Breaking Up The Band

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 24, Post Number 600

-The Desierto Border, 7:00 A.M.-

"It's so hot..." Abigail Windstrider complained to Victoria Sheridan as the pair strolled through the Desierto border check and headed into the wild and untamed desert. Abigail was wearing a midriff-baring white t-shirt and blue jean shorts with brown boots and a backpack filled with supplies, presumably food, water, and extra clothing. On her left hip was the scabbard for the Sky Blade.

Victoria was wearing a green t-shirt with the Azure Armor over it and black skirt with bike shorts underneath it. On her feet were brown hiking boots just like Abigail's. On her back was a combination tan backpack/hydration pack she had bought after her adventure with Captain Mercator, the captain of the merchant vessel known as The Traveling Merchant.

Victoria had grown dissatisfied with her small backpack, which was barely big enough to contain the Crown of Persephone and a few bottles of water. Her new tan backpack had a 96-oz. hydration bladder to drink from and plenty of space for supplies, including the Crown of Persephone, the Bandolier, and her Silver Dagger plus food and spare clothing. It was easy to wear and somewhat breathable, features that would be lifesavers in the desert.

"Yeah, we made the mistake of trying to travel through the desert in the middle of the day, but we're kinda stuck. If we go through the desert in the middle of the day it's gonna be hot as hell. If we go through the desert at night it's gonna be really, really cold. We'll also have to deal with even more bandits than usual." Victoria agreed with her friend but pointed out that they had little choice in the matter. Abigail sighed.

"Yeah, you're right. If you thought Desierto was bad during the day, just wait 'til the bandits are out at night." Abigail agreed with the brunette. Victoria kept walking forward and listened to the crunch of sand under her boots. The pair had a lot of ground to cover before they got to their destination, which was a village in the middle of Desierto named Berreb. They were to go to the village and speak to its chief about a job he had for them.

"Hey Abby, where is this place called Berreb anyway?" Victoria asked. Abigail fished out her iLac out of her right side pocket and tapped the screen, then rapidly typed out some words and placed her right hand over the screen.

"Hang on, Vic. I'm checking out the NeverLost GPS app. It should point us in the right direction." Abigail answered as the pair kept walking forward. A few seconds later a DING sounded.

"Berreb's 100 kilometers short of being in the exact center of Desierto." Abigail replied. Victoria wiped the sweat from her forehead and leaned over to check out the iLac screen that was presented to her. Victoria saw a digital map of Desierto and saw Berreb as a dot in the middle of a red square. Now that she had learned that, another question came to the brunette's mind.

"So, how long will it take us to get there?" Victoria asked her partner.

"About eight hours." Abigail casually answered the question. Victoria blinked.

"Oh, that's just fantastic." Victoria sarcastically remarked.

"I'm not thrilled either, but that's an unpleasant reality." Abigail said. Victoria sighed. She then recovered her resolve.

"Yeah, you're right. I hope you packed some sunscreen 'cause we're gonna be out here awhile." Victoria commented. The pair kept putting one foot in front of another while they began to sweat thanks to the merciless sun beating down on them from above. They had just entered Desierto, so they had a long and arduous walk ahead of them. They had at least eight hours of walking before they reached their destination and that estimate did not take into account any delays from breaks or fighting off enterprising bandits who roamed the desert during the day.

"Yeah, I've got some. Need it?" Abigail asked.

"Nah, I'm good. I've got some with me. I also put some on before I got to the checkpoint." Victoria replied to the question with a smile. She did not mean her statement literally, but it was good to see that Abigail had packed for the lengthy trip. The brunette had supplies to spare, but she was glad that the blonde had taken the initiative to pack supplies of her own in case the pair somehow got separated during the course of this adventure.

Victoria thought about the job notice sitting in her backpack and remembered that their task was related to The Golden Band, a gang of slavers that Victoria and Abigail had fought once before. Apparently the chief of Berreb had a grievance with them that needed settling but could not spare men to go after them because he did not want to weaken the village's defenses in case other raider gangs came calling. That was a reasonable concern. The brunette would be more than glad to go after the slavers if it meant getting a chance to kill them.

Despite Itori's request and Sabertooth's policy on taking evildoers alive, Victoria hated slavers with every fiber of her being and would gladly kill them if the chance arose. Unfortunately for her she did not need to look very hard for justification in killing them. Fortunately for her members of The Golden Band were outlaws to whom protections of the law did not apply, so killing them would not be a crime under the sultan's laws. Torn between upholding the guild's rules out of respect for Itori and following her natural inclination to murder slavers mixed with the bonus of not having to fear legal repercussions for killing them, the brunette would have a tough time with this job.

Killing them was not the hard part. Victoria was eager to end slaver lives and would be doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. The hard part would be following the guild's rules while also delivering justice to the victims of the slavers. She was supposed to take them alive to face the court system, but how was she and Abigail supposed to carry so many slavers to the Tri-Council City without fear of them overpowering the pair and carting them off into slavery?

Victoria took a deep breath of hot desert air and thought the matter over. Without Itori's versatile magic and expert planning to help, the pair was going to have a tough time subduing the slavers without taking a lot of undue risk. This was going to be a very tough job for her.

[Post Word Count: 1,105]
[Total Word Count: 1,105/11,000]

-Two hours later-

"Man, it's so hot!" Abigail complained about the heat. Victoria was getting more than a little warm herself. She was wearing Azure Armor and a backpack, so the heat retention was making her back and torso unbearably hot. However, Victoria could not take off her armor because the moment she did trouble would gallop over the horizon and she would have to struggle to put it back on. The brunette did not want a repeat of the fight with the pirates where she had left her armor below decks while fighting musket-wielding pirates.

"Tell me about it." Victoria replied sympathetically. Abigail looked at her and flashed a sympathetic look.

"You're geared up for a war, so you're probably dying over there." Abigail remarked.

"Understatement." Victoria replied in a tone as dry as the sand they walked upon.

"Why dontcha take the armor off?" Abigail asked.

"As soon as I do, someone wanting to kill us is gonna show up." Victoria answered dryly. Abigail laughed a little.

"I suppose you're right, Vic. Desierto is infamous for the sheer variety of bandit gangs within its borders." Abigail remarked. As if to validate the wisdom of the brunette's choice to wear armor despite the heat, a rifle shot rang out. Both young women knelt to the sand.

"You just HAD to say something." Victoria caustically remarked.

"Sorry!" Abigail meekly apologized. A dust cloud appeared from about thirty meters away and more rifle shots rang out. Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun to give her reply. She aimed at the first rifle-wielding horseman and waited for the horsemen to get closer before she opened fire. Recalling that members of The Golden Band wore white robes with golden collars, Victoria looked for that distinctive article of clothing before shooting. She did not see a white robe with a gold collar, but she saw black clothing with crimson sashes across the chest with crisscrossed bandoliers full of rifle bullets or rifle magazines.

"Are they enemies?" Abigail asked the brunette. Rifle shots landing near her caused Abigail to shriek. The quartet began to rapidly close the distance with the two mages.

"They're enemies!" Abgail answered her own question. With that question answered, Victoria led the first horseman for a meter and fired a Five-Round Burst that hit him in the chest and dumped him from the saddle. A rifle shot whizzed by the right side of her face and Victoria sighted a second target, a horseman clutching a semi-automatic carbine and shouting instructions. Victoria fired a Five-Round Burst that sent him falling to the sand when he wheeled his mount around to execute a maneuver of some sort. Two of the enemy horsemen lay dead on the sand, but there were still two more of them firing away at the pair.

The brunette aimed at the third and fired a Five-Round Burst that hit him in the head and cause him to topple sideways from the saddle. The last man, seeing that he had lost the numerical advantage and was hopelessly outgunned by the young woman wielding a Light Machine Gun, wheeled his horse around and galloped to safety. Victoria lowered her weapon and let the man go. Itori's influence must have stayed her hand because she did not shoot the retreating raider in the back even though he was sure to come back with some friends to get revenge on the brunette. If he came back with some friends, she would deal with them then.

Victoria watched the man until he galloped out of sight, then turned to Abigail.

"Well Abby, we got through that fight." Victoria said to Abigail. Certain that the hostilities were over for the time being, the pair stood upright again.

"I'd say. You're a walking arsenal, Vic. No one in their right mind would stay and fight someone who can whip out a LMG at a moment's notice. I'm sure you've got bigger weapons than that at your disposal." Abigail remarked. Victoria smiled a bit.

"Yeah. I've got a Rocket Launcher that can fire anti-tank rockets or heat-seeking rockets and a Grenade Launcher that can fire high-explosive rounds, Tear Gas Grenades, or Bean Bag Rounds. We probably won't encounter Armored Fighting Vehicles out here 'cause the sand would wear down mechanized vehicles not specially adapted for functioning in sandy locales, but you never know. Anything's possible when magic and technology work together." Victoria listed off the heavier personal weapons she could call upon and gave a brief rundown on what munitions she could fire from each. Abigail blinked.

"I recall you using those on our last adventure here, but I'm still amazed at what new weapons you pull out of your hat every time we meet, Vic. I wouldn't be surprised if one day you got even bigger and more powerful weapons like a field artillery piece or an orbital satellite laser." Abigail commented on the brunette's arsenal. Victoria laughed again.

"Who knows what I'll get next?" Victoria asked rhetorically. She had quite the arsenal of weapons, but she was not complaining. Fighting was how she made her living and having a variety of weapons made her able to counter different threats. If a heavily armored opponent or armored vehicle appeared she could use Bunker Buster rockets fired from her Rocket Launcher to attack them. If she needed to take out groups of enemies her Grenade Launcher could fire standard high-explosive fragmentation shells, less-than-lethal Tear Gas, or less-than-lethal Bean Bag Rounds.

"I sure don't. I'm glad that my partner's a walking arsenal because I don't think I could take on four men armed with rifles using my Sky Blade. They'd turn me into Swiss Cheese before I could get close enough to hit them." Abigail again answered the brunette's rhetorical question. Victoria listened to Abigail estimate her chances of living long enough to fight gunmen with her sword and refrained from laughing. While some people were fast enough or skilled enough to accomplish that feat, Abigail did not seem to believe that she could pull it off reliably enough to become the exception to the rule of never bringing a sword to a gunfight. Thankfully the brunette was here to draw some of the fire away from Abigail with her Light Machine Gun... with the threat that weapon posed most enemies would not give Abigail a second glance until Victoria was neutralized. Thanks to her Azure Armor Victoria could take the occasional gunshot and have a much better chance of survival than the unarmored blonde.

[Post Word Count: 1,088]
[Total Word Count: 2,193/11,000]

-Two hours later, deeper in Desierto-

"Are we any closer to Berreb? Are we even on the right path?" Victoria asked Abgail while wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her left hand. Abigail pulled out her iLac, brought up the NeverLost GPS app, and checked their current position.

"Yes, we're about 75 kilometers for Berreb. Yes, we're on the right path." Abigail answered both questions in the affirmative. Victoria sighed.

"Dude, it feels like we've been walking forever even though it's only been four hours since we entered the desert." Victoria complained. Her Azure Armor and backpack were trapping a murderous amount of heat from the sun beating down on her. Despite the risks she wanted to take her armor off, but she was afraid that the moment she did more outlaws would come charging over the horizon firing rifles at her and Abigail. Not helping matters was her carrying the Light Machine Gun in case trouble showed up... it was a bit of a burden to carry, but the moment she put it away was the moment she would really need it.

Still, the armor, the backpack, and the weapon were a lot easier to carry than a casket.

All three of those items would help keep Victoria from occupying a casket much sooner than she wanted to.

"Tell me about it. You've gotta be dying in that armor." Abigail said to the Sabertooth mage while wringing out her shirttail. Abigail's shirt was sweaty and clingy.

"I am, Abby. I'm positively dying, but I'm not taking it off until we're safe in Berreb." Victoria admitted that wearing the Azure Armor was a burden because of how it trapped heat near her torso. As breathable as the armor was, it was just not meant for wearing into a desert. The brunette would just have to put up with it.

"I can't wait to get to Berreb and get out of this sun for awhile. The sun's the worst part of all this. I can handle the heat, the bandits, and the sand, but this sun... it's a killer." Abigail said what was on Victoria's mind. She wrung out her shirttail again as the pair walked. The sweat wrung from the garment evaporated almost the moment it hit the sand with a small sizzling sound.

"Me too. I'm getting tired of the sun beating down on me with each step I take." Victoria commiserated with her blonde companion. The brunette's hair was so sweaty that it looked like she had not even bothered with a shower before leaving the guild hall. That was the downside of gorgeous long hair... it tended to get messy when saturated with sweat. Abigail's long blonde hair was not faring much better.

"Well, we've got four more hours of walking." Abigail reminded Victoria of the time they had to travel until they reached their destination. Victoria took a breath of hot desert air and wiped the sweat from her forehead as she put one foot in front of the other.

-Two hours later-

It had been six hours since they had left the border checkpoint behind and the pair were still walking through the desert. The midday sun was in the sky and it was still doing its best to murder them with relentless beams of concentrated agony that would not stop. Abigail was downing a bottle of water and Victoria was drinking from her hydration pack to avoid dying of dehydration.

