"Magic Circle!" I tossed out a circle around us, and to my delight it knocked back the darkness and enhanced her spell. "Moderate Heal. Refresh!"
I started tossing out spells. Meanwhile, I ordered Celeste to toss some wind spells behind us, where our pursuers were starting to catch up. They couldn't make the 100 meter dash down the hallway with sharp wind spells being sent their way by a master magician.
"She really should be in my party…" I tsk'd in annoyance.
If she had the Party Up bonus, she might be fairing better than she was at the moment. I supposed enslaving her was a bit much to get slave bonuses, but anything would help. Unfortunately, it was too late now to invite her. That kind of thing couldn't be done in the middle of battle. I continued to cast restorative properties on her. She managed to look back in shock. She had heard I was a healer before, but she must have taken it for granted.
Now, I was casting out spells that probably looked a bit like a Priest. Her eyes held just a hint of suspicion and worry, but she was too busy holding off the attack to do anything. She may be a Paladin, and she may work for the church, but whatever she was doing now appeared to be outside her jurisdiction. Perhaps, it was that this Bandit King was her brother.
It was a story that was easy to guess. A sister went on to be a paragon of good, while the brother went on to be a Bandit King. Now, after hearing about all the evil deeds her brother has done for too long, she decided to finally do something about it. So, she disobeyed orders, came to a town she knew he had an interest in. Perhaps they were both told the same childhood story about a magical guardian. She tried to get the weapon first and failed, and once he realized she was in the city, he came after her.
The attack went on for a solid minute, once again revealing just how powerful this Bandit King was. I eventually slipped her a mana potion and let her drink that as well to keep going. When the darkness finally drizzled to a stop and she let down her light guard, I could see several bandits on the floor, unconscious. It looked like he had drained them to keep using the spell.
"Sister… enough with this. Give me the guardian… and join me. Together, we can have riches more than you could believe."
"I… will… never…" She collapsed to her knees.
I reached out and grabbed her. The Bandit King shot me a hard glare as he saw my arms around Carmine. He wasn't some kind of siscon, was he? The rumors about him had to do with his desire to be with this woman. I had assumed when I realized their familial connection that this was probably just baseless rumor, but seeing how he was watching us, I started to wonder.
Either way, with the help of the girls, I pulled Carmine into the door. The Bandit King appeared to be spent by his spell, as he made no further attempt to attack us. Instead, he just watched with a glower as I slammed the door shut. We had made it into the boss room of Terra's dungeon. It was time to fight the guardian, and hope he possessed the power for us to truly stop this Bandit King. Once we defeated the boss, they'd be teleported out to the entrance and would be waiting for us to pop out to attack.