Chapter 9 - Rescue Mission

Chapter 9

Salran Mountains, Starnor Imperial Border Territories

Airah's cave

"Should I just scream 'firebolt!'?" Said Airah as she reviewed the spell in the grimoire one last time, before setting it down on top of the book crate.

"Well, according to the books, incantations and such can help with focusing. Part of why most of them are chants, they're easier to remember, and your mind syncs with music easily."

"Right." She stretched out her right arm, which held the silvery bracelet wrapped around her wrist. "All right, here goes nothing." She briefly closed her eyes feeling inside herself like the manuals said.

She felt it. A pool of power. Resting, undisturbed. She made her way in, and began drawing from it. Simultaneously she felt for the cool presence of the bracelet against her wrist, and began pushing her will onto it.

The bracelet heated up as the focus activated, and she recited the incantation, while visualizing the runes. Magic was strange, some of the books said that at a certain point it became instinctual, but for debutants you had to visualize a kind of magic language, made out of complex runes that made kanji look like a joke. The spell was, basically, a sentence in that language. Or perhaps a program would be a more apt description. That was what Stellyra had said, it looked to her like some hyper complex programming language.

She visualized the runes, helped along as she chanted them, and opened her eyes. As she felt the spell near its end, she pushed outwards, willing her magic to lash out into the world.

And it obeyed. Her mana was suddenly drained as the spell spun into action, and the bracelet heated up -while she was immune to heat it didn't mean she couldn't feel it to some level. It just wasn't uncomfortable to her.-, before the air in front of her palm sparked, and a flame formed. Then that flame was hurled at the wall of the cavern, and crashed into it in a fury of sparks.

"Wew! Wow." Sarah set her hands on her hips, leaning forward slightly as she took a deep breath. She'd stressed and agonized over her first spell, and it was a relief to have everything work out. And the concentration, as well as the very real fatigue induced by the spell, wasn't inconsequential either.

"Well, it's not a plasma gun or a dragon's breath, but it is impressive." Said Stellyra as she inspected the blast mark on the wall.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Now, let's do it again! We need to test your limits!"

*****

Airah sat down, utterly spent.

She'd forgotten how much of a task master the AI could be when she wanted to. Stars, it was her history exams all over again. Stellyra was a wonderful coach, but the fact that she literally lived inside of Airah's head made things...sometimes a tad bit unbearable.

"Well, thirty seems to be the limit. For now at least. Are you okay?" Said Stellyra as her avatar sat down next to her companion.

"Yeah. Just need a minute."

"Sure." The AI looked at the pile of stuff. "There's some goat meat left over. I have a feeling a snack is in order."

Airah's mouth watered, and she nodded. She hadn't even noticed how hungry she was. Well, at least now she knew that magic didn't just draw from her 'mana', the reservoir of power within her, but it also took an enormous amount of strain on her body as well. That was good to keep in mind.

She made quick work of the leftovers, and she was feeling much better.

"Alright, so, what do you think of doing a bit of a hunt, and starting too look for some of those camps?" Asked Airah as she stretched. It had been three days since they'd visited Kaisersgrenze, and they'd been buried in Marty's grimoire. It had proven supremely helpful, as while some of the spells in it were identical to the ones in the book they had, there were tons of annotations and helpful tips in the grimoire. As well as a fair amount of complaining about a mage teacher called 'Seviris the Wise'. Marty really hadn't liked him for some reason.

"Sure! It'll stretch your wings, if nothing else."

"Yep. Alright, let's go!"

*****

Finding the goats was routine now. She had to hunt every day after all. And while they weren't exactly gourmet meat, the spices and herbs had made them much more palatable. Their flesh was tough as hell as well, but if she could cut an armored man in half, not even the toughest of goat steak would resist her.

She did avoid using her breath attack now however, just killing a goat and flying it back to the cave in her claws for processing and proper cooking. She didn't want another forest fire. Otherwise the goats would disappear from her hunting range. Plus all of the other issues.

She was flying back from her cave, having eaten her fill, when Stellyra pointed.

"Look! Smoke!"

Airah turned her head slightly, and nodded, and started a slow bank. Thanks to the map they had gotten from Lenna, they had some idea of where they were, although it was strictly local. It even had helpful annotations indicating the most dangerous areas. She wasn't interested in wargs, but the most bandit infested areas were noted.

So they'd headed there. From her own estimation, they'd barely even arrived when Stellyra spotted the small smoke column.

Airah looked as they got closer. The smoke was too little to be anything but a few cooking fires, probably clustered together.