It was getting to be a challenge to put one foot in front of the other. Victoria's feet felt like they were made of lead and her backpack might as well have been filled with bricks. The Light Machine Gun was feeling not-so-light in her hands and her armor might as well have been made out of steel plate for all the heat it retained.

Maybe Abigail had the right idea by not wearing armor.

Victoria wanted to take off her armor so badly that it hurt. She wanted to throw off her backpack and peel off the Azure Armor. Removing the armor would leave her vulnerable to enemy gunfire, but at this point she was willing to risk it for a little relief from the scorching heat.

Abigail was not wearing nearly as much gear as Victoria, but she had already taken off her backpack and was carrying it by the right strap. She was suffering from the heat and clearly wanted to be anywhere but here. Victoria was in the same boat. She wanted to be anywhere but here.

Capital Crocus would be paradise compared to this hot and sandy hellhole.

"Hey Vic, you OK?" Abigail asked wearily.

"I'm still here, Abby. How about you?" Victoria returned the question. Both of them wanted to hurry up and get to Berreb before bandits or heatstroke killed them. They had only two more hours of travel to go before they reached the desert village, but neither mage was sure that they could last two more hours out in the open with the sun beating down on them.

Abigail wrung her shirttail out for a third time and watched the sweat fall onto the sand and vanish with a sizzle. Victoria could not wring out her sweaty shirt because it was trapped underneath the Azure Armor. She envied the blonde for her lack of armor. Maybe once they reached the village they could cool off for a bit before having to go back into the burning desert to find and eliminate The Golden Band. If they were really lucky they would even get to change clothes into something that was not sweaty before they had to go find The Golden Band.

Then Victoria decided against it.

What good would changing her clothes do?

They would just get sweaty again faster than she could say "I hate slavers."

She would just stick it out with what she had on so that she did not get good clothes dirty for nothing.

The wind picked up and cooled both the mages down for a few seconds before it brought along something unwelcome. Airborne sand. As the sand pelted them and blinded them both mages yelled in frustration and their cries carried on the wind.

If Victoria never had to enter Desierto again after this job she would not complain at all. Abigail probably felt the same way but was too busy trying to keep sand out of her mouth to say it.

[Post Word Count: 1,078]
[Total Word Count: 3,271/11,000]

-One hour later-

After getting caught in a sandstorm about an hour ago the pair had had enough of Desierto to last the rest of their lives. They were hot, tired, and absolutely miserable. Their faces were caked with sweat and spots of sand that would not quit clinging to their faces no matter how hard or how often they wiped. When would this trip through hell finally end?

"I hate this place SO MUCH." Abigail fumed. Victoria was right there with her. The blonde had clearly reached her limit and the brunette was not too far behind. The blonde began to rant about the heat, the sun, and the sand that was everywhere. Victoria had not seen Abigail this angry since they had argued in Lycan Woods about Victoria's mercenary ways over a year ago. To avoid having that ire directed at her the brunette just kept her mouth shut and kept walking forward.

"I hate the sun beating down on us, I hate the constant heat, and I hate the sand. Sand, sand everywhere!" Abigail ranted. Victoria was not fond of the sun and the heat either, but she realized that most deserts tended to be hot and inhospitable. That would be like jumping into the water in Hargeon Town and complaining about getting wet. Still, Victoria knew where Abigail was coming from.

"We're almost an hour away from Berreb." Victoria tried to remind Abigail that relief was near. Abigail sighed and calmed down a little.

"Yeah, you're right." Abigail said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead and tried to remove a bit of the caked-on sand stuck to her left cheek that was left over from the sandstorm. Victoria reached behind her, grabbed her hair, and wrung her ponytail out. As much as she liked her new long hair and hairstyle, this was one of those times when she missed having short hair. While short hair still got sweaty, it was a lot easier to care for compared to long hair.

The wind began to blow again and the pair got more sand blown into their faces. It seemed that some cosmic entity disliked them both and wanted them to suffer because the pair were certainly suffering. Their yells of frustration were drowned out by the howling wind that threw more sand at them before the sandstorm subsided as quickly as it came. Abigail and Victoria began trying to remove the sand from their hair the best they could and hoping that they would find Berreb before yet another sandstorm came along to add to their misery.

The pair heard the CRACK of a rifle and the sound of galloping hooves from 100 meters away. They turned to face the source and found more of the men in black with red sashes galloping after them. It seemed that Victoria's gesture of mercy had been misplace because the person she had spared had come after them with some friends. Victoria's teeth clenched and she frowned deeply.

She should have known better than to spare his life.

Victoria raised her Light Machine Gun towards the first rider she spotted and fired a Five-Round Burst at the man's chest, making him fall to the right and out of the saddle. The next man Victoria shot at she shot in the head with a Five-Round Burst. The remaining ten riders continued their charge towards the two mages, who were hot, tired, and in a very bad mood.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Abigail fumed as she dropped to a knee to make herself a smaller target.

Victoria wordlessly dropped to a knee and aimed at the next man, who was 75 meters away and aiming a bolt-action rifle as he galloped. Victoria shot him through the head and he fell diagonally left, leaving his horse to continue the charge. A rifle shot grazed the pauldron of Victoria's right shoulder and she responded by firing a Five-Round Burst to his chest that killed him. The brunette stole a glance at the unarmored blonde and could see that Abigail did not like being helpless to help fend off the bandit attack. She focused on the next target, a man with a semi-automatic carbine leveled at Abigail at 60 meters, and fired, hitting him in the chest and sending him pitching forward.

The bandits continued to press their attack on the brunette, who was wearing bright blue armor and used a weapon that far outclassed theirs to make them pay for choosing them as a target. The surviving six were now within 50 meters of the mages and closing fast. Victoria fired at the lead horseman and killed him with a headshot. He fell from the saddle and the man to his right fired a shot on the gallop that narrowly missed Victoria's left ear.

The Sabertooth mage aimed at the man who shot at her and received a shot to the torso that bowled her over with the kinetic force behind the bullet.

"VICTORIA!" Abigail called out. The brunette groaned and sat up. She was winded and bruised from the kinetic force of the bullet, but at least the rifle bullet did not punch through the armor and pierce her flesh. That was why she always wore armor, even in the scorching desert.

The five riders continued to charge and were now only 25 meters away. Victoria sat up and aimed at the man who had shot her, killing him with a Five-Round Burst to the head. Another man fired at her and grazer her left pauldron. Now they were 15 meters away.

Abigail, no longer able to tolerate being a sitting duck, drew her Sky Blade, then stood up and charged at the bandits. Victoria, unable to rein in her partner, got to her feet and covered the angry blonde the best she could. She ignored the rifle bullets whizzing at her in favor of protecting Abigail. She spotted a raider aiming his carbine at her and fired a ten-round burst on full-auto, hitting him six times and killing him before he could shoot her.

A second raider halted his mount and aimed at Abigail as she reached for a man who had run out of ammunition and was loading a new magazine into his bolt-action rifle. The brunette aimed carefully and fired, striking the man in the shoulder and permitting Abigail to grab the raider by the leg and pull him from the saddle, then stab him through the chest with her Sky Blade before he could defend himself.

The last two riders, seeing that they were not going to win this fight, quickly wheeled their mounts around and galloped away as fast as they could go. Abigail stood over her kill while Victoria took a breath of hot air and looked towards the blonde. They had survived another bandit battle. Abigail wiped the Sky Blade off on the dead raider and put the sword away, then approached Victoria.

"Hey Vic, are you OK?" Abigail asked as she approached the brunette.

"Yeah Abby, I'm fine. I'm winded and I'm bruised, but I'm OK." Victoria replied, feeling the hole in the Azure Armor and locating it on the right side of her sternum.

"Now you see why I'm still wearing my armor." Victoria declared.

"Yeah." Abgail replied. She did not need a lecture to see the importance of armor. The blonde looked towards the weapons left by the dead raiders and saw an opportunity.

"Say, if we brought these guns and ammo to Berreb, do you think they'd have a use for them?" Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette grinned. She liked what Abigail was thinking.

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[Total Word Count: 4,546/11,000]

-One hour later, on the outskirts of Berreb-

Having dispelled her Light Machine Gun to fish out the job notice so that their presence could not be construed as yet another hostile force looking to kill and pillage, Victoria carried the bundle of eight rifles and carbines wrapped in a cloth that was once the face wrap of a dead bandit while Abigail carried the bandoliers of ammunition since they were lighter. After walking for another hour after the bandit attack the pair spotted a village of numerous adobe huts and a few houses. Abigail set down her bundle and fished out her iLac for a look at the NeverLost GPS app. Victoria stopped and watched the blonde as she put her hand over the screen to make it dark enough to read.

"Yeah, this is Berreb." Abigail said to her partner. Victoria smiled.

"Great. These gifts should make the chief happy. Unless the village already has plenty of rifles and ammunition. Then they'll just have more." Victoria replied as she shifted the weight of the bundle to make it easier to carry. She just had 300 more meters to go before she could offer it as a gift. The pair shouldered their burdens and walked the 300 meters until they reached Berreb proper, where they were greeted by a few men armed with rifles who were more curious than suspicious. Victoria remained calm and presented the job notice to the men, who read it and seemed to be happy once they read that she was here to help deal with The Golden Band. The pair were then guided to the chief's house, which was a long adobe house located in the approximate center of Berreb.

-Inside the chief's house-

"My men tell me that you're here to help us with The Golden Band." A middle-aged man with jet-black hair wearing a white shirt and tan pants with a tan vest said to Abigail and Victoria. The pair were glad to finally be out of the sun for awhile and were so relieved that they almost did not notice the chief's statement. Victoria and Abigail nodded in response to the statement.

One of the men handed the chief the job notice and he began to read it. While reading he looked at the two mages and his eyes went towards the bundles. He noticed the bundles they were carrying and asked about them.

"If I may ask, where did you get those arms and ammunition you're carrying?" He asked them.

"We took them off of some bandits we killed on the way here. They're yours if you want 'em. We don't need 'em." Victoria replied. Abigail nodded in agreement.

"What bandits did you "take" them from?" He asked another question.

"Some dudes in black clothes with red sashes across their chests. Why?" Victoria asked. The chief took a moment to match the description to a group, then smiled a little once he did.

"You killed some of the Crimson Sashes to get these arms and ammunition? That pleases me." The chief answered Victoria's question. Both mages blinked.

"Who are these Crimson Sashes?" Abigail asked the chief.

"They're a gang of bandits who have been terrorizing our village and the village of our ally Nebdoui for almost a century now. They're vicious killers who aren't afraid to kill women and children to get what they want. Lately they've been put on the back foot by a Wizard Saint and the sultan's army, but they're still as vicious as ever." He explained to the pair who the Crimson Sashes were and why he was glad that some of them were dead. Upon hearing that Victoria had no regrets for killing them. She had acted in self-defense and they were outlaws, so no legal repercussions were going to stem from her actions. However, Sabertooth's top brass might not be as thrilled with Victoria's actions as Berreb's chief was. Victoria could easily bear their displeasure if it meant giving the innocent people of Desierto a respite from outlaw raids by taking out some of those outlaws.

"And who is The Golden Band?" Abigail asked about the group the pair would be going after.

"We know that they're slavers because we've fought them once before, but we don't know much else about them." Victoria explained that while they had a little knowledge of the group gleaned from their first encounter, they did not know very much about the slavers. The chief frowned.

"They're a relatively new outlaw group. They first appeared about eight months ago and they're the new guys on the block, but they've made a name for themselves as slavers. They're not as numerous as the Crimson Sashes or other established outlaw groups, but they make up for it with plenty of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic carbines. They were also early adopters of guns... we don't know where they're getting them from, only that they conduct slave raids to get captives to either trade for guns and ammunition or to sell for cash." The chief explained the significance of The Golden Band and what made them so special.

"They tend to prey on isolated desert villages like this one because the sultan doesn't care about what happens to us. They also attack caravan routes for slaves and plunder to finance both the acquisition of new weapons and slave raids deeper into Desierto. However, it's not all bad news. They've been clashing with the Crimson Sashes and other established outlaw groups, which gives us a break and allows us to build up defenses and get better weapons." The chief added. While what he had told them was grim news, it was not all grim because the slavers had been clashing with other established outlaw groups who did not appreciate the newcomers muscling in on their action. That infighting allowed their victims time to build up defenses and get weapons with which to defend themselves.

"Do you have any idea where these slavers are located?" Abigail asked the chief. He shook his head.

"We don't have an exact location for their camp. All we have is a general direction." He answered. Victoria and Abigail were not pleased to hear that, but if a general direction was all he knew that was all he knew. No amount of being displeased could magically compel him to tell them what he did not know.

"OK. Just point us where we need to go and we'll go deal with them for you." Victoria said. While they wanted to take a few hours off and cool off after the eight-hour walk just to get here, they had a job to do.

"Where would you like us to put these weapons?" Abigail asked.

