[Time: night]
Luvi and Goku had made their way to Rharne and just like that their vacation was over. It was never meant to be a long trip, but now that they’d visited Luvi wanted to make a longer trip next season. It had been an eventful journey filled with flying pigs and bandit encounters but it was nice to finally relax and head back ‘home’.
Only, travelling wasn’t very relaxing when it was just the two of them, or in this case, when she was alone. Luvi had a ring that allowed her to start fires easily, but simply starting the fire was only part of the equation. As she learned this afternoon, how one arranged sticks mattered. Simply laying them flat didn’t make for a sustainable fire. She tried stacking them in various ways until the fire kept going for a while.
Setting up a tent was also a big pain. When travelling in a caravan there were always people that could help her out. They even had supplies she could buy or borrow. But outside of that atmosphere she tended to forget things. On this occasion, she’d forgotten spikes for the tent so she had to find some rocks to use instead. They were imperfect and made the tent lopsided. It was better than sleeping outside at least.
Luvi would fall asleep on the hard ground after an hour of trying. She’d also forgotten a pillow so she was laying on a pile of extra clothes. Little did she know, they had been followed this whole time. It seemed that she’d had one too many bad encounters with bandits. Enough for a group of them to band together and try to get revenge. It was pathetic that they had to wait until she slept to attack, as they likely realized there was no chance that they could win if they faced her head on. Or was it smart? Luvi wasn’t the most tactically minded. She was only a Private and was used to simply being told what to do.
Luvi didn’t think she was hopelessly dumb, but she did make some questionable decisions from time to time. If she had simply killed every bandit she came across instead of giving them a chance… she would not have found herself in this situation.
A fire tipped arrow ripped through her tent. Luvi would have normally not noticed something like this - an arrow didn’t make much noise, even when tearing through fabric. But something had keyed her in on the fact that something was very wrong. It was the motion. She’d sensed something incredibly quick and that had jolted her awake. She looked to her side and, sure enough, the edge of her tent had caught fire.
More arrows followed, one after another though they landed in other areas of the camp. She lay there motionless for several seconds as she realized she could sense the motion of the arrows even if she couldn’t hear them. “Fuck, you have more important things to worry about,” she thought to herself as her hands started drawing runes all along her body. She opted for chained strength and speed runes across her whole body. She didn’t skimp on ether either – she made them strong.
The flame in her tent was spreading and there was no chance she’d have time to put on all of her armor on time. She did have time to grab a sword and pouch of projectiles, however. She sliced an opening in her tent and bolted. Her form would only be briefly visible in the flickering flames before she sped at the bandit that she saw. He shot a flaming arrow right at her but she had expected as much. Her sword whipped through the air, knocking the arrow to the side without even causing her pause. He fired again, and again to little avail. By the time he realized he needed to draw his sword, it was too late.
Luvi flung herself at the bandit like she was some kind of animal. Her fist was like a wrecking ball when it crashed against him, simultaneously knocking his body aside and tearing through it as she passed by, sending guts spraying everywhere.
The other archers had to do a double take when they saw the motion. Their fire tipped arrows turned to face her just as she spotted the flickering lights in the distance. “What in the hell is going on here?” she wondered. This whole operation seemed way too complicated. What were they after? She was only one traveler and while she did have some valuable items on them, she was hardly the easiest of targets. On top of all that, wouldn’t setting everything on fire destroy her valuables?
As before, she hardly had time to analyze the situation too hard. Her straightforward way of thinking only told her that these were threats that needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible. Then, she could go back to the camp and try to salvage what she could and help her horse, if it needed it. She sped towards the next bandit, expecting the arrow that came at her. She sliced the bandit’s head off before he could draw another arrow. Then, she started walking while looking for her next target.
Luvi sensed fast motion once again, but even if she could sense motion in a ten foot radius… that was hardly enough warning to dodge an unexpected arrow. All she could do was flinch as an arrow whizzed past her head. It was a lucky shot given how quick she was even as she walked. “Just how many of them are there?” she wondered as she started running again.
The bandits weren’t using fire tipped arrows anymore. They likely realized that they didn’t have time to light them anymore. That was not necessarily a good thing for Luvi, who had been relying on their arrows to help figure out where they were. She had to run to the trees for cover and only allowed herself to relax a little when she stopped hearing the thunks of arrows landing around her.
She absorbed the ether of the runes on her head and applied a rune of sight chained with a rune of speed in their place. Her vision immediately improved, allowing her to make out much of the world around her despite the time of day. She peeked her head out from behind the tree and saw five bandits around the camp who didn’t look like they quite knew what to do. They knew Luvi was in the trees somewhere and were aiming at the general direction she was hiding in.
They would be quite confused as they started to get assailed by projectiles. A kunai here, a shuriken there… they were at a distance where Luvi couldn’t land a killing blow with her projectile weaponry, but most of her throws landed. The archers ran to the other side of the clearing to take cover and rethink their strategy.
Luvi felt as though she had the advantage as she ran through the bandits' possible moves going forward. She walked along the treeline, keeping the archers in her sight as she approached. She tried to keep herself hidden at all times, but even if she was behind trees, it was fairly easy to hear her quickly approaching.
Arrows were fired into the trees and brush as the sounds Luvi made got closer and closer. They were understandably scared when they saw Luvi ran out from behind the nearest tree with her sword brandished. She knocked one arrow aside, dodged a second, but the third grazed her side. She didn't give them a chance to fire again.
“So, anyone care to tell me why you set all my shit on fire?” Luvi asked, forcefully slowing her speech to be more understandable. Her eyes widened when she recognized one of the bandits – the exact one from the day before. “You… I see the rune wore off if you’re able to hold a sword again. I guess that means that you gathered up some of your friends and sought out a little revenge?”
“…Something like that,” said the bandit nervously, “say, how about you disable our arms and let us go?”
Luvi sighed, “that seems like a habit that I need to train myself out of. No, I don’t think I’ll be letting any of you go. Try to at least make it a little bit interesting for me, would you?”
Luvi grinned and then sped forwards, clashing her blade with the nearest bandit and putting so much force behind her attack that his own blade sliced into his skull. It was harder to do this than simply knocking the sword away - she had to apply her strength in a very specific way to achieve this result. The pain made him let go of his sword, allowing Luvi to take it in her hand and toss it gently, from her perspective, at one of his friends. The weapon would go right through his body, disabling him in an instant.
The remaining three didn’t like their odds and bolted. Luvi chased them down one by one, killing the first two and keeping the final bandit alive. It was the one she’d met before and probably the one behind this ambush. She drug him back to the camp by his hair and tossed him into the fire. It looked like there was no point in sticking around without any supplies. She’d have to make her way to the next town before she could rest properly. But first... she went around and found all of her projectiles!
