[ Mission ] Red Sand Bandits!

Rolling some more monsters

The member 'Allison' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Just then, yet another barrage of bullets shot out at the girl, forcing her to swerve and just barely dodge the majority. She beamed in the direction they had emerged from before dashing forwards once again with her blade and defeating the gun men, who still didn't really seem to be that powerful when it came to close, physical combat. Allison turned around once again, still smiling, but then a group of five thugs charged at her from behind a sand dune, catching the girl in surprise but still not managing to land a hit due to their poor coordination. Allison just beamed at them and then dashed around, slicing and slashing at their nerves and soon succeeding in paralyzing the entire group. She didn't bother to knock these ones out as she continued on her way, Lel Therina by her side and her supplies still slung over one shoulder.

After travelling for a while longer, Allison hadn't encountered any more of the Red Sand Bandits. She was kind of upset about this, since it meant that she could be getting out of their territory. But, she also was okay with it since that meant that no one had a chance of getting hurt if anything went wrong with the way she knocked them out, etc. Allison realized that her health was slowly ebbing away because of the scratch earlier by the two more powerful Red Sand Bandits. Stopping in her way to treat the wound, cutting around it and then squeezing and bandaging the thing up, Allison successfully removed the poison. However, she had already taken a little bit of damage from the gun men's surprise attack, and with those bullet grazings combined with the poison's damage, she had actually lost a significant portion of health.

19/30

HP: 85%
MP: 100%

Cooldowns:
Nerve Cutting Blade: 5 posts

Continuing on the way, Allison all of a sudden came upon the Red Sand Bandits camp.  It was a wide, but scattered kind of place, and seemed to have appeared from nowhere.  Nestled in what was almost like a valley, surrounded by tall sand dunes, the camp was completely empty at first glance.  There was a large fire pit in the middle of the area, and smaller structures built all around it, some possessing their own fires.  Allison slid down the sand dune she had been standing on top of, looking down at the Red Sand Bandits' camp, and decided to explore the place.  It didn't seem like anyone was here, but it was always better to be safe than sorry, of course.  She therefore proceeded with as much caution as someone like Allison could muster, which basically meant that she tried her best not to skip and sing.

The girl miserably failed in this attempt, but thankfully it didn't really matter.  The camp was empty, but obviously not abandoned as it showed signs of being used recently.  There were still warm coals in some of the fires, and unspoiled food was stored around the area as well.  Allison ventured into one of the houses and was surprised to see a little boy staring back at her.  Both of their eyes immediately widened, and he regarded Allison, who tilted her head to the side and then beamed at the boy, who leaped into her arms, nearly knocking the mage over.  As it turned out, the children of the Blue Sky Clan were being taken care of very well and had been distributed to families of the Red Sand Bandits.  Although they were raiders, the clan did have families and also compassion.

20/30

HP: 85%
MP: 100%

Cooldowns:
Nerve Cutting Blade: 4 posts

The mage wandered all around the camp after that, collecting the children from the various homes, as well as the other citizens, who had been treated similarly except perhaps with a bit more caution. The children, despite being hostages, had been free to wander around and play as much as they liked, as long as they did their chores and helped around the camp. Basically, they had been treated exactly the same as any of the Red Sand Bandit children, which relieved Allison. Nonetheless, of course they wanted to go home, and most of them were frightened anyways because the Red Sand Bandits had killed many of the villagers when they had raided the Blue Sky Clan's camp. The girl promised that she was on the good side, and she also told them that she was a mage who had been assigned to this task of rescuing them.

The citizens and children listened, well at least most of them did, and after a little bit of debate among themselves, decided that they would accompany Allison back to the ruined Blue Sky Clan camp. Thankfully, the now freed hostages did know their way back, which was a relief because Allison had stumbled across the Red Sand Bandits' camp just by accident and with the assistance of the nomad groups, and she had absolutely no clue which way was the right way to get back. The girl decided that she would simply protect the villagers from anything that tried to do them harm, and for the most part simply follow, trusting that they knew the way after living here their entire lives.

21/30

HP: 85%
MP: 110%

Cooldowns:
Nerve Cutting Blade: 3 posts

Fortunately, the children didn't seem to mind Allison's cheerful rambling at all, and in fact, they joined in, asking her questions about what life as a guild mage was like.  She was perfectly happy to answer them, since most of her travelling companions so far had ignored her and been annoyed, or told her to stop talking and been annoyed (Lel Therina).  The cat heard Allison's train of thought and sniffed, but inside she was rather amused.  Allison was probably ten years older than most of these children, yet she had the same mind set and perhaps an even lower level of maturity.  Lel felt some pity for the adult villagers of the Blue Sky Clan, who seemed to want to sink beneath the ground to get away from all of the babbling.  But they wanted to protect the children just as much as Allison-- and so they stayed, just barely putting up with the constant racket.

The mage was now beginning to enjoy this mission a great deal.  She was in Desierto, a beautiful country despite its general lack of anything besides sand, tribes, and nomads.  And the girl had all but succeeded in her mission by finding the villagers who had been taken hostage-- all that Allison had left to do was to escort them back to the camp, where the Blue Sky Clan warriors would take care of them.  Allison would miss the children, as well as the citizens, but she knew that they would be overjoyed to be back in their own camp after being forced to live among the Red Sand Bandits.  She had come as fast as she could, of course... but having such a terrible sense of direction had ended up getting her completely lost, which had delayed the time of the rescue.