"Just leave them on that table over there." He said with a smile, pointing towards a well-worn wooden table sitting against the right wall. The pair obliged; Victoria gently set down the rifles and arranged them in neat rows and Abigail set the bandoliers of ammunition down to the right of the weapons. The chief and his men were pleased with the gifts in more ways than one. Not only were they receiving more arms and ammunition, but these weapons had been taken from dead enemies, which meant that their enemies had lost some soldiers and would need time to replenish their ranks before they could make further raids.

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[Total Word Count: 5,777/11,000]

"How do you want us to deal with The Golden Band? Do you want us to bring them in alive or do you want them dead?" Victoria asked the chief. While Sabertooth policy dictated that all villains be taken alive, the guild also had to take into consideration what the clients wanted.

"It doesn't matter to me how you deal with them. I just want them gone." He answered, giving the two mages carte blanche to deal with the slavers as they saw fit. Victoria found herself smiling a lot wider than she should. She was supposed to bring evildoers in alive, not kill them just because someone had given her permission to. Still, she could not help herself. Slavers were among the brunette's most detested enemies and she was reluctant to pass up any chance to permanently eliminate some of them, especially when she would not be legally punished for it.

"Do not forget that any arms and ammunition you can bring back are always welcome." The chief added. Victoria did not need much motivation for this job.

Victoria was always ready to go punch the slavers in the face, but Abigail was not nearly as enthusiastic as the brunette was. In fact she looked like she was about to drop where she stood. Abigail sat down and held her head in her hands.

"Um, Abby... are you OK?" Victoria asked her partner.

"I don't feel so great, Vic. I think I spent too long in the sun." Abigail admitted. She was not looking too good and acted like it. The chief showed concern and ordered two of his men to help the blonde to her feet. They gently raised her from a sitting to a standing position

"Your friend needs medical attention because she has spent too much time in the sun. We will take care of her. I feel that it is best for you to wait until nighttime to go after The Golden Band." The chief informed Victoria that Abigail would be cared for and suggested that the brunette wait until the sun was down before going after the slavers. Victoria looked at her friend and readily agreed. Even though it would be as cold as a Capital Crocus millionaire's heart out in the desert at night, being cold beat having heatstroke or heat exhaustion. The pair had thought that they were ready for travel in the desert. They were wrong.

"OK. I'll wait until the sun sets before I go after The Golden Band. I'm also concerned that the Crimson Sashes might have followed me here because I killed over a dozen of their people in two separate skirmishes, so I'll stand outside the village and wait for them." Victoria said to the chief. He smiled at her.

"While I appreciate your concern and willingness to help deal with that problem, there's no need to wait for them outside the village. Just wait behind our waist-high adobe walls and let them come to you." The chief offered an alternative to Victoria's idea. The brunette readily accepted it.

"I'll just wait behind the walls then. If they show up I'll deal with them. That way everyone wins. I deal with a bandit problem with a greatly reduced chance of getting shot and you guys get more weapons and ammunition from dead bandits." Victoria said to him.

"Exactly." The chief answered after the pair finally reached an understanding on how to handle that particular problem.

"OK, I'll be outside for awhile. When nightfall arrives I'm going after The Golden Band." Victoria said to the chief. She then left the adobe house and went to the walls to wait for the Crimson Sashes to arrive. She was sure that the two survivors of the last skirmish had fled to get reinforcements for a third attempt to kill the brunette. She would be glad to let them try. Berreb would get more weapons and ammunition out of the deal while the Crimson Sashes threw more men away in a vain attempt at revenge.

-Berreb, at the village walls-

Victoria was walking along the inside perimeter of the village walls and keeping a look out for the Crimson Sashes, The Golden Band, or any other outlaw group looking to attack Berreb. She should have killed all the Crimson Sashes after the second skirmish, but she had been too winded to raise her LMG in time before they vanished over the horizon. If they showed up a third time she would not repeat that mistake. She would make sure that none of them lived to report back to their bosses. Then the wind blew and slapped her in the face with her own ponytail as if Itori were delivering a physical rebuke.

That was not the Sabertooth way and Victoria flirted with disaster every time she killed a bandit, a cultist, or another evildoer without trying to bring them in alive. She could be kicked out of her guild or worse. She wanted to stay with Sabertooth and remain friends with Gaia, Itori, and the others, but the brunette did not feel like she was obligated to take in every last evildoer alive. There were some evils that were just too dangerous to try to bring in alive. For example, Zupazu's Executioners had vowed that if they were to ever capture her alive she would end her life on a sacrificial altar.

Victoria thought about her stance a little more. As a Sabertooth member she should be doing everything she could to follow its rules, but as a mage of a Legal guild she was obligated to stop evildoers by any means necessary, including lethal force if the situation called for it. However, the part about lethal force was that kept tripping up the brunette. She had no problem with using it, but that was exactly the problem. Using lethal force came a lot easier to her than it should for a member of a Legal guild.

It was not Sabertooth's way to gun down every bandit who shot at them, but the brunette could not argue with the results. Unlike live bandits spared out of mercy, dead bandits did not come back to torment people time and time again. The people of Desierto would not mourn the loss of the bandits either. Dead bandits could not terrorize their villages, murder their inhabitants, and steal their valuables. By the same token, dead slavers could not capture people and take them into slavery.

There was a good chance that Victoria's street kid attitude was leaking through and affecting her judgment. As a street kid she had been repeatedly bullied, threatened, and attacked with impunity. People in authority who should have stood up for her and protected her either could not or would not: usually it was the latter. The only hard and fast rule on the streets was "might makes right." Over two years and countless battles later Victoria had enough magical might to not only defend herself but to also fight for those who could not defend themselves.

If she had the power to defend people, why not use it to actually defend people by removing problems permanently instead of just slapping slavers on the wrist before sending them to time-out in the corner and threatening to tell their parents that they had misbehaved?

That was Victoria's thought on the matter.

[Post Word Count: 1,230]
[Total Word Count: 7,007/11,000]

-Berreb, five hours later-

Victoria was still walking the perimeter of the village to be ready for either a Crimson Sashes attack or any bandit attack when she felt like she had been hit with one of her own Tranquilizer Rifle darts. She was sweating profusely and had not taken off the armor, so maybe the temperature had finally gotten to her. Maybe she should just call it a day and go stay somewhere cool for a few hours before she had to go look for The Golden Band's camp. She also wanted to see how Abigail was doing after what had happened in the chief's house.

As she went to check on Abigail she gave into a moment of introspection and thought about her earlier cavalier attitude towards Sabertooth's rules concerning lethal force.

The brunette should try harder to observe them. She knew what the rules were the moment she signed up because the Guild Master of the time, Ryo Knetegawa, told her exactly what they were. If she had had objections that day she should have kept walking and found a guild that did not have a stance she disagreed with, but she had chosen to sign on with Sabertooth anyway. As long as she was a part of the guild she would have to abide by guild rules, even rules she did not agree with.

Victoria was glad to have joined Sabertooth because she had gotten to meet Gaia and Itori plus a number of other interesting people, but she found the rule concerning lethal force to be a bit... idealistic. Of course that was her "street kid" side talking. The street kid had a cavalier attitude towards rules that were illogical or inconvenient for her. It was not the right attitude to have, but until Lawrence Sheridan came into her life to protect her and teach her magic it was the best attitude for her to have. Living on one's own in the streets of a major city made it a necessity to develop a certain ethical flexibility or die from starvation or violence.

The brunette had opted to develop the ethical flexibility to eat out of dumpsters, steal food from street vendors when all else failed, and fight with any weapon she could get her hands on to even the odds against opponents who tended to be bigger and taller than her. Playing by the rules would only get her killed because her opponents did not have to play by them. When her opponents were street people just like her, they were already marginalized, so they felt no compunction to play by the rules. When her opponents were rich people, they could easily get out of trouble with either money or influence.

When going up against odds like that, why would she deliberately handicap herself just for the feeling of doing the right thing?

Even thought her street days were long behind her, Victoria still held onto the mindset that sometimes the rules had to be bent to stay alive. Were Zupazu's Executioners concerned about the rules when they kidnapped people to be human sacrifices and killing them on sacrificial altars or offering them up to their demonic patron? They did not care about the rules, so why should Victoria hold back against them, especially when they had promised that she would go onto a sacrificial altar if they ever took her alive? What kind of victory was to be gained by taking them alive when they would only continue their work to bring demons into the world?

Victoria had no idea what was to gain by taking them alive. She was a fighter, not a thinker. She was not good at long-term planning and her "live for the moment" attitude left her even less able to properly work through moral problems more complex than "The demon cultists are evil, wipe them out!" While most clients did not care how their problem got solved just as long as it got solved, Sabertooth expected a little more from its members than attacking every problem with a brute force approach.

The brunette sighed. Her attitude was going to get her into a lot of trouble one day. If the worst happened and she were cast out of Sabertooth, she would most likely go her own way and run the Guildless circuit for awhile before either finding a new guild to join or continuing to remain Guildless. While being Guildless was a step down from the security of a guild mage's life, in return she would become a free agent who did not have to worry much about rules governing force unless the client specifically set them.

She could use as much force as she wanted and few people would complain as long as she got the job done. It was simultaneously an easy life and a hard one. She would have the freedom to take whatever jobs she wanted and would not have to follow idealistic rules. However, if the brunette got into trouble on a job or with a crime family, she would not have a guild to support her or come to her rescue. Another downside to take into consideration would be that she would she have any friends like Gaia or Itori.

They probably would not want to hang around her after she left Sabertooth, so Victoria would have to find new friends among fellow Guildless or just go it alone. She could not blame them. Why would they want to hang around with someone who flouted one of their guild's most important rules, especially after Itori had suggested to the brunette to find more less-than-lethal means of taking down opponents?

Victoria felt the wind blow her ponytail about and dreaded a sandstorm, but for once the wind did not bring sand with it. She decided to put her current line of thought on hold and focus on going to visit Abigail before she had to go find The Golden Band and deal with them. Maybe Abigail would be well enough to accompany her on the trip. Traveling at night should be easier on them both since the merciless sun would not be tormenting them, but nighttime travel brought its own set of problems.

Unless tonight was a cloudless night with a full moon, visibility would be limited at best. Neither Victoria nor Abigail had packed Night Vision Goggles or flashlights, so they would have no means of lighting the way. Even if they had thought to pack flashlights using them would bring trouble because flashlights would make them stand out in the dark desert and serve as a neon sign to bandits that prey was around.

Another problem with nighttime travel was that The Golden Band would be far from the only outlaw gang roaming the sandy expanses of Desierto. The Crimson Sashes and other gangs would take advantage of the cooler temperatures to hunt for prey. The Crimson Sashes had extra motivation to come out tonight because Victoria and Abigail had killed around a dozen of their members, so the mages would have to be particularly careful while they traveled to and from The Golden Band's camp.

The last major problem would be the temperature. While high temperatures were dangerous, low temperatures could be equally dangerous. Victoria had not packed clothing for cold weather other than a hooded jacket and a long-sleeved shirt and she did not know what kind of extra clothing Abigail had brought with her, if any. She might have to loan Abigail the jacket and wear the long-sleeved shirt. That would be the case if her companion was well enough for the trip.

Victoria hoped that she was because taking on a gang of slavers by herself was a daunting prospect.

[Post Word Count: 1,293]
[Total Word Count: 8,300/11,000]

-Inside the doctor's house, five minutes later-

Thanks to a helpful villager Victoria found the long house that housed the village doctor and Abigail, who was recovering from an ailment so intense that she could not stand without assistance. Thankfully two of the chief's men had helped Abigail to the village doctor so that she could get treatment before it was too late. Victoria looked to the left and saw Abigail lying on a cot pushed against the far right corner.

"Hi there. I'm here to see about Abigail." Victoria said to the doctor, a dark-haired middle-aged woman in white robes. The woman looked towards the blonde and smiled at Victoria.

"She's doing just fine, dear. She had just spent too much time in the sun, that's all. Next time you two need to be more careful about when you travel. You also might want to wear lighter clothing like your friend did." The woman gently admonished the pair for traveling so early in the day when the sun was at its hottest.

"I'll keep that in mind next time. Thank you." Victoria thanked the doctor for giving Abigail prompt treatment. She then walked down the middle of an aisle created by two rows of six cots that sat ready to accommodate up to twelve patients at a time. Victoria reached the cot occupied by Abigail and greeted the blonde.

"Hey Abby, are you OK?" Victoria asked her partner. The blonde sat up slowly and sat up straight, then looked at the brunette.

"I've been better, but the doctor told me that I'm gonna be OK. I just need to avoid the sun for awhile. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to help you find The Golden Band's camp." Abigail to Victoria the news. The brunette did not want to hear that, but that was the reality of the situation. If Abigail was in no shape to travel, then she was in no shape to travel. It would be better to leave her here in a relatively safe place than it would be to take her out into the nighttime desert and risk her getting sick and lost or sick and captured because she was too ill to defend herself.

"It's fine, Abby. The chief suggested that I wait a few hours before I go out searching for The Golden Band so that I'm traveling when it's not quite so hot." Victoria told her partner about the chief's suggestion. The blonde perked up a bit.

