threw the knife aside and sighed in relief. 'Well, that went pretty well, though I'm burning through these ice knives really quickly; I'd better make more when I get back.'
The party quickly dusted themselves off and began walking away from the scene. Meanwhile, Bellas approached Kedra. "While today could've gone a bit better, it was still a success. We'll meet you tomorrow at dusk at the Boarsblood Inn, Lady Kedra."
The girl nodded and split off from the group, accompanied by Lionel. Before they could make any significant distance, however, Bellas quickly ran up to them. "One last thing, Lady Kedra, when you fought that bandit, how did you make that dagger without a wand?"
"Ah, I used one of these." Kedra pulled out one of the pieces of paper with the spell drawn onto it and held it towards Bellas.
The elf knelt down and inspected the sheet of paper. "This is interesting, but horribly inefficient. Surely you could just cast a spell, no?"
Kedra's mouth shifted into a crooked smile. "Well, about that, it seems I can't quite use channeling magic." She said in an awkward tone.
Bellas' jaw dropped in shock. "What? You can't use channeling magic at all? That can't be right... The Deslandes family has a history of having remarkably conductive bodies... Do you mind if I take a look at your condition? It won't take long."
The girl shrugged. "Go ahead, I don't mind."
"Alright, perfect, then give me your hand and wait a while." He said, gently grabbing her hand.
Bellas spent around thirty seconds in a trance where he attempted to slowly push small amounts of magic into Kedra's system to test her skin's conductivity; however, all of his attempts failed systematically.
Once he was done, he scratched his head in confusion. "Well... I'm stumped. It's not that your skin isn't conductive to magic; it's more that any external mana is forcibly pushed out. I sense foul play; we shouldn't rule out the possibility that you've been cursed."
Lionel grew outraged at the magician's words. "Cursed? Someone cursed such a young girl?! Bellas, is there a way to remove it?!"
The elf shook his head. "Now, now, I said it was a possibility, but I'm not certain. In truth, this is the first time in my long life that I've come across a situation as ambiguous as this. I'll look into it tomorrow and get back to Lady Kedra at the inn."
Kedra nodded. "Alright, thank you, Bellas. It won't do me any good to think too hard about this right now anyway. I'll see you tomorrow."
As the group said their goodbyes, Lionel began leading Kedra back to the manor. On the way, Kedra pondered the new revelations about her constitution.
'Well, I said I wouldn't think too hard about it, but that's impossible. It seems my constitution really is strange; first my blood that doesn't evaporate when used in circuits, now this... I can only hope Bellas finds out what's going on with me.'
'In any case, for the time being I should just focus on getting through my first day at the academy; I hope I don't run into too much trouble tomorrow...'