A minute or so later, they got close enough to get a good look. And yep, it was a camp alright. Tents, fires, and human figures hurrying around.

They were probably high enough to be confused with a bird if someone looked up, but Airah elected to get a bit more altitude, just in case.

"So, we found one of their camps, that was easy."

"Well, to be fair, they're not worried about aerial reconnaissance." Said Stellyra. "And they seem to have pretty good perimeter defenses."

Airah nodded as Stellyra highlighted the trench and stakes. It wasn't at the level of a roman camp -there was no palissade- but there were strategically places piles of wood for cover. Overall, it was pretty good.

"Yeah. They also got a stream for fresh water. Good base of operation, overall."

"Agreed. And they-Oh."

"What is it?"

Stellyra gestured at the camp, where a figure was pushing several others outside.

"Looks like prisonners."

"And a single guard?"

"If they're untrained and beaten enough, you'd only need one."

"What are they doing?"

"Foraging, probably. Why do the heavy lifting when captives can do it for you?"

"Right." Airah looked speculatively at the group. They weren't her problem, technically, and they would get rescued soon enough...but they would a lot about the camp they were held in. Far more than she could gather in from the air. "Say...how far do you think they'll head from their camp?"

Stellyra blinked.

"I don't know. A few kilometers at most?"

"So too close to just swoop in...but far enough to do a quick rescue operation. I need a landing site, far enough that they won't see me."

Stellyra nodded.

"Sure. Over there." She highlighted a clearing, a few kilometers away. "We know what direction they're going in, but they might be hard to find."

"Humans being forced to do something are seldom quiet. Alright, let's move."

*****

In the end, Airah was proved right. Although not because of the prisoners, but because of the guard. She didn't seem to be able to keep her mouth shut, and constantly yelled at her charges. She also spent most of the time not yelling oogling the male prisoner of the group, causing him to shiver and avoid her gaze as much as possible, and Airah almost hissed in disgust.

She knew that rape and violence went both ways, but it was still a bit of a shock. She had keep in mind that this wasn't medieval Earth, here their strange 'power' and magic equalized a lot of the differences between sexes in terms of physical prowess.

And well, being a scumbag didn't discriminate between genders.

She had been watching from nearby bushes for a good five minutes. Sneaking in had been absurdly easy, what with the guard being more busy oogling and berating the prisoners.

Airah was still debating her options when the guard began kicking one of the female prisoners, who had stumbled and fallen, and the man tried to interpose himself.

The bandit whirled around, and gave the man a smirk that made Airah's skin crawl, and her decision was made.

The female guard was too busy proposing an 'alternative' to her beating the female prisoner -and her hand making itself busy underneath the male prisoners' loincloth left little doubt as to her intentions- to realize someone had snuck up behind her.

The prisoners did, but Airah pressed her fingers to her lips, and they stayed quiet.

The bandit trailed off as she felt strong hands grip her head. Then everything faded into oblivion and Airah turner her head a hundred and eighty degree, and snapped her neck like a twig.

Airah stepped back, and let the body drop to the ground, causing one of the female prisoners to gasp in shock.

Checking the pockets of the guard was a quick process, and she took what valuables the bandit had. Which was a fair bit, all things considered.

"W-Who are you?" Asked one of the women.

"An adventurer. My name is Airah. Airah Starfire." She looked at the three pathetic prisoners. They looked like they'd endure a lot of beatings, but at least they looked unbroken. The man in particular looked at her with something like iron in his eyes. Beaten but unbowed. Good, because she might need their help. She was reluctant to reveal herself as a great dragon, and fly them out of there, which meant leaving on foot, and that meant they could be pursued. "Does any one of you knows how to fight?"

They all raised their hands, and she rose an eyebrow, which caused one of the woman, a brunette, to answer.

"We're villagers, miss Starfire. In these lands, not knowing how to at least handle a spear is a death sentence." She sighed. "But we're probably not going to be strong enough to wield weapons. Not anymore. They keep us on the edge of starvation."

Airah nodded.

"Does any of you feel the strength to wear armor? And wield a sword?"

The man raised his hand.

"I'm not at my best, but you killed that rapist, murderous bitch. I'll move mountains for you if I have to."

Airah chuckled.

"Hopefully it won't come to that. What's your name?"

"I'm George. This is Martha and Emma."

Airah nodded at both women as George introduced them, who nodded back.

"We can wield weapons too, but Georges used to serve in the militia. He should have priority." Said the brunette, Martha.

Airah nodded.