"So you're going out at night, huh?" Abigail asked. Victoria nodded.

"That's kinda risky because we don't have any flashlights or Night Vision Goggles. How are ya gonna find them?" Abigail asked another question. The Sabertooth mage did not have a very good answer for that question and paused.

"I... I'm not sure, Abby. I was thinking of going in the direction that the chief had last seen The Golden Band riding in, but I'm not sure if going out at night's a good idea." Victoria answered after a pause to think the answer through. Abigail nodded.

"Me neither, Vic. But we were hired to get rid of The Golden Band, so something's gotta give. We either set out at night or set out in the late afternoon tomorrow." Abigail said to Victoria. The brunette blinked.

"We?" Victoria asked. The blonde had just stated that the doctor had told her to avoid the sun for awhile and now she was talking about going back out into it. Victoria was not sure that that was such a good idea, but Abigail was not budging.

"Did I stutter?" Abigail aggressively asked the brunette a rhetorical question. Victoria was used to the blonde being verbally aggressive from time to time, but Abigail had not been this aggressive since the argument in Lycan Woods. The brunette was momentarily stunned by the blonde's tone.

"Look, Vic. You're gonna need help against those slavers. As big an arsenal as you have, you're still just one mage going up against dozens of slavers. You'll need me to help you." Abigail explained why she was going with Victoria in a softer, less aggressive tone.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Abby. But I can't keep you here. Just be sure that you're up for the trip before you leave here 'cause once we get going we won't be going back to Berreb for awhile." Victoria advised her partner that if she really wanted to help the brunette later tonight or early tomorrow that she had better be ready for a long trip. Once the pair got going they could not suddenly turn around and return to Berreb if the blonde got cold feet.

"I'll be ready." Abigail assured her. Just as her partner said that Victoria had finally reached the limit of what she could stand and took off her backpack, placing it on an empty cot. She then took off the Azure Armor after wearing it in scorching temperatures for over half the day. The cooler temperature inside the doctor's house hit her almost immediately and the brunette shivered.

"It's about time you took off that armor, Vic. I don't see how you could stand wearing it for so long." Abigail said to Victoria. Victoria wordlessly held the armor up with her right hand and pointed towards the rifle bullet lodged in almost the exact center with the index finger of her left hand.

"Oh. Yeah, that's a good reason." Abigail quickly conceded. Victoria laughed.

"Yeah. This armor's saved my life on more than one occasion." Victoria added. She then felt her torso and felt a jolt of pain that was so intense that it took her breath away.

"VICTORIA!" Abigail called out. The doctor immediately hurried over to Victoria.

"I'm OK, Abby. I just forgot that I had that bruise from the rifle bullet my armor stopped. A bruise is a lot better than feeding the vultures." Victoria assured Abigail that she was OK. The doctor motioned for Victoria to turn to face her and lift her shirt. Victoria set the Azure Armor down on the same empty cot her backpack occupied and complied.

"Oh my. That's a nasty bruise you have there." The doctor said to Victoria, gently examining the site of the bruise.

"If I hadn't been wearing my armor, a bruise would be the least of my worries. I likely wouldn't even be standing here." Victoria replied to the doctor. The brunette winced as the doctor examined the site. Even a gentle touch hurt like she was being poked with a sharp object.

"I don't think you have any internal injuries, but let me check anyway. You don't need to go out into the desert and start coughing up blood or something." The doctor said. The woman had made a valid point, so Victoria stood where she was and let the doctor conduct the necessary examination. She just hoped that the checkup could be completed before nightfall so that the brunette could get going on the way to The Golden Band's camp and deal with them for Berreb's chief.

[Post Word Count: 1,186]
[Total Word Count: 9,486/11,000]

-Inside the doctor's house, ten minutes later-

"You don't have any internal injuries, dear. You're very lucky." The doctor told Victoria. The brunette grinned.

"Thanks, Doctor." Victoria replied and lowered her shirt.

"Just be careful out there. Be sure to wear that armor of yours so that you don't come in here with any serious wounds." The doctor advised her. The brunette nodded. She might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but even she knew the importance of wearing armor when bullets started flying.

"What will you do until nightfall, Vic?" Abigail asked.

"I'm planning on staying out of the sun until-" Victoria started to give her answer before she heard the sound of shouting and men running by. A young man in khaki clothing with a bolt-action rifle stuck his head and torso through the doorway of the doctor's house.

"THE CRIMSON SASHES ARE HERE! THE CRIMSON SASHES ARE HERE!" He shouted a warning before running off to join the other men mustering to repel the bandit gang. Victoria's heart skipped a beat. They had followed her here after all!

"Damn it! It figures that the moment I take my armor off something like this happens!" Victoria cursed as she seized the Azure Armor and hurriedly put it on, lifting it above her head and twisting and turning until the armor dropped into place on her body. Once the struggle to put it on had finished she quickly pawed through her backpack and found the Bandolier that had been a gift from Itori. She put it on and hurried out the door to go help the villagers repel the bandit attack.

-On the western perimeter wall-

Once she had reached the waist-high wall Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun and took a place on the wall to the left of the same young man who had warned her, Abigail, and the doctor of the bandit attack. She opened up the bipod and carefully set it on the wall, making sure that it would not fall off. She would need the extra stability for prolonged firing at the bandits who were massing for a charge. Victoria had been on the defensive before, but she rarely had the luxury of walls to take shelter behind. Fortunately for her she was in a position where she could use the LMG's rapid fire and bipod to their fullest.

Victoria found herself wishing that she had a Heavy Machine Gun as part of her arsenal since it was designed for stationary firing for extended periods of time. However, a LMG would do nicely. It still had a formidable rate of fire and a bipod, which made it almost as good for defense as a HMG.

Victoria aimed at the mass of bandits about 800 meters away and waited until she was given the order to fire. All along the wall she heard the solid CLACK-CLACK sound of bolt-action rifles loading rounds into their chambers and felt a chill despite the temperature. Things were about to get very ugly.

Victoria took a deep breath and waited for the action to begin. It would not take too long because the bandits had massed into a line of men ten men wide and at least seven ranks deep. She did not have time to do an accurate count, but she counted at least seventy men charging towards them. She felt kind of flattered that a bandit gang would go to this much trouble just to get back at her for killing a few of their men.

"Hold your fire!" A stern voice bellowed. Victoria's right index finger hovered over the trigger but did not squeeze it. The bandits were now 700 meters away from the wall.

Victoria gently exhaled. Men had braced their rifles on the wall to get a better chance at an accurate first shot. She looked up and down the line and saw that they were ready to fight.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" The command was repeated. Again the brunette kept her finger off the trigger. She kept her aim on the chosen target and held her fire until the command was given. The bandits were now 650 meters away from the wall.

Victoria felt the sun beat down on her, but that was of little concern to her. She was more worried about the firefight that was about to take place. The bandits were now 600 meters away.

"Let them get a little closer!" The voice ordered. Victoria watched the Crimson Sashes close to 575 meters. Men steadied their rifles and waited for the order to fire.

The bandits were now 550 meters away. Victoria was beginning to chafe at the order to hold fire. What was the commander of Berreb's militia waiting on, an engraved invitation?

The charging men were now at 525 meters. If they waited too much longer to begin shooting the Crimson Sashes would be climbing over the walls.

"Steady..." The commander bellowed.

"Steady..." He repeated. Victoria estimated that the bandits were now at 500 meters or less.

"FIRE!" The commander ordered. The men fired an orderly volley of rifle shots that slammed into the first rank of attackers, sending many of them toppling from their mounts. The second rank charged past and began firing back at the defenders. Victoria heard yells to her right and the sound of bodies hitting the sand before she aimed carefully and began shooting.

The first bandit fell from the saddle from ten shots to the torso and she focused on a second just to the left who had wheeled his mount in confusion. She fired at him and brought him down with eleven shots to the back. Meanwhile the rest of the bandits continued to charge the wall.

"FIRE AT WILL!" The commander shouted. Victoria took that as the sign to begin spraying LMG rounds into the wall of charging bandits. She maneuvered the LMG left and right as she held down the trigger, gunning down four men in the second rank and wounding two more. While the weapon was not very accurate with sustained fire, it was giving the bandits pause because they were clearly not expecting to be opposed by someone with an automatic weapon.

Victoria fired until the weapon's barrel turned red, then set it aside and picked up a bolt-action rifle that was laying just to her right. Its former owner was dead from a gunshot wound to the head. She recognized him as the young man who had warned her of the bandit raid. There was no time for mourning now.

She hurriedly grabbed five box magazines from his bandolier, set them at her knees, and turned back to the wall. The third rank of bandits was 425 meters away and her LMG needed time to cool off before it could be safely used again. She was not very good with a bolt-action rifle, especially one without a scope, but it was better than nothing. Victoria chambered a round and aimed at the first bandit she saw, who was a man clutching a semi-automatic carbine and pointing towards the wall where she was kneeling.

[Post Word Count: 1,190]
[Total Word Count: 10,676/11,000]

Victoria aimed at the man's chest through the open sights, then took a breath, gently exhaled, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle kicked unexpectedly hard, but the carbine-wielding man fell with a bullet wound to his chest. She quickly chambered another round and aimed left, targeting a man charging towards the wall and aiming at her. Victoria raised the rifle from the wall, aimed at his chest and fired, grazing his right shoulder but not really deterring him.

Victoria worked the bolt and chambered another round, then aimed at the man's head for a quick kill. She squeezed the trigger and fired, missing by a comfortable margin. A shot rang out and hit the wall in front of her, causing her to duck for cover and lean sideways to work the bolt. The round was chambered and Victoria got back into a kneeling position. The bandits were now 350 meters from the wall and closing.

She aimed at the same man and aimed for his chest before squeezing the trigger. He fell from the saddle and threw his rifle into the face of another bandit, who barely kept control of his mount. Victoria chuckled a bit and worked the bolt again, then aimed at the bruised bandit and fired.

CLICK!

"Damn!" Victoria hissed. She had fired the rifle while it was empty! She ducked behind the wall, pulled out the empty box magazine, tossed it to her right, and grabbed one of the full five-round magazines sitting at her knees. She gently dusted off the sand on the first bullet and loaded it into the magazine well and worked the bolt. Now she was ready to fire again.

Victoria got back up and aimed at the bruised bandit's chest, squeezing the trigger and firing a shot that sent him pitching out of the saddle. A shot ricocheted off the top of the wall just to her left and she aimed in that direction, aiming at the head of a bandit before firing. The shot missed and she worked the bolt for another shot. This time she aimed for his chest before firing. The shot rang out and he fell backwards, tumbling from his horse onto the sand.

The bandits were 275 meters away from them and were firing as fast as they could load their rifles. The militia was holding its ground and aimed carefully at the fourth rank, firing a volley that knocked half of them out of their saddles. Victoria picked off a straggler with a shot through the throat that caused her to wince.

She had two shots left in the current magazine, so she had better make them count. She raised up and aimed at another man wielding a carbine and firing rapidly. She aimed for his head and fired, missing completely. He tapped off four shots at her before she could reload for another shot, but once she had reloaded she aimed carefully at his head and fired a second time. This shot hit him right between the eyes and dumped him from the saddle.

Now that all five shots had been expended, it was time to reload again. Victoria ducked and extracted the empty magazine and tossed it to her right, then found a fully loaded one and pushed it into the magazine well. She loaded the rifle and was about to pop up for another shot when she glanced at her Light Machine Gun and saw that the barrel had cooled down. Victoria smiled as she set the rifle to her right and picked up her weapon.

She gently set the bipod on the wall and sighted a target, then opened fire. He fell to the sand and Victoria began to move the LMG back and forth while holding down the trigger like she had done before. Since the bandits were at 225 meters when she did this, her rounds were more effective. Half of the fifth rank fell down under a hail of bullets and the sixth rank of attackers struggled to control their mounts that refused to charge into the hail of lead Victoria was firing at them.

Victoria fired until the barrel was glowing red. She set the red-hot weapon aside and picked up her borrowed rifle to shoot more but saw that the surviving bandits were beginning to retreat. They gathered up their wounded and fired parting shots, then galloped off while the defenders were taking cover behind the walls. The defenders fired a few shots at the bandits to encourage them to keep going, then stopped once the men were just dots on the horizon.

Victoria breathed a sigh of relief as she clutched the borrowed rifle and looked at the dead and dying bandits that littered the sand in front of the wall. An eyeball count tallied around forty dead and three dying men; all the wounded had been able to ride away, but they would be back once they had been patched up. Then Victoria looked to her left and right and saw around twenty dead members of Berreb's militia and ten wounded ones.

It was a victory for Berreb, but she was not sure how long Berreb would have to recover before another Crimson Sashes attack. Victoria dispelled the Light Machine Gun and set down her rifle, then began to search for wounded militiamen she could help. The time to kill had passed. The time to heal was now.