22/30

HP: 85%
MP: 110%

Cooldowns:
Nerve Cutting Blade: 2 posts

After another hour or two of travelling, the group decided to take a break. The children weren't used to walking for such an extended period of time like this, and a few were almost ready to collapse. They had to keep moving in case the Red Sand Bandits had discovered that they were missing, but after continuously moving along, enough distance had been put between the two groups that they had a little bit of a slop factor. Allison just nodded when the citizens told her this, the children protesting that they could keep walking but internally rather grateful that they were stopping. The mage handed out water to the escaped hostages and skipped around a little bit, stretching and relaxing. She wasn't tired at all, and wouldn't be for some more time. Typically, Allison did a lot of skipping, running, and walking around the cities in Fiore during the day, since people watching was one of her favourite hobbies. The girl had developed strong leg muscles because of it.

Soon the break was over and the crew was back on the road... or desert path. They walked in between the dunes, because the citizens said that it took less energy that way and they could walk for further distances without being tired. The children were reluctant to listen, for they wanted to bounce around and jump off the sand dunes, but Allison managed to convince them that they would get home much quicker if they just walked normally. She also promised to tell them a story if they would all come down off of the rolling hills of sand, which worked. The girl told the story of a dragon named Azleandra, who was the poison dragon, as well as her trainee and poison dragon slayer, a girl named Catarina. It was a long story and had all of the children engrossed-- and also, it was a break for the adults from the usual mindless bubbling.

23/30

HP: 85%
MP: 110%

Cooldowns:
Nerve Cutting Blade: 1 post

The group walked on for a while longer, Allison telling more and more stories in attempts to keep the Blue Sky Clan children from running up and down the sand dunes. She was nearly out of stories, and Lel Therina was cautioning her to slow the pace of how she was telling them. By making each one last longer, perhaps they wouldn't run out before arriving at the camp. Trying it out, Allison realized that she just couldn't do it, and went back to telling them at a rapid, but exciting way that drew all of their attention back to her. The crew continued to be able to move at a steady pace thanks to this, with the children simply walking on auto pilot and listening to Allison tell her stories. Most of them involved places in Fiore, or magic and monsters that the desert tribe children had never heard of or seen before. Therefore, she had to do a lot of explaining about what a lot of the stories' elements were, which just added to the time it took to tell them.

And Allison just continued to talk animatedly, her beaming smile lighting up at different points and occasionally fading when telling a sad bit. But nothing could really keep her down, and soon the group was close enough that she could see the remains of the Blue Sky Clan's camp in the distance. The citizens obviously could also see that they were nearly there, for they began to whisper among themselves excitedly. The children ignored it all and prodded Allison to tell another story, so she began a quick one that would surely finish in the time that it took to walk there, maybe even less. If that happened, they would be so close to the camp that it wouldn't matter if the children went and played on the sand dunes, since they would be far enough away from the Red Sand Bandits that nothing could go wrong. Just a little bit more time...

24/30

HP: 85%
MP: 100%

The member 'Allison' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

All of a sudden, bullets shot out from behind them, a few aimed directly at the children but the others at the adults.  Allison easily dodged her own, and then formed a shield and leaped in front of the children, trusting that the adults could dodge by themselves.  She did help by immediately after the shield absorbed them, turning around and dashing in front of the barrage, so that the adults only had to dodge a few.  Fortunately, those they did, and then the girl immediately formed her nerve cutting blade and rushed away from the group, waving for them to continue on to the camp.  Dangit, the girl thought as she dashed forwards using the temporary speed boost from summoning the nerve cutting blade, I thought we had gotten far enough ahead.

She eliminated them quickly and efficiently, her shield taking all of the damage from their weak physical attacks and the few bullets that she couldn't dodge.  That damage that was reflected, plus what she did to them, was enough to knock all twenty out.  They didn't seem to have much endurance, after all, despite their large numbers, and Allison skipped away from the scene, leaving a note that said to leave the Blue Sky Clan alone, or else she would come back for them later.  Hopefully, they would just take her word for it and stay far far far away from the clan she had been assigned to rescue and protect... but if not, the girl would just have to make good on her promise, which she had a complete willingness to do.

25/30

HP: 85%
MP: 90%

Durations:
Shield of Mercy: 3 posts
Nerve Cutting Blade: 2 posts

Upon entering the village, Allison was jumped on by all of the children that she had rescued-- namely, nearly all of the children of the Blue Sky Clan. The girl immediately fell over into the sand and laughing, told them that even though the twenty gun men couldn't defeat her, all of them could knock her over in one blow. Some of them puffed up in pride, while others just smiled and a few were practical and said that Allison must have let them knock her over, to which the girl replied that of course she hadn't done so. They really had surprised her with their energy and strength, and the added momentum from jumping had easily defeated the poor mage. The adults of the Blue Sky Clan just looked on, some shaking their heads but most smiling and celebrating their rescue.

---------------------

Allison looked back at the camp, waving, then turned around and took a deep breath. Here she went again-- the girl was probably going to get lost and then finally make it home in several years after being trapped in Desierto the entire time, but it would have been worth it. With just a little bit of anxiety and a lot of trepidation, Allison took a step into the desert in the direction that was supposed to be north, back to Fiore, and hoped that it was the right way to go. Her mission had been successful, and so the female mage and her feline companion marched off, their latest adventure complete. Perhaps it would be a bit of a while before their next one, or even before they were back in Fiore... but as always, the two would survive and life would move on. Allison and Lel Therina disappeared into the sunset of Desierto, taking with them the memory of the children and the gratitude of the Blue Sky Clan they had rescued.

26/30

HP: 85%
MP: 90%

Durations:
Shield of Mercy 2 posts
Nerve Cutting Blade: 1 posts