"Alright, George, take off her armor and take her sword. We're heading out." She looked at them. They were wearing heavy iron manacles on their feet, linked by a simple chain, but at least they had shoes to protect their feet from the forest ground. And some clothing, although they probably wouldn't want to get caught out in the rain. "Let me get you out of those irons."

She knelt in front of Martha, and grabbed the manacle.

"That bitch didn't have the key, only their officers can unlock the manac-" Martha trailed off as Airah ripped the manacle apart in a snap, before moving onto the other, and trowing the remains in her bag, and gazed down at the dragon in slack jawed amazement.

"I don't need keys." Simply said Airah, before freeing the other prisoners. "Alright. Before you ask: no, I'm not going to try to rescue the others, not yet. If I tried alone the bandits would hold them hostage, and it would turn into a bloodbath. We're going to Kaisergrenze, to get you to safety. The baroness said she was arranging for a task force to take out the bandit camps."

"A task force?" Said George, and Airah cursed mentally. Right, that term probably didn't exist in that world. "How many men?"

Uh. Apparently it did. Or the translation system had handled it.

"I have no idea." She smiled. "But they'll have me on their side, and I'm all the backup their need."

The prisoners looked at her, then the shards left on the ground from the manacles, and didn't argue.

"Alright, let's go. They'll probably send a search party after you." She smiled. It wasn't a particularly nice smile. "None of them will be coming back."

The prisoners nodded, and they left at a brisk walk.

*****

Neither Airah, nor Martha or George had any training in moving through a forest stealthily, so it was hardly surprising that the tracking party found them. Still, they had made it farther than Airah or Stellyra had thought possible mostly thanks to Emma's expertise. She'd been a hunter back in her village, and while she could have never escaped with irons clamped around her legs, she moved through the forest like a ghost now.

"Hey! Hey you! Stop where you are!"

Airah smiled, and stopped, before gesturing at the prisoners.

"Go on, I won't be long."

They nodded, and left at a run, as she turned around and waited for their pursuer.

She didn't have to wait long. Five bandits burst through the undergrowth, their weapons at the ready.

They looked at her confused. She just had her arms crossed, and hadn't even drawn her sword. Not that it would be very useful to her, she had started on the basic strikes from the training manual, but she was hardly proficient with it.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked one of the bandits, clearly their leader.

"Airah. Airah Starfire. That's the name of the woman who's about to rip your spine out."

The bandit laughed, followed by his men.

"You need to find better threats, 'Starfire'."

Airah smiled, and for a second her eyes weren't that of a young woman turned dragon.

They were those of an admiral who had massacred entire species, and perpetrated genocide on a galactic scale in the name of humanity.

The bandit leader took a step back.

"I don't make threats. I only tell you what I'm going to do." And with that, the moment passed. "So, are you gonna attack me or what? I don't have all day!"

One of the bandits looked at their leader, who was still frozen, like a deer frozen in headlights, and yelled out a warcry as he charged her.

Airah dodged out of the way of the very telegraphed attack, grabbed the man's head, and headbutted him.

His skull gave way with a sickening crunch, and she dropped his lifeless body.

"Alright then. Let's do this."

And she leapt into action. She wasn't trained in hand to hand combat, but she was orders of magnitude stronger and tougher than they were, and she could take hits to put in some of her own. And they wouldn't be coming back up.

A second bandit rushed her, and Airah tanked the spear jab, grabbing the shaft and snapping it like a twig, before grabbing the splintered head, and driving it through the other woman's eye, killing her instantly.

Clearly the last two bandits were starting to realize how screwed they were, as they hesitated, and looked at their leader, who was still frozen.

One simply dropped her weapon, and began running away. The other moved to follow, but Airah drew her sword and cut at his legs, causing him to fall down with a cry. Then she turned towards the woman running away, and extended her right arm.

The incantation was short, and perfect. A bolt of fire leapt from her hands, and the woman fell to the ground, screaming as the firebolt incinerated her insides, before laying still.

Airah quickly stepped forward, and plunged her sword into the fallen bandit's neck, killing him instantly, before looking at the leader.

"So? Are you going to do something, or just stand there, shitting yourself?"

That seemed to shake the bandit leader out of whatever kind of nightmare or trance he was experiencing, and he charged at her screaming.

She simply stepped aside, and let him trip on his comrade's body. Then she stepped on his hand, crushing it and forcing him to let go of his weapon. Stellyra looked at Airah as she leaned down, before shrugging and turning her gaze away. Airah felt her hands along the bandit leader's back, finding his spine, and whispered in his ear.

"I don't make threats."

And the screaming started.