Victoria found a badly wounded man lying on his back with a rifle bullet lodged in his chest. Victoria knelt over him, focused golden energy into her hands, and cast a Field Hospital spell on the man. The bullet was pushed out of his chest and the bleeding immediately stopped. He would need more medical treatment, but he was likely to be OK if treated quickly.

"Hurry, get this man to the doctor!" The militia commander bellowed. Two men ran up to the man and helped him to his feet as Victoria backed away to allow them room to move. The brunette looked towards the man and saw that the militia commander was the village chief, who was clutching a semi-automatic carbine and was wearing bandoliers crisscrossed over his torso.

Victoria took a deep breath. She had done all she could do for him. Now it was up to the village doctor to make sure that the man survived to fight another day.

Victoria watched some of the militia venture beyond the wall to gather up the arms and ammunition the dead bandits had left for them. The village chief spoke to her.

"Thank you for helping us repel the Crimson Sashes attack. You saved a lot of villagers today." He thanked her for her help.

"It's no problem. I accidentally guided them here, so it's only fair that I helped take care of them." Victoria replied. The chief remained silent for a few moments before he spoke again.

"I suggest that you stay in the village tonight in case there's a night attack. You should set out for the slaver camp in the early morning." The chief suggested. Victoria was not sure if that was a good idea, but she might not have much choice. She had been hired to stop the slavers and that was what she would do, even if she had to travel during the hottest part of the day.

"I'll stay here tonight. Thanks." Victoria thanked the chief. He nodded and then returned to his tent, likely to plan for another defense of the village in case trouble returned. Victoria took off her Bandolier and immediately headed for the hospital to help the doctor. She had Combat Medic magic, so she might as well use it to heal the wounded militiamen.

[Post Word Count: 1,290]
[Total Word Count: 11,966/11,000]

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 27, Post Number 653

-Inside the doctor's house, one hour and ten minutes later-

After helping fend off the Crimson Sashes attack Victoria had shifted gears from killing people to healing them. She worked for over an hour trying to help the doctor save the ten wounded men, but even with Victoria's healing magic three of them still died on the operating table. Their wounds were just too great to be treated. However, she had managed to save seven of them by stabilizing them long enough for the doctor to treat their wounds. While they would be out of action for quite some time, they would live and eventually return to the village militia.

Speaking of the village militia, they had done quite well in fending off the Crimson Sashes attack. While Victoria's Light Machine Gun had claimed the lion's share of the kills, the steady aim and disciplined firing of the village militia had done its part to keep Berreb from being overrun by the raiders by picking off the horse-mounted raiders and keeping them from rushing Victoria's position whenever she had to give her LMG a break to let the barrel cool down. The raiders had been repelled with heavy losses; when the raiders finally decided to retreat Victoria had counted forty killed outright and three dying from their wounds. The Berreb militia summarily executed the survivors where they lay, bringing the death toll for the Crimson Sashes up to forty-three.

The brunette sat down next to Abigail, who was still a bit sluggish but was doing a lot better than she had a little over an hour ago.

"I heard that you really gave those raiders hell." Abigail said to Victoria. The brunette turned to her partner and nodded.

"Yeah. I did. I don't think we should talk about it here, though." Victoria said about their surroundings. This was supposed to be a place of healing and the doctor would not appreciate violence being discussed in her place of work. She would also not be happy with gloating about how the brunette had shot the bandits to pieces with a Light Machine Gun they had no counter for. Abigail nodded and stood up. Victoria gathered her gear and walked out of the doctor's house and into the village with Abigail following suit.

-The village of Berreb-

The pair had left the doctor's house and were now standing in the approximate center of the village. They watched the militia patrols walk through the village and along the perimeter walls. They probably expected a probing attack from the Crimson Sashes looking to catch the Berreb militia off guard while the latter buried their dead, treated their wounded, and worked to replenish the ammunition of the surviving militiamen. The militia stood armed, alert, and ready to repel any further attacks on their village.

"Yeah, I really gave them hell with my Light Machine Gun. To the raiders' credit they figured out early on that killing me would make their lives a lot easier, but the village militia made sure that they didn't get a chance to kill me. They took advantage of the threat that I presented to take out some of the raiders who were paying too much attention to me and not enough to the militia." Victoria elaborated a bit on how she had helped defend the village from the Crimson Sashes attack.

"I heard the chattering of your weapon. I don't think the bandits expected to run into a modern automatic weapon." Abigail opined. Victoria nodded.

"I don't think they did either, Abby." Victoria agreed with the blonde's assessment of the surprise factor the Sabertooth mage's LMG brought to the battle. Like her adoptive father had once said, the best weapon was one that the enemy never saw coming. However, like with all surprises, surprise weapons tended to work just once. Still, Victoria had gotten a lot of mileage out of her LMG's surprise factor.

"I just thought of something, Vic. I think that you might have just created more problems than you solved." Abigail said to the brunette. Victoria turned to the blonde and started to ask what she had meant when the latter spoke up.

"First, it's great that you repelled the raider attack and gave them heavy casualties, but now they've invested so much time and resources in attacking this place that they're not gonna stop without something to show for it." Abigail began listing the problems the brunette's defense had caused.

"Second, them seeing your LMG in action might convince them that they need to upgrade their weapons a lot sooner than they would have otherwise. They know that bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic carbines aren't gonna cut it against modern automatic weapons, so they'll be looking to get some modern weapons of their own." Abigail continued.

"Related to that is Berreb's own supply situation. Sure, they're getting by on scavenged arms and ammunition, but that's not gonna be a steady and reliable source. And if the Crimson Sashes and other raider gangs get automatic weapons while Berreb's stuck with bolt-action rifles, it might not end for Berreb." The blonde tacked on a further point to the second problem she had just listed. Victoria thought a little and saw that her companion had raised valid points, so she kept listening while the blonde mage laid out her case.

"Third, now that you've demonstrated your effectiveness so well, you might get called into defending Berreb now that bandit gangs know that they're gonna have to bring larger numbers of men to stand a chance of success." Abigail listed her third and final point. Victoria had never thought of any of those, but she was not a deep thinker to begin with. She had fought off a bandit gang that she had accidentally led to the village and she thought that the problem had abated now that they had wasted nearly sixty men in one day just to try and kill her, but now she was beginning to see what Abigail had meant when she claimed the brunette had created more problems than she had solved.

"Do you think Berreb's chief has reached the same conclusions you did, Abigail?" Victoria asked Abigail once the full ramifications of her contribution to Berreb's defense had finally dawned on her. While the brunette was not too worried because the conflict between Berreb and the Crimson Sashes had been ongoing long before she and Abigail had arrived on Berreb's doorstep, it still gnawed at her that her "help" might have just contributed to the intensification of a desert arms race. That was not going to make the brunette look very good to the top brass of Sabertooth.

"I'm not sure, Vic." Abigail gave an answer that was not much of an answer at all.

"Do you think we should tell him about all this?" Victoria asked.

"I think we should." Abigail replied. The pair then made a beeline for the chief's house as fast as they could go.

[Post Word Count: 1,164]
[Total Word Count: 1,164/11,000]

-Inside the chief's house-

"I must thank you for helping us defend our village earlier. You helped us save a lot of lives... and procure some much-needed arms and ammunition." The chief thanked Victoria for her help earlier. He was still dressed for battle with bandoliers of ammunition crisscrossing his chest and a semi-automatic carbine kept within easy reach while he was seated at a wooden table. Two of his guard stood by and they too wore bandoliers of ammunition and carried semi-automatic carbines. The chief was drinking a glass of water and eating a simple meal of couscous with vegetables.

"You're welcome, chief. But my friend here has a few concerns about the things that happened earlier." Victoria said to the chief. He set down his glass of water and turned to the blonde mage.

"You see, I'm worried that my friend's use of a Light Machine Gun might have helped intensify a desert arms race. The Crimson Sashes are gonna want to settle the score with you and they'll be looking for modern automatic weapons to do it with." Abigail began voicing her concerns. The chief looked her in the eyes and listened attentively.

"I'm also worried that you guys might not be able to upgrade your weapons in time and keep a steady supply of arms and ammunition. If you get caught with your current weapons while they begin using automatic weapons, it might not end well for your people." Abigail continued, bringing up the issues of upgrading the village's weapons and keeping them supplied with ammunition. That seemed to be a problem with the remote desert village. While taking what they needed from dead raiders would suffice for a time, eventually Berreb would need to find a better and more reliable source of arms and ammunition or risk running out of both at a critical time. Having almost all of the village militia armed was a double-edged sword; on one hand all the members could contribute to the village's defense, but they also chewed through ammunition stocks a lot quicker and neither Victoria nor Abigail knew exactly how much ammunition Berreb had stored away in its armory.

"You raise valid points, young one. We've been looking for a source of arms and ammunition so that we can secure a supply that's much more reliable than scavenging from battlefields, but we haven't been able to locate one yet. In the meantime we've also been looking to upgrade to more modern weapons so that we can keep pace with the bandit gangs. Again we've been unable to find a good supplier." The chief informed the pair that their concerns were valid and that he was working on solving the problems. He also noted that he was not having very much success with the endeavor. Victoria had a feeling that this was leading to some morally gray territory, the kind of morally gray territory that Sabertooth might not be able to overlook like they had with all the killings the brunette had done to date. However, Victoria could not leave Berreb in the lurch now that she had gotten involved in their battle.

"We've also been working to find the source of the weapons the bandits have been using. Our allies have been trying to help us, but we've got nothing, nothing but rumors of a black market that operates somewhere in Desierto. We can't spare any men to investigate and the black market's in an unknown location. There's plenty of desert to cover and we don't even know where to begin looking." The chief added that he and his allies had been trying to locate the source of the bandits' weaponry and had not been able to make any headway there either. Victoria was not sure if that was a future job offer or not, but she would definitely keep her ear to the ground the next time she was in the Tri-Council City and heard the local rumor mill chattering about whatever had caught the local rumor mill's attention. In the meantime the chief changed gears.

"You two should get ready to return to the desert tomorrow morning to pursue The Golden Band. I'll try and work on giving you better directions, but in the meantime try and get some sleep because you'll be leaving in the early morning." He advised them with a gentle reminder of why they had been hired in the first place.

"OK. But I'd be concerned about a nighttime raid if I were you. I don't think the Crimson Sashes are finished with Berreb yet. They lost forty-three men in one battle and they're not gonna stop until they get something to show for the loss." Victoria advised him in return.

"I've already considered that possibility and I've got the village militia on alert. If there's a nighttime raid I want you and your friend to help us fend it off. In the meantime try and get some sleep." He let them know that he was anticipating a possible attack at night and repeated his suggestion to try and sleep in preparation for tomorrow's travel.

"Where are we gonna sleep, sir?" Abigail asked the question that Victoria had neglected to ask. The chief smiled.

"You can use the cots in my guest room. They should serve as serviceable bedding. It's the first door to your left." He said to them, pointing past them and to their left.

"Thanks." Abigail said. The pair then left the chief to his work of getting better directions to The Golden Band camp and went to the guest room. They would try and get some sleep before they had to wake up early in the morning and begin their search for the slaver camp. The operative word here was "try."

-In the guest room-

Abigail opened the door onto a guest room the size of Victoria's room back at Sabertooth Guild Hall. It was minimally furnished with a wooden dresser and two cots to sleep on. The brunette had slept in a rundown apartment building on "beds" made out of ratty old blankets to soften sleeping on the bare wooden floors, so she was used to austere conditions. Abigail wordlessly sat down on the left cot. Victoria claimed the right.

"Well, we'll be out in the desert again really early in the morning. Maybe we can sleep some before we have to get up and find those slavers, but I'm really can't sleep right now. I'm worried about getting heatstroke again." Abigail expressed a concern to the brunette.

"I am too, Abby. I'm wearing armor and carrying a backpack, but as you saw earlier today, I need all this gear to stay alive. We'll just have to be very careful tomorrow." Victoria expressed her own concern about heatstroke and worried that she was particularly vulnerable to it because she wore armor and a backpack, both of which trapped heat. However, she needed everything she had brought to survive in the desert, particularly the Azure Armor.

"Yeah, you're right, Vic. We'll just have to be careful." Abigail said. The room then went quiet as both mages tried to sleep before they had to travel early in the morning.

[Post Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 2,364/11,000]

-3:00 A.M., Central Desierto, the next morning-

Victoria and Abigail, having been woken up early thanks to the chief, were about an hour away from Berreb and walking north in Central Desierto in search of The Golden Band's camp. The chief had tried his hardest to give them more detailed directions than "travel north until you find the camp", but unfortunately he was unable to help them with that because the possibility of a night attack on the village left him unable to spare any men to serve as scouts for the pair. The pair would just have to proceed with their mission and hope that they could find the camp before the sun came out and burned them like it had yesterday. But for now the sun was still low in the sky and the temperature was still somewhat bearable.

"Maybe we'll find the camp before the sun comes out and really roasts us." Abigail lamented to her partner as the pair walked in what they hoped was the right direction. Abigail was wearing another midriff-bearing white t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts with a clean pair of socks and boots.

"I hope so, Abby. I hope so." Victoria said to her partner. The brunette was wearing her white Steel Matron t-shirt under the Azure Armor along with khaki cargo shorts of her own. She was also wearing a clean pair of socks with her boots.

"At least we're traveling in a cooler part of the day. That's a small mercy that should last us until we're closer to the slaver camp." Abigail praised the cooler temperatures that came with the sun being low. Victoria nodded in agreement. The brunette was not going to complain about cooler temperatures, not out in the desert. She was not going to complain after yesterday's eight-hour walk to Berreb through hellish heat that just did not let up.

The two mages walked while listening out for the sound of approaching horses, but so far they had not heard any. They had not seen a royal army patrol, a caravan of merchant wagons, nothing. The pair was worried about that absence of activity. That could mean that the bandits had scared away all but the bravest or most foolish and Victoria was not sure which category they fell under.

"I really hate that we don't have any idea where this Golden Band camp is other than north of Berreb." Abigail lamented the lack of good directions to their destination.

"Yeah, that really sucks." Victoria commiserated with her partner. They did not have an awful lot to go on, so all they could really do was wander north and hope that they found the camp before the sun came up and roasted them like it had yesterday. The brunette began to try and think of ways that they could find the camp some time before they died of heatstroke and became desiccated corpses dotting the landscape.

One option was to hope that they ran into a Golden Band patrol and the patrol retreated to get reinforcements.

Another option was to happen upon a Golden Band raiding party and kill it to the last man, freeing its captives and asking them for information.

A third was coming across a royal army patrol who was kind enough to point them in the right direction. If the stars aligned, the patrol would even offer help in combating the slaver menace.

Victoria was not naive enough to count on the help of the royal army nor was she naive enough to think that a small Golden Band raiding party would happen along to try and add them to their merchandise only to be killed and their grateful former captives supplying them with information concerning the camp's location. Still, those were the only three things she could think of that could lead the pair to their destination in a timely fashion.

Victoria was just about to voice her opinion of their meager options when she heard a wooden cart a short distance behind them along with shouting. She turned to face the source of the shouting and saw a cart being pulled by horses and escorted by a small cavalry patrol of six men armed with semi-automatic carbines. Victoria looked at what the men were wearing and froze.

They were wearing white robes with golden bands around the collar!

"Looks like we've found The Golden Band." Abigail remarked as the wagon's escort saw them and charged at them from about forty meters away.

"Or they've found us." Victoria remarked before producing her Light Machine Gun and defending herself with lethal force. She aimed and mowed down two of the men with Five-Round Bursts to the head, then turned her attention to the remaining four when they were just twenty-five meters away. She gunned down a third rider with a Five-Round Burst and turned her attention to the fourth, bringing him down with a Five-Round Burst to the head. The remaining two closed in to within ten meters of the pair and started firing their weapons.

Victoria knelt and fired a ten-round burst of automatic fire that hit the fifth rider in the chest and throat and dumped him from the saddle, leaving the lone rider to continue his charge towards the brunette. Victoria stayed calm and aimed carefully, bringing down the last rider with sustained fire to the chest as he closed to five meters while aiming his carbine at her head. Now that the cavalry escort was gone Abigail drew her Sky Blade and sprinted across the sand to close with the wagon driver and his partner, who had pulled out a carbine and was firing rapidly at the blonde.

Victoria could not get a good shot on the driver from her current position, so she hurried after Abigail and watched the blonde dash through the bullets and leap into the wagon's left seat, decapitating the driver with a quick horizontal swing and doing a backflip off the wagon before the last slaver could riddle her with carbine bullets at point-blank range. Victoria ran until she had a diagonal angle on him where she could fire without hitting any of the captives, then aimed carefully and fired a Five-Round Burst that hit the slaver in the head and dropped him from the right seat of the wagon.

Once the last slaver was down Abigail began to search the dead slavers for the keys to the wagon's cage and found them on the decapitated driver. Victoria calmly stood watch three meters in front of the wagon for another Golden Band cavalry escort that might have brought up the rear to guard against attacks from other bandits. The Sabertooth mage recalled the chief's briefing on The Golden Band and recalled that the slaver gang was new to Desierto and was often attacked by more established bandit gangs wanting to protect their turf from the new guys. She smiled a little at the thought of gangs from the desert being just as territorial as the gangs in Capital Crocus. She then focused on keeping an eye out for trouble while Abigail freed the slaver gang's former captives from the back of the wagon.

[Post Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 3,564/11,000]

-Central Desierto, twenty minutes later-

Victoria and Abigail had struck a modest blow against human trafficking by coming across a Golden Band wagon loaded with captives presumably heading for their camp. The stealthy approach of following the wagon back to the camp was impossible because the wagon happened upon the two mages and its cavalry escort charged them. Victoria had put seven of the eight slavers down for good with her Light Machine Gun while Abigail killed the wagon's driver. Now that the captives were free Abigail was asking them for information while Victoria scavenged arms and ammunition with which to arm the former captives so that they could defend themselves on their way back home. Berreb's chief had requested that the pair collect any arms and ammunition that they "liberated" from dead bandits, but Victoria chose to arm the captives so that they did not fall prey to bandits a second time.

She was sure that the chief of Berreb would understand her reasoning for doing so.

She was also sure that when they came across the Golden Band's camp and cleaned it out the supplies in the armory they would "liberate" would more than make up for the arms and ammunition that the brunette would donate to the former captives.

Once Victoria had gathered up all the dropped weapons and ammunition she returned to the wagon and saw Abigail talking to the captives. She overheard that they were a mixed bag of people from the Tri-Council City and a few members of the royal army who had been caught by surprise while trying to find and rescue the missing Tri-Council City residents. Victoria was not exactly sure how Tri-Council City residents had gotten this far out here, but that did not matter. Victoria sought out and armed the members of the royal army with the spoils of victory... they had the training necessary to use the weapons and would be certain to defend their charges to the best of their ability.

While Victoria stood watch for any straggling slavers or a second wagon of captives the blonde had learned that while the former captives did not know the exact location of the camp they had overheard their captors talking about how they had a couple hundred more kilometers to go before they reached "home." The brunette realized that hundreds of kilometers meant a lot of travel for herself and Abigail. The sun would not stay low for the time it took to travel that distance and the sun would come out and make their lives miserable. Maybe the pair could hitch a ride with the former captives.

Victoria was reluctant to ask for that favor because getting to beat up slavers without consequence was its own reward for the brunette who hated slavers more than anything in this world. She wanted the captives to get to safety, not risk their lives and freedom by taking them closer to the slaver camp. However, Victoria and Abigail could use a lift. Getting a lift would save them a lot of time and energy. Before she could ask Abigail she saw several of the strongest men climb into the driver's seat of the wagon and push hard against the cage, prompting those still lingering behind the cage to get away from the back of the wagon.

Victoria saw the former captives scatter as the cage was pushed out of the back of the wagon. Doing that had two benefits: the absence of the cage made a lot more room for the passengers and it greatly reduced the risk of them being mistaken for slavers and shot by soldiers of the royal army or jumpy travelers. Now that space was not as much of an issue the passengers piled onto the wagon while the soldiers from the royal army climbed onto the horses left behind by the dead slavers.

Abigail then asked one of the people who had climbed into the driver's seat if the two of them could ride along for a distance. The man nodded enthusiastically. Victoria could not suppress a smile as Abigail walked up to tell her the good news.

"We can ride with them part of the way, Victoria. They say it's the least we can do after freeing them." Abigail told her.

"That works for me." Victoria replied. She did not expect the newly freed people to drive them up to the front gates of the slaver camp. She had just wanted a lift so that she and Abigail did not have quite as far to walk. The driver motioned for the pair to get on and they hurried to the back of the wagon, climbing on the back just before the driver got the wagon going.

He maneuvered it in a wide circle around the cage that had been dumped into the path and then straightened out the wagon once they were past it. The cavalry escort followed them with three men riding on each side while an armed soldier sat to the right of the driver. Victoria would watch their back with her Light Machine Gun.

-One hour later, Central Desierto-

The wagon was moving at a good pace and they had covered twenty-five kilometers in an hour's time. Victoria could not measure how much distance the pair could cover on foot in the space of an hour, but she knew that it was not nearly as great as the distance the pair had traveled courtesy of the wagon. Abigail was happy that they had been able to free the captives without any innocent people getting hurt. The blonde was also happy that they had been given a lift by the grateful ex-captives. So far things were looking up for the pair.

Victoria watched the rear of the wagon like a hawk. More specifically, she watched the rear of the wagon like a hawk armed with a Light Machine Gun that hated bandits and had no issue with giving them a fatal case of lead poisoning if they tried to attack. She was sure that bandits would try and attack what looked like an easy target protected by a small escort. They were riding right through the middle of bandit country at a time when the bandits would either be just getting to work or returning from the night shift to wait out the unbearably hot daytime hours in their camps. It was a risk that could not be avoided, so the travelers would just have to be careful as they made the long trip back to the Tri-Council City.

"Hey Vic, do you see anything behind us?" Abigail asked her partner as the wagon rode along the sandy trail.

"Not yet, Abby. I haven't seen anyone else on the road." Victoria replied. She had found it odd that no one else was on the road at this time, but she should not find it so odd. The people of Desierto were doing the sensible thing by not riding the roads at a time when bandit activity was at its peak. Not everyone was a mage with a personal armory at their disposal and the will needed to seek out and fight the bandits.

[Post Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 4,764/11,000]

-Central Desierto, one hour later-

Another twenty-five kilometers down the road the ride through Central Desierto had been uneventful so far, but Victoria was not complaining and neither was Abigail. They would get plenty of action once they found the slaver camp and started their attack on it. In the meantime they would count their blessings and enjoy the peace while they could.

Victoria continued to watch the road behind them for bandits looking for an easy target while the small escort watched the sides as they rode alongside the wagon. The happy passengers chatted amongst themselves about what they would do once they got back to the Tri-Council City. Some of them vowed to buy weapons for self-defense while others vowed that they would never leave the safety of the city again. It felt like the calm before the storm, but maybe the brunette was just anxious. Maybe nothing bad would happen to the travelers and they would drop the mages off approximately fifty kilometers from here so that they could continue their mission to hurt The Golden Band by attacking and destroying a camp of theirs.

Punching slavers in the face was what Victoria lived for. She liked drinking alcohol and she liked bartending, but not bartending while drinking... that was just bad for the Red Dragon Inn's business. She loved a good fight with bandits or common street hoodlums. However, all of those activities paled in comparison to punching slavers in the face until they either surrendered or died from it. The brunette took an inordinate amount of pleasure from that activity.

She needed to stop feeling that way for the sake of her career in Sabertooth, but no matter how hard she tried she just could not shake the joy she got from beating up slavers. That joy only multiplied because she was working in a country where they were considered outlaws in the literal sense of the term. The protection of the sultan's laws did not apply to them, so Victoria was free to beat them up with her bare hands, turn them into Swiss cheese with any of her weapons, shoot them with her Beam Cannon spell, or however she chose to deal with them. The sultan did not care if they lived or died.

Victoria shook that thought from her head and focused on watching the trail behind them for any tailgaters. So far it was clear, but she was not sure how long it would remain clear before some bandits got the bright idea to attack them. Victoria would deal with them if and when they came.

-One hour later, Central Desierto-

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon and the temperature was rising accordingly, but it was still bearable. Victoria and Abigail knew that roughly an hour later the ride would end and they would be walking to their destination, but they were not complaining. The ex-captives could have just taken the guns, ammunition, and wagon and left the mages standing by the road, but they had chosen to help Victoria and Abigail by offering them a lift part of the way to their destination. Neither mage was going to complain about that.

"Hey Vic, is it still clear behind us?" Abigail asked the brunette.

"Yeah Abby, it's clear. I don't see a single person behind us." Victoria replied in the affirmative before she reached with her left hand and put the bite valve of her hydration pack in her mouth, then bit on the valve to get the water flowing for a drink or two. She was so glad that she had invested in the backpack with a 96-ounce hydration bladder instead of just a backpack. It had paid for itself on this trip thanks to being able to drink water without having to take a hand off of her Light Machine Gun to hold a bottle or a canteen.

Victoria took the bite valve out of her mouth and spoke to her partner.

"Hey Abby, are you doing OK with the sun so far?" Victoria asked her partner.

"Yeah, I'm fine so far, Vic. It's gonna be rough when the sun's out again, but we'll be a lot closer to our destination than we would be if we had had to walk." Abigail replied. Victoria was glad that her partner was doing OK. Aside from practical reasons, she also had personal reasons for making sure that Abigail was not going to suffer heatstroke again. The brunette had taken a liking to the blonde who still had a strong moral compass. Abigail was one of the reasons that Victoria was slowly shedding her mercenary persona and working for good because it was the right thing to do, not because it paid better than the alternative.

Victoria had taken up the cause of fighting demon cults not only because the work paid well, but also because she could not stand by and let demons be brought into this world, not after she had learned their plans for humanity should they cross over into the human realm. They would enslave humanity and use humans as food and as playthings for all eternity. Victoria could not let that happen. As a member of Sabertooth, her job was to protect the world from threats from other planes and demons definitely qualified.

If Victoria had not met Abigail in Sakuramori Forest over two years ago she would probably be an amoral thrill-seeker who took jobs based on pay and not on whether the job helped people. While the brunette was a thrill-seeker who took jobs based on pay, she tried to take jobs that involved fighting demons or fighting slavers because doing the right thing and getting paid well were not mutually exclusive. Maybe that was not the right mindset for a Legal mage to take, but the brunette was working on it. She was still a street kid at heart, a street kid who wanted to know what it was like to have some financial security before she left this world. Even though she had at least a million Jewels in savings it was not enough for the street kid who always wanted more money to have even greater financial security.

"Hey Vic, are you OK?" Abigail asked in return. Victoria blinked and turned to her partner.

"Yeah, I'm OK. Just watching the road behind us and waiting until we disembark." Victoria replied, hiding what she was really thinking about. While the brunette had shed part of her mercenary persona over the years she was still clinging to the part that remained. She had to keep something of a rough edge so that people did not take advantage of her sense of justice to get her to throw herself in harm's way for peanuts or for free. Still, Victoria could not deny Abigail's influence that had set her on the right path.

Maybe one day Victoria would more rigorously obey Sabertooth's rule on lethal force and try to non-lethally subdue more evildoers, but if innocents stood to get hurt when threats were not permanently taken care of Victoria would gladly kill the threat and accept the consequences for her actions.

[Post Word Count: 1,200]
[Total Word Count: 5,964/11,000]

-Central Desierto, one hour later-

The reprieve from walking across the desert seemed to have ended almost as soon as it had started. At a little over 100 kilometers from their destination the pair got off the cart and wished the group of Tri-Council City dwellers luck as they proceeded with the journey home. Victoria and Abigail hated to see them go, but the people had fulfilled their part of the bargain. Despite their wish to ride just a bit father the mages decided to uphold their end of the bargain by letting the people go on their way after taking them halfway to the alleged site of The Golden Band camp. The travelers wished them luck with their journey and the mages waved farewell to the city-bound people and their escorts until the wagon was out of sight, then pressed on with their journey into the sandy wastes.

"Well, it was nice while it lasted. Looks like we're on foot from here on out." Abigail said what Victoria was thinking as the former stretched her legs for the first time since getting on board the cart.

"Yeah. To be honest, I was kinda tempted to ask to ride a bit further so we wouldn't have as far to go on foot, but that would have broken our deal with them. They did their part, so we should do ours." Victoria admitted to being a bit selfish before ultimately deciding against giving in to it. The brunette was a believer in giving people a fair deal. That belief in a fair deal was why she fought so hard for the little guy against the people who would abuse them just for the fun of it. Going back on a deal she had freely made would make her little better than the Capital Crocus millionaires who looked down on people they perceived as beneath them.

"Yeah, I was too, but we'd better get going. That camp isn't going to find itself." Abigail said to her companion. Victoria nodded and together the pair continued in the direction of their destination. If what the ex-captives had told them was true, the only had about 100 kilometers more to go before they were within the approximate area of the camp. It was going to be a very long walk. To add to their problems, the sun was now up in the sky and the heat had grown to barely tolerable levels. The mages had better get to it if they wanted to complete their mission before they suffered from heatstroke.

-Central Desierto, one hour later-

"Are we there yet?" Abigail asked while wiping her forehead with the tail of her t-shirt.

"Dude, I don't know. All the desert looks the same to me." Victoria said to her partner. She used her enhanced vision ability to look ahead of them and did not see any signs of a settlement. No wooden walls, no tents, nothing. The brunette wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her left hand.

"Hey Abby, how far do you think we've traveled in an hour?" Victoria asked the blonde. Abigail obligingly fished her iLac out of her pocket, tapped a few buttons, and used her left hand to shield the touch screen from the sun. Abigail looked at it for a couple of minutes before reporting her findings.

"We've walked about five kilometers since we were dropped off. If what we were told is right, We've got approximately ninety-five more kilometers to go." Abigail reported, then tapped the screen and placed the iLac in her pocket. Victoria swore under her breath.

"Great. Just great." Victoria complained. She grabbed the dangling bite valve of her hydration pack with her left hand, placed the valve in her mouth, then bit down on it and got a drink or two of somewhat cold water. The water contained within the hydration bladder would probably go lukewarm in the next hour or two, but having lukewarm water beat the hell out of having no water to drink.

The mages put one foot in front of the other while traveling under the scorching rays of the sun. Maybe they would luck out again and either hitch another ride or stumble across a returning patrol of Golden Band members who would accidentally guide the mages to their camp. While the chances of either possibility occurring were not very high, they were not impossible either.

-Central Desierto, one hour later-

The mages had traveled another five kilometers or so and were just ninety kilometers away from their destination. They had not chanced upon another Golden Band slave wagon or a patrol, so they would just have to keep going in what they thought was the right direction. Today was looking to be a repeat of yesterday... wandering the desert in the midday sun while hoping they did not succumb to heatstroke before they got to where they were going. Unlike yesterday the NeverLost GPS app could not help them here.

"Man, it's so hot out here." Abigail complained, wiping her face with the tail of her t-shirt while Victoria looked away.

"Yeah, tell me about it." Victoria commiserated. Unlike Abigail she could not wipe her face with the tail of her t-shirt since her armor weighed it down and getting it free would be more trouble than it was worth. The brunette settled for wiping her face off with her left hand since her right hand held the Light Machine Gun ready to use at a moment's notice.

The pair were continuing to walk when they spotted a small raiding party of a dozen riders in white robes with golden bands around the collar. They immediately lowered themselves to the ground and watched the Golden Band riders gallop right across the path about thirty meters away without casting a single glance in their direction. Even though Victoria was wearing high-visibility Azure Armor that stood out against the sand no one noticed them. When she used her enhanced vision she saw why.

The men were sweaty and tired and were obviously looking to get back to camp so that they could get out of the sun for awhile. They had developed tunnel vision that blinded them to the blonde and the brunette lying on the sand about thirty meters away from them. Victoria also noticed that some of the riders had long wooden crates lashed to their horses. A second look showed that they were the kind of crates used to safely transport rifles.

These Golden Band men were carrying recently purchased arms and ammunition back to their camp!

The mages stayed on their stomachs until the men were well out of sight, then stood up about three minutes later and brushed themselves off.

"Did you see that?" Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette nodded.

"Yeah, Abby. Looks like someone just bought some new guns and ammunition." Victoria remarked.

"I say we follow their trail back to the camp." Abigail suggested.

"Good idea." Victoria replied. The pair altered their course and began to walk parallel to the tracks left by the Golden Band horsemen, being careful to regularly look behind them for stragglers. Victoria kept her Light Machine Gun handy and ready for action.

[Post Word Count: 1,206]
[Total Word Count: 7,170/11,000]

-Central Desierto, two hours later-

Having managed to avoid detection by a Golden Band group ferrying newly purchased arms and ammunition to their camp, Victoria and Abigail were now following the trail left by the oblivious horsemen. The brunette was still surprised that none of them had managed to spot her in her Azure Armor because it stuck out like a sore thumb against the lightly colored sand. However, the Sabertooth mage was not going to complain about her good fortune and neither was Abigail. While they could have easily wiped out the riders if it came to a fight, they would not have had a convenient trail to follow to their camp if the pair had killed all the slavers. For once the brunette was glad that she had held her fire instead of engaging the slavers on sight.

Victoria and Abigail were reinvigorated by their chance discovery of the Golden Band riders carrying weapons and were able to shrug off the worst of the heat. They finally had a solid lead to go on, the best lead they had gotten since striking out from Berreb this morning. They were not going to let this gift-wrapped opportunity to find the slavers go to waste. For once they were glad that there was no wind blowing so that the tracks left by the slavers were not obliterated by the shifting sands. While they had a general direction to go in, they appreciated having a handy track just to their left to follow to the camp.

-Central Desierto, one hour later-

The sun was still high in the sky and the mages were sweating profusely, but their spirits were buoyed by their chance discovery and they were going to follow the trail to the end. Abigail had taken off her shirt and was using it to wipe her face with while Victoria took a drink of lukewarm water from her hydration pack and stifled a smile. She did not know whether Abigail took her shirt off whenever she got hot or took it off just because she was in the desert and in the company of another female, but the brunette was amused by that. A lot of people probably thought that Victoria would be the one to go shirtless in the desert because of her new and more attractive body, but the brunette remained modest.

Besides, the moment she took off her armor some bandits would ride up with guns blazing.

"Hey Abby, are you OK over there?" Victoria asked her shirtless partner. It was a good thing that the blonde had worn a bra or things would be really awkward.

"I'm doing pretty good, Vic. How about you?" Abigail asked in high spirits.

"I'm doing a lot better now that we've found this trail to follow. It gives me hope that we just might be able to accomplish this mission in the next day or so." Victoria answered in similarly high spirits. Abigail looked at the brunette.

"Why do you put it that way?" Abigail asked while putting her shirt back on for the time being.

"If we're traveling roughly five kilometers every hour and the camp is approximately 100 kilometers away, it'll probably take all of today before we reach the camp." Victoria opined to the blonde.

"Eh, maybe. Maybe it's closer than we think." The blonde said optimistically as they walked through an area with a few small sand dunes to break up the monotony of the flat desert. The brunette was about to continue talking further when they heard the sound of horses thundering in the distance. They turned around and saw a cloud of dust about 300 meters away.

"QUICK, BEHIND THE DUNE!" Abigail advised Victoria. The pair hustled off of the path and went to their right, then flattened themselves to the ground and waited. Victoria dug herself a little hole in the sand and got into it to try and hide her blue armor, but she was not sure that a hastily improvised measure would be enough to totally conceal her. All she could do was hope and wait.

The pair hid while the riders thundered by. Abigail dared to lift her head up to take a peek and quickly ducked down again to avoid being spotted. She pressed her head against the sand and held her breath while the riders charged by. It seemed to go on forever until after what seemed like minutes it finally stopped. The pair waited a good seven minutes before finally daring to lift themselves up from their hiding place and dust themselves off.

"Did you see all those men?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"No, Abby. Who were they?" Victoria asked.

"Those Crimson Sashes guys." Abigail answered. Victoria froze in place.

"Oh hell. How many of them were there?" Victoria asked the blonde.

"I didn't take an exact count, but I think I saw at least one hundred." Abigail replied. The brunette's stomach turned.

They had killed almost sixty of them yesterday and the raiders had that many men and more to throw around?

Just how many members did The Crimson Sashes have?

"Oh man. I bet they're after The Golden Band. The chief said that the established outlaw groups didn't like The Golden Band and wanted to wipe them out." Victoria hypothesized.

"The chief also said that while The Golden Band didn't have nearly as many members as the established groups, they make up for it with a lot of firepower." Abigail added.

"Well, we'll see how The Golden Band fares against a hundred Crimson Sashes out for their blood." Victoria commented before finally dusting herself off. While the unexpected arrival of the Crimson Sashes looked to be a bad thing for the mages, it had a silver lining. The pair could take advantage of the chaos of an all-out Crimson Sashes attack on the slavers to get into position for their own attack without being observed. The unexpected arrival of the Crimson Sashes had another benefit.

If the Crimson Sashes raided the camp for them, the mages could just sit back and watch the fighting, then mop up whoever was left standing and collect the small arsenal's worth of weapons that would be left lying around. If The Golden Band held its ground and drove off the Crimson Sashes, the mages had a chance to attack the slavers while they were still recovering from the first attack. They could mop up the surviving slavers, loot the camp, and ride off into the sunset with weapons for Berreb.

The Crimson Sashes would settle a grudge and ride away about as happy as an outlaw band could get. Berreb would get an influx of weapons. The two mages would get paid. Everyone would win... everyone except for The Golden Band.

But before the brunette could start celebrating she and Abigail would have to get to the camp and see who won. The Crimson Sashes were arguably the tougher opponent due to the sheer numbers they brought to the table, but The Golden Band fighting on their home turf looked to be tough customers themselves. Victoria was not sure who to root for when the two outlaw factions clashed. She did not exactly need the Crimson Sashes to win... she needed them to weaken The Golden Band just enough for Victoria and Abigail to have an easier fight when the time came to attack the slaver camp.

[Post Word Count: 1,238]
[Total Word Count: 8,408/11,000]

-Central Desierto, two hours later-

After another two hours of following the trail left by both the slavers and the Crimson Band raiding party the pair were starting to get tired despite their high spirits. The sun was out and they were sweating profusely, but they could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance. The Crimson Sashes must have run into an advance party of Golden Band soldiers and were fighting it out with the slavers. The mages continued on their way to the camp and watched for stray bullets whizzing in their direction because even stray bullets could hurt or kill.

-On the trail, one hour later-

Victoria and Abigail arrived on the scene to find a lot of bodies lying around. Many of them were Golden Band members, but there were a few Crimson Sashes lying on the sand. The Crimson Sashes must have clashed with the advance party of The Golden Band and won. The tracks continued past the site of the initial skirmish and stretched well into the distance.

"Man, the Crimson Sashes ripped through them like tissue paper." Abigail commented on the sight of over three dozen Golden Band soldiers lying dead on the sand along with many of their horses. Victoria counted fifteen Crimson Sashes dead... the Golden Band soldiers did not go down without a fight. The brunette then began to collect their weapons and fashion a carrying cloth out of the headwraps of the dead outlaws.

"I don't think we have time to collect all the weapons and ammunition, Vic. Soon the Crimson Sashes are gonna charge back through here and we don't want to be in the road when they get here." Abigail advised Victoria that hanging around and scavenging might not be a very good idea. The brunette ignored her and gathered up all the weapons in record time, tying them into bundles for easier carrying. She then began to hurriedly gather up the ammunition for all the weapons, which were a mix of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic carbines. The Berreb armory would welcome Victoria's donation of gently used weapons.

"Almost there." Victoria said to her partner as she began to gather up bandoliers of ammunition. The bundles of rifles and bandoliers were going to be heavy loads to carry, but she needed to have something to give to the chief of Berreb. The village's continued survival depended on every last weapon the blonde and brunette could scavenge.

"OK, we're good. Let's keep going." Victoria said to her partner, taking the bundles of rifles for herself and handing the bundle of bandoliers to Abigail. Victoria threaded the bundle of semi-automatic carbines through the straps under her backpack and carried a second on her shoulders while dispelling her Light Machine Gun and bringing out her Submachine Gun so she did not have quite as much weight to carry. While it lacked the reach, punch, and ammo capacity of the LMG, her Submachine Gun was good enough for personal defense to buy her some time to drop the weapons and bring out her LMG as her main weapon.

"Damn Vic. You're devoted to scavenging. I know I couldn't carry that" Abigail commented on her companion's ability to carry so many rifles at once without slowing down.

"I learned how to scavenge on the streets of Capital Crocus." Victoria replied calmly as she set out down the trail. She was sure that once the bandit factions had finished fighting it out there would be plenty more weapons to pick up and take back to Berreb. If things went really well the biggest problem the mages would have was figuring out how to transport all of their loot back to Berreb.

-One hour later, on the outskirts of the Golden Band camp-

After an hour of walking in the sun with their loot the two mages paused on the outskirts of the Golden Band camp, which was still under Crimson Sashes attack. The pair found cover behind a waist-high sand dune and crouched down. The raiders in black-and-red were charging an unfortified camp of Golden Band soldiers, who had taken some losses but were holding their own. The defenders fired a volley of shots that toppled six of the raiders from their horses, but the raiders shot back and six of the defenders crumpled to the sand.

The two mages began to bury their bundles of looted arms and ammunition in the sand so that they would not go into battle with that burden, then watched the fighting from afar.

"Man, look at them! The Crimson Sashes are really out for blood!" Abigail commented. Victoria watched the mass of Crimson Sashes retreat and gallop six hundred meters away, reform their ranks, and then charge back into the fray with renewed vigor. The defenders fired another volley at the horse-mounted raiders and knocked some of them from their saddles, but the riders kept pressing their attack despite the losses they took. They began firing back and some of their shots hit the dwindling number of defenders, who were doing their best to hold their ground but just could not stand up to the weight of gunfire from sixty-plus men on horseback wielding rifles.

"Yeah." Victoria replied laconically as she smoothed over the sand where she had buried her rifles.

"What are we gonna do?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"There's nothing we can do, Abigail. We're just gonna have to let 'em fight it out and loot what's available afterwards... if there's anything left." Victoria replied calmly. While every part of her wanted to charge in, wipe out both sides, and ride off with The Golden Band's newly purchased weapons plus the scavenged ones that would be available in abundance, to make a move now would be suicide. She would have to wait until the fighting died down and the victor had been decided.

"OK. Let's just hope that no one sees us." Abigail said as she buried her bandoliers and smoothed over the sand so that no one would know that an ammunition cache had ever been buried there. Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun in case they were discovered and needed to make a fighting retreat. Now they would wait and see who won before making their move.

-Central Desierto, one hour and twenty minutes later-

The pair had remained in their hiding spot for the entire fight and had only risked sporadic glances at the furious fighting between The Golden Band and the Crimson Sashes. Abigail peeked up and glanced for a moment, then almost immediately ducked back down again to avoid detection.

"So, who won?" Victoria asked her friend while clutching her Light Machine Gun.

"It looks like the Crimson Sashes did. Hang on. I'll take another peek." Abigail said before risking another glance at the battlefield. Abigail stayed up for ten seconds before slowly dipping back down and facing the brunette.

"Yeah, the Crimson Sashes won. They took heavy losses, but they won. They're loading the crates of weapons up now." Abigail reported. Victoria sighed.

"Well, they did our work for us. But it's gonna suck not to get those weapons for the chief." Victoria remarked as she tried to figure out how they were going to get back to Berreb and explain what had happened. She was not sure if there was going to any live horses left for them to use, let alone a wagon to put their cargo into. The brunette would figure something out.

[Post Word Count: 1,248]
[Total Word Count: 9,656/11,000]

-Inside the Golden Band camp, one hour later-

It had taken the victorious Crimson Sashes over an hour to fully loot the camp and gather up their wounded, but once they had looted the camp of the rifle crates and gathered up their wounded they departed the camp, leaving the dead where they lay. Victoria and Abigail waited awhile before they dared to lift their heads above the sand dune. The pair cautiously approached the camp in the expectation that a few of the defenders had survived the fighting and were waiting for the Crimson Sashes to return, but they had seen no movement on approach to the camp, so it was safe to say that all of the slavers were dead.

"Damn. Those Crimson Sashes really tore this place up." Abigail said to her partner, who surveyed the area with her Light Machine Gun at the ready to shoot anyone who moved. Victoria looked around and saw that the camp's tents had been riddled with bullet holes along with its defenders. Most of the horses had also been killed by the Crimson Sashes. The sight of the dead horses bummed Victoria out... she had been counting on at least two horses to survive the fighting so that she could hitch them to a cart and ride away before more outlaws arrived to pick over the ruins.

"Yeah." Victoria replied laconically. She found a relatively intact wagon standing next to two dead Golden Band members about twenty meters to her right, but she did not see any horses. That was just her luck.

Victoria set about the task of collecting arms and ammunition while Abigail looked for survivors and watched for anyone coming to investigate the site of the carnage. Victoria would load them onto the wagon and then look for horses that might have run away from the camp during the battle. If she found any live horses she would bring them back and hitch them to the weapons wagon. If she did not find any live horses she would have to think of another way to transport the weapons she had accumulated so far.

-Forty-five minutes later-

"Well, that's the last of the weapons from the camp." Victoria said to the blonde, who marveled at the weapons Victoria had picked up from the sand. There were at least sixty rifles and their ammunition. This was a pretty good haul for just two mages. The trick was getting the haul back to Berreb without it being stolen by a bandit gang while they walked back to the desert village. Victoria had not come this far just to lose the weapons to a random bandit gang or leave them behind, so she would find a way to carry them even if she had to carry them all herself.

"Yeah, but I couldn't find any horses. Sorry, Vic." Abigail said to the brunette. Victoria frowned momentarily before she looked towards a nearby fallen canvas tent. She grabbed it and dragged it over to the back of the wagon, then piled the weapons and ammunition onto it. Once she was finished filling the first canvas she would put a second canvas tent on top of it to try and protect the ammunition from cooking off due to direct exposure to the sunlight.

"You're gonna drag it all back to Berreb?" Abigail asked incredulously.

"I'm gonna drag every last rifle and bandolier of ammo back to Berreb if I have to." Victoria answered in the affirmative while piling everything onto the canvas tent. Abigail began to help the brunette with the task.

-Twenty-five later, on the outskirts of the campr-

The pair had walked away from the camp and were now digging up their buried cache of weapons and ammunition to add to that looted from the battlefield. They hurried because they were worried about more bandits arriving to loot the area and trying to take what the pair had worked so hard to gather. In minutes of hurried digging they had dug up the caches and placed the bundles on the first tarp before covering it with the second.

"OK, we've got 'em. Now let's get going back to Berreb. We've got a long road ahead of us!" Abigail said. The pair hurriedly refilled the pits and then took a brief break.

"Yeah. I don't wanna hang around any longer than I have to." Victoria agreed. She then began to work with Abigail to drag the bundle on the long journey towards Berreb. It was going to be quite a trip and the pair were not sure how they were going to manage it. They were going to have to risk travel at night, which would be especially dangerous since bandits were active at that time. If they stopped for even a moment with their cargo they risked having it stolen and being killed.

-Sixteen hours later, on the outskirts of Berreb-

After a long night fraught with peril and no sleep whatsoever, Victoria and Abigail had arrived on the outskirts of Berreb without having encountered a single bandit. It was no exaggeration to say that the pair were on the edge of collapse from sheer exhaustion. They had traveled all day and night with no sleep and very few breaks. Once they delivered the loot to the chief and told them their story the pair would probably collapse for real.

Victoria dispelled her Light Machine Gun as they approached Berreb and walked slowly as a large party of militiamen came to greet them. She did not want to come all this way and survive such daunting odds only to be shot by "friendly" forces at the finishing line. Once the group arrived Victoria and Abigail stepped away from the canvas tents and raised their hands.

"I can hardly believe it. You two made it all the way across the desert and back!" A young militiaman said to them. Victoria and Abigail nodded. The men directed their attention to the canvas.

"What's under that?" An older man with a semi-automatic carbine asked.

"The chief told me you guys needed some weapons and ammo. I brought you guys some weapons and ammo. I hope it's enough to hold you over for awhile." Victoria answered, staying right where she was. Two of the men lifted the first canvas cover and marveled at the loot the two mages had gathered for them. The militiamen smiled broadly and faced the two mages.

"The chief's gonna be happy about this." The older man assured them. The happy militiamen took over the burden of dragging the loot back into the village while the exhausted mages followed behind them. All of their work had been worth it just for this moment.

Victoria and Abigail had somehow made it across Central Desierto with scavenged arms and ammunition without falling prey to bandits or having it confiscated by the royal army. Victoria could hardly believe their phenomenal luck. She could not wait to go tell the chief of their success and go to sleep somewhere for awhile.

[Post Word Count: 1,176]
[Total Word Count: 10,832/11,000]

-The chief's house, the guest room, twenty minutes later-

Victoria and Abigail had completed their report to the chief and had basked in the praise he had given them for both surviving the trip across the hostile desert and for bringing in some sorely needed weapons and ammunition. He also praised them for the trouble they had went to to find the Golden Band camp and make sure all the bandits were dead before they had left to return to Berreb. Even though the pair had not been the ones to attack the slaver camp and wipe out the inhabitants he did not care... the chief had just wanted the slavers gone and did not care how it was accomplished.

Victoria and Abigail felt bad about technically not being the ones to complete the job for which they had been hired and wanted to turn the money down, but the chief had insisted on paying both the mages for their hard work. The pair had briefly debated turning down the reward money but the chief had pressed the Jewels into their hands before they could even begin to object. Deciding to let the matter drop, the pair gratefully accepted both the reward money and the invitation to sleep in the chief's guest room until they recovered enough strength to make the return trip to Fiore. Now they sat on their respective cots enjoying the relative cool of the chief's house.

"Man, that was quite a trip we made, wasn't it Vic?" Abigail asked Victoria, who lay on her cot after removing the backpack and Azure Armor.

"Yeah. It was a hell of a trip, one that I don't wanna make again for awhile. After this job I'm gonna take some easy work in Fiore." Victoria agreed with her partner and announced her job plans for the near future. She was not going to return to Desierto for a good long while. Instead she was going to stay in Fiore and do simple jobs like housesitting for rich people, going to Capital Crocus Mall and being a personal shopper, or something else, anything that did not involve traveling through the desert in the daytime.

Abigail sat on the edge of her cot and nodded in approval.

"Me too, Vic. Me too." Abigail replied. The blonde then reclined on the cot and stared at the ceiling. Their job had been done. Now all the pair needed to do was to rest and gather their strength for the return trip to Fiore, which would be a lot easier than the trek to locate The Golden Band camp since they knew the way. They would wait until late in the day to make the trip... or at least that was the plan.

The two of them had reclined and were not going to go anywhere for several hours unless they absolutely could not help it. They were not even sure if they could get the strength to travel until the next day. After all the walking and fighting they had done they just wanted to crash somewhere for awhile. Hopefully the chief would allow them to stay until tomorrow if they could not get up and get going exactly at sunset. If he wanted them to move on they would, but hopefully he was in a good enough mood to let them stay until the next day if they did not have the strength to travel right away.

Whenever the pair got back to Fiore they would have yet another completed job to their names and more money in their bank accounts. They had also helped a remote desert village survive a little while longer thanks to providing both direct protection and an influx of arms and ammunition to help them defend themselves. Victoria and Abigail had done well today... hopefully they would have many more adventures to come before they each called it a career.

[Post Word Count: 652]
[Total Word Count: 11,484/11,000]